Reviews

I've been in search of a decent "cleaner" application for Windows desktops to maintain the school district where I work. I have been extremely happy with jv16 Powertools from Macecraft, but due to budget constraints needed something freely available.

I had been reading an article on digg when I noticed a comment on a program called CCleaner. After installing it I found it very similar to Macecraft's jv16 Powertools in features.

CCleaner has three basic buttons, Cleaner, Issues, and Tools. The Cleaner button shows options to clean Windows and Applications. Using this allows you to remove Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, Index.dat, Recent Documents, and the like. The Issues button is the real meat and potatoes since it scans through your system's registry (which tends to get clogged up often) and fixes any problems. I have used this more than once already to turn unstable computers into solid running machines. The Tools button allows you to manipulate items from the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. You can also work with programs that initialize during startup, something extremely handy when trying to eliminate stubborn spyware programs.

CCleaner is very fast, typically it only takes about two or three minutes to do a complete clean (including registry) which makes it great for quick cleans while going from workstation to workstation. The program itself is lightweight at 1.5MB which I appreciate in this world of bloated applications.

If you are looking for a good, free cleaner for your computer do yourself a favor and checkout CCleaner!

This evening I found a very cool program by the name of Sandboxie. In a nutshell this program creates a "sandbox" from which programs are run and changes are contained for easy manipulation and/or removal. This is very similar to products such as DeepFreeze but on a much smaller scale.

For my test run I installed Sandboxie then ran Internet Explorer from it. Once IE was loaded I proceeded to visit websites that were loaded with ads and spyware installs. After about an hour of puttering around collecting junk I right-clicked the Sandboxie icon in my system tray and chose "Delete Contents of Sandbox." Everything including downloaded files, history and cookies were instantly wiped out.

This is incredibly cool for users who are looking for a spyware-free method of using Internet Explorer while not compromising its abilities (i.e. disabling javascript, etc.). The program will also sandbox any other application you choose such as Firefox, Microsoft Word, Windows Media Player, etc. This is a great feature for those of you who wish to try out a program without having to deal with incomplete uninstalls (something that happens all too often).

If I get time I might feature a review of this superb application, however until then why don't you check it out for yourself, it's free!

Previously in this series we looked at the brilliant MyStickies extension. This afternoon I'll be discussing an extremely useful extension for users who print a lot of content off webpages.

Aardvark

If you've ever printed content off the web you realize that much of the time it's cluttered with things you could care less about such as advertisements (graphical or otherwise). You also might be frusterated with content that is squeezed out of place due to menubars.

The creators of Aardvark have felt your pain and developed an extension that allows you to temporarily remove elements of a webpage allowing you to format it however you like for printing (or even just viewing). Once the extension is installed you can run it by right-clicking anywhere on a webpage and selecting "Start Aardvark." You'll notice a small menu will display with keyboard shortcuts to begin using Aardvark to edit content.

<R> Remove, <I> Isolate, <E> Erase, <B> Black on white, <D> De-widthify, <C> Colorize, <V> View Source, <P> Paste, <W> Wider, <N> Narrower, <U> Undo, <Q> Quit, <H> Help

It's helpful when first starting out with Aardvark to remember that pressing <H> will bring back the menu displaying all the keys and their related function.

As you move your mouse around with Aardvark initialized you'll notice a box with a red border around it appearing over elements of the webpage. When you have an element highlighted with a box, press the <E> key and the element will be erased from the webpage. You should now be getting an idea of the power this extension grants you! If you ever make a mistake during your modifications, you can UNDO one level back by pressing <U>, or just quit Aardvark (<Q>) and reload the page. None of your changes are permanent.

If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat this extension is particularly powerful by editing a webpage how you want it, then printing it to Adobe Distiller to output it as a PDF file. I did this recently and the results were fantastic!

You can download Aardvark from karmatics.com.

Last time in the series of mini-reviews on Firefox extensions we took a look at FasterFox. This afternoon we'll be taking a look at MyStickies, a relatively new extension yet one of the coolest I've come across.

MyStickies

Ever wanted to add notes on some particular element on a website? MyStickies.com has answered the call and released an extension for Firefox that allows you to do just that, add sticky notes anywhere on a webpage.

Once you install the extension you will need to create an account (free) on MyStickies.com. Account creation is surprisingly painless and non-intrusive. They only require a login name, password, and email address and you're all set to go. When your account is created you can start creating stickies anywhere on a webpage you are viewing. The quickest way to create a sticky is to simply hold down the <ALT> key and drag your mouse. When the sticky itself is created just type in whatever you like and position it somewhere on your screen. Now whenever you visit that webpage the sticky will show right where you left it.

MyStickies' Dashboard has a feature that allows you to keep track of what stickies you have where. This is very useful in case you forget where you left stickies. MyStickies.com is also working on allowing you to share your stickies with friends via the Dashboard. This feature could prove especially useful to students sharing a research project, or an IT department sharing notes on specific knowledgebase articles.

MyStickies is an original and incredibly useful extension. My only qualms with the service so far is privacy, however their policy at this time is reassuring. Hopefully it will continue to be a useful and safe service into the future. Also, at this point in time, MyStickies and MyStickies.com is ad-free!

You can download MyStickies from addons.mozilla.org.

Instant Messengers have revolutionized communication nearly as much as the telephone or email. Type in text and it shows up on your friend's computer in near real-time. It's like IRC without having to deal with obnoxious teens. These days IM programs can even display video streams, send/receive files and have actual audio discussions if you have a microphone handy.

There are many IM clients on the market, perhaps the most popular being ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. With all the different protocols involved, it used to be that people needed every type of instant messenger installed on their computers in order to talk to friends that used something different. Not so today with programs such as Trillian and GAIM which allow you to talk to anyone using any protocol from one application. Miranda IM is one such application.

With all the other IM clients available, why even look at Miranda? Miranda IM is open source, lightweight (full download is only 1MB), and resource friendly. With all protocols connected and nearly thirty contacts listed Miranda only uses 4.5MB of RAM. Miranda also has many plugins available to further extend the client to compete with the features Trillian offers.

Miranda setup is also very easy. If you haven't already created accounts for ICQ, YIM, MSN or AIM you can do so from links provided. Once your accounts are ready just enter them into Miranda's configuration and you're all set to go. Adding friends to your lists is as easy as clicking the crown icon and selecting Add/Find Contacts.

I've tried all the IMs on the market and Miranda is by far my favorite. It's simple, free, stable, and lightweight. Why not download it and see for yourself?

In Part 2 of Must have Firefox extensions we took a look at the excellent NoScript. Must have Firefox extensions is a series of extension mini-reviews that I deem must have. Tonight we're going to take a look at the excellent FasterFox.

FasterFox

When you are bouncing around on the internet from site to site your browser opens a connection to those particular sites. If you have broadband, opening a single connection to a server can be inefficient. FasterFox allows Firefox to open multiple connections to a server and much more.

Once you install Fasterfox, it starts to do it's work in the background by changing various configuration options that can be found in Firefox. This configuration is transparent to the user, unless you wish to tweak the settings through Fasterfox's Options. Some of the options include FastBack, which keeps a set number of pages in memory for extremely quick back/forward (click either button and the page instantly loads). As an added bonus Fasterfox can also block popups from Flash applets.

Another fantastic (if controversial) option is Enhanced Prefetching. What this does is once a page is done loading it starts to load each link listed on that page in the background, utilizing idle bandwidth. This is especially great for 56K connections. They can read through an article while their connection continues to load links in the background. The reason this option isn't very well received is due to the load this creates on the web. Imagine if every user had this option running, it would boost server load across the internet tremendously. If you do decide to use this function, use it sparingly (unless you have 56K, then I highly recommend leaving it on).

Fasterfox is a great extension that enhances both Firefox and your internet connection's efficiency. You can download the latest version of this extension from addons.mozilla.org.

In Part 1 of the Must have Firefox extensions series of mini-reviews I discussed Adblock and it's accompaniment Filterset.G. This afternoon we'll be taking a look at NoScript.

NoScript

One of the primary reasons spyware and popups happen is due to javascript. If you can remove javascript, you can remove 90% of potential security issues while browsing the internet. Thankfully the Firefox extension NoScript allows us to allow/deny javascript, java, and flash applets at will for any website of your choosing.

While many websites require javascript to be enabled (Paypal for instance), NoScript places a small icon in the lower right-hand section of Firefox through which you can temporarily or permanently allow javascript to be executed.

I highly recommend NoScript to any Firefox user. It's indispendable for stopping spyware, popups, and other annoying applets in their tracks.