Non quis, sed quid.

If you’re like me and you tend to wonder what things you have installed on your system, you’ll find yourself regularly looking at Add/Remove Programs – or if you’re a subscriber to my blog, you’ll be using Revo Uninstaller a lot.

Either way, one thing will stick out like a sore thumb if you’ve been a good computer user and have been keeping your system up to date: multiple Java installations of different Java versions. Now, you could go and manually uninstall all the other Java versions – like I used to do – but why waste time?

Today’s Curious Finding makes that task as simple as clicking a few times. JavaRa by RaProducts allows you to easily remove older versions of Java and update your system to the latest version with a few clicks of your mouse.

RaProducts describes it best:

JavaRa is a simple tool that does a simple job: it removes old and redundant versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Simply select “Check for Updates” or “Remove Older Version” to begin.

Here’s what JavaRa looks like:

License Type
JavaRa is completely free and open source.

System Requirements
At the time of posting, JavaRa supports Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista without UAC.

Installation

1. Download JavaRa.
2. Extract the files from the .zip you downloaded and run JavaRa.exe

Uninstallation

1. Delete the files you extracted.

Download: JavaRa.
Info: Check out JavaRa’s website.

Program Description

Ever start up your PC, open up My Computer, notice that you have very little free space left and wonder what on earth is taking up all the space?

I have and always do, but thanks to WinDirStat I can easily find out what files on my system are taking up what space.

Even if you are like me and know about every little thing that happens on your computer, it is difficult to keep track of what files accumulate over time. Thanks to WinDirStat, all I have to do is run a program, let it index my harddrive(s) and wait for it to generate a report consisting of a tree-view listing of my drive as well as a graphical representation of it too.

So if you find yourself wondering what is taking up all the space on your system or just want to have a look at your harddrives in a cool way, WinDirStat is for you.

The image above shows an example of a report that WinDirStat generates.

Not only does it provide you with a graphical representation of your harddrive’s contents, but you can move your mouse over all the different colours and it will tell you what block is what file. Click on a file and it will select it in the tree.

One of the most important features, in my opinion, is that WinDirStat is smart when it comes to refreshing the data it has on your drive – if you use WinDirStat to remove or modify a file, only the areas affected will be re-indexed, not your whole drive.

Give it a try, it’s pretty cool to see at least once. I use this program a lot to remind myself of the many different files I accumulate over time that I have forgotten about.

License Type

WinDirStat is completely free and open source.

System Requirements

WinDirStat is known to work on Windows 95 (IE5), Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows NT4 (SP5), Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista.

Installation

1. Download WinDirStat.
2. Run the setup program you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions.

Uninstallation

1. Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it just like any other application.

Download: WinDirStat.
Info: Check out WinDirStat’s website.

Program Description
With the growing popularity of the internet and the ease at which people can publish their information, comes an increase in the number of websites we visit and register to.

Usually, when you register to a site, you need to remember a username and password in order to log back in to that account you made. If you are security conscious (which, I find, is quite rare on the internet at this moment) and have a different password for each site, this eventually adds up to a really large number of passwords you need to remember. If this sounds like you, then you’ll find KeePass by Dominik Reichl very useful.

KeePass is an amazing little password manager whose databases are encrypted with the strongest encryption algorithms known (at the time of posting) – AES and Twofish – and a secure password generator (depending on your settings). Since this application is open source, you can easily look through the code yourself to see if there are any backdoors or malicious code that may compromise your security.

As a cryptography and computer security expert, I have never understood the current fuss about the open source software movement. In the cryptography world, we consider open source necessary for good security; we have for decades. Public security is always more secure than proprietary security. It’s true for cryptographic algorithms, security protocols, and security source code. For us, open source isn’t just a business model; it’s smart engineering practice.
-Bruce Schneier, Crypto-Gram 1999/09/15

License Type
KeePass is open sourced and free.

System Requirements
KeePass runs, without downloading any additional libraries, on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home & Pro, 32-bit & 64-bit), Windows 2003 and Windows Vista.

Installation

1. Download KeePass.
2. Run the setup program you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions.

Uninstallation

1. Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it just like any other application.

Download: KeePass.
Info: Check out KeePass’s website.

Program Description
If you enjoy playing around with the registry and are still using regedit, you’re crazy. Drop that useless application and switch to RegAlyzer by Safer Networking to take control over your registry.

There are many things that regedit lacks: a powerful search (regular expressions are useful) feature, an address-bar like feature for quickly jumping to a key, support for exotic value types, better bookmarks and a history view/management to revert changes made to the registry.

Thankfully, RegAlyzer is the perfect alternative to regedit as it includes all of the things regedit lacks.

License Type
RegAlyzer is completely free.

System Requirements
Windows is all that is required for RegAlyzer to function.

Installation

1. Download RegAlyzer.
2. Run the setup program you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions.

Uninstallation

1. Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it just like any other application.

Download: RegAlyzer.
Info: Check out RegAlyzer’s website.
Info: Take a look at some RegAlyzer screenshots.

Program Description
Computers are improving at a fast rate and with these improvements comes more space to store the many different programs people find on the net (or on this blog specifically ). More space usually means more data or programs. More programs means more maintenance and in order for that maintenance to be effective, we need to retire the stock, obsolete Windows Task Manager and replace it with a beast.

Enter Process Explorer by the Systems Internals divison of Microsoft TechNet.

Process Explorer can be a standalone addition to your Windows installation or you can make it replace Windows’ Task Manager completely through a simple menu operation. If you’d like more control over the programs running on your system, then I suggest you make Process Explorer replace the default Task Manager that comes with Windows.

Many people ask me what security software I recommend to use and along with my recommendations, I usually respond with “Common Sense”. To make deploying a “Common Sense” defense easier, I suggest you enlist the aid of Process Explorer.

Process Explorer’s creator, Mark Russinovich, explains why his program is so useful in a TechNet On-Demand Webcast.

This is what Process Explorer looks like:

License Type
This amazing program is available, completely free, from Microsoft TechNet.

System Requirements
Process Explorer works on Windows 9x/Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Server 2003, and 64-bit versions of Windows for x64 and IA64 processors, and Windows Vista.

Installation

1. Download Process Explorer.
2. Extract it to a directory of your choice.
3. Run procexp.exe, agree to the license agreement.
4. (Optional) To make Process Explorer replace the Windows Task Manager click on the “Options” menu then click on “Replace Task Manager”. To undo this, just perform this process again, except this time you need to click on “Restore Task Manager”.

Uninstallation

1. Undo the replacement of the Windows Task Manager as outlined above if you chose to replace it.
2. Delete the Process Explorer files.

Download: Process Explorer.
Info: Check out Process Explorer’s website.

Program Description
I’ve lost count of how many times a perfectly good file transfer (copying or moving from one place to another on my harddrives) is interrupted by a file being “in use” or “locked”. When one file fails, the whole transfer gets stopped. Such an un-intuitive way of doing things…

Remember this from my previous post? Well it causes problems with file copying and moving too – and unfortunately, Unlocker isn’t enough to remedy this problem.

On top of this, Windows’s copy/move functionality is painstakingly slow, somewhat unreliable and it simply can’t handle more than one move or copy task at one time (doing so results in an extreme slow down in transfer speed).

Both of these problems can be worked-around with the help of a little Unlocker mixed with a program developed by Code Sector called TeraCopy.

Once you’ve installed it, you can set TeraCopy as the default copy/move handler (turned on by default) and away it goes every time you copy or move a file. TeraCopy provides a boost in transfer speed through the use of buffers and allows for multiple transfer tasks without a performance hit. Best of all, if you hit a snag, the whole job isn’t terminated – TeraCopy just moves on to the next file in the queue.

Even better, if you have Unlocker installed, TeraCopy will notify Unlocker, allowing you to unlock the file, move, rename or delete it just like you would normally do with Unlocker.

This is what TeraCopy looks like:

License Type
Unfortunately, this is the first of possibly many applications that I’ll tell you about, that is not exactly free.

TeraCopy comes in two flavours: TeraCopy and TeraCopy Pro.

Still, at the time of posting, the difference between the two versions wasn’t too much and TeraCopy is generally all people need anyway. TeraCopy is free for home users and TeraCopy Pro will cost you $19.95 (which isn’t too bad of a price).

System Requirements
I believe this works on all versions of Windows but I don’t think this works on 64-bit. If I recall correctly, 64-bit support was added in to version 2 (which is in beta at the time of posting).

Installation

1. Download TeraCopy.
2. Run the setup program you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions

Uninstallation

1. Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it just like any other application.

Download: TeraCopy.
Info: Check out TeraCopy’s website.

Program Description
How many times have you tried to delete a file only to be told it’s in use?

I believe I’ve lost count of how many times _a day_ I encounter these errors. Well, enter Unlocker.

Unlocker is a really nifty application that tries to give you a way around a file being “in use” or “locked”. Whenever that nasty error comes up, Unlocker comes into play and offers you a few ways to get around it: Kill the locking process or Unlock the file. It really is that easy and it really does work most of the time.

Alternatively, you can choose to delete, rename, move or copy the locked file too.

License Type

Unlocker is completely free and will always remain free, which means you can use it free of charge for any purposes. If you are satisfied with Unlocker and want to help Unlocker improve or motivate the development of other quality programs, any amount of donation small or large will be welcome and gratefully appreciated.

System Requirements
Windows is required in order for this application to function.

Installation

1. Download Unlocker.
2. Run the setup program you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions

Uninstallation

1. Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it just like any other application.

Download: Unlocker.
Info: Check out Unlocker’s website.

Program Description
The best way to verify if a file is what you’re expecting is to check if the unknown file’s hash matches the hash of the file you’re expecting (usually given to you on the download page of a program, for example).

Since this is the internet, everyone and their dog can start up a website for a small fee – or no fee at all – which brings to question the validity of the majority of the internet’s information. This is where file hashes come into play.

As you may or may not know, I’m quite into the PSP Scene and as such often find myself updating to the latest custom firmware available or what not which usually requires official Sony update eboots.

Unfortunately, some sites feel it is necessary to upload corrupted eboots (or they do it by mistake?), upload the wrong file and name it something else…or whatever. They just like to deceive you. Or I could just be paranoid and your download could just be corrupted for another reason . The only way for you to really check how valid a file someone offers to you is, is by checking its file hash against the hash provided by the author.

And here’s where HashTab (developed by Cody Batt) helps us out. After you install HashTab, whenever you view a files properties, you will now see a new File Hashes tab where you can easily calculate the files various hashes.

HashTab supports more hash types than what is shown in the screenshot, just right click the area where the hashes are displayed and click on “Settings…” to choose the types of hashes you’d like to see.

Another useful feature HashTab provides is an interface to choose a file to compare against the current file you are dealing with. No need to type hashes out or copy and paste them, just choose the file and HashTab does the work for you.

License Type
HashTab is completely free, all you have to do is agree that “HashTab is the coolest thing ever.”

System Requirements
Windows is required in order for this application to function.

Installation

1. Download HashTab.
2. Run the setup program you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions

Uninstallation

1. Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it just like any other application.

Download: HashTab.
Info: Check out HashTab’s website.

Program Description
People come across images every day on the internet. Sometimes you save them, sometimes you share them and other times you need to customize them for your site or blog.

Well, there is one program I can’t envision myself having to manage a blog or website without: IrfanView.

IrfanView is what people might consider a “universal” viewer program as it allows you to view pretty much anything – but please remember, IrfanView is really supposed to be a graphic viewer. When you install this application, it takes over from Windows’ default image handler and provides you with powerful tools to manipulate your images with.

This amazing application allows you to view, convert, optimize, batch process…and do much, much more to files of a surprisingly large number of different types.

If the default supported filetypes isn’t enough for you, you can always take a look at the plugins available for IrfanView.

What do I primarily use IrfanView for? Well, apart from allowing it to replace the Windows default graphic viewer, I am constantly using IrfanView to resize images to post on this blog.

License Type
IrfanView is completely free for non-commercial use! If you do find IrfanView useful, I suggest looking into donating to its developer.

System Requirements
Windows is required in order for this application to function.

Installation

1. Download IrfanView.
2. Run the setup program you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions

Uninstallation

1. Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it just like any other application.

Download: IrfanView.
Info: Check out IrfanView’s website.

Program Description
If you, like my good friend birdman, are looking for a way to override the default Windows hotkeys or remap your keyboard then I have found just what you need to do this.

HotKeyz, created by Skynergy, is a surprisingly (small and) powerful program. Not only does it allow you to disable the default Windows hotkeys (requires a restart) but it lets you remap your keyboard too.

Believe it or not, that’s not all this application does but in order to fully grasp what it is capable of, I suggest you download the application and try it out for yourself. It could triple your productivity on your computer.

HotKeyz does add an icon to your system tray, but thankfully, it can be disabled in its options (and you can show the list with a definable hot key too since it would be really odd if a hot key program doesn’t let you define its own hot keys ).

License Type
HotKeyz is a completely free application!

System Requirements
I’ll quote the System Requirements from HotKeyz’s manual:

HotKeyz only needs 8MB RAM and 1MB SPACE.

But I have not tested it on Windows Vista yet.

Installation

1. Download HotKeyz.
2. Run the setup program you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions

Uninstallation

1. Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it just like any other application.

Download: HotKeyz.
Info: Check out HotKeyz’s website.
Info: Check out HotKeyz’s manual.

Note:
You can also disable the Windows key shortcuts by making a regedit (but ONLY if you are comfortable using regedit, notice I don’t give detailed instructions as to how to do this):

1. Run regedit.
2. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
3. Create a new DWORD called “NoWinKeys” (if it doesn’t exist already)
4. Set its value to 1 to disable the Windows key shortcuts or 0 to enable them

This disables most of the Windows key shortcuts except Windows key+L and Windows key+U.