Favorite Files

1. Everything
2. FastStone Image Viewer
3. FileZilla v2
4. Gom Player
5. ImgBurn
6. Launchy

Recent Posts

1. 
   Review - Smarty Uninstaller 2009

   2.5.3 (Nov 20, 2009)

   I previously used RevoUninstaller. Smarty ups the ante a bit detecting recently installed apps and "possibly broken installations", it will also finish incomplete uninstalls.
   My only real criticism is its fairly slow and long routine when it starts.
   
   No big deal that it calls the programs uninstaller and runs it!
   
   I let it detect all the rubbish left behind - folders, shortcuts and registry entries and let it clean out the lot. So far (!) it hasn't broken anything - and I've used it a lot over 5 or 6 months - so i'd say it is very safe and reliable - whether it (or Revo for that matter - actually cleans everything out - I'm not about to go hunting through the registry!
   
   Hard to get too excited about this program - mainly because it does what it is supposed to do without too much fuss. An added benefit (which they don't tell you about) is that it comes bundled with a very good and simple process inspector, a secure deletion tool, and a startup manager.
   Runs flawlessly on Win7 too.

2. 
   Review - ImgBurn

   2.4.4.0 (Jun 14, 2009)

   Great program which works fine in Win7

3. 
   Review - FastStone Image Viewer

   3.8 Beta (Mar 21, 2009)

   Outstanding program - very intuitive, heaps of really useful keyboard shortcuts, brilliant editing capabilities and heaps of other well implemented powers.
   
   Top of the wishlist is a clone stamp or healing capability.
   
   If there is a fault its the locked down skinning limitations - but when it comes to actually using FastStone I think it is way ahead of I-view (and still really light), much more complete than Xnview, and simply better than Picasa. Where it lags behind Picasa is it's slightly more old fashioned feel - but I think it's actually more usable.
   
   I still have Picasa on board and it's a very good program, but when it comes to viewing, fixing and optimising lots of images - FastStone is the way to go.
   
   This is a very rich program - I'm still discovering goodies after several years of frequent use. Highly recommended.

4. 
   Review - Gom Player

   2.1.16.4631 (Mar 3, 2009)

   Simple, highly versatile and effective, keyboard enhanced, play anything and everything media player. My exclusive vid player for more than a year - this simply does everything - nice control panel with brightness, contrast, saturation controls, terrific screen capture, equalizer, time jump settings. Preferences are very thorough if you want or need to fiddle.
   Really none of the usual suspects come close.

5. 
   Review - XnView for Windows

   1.95.3 (Nov 6, 2008)

   I check out most new versions of this good program - then I uninstall and go back to an excellent program - FastStone Viewer. Free, more customizable, better and vastly more powerful editing tools, better integration into the windows platform.
   XnView ends up feeling like an amateur job!

6. Comment - Windows 7: Obviously I've struck a nerve

   1.95.3 (Aug 25, 2009 - 1:22 PM)

   Ah well, the site is pretty good, this article and its original are pretty bad and yes, things aren't very technical anymore. (I've been coming here forever), but then where does one go for tech stuff - Ars is flat, Neowin is empty(ish), Slashdot can be very good but I just don't have time to get thru all the comments.
   But - why you would recommend against installing Win7 just beats me entirely, more secure, better control panel apps, better memory management, great hardware compatibility and drivers out of the box, runs great on "legacy" systems, looks great etc!! Sure I'm not talking about a big commercial environment where there are a lot of other factors in play. But in a SMB environment I'd have to consider it for clients - maybe even NOW using the RC - dual booting, plenty of test time - its got a lot going for it.
   
   Carmi - you got it wrong and then gave a dreadful justification. Write a decent critique of one of W7s features - much more useful.

7. Comment - Windows 7 is coming: Don't upgrade

   1.95.3 (Aug 24, 2009 - 1:38 AM)

   What!? I upgraded to 7RC BECAUSE of my oldish hardware. Carmi is not just old fashioned but a troglodyte. I now run a fast, pretty secure, good lookiing OS which not only supports my hardware and latest software but runs BETTER than XP on the same machine.

8. Comment - Windows XP SP3 runs browsers 13% faster than Windows 7 RTM

   1.95.3 (Aug 12, 2009 - 10:45 AM)

   Bull! Not in the real world of my PC. I did some casual tests when this was last sold by Beta News for the RC of 7. I did it for FF and Chrome, by opening 12 tabs of various websites (same for each test) all at once in each browser in both XP SP3 and Win 7RC. For everyday use the results were indistinguishable across the board and at most a few seconds were the total differences. XPscored 2 wins, 7 scored 2 wins.

9. Comment - Murdoch: 'We intend to charge for all our news Web sites'

   1.95.3 (Aug 6, 2009 - 1:30 PM)

   Well, charge away Rupert-from-another-century. I can live without you and many of your rather poor and sensationalist sites. How many times have I heard that the free web is dead in the last 10 years. And each time I heard it nothing chnged.
   If you can offer something unique that a specific group really wants then charging can work. Maybe WSJ is an example. But mostly people will just go elsewhere and read the ads on a different site and the paid for site will just wither.
   You know if I knew that a subscription would give me better journalism and research I might put my hand in my pocket. But when sites (like news.com.au - a Murdoch site) is full of rumour, bad journalism and sensationalism which appears not to be edited - I just go there for a smug laugh, put a charge on it and I'd never miss it again.

10. Comment - Firefox runs 11% faster in XP than Windows 7; IE, Opera run slower

    1.95.3 (Jun 14, 2009 - 11:28 AM)

    Well I don't know how you did your tests - but it just didn't sound right to me so I did some simple real world tests, namely opening 12 tabs simultaneously in Firefox and Chrome in Win7. The tests were done on freshly opened browsers. My Firefox is loaded up with a whole bunch of add-ons (16 with the same add-ons in XP). Same browser versions for Firefox (3.0.11). For hrome I have the Beta (3.0.187.1) in 7 and in XP I have the stable (2.0.176.0).
    To put it simply THEY ARE ALL THE SAME.
    Note I actually had one less site to load in XP but even so Firefox recorded the slowest load time for the 11 sites in XP A WHOLE THREE SECONDS SLOWER than the fasted load time (which was Firefox in Win 7.
    Basically NONE of your results were replicated in my real world situation. Despite claims Chrome was slower than FF in 7 and 2 secs faster in XP.
    I guess chrome wins because I have Ad-Block+ in all my FF installs wheras Chrome had to load ads!
    
    Win 7 (12 tabs)
    
    FF..........45secs
    Chrome...47secs
    
    XP SP3 (11 tabs)
    
    FF..........48secs
    Chrome...47secs
    
    So my truth is that both FF and Chrome are good in Win 7 with Firefox the fastest overall. Chrome is NOT the fastest browser on the planet. The differences overall are trivial.
    (BTW - the sites were mainly Australian shopping sites with a couple of US sites. Heady mix of flash, JavaScript, Images, text and Tables. When the last spinner stopped I clicked the stopwatch.)