Convert pdf files to Word, HTML and other formats
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Software Picks from FVCS |
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| Name | PDFZilla |
| Category | Utilities |
| Release Date | 2/19/2009 |
| Version | 1.0.1 |
| Description |
I love good, well thought out utilities and this qualifies. It wasn’t too long ago that a program to convert pdfs to another format cost several hundred dollars. Now for thirty dollars here is a VERY capable program to convert pdf files to numerous formats: With PDFZilla you can: The interface is well thought out and you probably won’t need to look at the help file. This program will become part of my working arsenal. I only have one gripe. I go back a long time and personally knew the father of shareware, Andrew Fluegelman, and I have a very limited definition for shareware. Shareware should be issued without limitations or it isn’t shareware. Period. There are time and capacity limitations here and I would prefer the description be changed to commercial demo. In any case – well worth your consideration. |
| Author’s Web Site | www.pdfzilla.com |
| Download Link | http://www.pdfzilla.com/down/pdfzilla.exe |
| The Rules |
Stuff you MUST know: The programs we describe are ones we use or have used and found them to be effective. Many of these are very powerful and could totally hose your computer!! Obviously we would never, knowingly, suggest a faulty program, but there’s always that possibility. Just as there is a possibility of a virus or spyware lurking inside. Very honestly, I find the free stuff better, on average, than the commercial products, but everyone has to decide for themselves. Just so everyone understands – many of these programs have the power to TOTALLY hose your system and we take NO responsibility for that!! |
Out with the old
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Freeware Picks from FVCS |
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| Name | WinDirStat |
| Category | Utilities |
| Release Date | 9/2/2007 |
| Version | 1.1.2 |
| Description |
We do a lot of data recovery and many times we’re told “there’s not much on the drive” and we proceed to pull 60 gigabytes or more! Windirstat is a wonderful utility that scans your entire drive and shows you where the space is going. Generally, you will find that those pictures and videos are taking up a lot of space and invariably poorly written programs are leaving temporary droppings all over the place. There are a number of programs that will tell you where, but WinDirStat is the best at helping you remove the unnecessary files. Here’s our normal procedure:
Here’s the official feature table:
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| Author’s Web Site | http://windirstat.info/ |
| Download Link | http://windirstat.info/ |
| The Rules |
Stuff you MUST know: The programs we describe are ones we use or have used and found them to be effective. Many of these are very powerful and could totally hose your computer!! Obviously we would never, knowingly, suggest a faulty program, but there’s always that possibility. Just as there is a possibility of a virus or spyware lurking inside. Very honestly, I find the free stuff better, on average, than the commercial products, but everyone has to decide for themselves. Just so everyone understands – many of these programs have the power to TOTALLY hose your system and we take NO responsibility for that!! |
This is a no brainer
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Freeware Picks from FVCS
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| Name | Auslogic Disk Defragmenter |
| Category | Utility |
| Release Date | June 19, 2008 |
| Version | 1.4.16.307 |
| Description | The defragmenter* that comes with Windows is glacially slow. Until recently the best free alternative was Diskeeper, but it kept bugging you with buy now messages.Auslogic has a totally free and fast defragmenter that has become a regular part of my essential toolbox. Not much else to say except get it!(They also have a free Registry defragmenter and System Info tool, but I haven’t tested those. |
| Author’s Web Site | http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download |
| Download Link | http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download |
Stuff you MUST know: The programs we describe are ones we use or have used and found them to be effective. Many of these are very powerful and could totally hose your computer!! Obviously we would never, knowingly, suggest a faulty program, but there’s always that possibility. Just as there is a possibility of a virus or spyware lurking inside.
Very honestly, I find the free stuff better, on average, than the commercial products, but everyone has to decide for themselves.
*
Fragmentation is caused by creating and deleting files and folders, installing new software, and downloading files from the Internet. Computers do not necessarily save an entire file or folder in a single space on a disk; they’re saved in the first available space. After a large portion of a disk has been used, most of the subsequent files and folders are saved in pieces across the volume.
When you delete files or folders, the empty spaces left behind are filled in randomly as you store new ones. This is how fragmentation occurs. The more fragmented the volume is, the slower the computer’s file input and output performance will be.
Defragmentation is the process of rewriting non-contiguous parts of a file to contiguous sectors on a disk for the purpose of increasing data access and retrieval speeds. Because FAT and NTFS disks can deteriorate and become badly fragmented over time, defragmentation is vital for optimal system performance.
In June 1999 the ABR Corporation of Irvine, California, performed a fragmentation analysis and found that, out of 100 corporate offices that were not using a defragmenter, 50 percent of the respondents had server files with 2,000 to 10,000 fragments. In all cases the results were the same: Servers and workstations experienced a significant degradation in performance.
One of our favorites
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| Name | Crap Cleaner |
| Category | Utility |
| Release Date | |
| Version | 2.08.588 |
| Description | We probably use this on 95% of the computers that come through the shop.CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.So many cleaners are too ambitious and delete the wrong things and leave you with a nonworking system. We have never had this issue with Crap Cleaner. Also, it is one of the very few registry cleaners that has never bonked a system.Should be in everybody’s working toolbox. |
| Author’s Web Site | CCleaner |
| Download Link | http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ |
Stuff you MUST know: The programs we describe are ones we use or have used and found them to be effective. Many of these are very powerful and could totally hose your computer!! Obviously we would never, knowingly, suggest a faulty program, but there’s always that possibility. Just as there is a possibility of a virus or spyware lurking inside.
Very honestly, I find the free stuff better, on average, than the commercial products, but everyone has to decide for themselves.
Once more: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!