UPDATE: Windows Secrets’ ultimate utilities list

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Field Notes

UPDATE: Windows Secrets’ ultimate utilities list

By Tracey Capen About twice a year, I update our list of top utilities — those essential tools for making computing smoother and easier. One of the most important utilities for all PC users is their backup-and-restore tools. With complex setups, it’s often best to pay for a more sophisticated backup/restore application.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/update-windows-secrets-ultimate-utilities-list/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.

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You say that inSSIDer is freeware, I can only find a version that demands a licence?!

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You say that inSSIDer is freeware, I can only find a version that demands a licence?!

It seems free on this link, or on another link with what appears to be a newer version

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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It seems free on this link, or on another link with what appears to be a newer version

The “free” link says in fine print that it is a free trial only. InSSIDer is not free.

Personally, I like Acrylic WiFi’s presentation better than InSSIDer. Where applicable, Acrylic also handles both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, as well as dual-band and Wireless ac. (I’m not saying InSSIDer doesn’t do these things.)

In Linux we had LinSSID, but it seems to have been abandoned. Now I use the Linux Command Line application Wavemon. You have to manually copy and paste to freeze out a sample report, but otherwise, it does the job, albeit in a Console fashion. And without the fancy graphing features of LinSSID or InSSIDer.

For seeing who’s on your own WiFi channel or connection, Softperfect Research has WiFi Guard, free. They also have the best bandwidth usage monitoring tool I’ve seen for Windows, Networx, also free.

-- rc primak

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One utility that I recently found because I had need of it that might be included int he Ultimate Utilities LIst is called PCUnlocker. PCUnlocker is a password reset utility that works with Windows 8/10, and can reset local OR Microsoft Accounts, or as a tech can bypass the password as needed. I’ve often used the NT Password & Registry Editor to access password protected systems that have been donated to a non-profit that I volunteer for, but that only seems to work on Windows 7 or lower. I’ve tried that several times on Win 8/10 systems, but couldn’t unlock the systems if they said they were in Hibernate mode (i.e. Fast Boot?). I could dump the Hibernation file, but still couldn’t unlock the system. PCUnlocker seems to be able to get past that problem. PCUnlocker is a commercial program available from (http://www.top-password.com/reset-windows-password.html). The Standard version is $19.95, the Professional version is $29.95, and there is an Enterprise version for Active Directory passwords on Server 2012 for $49.95. *I* use just the Std version and used Rufus (another great utility at https://rufus.akeo.ie)! to create a bootable UEFI USB drive from the ISO. FWIW, I am NOT an employee or have any interest in either of these utilities other than a happy user.

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Really nice piece. One thought for you since you mentioned Acronis: It has a cloning feature that does a true, bit-for-bit disc clone. I use it about once a month to clone my primary hard disc onto my secondary internal HDD or an external HDD. In between clones, I use a sync utility (ViceVersa) to do updates. I’ve had unrecoverable, physical crashes of the main drive three times in the last few years, and in all three cases I just swapped out the old drive and swapped in the clone. It’s like an instant, total restore of the OS, software and files– no reinstalls required — with only one small problem: Some software (mostly Microsoft) checks the MAC address of the physical drive and issues warnings that you might be running a counterfeit. In the case of Microsoft, you can fix it online in a few minutes. The others weren’t much more difficult than that. (Helps if you keep the keys.)

Keep up the nice writing.

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For system rollback, I recommend RollBack RX

http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/products_and_solutions.aspx?ProductId=1#Features

For imaging/backup, I recommend Drive Cloner RX

http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/products_and_solutions.aspx?ProductId=4#Features

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You say that inSSIDer is freeware, I can only find a version that demands a licence?!

We’ve been saying that for years, but it doesn’t register: InSSIDer Not Free

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You say that inSSIDer is freeware, I can only find a version that demands a licence?!

Try Acrylic WiFi Home, which does a very similar job to inSSIDer…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Greetings from the Great Country of Texas,

Reference: “BillP Studios WinPatrol (free/paid)” is not the keeper of WinPatrol any longer. Now Bret Lowry has it using WinPatrol Dot Com (just add the appropriate symbols and punctuation) as his website. Also provides WinPrivacy and WinAntiRansomeWare that are really GREAT! This change took place about two years ago.

"Infinite CREATOR" cast "Loving Light" upon thee
TIA, CU L8R, 'd' "LoneWanderer"
"Only you can control your future." Dr. Seuss
NOT a leader,
NOT a BLIND follower,
Join US and LIVE this LIFE as ONE!
Original author Unknown

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I’m extremely glad that you were able to use Acronis True Image to find and restore the image file created by the Windows built in imaging tool. But I would never have thought Acronis would accept a .vhd file as a recovery source… nor would it necessarily know how to properly decompress it.

My assumption (obviously wrong!) would be that Acronis would simply ignore any file that did not end with the file extension .tib. What led you to even try it?

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Desperation and some online research.

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Just got the email Newsletter for the ultimate utilities list. Someone at Windows Secrets needs to go through the list and verify every single link provided. After clicking on at least two that went nowhere or were broken, I just deleted the Newsletter email. No excuse. We readers don’t have time to fiddle with an inferior product. Focus on excellence for a product that you are providing to paying customers. I expect all the links to be validated and the Newsletter re-released with correct information.

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Just got the email Newsletter for the ultimate utilities list. Someone at Windows Secrets needs to go through the list and verify every single link provided. After clicking on at least two that went nowhere or were broken, I just deleted the Newsletter email. No excuse. We readers don’t have time to fiddle with an inferior product. Focus on excellence for a product that you are providing to paying customers. I expect all the links to be validated and the Newsletter re-released with correct information.

The problem is that all the links in the Newsletter are obscure tracking ones to the Penton site. Please restore proper links that we can see where they go.

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Karen Kenworthy’s Replicator (free).

http://karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

Is no longer active! She passed away a few years ago.

I think it may still be available at:

Majorgeeks

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/karens_replicator.html

I wonder because it uses Visual Basic version 6 if it will run properly on anything newer than windows 7.

Maybe someone should vet the sites in the utilities list with something like:

Xenu’s Link Sleuth

http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

Thanks…

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Karen Kenworthy’s Replicator (free).

http://karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

Is no longer active! She passed away a few years ago.

Partially true. I went to the base karenware.com site this morning and the current custodian of the legacy site appears to be out of his depth. I’m sure that a competent someone would be more than willing to voluntarily host karenware. A person’s valuable and sought after works and contributions need not fall into disrepair when they pass on.

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I still use Karen Kenworthy’s Replicator on Win 10. It works perfectly.

Alex

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I still use Karen Kenworthy’s Replicator on Win 10. It works perfectly.

Alex

I doubt it. This software had problems on Win/XP years ago. For instance, it cannot backup open files (doesn’t use VSS). Suggest you check that everything you wanted to backup actually got backed up.

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Re the newsletter links: if, when you receive the newsletter and you want to try out the linked software, log on here and read it, the links are clean and (mostly, ~4 404’s for this edition) correct. Or use the newsletter as an alert – you don’t need to open it to come here to read it.

The newsletter’s tracking links are nothing unusual, direct links would be. Most bulk mail/newsletters, etc. use tracking links of some description.

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Re the newsletter links: if, when you receive the newsletter and you want to try out the linked software, log on here and read it, the links are clean and (mostly, ~4 404’s for this edition) correct. Or use the newsletter as an alert – you don’t need to open it to come here to read it.

The newsletter’s tracking links are nothing unusual, direct links would be. Most bulk mail/newsletters, etc. use tracking links of some description.

Tracking links I accept (though rather would not). The problem with the links in the email is that you cannot even see the final address, it is just garbled data. I like to be able to see where a link in an email is taking me. I see that Sans Security has also moved over to these cryptic tracking links, which for a security firm seems particularly inappropriate. I want some thing like http://app.info.pentontech.com/e/er?microsoft.com…. not http://app.info.pentontech.com/e/er?s=1885539667&lid=10634&elqTrackId=6d7132fb5……. (don’t try clicking on these of course, deliberately mangled).

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I used to be an avid Acronis user (since v9.0) but the program has IMHO gone downhill rather rapidly over the last two or three versions. I have now swapped to Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/ which I find faster and much better than the latest Acronis offerings. I think quite a few other Acronis users have also abandonded them.

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I used to be an avid Acronis user (since v9.0) but the program has IMHO gone downhill rather rapidly over the last two or three versions. I have now swapped to Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/ which I find faster and much better than the latest Acronis offerings. I think quite a few other Acronis users have also abandonded them.

What Tracey needed was a program which could use Windows formatted backups. Last I knew, Macrium Reflect Free cannot find nor restore from Windows Backups. Acronis True Image Home can do this. Hence the use of a paid product.

-- rc primak

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I used to be an avid Acronis user (since v9.0) but the program has IMHO gone downhill rather rapidly over the last two or three versions. I have now swapped to Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/ which I find faster and much better than the latest Acronis offerings. I think quite a few other Acronis users have also abandonded them.

Hello RayG,

I guess it’s all in what you look for in a backup program. *I* have been a longtime Acronis user also, and prefer mostly the Acronis 2010 version. I do have the current 2016 version though, and often use the bootable media to create backups over my home network to my OpenMediaVault server, which can’t be done to my knowledge with earlier versions. Besides, I have nearly 8 years worth of .tib files that Macrium Reflect can’t read. I have Acronis 2016 installed on my Windows Home Server 2011 system, and use it to read the .tib files to pull individual files from them that I can then copy via my network to any connected system. Works the berries for ME! Your mileage may vary.

Cheers!

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I used to be an avid Acronis user (since v9.0) but the program has IMHO gone downhill rather rapidly over the last two or three versions. I have now swapped to Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/ which I find faster and much better than the latest Acronis offerings. I think quite a few other Acronis users have also abandonded them.

I’ve used Acronis for many years. They had their problems but seem to be stable now. I am current on the 2016 home version. Their UI design is awful but the program has worked for me in the past when I needed it.

Macrium appears to sell for ~$70US, more than double the usual price for Acronis (~$30US). And if you pay attention to Fry’s ads, you can often find Acronis for free after rebate.

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For imaging, suggest try the free Photodemon at:
http://photodemon.org/

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To get all the Nirsoft and Sysinternals programs under a single interface, suggest installing the WSCC software. There are paid and free versions.

What’s nice about this is that there is a single step click that updates all the software with anything new.

http://www.kls-soft.com/main/downloads.php?freeware=all

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Two superior alternatives to Avanquest PowerDesk Pro, one paid, one free:

AB Commander (paid)

Free Commander (free, obviously)

Either runs circles around the Avanquest product.

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Two superior alternatives to Avanquest PowerDesk Pro….

Either runs circles around the Avanquest product.

I agree completely! The last time where was an Update to this list, I suggested adding FreeCommanderXE and presented a case against PowerDesk Pro (which I had used from 1999 to about 2008), but my suggestion was clearly not heeded.

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I gave up on Copernic free version years ago. It was unable to find folder names then. Has this changed?

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+! for WSCC

--Joe

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