Blog Archives

• Freeware Spotlight — PingStatus

  Posted on November 15th, 2020 at 21:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge
  

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  In our neck of the woods, high-speed and reliable Internet connections can be a rare commodity.

  It’s not uncommon to report Internet issues to your provider via the phone, only to have a tech show up while everything is running fine.

  If this sounds familiar, then Bakidok’s PingStatus is the tool for you.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.45.0 (2020-11-16).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities, Freeware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Network testing, Ping

• Freeware Spotlight — Alternate Password Generator

  Posted on November 1st, 2020 at 20:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  There’s never an occasion when a simple password is acceptable for an online account.

  The days of “[insert cat name]123” and “[insert kid name][insert birthdate]” are over — especially when applied to more than one online site. It’s likely that any short and easy-to-remember password you can think of has already been added to massive databases — some nefarious, some informational — of stolen credentials.

  OlderGeeks.com hosts several utilities from Alternate Tools, but today we’re looking at Alternate Password Generator (APG). It’s a free program that creates secure passwords.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.43.0 (2020-11-02).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities, Freeware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Brute-force cracking, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Password checking, Password generators

• Freeware Spotlight — A potpourri of anti-malware apps

  Posted on October 25th, 2020 at 21:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  You might see a doctor for something simple, but it’s likely she will also check your general health.

  So, too, we never let a computer leave our store without a thorough check for malware: rootkits, Trojans, viruses, spyware, bots, worms, ransomware, keyloggers, crimeware, and so on.

  In past newsletters, various contributors have recommended that you not rely wholly on just one anti-malware utility. Fortunately, there are many good, free products to choose from.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.42.0 (2020-10-26).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities, Freeware Anti-malware apps, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Full-time AV protection, On-demand scanners

• Freeware Spotlight — SwitchPowerScheme

  Posted on August 16th, 2020 at 20:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  If it were up to me, Windows’ desktop context menu — the right-click pop-up menu — would take up two full screens!

  Then I’d have quick access to everything with just a mouse-click! … And that would give birth to a whole new generation of utilities to shrink Deanna’s context menu back to a manageable size.

  That wishful thinking probably explains my excitement at discovering Sordum.org’s SwitchPowerScheme.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.32.0 (2020-08-17).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities, Freeware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, context menu, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Power settings

• Freeware Spotlight — Jarte Plus

  Posted on July 13th, 2020 at 01:00 Jamie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  FREE SOFTWARE

  Freeware Spotlight — Jarte Plus

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.27.0 (2020-07-013).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Freeware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight

• Freeware Spotlight — A Thousand Words

  Posted on March 30th, 2020 at 01:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  As we’re all dragged into this new pandemic reality, PC-service clients are going to need remote assistance more than ever.

  Unfortunately, many of those folks are not as computer-savvy as we might wish. So when users run into problems, they might find it difficult to convey what exactly is going awry. In many cases, simple screen shots will illustrate the problem far better than will describing it over the phone.

  The aptly named A Thousand Words (ATW) is a handy screen-capture app from developer Andrew Lambert. The tool is specifically designed to be easy to use — suitable for PC users of any skill. If a problem can be seen on-screen, the machine’s user can launch ATW and follow a simple wizard to quickly grab shots of the fault. The user can then annotate the images and email the shots to a service tech (or the unofficial family IT person).

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.12.0 (2020-03-30).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, OlderGeeks, PC service, Screen capture

• Deanna’s Freeware Spotlight: SwiftSearch

  Posted on May 20th, 2019 at 02:02 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Tired of trying to get Windows’ slow search routine to cooperate with your hard drive? Take a look at SwiftSearch, the freeware pick of the week from Deanna at OlderGeeks.com.

  Take a look in this morning’s AskWoody Plus Newsletter issue 16.18.0.

  Freeware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, SwiftSearch

• Deanna’s Freeware Spotlight: USBFlashCopy

  Posted on May 13th, 2019 at 02:12 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  I bet you have a gazillion USB drives hanging around. I do, and I’m constantly trying to figure out which one(s) I can re-use without destroying something valuable. There’s a solution: Back up your USB drives before you obliterate them.

  Freeware guru Deanna from OlderGeeks.com has a solution: USBFlashCopy automatically backs up your USB drives (and memory cards) when they’re plugged into your PC.

  Full instructions out this morning in AskWoody Plus Newsletter issue 16.17.0.

   

  Freeware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, USBFlashCopy
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