Newsletter Archives

• Freeware Spotlight — Three free tools to check Windows 11 compatibility

  Posted on July 12th, 2021 at 02:42 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  It’s a confusing time as Windows 11 approaches.

  With Microsoft releasing new (sometimes conflicting) information about Windows 11 daily (sometimes hourly), the exhausted developers of the three free tools I am featuring have been playing catch-up for a few weeks now. I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve updated them on OlderGeeks.com just within the past week.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.26.0 (2021-07-12).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, security, Windows 11

• Freeware Spotlight — Notes Keeper

  Posted on June 21st, 2021 at 02:42 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  When I find something I need, you get something you need.

  I decided that I wanted a note-taking program for service calls and in-shop repairs, but I wanted it to meet certain criteria. It had to be portable so I could use it from my flash drive. It had to be free because I’m a cheapskate. And I wanted it to have word-processor type features but be super-easy and fast. And, last but not least, I wanted it to allow me to add pictures to my notes.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.23.0 (2021-06-21).

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

• Freeware Spotlight — ShellBag AnalyZer + Cleaner

  Posted on June 7th, 2021 at 02:41 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  I don’t want to know why you need to clean your computer-usage tracks, but if you thought you were cleaning all of them … you weren’t.

  What are shellbags, and why should you care about them? Shellbags, a new feature starting with Windows 7, have been in every version of Windows since.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.21.0 (2021-06-07).

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

• Freeware Spotlight — Win10 Settings Blocker

  Posted on May 24th, 2021 at 01:01 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  A computer user who can’t access the Windows settings is a computer user who has less chance of breaking something.

  A few years ago, Sordum.org came out with a handy tool called Win10 Settings Blocker to block access to Windows settings. We’ve used it on scores of computers owned by our clients. We’ve used it on public-access kiosks, nursing-home med carts, computers for the Mennonite communities in our area, and countless others. The program is portable, free, and clean. Perfect!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.19.0 (2021-05-24).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Windows 10 Settings

• Freeware Spotlight — O&O Lanytix

  Posted on May 10th, 2021 at 01:02 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  When showing up at a new client’s small business, the first thing you need to know is where the heck everything is. Or maybe you just want to take inventory of your home network.

  How many routers are there? How many computers? How many people are using the company Wi-Fi for their personal phones? Is your kid using his/her laptop at 3 a.m.? What are the IP addresses and MAC addresses?

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.17.0 (2021-05-10).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Networking tools, Networks

• Freeware Spotlight — Complete Internet Repair 8

  Posted on April 26th, 2021 at 01:02 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  The tools on your flash drive save you time — and the time of your client.

  In my former life as an elementary school teacher, I was never opposed to kids using calculators to skip some of the basics and get right to more advanced math skills. Let’s face it, using a calculator to do the easy stuff so you can get a head start on figuring out how to get us to Alpha Centauri is not cheating. Punch in 7 times 8 a few thousand times, and you’re going to learn it.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.15.0 (2021-04-26).

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

• Freeware Spotlight — Killer

  Posted on April 12th, 2021 at 01:02 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Best Utilities

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  It’s thorough, it’s free, it’s portable, it’s a little dangerous, and it has a knife icon. What’s not to love? 

  Remember the good old days when Task Manager had just one or two processes showing for each running program? Not 47 of them (looking at you, Google). Remember when you could kill this fella by ending one process?

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.13.0 (2021-04-12).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities, Freeware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, utilities

• Freeware Spotlight – Distant Desktop

  Posted on March 22nd, 2021 at 01:04 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Best Utilities

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  It’s unfortunate that I paid for an annual renewal of Team Viewer just before I found Distant Desktop.

  I might have made a different decision. This newly discovered remote-control software is totally free for personal and commercial use, AND it has everything I use and love.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.11.0 (2021-03-22).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities, Freeware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Remote control

• Freeware Spotlight — DISM_GUI

  Posted on March 8th, 2021 at 01:00 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Best Utilities

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  It’s the little things that make me happy.

  Little electric bills, little chocolates, and little utilities.

  DISM_GUI by Dirk Paehl is just that sort of utility. Tiny, but super useful and always on my flash drive. If you like fixing Windows without typing, so you can keep that Slurpee in one hand, this is the tool for you!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.9.0 (2021-03-08).

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

• Freeware Spotlight — FastCopy

  Posted on February 22nd, 2021 at 01:00 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Best Utilities

  Freeware Spotlight — FastCopy

  By Deanna McElveen

  When you need that massive amount of data copied and you don’t have all day.

  When moving large amounts of data from one location to another, Windows can be a bit of a turtle. Sure, you can spend part of your day doing things like setting Optimize Drives to auto, disabling autotuning, disabling Remote Differential Compression, enabling write caching — or you can just use FastCopy by developer Shirouzu Hiroaki.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.7.0 (2021-02-22).

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

• Freeware Spotlight — Windows Repair Toolbox

  Posted on February 8th, 2021 at 01:35 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Best Utilities

  Freeware Spotlight — Windows Repair Toolbox

  By Deanna McElveen

  “Why doesn’t someone put all the best computer repair tools into one portable utility?”

  Well, someone did. Alex Canotilho created Windows Repair Toolbox. The program is not new — I believe we added it to our website back in 2015. Alex keeps the program updated, and each version adds or changes something, so you will want to keep checking our site for updates.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.5.0 (2021-02-08).

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

• Freeware Spotlight – Immunet 7

  Posted on January 25th, 2021 at 01:20 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Best Utilities

  Freeware Spotlight — Immunet 7

  By Deanna McElveen

  Where did the good, free antivirus programs go?

  Remember how great the little AVG and Avast Antivirus companies from the Czech Republic once were? Well, they got big — real big — and then they merged back in 2016, as is often the case with small tech companies. Unfortunately, many use their free versions as a loss leader for their paid versions, which sadly means the free versions act like adware, popping up ads to nag users.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.3.0 (2021-01-25).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight
• « Older Entries