Newsletter Archives

• Working with the Intel Driver & Support Assistant

  Posted on June 19, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.25 • 2023-06-19

  WINDOWS

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Intel’s share of the x86 processor market at the end of 2022 came out at nearly a two-to-one ratio for Intel vs. AMD.

  The Statista survey ascribes 62.8% of that market to Intel and 35.2% to AMD; the remaining 2% presumably belongs to ARM and “other CPUs” sometimes found in PCs.

  But other Intel devices, including PC chipsets and controllers, show up in PCs of all kinds. And that means Intel also supplies drivers to connect devices to Windows and allow them to do their jobs.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.25.0, 2023-06-19).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows hardware, Hardware drivers, Intel, Newsletters, Software, utilities, Windows

• Beyond Compare is beyond comparison

  Posted on July 18, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  SOFTWARE

  

  By Will Fastie

  A good utility program can greatly improve productivity. A great utility program is often indispensable.

  One capability that has always been essential, especially to developers, is file comparison. Surprisingly, few utilities existed to perform that task. I remember printing core dumps in octal from a machine that had crashed and comparing them, visually, to a dump from another, working machine. And I mean on paper.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.29.0, 2022-07-18).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Software, Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Comparison, Software Review, utilities

• DockFolders — it’s the pretty things …

  Posted on April 11, 2022 at 02:42 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  I would like to start out with an apology to those I have neglected this year. I have been so nerdy with the software, and then I remember that some of you just want pretty things.

  No worries! I have what you need! Pretty and useful! DockFolders by Silon Systems is beta freeware (you know I have to be the first to try anything) that creates a gorgeous, curved folder dock/menu on your desktop. The program works on Windows 7, 10, and 11.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.15.0, 2022-04-11).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Freeware Spotlight AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, File Explorer, utilities

• 5 free utilities to help you get more out of Windows 11

  Posted on April 4, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Lance Whitney • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.14 • 2022-04-04

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Lance Whitney

  You can squeeze more features and flexibility out of Windows 11 with the right utility programs.

  You’ve just upgraded to Windows 11. And maybe you like certain aspects of it but wish the new OS offered more capabilities. In many ways, Windows 11 is a minor upgrade to Windows 10, with visual changes and some new or redesigned features. But otherwise, it’s still the same old Windows with the same limitations and constraints.

  One way to make Windows 11 more robust and flexible is through a good utility program. An array of utilities is available that will enhance or improve the OS in both significant and subtle ways. Among the vast number of utilities out there, I’ve come up with five free ones: Microsoft PowerToys, ThisIsWin11, Files, BeWidgets, and Winaero Tweaker. Let’s check them out.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.14.0, 2022-04-04).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Windows 11 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Essential utilities, utilities, Windows 11

• Ratool — Because firewalls can’t stop everything

  Posted on March 14, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.11 • 2022-03-14

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  Everyone is walking around with the storage of a 1990s supercomputer in their pockets. Jingling around with the pennies and nickels, flash drives are an old-school data thief’s best friend.

  Remember those first computer-hacker movies where the thief, spy, or 14-year-old had only a few minutes to copy a file from a computer before being caught red-handed? Oh, the suspense of watching that file-copy window slowly progress as the floppy drive ground away.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.11.0 (2022-03-14).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Newsletter 19.11.F (2022-03-14).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Freeware Spotlight AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Blocking, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, External Drives, USB drives, utilities

• Freeware Spotlight — SageThumbs

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:40 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  Some of the most common things I get asked about at our computer store are how to email a picture and how to make it smaller. Or, how to make a picture my desktop background image.

  To us geeks, these tasks are pretty straightforward because we have done them hundreds of times; but to a novice who is just learning to use a computer, it can seem rather confusing.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

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

• Freeware Spotlight — Killer

  Posted on April 12, 2021 at 01:02 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

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

• Freeware Spotlight — TweakPower

  Posted on September 16, 2019 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  PC “cleaning” tools have had a long and often notorious history. Many of these apps were little more than marketing ploys designed to con users into paying for a dubious service.

  In truth, there’s been just a handful of safe and effective “cleanup/tuneup” utilities. Our favorite is Kurt Zimmermann’s TweakPower, a comprehensive collection of system analysis and cleanup tools organized into a simple and easy-to-use interface.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.33.0 (2019-09-16).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, cleanup apps, tuneup apps, utilities

• Freeware Spotlight — NirLauncher

  Posted on September 2, 2019 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  If you’ve been in the PC-maintenance field for a while, I don’t have to tell you about the impact developer Nir Sofer has had on the freeware utilities community.

  For everyone else, this very talented guy has created hundreds of free apps for tackling nearly any PC problem. You’d be hard pressed to find a system administrator or computer tech who doesn’t keep at least a few of Mr. Sofer’s utilities at hand.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.31.0 (2019-09-02).

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

• Freeware Spotlight — StopUpdates10

  Posted on August 19, 2019 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  This year, it seems like installing Microsoft updates is a bit like playing Russian roulette with your computer — or the computers under your care.

  It might be surprising to learn that there are many third-party utilities offering tools to extend update deferrals — we’re happy to host one that actually works: StopUpdates10.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.29.0 (2019-08-19).

  Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Update blockers, utilities

• Freeware Spotlight — ccPortable

  Posted on June 17, 2019 at 02:05 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  Sometimes, great software can fall out of grace with its users, often due to bad decisions (or perceived bad decisions) by its authors.

  A classic example is Piriform’s CCleaner. First launched in 2004, it was a wildly popular system cleaner, trusted by millions of PC users as safe, effective, and free. For years it was on most must-have-utilities lists.

  But then things when wrong. It might have been a sad end to a once excellent product, but PortableApps.com saved the day.

  Out today in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.22.0.

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

• Freeware Spotlight — Graph Paper Printer

  Posted on June 10, 2019 at 02:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  If you provide IT services to schools, here’s a utility that should make teachers very happy!

  Graph Paper Printer is a tiny, flexible, and portable app that lets you print all sorts of graph-paper styles, from simple squares to music manuscripts — to other’s … well, we don’t know what they’re used for.

  See the full story in the June 10, 2019, AskWoody Plus Newsletter (Issue 16.21.0)

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