Hard drive filling up? WinDirStat to the rescue!

It's hard to believe how much hard drive space we use up these days. If you're somebody who has a lot of video and or audio files, you can find your drive filling up fairly quickly. Cleaning up to make more room can be annoying and time consuming when done manually. WinDirStat is a cute, simple and free application that analyzes how much disk space files are taking up. Simply download it here and follow the simple installation instructions.

To run it, select a drive and let it scan. The scan is fun and has little pac man guys darting across the screen as they analyze your data. There really isn't much on this computer so the scan only took a few seconds

Look at that! Free AND shiny! You can drill down and see more details about what's taking up space in your files, by clicking on individual files.

Up and Down Wireless

Wireless can be fickle. One minute it's giving you all of its 802.11N love while you watch a Dexter marathon on Netflix, the next it's down filling you with the agonizing pains of Internet withdrawal. Then, moments later, it's back up with no apparent rhyme or reason. Let me give you a little rhyme for your reason.

Unless you live in the wilderness, it's extremely likely that your neighbors wireless network(s) extend into your wireless domain. Many consumer routers are set to broadcast on the same wireless channel (often channels 1, 6 and 11) which can lead to multiple networks duking it out for airtime in a relatively small space. The way I see it, you're left with two options. Make tiny matching foil hats for yourself, your laptop, and your router...OR you can change the channel. While the former is definitely more fashion forward, it's not very effective. I just wanted to see if I could get you to rush into the kitchen to grab some foil before reading the rest of this. Let's change the channel.

Signs (2002)

Now I'm banking on the fact that you understand how to make basic changes to your router. I'm going to assume that when you got it, you logged in to set up an SSID (your network name), set a security protocol and passkey, and hopefully changed the standard administrative password of the router itself. If you haven't done these things, you need to locate the make and model number of your router and Google it to locate the manual. Breaking into unsecured wireless network is about as easy as going to the fridge for a snack so it's important to do these things to keep people from leeching Internet access from you, or even worse, accessing your personal information.

Now let's take a look at what channels your neighbors are using. Download and install an application called NetStumbler. When you run it, you'll notice it removes you from your wireless network and uses your wireless card to scan local wireless networks. In order to return surfing, you'll need to close the application. NetStumbler couldn't be easier to use, especially for the information we're trying to access. Simply double click it and let it run for a minute and you'll see a neat little list of local networks and what channels they are on.

As you can see from our list here, some channels are quite packed. This is most likely because this was the default channel the router was set to and it was never changed. All you need to do to avoid this traffic jam is to set your network to one that is not being used, or at least, not being used very much. Just log back into your router, find the wireless channel settings, put yourself on a traffic free channel, and enjoy smooth wireless surfing.

Magic Jelly Bean

It sounds like something out of a fairy tale, and this week it was so useful it almost was! I had a user whose drive was failing and needed to be replaced, so I set him up with a new one. I then took his old drive and put it in an enclosure, that allowed it to connect via USB so he could access all of his data. Unfortunately, he had no record of the key for his Microsoft Office installation. Yikes, that could be an expensive thing to have to purchase again!

Thank goodness for Magic Jelly Bean products! They make key finders, that scan the registry of your system for the keys of software you have installed. I've mentioned SIW before, and I adore it, but it doesn't find keys on external drives.The free version is just called Key Finder, and they make an fancier yet still inexpensive version called Recover Keys for more elusive and harder to recover keys. Simply download, install and run for data on your own drive. For keys on an external drive, like the situation above, you simply use the "load hive" feature and point it to the Windows installation on the drive. Voila! All the information you need to reinstall that expensive software on the new drive.

Free WinZip Alternative

Sometimes, because software is considered the standard for years, we just get into a rut. It can be kind of an expensive rut over time, because we'll tend to fork over the cash like zombies because we don't want to deal with finding an alternative. Luckily for you, I make it my personal mission in life to pay for as little software as humanly possible. If I can get just five people to use all my favorite freebies, I'll consider it my own little way of sticking it to the man.

Enter (stage left) the free pick of the day, jZip. Sorry, WinZip, but you're not worth $30. Especially with your annoying website that proclaims WINZIP HAS NEVER BEEN FREE! (I guess they didn't use caps but I still felt yelled at.) Oh and my personal favorite,WinZip will give you the software for free if you complete one of their marketing offers that include selling your information and probably your soul to marketing companies. Seriously? No thanks. JZip can create, open and extract Zip, TAR, GZip and 7-Zip files and open and extract RAR and ISO files. You get all this for the one time price of ZERO! Maybe they'll even take installments? OK, joking aside, I tested this software and am using it right now. It's safe and works great. Save yourself some money and download jZip here.

Instant messaging overload!

I've loved instant messaging ever since it came out. It's as convenient as having your friends and family in the same room with you, but less awkward if you want to walk around naked. I personally use AOL Instant Messenger or "AIM", Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, and Windows Live Messenger or "MSN Messenger."

They're certainly not difficult to install or set up, but with so many types of instant messaging services currently available, it can be cumbersome to keep track of people spread around different services. Not to mention it can be pretty taxing on your computer's resources to be running 6 different messenger applications at once. Just like our current economy, let's downsize!

There are quite a few instant messaging consolidation programs, so I'm going to focus on a few of the most popular. Also, let it be known that I do not get excited about things like smilies. I like my instant messaging software like my soul, black and void of emotion. OK that's not true, I'm chipper like puppies and kittens on a sunny day, but I still don't want unicorns in my chat window.

Pidgin: I have really liked Pidgin for years. It's very stable, and doesn't have too many confusing bells and whistles. It worked really well with the Jabber server (internal instant messaging service) I set up a few years ago for my last company. It was definitely the least glitchy of all we tried, so for that it gets high marks. On the down side, Pidgin only supports video/audio chat for Google Talk. They have said that support for other services is in the works, and when that's complete, I'm pretty sure I'll be sold because it's otherwise an outstanding application. Who are we kidding? I'm already sold. When I want to call somebody using my computer I usually use Skype anyway.

Meebo: Meebo is interesting because it's web based. Instead of installing an application on your computer, you log in to their website, plug in all your account information for your various messaging accounts, and they all pop up like magic. This is a great option for folks who are not allowed to install software on their work computers. That's right, don't let the man bring you down!

Trillian: This little guy used to be my favorite. It was the first application of it's type I had used. I'm honestly just not a big fan anymore. The installation process is full of sneaky installs, like really sneaky. They asked me once if I wanted to install it with the Ask Toolbar (I'm not going to link it because I consider it to be almost malware) so I unchecked the bubble...then they snuck it in there AGAIN at the end. That made me raise an eyebrow. It's certainly not a bad application, it's cute and bubbly. I try it each time they put out a new build for nostalgia sake, hopefully they'll hit the nail on the head again someday.

Now after you've chosen an application and installed it, don't forget to uninstall any messaging software it's replacing! The point was to subtract, not add! And remember, TALKING IN ALL CAPS IS LIKE YELLING. Don't do it.

My computer is infested!

So you clicked on Claudia Schiffer naked, huh? Or maybe you tried to find the latest episode of True Blood on some nasty video sharing website and now you're being inundated with pop ups that offer everything from penis enlargement to expensive fake spyware removal? What do you do now? Well, first of all, don't panic! This happens to everyone...even me. It's nothing to be ashamed of, there are baddies all over the internet just looking for a way in.

A few years ago, while trying to remove the Vundo trojan from a client's machine, I discovered Malwarebytes. It's a delightful little application that does the absolute best job at removing viruses, trojans and spyware from your machine. And the best news is that it's free for home use! Download it here and run the simple installer. I like to start by doing the quick scan, removing anything it finds at the end then running a full scan. After that's done, reboot and scan again.

Now you may have a particularly ugly trojan that blocks Malwarebytes from installing or functioning properly. If this is the case, you can try installing it and or running it in Safe Mode. If you do not know how to get into Safe Mode, I've typed up some directions here.

Even if your computer is not obviously infected with anything, I highly suggest installing this application and checking every so often anyway. You may find something you didn't know was there. Or if you do manage to catch a virtual sneeze, so to speak, you'll be really happy you already have it installed and ready to go. Happy surfing!

Identifying hardware the EASY way!

So you're thinking about upgrading your RAM or some other piece of hardware and not sure what you have? I guess that means it's time to grab a flashlight, open up your computer, and pray you don't break anything...right? Guess again! Thanks to a teeny little program called SIW or System Information for Windows, you can find out everything you need to know about your computer in just a few clicks. Simply download the free version for home use here and run it. It will quickly show you everything from the key for your Microsoft Office installation, to the make and model of your motherboard.

Development of this kind of software isn't easy, and since it saved you some time consider donating a few dollars by clicking on the "If you like SIW you can buy me coffee" link here at the bottom of the page. Geeks need their coffee to keep on being brilliant!

Free Anitvirus

There are three things I look for when deciding what antivirus software to use.

1. Is it easy? Download, installation and continued updates should be easy and automated.
   
2. Quiet monitoring is a must. I have no patience for software that hogs precious resources or constantly pops up requesting my attention and money.
3. Cost! I'm a firm believer that there is no need to pay much if anything for safe web browsing.
   

There is a lot of software out there that fits the bill, but my current favorite is Avast! which can be downloaded here. You can upgrade to a paid version, but most home users will be fine with the free version. During the installation, it will try to install Google Chrome for you so if that's not something you're interested in exploring, make sure to check the bubble that ops for the "express installation" without Google Chrome. Enjoy!