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Tools for Technicians
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Drivermax is a freeware application designed to be a complete package for managing drivers. It has the ability to import and export drivers, check for driver updates, identify unknown hardware and show detailed hardware information. Best of all, if you are working with a system and dont have the driver CD for it, it’ll scan to see what drivers are needed and provide you with the direct download link to it. All of the drivers they have on file (99,726 at the time of this article) are stored on their servers so you dont have to worry about broken links or manufacturers going broke and disappearing. To top it all off, it will install them for you.
As you can imagine, this would be useful to use on a system you are about to format but it is also handy to keep on a system long term as it can run in the background checking for driver updates every now and then and automatically update for you. The only downside of this application is you have you sign up for an account with Drivermax and enter a registration key, both are free, its just taking the time to do it. Aside from that, its a great all-in-one tool to manage any driver problems.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 2.92mb
Repair Tool : WhoCrashed When a system crashes, it usually leaves behind something called a “crash dump”. This crash dump contains information about what happened. However, in order to read it on a system you need to download and install Microsofts debugging tools, its dependancies called “symbols” and run some commands. WhoCrashed is designed to read the crash dump files with a single click. Just open it, press “Analyze” and it will tell you what driver/hardware caused the problem.
While it wont tell you exactly what happened, it lists a hardware error message or a driver file that failed which you can Google and find the cause.
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How To Brand Windows
There are a few places you can brand the operating system. The System Properties, Internet Explorer and the background. I dont recommend you change the background as it may annoy some people.
As for the System Properties and Internet Explorer, here is how to brand them:
How to brand the “System Properties” dialog
If you right click on “My Computer” and goto Properties. You will see the following dialog:
If you are a system builder, this is a great opportunity to place your own logo for some free branding and it may bring in some extra work down the track if they need assistance.
To place your own logo here, you should create your image as a .bmp file. It is also a good idea to create your logo with the same background color of grey as the system properties dialog (which is RGB: 192, 192, 192).
For your convenience, I have also created a blank downloadable sample here (right click > save as). The maximum sized image allowed is 180w x 120h pixels, anything smaller will be resized to this size.
Once you have created your logo, save it as a .bmp file and name it oemlogo.bmp. Then, copy it to your system32 subfolder in Windows (usually c:\windows\system32). Next time you open your System Properties dialog you will see your logo there.
You can also show a “Support Information” button that will popup with any text you like (a business name and support phone number is a good idea). To create this, download this sample ini file (right click > save as), edit it with your own text and save it to the system32 folder.
If you have done everything correctly you should see something like this:
Internet Explorer Title Bar
Another opportunity for branding is in the Internet Explorer Title Bar that appears after the website title. Many ISPs will use this area to add something like “Provided by ISP Name”.
To change this, Doug Knox has created a great little Visual Basic script that allows us to change it with ease. Just download this file (right click > save as) and run it. It will first ask you if you want to reset Internet Explorers title to the default. If you choose no it will give you the option to change it. Once you have written something in the text field, click OK to save the changes.
Note: I recommend that you restrict your branding to new systems only as it may annoy some people who have pre-existing computers.
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How To Fix The Windows Registry Hive Error
Most techs with a few years of experience under their belt have probably come across the Windows XP corrupted registry hive problem at some point in their career. When it happens, Windows wont start and will present one of these messages:
- Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
- Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE
- Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate
In most cases, Safe mode wont work either. The uniform approach to fixing this is by getting into the Windows XP repair console and manually replacing the file with the copy that was created when the system was first installed. However, any software or drivers (depending on whether it was SOFTWARE or SYSTEM that failed) that was installed after that point may not work since the registries for them hadnt been installed back then.
Here is my method that I have been using to fix this. It reverts the registry to only a few days earlier rather than back to when Windows was first installed. Note: You will need access to a working computer to create a boot CD. You will also need a fairly good knowledge of computers, BIOS and registry editing in order to do this. This article is aimed towards computer technicians.
1. If you don’t have it already, download UBCD4Win using one of the mirrors here. If you do already have it on a CD, skip to step 3.
To run it, create an ISO and burn it to CD you can read the instructions here. I wont write the instructions here because the ones on the previous link are better and this article is more targeted at computer technicians and most of them already have this CD.
2. Once the CD has been created, goto the BIOS and make sure your CDRom is set as the first boot device. Start up the computer with UBCD4Win in the CDRom and you will have some boot options. Choose the “Launch The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows” option.
It will take a few minutes to load fully, but when it does you should see a Windows XP like interface like in the picture below:
3. In the UBCD4Win interface, goto Start > Programs > Registry Tools > Registry Restore Wizard.
4.The program will then ask you which Windows registry you want to repair. In most cases, it’ll be C:\Windows. Choose the copy of Windows you want to repair and press Next.
5. Choose “Fix the system registry to that of a previous state” and Press Next.
6. You should now see a list registry restore points. Choose one with a date a few days before the issue first occured.
7. Wait a few seconds for it to restore the registry. Press Finish and restart the computer. The issue should now be fixed. If not, it may be a sign of a greater issue like hard drive damage.
An Easy Way to Break Into a Windows User Account
In this article, I am going to show you an easy way to access a Windows user account without knowing the original password. First of all, I know there many other ways to do this such as using a live CD like Ophcrack or something like Knoppix to access the Windows password file etc… but I find this way is the easiest, most reliable and gives the most options.
This knowledge is not intended for malicious purposes. It is intended to be used by computer technicians for times when clients forget their password or unable to log in for some other reason. Don’t use this information to be a tool.
Note: You will need access to a working computer to create a boot CD. You will also need a fairly good knowledge of computers and BIOS in order to do this. This article is aimed towards computer technicians.
If you don’t have it already, download UBCD4Win using one of the mirrors here. If you do already have it on a CD, skip to step 3.
To run it, create an ISO and burn it to CD. You can read the instructions here. I wont write the instructions here because the ones on the previous link are better and this article is more targeted at computer technicians and most of them already have this CD.
Once the CD has been created, goto the BIOS and make sure your CDRom is set as the first boot device. Start up the computer with UBCD4Win in the CDRom and you will have some boot options. Choose the “Launch The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows” option.
It will take a few minutes to load fully, but when it does you should see a Windows XP like interface. Once there, goto Start > Programs > Password Tools > Password Renew.
Once Password Renew is open, you need to tell it what Windows install you would like it to effect, so press “Select a Target” and choose the Windows installation (in most cases, its c:\windows).
You can “Renew existing user password”, “create new Administrator user” or “Turn existing user to Administrator”. For this example, we’re just going to gain access to an existing user account so choose “Renew existing user password”.
Choose the account you would like to change the password for and enter in the new password. Now press “Install” on the left hand side. Restart the computer, eject the boot CD and you should be able to use that user account.
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Most of us have heard of UBCD4Win which gives you a Windows like interface on a boot CD. UBCD4Win is great but what if you need to do some more low level work such as testing the RAM, doing a low level format or testing the condition of a hard drive? This is Where Ultimate Boot CD (dos version) comes in.
UBCD assembles over 100 PC hardware diagnosis tools into one bootable CD. It boots up very quickly (about 2 seconds on my machine) and provides a menu to many DOS based diagnostic tools tools such as:
- CPU Tests
- Memory Tests
- Peripherals Tools
- CPU Information
- System Information
- Benchmark Tools
- BIOS Tools
- Hard Disk Installation Tools
- Hard Disk Diagnostic Tools
- Hard Disk Device Management Tools
- Hard Disk Wiping Tools
- Hard Disk Cloning Tools
- Hard Disk Low-Level Editing Tools
- Partition Tools
- Boot Managers
- File Tools
- NTFS Tools
- Antivirus/Malware Tools
- Network Tools
- DOS Boot Disks
- Linux Boot Disks
A full list of the applications it contains can be found here. This application makes a great partner for UBCD4Win and is a must in any technicians kit.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html - 115mb
An Easy Way to Create a Virtual Machine
A Virtual machine software is an application that emulates real hardware. A software based test PC if you will. This allows me to install Windows XP as I normally would on a real PC, but within the virtual machine software. Basically, I could run a copy of Windows XP inside my main Windows XP install that I use day to day.
To create a virtual machine, we need to install a Virtual Machine Player. There is a great free one called “VM Ware Player” which you can download here (or here if you want to skip the survey stuff, but it may be an older version).
Once you have downloaded and installed the player we need to create a virtual machine environment. You can easily do this by visiting EasyVMX.com.
Once at the Easy VMX site, we need to fill in some options. For this example I am going to create a Windows Vista virtual machine that I can run within my Windows XP.
Step 1 - Virtual Machine Name
I am going to set my virtual machine name as “Vista”. You can call it whatever you want but for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to just call mine Vista.
Step 2 - Choose an Operating System
Now I need to choose what operating system I am going to install from the list. As you can see there are many different operating systems that you can install. In this case, I will choose the 32bit version of Vista.
Step 3 - Virtual Machine Memory Size
Now we need to choose the Virtual machines memory size. This is basically setting how much RAM your emulated hardware has. This setting will use up your real RAM so since my real machine has 2 gigs of RAM, I’m going to allocate 1 gig to my virtual machine.
Keep in mind, although this virtual machine is emulating hardware, the fake hardware must meet the system requirements of what you are installing. In this example, 1 gig should still be enough for Vista.
Step 4 - Virtual Machine Disk Size
Now we need to choose the virtual machine disk size. This is how big the emulated operating system’s hard drive will be. If I set this to 12 gig and I installed Vista, Vista will show a 12 gig harddrive in the “My Computer” area. As I said before, the emulated machine must meet the system requirements of what you are installing. Vista requires 7 gig or more so I am going to choose 12 gig which will be enough to install Vista and also give us a little breathing room. Remember, if you use 12gig of space in your virtual machine, it will use 12gig of space on your real machine.
Step 5 - Mount ISO (optional)
This part is optional. It allows you to make the virtual machine think you have a CD in the drive when it is really just an ISO. If you want to run an ISO, put the ISO file in the same location the files you are about to download are going to be and put in the files name like “VistaCD.iso”
If you don’t fill in this part, the Virtual Machine will use your real CD rom as a boot device to check for a bootable CD and if you have a real Vista CD in there, it’ll start the installation process.
Step 6 - Create Virtual Machine
Your setup should look something like this:
Once your done, click the “Create Virtual Machine” button and it’ll take you to the next page where there is a download link for your virtual machine. Save it somewhere you’ll remember and extract the file.
Step 7 - Launch Your Virtual Machine
Double click on the .VMX file and your virtual machine environment will launch. You can also open VMWare Player, go to Open and navigate to the VMX file. If you have a CD in your drive or if you specified an ISO file earlier it’ll try to launch off that. In this example, I’m using a physical Vista CD.
Step 8 - Installing an OS
If the Operating Systems CD is bootable, it should have been detected during bootup. If you are installing XP you’ll need to click on the VMWare screen to bring it to focus and press a button on the keyboard when it says “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD..” (or something similar). On my Vista install, I didn’t need to click anything.
It started up and begun the installation process. As you can see, the installer sees a 12 gig drive that I specified earlier so I click Next and let it go though the install process.
Finished!
Now we have a Vista virtual machine. That’s all there is to it.
If you like, make a copy of the virtual machine folder to keep as a clean version. That way, you can install viruses and all sorts of things and then when you are done, delete the virus ridden one and make a copy of the clean one.
Be sure to shut down the virtual machine OS properly because if you just close VMWare Player, it leaves a massive hibernation file on the hard drive.
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An Easy Way to Create a Virtual Machine
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Repair Tool : Easus Partition Manager
Free for personal use and $31.96 for professional use, Easus Partition Manager is a great alternative to Symantecs “Partition Magic”. The main features of Easus Partition Manager are the ability to format, resize, delete, add, copy, set active and change drive letters. It can even be used as a Bart-PE plugin.
I tested in this on my virtual machine as I do with every repair tool of the week I recommend and was very pleased with the results. I loaded it up, it saw the virtual machines 4 gig drive and how much information was already used (just the OS). I slid the slider to make another partition as big as I could without destroying existing data, named the other partition and clicked apply. I asked me to reboot and during the Windows XP bootup screen it goes to work with creating the partitions.
There was no messing around while using this, it doesn’t destroy data, you don’t have to know a lot about formatting and partitions, it just works and its a nice free alternative to Partition Magic.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 7.93mb
More Information
Bart-PE Plugin Information
Repair Tool of the Week: Easus Partition Manager
TeraCopy Portable
Imagine this, you have a clients computer on your workshop bench that is backing up 30 gig of their data to your portable hard drive before a format. You copy and paste the files through Windows and go have lunch since it will take a while. You come back an hour later expecting the copy to be finished only to find it got a few minutes in until it said “Access Denied” to one of the files and then stopped the entire process. This is where TeraCopy comes in.
TeraCopy Portable is a portable, freeware file-copying utility that tries to copy a file several times and if it fails, it skips the file and continues. TeraCopy also copies files faster than the built in Windows copy system by “dynamically adjusting buffers to reduce seek time”. Thus, making your backup process faster and more reliable.
TeraCopy has some other great features such as the ability to pause and resume transfers, shell intergration and a interactive file list that shows the failed file transfers so you can fix them later.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 880kb
Capacitor Problems
the computer would not boot up into Windows. The system would go through the BIOS processes without a problem, show the Windows XP boot logo and then the screen would switch off.
If the display works fine out in BIOS but then switches off when the computer gets into Windows, this is obviously going to driver problem of some sort. So, I reboot into Safe Mode so I can do something about this driver problem and the screen switched off again when it got past the Windows XP bootup logo.
I figure that if I boot the system into VGA mode it should work and sure enough, it does. At this point I am suspecting that the video card driver has become corrupt or something so I download the latest video card drivers from the manufacturers official site, remove the old drivers and install the new ones. I rebooted the computer and the screen still switches off once it gets past the XP logo.
I am beginning to think that the clients screen may be faulty because it cant handle the higher resolutions. I go out to my car and bring in my old 15 inch LCD screen that I use for testing. I rebooted the computer again and the problem still exists even on my screen.
At this point I am running out of ideas of what this problem could be. I was sure it was a driver issue because the video card obviously works because it would work fine in BIOS. When a video card fails it either displays artifacts on the screen, locks up or just fails completely which wasn’t the case here. I take off the side of the case and take look at the video card anyway even though I still believe this is a driver issue.
This is what I found.
It seems those two caps had something to do with controlling the resolutions 800×600 and above. When the video card was displaying 640×480 out in BIOS I believe these two caps weren’t being used and therefor the video card would work fine.
When Windows got past the XP boot screen, it would switch to 800×600 or above, the information would go through these two damaged capacitors and no video would be passed to the screen which makes it switch off.
I replaced the video card with an identical one, powered up computer and it worked instantly. I didn’t even need to do anything with the drivers. I just goes to show you that the problem isn’t always what it seems
Repair Tool: ScanPST
Outlook is a fairly indepth program that stores a lot of data and it can occasionally become corrupted to the point where Outlook cannot be launched. Since many people use Outlook to organise their lives you can imagine how much they freak out when their information becomes corrupted.
This little tool called ScanPST has allowed me to save many stressed out clients in the past. It only does one thing but its a very important one, ScanPST will scan a Outlook data file (.pst) that you choose for corruptions and attempt to repair it.
If you have an Office Package that includes Outlook, you already have this application.
Goto Start > Search and search for “Scanpst.exe”. If you cannot find it that way, its most likely located in the following folders:
For Outlook XP and 2003:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\LocaleID
For Outlook 2007
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12Now
(Assuming C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office is the location you installed office)
To find the Outlook data file to use it on, its usually located in the following folders:
For Windows XP or Server 2003:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
For Vista:
c:\users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
Screenshots:
Downloads:
If you have Office that includes Outlook, you already have it.
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Repair Tool: EnableDisable
EnableDisable is a small, freeware application designed to allow you to enable or disable Microsoft Office add-ins. This comes in handy when an addin is causing an Office product (like Outlook, Word or Access) to crash and you cannot get into the application to switch it off. Of course, you could always use the /safe switch for the product, find the add ins menu and disable it that way,. However, this way shows the installed addins for all of the Office products installed at once so this method is faster.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 566kb
Repair Tool: Video Memory Stress Test
Video Memory Stress Test is a small application that is free for home use (but paid for commercial use) and is designed to test the RAM on your video card. Similar to Memtest86+, it will read and write data to each part of the video cards RAM and log any errors found.
I used this application on a machine a few months ago that would get artifacts when playing World of Warcraft, but not during general use. I suspected the video card was dying so I ran this tool and it instantly came up with pages and pages of errors. I swapped the video card and everything was working again so it definitely did its job.
This application comes with both a Windows version and a bootable DOS based ISO which is handy if you cannot get into Windows because of suspected video card problems.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 644kb
Download from Majorgeeks - 644kb
Repair Tool Returnil Virtual System Personal
Returnil is an application that completely mirrors your current Windows installation and seamlessly virtualizes it. Just press the button to switch it on, do whatever the you want to the computer (install some viruses or something), reboot your computer and Windows will be restored back to the way it was.
This application would be fantastic to use on family computers where the kids don’t browse safely or on public computers that are used by any people.
Returnil is great for the consumer level because of its ease of use (just a “switch on” button) and mirrors the entire current operating system. I have used other virtualization applications like Sandboxie which is good, but that only virtualizes single applications. Virtualbox is another great piece of software but that only virtualizes a separate operating install and its also windowed. I found neither of these to be consumer-level ease-of-use like Returnnil is. Returnil is free for personal use and well worth recommending to clients.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Download.com - 2.56mb
More Information
My Onsite Technician CD Wallet
UBCD4Win - UBCD4Win is my preferred GUI repair environment because its Windows based and have already been loaded with many repair applications. Of course, you can use a Linux LiveCD flavor if that is more your style.
Ultimate Boot CD (dos version) - Ultimate Boot CD is a DOS based menu that allows you to do low level work to a system like testing the RAM for errors, doing a low level format or testing the condition of a hard drive. It contains the DOS versions of some commonly used applications such as Aida, Memtest86+, Dariks Boot and Nuke and more.
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor - Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is a freeware utility that allows you to change or blank the password of any user that has a valid account on a local NT/2000/XP/2003/Server 2008/Vista 32 & 64bit system.
Offline Update - Offline Update is a freeware tool that downloads all of the existing patches for the operating system you specify (choice of Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003) and creates an ISO file, for which you can later burn to a CD or DVD.
The DriverPacks.net CDs - The DriverPacks.net project is an open source project. The goal is to simplify the creation of a “uniform” Windows installation CD, i.e. an installation CD that works on every piece of hardware, without having to go look for other drivers after the installation.
Windows Installer CDs
A copy of:
- Windows 98 SE
- Windows 2000 Workstation/Small Business
- Windows XP Home OEM/Retail/Genuine Advantage
- Windows XP Professional OEM/Retail/VLK 32bit/64bit
- Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit / 64bit (contains all Vista versions)
- Microsoft Office 2000, XP, 2003, 2007
How do I get all of these I hear you say? I personally obtained most of mine as I bought the OSes for my own personal computers over the last 7 years. Some technicians create a copy of their clients CDs as they come in (without the CDkey of course since that would be piracy). Another option is to subscribe to the Microsoft Action Pack which contains most of Microsofts Software. However, this only contains their current software and not older versions so you couldn’t get Windows 98 and 2000. I have also heard some technicians even suggest downloading the ISOs from bittorrent sites but not using the CD Key. However, this is not recommended as the internet version may be infected with all sorts of hidden nasties.
A copy of your USB Repair Tool Kit on CD - In some cases, the USB ports don’t work on a clients machine or you may not want to plug in your USB drive into a infected machine as your drive may also become infected. This is where having a copy of your USB repair tool kit on a CD is handy.
Driver Disks for Your Own Devices - I rarely ever have to use this driver disk for the devices I take onsite like my USB drive, USB DVD burner, USB network card & USB soundcard as Windows XP and above will automatically detect these. However, sometimes if I have to work on Windows 98 or a damaged version of a later operating system, it can come in handy if they are not being detected.
Windows Service Packs Standalone and .NET Installers
You can choose to keep this on your USB drive as well, but its nice to have them on a CD as well.
Installers for Commonly Used Applications - Another one you can also keep on a USB drive. Its a good idea to have commonly used installers on a CD like FoxIT Reader, nVidias Forceware Drivers, Skype, Thunderbird, iTunes etc..
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Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is a freeware utility that allows you to change or blank the password of any user that has a valid account on a local NT/2000/XP/2003/Server 2008/Vista 32 & 64bit system. You do not need to know the old password to set a new one which makes this ideal for use with clients who have forgotten their password or were locked out by someone else. Unlocking locked or disabled accounts is also supported.
This tool comes in the form as a bootable CD ISO or Floppy disk ISO but can also be made to boot from a USB drive. The application is Linux based and it asks you questions about which drive and Windows install you would like to work with. Most questions can be answered just by pressing Enter since the best option is already chosen.
Warning: If used on user accounts that make use of EFS encrypted files, all encrypted files will become unreadable unless you remember the old password again. This is a serious technician tool and shouldn’t be used by people who don’t know what they are doing.
BlueScreenView - Repair Tool
BlueScreenView is a small, freeware and portable application that scans all of the minidump files that are created when Windows experiences a “Blue Screen of Death”. It will display the information about all the crashes in one table with the minidump filename, the time and date of the crash, basic information about the crash (as in the BSOD message) and the driver or module that possibly caused the crash.
The main benefit of using BlueScreenView over other minidump reading applications is that it does not require the Microsoft debugging tools (which are 16 - 225mb in itself) which makes this application small, quick and portable. This tool is definitely worth having in your kit to track down the cause of BSOD’s.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 48kb
PCIDatabase.com
After you do a clean install of Windows, you go to the Device Manager and discover the dreaded question mark next to an “Unknown Device”. You could just download the driver for this device, but you don’t know what it is! This is where PCIDatabase.com comes in handy.
PCIDatabase.com is website to help you identify unknown PCI devices without using any special software.
To find out what a PCI Device is, go to Device Manager, right click on the Unknown Device and choose Properties.
Go to the “Details” Tab and choose “Hardware ID’s” from the dropdown box. You should see something like this.
You will want to get the ID starting with VEN_ and the ID starting with DEV_. In this case the Vendor ID is 11AB and the Device ID is 4364.
For this example I am just going to use the Device ID and go to PCIDatabase.com. Enter the Device ID into the “Device Search” text box and press search.
If it knows the device, it’ll come up with something like this:
Instant Housecall Review
In this article I will be reviewing some remote support software called “Instant Housecall”. Instant Housecall aims to be a complete support package for computer techs who provide remote support.
In this review, I used the Professional Edition trial which allows you to try all of the options for 15 days.
To test the product, I installed Instant Housecall’s “Specialist” software that sits in the technicians system tray awaiting a client to “call in”. From there, I can access the admin area that allows me to set my account preferences such as a branded splash screen that my clients see, my support pages logo, a webpage that loads after the help session (for feedback, surveys, promotions etc..), my Paypal email address so I can be paid, manage my specialists, change default system behaviors such as auto-reconnect if I get disconnected and display reports of the work that has been done and how much I earned.
Once this has all been setup, you can either used a support page created by Instant Housecall that you can send your customer with a URL like “ABCTech.instanthousecall.com” or you can set up a direct download link from your current website so they never see the Instant Housecall domain. This is what my test page looks like:
I would direct my client to this page, they press “Download Now” and the client-side support software would install. Something worth pointing out is that Instant Housecall has gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that it is as easy as possible for the clients to set up the client-side software. There are no pin codes that they have to enter or read out to you (unlike Crossloop or LogMeIn Rescue), the client doesn’t have the usual three “Open, Save and Cancel” options when downloading the software, it only has Run and Cancel. Basically, the less opportunities for a client to click the wrong thing the better and Instant Housecall has gone to extremes to prevent this which is great.
Instant Housecall also works in Safe Mode (with networking enabled) and with Vistas UAC so you dont have to tell the client to switch UAC off or “Run as Administrator” since you can press “Allow” button yourself.
There are two versions of the client-side support software, one is what they call the “Hotline” which is an executable installer and the other is a temporary applet. The advantage of having both is that the applet can be run on locked down or administrator restricted machine and the “Hotline” application has more custom branding options with the ability to let the client allow unattended remote access to their computer.
To make sure there are no connectivity issues, the system tries to make peer-to-peer connections where possible. If it cant, the system will use Instant Housecalls secured server.
For this review, I loaded up a virtual machine, visited my support page and downloaded my support program. Once it was installed it asked me for a little bit of information such as my name, phone number and a reason for the support call (this is for the technicians records but this can be switched off if you dont like it). I also had the option to choose different specialists if I had a preference and there was more than one working for me.
Once I filled out the details on the client-side, the Specialist software on my main computer popped up with this message:
I accepted the call and the remote control software started. Once I had looked around in the remote control window, I noticed some interesting features such as File Transfer, IM Chat, Record Session Video, Take Screenshot, Send Ctrl-Alt-Del to remote computer, Reconnect after Reboot, Accept Payment and Blank Remote Monitor. There is also a little box informing the client that the computer is being controlled by me which moves around the screen if you put the mouse which is handy if its covering something you need access to.
Here is a picture of the remote control software from the technicians end:
If the client allowed me remote access or I was watching over many machines inside my corporation, I would see something like this that allows me to choose which unattended computer I would like to log into.
Now, lets talk about getting paid for our hard work. Once I was finished testing I pressed “Accept Payment” menu option which took me a little while to find until I read the manual. The “Accept Payment” drop down not being in an obvious location is one of my very few gripes about this software, otherwise I really like it. The other gripe is that the client presses F10 to chat to you and F11 to disconnect you. I can foresee my clients accidentally disconnecting me since F10 and F11 are right next to each other. Buttons like F9 and F12 or something similar with a few buffer keys in between would probably have been a little better.
Anyway, once the Accept Payment option was pressed the client is presented with this:
Once they press OK they are taken to a page where they can pay for your services. In this example, I used Paypal but apparently it can work with just about any shopping cart. Of course, you can also do this at the start of the session before any work is done if you are less trusting of the end user.
Once everything has been paid for and you are finished with the client, your reports area is updated displaying how much you earned per session/client including any notes made during the repair.
If a client activates the Instant Housecall on software on their end and you are not at the computer to answer it or you have the Specialist application closed, Instant Housecall can SMS you notifications such as missed calls, calls in queue and messages left for you by your customers (Professional version only). I can see this being really useful for one man businesses who cant sit at a computer all day in case a Instant Housecall comes through.
Last but not least, to test the transfer speeds I used Instant Housecall to remote into friends computer who believed they were infected with a trojan. The speeds were on par with other big names in remote support which was good considering my friend was using a wireless connection on their end. Also, during the 40 minutes or so I was connected to their computer, it didnt disconnect once which was great.
So how much does it cost? Instant Housecall has different pricing for 3 different versions depending on your needs:
- The Free Edition which allows you unlimited sessions but only 3 customers.
- The Express Edition costs $49 USD per month or a lifetime license of $899 which allows you unlimited sessions and unlimited customers.
- The Professional Edition (the version I reviewed) is similar to the Express Edition but for $89 USD per month or $1699 lifetime it allows you to help up to 10 people at once (Express only allows 1 at a time), allows you to brand the software with your own logos, alerts you via pager or SMS if you miss a clients support call, the ability to record screen sessions, remotely access unattended workstations and more.
Instant Housecall is much cheaper than other remote support software like LogMeIn Rescue per month/year and LogMeIn Rescue doesn’t even have a lifetime option. If you used the professional edition of Instant Housecall over LogMeIn Rescue for two years you are already ahead by $677 and will remain ahead since you don’t have to pay an extra $1188 USD per year if you went with LogMeIn Rescue.
Instant Housecall is a complete package for support technicians managing branding, payments and reporting. They also make things as easy as possible for the customers to get help with little opportunity for them to click the wrong button which is obviously a good thing.
It is definitely worth giving the 15 day trial a shot yourself which you can do using the following download link: http://www.instanthousecall.com/tn/SetupSpecialistSign-in.exe
RootRepeal - Repair Tool
RootRepeal is a small, portable and freeware application that is designed to uncover rootkits. This tool has been picking up popularity with security groups like Systernals. This is a tool for advanced users only who know what the normal Windows drivers, processes and services are. If you don’t know what you are doing you can easily render a computer unbootable.
RootRepeal has the following features:
- The ability to scan and display all currently loaded drivers and tell you whether they are hidden and whether the drivers file is visible on disk.
- Scans for hidden, locked or falsified files on the system
- Scans and displays the currently running processes (similar to Process Explorer) but shows if the process is hidden or locked.
- Scans the SSDT (system service descriptor table) to see if any services are hooked.
- Scans for Stealth objects which looks for rootkit symptoms in general.
- Scans for Hidden services and displays them.
Once you have found something malicious, you can right click on the driver/file/service and either copy, wipe or force delete it.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Geeks to Go - 93kb
Computer Hardware Chart
I recently came across a really useful Computer Hardware Chart made by a member on Deviantart that helps you visually identify various types of plugs, ports, sockets and RAM.
Most technicians should already know how to identify many of these, but there a quite a lot of lesser known plugs and ports that I either haven’t seen before or have seen, but didn’t know what it was called.
I have provided a link to a shrunken down version for easy web viewing that is only 2mb in size and an extremely high resolution version that weighs in at 24mb.
Images:
You can also get these graphics printed as a poster to hang in your workshop over at DeviantArt via this link.
Low Resolution Web Version (2mb)
Ultra High Resolution Version (24mb)
Computer Hardware Chart
Xpy - Repair Tool
Xpy is a small, portable and freeware registry tweaker with an emphasis on tweaking privacy and security settings. It has the ability to disable Windows communicating with Microsoft (WGA, crash reports, usage tracking, automatic updates etc..), disable services which are not used in most cases, remove Windows Messenger, tweak Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player and many other settings you would expect in a registry tweaker.
This application comes with a few nice features such as the ability to save and load profiles so you can apply the same tweak setup to multiple computers without having to re-select all the tweaks you wanted to do. The application will also make a Windows Restore Point before it makes any changes in-case something doesn’t go well.
Xpy works on Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003. There is also a Vista/Server 2008/Win7 version called Vispa.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 - 93kb
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Fix IE Utility – Repair Tool
Fix IE Utility is a small, freeware and portable application designed to help fix Internet Explorer after a Malware attack. Fix IE Utility will re-register 89 DLL and OCX files that are often damaged in a Malware attack and are required for Internet Explorer to run smoothly. Many people would just suggest that the client could just switch to Firefox. However, the core of Internet Explorer is still used inside many other programs so it needs to be operational, even if you don’t use Internet Explorer as a web browser
Fix IE Utility has been tested on IE7 and IE8 on both Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site – 405kb
Ninite.com – Repair Tool
Reloading Windows and installing various applications is something that Computer Technicians do all the time. While we can streamline our Windows installs using something like nLite, there isnt really a good way to automate the installation of multiple applications. Sure, some technicians make use of .BAT files or a scripting language like AutoIT but the code is often too difficult for some Technicians. This is where Ninite comes in.
Ninite.com (formerly Volery) is a simple tool for Windows that will automatically download all the latest versions of the software you choose from its directory, then install them silently (as in, you shouldn’t see the installers or asked any questions). Some of the software you will see in their directory is Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC, Foxit Reader, Avast, AVG, Flash Plugin, CCleaner, 7zip and much more. This program will not choose not to install the spammy toolbars/search pages that comes with certain software like Foxit Reader.
Screenshots:
Go To Ninite.com >
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Windows 7 System Recovery Discs – Repair Tool
Windows 7 is just about to be released (October 22) and you are going to start seeing it on clients machines when their new brand name laptop or desktop comes with it pre-installed. The problem with many brand name laptop and desktops is they often dont come with the Windows 7 disc.
This Windows 7 System Recovery Disc can be used to access the system recovery menu, giving you options such as System Restore, Complete PC Backup, Automated System Repair and Command-line Prompt. However, you cannot use this disc to re-install Windows.
If you already have access to a working copy of Windows 7, you dont need to download this because you can create this disk by going to the run dialog and type: recdisc
Screenshots: Downloads:Download from Neosmart.net – 32-bit (x86) Edition Torrent – 146mb Download from Neosmart.net – 64-bit (x64) Edition Torrent – 145mb
Kill All Running Apps .BAT – Repair Tool
The title pretty much says it all. This .BAT file will kill all currently running apps on a system with the exception of a few locked Windows processes and some antivirus products. This comes in handy when you are working on a system that has too many processes running and thus slowing it down; often to the point where its difficult to do any work on it.
Being a BAT file, this script is obviously highly customizable. It works on a “if the process is not in this list, then kill it” system; so you can add processes to the list that you do not to be killed such as the menu for your USB drive applications or Firefox.
This works on XP and Vista. For information on how to add processes to it, check out the official page.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site – 4kb
Damaged docx2txt And Corrupt Excel xlsx2csv – Repair Tool
Damaged docx2txt is a freeware recovery tool designed to recover text from corrupt Word 2007 XLSX files. Word 2007 files are actually a collection of zipped XML files and the XML format is somewhat unforgiving of data corruption. This application unzips the partially corrupted XML files and tries to read what it can, not caring about malformed XML. This tool pretty much just dumps the text it finds in the XML file to text.
Corrupt Excel xlsx2csv is similar to the above except it is designed to recover the content of corrupt Excel XLSX files. Again, XSLX files are based on XML files which is unforgiving to data corruption. This application has the ability to maintain the cell formatting and the cells content; including seperate workbooks in a single XLSX file. You can copy and paste the content out of the application or export the entire spreadsheet to CSV.
Both of these applications were originally Perl scripts but have since had a GUI made for them (you will see a command window though). These applications are “mostly portable” as it doesnt need to be installed but requires .NET version 2.
Screenshots:
Damaged docx2txt
Corrupt Excel xlsx2csv
Downloads:
Damaged docx2txt: Download from Official Site – 3.1mb
Corrupt Excel xlsx2csv: Download from Official Site – 3.5mb
XPQuickFix – Repair Tool
XPQuickFix is a small, freeware and portable tool designed to quickly fix any restrictions and other errors that are often caused by viruses. XPQuickFix can correct 25 common Windows XP problems such as enable the Task Manager, enable Registry Editor, fix a CD autoplay and more.
Here is the complete list of the fixes:
- Enable Task Manager
- Enable Registry Editor
- Stop My Documents open at startup
- Enable Folder Options
- Restore missing Run dialog box
- Enable Command Prompt
- Restore My Computer (Computer) properties
- Restore Device Manager
- Fix delay in opening Explorer
- Restore grayed Explorer and Taskbar toolbars
- Restore My Documents properties
- Remove OEM splash and wallpaper
- Restore My Network Places to Desktop
- Enable Recovery Console
- Restore grayed file associations
- Fix right-click error
- Fix slow network file/shared/remote
- Restore Network icon to system tray
- Fix slow hotkeys
- Fix CD/DVD drive is missing or not recognized
- Fix CD autoplay
- Restore “Send To” context menu item
- Restore the native ZIP file integration
- Fix error 1606 couldn’t access network location
- Error when trying to access Add or Remove/ Program and Features program
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Softpedia – 528kb
AppRemover – Repair Tool
AppRemover is a small, free and portable utility designed to be a single removal tool for a huge list of security products. It can remove products made by Avast!, AVG, Avira, BullGuard, CA, ClamWin, ESET, F-Secure, Kaspersky, Lavasoft, McAfee, Microsoft, Norman, Panda, Sophos, Symantec, TrendMicro, TrustPort, Webroot and many more.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site – 3.17mb
Zone Alarm Removal Tool – Repair Tool
Zone Alarm is a well known internet security package and most of the time it works fairly well. However, because this application has to sink its hooks deep into a Windows to protect the operating system, it can cause serious problems when the application does not uninstall correctly.
It seems, based off Zone Alarms official forums that there are a lot of people having trouble removing Zone Alarm and this is where the Zone Alarm Removal Tool comes in. Its a small, portable and freeware and its probably a good idea to have on your USB drive since you probably wont be able to connect to the internet to download it if you encounter these problems with Zone Alarm.
Download from Official Site – 3.3mb
Clonezilla – Repair Tool
Clonezilla is a free, open source disk imaging tool that is loaded with features. While it is a little rough around the edges visually, it is very capable. It supports over a half dozen file systems covering Windows, Linux and Macintosh based computers. If Clonezilla does not support the file system, you can still image the hard drive by doing a sector-by-sector copy.
Clonezilla can be run from a Live CD, USB drives or a network drive and has the ability to either create a single image file, or do a direct copy from one hard drive to another.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Sourceforge – 103mb
Fabs AutoBackup 3 – Repair Tool
Fabs AutoBackup is a small, portable application that allows you to pick and choose what you (or your client) want to back up with simple check boxes. The program does the rest. After the format, you can also use AutoBackup to restore all the files back to where they should be. We have actually covered Fabs AutoBackup about a year ago but it is now Windows Vista and Windows 7 Compatible and had added quite a few new features making it worth mentioning again.
For a list of what AutoBackup supports backing up and restoring, read on.
- Desktop Files
- Quick Launch Shortcuts
- My Documents
- My Pictures
- My Music
- My Videos
- Desktop Wallpaper
- Internet Explorer Favorites
- Mozilla Firefox Profiles
- Outlook Express Files
- Outlook Data Files
- Outlooks .nk2 file
- Windows Live Mail
- Windows Address Book (.wab)
- Mozilla Thunderbird Profiles
- Shared Documents
- Windows Fonts
- MS Office Activation File
- Windows Calendar
- Modem Settings
- User Defined Additional Files and Folders
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site – 697kb
Game Key Revealer Currently Supported Games:
Game Key Revealer is a small, portable, freeware application designed to list the license/cd keys for thegames currently installed on a computer. To use, just click the “Find Games” button and it will list the license keys. You then have an option to save these keys to a text file, a word document or print it directly to from the application to your printer. This is a handy tool to run before a format because clients tend to lose the original CD covers, boxes or manuals that the license keys came on.
Read on to see a full list of the games it can reveal license keys for.
10tacle Studios
- GT Legends
- GTR 2
Activision
- Call of Duty (all series)
- Star Trek: Starfleet Command III
- Star Trek: Elite Force II
- Tony Hawk’s Underground 2
ATARI
- Act of War (all series)
- Terminator 3: War of the Machines
- And some other games
AxySoft
- Almost all games
Crytek
- Crysis
- Crysis Warhead
- FarCry
Electronic Arts
- Battlefield 1942 (all series)
- Battlefield 2 (all series)
- Battlefield 2142 (all series)
- Black & White (all series)
- Black & White 2 (all series)
- Command and Conquer (all series)
- Command and Conquer 3 (all series)
- Cricket (all series)
- F1 (all series)
- FIFA (all series)
- FIFA Manager (all series)
- FIFA World Cup (all series)
- Fussball Manager (all series)
- Harry Potter (all series)
- Madden NFL (all series)
- Medal of Honor (all series)
- MVP Baseball (all series)
- Nascar (all series)
- NBA Live (all series)
- Need for Speed (all series)
- NHL (all series)
- Rugby (all series)
- Shogun: Total War (all series)
- SimCity (all series)
- The Lord of the Rings (all series)
- The Sims (all series)
- The Sims 2 (all series)
- Tiger Woods PGA TOUR (all series)
- Total Club Manager (all series)
- UEFA Champions League (all series)
- UEFA Euro (all series)
- And all other games
Epic Games
- Unreal Tournament (all series)
Eugen Systems
- Act of War (all series)
- The Gladiators
Funatics Development
- The Settlers II - 10th Anniversary
- Zanzarah
GameHouse
- Almost all games
Iron Lore
- Titan Quest (all series)
JoWooD
- Industry Giant 2
- The Nations
- And some other games
KONAMI
- Pro Evolution Soccer (all series)
- Winning Eleven (all series)
Lionhead Studios
- The Movies
- And some other games
LucasArts
- Star Wars Battlefront (all series)
- Star Wars Empire at War (all series)
- Star Wars Republic Commando
Oberon Media
- Almost all games
Phenomic
- Spell Force (all series)
Pi Eye Games
- Almost all games
PopCap Games
- Almost all games
SEGA
- Medieval II: Total War
- Rome: Total War
Sierra/Valve
- Caesar (all series)
- Counter-Strike
- Gunman Chronicles
- Half-Life
- TimeShift
- World In Conflict
- And some other games
Techland
- Call of Juarez
- Chrome
- GTI Racing
- Xpand Rally (all series)
THQ
- Company of Heroes
- Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
- Dawn of War (all series)
- Forged Alliance
- Frontlines: Fuel of War
- MotoGP 2007
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl
- Supreme Commander
- Zanzarah
Ubisoft
- FarCry
- Peter Jackson’s King Kong
- Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
- Rainbow Six III RavenShield
- Silent Hunter III
- Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
- Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
- The Settlers II - 10th Anniversary
- And some other games
And more
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 84kb
Privilege Guard
A product has been released which lets applications run properly when a user is running under the ‘least user privilege’ conditions. The product is called Privilege Guard which was developed by a UK-based startup company.
“It creates a token based on the user’s token, but with administrator rights,” said Mark Austin who is the Avecto chief technology officer.
“We’re trying to keep it simple at first,” he added in response to the issue that they are planning to integrate it with a software called Active Directory.
This software is developed for Windows XP, Vista, as well as Windows Server 2003 and 2008. It costs £20.
Source: Vnunet |
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Smart UAC Replacement
UAC is more commonly known as User Account Control which is a security feature that was first introduced in Windows Vista. It aims to improve the security of Windows by limiting applications to standard user privileges until an administrator authorizes the increase in privilege level. What end users see is the constant security alerts when they try to run some program or change a system setting.
In theory this a good idea, but in reality UAC can popup every time the user wants to run their favorite program that they know is safe. Two things happen when users have to keep clicking this. They either get used to clicking continue without reading what the action is making them “dumb” to real threats or they simply turn off UAC.
To solve this problem, a free tool called Smart UAC Replacement has been created to upgrade UAC so that it remembers the users choices and no longer bothers them about legitimate programs. It also has a built in malware scanner to help those users who would click “Continue” to something malicious anyway.
One of the best parts about Smart UAC Replacement that it works on Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista (unfortunately, only the 32bit version of Vista).
This is a great tool to help you keep your clients safe.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 3.9mb
NetSetMan
NetSetMan is a small freeware tool designed to allow you to change your computers network settings quickly and easily. Lets say you take a laptop onsite for network related jobs but at home you have a special setup. Then you go onsite and have to keep changing it to “Obtain Automatically” so it works on the clients network. Once you return home, you have to set it all back to the way it was.
This is where NetSetMan comes in, it allows you to make network setting profiles which you can activate based on your location. For example, you may have one setup for your home, one for work and one for when you are on a public wireless access point.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Snapfiles - 1.3mb
Hitman Pro 2
Hitman Pro is a freeware piece of software that controls both an inbuilt antivirus and a handful of other popular antivirus and anti-malware products such as Spybot, Ad-Aware, NOD32 etc..
After installing Hitman Pro and running it, it downloads the latest versions of various antivirus and anti-malware products, installs them, updates them to the latest definitions and starts scanning. Its the ultimate set-and-forget tool for complete security scanning. However, due to the time it takes to scan with all the different antimalware packages and the need for a broadband connection to download all the updates, its recommend that you use this application in your workshop only.
Hitman Pro can use the following software to scan for viruses and malware
- Prevx CSI Free
- Trend Micro CWShredder
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE
- Spybot - Search and Destroy
- Webroot Spy Sweeper
- Ewido AntiSpyware Micro
- PC Tools Spyware Doctor
- Sunbelt CounterSpy
- NOD32 Antivirus
- Trend Micro Sysclean
- McAfee VirusScan
It also has a few other interesting options such as the ability to lower the access that certain programs (IE, Outlook, Firefox, MSN Messenger) have to your operating system and thus helps protect your computer.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Snapfiles - 3.82mb
SUMo
As most computer technicians should know, computer security isnt just about having up to date antivirus and anti-malware software. It is also about having the users software up to date as well.
Windows Updates is obviously one of the most important ones but many technicians forget about third party software like Firefox, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo etc.. and unfortunately there isnt really a good way to check the versions of third party software other than opening each one and viewing the about information. This is where SUMo comes in. SUMo (Software Updates Monitor) is a small, freeware application designed to scan a system for installed software, check its version and let you know whether there is an update for it. If there is, it shows you a handful of places where you can download the most recent version.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 1.24mb
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Computer Repair Utility Kit
The Computer Repair Utility Kit allows you to run all of the repair tools from your portable drive (eg. USB Flash Drive, External Hard Drive, IPod etc.) and comes with an easy to use, right-click menu. A must in any computer technicians kit.
The Computer Repair Utility Kit contains with the following applications:
File Management
- CCleaner - Cleans up Windows systems. Clears temporary internet files, cookies, history etc..
- JkDefragGUI - An advanced defragging tool far superior to the built in Windows one
- DriveimageXML - Hard drive imaging tool. Allows you to get a single file out of a whole image too
- Explore2fs - Allows you to explore hard drives with Linux file systems
- Double Killer - Finds duplicate files and deletes them
- Deep Burner - CD/DVD Burning software
- 7-Zip Portable - Archive creating and extraction tool. Can handle most compression formats
- PC-Decrapifier - Cleans out the crap that comes installed on new brand name computers (Norton trials, toolbars etc.)
Information
- Process Explorer - Allows you to view system processes
- System Information - View lots of information about a system (specs, passwords, temperatures etc.)
- ProduKey - View software cdkeys and serials
- Autoruns - Autostart program viewer
- HWMonitor - View hardware information
- GPU-Z - Show video card information (chipset, bios version, shaders, memory size etc.)
- Wireless Key View - Shows saved wireless network keys
- TreeSize Free - Show how much space each folder on a system uses
- Game Key Revealer - View CDKeys and Serials for popular games
- USBDView - Allows you to list and manage USB devices (including devices that arent currently plugged in)
- TrID - Identifies file types for extension-less files
- Codec Installer - Finds and analyzes video codecs
- Unknown Devices - Tells you what a “Unknown Device” in system properties actually is
- GSpot - Video analyizer
Repair Tools
- Norton Removal Tool - Removes Symantec products
- McAfee Removal Tool - Removes McAfee products
- LSPFix - Fixes broken Winsock entries
- Dial-a-Fix - Repair Windows files and registries
Recovery
- Recuva - Recovers deleted files
- Restoration - Recovers deleted files
- Photorec - Recover deleted/damaged files from Flash memory (like digital cameras)
- DBXTract - Recover emails from damaged DBX files (like Outlook Express)
Network Tools
- Wireshark - View network packets
- Network Scanner - Scans the network for devices
- Putty - SSH/Telnet/RLogin client
- Network Stumbler - Wireless Network Scanner
Virus and Malware Removal Tools
- Clamwin Antivirus - Virus scanner/remover
- Rootkit Revealer - Detects rootkits on a system
- Combofix - Malware finder and remover
- SmitFraudFix - Malware finder and remover
- RogueFix - Malware finder and remover
- Hijack This! - Malware remover
- SUPERAntiSpyware - Malware scanner and remover
- Malwarebytes - Malware scanner and remover
Misc
- Mozilla Firefox - Web browser
- JavaRa - Find and remove old Java versions
- Monitor Tester - Test monitors from problems
- Dead Pixel Tester - Finds and fixes dead pixels on LCDs
- ChkFlsh - Check flash drives for errors or test their real size (as fake ones appear on eBay)
- Double Driver - Driver backup tool
- SumatraPDF - Lightweight PDF viewer
- Revo Uninstaller - Advanced application uninstaller
Tweaks
- TweakUI - Windows XP tweaking tool
- VistaTweaker - Vista tweaking tool
Scripts
- Quickly Make a System Restore Point - Makes restore point
- Reset Network - Releases/Renews IP and flushes DNS
- Clear Printer Spooler - Clears stuck print jobs from spooler
- Stop Automatic Updates - Stops “Windows has installed updates, restart now” dialog temporarily
- Start Automatic Updates - Switches it back on
To start the toolkit. Extract the zip file to your portable media and run “Launcher.exe”. You can also add your own utilities to the menu by going to File > and make it so it autoruns when you insert your portable media into the system.
Download:
Mirror 1: Computer-Repair-Utility-Kit-V2.zip - 88.4mb @ Rapidshare.com
Mirror 2: Computer-Repair-Utility-Kit-V2.zip - 88.4mb @ Fileqube.com |
OpenedFilesView
We’ve all had it happen before. We go to delete some file and it cant be deleted because its currently in use. That’s easy enough to fix. All you have to do is fire up some sort of process manager like Process Explorer and kill the process, right?
Well, often the file that’s said to be currently in use isn’t a running .EXE in file so it cant be killed by a process manager. It might be a .DAT, .DLL or a .TMP file and its hard to tell whats running it.
This is where OpenedFilesView comes in. Its a freeware, portable application that shows you all the currently open files and what process opened them. The application also allows you to kill any of the currently open files listed so you can delete or move it.
This is definitely a handy tool to have when removing viruses that are running .DLL’s’s that are difficult to delete.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 44.5kb
More Information
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AVG Remover
Why not just uninstall it via the Add/Remove Programs you might say? Because sometimes the uninstaller doesnt completely remove everything. If you try to install a new version of AVG or some other antivirus, you cant because it believes that the old AVG is still installed. This fixes that by running a script that removes all the registry keys that AVG left behind.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site (32bit version) - 677.3kb
Download from Official Site (64bit version) - 1.2mb
WirelessNetView
WirelessNetView (not to be confused with WirelessKeyView) is a very small, free and portable wireless network scanner. The application is very simple and doesn’t have graphing abilities like Netstumbler, but other than that it gives you all the wireless information you need. The main benefit that WirelessNetView has over most other wireless network scanners is that its portable (as mentioned before) and works on XP and Vista.
Other popular wireless network scanners such as Netstumbler is not portable and doesnt work on Vista.
Vistumbler is nice, but isn’t portable and doesn’t run on XP.
Issider works on XP and Vista, isn’t portable and requires .NET to run.
This makes WirelessNetView the best wireless scanner to carry on your USB drive as its portable and works on XP and Vista.
WirelessNetView can show the following information:
SSID, Last Signal Quality, Average Signal Quality, Detection Counter, Authentication Algorithm, Cipher Algorithm, MAC Address, RSSI, Channel Frequency, Channel Number, and more.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 40kb
ShellExView
ShellExView is another great offering from Nirsoft. ShellExView is a small, freeware and portable application designed to allow you to customise and clean up your right-click shell menu. You can edit the right-click context menu from the Windows Explorer menu (like “Scan for Viruses” or “Send to 7zip” menus) or edit Internet Explorer-specific menus.
This is especially useful for when a shell menu object is causing a system to lag, crash or it is just becoming too cluttered. When using the application, there will be a lot of entries that you have probably never seen before. To get an idea of where that particular entry appears on your sytem, scroll right and there is a column for My Computer, Desktop, Control Panel, My Network Places, Entire Network and Remote Computer. Any “Yes” entries under the Desktop column will appear when you right click on the desktop for example.
Using the green and red buttons you can either enable or disable any of the entries or if you goto the File menu, you can delete some of them completely. This is recommended for advanced users only.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site (Portable, Zip File, 32bit version) - 49kb
Download from Official Site (Portable, Zip File, 64bit version) - 69kb
Download from Official Site (32bit Installer) - 86kb
il PassView
You format a clients computer, put their files back to the original locations including the email clients database. You fill out their email settings as much as you can but realise you don’t have their email password. You call the client and guess what? They don’t know it either. Time to spend 30 minutes talking to their ISP for a password reset. This is where Mail PassView comes in.
Mail PassView is a small, freeware and portable tool designed to reveal the password and other account details which you should run before you format the machine. Mail PassView can get password and account details for the following email clients:
- Outlook Express
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 (POP3 and SMTP Accounts only)
- Microsoft Outlook 2002/2003/2007 (POP3, IMAP, HTTP and SMTP Accounts)
- Windows Mail
- Windows Live Mail
- IncrediMail
- Eudora
- Netscape 6.x/7.x (If the password is not encrypted with master password)
- Mozilla Thunderbird (If the password is not encrypted with master password)
- Group Mail Free
- Yahoo! Mail - If the password is saved in Yahoo! Messenger application.
- Hotmail/MSN mail - If the password is saved in MSN/Windows/Live Messenger application.
- Gmail - If the password is saved by Gmail Notifier application, Google Desktop, or by Google Talk.
Screenshots:
Note: Due to the hacking potential of this tool (exposing email passwords), certain antivirus software detect this utility as a Trojan/Virus. This is a false positive and the file is clean. Its like a police man catching a locksmith with lock-picking tools and saying they are “burglar tools”. In the hands of a locksmith it is an essential item for his work. When I ran this, Kaspersky Antivirus detected the installer as malicious, but not the portable version.
The makers of this, Nirsoft, are highly trusted software makers and they even say on their own page that this is a false positive.
Downloads:
Download from Official Site (Portable Zip File) - 51kb
Download from Official Site (Installer) - 90kb
il PassView
You format a clients computer, put their files back to the original locations including the email clients database. You fill out their email settings as much as you can but realise you don’t have their email password. You call the client and guess what? They don’t know it either. Time to spend 30 minutes talking to their ISP for a password reset. This is where Mail PassView comes in.
Mail PassView is a small, freeware and portable tool designed to reveal the password and other account details which you should run before you format the machine. Mail PassView can get password and account details for the following email clients:
- Outlook Express
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 (POP3 and SMTP Accounts only)
- Microsoft Outlook 2002/2003/2007 (POP3, IMAP, HTTP and SMTP Accounts)
- Windows Mail
- Windows Live Mail
- IncrediMail
- Eudora
- Netscape 6.x/7.x (If the password is not encrypted with master password)
- Mozilla Thunderbird (If the password is not encrypted with master password)
- Group Mail Free
- Yahoo! Mail - If the password is saved in Yahoo! Messenger application.
- Hotmail/MSN mail - If the password is saved in MSN/Windows/Live Messenger application.
- Gmail - If the password is saved by Gmail Notifier application, Google Desktop, or by Google Talk.
Screenshots:
Note: Due to the hacking potential of this tool (exposing email passwords), certain antivirus software detect this utility as a Trojan/Virus. This is a false positive and the file is clean. Its like a police man catching a locksmith with lock-picking tools and saying they are “burglar tools”. In the hands of a locksmith it is an essential item for his work. When I ran this, Kaspersky Antivirus detected the installer as malicious, but not the portable version.
The makers of this, Nirsoft, are highly trusted software makers and they even say on their own page that this is a false positive.
Downloads:
Download from Official Site (Portable Zip File) - 51kb
Download from Official Site (Installer) - 90kb
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