Opera

No not the style of music, but the amazing skin-able browser.  Today I plan to post a small review of this browser, for all of you who are interested.  I have used this browser for a little over a week, and I am very happy with it.  I run it on my flash drive, where it only takes up 50 MB.  It runs quickly and easily off of a flash drive, and it leaves no settings on the computer your using.  It is a must have for using multiple computers, and keeping all of your favorites with you.  There is one major con tho, and that is the fact that a lot of the plug-ins have to be installed on the computer, and cannot be installed on the flash drive.

One major pro is the built in IRC and a speed-dial function.  The speed-dial is a customizable list of sites, that allows you to visit any of them with just one click.  This makes it extremely easy to open a new tab and click on the site you want to go to, no more hunting through the favorites!  Above I mentioned that it stores its settings on the flash-drive not the computer, and thats true even for the history and saved passwords.  I seriously suggest that you download this browser and at least give it a shot.  For those of you who want a download link feel free to go here.

Over the next few posts I am going to review some more portable applications for everyone,  If you have any program that you think I might like, or that you want an honest opinion on, feel free to comment here or email me at destinydesignlabs@hotmail.com  This is Digital Maniac out.

Portable Tools For Techs 1.1

Have you ever needed to work on a computer, and couldn’t bring all your nice toys with you? Well today I am going to talk about a few apps that can be run from a flash drive, and not just a U3 drive. I carry a 4GB flash drive, everywhere I go, and can do everthing I need to except for backing up massive amounts of files. First I am going to list 35 Apps that another guy thinks every Tech needs, and then I will add a few that I personally like to use. Let see what www.emergingtechs.com has to say.

 
Archiver and Extractor

7-Zip Portable – An open source file archiver that supports 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR as well as others.

Auditing

SIW – A system analysis tool that gathers detailed information about your hardware and software.

WinAudit – Audits all of your hardware, software, licenses, and network settings.

CPU-Z – Gathers detailed information about your processor, motherboard, and memory.

Burning

Infra Recorder Portable – Portable CD/DVD burning software.

Disk Utilities

JkDefrag – Disk optimizer and defragmenter.

Document Viewers

OpenOffice.org Portable – A portable version of OpenOffice.org which includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database. Can also open most Microsoft Office documents.

Foxit Reader – A portable PDF reader.

Internet

FileZilla Portable – One of the best open source FTP programs available.

Firefox Portable – A portable version of Firefox. Very useful when working on a computer that has been overwhelmed with spyware.

portaPuTTY – An open source Telnet/SSH client.

Launcher

PStart – A launcher utility that allows you to organize and launch all of your portable applications.

Malware Removal

ClamWin Portable – One of the best free antivius programs as a portable version.

Avast! Virus Cleaner – Scans the computer for a specific set of viruses and worms.

RootkitRevealer – An advanced rootkit detection utility.

HiJackThis – A hijacker detector and remover. Outputs information to a log file so you can share the results with others when needing help.

McAfee Stinger – A stand-alone utility that scans for and removes specific viruses.

Networking

Angry IP Scanner – Scans a range of IP addresses so you can see which ones are in use. Also tells you hostname, MAC address, open ports, computer name, workgroup, and logged in Windows users.

CurrPorts – Allows you to see detailed information about all of the TCP/IP and UDP ports being used on the computer including which program is using them. Also allows you to close out the port and kill the process that opened it.

Optimization

CCleaner Portable – An optimization utility that cleans the registry and removes unwanted files from the computer.

PC Decrapifier – Uninstalls trialware and annoyances from new computers. Makes cleaning up a new computer much easier and saves a lot of time.

Organization

TiddlyWiki – A self-contained wiki that is great for storing a lot of information in one place.

Recovery

Restoration – Scans any drive for items that have been deleted and allows you to restore them. Can also wipe files beyond simple recovery. Learn more by viewing How To Restore Deleted Files After Emptying The Recycle Bin.

Unstoppable Copier – Copies files from disks that have physical damage.

TestDisk – Data recovery software that can recover lost partitions or make drives bootable again.

Remote Control

PcHelpware – Remote support software that lets you control remote computers. Learn more by viewing How To Remote Control Computers Using PCHelpWare.

Security

LockNote – A simple text file that allows you to store whatever you like using a password and 256bit encryption.

KeePass – Securely store all of your passwords in one place and access them with one master password.

TrueCrypt – Disk encrypting utility that can encrypt hard drives and storage devices including your flash drive.

System

Process Explorer – View detailed information about the processes running on a computer.

WinKeyLite – Easily view and change Windows Product Keys without having to edit the registry. Learn more by viewing How To Find And Change A Windows Vista, XP, And 2003 Product Key.

Unknown Devices – Helps you find out what the unknown devices in your device manager are.

AutoRuns – Comprehensive information about all of the programs and processes that start up when you boot up the computer or log into Windows.

DriverBackup – Backs up all of your drivers. Most useful when needing to reload a computer or when needing to copy a driver from one computer to another.

Testing

Stress Prime 2004 – A stress test for CPUs and Memory.

While all of these are extremly useful, I am going to add a few that I use as a tech.

Opera-Don’t you hate leaving all your nice favorites at the office? Now with Opera portable you can have them with you at all times. I use this as opposed to Chrome, Firefox, and IE due to the fact it has built in IRC chat.

Microsoft Security Essentials– OK this isn’t portable, but you can keep an install and definitions on your flash drive. I prefer this FREE AV over any paid one, it has yet to let me down.

Spybot S&D– Yea I know its non-portable, but as a tech I prefer it over any other Spyware removal tool due to it has never let me down either.

Micro Torrent– Definetly a must have if you ever need to download a torrent to fix a computer.

Trillian – Its nice to have access to Facebook, Windows Live, AIM, YIM, and a few other chat programs when you need a hand. Only taking 35MB its a very vesatile chat program, another must have.

Produkey – A nice program to view the legal install keys for all Windows programs. (Office, Works, Windows, Etc.)

That sums it up for now, I hope to compile a nice .zip file of the more important ones of these, and uploaded it somewhere for all of you all to enjoy.  I also plan to create another list in the near future.  As always this is Digital Maniac out.