Farshad

Technology Content Writer

CRegistry Comparison: See Changes To System Registry Over Certain Time

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CRegistry Comparison is an open source registry comparison application for keeping an eye on registry changes. You can use this tool to check for changes that may have been made by newly installed applications (to the system registry), and identify unwanted changes. This application creates a .CRE registry file and enables comparison of two files. Furthermore, you can also save changes to a text file. CRegistry Comparison can be used by both novice and advanced users to compare the precise difference that occurs to a registry as a result of any kind of alterations that are rendered over a period of time (to the system's registry), including not just the changes which may have been made by a software, but also the changes that are made by malware or system hijacking programs. This way, you can determine if an application is trying to gain access to your system for malicious purposes. Read More

Replace-me: Replace Document Text String via Right-Click Menu In Ubuntu

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If you are a programmer or someone who regularly requires replacing text strings from multiple files, then Replace-me is just what you might need. It is a Nautilus extension to find and replace text strings from multiple files within numerous directories and sub-directories. It can identify and replace text strings from files via right-click context menu. Replace-me is  a useful tool for those who may require finding and replacing text string from, e.g., code files or even batch files (to change the command parameters). Read More

Norton Identity Safe: Cross-Platform Alternative To LastPass

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LastPass is a widely used password manager, which is available as a plugin for all famous browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari. While LastPass works as a browser extension, there are also desktop applications that deliver similar functionality. Norton has recently created a comprehensive application, which brings the functionality of password management browser extensions like LastPass and desktop application like 1Password. Norton Identity Safe is a cross-platform password management application that integrates with your browser and allows you to you safeguard your login information. It quickly and securely logs users into online accounts from computers and mobile devices on the go, with a secure master password. Unlike most password managers, Norton Identity Safe also provides information regarding the safety of a website to protect you from phishing websites. Read More

Pdf-No-Img: View PDF Documents Without Images

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Many PDF documents contain a lot of imagery, including snapshots of graphs, company logos, demonstrative images, etc. While reading a PDF document with images can be useful, it can also have an overwhelming effect on the eyes, as e-book reading can be more stressful than reading from the conventional paper. Furthermore, flashy PDF images can also be irritating as they can distract the reader from concentrating on the document. Pdf-No-Img is a handy tool that creates a an image-less version of PDF documents to allow users to read them without images. It is not a PDF viewer, but rather, it makes it possible to view PDF documents without images. When you open a PDF document with Pdf-No-Img, it replaces the imagery with gray boxes. This helps the reader to focus on the text and to avoid getting distracted by graphical content. Read More

Quickly Shred Large Files In Windows via Drag And Drop With Zer0

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For many users, it becomes necessary to not just delete confidential files permanently, but to shred them to avoid file recovery. While there are a number of handy file shredding applications for Windows, Zer0 is perhaps the most minimalist of them all. It is a user friendly file shredder, which can delete files securely to make them unrecoverable. It provides a convenient drag and drop utility and allows instantly shredding files in a single click. Zer0's high level security algorithm makes it impossible to recover deleted files by conventional recovery tools, and the deletion process itself is lightning fast. During testing, we spcified a 573MB file for deletion with Zer0, and it was deleted in a split second. The tool makes use of multiple system cores, and hence, provides maximum efficiency, without hanging the application. Read More

Nanoshot: Capture & Upload Screenshots To Cloud In Ubuntu

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In a previous post, we showed you three different ways of capturing screenshots in Ubuntu and later reviewed, Lookit, which is a handy screenshot capturing utility for Ubuntu, which enables uploading captured screenshots to the cloud. Recently, we found another handy screenshot taking application for Ubuntu, known as Nanoshot. It provides users with the utility to capture screenshots to upload them to cloud services like Flickr, and to grab screens from specific elements such as a video frame or the Unity Launcher. Read More

Encoding Decoding: Quickly Encrypt/Decrypt & Password Protect Files

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Encoding Decoding is an encryption software, which provides a dead simple mechanism for encoding files, i.e., by dragging them to the applications interface and entering a password for them. This easy to use application makes it possible to quickly secure your important files, to protect them from unauthorized access. Furthermore, it does not replace the input file, but rather, creates a more secure version of it. The only thing that you may have to be concerned with is to remember the password, in order to gain access to protected files. Encoding Decoding (application) can be used to encrypt any kind of file, including pictures, code files, Excel sheets and other MS Office documents, PDF files, etc. Read More

Metro Cheat: Get Classic Start Menu Without Losing Metro UI In Windows 8

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Since the release of Windows 8 developer’s preview, there has been a debate among users regarding the utility of the Metro UI and its elements. For those users who did not like the Metro UI, tweaks such as the Windows 8 Start Menu Toggle were introduced shortly after the pre-beta release of Windows 8. However, it appears that it is not the Metro UI itself, but the start menu of the said interface, that has mostly annoyed users. Metro Cheat is a portable application, which allows you to acquire the Windows 7 style classic start menu, while keeping other Metro features intact (e.g.,  the new Task Manager, Explorer Ribbon and Metro Apps). Before using this tweak, please make sure that UAC (User Account Control) is disabled, as the application will not be able to auto start if UAC is even partially enabled. Read More

Picturenaut: Create HDR Images From Bracketed Exposures Using Filters

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High dynamic Range Imaging, aka HDRI, or simply HDR, is a technique that allows bringing out the range of intensity levels (in images), which are found in real scenes, such as direct sunlight or faint moonlight. HDR techniques are geared towards the representation of contrast between photos of a single imagery. Non-HDR cameras, for example, take pictures at a single exposure level, and hence, have a limited contrast range. This often results in the loss of bright and dark areas of a picture, which can be corrected by using similar images and using HDR techniques. Picturenaut is a HDR imaging application that enables users to create High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from bracketed exposures. All you have to do is to select the input images, and Picturenaut will adjust the exposures in a single HDR image, with automatic exposure correction, picture alignment and color balancing. Additionally, you can tweak the image by managing the tone mapping for creating a desired image effect. Picturenaut provides 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit modes, gamma adjustment, support for RAW images and real-time preview. Furthermore, this application is fully capable of making use of multi-core processors. Read More

View Detailed System Information In Ubuntu With i-Nex

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When trying to determine the hardware specifications for your computer, it is not desirable to open the hardware casing, which, in some cases, can lead to loosing your warranty claim (e.g., in the case of laptops). In such a scenario, one can use some handy tools for determining the installed hardware specifications. i-Nex is one such tool that provides detailed hardware information within a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Ubuntu. Read More

Mounty: Mount Disc Images via App-Indicator Menu Applet In Ubuntu Linux

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We previously covered an Ubuntu disc mounting tool known as Furius ISO Mount, which mounts virtual discs and provides options for performing checksums to check the integrity of disc images. While Furius ISO Mount is quite an advanced disc mounting tool, one can always benefit from a minimalist disc mounting utility that works from the app-indicator menu. Mounty is one such disc mounting utility, which enables sharing virtual disc images. After installation, Mounty sits in the system tray and provides easy disc mounting options via the app-indicator menu. Read More

InstagramDownloader: Grab All Images From Any Instagram User In Windows

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Instagram is a famous photo sharing application, exclusive to the iOS, which enables users to share and explore pictures, apply filters, and share them via a number of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter,  Flickr, etc. Instagram is famous among iOS users and has supported web service that allow viewing Instagram images. Previously, we reviewed Extragram web service that acts as a web interface for Instagram. This time, we have InstagramDownloader, which is a portable application for quickly downloading Instagrams. You can simply download images by entering an Instagram username. Read More

Design Color Schemes From A Single Color In Ubuntu With Agave

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Agave is a Linux application for easily designing and saving color schemes. It provides users with the option to select web safe colors, Gnome icon palette, Visibone or Tango theme Palette. Once selected, you can generate color schemes from a single color selected from the given graph and save color schemes using the Add (+) option. In other words, Agave acts like a color picking utility, which is often found in applications like CorelDraw, that enables generating color schemes based on the selection of a single color block. Once you select a color, adjacent blocks are automatically filled with matching colors, which makes it possible to select a decent color combination, without endlessly pondering over a combination or going through a laborious trial and error process (for matching colors). Read More

Identify Colors Detected From Mouse Cursor With Colorblind Assistant

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People suffering from color blindness cannot always differentiate between different elements of applications and webpages that are in green or red shades, including both text and background color. Most applications, which are designed to reduce the color effects, cater for only some types of color blindness. This means that users end up having to manually adjust color intensity to suit their needs. We earlier covered an application known as Washer, which helped reduce this problem. This time we have another useful application for people suffering from color blindness, labelled Colorblind Assistant. It detects colors from your mouse pointer by providing you with a written name of the color on which your cursor is placed. Moreover, it also provides other useful data about the color, such as the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) values, bar graphs, brightness and saturation. The utility comes with a zoom pane for fine pixel detection. Read More

UltraHide: Instantly Hide Active Windows To System Tray Using Hotkey

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Do you have an annoying boss that keeps spying on you, or is always looking for a chance to catch you off guard. The last thing you need is to appear lazy or irresponsible at work, even when you are taking a break to relaxing your mind by perhaps playing a game, browsing through Facebook or watching a video on YouTube. Let’s face it, all of us need some kind of a break every now and then, before we are able to concentrate on our work. Unfortunately, this is not often understood by incompetent and unprofessional bosses (or, should I say, greedy entrepreneurs that see their work force as nothing more than expendable assets that has no human needs). If your answer is yes, then you need UltraHide. It is a Windows application that hides the active window with the help of a hotkey combination. You can instantly hide the active window using CTRL+Space, which instantly closes and minimizes your active window to the system tray menu. What’s even better, is that this window will only be reopened when you enter your pre defined application password. This means that, even if someone else tries to open these system tray items, they cannot open it without the application’s password. Read More

Keep Track Of Files In Any Windows Folder With File Bookmark

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Sometimes file directories can have similar file names that can make it nearly impossible to identify a file from within a folder. File Bookmark is a Windows shell extension, which has been designed to bookmark files via the Windows right-click context menu, to find the right file(s) that you have opened earlier from a specific folder. It allows you to automatically mark the last bookmarked file from a folder, so you don't have to manually look up the file within the folder’s content. This can be quite helpful to avoid  the laborious process of searching out several files from within numerous directories, and to deal with non indexed files (which can be hard to locate). Read More

GonVisor: Viewer For Images, E-Books, Comics And Compressed File Formats

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GonVisor is a Windows application that supports viewing pictures, comics, magazines, content of compressed archives and e-books from various formats, including CBR, CBZ, CBA, CB7, ZIP, RAR, ACE and 7ZIP. With the help of this application, you can create a group of selected images, order/reorder them, add a description (such as the author’s name, date, comment etc), and password protect them. Details past the break. Read More

Mendeley: View/Sync PDF Files, Research & Collaborate With Friends

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Mendeley is an open source and cross-platform PDF organizer, which provides options for easy document management. It allows easy reference management to help you organize your work, collaborate with friends, and to obtain latest research (via its social network). It automatically generates bibliographies, makes it possible to collaborate with others, import data, sync and access your papers from anywhere (via the internet), and more. It requires users to store all basic data on Mendeley servers, which enables accessing copies of the data any time. Read More

RT Se7en Lite: Create Customizable Windows 7 Installation Disk/USB

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It can be difficult for common users to understand the complex process of creating an unattended installation disk (that requires for no manual interference during operating system installation), add custom wallpapers, themes, screensavers and other components to a Windows 7 disc. RT Se7en Lite is an application that simplifies the process of adding such features and creating an unattended installation disc/USB for Windows 7. Read on past the break for details on this useful little tool. Read More

Create Keyword Based Rules For MS Outlook & Receive Mail Alerts

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Important Mail Alert is an MS Outlook 2010 add-in for creating rule-based alerts for defined keyword. It provides a desktop alert when an email matching the specified criteria arrives. Although rules can be easily configure in MS Outlook, however, it is much easier to use keywords to create rules for mail alerts. This add-in completely integrates with the MS Outlook interface, and provides access to all your recent alerts. The keyword based rules can be applied to all message elements, including the sender, subject, body etc, and tied to your configured email address (in the MS Outlook mail client). Read More