Monday, March 5, 2001		Downloads of the week

Most of us have been using PCs for years now yet we are hardly aware of how we can manage our PC to run better and extract the maximum out of it. Though various avatars of Windows are hardy enough to manage computer on their own yet over the years individuals and software companies have devised small utility programs, which tweak Windows to help you improve the computer’s performance. This week we are suggesting downloads which help the average computer buff do this at almost no risk.

This is a small utility that, once installed, sits in your computer’s control panel and lets you change several Windows hidden settings without risking anything. It works fine with Windows 9x, NT, 2000, or Me versions. It is a small file, which takes less than two minutes to download on a good connection. It can help reduce the booting up time by letting you turn off several animations that increase booting up time and gobble up precious RAM. Tweak UI is the most impressive offering of Microsoft’s famous free PowerToys. Click on its control panel icon to bring up a multi-tabbed interface that grants access to a considerable number of Windows settings. You’ll find areas dedicated to Mouse, Explorer, Desktop, My Computer, Logon, New (documents), IE, and more. Clean up your Add/Remove programs menu or repair icons, system files, the Font folder, and Regedit. The Paranoia settings lets you "cover your tracks" by clearing Run, Document, Find Files, Find Computer, Logon, and network, IE, and telnet history items when Windows loads. You can toggle the Autorun settings for audio and data CDs. You can customise the desktop and Internet Explorer to some degree, and hide selected drives and Control Panel applets. It has a repair facility that lets you rebuild icons, repair associations, font folders, system files and hotkeys etc automatically. The download file size is just 110.39 KB. You can download this from www.zdnet.com. Go to the site, search for TweakUI and select version 1.33 to download. This is a freeware.

This is another general-purpose utility for maintaining the integrity of your PC. It helps you keep the system fighting fit. It has many power-packed tools divided in three main sections – files, system and Internet. The files feature lets you scan for obsolete, useless and junk files that not only occupy space on the hard disk but also slows down the system. You can specify the file extensions to limit the scan to files and folders of your choice. It also offers an easy way to find and remove duplicate files. You can specify which drives and/or folders to scan, and edit the built-in waste-file list. When the scans are complete, system mechanic provides a list of files that meet the criteria, allowing you to eliminate them as you see fit. It also allows you to repair or eliminate broken shortcuts. Its System tools remove errant Registry entries, and eliminate invalid uninstaller info. Additional tools let you see and edit which programs are slated to load when Windows starts and monitor program installations. You can take a system snapshot for comparison at a later stage or get a report that details any system changes for a particular install. Multilevel undo, multiple version Registry backups, secure file wipes and desktop tweaks. The Internet tool lets you ensure privacy by removing cookies and other spy info that various Web sites send once you are surfing the Net. This tool can optimise your connection speeds with a single click, which help reduce download time. Of course, much depends on your hardware but it definitely helps you get the maximum out of the system hardware. It is a limited time shareware. However, you do not need to run it everyday. Most features are used sparingly. So you can always keep a copy of the download file on your hard disk and reinstall it if need be. The utility can be downloaded from zdnet.com by searching for System Mechanic and choosing to download the version 3.5h. The file size is 1.41 MB, but download speed is generally good.

No utility is worth it if you cannot find out and satisfy yourself that each component of your system is fine-tuned running at its peak. This is one such gem of a program, which lists for you the complete details of each hardware and software component of your system from its serial number to date of manufacture. In fact, the name Sandra has been derived from System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. It is an information and diagnostic utility. The most useful part of the utility its Performance Tune Up module which when run provides you the health status of your hardware and tips to improve its performance. For instance, if you have not enabled DMA for your hard disk, you may be operating the system at lower speeds than it is capable of. Sandra will tell you to enable the feature. But how do you enable this feature? Don’t worry. When Sandra displays the performance it also gives the number of the relevant tip, which you can see in the list of tips. It will provide you details of how to enable DMA. What more can Sandra do for you? Well almost everything you need to. Though many of its modules are disabled in the freeware download version, yet for the average computer user, the enabled modules in the free version are all that he or she will require. It will not only help you keep your system’s performance at its peak but will also add to your awareness about computers substantially. Sandra provides similar level of information to Norton SI, Quarterdeck WinProbe/Manifest, etc. It is a native 32-bit Win32 application. It also provides information on 16-bit Windows and DOS unlike many other system information programs. However, if you want DOS information, then a DOS system analyser will be far better simply because it runs under DOS so it can do everything it wants unlike Windows applications, especially 32-bit ones. It works on all Win 9x versions and also Me. You can download the zipped file san710.zip from ftp.nus.edu.sg. If this does not work, you can search for this utility on any popular downloads site.

You have now all software wherewithal to keep your system in shape. But if you cannot manage RAM to your needs, the system will still be slow and cause what we call ‘blue screen errors which can be very annoying. With most modern software needing more and more RAM, it is a good idea to optimise RAM so the system operates at its peak rate. RAMpage is a small utility that displays the amount of available memory in an icon in the system tray. It can also free up memory in a number of configurable ways; by double-clicking the tray icon, by setting a threshold that activates the program automatically, by running it from a batch file or shortcut, or by having it run automatically when an application exits. The program can be configured to free a specific amount of memory with each attempt, or to reach a set target. It can also be run in the background, (without the tray icon). The program itself uses little memory, resources, or CPU time. Install, uninstall, and online help are included. Best of all it keeps reviewing availability of RAM while you are working on your PC and at regular intervals it will free enough RAM to let you work without forcing errors. Moreover, it’s a freeware. So grab it from www.downloads.com or go to one of the following: ftp.ou.edu or ftp.samtel.net.

— Raman Mohan