Mouse Gestures - Execute Common Commands

Mouse Gestures

(http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox//39/)

This software is like a piece of art. It allows the user to execute common commands (like page forward / backward, close tab, new tab,) by mouse gestures drawn over the Web pages. Yes, all this without using the tool bar or the keyboard a single time.

The user can also use click-only “rocker” gestures, which are even faster than drawn gestures. This is something similar to setting a set sequence of mouse clicks to which browser responds. For example, the user can set three repeated mouse clicks as a command to refresh the page.

Stumble Upon - Surf Through The Best-Reviewed Sites

Stumble Upon

(www.stumbleupon.com)

Stumble Upon allows the user to surf through the best-reviewed sites on the Web. IT is a collaborating surfing tool for browsing, reviewing, and sharing information about Web sites with like minded people. This brings up some really interesting Web site surprises.

Stumble Upon works like this: the first time it is launched, the user specifies his areas of interest thereby setting the search criteria of the software. Every time the user makes a search, Stumble Upon returns relevant results according to the user’s focus area. The user has the option of ranking the Web content that he come across through the tool. As this happens, Stumble Upon keeps on updating it’s search parameters. This ensures that the user always gets what interests him.

McAfee Site Adviser Plug-in for Firefox

McAfee Site Adviser Plug-in for Firefox

(www.siteadviser.com/download/ff_preinstall.html)

The greatest hazard to information privacy is the ignorance of the user, especially in case of spyware. Inadvertently, any person may run across the privacy-compromising software. To help keep such online nuisances at bay, McAfee has come out with this tool. This tests the safety of different Web sites, than ranks them as safe, questionable, or potentially dangerous.

Once the tool has been installed, the user will have access to the McAfee safety ratings via a small icon at the bottom of the browser. The Button will turn red if the user is visiting at potentially hazardous site. It also displays its ratings next to Google and Yahoo! Search results, so that people can avoid Unsafe Web destination.

The Site Adviser Web site explains it all, and it is very easy to install to plug-in.

To configure the plug-in to allow particular Web site, click on the Edit Option button. An “Allowed Sites” window will appear. You then type the address of the site (such as www.siteadviser.com) into the address box. Then, click on the allow button, followed by Close. Thereafter, you will need to close all browser windows, and start over.

Mozilla Firefox - Best Alternative To Other Browsers

Mozilla Firefox

(www.mozilla.com/firefox)

Firefox was developed by the Mozilla Foundation and many developers around the world. It is in many ways the true pioneer of the open source browser movement. It has been responsible for bringing about some of the most radical design and feature changes. As a matter of fact, Firefox has been hailed as the best alternative to other browsers such as Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari.

Firefox’s integrated pop-up blocker, live bookmarks, and support for open standards makes life easy. The tabbed interface makes surfing multiple sites much less cumbersome than having to open multiple windows. The user can customize the browser with down loadable extensions, a variety of themes and skins, and many preferences (for the advanced user).

Firefox user SSL/TLS to protect communications with Web servers using strong cryptography. It also supports smart cards for secure login to Web servers. Firefox is considered by many to be safer than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

How To Use It

Firefox comes with a number of excellent features and extensions.

1. The most useful feature is probably tabbed browsing. It enables the user to open multiple Web pages at the same time in a single browser window. There is also the group bookmarked tabs to be re-opened at one time.

To open a new tab, right-click on a link and select “Open Link in New Tab”. Or, type in [Ctrl]+[T]. To customize tabs, on the Menu Toolbar, select Edit>Preferences>Navigator>Tabbed Browsing, and then choose your preferred settings.

2. The sidebar is a re-sizeable vertical panel at the left of the browser window. It may contain numerous tabs that you click on to reveal different content in the sidebar panel. It can be customized to add frequently-used items.

Standard sidebars in Mozilla include bookmarks, search, and history. Sidebars provide a very handy way to access these functions. And, with tabbed browsing, the user can middle-click a sidebar link and open it in a new tab rather the overwriting the existing browser window.

3. Themes give Firefox a look suited to the user’s personal preferences. The theme selection determines the style of the browser menus, buttons, and other features. The user can obtain new and classic themes from the following sites:

https://addons.mozilla.org/mozilla/themes/

http://themes.mozdev.org/

http://themes.freshmeat.net/

All that is required is to download the theme, and then install it as per the instruction.

4. The Form Manager is a very useful feature which allows the user to save information typed into a Web page form, so that it can be used again later without having to re-type the same information. To access the Form Manager select Tools on the Menu Bar.
5. Custom keywords enable the user to create personal keywords that that can be typed into the location bar for quick access to favorite sites.
   

Select Bookmarks>Manage Bookmarks. Here, on the Bookmark Manager. Select the required bookmark by right-clicking on it, and then select Properties in the dropdown menu to access the properties Menu.

Here, type a keyword of choice into the keyword box in the properties Menu.

Firefox provides the user with consummate ease of handling and functionality. It is highly customizable, and therefore, fast becoming the browser of choice for many.Extensions give Firefox much of its armory. Some of the most popular and powerful extensions are:

(a) IE Tab: This is a great tool for Web developers as it allows the user to see the page displayed in Internet Explorer and then switch back to Firefox. All this at one click. User will find this useful because some sites are still IE-only, and you won’t need to open IE separately to view those pages.

(b) Ad block is a content filtering plug-in. It is more robust and precise than the inbuilt image blocker in Firefox. Ad block allows the user to specify filters, which remove unwanted content based on the source-address. Once the filters are declared, every time a Web page loads, Ad block intercepts and disables all the elements matching the filters.

(c) Flash block is an extension for filtering Macromedia Flash content on a page. It blocks all Flash content from loading, and leaves placeholders on the Web page that allow the user to click and access the Flash content.

(d) Session Saver keeps track of the user’s browser windows and tabs. It can then restore them exactly as they were during the browser sessions. It saves all details: window positions, tab histories etc. It can also save individual session for feature recall.

Miranda Instance Messenger - Multi Protocol Instance Messaging Application

Miranda Instance Messenger

(www.miranda-im.org)

Miranda is a multi protocol instance messaging application for Windows which score through its simplicity. It supports plug ins to enhance its functionality. In face, plug ins are responsible for supporting the IM protocols and additional features. There some plug ins that come bundled by default while the user can download the other from the Miranda IM Web Site. This keeps Miranda lean and fast. There are currently over 500 plug ins for Miranda!

Miranda can be customized in its look and function according to the individual’s preferences. This is due to its flexible design. Buddy management is convenient because of the inbuilt features such as contact renaming as well as plug ins such as Quick Search, which simplify the organization of contacts. The buddies may even be on different networks.

It maintains a record of all instance messages, and can recover them at a later time. Beside, they can be deleted automatically or manually with either the DB Tool or the History Sweeper plug in. Miranda can be configured to display photos or contact details when the mouse cursor is placed over a contact in the contact list. Miranda is free of advertising and free of charge.

Miranda attracts people who like to tweak their software because of its flexible nature. An advanced user may wish to dig deeper into the Miranda IM database files with one of the available database plug ins.

Lyx - The Document Processor

Lyx (http://www.lyx.org/)

Lyx is an interesting concept that distances itself from the more generic ‘word processors’ by calling itself a ‘document processor’. The subtle difference of course is because Lyx is a WYSIWYM word processor-What You See Is What You Mean. While the standard set of word processor features various text classes for articles, slides, books, etc., and also for different scientific societies like IEEE. Multilingual support and a large number of templates which can also be added as plug-ins also exist. Lyx also features an inbuilt formula editor for all those scientific equations. Automatic formatting and a large number of other automated tasks complete the already impressive package.

Abiword - Word Processors

Abiword (http://www.abisource.com/)

Abiword is one of the more well known word processors available on the Net. It has an impressive feature list that contains most tools and function that you would require from a word processor.

Not only is the standard feature list impressive but some of the additional features like cross-plat-form support and multiple format support are undeniably useful. Documents here are saved in plain readable text format with XML markup making them readable by most text editors. The good part though is that you can load and save file in multiple formats using what are called ‘importers’ and ‘exporters’ which are basically plug-ins which give the program a lot of flexibility. Abiword currently supports MS-Word, RTF ( Rich Text Format) and also HTML along with a couple of Abiword’s own formats. Being an open Source project new plug-ins are bound to be under development so be sure to keep checking for additional plug-ins. System requirements are minimal and the loading time miniscule. Altogether, Abiword is a very useful piece of software and deserves the many awards that it has got over the years.

Password Maker - Secure By One Master Password Of The URL Of The Site Requiring Password

Password Maker

(http://passwordmaker.org)

The makers of this tool have come up with an interesting take on The Lord of the Rings. They say,“ One password to rule them all”.

This is a small, lightweight, free, extension for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Flock, and Yahoo! Widgets (a widget is an interface element that a computer user interacts with, such as a window). It creates unique, secure passwords that are very easy for the user to retrieve, but for no-one else. Since nothing is sorted anywhere, anytime, there’s nothing to be hacked, lost or stolen.

How to Works

The user provides Password Maker two pieces of information: a master password, and the URL of the site requiring a password. Then using one way hash algorithms, Password maker calculates a message digest (a.k.a. digital fingerprint), which can be used as the user’s password for the Web site.

Password Maker claims that the resulting fingerprint (password) does not reveal anything about the input that was used to generate it. This means that if somebody has one of your password, even then it is infeasible for him to derive your master password.

Portability

The online version works in all browsers, and it requires no downloads or installations. Standalone versions for desktop, mobile phones, and PDAs are under development.

Installation and Start

For Netscape, Mozilla Suite and Mozilla Firefox users, the install is done automatically from the company’s site when the user clicks on Downloads in the menu (on the right) and then clicks on Browser Extension. Others need to download the files, and then install it.

For Mozilla An Netscape users, the toolbar icon is installed by default. For Firefox users, the toolbar icon must be manually added by using the View>Toolbar>Customize menu, and then dragging the golden ring icon on the toolbar.

Once you’ve opened the extension using one of these methods, you are presented with the Basic Options screen. From here on, the usage is really simple.

KeePassX - Secure Personal Data Management

KeePassX

(http://keepassx.sourceforge.net)

KeePassX is an application for people with extremely high demands on secure personal data management. It has a light interface, and is cross platform.

KeePassX saves many different information, for example, user names, passwords, URLs, attachments, and comments in one single database. The user can define titles and icons for each single entry, or sort the entries into groups, which are customizable as well. The integrated search function allows to search in a single group or the complete database.

KeePassX comes with a utility for secure password generation. The generator is very customizable, fast and easy to use. People who require or like to have their password change frequently will appreciate this feature.

The complete database is always encrypted either with AES or Two fish encrypted algorithm using a 256 bit key. Therefore, the saved information can be considered secure. KeePassX uses a database format that is compatible with KeePass Password Safe.

Features

1. Customizable management of data and password.

2. Search function to search either in specific groups or in complete database

3. Database security with password/key-file/both access only

4. Automatic generation of secure password and a quality indicator for chosen passwords

5. Upcoming features are network support with multi user capabilities and also browser integration.

Universal Password Manager - Store Usernames, Passwords, URLs And Generic Notes

Universal Password Manager

(http://sourceforge.net/projects/upm)

Universal Password Manager allows you to store usernames, passwords, URLs and generic notes in an encrypted database protected by one master password.

It’s main features are simplicity and cross platform support (Java/SWING).

Universal Password enforces uniform password policy across multiple authentication systems (such Native File Access). Universal password also manages multiple types of password authentication methods from disparate systems. This done by creating a common password that can be used by all protocols to authentication users.

KeePass Password Safe - First Password Management Utility That Uses Security Enhanced Password Edit Controls

KeePass Password Safe
(http://keepass.sourceforge.net/)

KeePass databases are encrypted using the much-respected AES and Two fish symmetric ciphers. Passwords are hashed using SHA256, and kept in an encrypted form in the KeePass process memory. The rationale is that even if Windows caches the KeePass process to Disk, the user’s passwords wouldn’t be revealed.

The tool is the first password management utility that uses security enhanced password edit controls. None of the available password spies work against the controls used in KeePass. The passwords entered in this controls aren’t even visible in the process memory of KeePass.

The working scheme of KeePass is really novel. One master password decrypts the complete database. Alternatively, you can use key-disks, as they provide better security than master passwords in most cases. For even more security one can combine the above two methods: the database the requires the key-disk and the password in order to be unlocked. Even if you lose your key-disk, the database would remain secure.

Portability

The application doesn’t need to be installed. KeePass provides an installer that automates the creating of link in the Start Menu. There is also a binary zip package which contains only the main executable. This executable runs without installing anything.

KeePass doesn’t store anything on your system. The program doesn’t create any new Registry keys, and it doesn’t create any installation files (.ini) in your Windows directory. Deleting the KeePass directory (in case you downloaded the binary zip package) or using the uninstaller (in case you downloaded the installer package) leaves no track of KeePass on your system. KeePass runs without downloading any additional libraries, on Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

Features

1. Import/Export
The password list can be exported to various formats like TXT, HTML , XML and CSV. It can import TXT files created by Bruce Schneier’s Password safe v2.

2. Password Management
The user can create, modify and delete the groups in which passwords are stored into. The groups can be arranged as a tree, the tree can have sub-groups, and so on.

3. Auto-Type, Global Hot Key, Drag-n-Drop
When KeePass is running in the background ( with an open database) and the user process the hotkey, it looks up the correct entry and executes its auto-type sequence.

4. Built-In Password Generator
KeePass features a built-in password generator that generates strong random password for you. The user can define the possible output characters of the generator.

5. Plugins
KeePass has a plugin architecture. However, the plugins may compromise the security of KeePass.

7-Zip - File Archiver With A Very High Compression Ratio

7-Zip (www.7-zip.org)

7-Zip is a file archiver with a very high compression ratio. The compression ratio is claimed to be 2-10% better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip. It integrates fully with the Windows environment. Its 7z format files have self-extracting capability.

7-Zip works in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP. There is port of the command line version for Linux/Unix. 7-Zip (except for the file Rar29.dll) is free software distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. The file Rar29.dll is under a mixed license, as it is used to re-create the RAR compression algorithm, which is proprietary.

The interface gives a very comfortable feel. It is well-laid out, and almost explanatory about its usage. Excellent for novices.

Compression ratio results are dependent upon the data used for the tests. Usually 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than the Zip format. And 7-Zip compresses to Zip format 2-10% better than most other Zip-compatible programs.

Burrrn - creating audio CDs

Burrrn (http://www.burrrn.net/)

Burrrn is a little tool for creating audio CDs with the content from various audio files. The supported formats are wav, mp3, mpc, ogg, aac, mp4, ape, flac, ofr, wv, tta, m3u, pls, and fpl play lists and cue sheets. Burrrn can read all types of tags from all these formats.

Burrrn uses cdrdao.exe for burning. The user needs to have the corresponding decoding executables and cdrdao.exe to be in the same directory as Burrrn. All the necessary files are including in the installation set and are installed as required by default.

To “Burrrn” a CD, just drop the audio files, play lists or cue sheets on the list, select the writing speed, and press Burrrn. A window will pop up, where one monitor progress.

The user can customize the burning, coding and decoding processes from the Settings.

BurnAtOnce - first freeware CD/DVD Authoring Tool On The Win32 Platform

Burnatonce (http://burnatonce.net/)

Burn At Once claims to be the first freeware CD/DVD authoring tool on the Win32 platform. Actually, it’s is a front-end to various high quality components: cdrdao, ddump, mad (mpeg audio decoder), etc.

Burn At Once has a slick interface and good basic features. The user can create audio and data discs, read discs to image files, burn image files (.bin/.cue., .iso), and erase CD-RW discs. It can also handle DVD discs, which requires the installing of a free but time-limited third-party software. The software supports multisession burning, bootable discs, and most prevalent file formats. It comes with an audio file converter for MP3 to audio CD etc.

It is an interesting project in its early stages of development. Even in its current state, it is a very snappy tool for doing some basic CD-R tasks, and most importantly, it is free.

BZip2 - High-Quality Data Compressor

BZip2
(http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/bzip2.htm)

Bzip2 is a freely available, patent-free, high-quality data compressor. It claims to compress files to within 10% to 15% of the best available techniques (the PPM family of statistical compressors), while being around twice as fast at compression and six times faster at decompression.

It compresses most files more effectively than the traditional gzip or Zip, but is slower. This does not come with archiving functions, as bzip2 is only a data compressor. The program itself has no facilities for multiple files, encryption or archive-splitting. It instead relies on separate external utilities such as tar for these tasks.

Bzip2 uses transforms and Huffman coding to encode data. The blocks are all the same size in plaintext, which can be selected by a command-line argument, and are marked in compress text by a bit sequence derived from the decimal value of pi.

Features

The interface is very simple, and almost self-explanatory. This version is simply for compression and decompression of *.bz2 files and does away with many functionalities of the command line version. The newer version is expected to implement all the features found in the command line version.

Zip Genius - Compress Files to Almost any Kind of Archive

Zip Genius (http://www.zipgenius.it/)

Zip Genius lets you compress files to almost any kind of archive. It supports more than 20 compressed archive formats, including CD/DVD-ROM image file, RAR, ARJ, ACE, CAB, SQX, OpenOffice.org documents and 7-zip. It can also pre-compress executable files going to be added to a Zip archive.

Installation

The download is in the form of an .exe file. Click on the file to start the basic installer, and follow the prompts. The program links to the file manager by default, and will associate itself with compression file on the system. This can be adjusted in the program via the Tools/ Option.

The Interface

The layout of Zip Genius has the XP look. There are quite a few option to change the look such as large icons, grid separation, filters, folders split view, and more.

The display is very orderly and has been designed in a systematic fashion. The Option area is found in the Tools menu, and gives plenty of option to customize it.

A great feature of Zip Genius is the window showing the statistics of the file you might be working with. The display features pie charts listing the least and most compressed file in the archive, as well as medium compression, folder and required disk space.

Zip Genius places a small icon in the task bar, associates itself with your compression files on your computer, and places menu choices when you right click in your file manager.

Features

Zip Genius is loaded with lots of great features that make working with compression files a breeze. It comes complete with the “First Step” feature, which can be accessed easily by using the [F1] key. From here you can pick exactly which process you wish to perform, and the Wizard will guide you through the whole process. The either process is fully explained and the final compression process is really fast.

It can make .exe files, and carry out multivolume compression. The Expert Layout feature gives added choices, auto signature and commenting. Then there is Crypto zip-a tool to encrypt compression files.

Another feature is the presets for actually making backups of your most important directories and files on your system. Clicking the Backup menu area shows choices like Windows Registry files, etc., and it has small, simple and effective inbuilt FTP program.

System Tap GUI - Running Linux Kernel

System Tap GUI (http://sourceware.org/systemtap)
System Tap simplifies the gathering of information about the running Linux kernel, and therefore, assists in the diagnosis of performance or functional problems. It eliminates the otherwise tedious and detailed sequence of work to collect data.

System Tap comes with a simple command line interface and scripting language. System Tap in its current state of development is a useful tools for developers. The latest System Tap GUI makes it more user-friendly for Linux.

System Tap GUI is a fully-featured IDE, including many tools intended to ease in the development of System Tap Scripts. This application requires GTK+ version 2.2.x and System Tap JRE (these are available from the Web site for download).

System Tap Browsers:

He System Tap GUI has three browsers: Probe Alias, Function, and Kernel Source. The Probe Alias and the Function browsers allow the user to view Tap set code. (A Tap set is a set of functions in a given kernel subsystem that exports data about that system).

The Kernel Source Browser allows the user to navigate and view kernel source files, and click on a specific line of code in the kernel source file that they wish to probe. The IDE will generate a skeleton probe for the requested line of kernel source.

The Editor

The System Tap GUI’s IDE has a full-featured editor for the System Tap language. This editor includes context-assistance, suggesting completion for probe aliases and functions as the user types. The editor also provides syntax highlighting for the scripting language.

Graphing

System Tap GUI also has visualization tools, allowing you to see your data. The program can generate multiple types of graphs from arbitrary System Tap scripts, including line charts and histograms.

Prime95 - Finding New Mersenne Prime Numbers

Prime95 (www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm)

Prime95 has been designed as a part of GIMPS, distributed computing project dedicated to finding new Mersenne prime numbers. As of September 2006, ten new Mersenne prime numbers have been found. The Linux-based version is called M Prime.

Over the years, Prime95 has become extremely popular among PC enthusiasts and over lockers as a stability testing utility. It includes a “Torture Test” mode designed specifically for testing PC subsystems for errors in order to help ensure the correct operation of Prime95 on that system. Now, the functional running of Prime95 is such that it effectively stress tests a PC.

The stress test in Prime95 can be configured to better test various components of the computer by changing the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) size. Small and In-Place modes primarily test specific components of the CPU, whereas the Blend made tests everything, including the memory. Then, for the more advanced and willing user, there is the Custom mode that allows you to customize the system.

Prime95 is designed to subject the CPU to an incredibly intense workload, and to halt when it encounters even one minor error. Unlike other benchmarking software, it does not continue operations with errors.

Since the original purpose behind the software has been to search for prime numbers, it has been designed as a distributed program (that is, it spreads the work among large numbers, of computer to find the prime numbers). For stress-testing the system, the user needs to click on the “Just Stress Testing” button when running the program for the first time.

To test the computer, run Prime95 and click the Option menu and then select “Torture Test”. Then select a test and click OK. Run the test for a few hours.

If you want to be through, then let it run for 24 hours. To stop the test, click the Test menu and then click stop.

Prime95 checks its calculations against known results, so if something goes wrong it will stop automatically. It’s also been known on certain occasions to crash unstable machines. If it crashes or finishes with an error, then there is a problem with your hardware.

GParted - translates to Gnome Partition Editor,manipulating filesystems

GParted (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/)
GParted translates to Gnome Partition Editor. It is used for manipulating filesystems, that is create, resize, etc. The stand-out feature is that it is used for creating space for new operating systems, and for disk imaging.

The purpose of GParted is to allow the individual to take a hard disk and change the partition organization there in, while preserving the partition contents.

GParted maintains a very simple GUI. It is downloaded as a “live CD”. Iso image, from which a bootable CD can be created for the system.

There are some Linux distributions that are Debian-based, and use a software called apt. Certain other are Red Hat based, and use a system software called yum (yumex, kyum). To download and install GParted, use.

# yum install gparted
or
#apt-get install gparted

The Interface
The first window that opens when GParted is started is as shown.

Upon clicking the GParted menu, a pop-down menu is presented. The user can select to refresh the display of the drive on the system. The second choice, Devices, allows to choose the hard drive whose partitions are to be modified. This is useful if there is more than one hard drive. The third option under the Gparted menu is used to obtain more information.

The Edit menu shows two greyed-out functions that are quite useful. Undo and apply. These options may also be seen in the toolbar. To activate them, you have to choose the partition to be modified.

Then, under the View menu, the Hard Disk Information Panel display details about the hard disk, such as model, size, etc. This panel is most useful in a multi-hard-disk system, where the information is used to confirm that the hard disk being examined is the one that is wanted. The most important menu is the partition menu. It allows you to do many operations.

How to use it
Delete is selected if you want to delete a partition. To perform the delete, you must first select the partition. You may also format any partition to a filesystem that is supported in the menu under “Format To”.
The user may also format any partition to a filesystem that is supported in the menu.

Creating a new partition
The New button on the toolbar allows you to create a new partition, if you have already selected an unallocated area. A new window appears and lets you choose the size you want, and also specify the kind of partition: Primary, Extended, or Logical. It also allows you to specify the filesystem.

Partition Logic - free hard disk partitioning and data management tool

Partition Logic (http://partitionlogic.org.uk)

Partition Logic is a free hard disk partitioning and data management tool. It can mirror entire hard disks to another as in Norton Ghost, and it can manipulate partitions-create, delete, format, etc.

Partition Logic boots from a CD or floppy and runs as a stand-alone system, independent of the regular operating system. Therefore, it is very light (in terms of size) and supports most basic PC hardware without the need for any additional work or configuration. It has certain hardware limitations (like no support for SATA hard disks), which are promised to be rectified in future updates.

Installation
Partition Logic comes as a self-contained CD image with its own operating system (Visopsys) Included on the disk. It is not installed as a Windows/Mac/Linux program. It is written to a blank CD from which your computer can be booted to perform the desired operation.

Partition Logic is distributed as a compressed Zip file. The Zip file contains just the CD image, with the .iso file extension. The installation process consists of unzipping the ISO file and burning it to a CD. However, the burning application must typically be instructed to burn from a disk image. It does not burn like a regular data disk.

How to Use It
The menu bar contains three menus: File, Disk, and Partition. Operating around is fairly simple, since the most used commands are in the form of action buttons. The commands under the Disk menu are not found as action buttons.

The disk lists shows the physical hard disks detected on the system, and displays the size and other details of each. Clicking on a disk selects it, and it will subsequently change to show the partitions 9on the new disk. The partition list is clickable list of partitions on the current disk. In order to do an operation on a partition or empty space, it must first be selected.

Among the action buttons (that is, the commands), there are two that are very interesting.

1. Undo- This is use to discard any pending changes that have not been committed to disk using the write changes functions. Examples of the various operations that can be undone are partition creation and deletion, setting or un-setting the active partition, and hiding or un-hiding a partition.
2. Write Changes- The write changes function is used to commit any pending changes to the disk.

Carrying out operations in Partition Logic is fairly simple. For example, to make a new partition, you Use the create function. The user must first select some empty space in either the partition diagram or the partition list. Clicking this button or menu item raises a dialog window to prompt the user for information (location, size, etc.) about the partition to be created. No changes are made on disk until the user commits than using the Write Changes button.

Test Disk- Open Source Data Recovery Software

Test Disk (www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.html)

Test Disk is a powerful data recovery software, and was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable. These may be caused by faulty software, viruses, or human error. With Test Disk, even partition Table (a file system table that contains information about how many and which types of partitions are on the disk) recovery because really easy.

When a hard disk drive crashes, the first things to do is to make sure no more data is written to the drive. If we have a situation where the partition table is all right, but critical operating system file have been damaged. Windows will not boot. In such a case, if there is another OS installed on the system under consideration, the HDD may still be read. So, you can gain access to the file on your hard drive with a crashed OS by booting the computer with a DOS boot disk and than use a DOS- compatible file recovery program such a Test Disk.

In addition, we should mention that transferring the HDD to another computer prevents the drive from being written to accidentally, and could allow you to retrieve information from the disk. At times, all that is required is to use Windows Explorer (on the system to which the drive has been transferred) to look through the file structures.

Test Disk capable of restoring lost information in a matter of minutes. It supports all major operating systems, and also RAID-configured drives. It has Linux versions as well.

Test Disk queries the BIOS or the OS in order to find the hard disks and their characteristics. It does a quick check of the disk’s structure and compares it with the Partition Table for entry errors.

If the Partition Table does have entry errors, Test Disk can repair them. If there are missing partitions or a completely empty Partition Table, Test Disk can search for partitions and create a new table or even a new Master Boot Record (MBR) if necessary. Now, a master boot record (MBR) is the first sector (“sector zero”) of a partitioned hard disk, and its responsible for retaining vital system information such as the partition table, and the Bootstrap loader.

Test Disk has features for both novices and experts. For amateurs, Test Disk can be used to collect details information about a non- booting drive, which can then be sent to data recovery professionals for analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find Test Disk a handy tool in performing on-site recovery.

1. Upon starting Test Disk, you get a screen at the top that lists your available physical drives.

2. Highlight the drive you wish to recover and select the Analyze option.

3. This will show the current partition structure, and upon hitting [Enter], Will start searching the drive to see whether the actual partitions match. Make a point to take this information down.

4. Once this search is complete, hit [Enter] again. It’s a good idea to run the “Search!” option to do a more comprehensive search of the drives.

5. If you initially had no partitions shown because of a damaged or wiped partition table., Test Disk will now hopefully have rediscovered the partitions.

6. Verify the information and select Write to save the new information onto the disk. If removing your partitions was the only damage you did, you should now be up and running again.

7. If you have erased or damaged your Partition Table, nothing will be displayed under the listing, as above. In this case, you should select the “Advanced” option. The tool will assist you in revamping your HDD in the same manner, as above.

Test Disk will compare the boot sector to the backup boot sector. If they are identical, it can do nothing more, but if they are different, it will ask you if you wish to over write the boot sector with the information from the backup.

Memtest86

Memtest86 (www.memtest86.com)
Memtest86 is a RAM reliability tester. The underlying thesis is that a correctly-functioning computer should be able to store data in the RAM with 100 per cent accuracy. If it does not, then it will be unstable and prone to crashes.

Memtest86 is designed to stress-test the computer’s RAM for errors. It is designed to run from a bootable floppy disk or CD-ROM, or from a suitable bootstrap loader, without an operating system being present. The tests are sufficiently harsh for it to find otherwise unrecognized problems on machines that appear to work normally.

Installation
For a Windows installation, you need to download either the Pre-Complied Windows package, for building a bootable floppy disk, or an ISO (Zip version) to create a bootable CD. After the file download is complete, you decompress the file(s). To extract, right-click on the downloaded file and select the “Extract All” option. The extract option will let you choose where the files will be extracted to.

To build a bootable floppy, insert a floppy in the drive, then go to the folder where the files were extracted and click on the Install icon. Once the install is complete, the floppy disk will appear to be unformatted by Windows.

To build a bootable CD, use your CD burning software to create an image from the unzipped ISO file.

Since Memtest86 is a standalone program, it dose not require any operating system support for execution. It can be used with any PC regardless of what operating system, if any, is installed.

Features
Memory Sizing
This is one of the major features of Memtest85. The BIOS in modern PCs often reserves several sections of memory for its use, and also to communicate information to the OS. It is just as important to test these reserved memory blocks as it is for the reminder of the memory. For properly regardless of what the eventual use is. Memtest86 tests these reserved areas of memory.

Testing Algorithms
The algorithms resort to a set of nine different tests that have been arranged in a order to detect the maximum errors in the minimum time.

How to use it
Memtest86 needs to be run for several hours to fully evaluate the RAM. The best way to use the system is to set it up to run overnight, for a fully rigorous test. This will allow Memtest86 to run long enough to achieve full (read: 100 per cent) coverage, and identify RAM that frequently corrupts the data written to it.

If Memtest86 finds an error, it will stop and report it. If there is an error, you should consider replacing you RAM, or at the very least, verifying that your machine is correctly configured.

Look At Both Type Of Software

1. Longevity
OSS, since it allows modification by all, can survive in its current form for a long time. Users need not worry about the lack of vendor support or feel compelled to upgrade. PS is supported and maintained only by the vendor, so the life of a software is linked to that of its vendor. Commercial organization, while choosing a PS, cannot consider the performance of the program in isolation: they also have to consider the financial foundation and long-term business viability of the vendor. A user would be left in the lurch if the vendor were to close down in the near future.

2. Quality
Peer review, an excellent mechanism for identifying and resolving shortcoming in a product, can be implemented in OSS since anyone can see the code. The greater the number of people scrutinizing the code, the greater the chances of bugs being discovered. In contrast, PS code is usually offered for review only to select group, so peer review is not as rigorous. The resulting code, therefore is not as bug free as OSS. For example, experts have found that Linux has fewer bugs than Windows. (http://news.com.com/Security+research+suggests+Linux+has+fewer+flaws/2100-1002_3-5489804.html)

3. Portability
While the PC is dominate computing platform, other computing devices are becoming popular. It is easy for an OSS to be ported to other platforms, since contributors with the relevant expertise can make necessary modification. A PS vendor’s expertise is limited to the platform it is currently would be influenced by many factors such is profitability.

4. Compatibility
The contributory nature of OSS requires that standards and specifications be open so that additions and/or modification can be easily made. Business sense dictates that product differentiation is a good strategy leading to incompatible products from different PS vendors. A user planning to switch between different PS vendors needs to consider the cost of converting existing data from the older format to the newer one. This forces users to ignore better software, and acts as an artificial barrier to competition.

5. Impact of Negative Business Practices
OSS products can be supported by any person with required expertise; this can be from any service provider. PS can be supported only by a single entity. This allows the vendor to indulge in practices that could harm to user in the long term – like offering a PS for free to drive out competition, and later increasing prices.

6. Response time
Only the PS vendor can modify the code in response to an attack or to add a feature; users have to wait till such an event. OSS is enriched by newer features contributed by many programmers. The decentralized nature of the OSS development allows for faster incremental change to OSS. Users with specific needs can customize the software either personally or with the aid of any knowledgeable person.

Why Open-Source?

By definition open source software is -

Open-source software is computer software whose source code is available under a copyright license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is the most prominent example of open source development.

Don't get confused between Open source and Free software, the difference between free software and open source is that you can modify open source code according with its licensing terms but you don't have access to source code for Freeware software.

Open source software's is the way to go, You may ask why? apart from being free there are many more reasons as described below:

1). Longevity
2). Quality
3). Portability
4). Compatibility
5). Impact of Negative Business Practices
6). Response Time