Ever try and eject a disk on you Mac and can’t because it says there’s a file open?

You close everything that seems obvious and then try again and you still can eject the darn thing?

At this point you either give up, restart or just throw caution to the wind and pull out the plug on the disk.

With this small free utility you don’t have to get frustrated– WhatsOpen will tell you what files are open on the  volume you’re trying to eject and allow you to close them so that the disk will eject. Simple.

Download WhatsOpen install and rid yourself of one of those frustrations that makes you want to toss you Mac out the door.

Regardless the level or age of your Microsoft Windows configuration, the one built piece of functionality that can always stand a helping hand is the Windows File Explorer.

Nomad.NET is a free Windows Explorer replacement with plenty of useful features.

Features include -

• Tabbed interface.   This is our favorite feature, you can open tabs, like a browser for directories with which you’re working and keep them open.
• Bookmarks system. You can bookmark you favorite folders, ftp sites or even searches.
• You can create very complex search rules, with ability to search in different encoding (complete encodings auto detect), use IFilter filters, apply custom text search rules (including regular expressions), search in hex, duplicates search and so on and for mortals there is a simplified search that is not scary.
• Filtering system, based on the same core as search.

Normally we recommend FreeCommander as our favorite free alternative file handler, but Nomad.NET is a worthy competitor and well worth a try.

Download Nomad.NET [via lifehacker.com]

If you haven’t installed Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0, it will need to be installed first, there’s a link for the free download from the Nomad.NET download page.

I must be getting old and cranky because when I don’t like something, I really have no use for it. The current object of my disgust are those little programs that it seems every software writer thinks they must install in order to make their little piece of your software pie work better.  These timegrabbers tend to run at system startup especially on Windows.

These suckers make your system startup all so slowly and then continue to sit there and use memory and the occasional CPU cycle while you’re trying to work.  The longer you’ve had your PC, the more of this digital pocket lint you will have picked up.

Autoruns seems to be the uber-master for finding and allowing you to stop these time thieves from loading.  The program finds the autoruns from everywhere they can hide.  When you start Autoruns, look at the Logon tabs for autorun programs that have been installed by applications you don’t even use any more.  They’ll probably be plenty of them.  You’ll likely be amazed by how much your computer needs to do before it gets ready for you.  When you see and entry that you want to keep from starting up, uncheck the entry and it won’t be run the next time your system starts up.

A good option to choose within Autoruns is Hide Microsoft and Windows Entries, since what you’re looking for is 3rd-party dreckware.  Cleaning up Windows itself is above the pay-grade of mortals.

By judiciously using Autoruns and unchecking entries that I didn’t need, I saved over 3 minutes of startup time for my PC.  That would have been 3 minutes of frustrated cursing every time I had to restart my computer.

Download Autoruns, unzip it and run it without needing to install which means it won’t try and install an autorun.

Hate the spam that comes with signing up at many websites?

Cellphones? Credit Cards? Make money on the Internet schemes?

Melt Mail allows you to instantly setup a temporary email address that will forward all mail receivedbyt it to your real email account. You can decide how long the temporary email address should remain valid from 3 hours to 24 hours.

It’s extremely easy and is a good way of protecting your privacy, so you can now go ahead and find yourself the best terms for a new credit card or find out how to make money on the internet and if you find something really good, forward it to me at 6h3I1W1n1Upf@meltmail.com for the next 3 hours.

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Be it Windows XP or Windows Vista, there’s always a need for a Windows Explorer replacement.   The weakness of the standard file explorer has always furnished a breeding ground for innovators.

Q-Dir is a freeware file manager that is really great if you have a lot of file copying and moving to do, since it can keep many windows and folder views open at the same time.  The default view is four windows, but it looks like anything is possible.

Views can be saved as favorites and you can add shortcuts to frequently-accessed folders.

There is also a an extension that can be added to your right-click menu for launching Q-Dir to view a folder.

Download Q-Dir [via lifehacker ]

More features from their web page after the jump.

Favorites:
Quick access to most often used folders.
Drag&Drop:
Move files by dragging in Q-views, and other programs such as MS Explorer.
Clipboard:
Copy/ Paste between the Q-Dir directory views, and other programs such as MS Explorer.
Folder-Type:
ZIP-, FTP-,cabinet-,network-, system – folders, shortcuts …
Views:
Large icons, tiles, list, detail, thumbnail (Vista: extra large symbols) .
Export:
to XLS, CSV, TXT, HTML.
Popup Menus:
Desktop, My Computer.
Screen magnifier:
anything on the screen can be enlarged.
Color Filter:
Different colors for different item types (e.g. *.log;*.txt).
Highlight-Filter:
Effective way for fast items highlighting.
File-Filter:
Allows for quick and easy filtering of the items.
Columns:
All columns support, and save function .
Quick-Link’s:
For fast folder access.
Folder-Select:
Fast & flexible folder selection address-bar/ desktop menu/ my-computer menu/…
Multi-INI:
Several INI files for Q-Dir.
Tree-View:
Simple and quadruple.
Preview:
Allows a quick preview.
Portable:
from 2.77 is Q-Dir portable.

Remember when you bought that new PC and you looked at the size of the disk drive and said “How could I ever need more than 250 gigabytes?”

Then you started to load programs.
Then you started to add your digital pictures.
Then you started to rip your CDs and store the MP3s in iTunes.
Then you started to shoot video and play with it on your computer.

Now you’re down to 5 GB and you’re wondering where all that free space went.

Jam Software has created a handy and simple free Windows utility, TreeSize Free, to show you visually where all your disk storage has gone.

I like this quote from their site “Every hard disk is too small if you just wait long enough.”

Download it, install it and run it to see a visualization by folder of what’s occupying your hard disk and then start deleting.  Trust me, there’s a lot out there you don’t need.  TreeSize Free can also be started by just right-clicking in Windows Explorer on the folder you want to investigate.

Download TreeSize Free [via lifehacker]

 PC’s collect junk and junk slows down PCs.  The day you buy your new Windows PC is the day that PC will be the fastest.  Some of it comes from installing programs that you try once and never use again.  Some comes from the applications that you buy or download that set unnecessary programs to be run on startup. 

We’ve written about the problem before suggesting PC-Decrapifier.  Revo Uninstaller is another good possibility for a free cleanup of your Windows machine.  Besides taking care of uninstalling programs you never no longer want it also gives you access to your PCs system tools and can help you clean out unwanted programs that execute during startup. 

Some programs scatter elements all over your computer making them difficult to uninstall.  Revo Uninstaller searches your computer for all traces of the application so it can be completely uninstalled.

Here is the Revo list of the tools and utilities included in Revo Uninstaller (please excuse their exclamation points!):

Auto Start Manager – Stop programs that start automatically on Windows startup; speed up loading of Windows!
Windows Tools Manager – Handy and useful tools bundled with every version of Windows; easily find useful system tools and options!
Junk Files Cleaner – Find and remove unnecessary files from your computer; free up disk space and delete files you do not need!
Browsers History Cleaner – Erase web browser history, visited pages history and temporary internet files of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape and Opera web browsers; free up a lot of disk space by deleting temporary internet files like temporary saved videos, temporary flash files, temporary pictures etc!
Office History Cleaner – Remove the history of most recently used files in MS Office; remove your tracks by deleting the list of last opened MS Office documents!
Windows History Cleaner – Remove the history of recently opened files, delete temporary files, remove usage tracks and other history items that are saved by Windows; remove your tracks saved by Windows for a lot of operations!
Unrecoverable Delete Tool – Erase files and folders forever; be sure that nobody could recover your files and folders after deleting!
Evidence Remover – Make sure already deleted files, folders and other data are unrecoverable; securely erase your data!

Download Revo Uninstaller [via webworkerdaily]

Giveaway of the Day is a site that each day has an item of commercial software available for free download. They’re a site worth bookmarking and checking to see what’s available. It’s a nice idea and occasionally their giveaway is something you might have be tempted to buy with real money.  Occasionally it’s a clear miss of the sort of “why would I possibly ever need to do that?” variety.

Today, they are giving away WinUtilities.  It’s a Windows “Swiss Army Knife” set of utilities that has been around for quite awhile with a list price of $49.99.

The blurb for WinUtilities is:

WinUtilities is an award winning collection of tools to optimize and speedup your system performance. this suite contains utilities to clean registry, temporary files on your disks, erase your application and internet browser history, cache and cookies. you can control startup programs that load automatically with windows, find duplicate files, fix broken shortcuts and uninstall unneeded software. other features include secure file deletion, recycle bin shredding, cleaning tasks scheduling and undelete deleted files.

WinUtilities is a useful utility with a commercial gloss that isn’t always seen  the freeware apps we feature.

Get WinUtilities from Giveawayoftheday.com.

I’ve managed network security startups several times.  What the experience taught me was how basically insecure and haphazard most people are about their computers and accounts.

I’m not usually much better, but I think we can agree that the yellow sticky with your account password stuck to your computer monitor is not a good idea.

Still, the question of how much security is the right amount persists.  I hate to think how many accounts I have between websites, computers, email accounts, networks and homebanking.  Ideally each of these accounts would have its own username and password.  How to keep track of all those passwords, how to keep track?

Enter KeePass, an open source, encrypted password password manager for Windows.

You can enter and organize all of your passwords by categories and subcategories and secure the entire database with a master password.  A nice feature allows you to copy your usernames and passwords to you clipboard so that they can be pasted into the application requesting them.

As you become a fan of KeePass, you’ll find there are a slew of plugins to extend the function and integrate KeePass

Download KeePass [via portablefreeware.com]

There are certain kinds of computer utilities you don’t need every day, but they’re awfully nice to know about when you do need them.

FlickrDown falls clearly in that category.  It’s a free Windows utility that allows you to download complete Flickr photostreams, sets or groups.  It’s a great way to backup your own Flickr account or to grab other public sets or groups that you really enjoy.  If you want to download private pictures you’ll have to authorize their download through Flickr (you’ll be prompted).

The program allows you to search Flickr by username, e-mail address, tags, or groups.

The program needs Microsoft .NET 2.0 to operate.  If you haven’t installed that, there is a link to the download from the FlickrDown webpage.

Download FlickrDown [via LifeRocks2.0]

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