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Having looked at diagnostic and system tools, graphics utilities and Windows enhancements in Part 1, we end our top 20 roundup with internet utilities and file compression and management tools.
Go!Zilla
How many times have you got two-thirds of the way though an enormous download only to discover that your link to the internet has suddenly been reset? If you really want that file, then you're going to have to go back online and start all over again, which is both infuriating and costly in terms of your phone bill.
Go!Zilla is a fantastic utility that allows you to take control of all your downloading needs. It's particularly useful in the aforementioned situation, since it will pick up a download wherever it left off in the event of a disruption to your service. Go!zilla is, in fact, a sort of download manager.
You can drag and drop URLs straight into it or use it from within your browser. If you're bored with watching the little blue bar creep across the screen, you can even schedule Go!zilla to perform all your downloads at a later stage when you're out or asleep.
Its Monster Downloads feature will warn you every time there are new versions of your favourite programs available on the web, and it also has its own built-in zip feature to uncompress archived downloads.
Price Freeware
Supplier Available from Go!Zilla website
Real Player/Real Juxebox
It's a multimedia world and you have to make sure you've the right tools to listen to or watch all the various audio and video file types that are flying around in cyberspace.
RealAudio was one of the first media player formats to be able to cope with streaming over the internet and in its current incarnation, RealPlayer 8, can do a whole lot more.
Real Player features an internet radio, CD player, MP3 player, and video player all in one, allowing you full access to all the types of media you might want from one central interface.
Along with the basic version, you also get an application called Real Jukebox, which you can use to organise your music files on your hard disk and even convert tracks from audio CDs into MP3 files.
Microsoft has recently released a new version of its own Media Player to try to counter the competition, but the combination of RealPlayer and Real Jukebox beats it hands down. The best thing, however, is that the basic version of RealPlayer is absolutely free and can be downloaded from the RealPlayer website.
Price Freeware
Supplier Available from Real website
AOL Instant Messenger
Email has revolutionised the way that we talk to each other, with about 80 per cent of businesses in the UK now using it as their primary method of communication. However, it isn't as fast as an instant messenger, which works over the internet and pops up your message on your intended recipient's screen the second you hit return.
Also known as AIM, the AOL Instant Messenger service is free to use even if you don't have AOL as your ISP. The AIM application itself can also be downloaded free from the AOL website.
As well as allowing for one-on-one text chat, AIM can support conferencing, with several users logged on at once. You can also link up to a user for a direct chat, swap files and, with a microphone, even speak to your fellow AIMers like a phone call, although the quality of the latter is not great.
The only catch is that you need to make sure that the people that you want to chat to are also running the AIM software and are added to your Buddy list.
Price Freeware
Supplier Available from AOL website
X-Drive
Floppy disks are still a part of everyday PC use. But, while virtually every PC in the world has a standard floppy disk drive, the format can only cope with files smaller than 1.44Mb and is fairly useless for transporting anything larger than that between PCs.
It can be infuriating if there's something on your PC at work that you want to have access to from your home PC but you have no way of physically sharing the data between the two machines.
Well, X:drive has come up with a solution. Basically, the free service will afford you up to 100Mb of virtual disk space on the web. You can upload files from any PC and then download them again from another location.
Your data can be placed in private folders or uploaded for someone else to access. A password protects your secrecy and you can either use the X:drive website as your main interface or, with a small downloadable program installed, access your X:drive data from Windows Explorer as if it were just another disk drive. When you first sign up you'll get around 20Mb, but you can build this up over time.
Price Freeware
Supplier Available from Xdrive website
FILE COMPRESSION AND MANAGEMENT TOOLS
LapLink 2000
If you're someone who uses more than one PC, then you might often find yourself in a situation that requires you to remotely access a PC from another location. LapLink 2000 allows you to get to your PC wherever you are, just as long as you have access to the internet.
Say, for example, you have to work from home for some reason - using LapLink, you could access your PC in the office just as easily as if you were right there in the room with it.
LapLink also supports direct hook-up via the parallel and serial cables that are provided, or instead via an infrared or optional USB connection.
The software can get two computers talking with each other regardless of whether or not they both use the same version of Windows. It's versatile, easy to use and includes several security measures, such as multi-layered encryption, to protect both your data while you're on the move and your PC while you're not at your desk.
LapLink 2000 may not be the cheapest of products, but opens up tremendous possibilities for remote computing and file management regardless of your location.
Price £188 (including VAT)
Supplier LapLink 0870 2410983
WinZip
It's very likely that you will already have encountered Zip files at some point. A file or group of files that has been 'zipped up' has been put through an archiving program to compress it down to a smaller sized single file.
The internet is full of them and they are particularly useful if you want to squash files down to fit them on to a floppy disk or send them as an email attachment. However, to open or create your own Zip files, you'll need to get hold of an archiving program yourself.
WinZip is a simple little program that is available on the internet as shareware. The WinZip website has an evaluation version of the application available as a download that you can try out before you part with your money. It has two different interfaces - WinZip Wizard and WinZip Classic.
You can also choose the level of compression you use when archiving files and, if your final Zip file is still larger than the capacity of a single floppy disk and you want to transport it, then WinZip will allow you to span the file over several disks.
Price $29 shareware
Supplier Available from WinZip website
McAfee UnInstaller
For many, conserving disk space is a top priority. For others, installation and uninstallation of programs is something that occurs frequently. In either instance, a utility such as McAfee UnInstaller can come in handy. You can use it to locate and remove unwanted files from your hard disk.
If you spend a lot of time surfing the internet, you'll find that you'll build up quite a lot of temporary files and 'cookies' that you don't really need. UnInstaller will work out which files can be safely removed from your PC and tell you how much disk space this is likely to free. A single mouse-click and they're gone.
Some applications will leave behind unnecessary files on your hard disk, even when you remove them by using their dedicated uninstallation program. UnInstaller can make sure that when a program is gone, it really is gone.
In a real emergency you can use BackTrack to revert to a moment before a troublesome program was installed. As well as simple tools such as QuickClean, UnInstaller comes with tools for archiving or backing up and even moving applications from one PC or hard disk to another.
Price £25 (including VAT)
Supplier Network Associates 01753 827500
OnTrack ZipMagic 4.0
Another archiving program, ZipMagic can compress files down to only 95 per cent of their original size. However, the latest version of ZipMagic goes beyond the limitations of WinZip to include some very useful extra features. For example, you don't have to manually Zip a file that you want to attach to an email.
Users of Outlook and Outlook Express can choose the option 'insert file zipped' from within your email application or from Windows Explorer. ZipMagic will use its AutoZip feature to automatically compress any files that you attach to an email.
ZipMagic also makes it easier to manage Zip files. For example, when you unzip a file, the temporary files are removed from your hard disk.
ZipMagic even makes the transfer of files more secure - you can encrypt your Zips so that no one else can get to their contents while they are in transit. Several automated functions as well as the ability to treat Zip files as normal Windows folders also help to make ZipMagic incredibly easy to use.
Price £35 (including VAT)
Supplier Ontrack UK 01372 741999
This article first appeared in What PC?
See also:
All Desktop Computers
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