Personal Computer Advice

Many people ask me for advice on personal computer related issues. I am no expert, but I do have some info that might be of use to some of you.

Text Editors

I do a lot of programming in various different languages and my favorite text editor is UltraEdit. It is the best editor I've run across - period.   In fact, it is probably my all-time favorite piece of software!  :-)

• UltraEdit

Spyware

It seems every time I go over to someone's house who is complaining that their computer is slow, they almost inevitably have a computer that's loaded with spyware. I used to use several different free spyware removal tools until Microsoft came out with their own anti-spyware product. Install this and some of your problems should go away.

• Microsoft Windows Defender

Improving PC Performance

Once you've eliminated spyware... then next thing you can do to make your PC to run faster, is buy more memory, especially for Windows Vista. 2 GB would be the minimum and 4 GB is highly recommended.

File Sharing

Limewire, but watch out, you're gonna get a virus if you don't have up to date Virus software.

• Limewire

Listening to Music

I have a Dell Laptop and it came with all kinds of software that is kind of the "light" version of things. Music Match Jukebox is one of those products. It pops up ads and keeps asking you to buy the full version. Fortunately, Apple iTunes is FREE and is pretty slick. So - I went and un-installed Music Match Jukebox and installed iTunes and I can listen to all my music, rip CD's (which means take audio CD's I own and convert them into digital music files which I can then listen to on my computer or MP3 player) and it can burn CD's from playlists you create. It works on Mac's or PC's and it's FREE!

• http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Watching Videos

My Dell also came with some other crap for watching videos. I don't remember what it was, but when I tried to view a video, that crappy program popped up and I immediately un-installed it. Use Windows Media Player or VLC Media Player.

To asssociate your video files with it, just locate a video file on your PC and right click on it, select Open With -> Choose Program, then select Windows Media Player, then choose ALWAYS use this program to open this type file and you'll be in business. The only thing I don't use it for is MP3's (music files).

VLC Media Player can also rip DVD's (but not really make a copy of them), but it can get the main stuff.

Windows Media Player comes on your PC.

• VLC Media Player

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is a wonderful suite of products, but it's not cheap. Open Office is a free alternative, but it's not 100% compatible.

• http://www.openoffice.org/

Browsing the Web

• Internet Explorer - Comes with Windows
• Firefox - has some nice add-ons for programmers.
• Google Chrome - seems faster than all the others.

Editing Pictures

• Adobe Photoshop Elements
• Adobe Photoshop
• Paint.Net - free, not bad.

Making Movies

I use Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum for making all my movies. Works like a charm, more powerful than iMovie, doesn't crash on big movies like Windows Movie Maker.

• Sony Vegas

Some other things I use are:

• Audacity - to record sound.
• CamStudio - to record screen activity.
• iDesktop.tv - to download movies from youtube.
• youtubex - to download movies from youtube.
• FLV Player - to watch the .FLV files.

Too Many Passwords?

I must have 100 passwords for 100 different web sites, email addresses and servers. It's a real bitch to keep track of them all. But there is a pretty good program you can use to keep track of them all.

• Password Safe

Searching for Files

Have you ever been frustrated trying to find where you put a file? I have. And I couldn't find anything that worked like I liked, so I rolled my own:

• Text Search - it's free!

Staying Organized

I work on a lot of different projects and have a tough time remembering everything I need to remember so I keep notes in a great little program called Notekeeper. Might not be useful for everyone, but I can't live without it!

• Notekeeper

FTP

• FileZilla - it's free!

Screen Shots

Use Print-Screen to capture entire desktop or Alt-Print- Screen to capture just one window, then use Edit-Paste or File->New Image From Clipboard depending on what software you're using to copy the screen shot into your Email, Word, Powerpoint or Image editing software.

Database Access Tool

Haven't tried it, but I hear this is good:

• Aqua Data Studio

Additional Reading

A great web site that documents all kinds of freeware software is:

• http://www.freeware-guide.com/