Tech Thursday!

The Ox is back with some tech bits for today. Since am in a giving, warm mood (thanks to the luverly people who've posted all those luverly comments on last night's post), will now proceed to share with you some (of my personal favourite) tools that'll make your computing life easier, courtesy of LockerGnome.com. These are mostly freeware programs that allow you to troubleshoot, maintain and otherwise breathe some longevity into your box. Happy trying, and let me know if you have any software you'd like to share.

Here they are, in no particular order:

AIDA32 sysinfo Tool - Sometimes you just need to know what the hell the vendor put in your box, and this'll help you get started. It provides extensive info on your system, including who makes your RAM, graphics cards and sundry other geeky bits. V. good. For best results, download the Enterprise version.

Dupeless - This nifty little program searches your hard drive for duplicate files, allowing you to free up some space or just re-organise. Good for spring cleaning.

FileAlyzer - This program displays HTML files as hex and ASCII in a safe viewer environment, so you don't run a chance of activating any rogue ActiveX controls.

GibsonIDServe - Does forward and reverse IP lookups, also server IDs. The rest of the site is also good if you're interested in computer security.

IrfanView - What can I say? One of the best graphics viewers on the net, and it's free too! Just a little 382kb download should do the trick.

Spybot Search and Destroy - V. bloody important, this piece of software is. Allows you to ferret out the naughty little programs that keep sending out info on what you like to look at during office hours.

X-Setup - Tweak Windows to your heart's content with this app. Be warned, though, some tweaks are risky so always back up!

ZoneAlarm - Have an always on connection? Invest in this (free) download that acts as a pretty good software firewall. There's also a Pro version you can purchase with extra features, but this is good enough for most people.

All these programs are Freeware so you can use them to your heart's content. Some DO ask you to buy the full version, but that is up to you. And for those of you who want the crack files, I'm not telling.