As we all know, computers have failures. They even do so quite often. Once they are switched on for the first time, their performance decreases systematically. At the beginning, it is not a big issue, but after several weeks, start up time, registry consistency or spyware can become a problem.

System Mechanic is a complete suite of tools, covering almost every aspect and element of the computer. Hard drives repair, creation of recovery CDs, network analysis and optimization, advanced options for configuring the whole system, hard drive defragmentation, start up analysis, are only a few examples of all the possibilities and features of this suite.

Every tool offers a simplified or an advanced mode. Our advice is to use the simplified version, as limiting or changing some options can change or disable some required processes of the computer. Anyway, the simplified version grants almost total control of every function of the computer, from applications, software, operating system and hardware.

Extremely useful is the detailed description appearing with every active process. Definitely, a good assessment for our decision of activating or deactivating functions. Note that the control panel in Windows offers almost no information. Start up and recovery CDs are one of the most interesting features of this suite, as with them, it is no longer required to reinstall all the system if a system file is missing or deleted by mistake.

If you want to keep your computer as efficient and performant as the first day, System Mechanic is absolutely mandatory.

Available in: System Mechanic.

Tags: Security, Utilities by admin
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Pando is more than just an application. It’s a creative and innovative way of using the Internet to improve users’ experiences with email, instant messaging and leisure resources on the web. This software makes it possible to share files and content of all types by using the Pando network as a go-between. Its feature which allows you to share files of up to 1 GB via email and instant messaging programs is based on the creation of “.pando” links, which point to the files to be shared.

These .pando files can be created using a simple drag-and-drop type interface in which you just add the files that you want to share with other users. The software itself takes care of inserting these links into the corresponding application or generating the HTML code needed to insert a link in a web page or blog. The free version has a limit of 1 GB, which is increased to 3 GB if you buy the full version, but which is more than enough in any case to share many photos, films, videos or documents without having to worry about whether your email or instant messaging software will be able to cope.

In addition to files, Pando also has room for leisure channels. Using RSS syndication in combination with the “.pando” links, you can have access to all sorts of video channels: from series to themed channels related to technology, health, DIY, etc. Pando is can be run from its own desktop icon or via the toolbars which are integrated into the most popular web browsers, making it even simpler to use every day.

Pando in Goofull.

Tags: Internet, Security by admin
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Downloading files is a major part of the daily activity of an internet user, whether they be drivers, programs, multimedia content, photos or something else. In theory, the ideal situation would be to not have to download anything and instead to make use of the resources directly, from their remote location. But the web isn’t fast or reliable enough for that yet. So, in the end, these things always end up getting downloaded to the local hard disk. Surprisingly, however, web browsers don’t tend to be optimised for this type of activity and, more often than you’d like, they end up losing entire sessions’ worth of files and data. The connection can also fail, meaning that any unfinished downloads are lost.

If you want to avoid these problems, a decent download manager is a good ally. Flashget is one of the most well-established and best-rated around at the moment, and with good reason. It integrates into all the most popular web browsers and also manages BitTorrent and FTP downloads and lets you browse through the file structure of the remote sites in order to hunt down even the hardest to find files. It also manages identification parameters for when authentication is required and keeps a detailed account of your download history, allowing you to resume interrupted downloads from where you left off. It hardly takes up any system resources and features options for setting the number of simultaneous tasks and the total maximum bandwidth to consume during downloads.

FlashGet (2.4.1.1142 Beta 4 version).

Tags: Internet, Security by admin
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The job of antivirus programs is no longer as easy to define as it once was. Viruses aren’t the only problem around any more and they change so quickly that traditional detection methods are more and more ineffective. Moreover, virus trends aren’t the same as they used to be. In the past, their creators wanted their fifteen minutes of fame and made their creations so that they displayed themselves openly to the user. Now they prefer to create other types of “silent” threats which take control of the computer and Internet connection and work away incognito, sending spam or stealing bank account details, passwords or contact data.

Luckily, NOD32 isn’t a conventional antivirus solution; it has strengthened its detection technology, meaning that its already impressive heuristic detection is now even better. Thus it can intercept hidden threats without the need to have a specific antivirus definition for them. Plus, ESET NOD32 is a program that won’t pester you with a never-ending stream of alert messages, which more often than not end up confusing more than informing. It is highly configurable and customizable and the strain upon the system resources is much less than that of other antivirus programs.

All of this makes NOD32 a highly recommendable antivirus solution for the home, one which will not become the permanent centre of attention and which features impressive analysis speeds.

Antivirus Eset NOD32

Tags: Security by admin
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