"Planet of the Apps: A Hand-held Revolution" on CNBC

The promotional announcement on CNBC for the program ends with this statement: “Sponsored by the CNBC Real-Time App.”

SpyDLLRemover

I found another tool you might want to add to your antivirus/anti-malware toolkit…
SpyDLLRemover is the standalone tool to effectively detect and delete spywares from the system. It comes with advanced spyware scanner which quickly discovers hidden Rootkit processes as well suspcious/injected DLLs within all running processes. It not only performs sophisticated auto analysis on process DLLs but also displays them with various threatlevels, which greatly helps in quick identification of malicious DLLs…
“Here are some of the prominent and unique features of SpyDLLRemover which set it apart from any other tool of its kind.”
* Displays detailed information about all running processes on the system
– Process name
– Process Id
– Session Id
– Company Name
– Product Name
– Process Description
– Memory Utilization
– Process Binary Path
– Process File Size
– File Install Date
* Shows detailed information about each loaded DLLs within process to make it easier for manual analysis.
– DLL Name
– Company Name
– Description
– Comment about type of DLL (System, Hidden, Suspicious)
– Load/reference count of DLL
– Loading Type (static/dynamic)
– DLL File Size
– File Install Date
– Base Address of DLL
– Entry point of DLL
– Full DLL File Path
* It is standalone tool which does not require any installation and can be executed directly.
It works with Windows XP, 2003, Vista, and 7.
Add it to your arsenal…these days, you can use all of the help you can get.

Do the Taskbar Shuffle

Sometimes I have A LOT of things running on a computer. I multitask so much, using so many programs at the same time, I have used three computers…at the same. There can be a lot open in my Windows System Tray, and on my Taskbar…
It does work as advertised. But wait! There’s more! “Tweak taskbar button grouping”, meaning that you can move and arrange what’s on you taskbar. (“And then, I heard the angels sing…”)
There are “portable” versions: versions of Taskbar Shuffle you do not install into Windows. Just copy it to a storage device (hard drive, USB drive, etcetera) and execute the program.
(“And if you act now…”)
Its’ designed for Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT/95/98. There is a 32-bit version, and a 64-bit version.
According to the Frequently Asked Questions section of the website: “…when I have Taskbar Shuffle running for several days and I randomly check, its memory usage is usually under 1mb (which is VERY low)…if you ever see it using much more than 4mb and that bothers you, simply exit and restart the program…”
And, it’s free.

Dec. 15th only, free IObit Security 360 PRO

I received an e-mail message that a free 1-year-license for IObit Security 360 PRO anti-spyware/malware will be available December 15th…
===========================================================
Download IObit Security 360 PRO free to Protect Windows 7
IObit will give IObit Security 360 PRO away for celebration of Christmas on December 15, 2009
IObit.com / December 14, 2009 – In celebration of Christmas 2009, IObit will give IObit Security 360 PRO away to all users for Windows 7 protection. It is normally sold for $29.95. Visit: http://db.iobit.com/license-free/christmas-gift-is360.php
“Malware and spyware are two of the biggest privacy and security threats that computer users face these days. This ranges from harmless tracking cookies that track a computer user’s activity on the Internet to trojans and worms that steal, modify or delete data.” says Hugo, president of IObit, “A good anti-spyware product should therefore be an integral part of a user’s PC defense system.”
IObit Security 360 PRO is an advanced malware and spyware removal utility that detects, removes the deepest infections, and protects your PC from various of potential spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, bots, worms, and hijackers. Certified by Microsoft, IObit Security 360 PRO is fully compatible with Windows 7.
“We would like to take this opportunity to give IObit Security 360 PRO away freely to express our deep gratitude for the consistent and great support of our users.” says Hugo, “We will keep up improving the anti-malware technology to provide users with higher quality security product for maximum security of computer.”
Visit the following page to get the free 1-year license of IObit Security 360 PRO:
****************************************************
About IObit Security 360 PRO: IObit Security 360 PRO works on Windows 7/ Vista/ XP/ 2000 (32bit or 64bit), multi-language supported. For more information and to download a copy, visit: http://www.iobit.com/security360pro.html

brand new Diskeeper 2010 now available

Diskeeper 2010 defragments enabling better performance. It can: defragment the paging file, defragment the Master File Table, and consolidate directories. And there’s an option for boot-time defragmentation (according to my report in DkBootTime.log, pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys are amongst the files that are optimized).

————————————————————–


From the Readme.txt file (of the x86/32-bit version):

C. CHANGES IN DISKEEPER 2010

IntelliWrite is a ground breaking technology that prevents the majority of fragmentation from ever occurring, dramatically improving Windows system performance.

…IntelliWrite reduces the need for disk head movement and results in a reduction of system resource usage and power consumption.

F. KNOWN INCOMPATIBILITIES
1. Acronis Backup and Recovery — To avoid any potential data loss we don’t recommend defragmenting volumes on which Acronis Backup and Recovery is enabled.

————————————————————

Make sure the version of Diskeeper you are considering is compatible with the operating system you are using. For example: Diskeeper Home is not designed for Windows Vista Business edition

=====================================

Before using Diskeeper, I checked my hard drive for errors with Chkdsk (automatically fixing file system errors, and attempted to recover bad sectors).

According to the Diskeeper Performance Report, after installig Diskeeper, the read and write access time improved 50%.

———————————————————-

Before I get to the geeky/techy stuff below, my summary is: I have used Diskeeper for years, and recommend it.

Per their website: “We are so confident that our products will improve computer speed and reliability at your home or business that we fully guarantee your purchase for 30 days. If you are not completely satisfied with your software purchase, simply contact customer service within 30 days of your purchase date for a full refund of the software purchase price.”

====================================

To try to allow you to be able to compare some values, I’m sharing some of its reports of one of my computers.

Here is the analysis Job Report:

Findings and Recommendations
————————————————————————–
Diskeeper has completed analysis of this volume and found
7,372 low performing files and/or directories and 63,184
excess fragments.

The count of low performing fragments is 56,326.

Very heavy fragmentation detected on this volume. You
should turn on Automatic Defragmentation and allow it to
run full time for maximum performance.

The free space on this volume is moderately fragmented.
Keep Automatic Defragmentation turned on to correct this
problem.


Health
————————————————————————–
Critical!

The overall health of volume C: is severely affected

The overall health is at “Critical” for the following
reasons:

1. The volume is heavily fragmented. The count of low
performing fragments is 56,326.

2. The free space on this volume is moderately fragmented.
The percentage of low performing free space is 1%.


Access Time
————————————————————————–
Time to read fragmented files on volume C

Current read time: 8 minutes

Optimum read time: 4 minutes

46 % improvement



Time to read all files on volume C

Current read time: 33 minutes

Optimum read time: 29 minutes

12 % improvement


Statistics
————————————————————————–

Volume Files
Volume size = 95,143 MB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 60,801 MB
Free space = 34,342 MB
Percent free space = 36 %

Free Space Fragmentation
Percent low performing free space: = 1 %
Total free space extents: = 45,076
Largest free space extent: = 880 MB
Average free space extent size: = 780 KB


Low-Performing files percentage
% of entire volume = 12 %
% of used space = 19 %

Directory fragmentation
Total directories = 22,125
Fragmented directories = 455
Excess directory fragments = 1,559

File fragmentation
Total files = 180,973
Average file size = 358 KB
Total fragmented files = 13,750
Total excess fragments = 61,623
Average fragments per file = 1.34
Files with performance loss = 7,126

Paging file fragmentation
Paging/Swap file size = 2,047 MB
Total fragments = 1

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 215 MB
MFT records In Use = 204,638
Percent MFT in use = 92 %
Total MFT fragments = 2

(In the Most Fragmented Files section of the report, \System Volume Information\_restore appeared the most.)

===============================

Here is the Job Report after I defragmented:

Findings and Recommendations
————————————————————————–
Diskeeper has completed a defragmentation run on this
volume and there remain 1 low performing files and/or
directories and 2 excess fragments. (There were 63,196
excess fragments before the defragmentation run, and now
there are 99% fewer.)

The count of low performing fragments is 0.

Little or no fragmentation detected on this volume. You
should keep Automatic Defragmentation turned on full time
to maintain maximum performance.


Health
————————————————————————–
Healthy

The overall health of volume C: is minimally affected by
fragmentation due to the low level of fragmentation.

There are no volume health issues related to fragmentation.


Access Time
————————————————————————–
Time to read fragmented files on volume C

Current read time: 29 minutes

Optimum read time: 0 microseconds

100 % improvement



Time to read all files on volume C

Current read time: 29 minutes

Optimum read time: 0 microseconds

100 % improvement


Statistics
————————————————————————–

Volume Files
Volume size = 95,143 MB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 60,805 MB
Free space = 34,337 MB
Percent free space = 36 %
Defragmentation method = Max Disk Performance

Free Space Fragmentation
Percent low performing free space: = 0 %
Total free space extents: = 3,762
Largest free space extent: = 990 MB
Average free space extent size: = 9,346 KB


Low-Performing files percentage
% of entire volume = 0 %
% of used space = 0 %

Directory fragmentation
Total directories = 5,674
Fragmented directories = 0
Excess directory fragments = 0

File fragmentation
Total files = 154,555
Average file size = 420 KB
Total fragmented files = 0
Total excess fragments = 0
Average fragments per file = 1.00
Files with performance loss = 0

Paging file fragmentation
Paging/Swap file size = 2,047 MB
Total fragments = 1

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 215 MB
MFT records In Use = 204,831
Percent MFT in use = 92 %
Total MFT fragments = 2


Most Fragmented Files
————————————————————————–
Fragments File size Most fragmented files
None