Guy's Best Practice Ezine 146 - Useful Utilities

Here are four nifty, cost nothing utilities. My position is this: I have not thoroughly tested all these programs, but I trust Paul DeBrino's judgement. And Paul has researched the programs and provided the links below.

Four Useful Utilities

1) Xobni

Of all these utilities, it is this add-on for Outlook that I have downloaded and use the most. What is more, I can confirm that Xobni is wonderful. I use this add-on for Outlook to find emails, or contacts, that I have lost in amongst my numerous Outlook folders. From my experience Xobni has an efficient and lightning-fast search engine, which integrates seamlessly with Outlook 200x. ** If the only thing that Guy can criticise is the unpronounceable and unspellable name Xobni, then it must be worth a try.

Paul DeBrino points out that I am missing out by not using the impressive calendar and meeting schedule facility of this amazing free Xobni program.

** It never pays to criticise, Neil points out that Xobni is inbox spelt backwards!

See more on tools like Xobni.

2) Jing

The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures images and videos on your computer. The remarkable feature is that you can publish the resulting image and thus share material with friends and co-workers.

Marketing blurb: 'Think of Jing as a supplement to all your chat discussions, email threads, forum posts and blog entries. It sits nicely on your desktop, ready to capture and share your stuff at a moment's notice. Simply select an area of your screen, capture it as an image or record it as a video, and then click Share. Jing conveniently places a URL to your content on your clipboard ready for you to paste the URL into any of your conversations.'

Guy's only problem is that he is locked into three old-fashioned programs which deal with images and web-publishing. If I was starting afresh I would abandon them and just use Jing. See here for a free Jing download.

3) Spiceworks

Do you want a network that you can manage? And not a network that manages you! If so, your wish will be granted, get a copy of Spiceworks.

You never get something for nothing; therefore, I wondered how a nifty program like Spiceworks could be free, with no trials and no time limits. The answer is sponsorship. The top technology vendors have bankrolled the development of Spiceworks. Network freedom is just a download away.

Guy Recommends: Tools4ever's UMRA

Tired of writing scripts? The User Management Resource Administrator solution by Tools4ever offers an alternative to time-consuming manual processes.

It features 100% auto provisioning, Helpdesk Delegation, Connectors to more than 130 systems/applications, Workflow Management, Self Service and many other benefits. Click on the link for more information on UMRA.

4) Eye-Fi

Here is another recommendation from Paul DeBrino. Upload photos automatically from your digital camera to your computer and favorite photo site with the world's first wireless memory card. As Eye-Fi requires hardware, there is a cost involved here. See more about Eye-Fi here

Summary of Free Utilities

Paul DeBrino has a real talent for unearthing handy utilities. Download these four free programs; I am sure that you will find at least one to save you time and hassle. 519

Will and Guy's Humour

This week Will and Guy have done their own research on handy gadgets. Here are some funny gismos for your girlfriend or boyfriend.

Lots of useful computer tools

• Windows 8 App Store • How to Shut Down Win8 • Metro UI • Win8 Sleep • Ezines

• E 173 Handy Utilities • E 146 Tips • E 95 Tips • E 87 Tips • E 86 Tips • E 48 Cost Nothing • E 41 Tips

• E 30 General Tips • E 28 Tools • E 14 Reskit • E 11 Utilities • Kiwi Syslog Server • IP Tracker

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Guy Recommends: WMI Monitor and It's Free!

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is one of the hidden treasures of Microsoft operating systems.

Fortunately, SolarWinds have created the Free WMI Monitor so that you can actually see and understand these gems of operating system information. Take the guess work out of which WMI counters to use for scripts.

Download your free copy of WMI Monitor

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