 Custom Search Guy recommends: A free desktop tool that monitors, or restarts, your VMware virtual machines. Download your free VM Console Guy’s Recommendations – Computer Utilities Worth a Second LookLet me be realistic here, it’s unlikely that all these utilities will be of interest to you, however, I bet that you will find one that’s worth a second look. ObjectDockA company called Stardock produces an alternative Taskbar called ObjectDock. My friend Barking Eddie spent an enjoyable half-hour tweaking its settings. Guy’s thoughts were, ‘If I had not used the traditional Windows Taskbar for years then I may have fallen in love with it. Sure it’s flashy, but ObjectDock has little in the way of features I don’t already access in other ways’. It reminds me of the time-honoured conundrum with this sort of utility, is it a distraction or timesaver? Is ObjectDock your nagging master, or your distracting buddy who lures you away from your work, alternatively is it your slave who saves you time by fetching stuff just when you need it. Incidentally, I put Vista’s Sidebar is in this same category of utility. As for Stardock, the company produce lots of other goodies so have a look around while you get your free download of ObjectDock. RunWinDiff – Recommended by Paul DeBrinoWinDiff is free Microsoft utility for spotting differences between two files. However, its interface is unfriendly – even confusing, enter a nifty front-end called RunWinDiff. What this add-on from The Code Project does is help you to drag and drop files or directories. It also makes it easier to browse for files and directories using the file and directory chooser dialogs. Another useful touch is RunWinDiff remembers its last screen location. To take a step back, the killer feature of the parent WinDiff is to find tiny differences in large files; my main use is for finding changes in the registry. For instance, suppose you make a change to Internet Explorer and you want to find where in the vast registry is that setting stored. My technique is to save the registry with the setting ‘On’, and then save another copy of the registry with the setting ‘Off’. Now it’s time to set WinDiff to work comparing those two files, on a good day it shows you the precise place in the registry where this, or any other difference, is located. Returning to Paul’s recommendation, RunWinDiff makes it that just bit easier to get started with your research, and it also saves time once you get stuck into the project. The Benefits of Monitoring Network TrafficMost administrators soon give up on network monitoring. This is because they find collecting network traffic difficult. Even if they manage to capture network conversations they find it difficult to analyze the raw data in a meaningful way. By using the Real-time NetFlow analyser you can overcome these difficulties, and take charge of your network rather than leaving matters to chance, or accepting that you are its mercy. We live in a hectic world, thus it’s probably one of two extremes that causes you turn to a Traffic Analyzer. Either you are swamped by a network crisis that you must solve, or else you have that rare 5 minutes slack before your next appointment, so you fire-up the Real-time NetFlow Analyzer and quickly check what’s occurring in your computer ’empire’. Crisis Mode Just Browsing Mode Other Roles for Network Monitoring Guy Recommends: Tools4ever’s UMRA |
