Soluto; Anti-Frustration Software
What is it?
After you install Soluto on your computer it keeps track of all of the programs that load when you start your computer, keeps track of how long each program takes to load, graphs your boot up length over time, and it shows you whether or not each program can be turned off our delayed in booting. The theory behind it is great! Most people will notice that over time their computer gets slower and slower. One of the leading causes of this is that the longer they have the computer, the more programs they install, and therefore the more programs end up running at boot time. Soluto seems like a good way to keep track of that. I've only used it for a couple of days, so I can't attest to the long-term graphing. Check out the screen shot below to see how boot up programs are organized. The orange boxes on the left represent 'potentially removable' and the gray boxes on the right are keepers. I had another few boxes on the left marked as 'no brainers' for removal but... they've been removed!
Where do I get it?
Head on over to Soluto's web-site.
Buy.com Will Rip You Off
I was recently in the market for an elusive projector lamp. Of course our typical vendors did not have the item stocked. So, I went to buy.com and attempted to purchase the lamp on their site. Well once I got to the finalize order screen the process froze. The web-site buttons became unresponsive and I couldn't move the process along. So, I went and ordered the lamp part else where.
A week later a lamp arrived in a non-marked box. (It wasn't even the right model lamp that I was looking for in the first place) After some digging I found out that they had also billed the debit card, BUT they never sent a confirmation email and there was not an invoice in the box. So I gave them a call. Their support wasn't any help either. They apparently have to contact the reseller that sent us the lamp to 'check on their return policy'. Needless to say, we opened up a case with MasterCard...
Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes! Stay as far away as possible from Buy.com. Here's why...
- Their web-site breaks
- They don't send order confirmations
- They send out the wrong part
- They can't give you a refund
- They suck
Virtual Clone Drive
Looking for a clean alternative to Daemon Tools for working with .iso files? How about giving Virtual Clone Drive a spin? It's freeware, it doesn't come with bloat-ware, and it allows you to mount and use .iso files. Need I say more? Head on over to their web-site to download.
Auto-IT a Geeks Scripting Language
Interested in deploying an installation package to 100 computers but don't want to select 'next, next, I do not want to install tool bar, install' on each computer? Package the installation up with an Auto-IT script. Using Auto-IT you can write a script that will launch your installation, select options or enter key presses, and finish the installation for you. Learning how to script in Auto-IT can save you a lot of time if you have a large number of computers to support. Also, if you are familiar with scripting or any other programming language you should find Auto IT easy to write in. I was pleasantly surprised at how straight forward the functions are. If this kind of automation sparks your interest, head over to Auto-IT's web-site to check it out.
The Definition of Irony
For about a month now I had been suffering through slo-o-ow shutdown speeds on my work computer. It would take roughly 15-45 minutes for my computer to turn off. That's uh... way too fucking long. Anyways, per a colleagues recommendation I removed Window's Internet Explorer 8 feature, then re-enabled it. That is basically the equivalent of uninstalling Internet Explorer 8 and reinstalling. After doing that my shutdown speed has gone back to normal.
I believe that Windows checks to see if any policy settings need to be applied while you are shutting down your computer. I'm fairly certain that this check runs in Internet Explorer 8. Does anyone else find it mildly ironic that Internet Explorer 8 broke my Windows Shutdown process? Has Microsoft really fallen that far behind in browser development..?
Wow.