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	<title>Web Review &#187; utilities</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/tag/utilities/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng</link>
	<description>A blog by Riccardo Raneri</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:59:18 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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			<item>
		<title>New alternative for partition resize and management</title>
		<link>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2009/01/16/new-alternative-for-partition-resize-and-management/</link>
		<comments>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2009/01/16/new-alternative-for-partition-resize-and-management/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:06:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>riccardo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[partition managing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/?p=333</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Let&#8217;s speak about EASEUS Partition Manager, a new product for Windows. The first element I noticed is&#8230; the price: the home edition is free for personal use, this is a good beginning   Anyway the version I tested is the Server edition, that supports also Windows Server family operating sytems; in addiction of this, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-336" style="margin-right: 10px;" title="EASEUS Partition Manager" src="http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/epm-server.gif" alt="EASEUS Partition Manager" width="80" height="123" />Let&#8217;s speak about <a href="http://www.partition-tool.com/" target="_blank">EASEUS Partition Manager</a>, a new product for Windows. The first element I noticed is&#8230; the price: the home edition is <strong>free for personal use</strong>, this is a good beginning <img src='http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';-)' class='wp-smiley' />  Anyway the version I tested is the <a href="http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager-server/" target="_blank">Server edition</a>, that supports also Windows Server family operating sytems; in addiction of this, it is able to operate also on 64-bit editions and it offers the possibility to create bootable  CDs/DVDs to boot and operate on dead systems (these last two functions are included also in the Professional edition, as stated in this <a href="http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/comparison.html" target="_blank">comparison table</a>).<span id="more-333"></span></p>
<p>The app presents a simple GUI. Unfortunately it failed the identification of Linux partitions on one of my two hard disks, labelling them as &#8220;Other&#8221;. Anyway the raw codetype of partitions (82, 83, etc.) is showed in their properties, making experienced Linux users able to recognize them &#8211; even if resize features are disabled for these partitions.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/easeus_1.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-334" title="Main window" src="http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/easeus_1-300x212.png" alt="Main window" width="300" height="212" /></a></p>
<p>Editing is as simple as clicking on a partition, choose &#8220;resize/move&#8221; and drag a bar (that represents the entire partition) to modify its width and position:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/easeus_2.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-335" title="The Resize/Move feature" src="http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/easeus_2-300x221.png" alt="The Resize/Move feature" width="300" height="221" /></a><br />
EASEUS Partition Manager runs on many Windows systems (also on my test installation of Windows 7 beta!) and it seems to be a good product, with a wide choice of editions (Free / Pro / Server / Unlimited).</p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>3D Flip for Windows XP</title>
		<link>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2008/02/01/3d-flip-for-windows-xp/</link>
		<comments>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2008/02/01/3d-flip-for-windows-xp/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:15:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>riccardo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tricks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2008/02/01/3d-flip-for-windows-xp/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Vista&#8217;s &#8220;3D Flip&#8221; effect is really nice. Honestly, the entire new graphic of Windows Vista is beautiful&#8230; even if the rest of the operating system is disappointing  
Anyway, if you want to add this feature to your Windows XP&#8230; someone has done it: WinFlip is a little and free addon that is capable to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img style="float: left; margin-right: 10px" title="WinFlip" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/wflip.jpg" alt="WinFlip" />Vista&#8217;s &#8220;3D Flip&#8221; effect is really nice. Honestly, the entire new graphic of Windows Vista is beautiful&#8230; even if the rest of the operating system is disappointing <img src='http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Anyway, if you want to add this feature to your Windows XP&#8230; someone has done it: WinFlip is a little and free addon that is capable to re-create the same effect. Just download it and try!</p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<p><a style="font-size:18px" href="http://winflip.stylekings.de/" target="_blank"><strong>http://winflip.stylekings.de/</strong></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>How to Install Internet Explorer 6 and 7 on the same PC</title>
		<link>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/09/03/how-to-install-internet-explorer-6-and-7-on-the-same-pc/</link>
		<comments>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/09/03/how-to-install-internet-explorer-6-and-7-on-the-same-pc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:47:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>riccardo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tricks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet explorer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/09/03/how-to-install-internet-explorer-6-and-7-on-the-same-pc/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I want to suggest a very good work from TredoSoft: Multiple IE Installer (aka MultipleIEs) is a free tool that installs all the previous versions of Internet Explorer (from 3.0 to 6.0) on a Windows PC, allowing Internet Explorer 7 users to use older versions of IE on the same computer.

It was very useful for [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img title="MultipleIEs" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/multipleies.png" alt="MultipleIEs" hspace="10" align="left" />I want to suggest a very good work from <a href="http://tredosoft.com" target="_blank">TredoSoft</a>: <strong><a href="http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE" target="_blank">Multiple IE Installer</a></strong> (aka MultipleIEs) is a free tool that installs all the previous versions of Internet Explorer (from 3.0 to 6.0) on a Windows PC, allowing Internet Explorer 7 users to use older versions of IE on the same computer.</p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<p>It was very useful for me, because I have to test my sites on Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 but IE 6 is still popular, so I must test everything (at least) on these 3 browsers.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Mount an FTP as a Windows drive</title>
		<link>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/08/04/how-to-mount-an-ftp-as-a-windows-drive/</link>
		<comments>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/08/04/how-to-mount-an-ftp-as-a-windows-drive/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Aug 2007 10:24:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>riccardo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tricks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ftp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/08/04/how-to-mount-an-ftp-as-a-windows-drive/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a web developer I work everyday with FTP to transfer and update files on several web servers. The process is simple but boring: I&#8217;ve to download a page on my hard drive, edit it and then upload it back on the remote machine to test my modifications. These activities must be done with an [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As a web developer I work everyday with FTP to transfer and update files on several web servers. The process is simple but boring: I&#8217;ve to download a page on my hard drive, edit it and then upload it back on the remote machine to test my modifications. These activities must be done with an FTP client like <a href="http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">FileZilla</a>, <a href="http://www.smartftp.com/" target="_blank">SmartFTP</a>, <a href="http://www.ipswitch.com/downloads/index.asp" target="_blank">WS_FTP</a>&#8230;</p>
<p>Microsoft Windows can&#8217;t mount FTP servers on the local filesystem as network folders (you can do it only with computers that are connected in your local network), so it&#8217;s impossible to work with a local application (PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, Notepad++&#8230;) loading and saving documents directly on the remote server.</p>
<p>There is some software that is able to add this functionality to Microsoft Operating System, like the old <a href="http://www.freewarereview.info/2007-01/netdrive_-_browse_ftp_file_structures_like_virtual_explorer-style_drives.html" target="_blank">Novell NetDrive</a>, that is not freeware but is considered as abandonware <strong><a href="http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/qna/999.html" target="_blank">by the same software house</a></strong>. Now Novell suggests to use a newer product like <a href="http://www.southrivertech.com/products/webdrive/index.html" target="_blank">WebDrive</a>, but it&#8217;s unfortunately a <a href="http://www.southrivertech.com/purchase/wdpricing.html" target="_blank">commercial software</a>.</p>
<p>I Googled for a while and finally I found a solution.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><img style="border: 1px solid #000000" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/ftpdrive.png" alt="FTP Drive in action" /></p>
<p><span id="more-161"></span><br />
<a href="http://www.killprog.com/" target="_blank">Killer{R}</a>, a Russian guy has developed a very good alternative: <strong>FTP Drive</strong> is freeware and available for download, and it offers a quick way to emulate a network folder for your FTP connections. It installs a virtual drive in &#8220;My Computer&#8221;, with a letter of your choice, in which it puts a folder for every your FTP account.<br />
Now you can load and save on FTP exactly as you usually work on your local files <img src='http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Configuration is not harder than a traditional FTP client: FTP Drive stays in the systray and it requires not much RAM just (3-4Mb).<br />
Just click <strong>FTP Drive settings</strong> and then &#8220;Edit server list manually&#8221; (it can also automatically retrieve FTP accounts from <a href="http://www.killprog.com/netviewe.html" target="_blank">Netview</a>, a freeware TCP Manager by Killer{R}); type the address of your FTP server, you login and password and some additionaly option, like the preferred transfer mode and the threads limit. Then click the add button and you&#8217;re ready to go: a new folder will appair in &#8220;My computer&#8221;, under FTP Drive&#8217;s network folder, and you&#8221;ll be able to operate directly on remote files.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/ftpdrive_conf.png" alt="FTP Drive configuration" /></p>
<p>Applications are unlimited: you can load a PHP page into your editor, change something and save directly from it to have the online page immediately updated, or you can save a picture found on the Internet from Firefox directly to an FTP drive to have uploaded it on your web server and immediately available for your visitors.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><!--adsense--></p>
<p><strong><a style="font-size: 18px" href="http://www.killprog.com/fdrve.html" target="_blank">http://www.killprog.com/fdrve.html</a></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>A Free Defragger</title>
		<link>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/01/09/a-free-defragger/</link>
		<comments>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/01/09/a-free-defragger/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:10:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>riccardo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2007/01/09/a-free-defragger/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Auslogics Disk Defrag is a free defragmentation tool. It seems to work very well on Windows systems, and several forums on the Internet confirm its efficiency.
Its free version is the only available (this is not a &#8220;lite&#8221; implementation of a more featured application) and it offers a nice interface and great defragmentation speed, compared to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img id="image137" style="margin-right: 10px" title="Auslogics Disk Defrag" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/auslogic.gif" alt="Auslogics Disk Defrag" align="left" /><strong>Auslogics Disk Defrag</strong> is a free defragmentation tool. It seems to work very well on Windows systems, and several forums on the Internet confirm its efficiency.</p>
<p>Its free version is the only available (this is not a &#8220;lite&#8221; implementation of a more featured application) and it offers a nice interface and great defragmentation <strong>speed</strong>, compared to the defrag tool that is provided with Windows XP.</p>
<p>It worths a try <img src='http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag" target="_blank">http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag</a></strong></p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Group Photo Fixer</title>
		<link>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2006/11/05/group-photo-fixer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2006/11/05/group-photo-fixer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:29:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>riccardo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[utilities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2006/11/05/group-photo-fixer/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When you take a picture of a group of persons, it&#8217;s hard to have everybody with open eyes, with a natural face expression, with nothing to be fixed.
Of course you can take some pics and then &#8220;merge&#8221; them with an application like Photoshop, but you have also a quicker alternative: MSR Group Shot, from Microsoft.
This is [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img id="image130" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/groupshot.jpg" alt="Microsoft Group Shot" />When you take a picture of a group of persons, it&#8217;s hard to have everybody with open eyes, with a natural face expression, with nothing to be fixed.<br />
Of course you can take some pics and then &#8220;merge&#8221; them with an application like Photoshop, but you have also a quicker alternative: <strong>MSR Group Shot</strong>, from Microsoft.</p>
<p>This is little and free software can import <strong>two or more pictures of a same subject</strong>, and then <strong>merge them</strong> using only <strong>the parts that the user prefers</strong>.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s see a simple <strong>example</strong>. I have these two photos I took with my girlfriend:</p>
<p><img id="image125" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/1.jpg" alt="Pic 1" /> <img id="image124" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/2.jpg" alt="Pic 2" /></p>
<p>&#8230; what about we want to wear same transparent glasses? Well, we import the two files in Group Shot and we select <strong>her eyes</strong> in the first pic and <strong>my eyes</strong> in the second:</p>
<p><img id="image127" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/group1.jpg" alt="Pick 1" /><img id="image128" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/group2.jpg" alt="Pick 2" /></p>
<p>The application understand that we want to &#8220;swap faces&#8221;, so after some seconds we can click on &#8220;View Composite&#8221; to get the final image:</p>
<p><img id="image129" src="http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/group_final.jpg" alt="Et voilÃ !" /></p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<p><strong><a style="font-size: 16px" href="http://research.microsoft.com/projects/GroupShot/" target="_blank">http://research.microsoft.com/projects/GroupShot/</a></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>40</slash:comments>
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