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Friday, 11 June 2010

Two useful free tools for Windows

Posted on 15:05 by Unknown
There are lots of free utilities for Windows and some of them are excellent. The problem is that hardly anyone knows about them because they are tucked away on some website in a corner of the web that people seldom visit. They deserve a bit of publicity so here are a couple of great utilities that you can download and use for free. The first is PC Usage Viewer and the second is ADS Scanner. Both are from Pointstone Software.

PC Usage Viewer makes use of the fact that Windows logs whenever you start up and shut down the computer. It reads this information and then displays it in a calendar view that shows when and for how long you have used the computer. I'm not sure what you would use this information for, but it's interesting to see how much use the computer has had, how many hours it has been running and so on.

The second utility is ADS Scanner and ADS stands for Alternate Data Stream. It is a hidden place where programs or data can be stored that are not visible by normal means. Many programs store information in alternate data streams in addition to the normal file storage that you can see in Windows Explorer. It is a bit like the data and resource forks that the Apple filing system uses.



There are lots of tools that offer to securely delete files on the disk drive that you don't want others to be able to access, but do they also delete the associated alternate data stream? Private information could remain in this storage area, so it is worth checking before you use or buy this type of software.

It is possible for malware to hide in alternate data streams too and your anti spyware and anti virus software should look for alternate data streams and check them for malware. If it isn't doing this, then you aren't fully protected.

ADS Scanner will scan the files on disk and then display the alternate data streams associated with them. You can then select them and view the contents. Of course, most are safe and it's a legitimate way to store data. What you need to look out for is malware using it.
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