If you ever need to gather your system information for a report, for IT technicians or just to know exactly what is on your computer, Auslogics System Information can do it.

It can save reports, present graphical charts, and lets you take a look at running processes, hardware devices and more.

It can show disk drive usage and system resources, such as free ram, cpu usage.

System Information has many options, and all of them show a great amount of details.

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SMPlayer is an open source, multi-platform video/audio player, focusing in video features.

It uses the well-known (at least in the open source field) command-line player MPlayer. This means SMPlayer doesn’t need external codecs in order to play the files. This is great because it saves you time and troubles when playing less-known formats.

Note: If you are using Windows Vista, the default settings of SMPlayer will disable Aero temporarily while playing files.

For it to work well with Aero, go to Options - Preferences. In the General tab, select gl or gl2 in the Output Drivers: Video drop down list. Aero won’t be disabled anymore.

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This excellent application has a new version.

Remember that you can download a portable version as well a build without the toolbar. Just click on Other Builds in the download page.

CCleaner 2.08.588 changelog:

• Added Startup tool enable/disable checkbox.
• Fixed problem with Vista “low” folders being removed.
• Improved index.dat detection on multiple scans.
• Secure deletion improved with IE History index.dat files.
• Added OS detection to INI files.
• Added Vista Thumbnail Cache cleaning.
• Added ImgBurn cleaning.
• Added Secure deletion to “Recent Documents” cleaning.
• Improved Vista “Recent Documents” cleaning.
• Fixed bug with Chkdsk chk files not being removed.
• Added “Select all” checkbox to header of Registry cleaner.
• Added sorting to Startup tool listview.
• Fixed Vista 64 issue with Startup tool.
• Added Croatian translation.
• Minor tweaks and GUI improvements.

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Windows Vista bootloader can only be modified using bcdedit.exe or for short, BCD (Boot Configuration Data) along with commands and parameters. Microsoft made this changes to allow more possibilities of configuration and to be prepared for future technologies.

This is challenging for average users that just want to add an entry for another operative system or to choose which of them to boot first.

EasyBCD is a great application that lets you manage the bootloader entries with easy to understand options. It has entries for Windows XP or earlier versions, Mac OS X and Linux.

It has a backup feature in case you want to restore the default values. Also, it can look for errors and enable debug mode, a feature that lets you see what is actually happening at boot time.

If you have more than one operative system (this is known as Dual-boot or Multi-boot), or want to install another one along with your current installation of Vista, EasyBCD can help you add or manage this entries with ease.

Here is a FAQ from Microsoft about BCD.

Website EasyBCD Documentation

Microsoft has published a demo of the Multi-touch feature of Windows 7.

It looks great but i think that it will be best suited for kiosks or PDA’s. I can’t imagine myself or other home users using this everyday.

However, it is interesting because this can be added to new Windows Mobile releases or products such as Tablet PC’s or cellphones.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

UberIcon is a free utility that enables some effects when you double-click or launch your shortcuts. It comes with multi language support and you can download additional plugins to add more effects.

This application won’t work with Vista or XP 64 Bit.

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There is a new version of Comodo Firewall Pro.

They are now offering a Pro Plus version that includes anti-virus, but luckily Pro is still free.

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I was thinking this afternoon that when i released ServiceTweaker i totally forgot to tell you about a site that has everything you need to know about Windows services, so you can tweak them using my program.

Charles M. Sparks, well known as Black Viper, took the time and made a list of all the services that were included with Windows, along with information about them, the default startup type, what they are for, their dependencies on other services and profiles named like Safe, Tweaked and Bare Bones.

He included the latest Vista SP1 and XP SP3 services a few weeks ago.

In his site you can take a look at the version of Windows you are running to learn about its services and the default state of each one for deciding which one you would like to disable or change to manual.

Configuring the services is a great way of getting reducing the amount of resources that your computer is using. Also, you can shorten the startup and shutdown times as well.

Take you time to look at each service before you disable it. I have always recommended to change the startup to Manual instead of Disabled so i can monitor a few days to see if one of those Manual services are getting started by some application. If they are not, i then proceed to disable them.

You can do the same.

Don’t forget to download the registry file that restores the default configuration of your version of Windows. This way, if you are not sure whay you just did to some service, you can restore the default values.

I hope that Black Viper’s information and ServiceTweaker help you to improve your computer’s performance.

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Windows XP SP3 Services Windows Vista SP1 Services