I’ve never been a fan of registry optimizers and/or cleaners because i never saw any noticeable performace after using these kind of programs. But i also think that i can’t hurt either.

RegDefrag is a program whose only purpose is to defragment Windows registry. It is free and has one of the most simplistic, yet nice, interface.

Try it if you want to see if applications such as RegDefrag can help you with a little performance increase.

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A portable version of Firefox 3.0 RC1 is avaiable.

With this version you can have Firefox in your usb stick or portable device without any need to install it. Just run it and you are all set.

You can visit PortableApps website to download more portable versions of open-source programs.

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Revo uninstaller is a free uninstaller that takes care of removing the left over files that normal uninstall setups don’t remove. It has options for managing startup programs and delete temporary files.

The thing that is useful about this uninstaller is that it scans the registry and program folders for left over files after the normal uninstall is ran. This happens fast, so you don’t have to spend a long time just clean for files.

You can download a portable version in ZIP format.

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Deluge is a great freeware BitTorrent client. It is open source and has plugin capabilities.

Its interface is simple but effective and is light on system resources. It has versions for Windows, Max OS X and Linux.

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This one is really a great application. Pismo File Mount Audit Package can be used to mount ZIP and ISO files as virtual folders to access the contents of the files.

The great value here is that for ISO disc images the contents are made available as a folder right where the image is located without the need to use a virtual drive as with many other free products that mount disc images. However, Pismo only supports ISO and Compact ISO format for disc images.

Another great feature is the ability to create private folders. This works like this: you create a .pfo file and you set a password for it. Then you can mount it and unmount it right away using the password and you can add or delete files inside it. When you unmount it, the folder is reverted to a .pfo file and is encrypted.

The only downside is that you can carry this file with you but you will need Pismo to mount it and use it in another computer. But besides this, the feature is great.

Highly recommended.

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InfraRecorder is an open source program to burn files to CD or DVD.

You can burn audio, data, video and disc images with it. Has options to make disc images, to copy directly from disc to disc and can erase discs.

It is available in many languages and you can download a portable version in ZIP format.

The only thing that i don’t like about it is that it can’t remember the view schemes of the file explorer, a basic thing that nowadays software developers are beginning to overlook more and more. It is very mportant for the usability of software.

InfraRecorder and BurnAware are excellent burning programs.

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Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 now supports Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3, among other new features. You can use it to run other operating systems without modifying your hard disks or current installation of Windows.

I use Virtual PC to test my unattended dvd’s of Vista and XP. Also, i have tried many Live CD’s and Linux distros using Parallels Workstation virtual machines, but there is no support for linux in Virtual PC 2007 yet. Hopefully Microsoft will add it in the future.

Here’s a description from Microsoft:

Virtual PC lets you create separate virtual machines on your Windows desktop, each of which virtualizes the hardware of a complete physical computer. Use virtual machines to run operating systems such as MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2. You can run multiple operating systems at once on a single physical computer and switch between them as easily as switching applications—instantly, with a mouse click. Virtual PC is perfect for any scenario in which you need to support multiple operating systems, whether you use it for tech support, legacy application support, training, or just for consolidating physical computers.

You can even download virtual hard disks (VHD) from Microsoft to try them on Virtual PC 2007. As far as i remember, there are Windows Vista VHD, Office 2007 and Visual Studio 2008.

So, if you are among the people who haven’t tried Vista yet, now is the time to do so.

Check the system requirements to make sure you can run it.

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Unattended usage:
Grab the MSI installer from the temp folder and use
/qb /norestart

Mozilla just released Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 1 today.

Version 3.0 is expected to have memory improvements, new features to handle bookmarks and more. I tested an earlier beta release but i give it up because many of my favorite plugins/extensions did’t work at that time with version 3.0.

Now, more and more extensions are being updated to support this new version.

Mozilla Developer Center:

If no new showstopper issues are found in RC1 it will become Firefox 3 final. If we find any critical issues we will continue to release new Release Candidates until we are ready for final ship.

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