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From the makers of Comodo Firewall Pro comes this great free backup application.

With Comodo Backup, you can make copies of your data, use incremental or full backups.

The scheduling capabilities are great because you can make backup sets that run in different time intervals to make sure you have everything up to date and copied only as often as you want.

The feature i like the most is Synchronization, because it can monitor folders for changes and make backups as soon as something changes. This way you can maintain folders, external or network drives up to date with the information you need on them without worrying to run a backup set.

Features advertised in their website:

• Easily backup files or folders anywhere on your computer, network, DVD-RW, CD-RW or FTP server
• Files can be written to a multi-session DVD if it already contains a file with the same name
• Email, FTP, zip and configuration passwords are stored in the registry with encryption
• Protect yourself against ever losing those critical files that took hours to create
• Quickly recover your data in the event of data loss
• Schedule backups to run automatically at a time that suits you
• Synchronized backup feature – save a file and it gets copied instantly
• Send E-mail notifications to team members about the status of a backup job
• Save Disk space by compressing your backups as ZIP files
• Configure in minutes with our intuitive interface

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Many sites list hashes, a unique file string based on different algorithms, for their file downloads so that every user can verify the integrity of those files, or even check if the file they got its the same that the one that is on the site.

HashTab makes this a snap by adding a tab called File Hashes to the properties window of every file. If you need to verify a file, right click on it, select Properties and click on File Hashes tab. It automatically hashes the file and shows the calculated string based on the algorithms you choose.

It supports the most used algorithms, including MD5 and CRC32. Another great use for this is to check pairs of files to see if they are identical, because this algorithms produce unique strings for every file, except when they are 100% identical..

I use this very often for patched files in unattended installations or if i want to check a file i got from somewhere else, comparing it with the hash provided in the official source.

HashTab does not support SFV (Simple File Verification) files. If you are looking for a program to check SFV files, i use SFVLite, which is great for checking this type of  files.

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Shark007, a fellow member of MSFN Forums makes this codec pack. It contains everything you need to playback audio and video files in Windows Media Player and Media Center.

All codecs are set to their default settings and it does not contain any extra media player, so you can use whatever you like to play media files. It supports Windows XP as well despite its name.

When dealing with codecs, more does not equal better.
Having the least amount on your system is the best configuration.
This is exactly what the Vista Codec Package does for you.

Windows Media Player and Vista Media Center will be able to play all your files.

Shark007 updates his pack very often to correct issues or include new versions of the codecs. There is an entire forum section devoted to this codec pack. You can get more information about the codecs included and get troubleshooting tips there.

Vista Codec Package does not include any QuickTime components ut Shark007 makes an addon that supports full browser playback and download of QuickTime files. This addon is called QuickTime Lite for VCP.

I have always preferred to use only the codecs i need and i recommend that you do this as well, but if you don’t have the time or knowledge, Vista Codec Package can fill this for you.

Website Download Vista Codec x64 Components

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

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.

Website Download

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.

Website Screenhots Download

I came across this utility. It is called WinFlip and it adds the features of Windows Flip 3D to Windows XP. What is Windows Flip 3D? read the official description.

You can enjoy this features while using XP if you install WinFlip. It is in early stages, so if you cancounter a problem or bug, go to its website, there is a forum.

Also, here’s a link to the debug versions. The author posts “debug” versions that correct some bugs or add new fearures before releasing another major revision.

Website Download

Nowadays, overclocking has become more and more popular. Even hardware manufacturers are implementing new and easier ways to get things done.

I have my CPU, RAM, Front-Side Bus and video card overclocked. One if not the most important thing to keep an eye on is operating temperatures, because too much heat can lead to crashes and/or physical damage to the hardware. Not mentioning that this lowers the life span of your equipment.

There are two great tools to read and messure temps. Both are free and can be used to log temperature over time. This is very useful when overclocking and checking for stability.

CoreTemp

This one is the one i use the most because of it logging feature. You can customize read and log intervals so you can keep an eye when stressing the hardware using games or benchmarks.

Website

Real Temp

This one is very simplistic but does what it claims. It offers a convenient logging for basic needs because the maximum and minimum temperature are displayed and constantly updated as long as the program is running. This feature is not better than CoreTemp logging, but can be useful when monitoring over shorts periods of time.

Website Download