Category: Windows 7

While some of the Windows 8 users are trying to add the Start button in their copy of Windows, some other users of previous Windows versions might want to know how it feels to live life without a Start button in Windows. And this is where the freeware program Start Killer comes in. It can temporarily remove the Start button from Windows taskbar and make more space in the taskbar available for other applications.

The most critical part of a computer is the hard disk where you store all your important files. You should stay in touch with the health of your hard disk so that you can pay attention to its needs. For example, if your hard disk is getting too hot, then you may want to install another cooling fan in your PC. The freeware HDDExpert from KC Software analyzes the S.M.A.R.T. data from your hard disk and informs you if you need a cooling fan, a backup software or a replacement hard disk.

If you have lost your files because your kids accidentally deleted them, then do not fret. There is still hope that you can recover the deleted files. The free software SoftPerfect File Recovery can be used to restore deleted files on FAT and NTFS file systems. You can use this software to restore files from hard disk drives, solid state drives, USB flash drives, memory cards and other types of media.

If you want to distribute USB disks containing the same data to multiple people, then you may find ImageUSB very helpful. This freeware application allows you not only to create USB images, but also allows you write them to multiple USB drives at the same time. This way you can clone a USB disk to multiple USB keys simultaneously.

If you are a Windows 7 user and are a bit jealous of the advanced Task Manager available to Windows 8 users, then you can try Daphne – a freeware advanced task manager for Windows. It is a small application that can be used for killing, controlling or debugging Windows processes. In addition, it also includes many utilities like installed software viewer, control inspector, hidden applications viewer and more.

Internet Explorer 11 is being delivered through Automatic Updates in Windows 7. But if you do not want to update to Internet Explorer 11, then you can block the Internet Explorer 11 from being installed in Windows 7. This is done through a blocker toolkit available from the Microsoft. After you install this block kit, Internet Explorer 11 would be blocked in the Automatic Updates of Windows 7.

Here is the dilemma that I had to face a few months ago – my digital camera captures pictures only in the 16:9 aspect ratio, but my color printer prints photos only on a 4×6 inches glossy page. The photographs, that my printer was printing out, had white space left-out unprinted on sides because of the unmatched aspect ratio. Then I discovered JPEGCrops – a freeware program that can crop your JPEG images losslessly (without losing any fine details) to fit on a certain aspect ratio.

The disk cleanup utility in the latest version of Windows (Windows 8) comes with a feature to clean the installed Windows updates. This feature can clean hundreds of megabytes of the Windows updates downloaded over many months or years. If you are a Windows 7 user and are feeling left out, then you can install this feature as an add-on in the disk cleanup utility for Windows 7.

Adobe Flash Player is set to automatically update itself in Windows, which is a good thing. By default, it schedules itself to check for latest updates on the Adobe server every hour of the day in the background. Personally, I find this an overkill to continuously keep querying Adobe servers. After all, they release updates only once in a month. If you are like me and want to reduce the number of times Adobe Flash Player checks for updates, then you can follow these instructions.

Windows operating system and some other popular software regularly checks for updates from their respective servers. But other third party software stay un-updated for a long time. Now you can use the free Soft4Boost Update Checker software to automatically check the latest updates for all the installed software on your PC.