E-Musings Mon Immorata

Track 'n Clean Up Times Looking at hard disk temperature monitors, a preview of how CCleaner can help speed up your computer by helping remove Windows cobwebs, Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows XP (that works with Windows 2000 + .Net installed), plus wither Firefox? Once I managed to restore access to data I had given up as lost forever, I've been investigating drive temperatures as a contributing factor to drive failure. Especially on today's over-clocked processors. There are several software utilities to monitor system temperatures. Mother Board Monitor (MBM) is probably the best freeware tool. With many user-developed specifications that cover just about every motherboard ever manufactured. But I'm unsure if MBM was a contributing factor to my previous data drive's collapse. It might seem like I'm clutching at straws, but the only software that failed post-restore was MBM. All MBM did was report temperatures. It didn't include alerts about impending drive problems.

While searching the Web for HDD temperature monitors, I found HDD Temperature that runs in the System Tray and displays numerically HDD temperature in either Celsius or Fahrenheit. A temperature log, refreshed every 3 seconds, is also kept. And you can define both temperature levels and display color for normal, warning and critical temperatures. As well as the action when drive goes critical. The default hibernates the computer. Mousing-over the System Tray icon displays HDD details and drive temperature. This utility is donate-ware that displays a nag screen every time it loads. However registration is free but machine specific. And if you want copies (250 kB) for home and office computers you will need to register each separately.

However I would like more than just an HDD sensor. And favorably consider Speed Fan 4.17 that monitors not only fan speeds, hard disks and a motherboard's remote and ambient temperature sensors. Although the interface seems very minimalistic, Speed Fan 4.17 is very powerful. And you can control up to 5 fans with individual speed ratios. As well as change the system clock speed for manual over-clocking. Logging is still rudimentary, and all mine contained were numbers in a .CSV file. I also briefly considered using the Intel® Active Monitor included on the motherboard's companion disk. However this software requires the SMBus. And would consistently fail to install; despite the latest SMBus driver being present! Active Monitor also has a known problem with Windows XP SP1 that requires a separate downloadable patch.

Courtesy the Langalist, I learnt about CCleaner. This free system optimizer deletes temporary files including protected Internet Explorer cache's .DAT index files. You can also empty Internet Explorer's history and cookies. Clean out the Recycle Bin. And delete temporary and log files. As well as recently opened file and search lists for several popular programs. A Registry scanner and cleaner with a backup option is included. Download a copy (306 kb) to help clean out electronic cobwebs. Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows XP that bundles together 2 new games plus a year's subscription to Computer Associates eTrust antivirus. Along with copies of Google Deskbar, Desktop Media Gallery for enhanced images searches, Onfolio Express to store annotated web page lists, Post-it® Software Notes and PayPal Payment Wizard for Outlook and Outlook Express. The Pack requires the .Net framework installed. And the installer is only a gateway that downloads and installs the various sub-components live from the Web. Some of the utilities will work with Windows 2000. A valuable addition to my Internet arsenal is a multi-thread download manager. While I could use the single-thread defaults included with all web browsers, each job takes so much longer to complete. And successful computing is all about maximizing resource use. In the past I've used free download managers like Free Download Manager, Download Expert and the Internet Explorer-only Download Express add-in. As well as LeechGet (while it was free) and trial versions of GetRight.

But while searching for Firefox download managers, I chanced across WinGet 1.8, a free download accelerator that splits a file into multiple sections, downloads each separately, then combines the sections into a single, executable file. Although WinGet can become the default download manager for Internet Explorer, Opera and Mozilla-based browsers like Firefox. I find this cause problems with web sites that block multi-stream clients. I much prefer the also supported Clipboard monitor. Also included is support for supports proxy servers, authentication (password-based access) and cookies.

Earlier this month I'd alerted readers to the fireFTP extension for Firefox. This add-in has since been enhanced. And many limitations noticed earlier resolved. It can now auto-detect file types as binary executable or ASCII text. And can be launched in either a tab. Or in a separate window. Microsoft is also taking the twin issues of spam and email security to heart. I spotted a whole section (highlighted via the home page) explaining what is spam, how email addresses are added to global spammer lists. And most importantly, the steps you can take to hide yourself from spammers. Read more here. That's all for this week. Stay Safe! Click Here to Email Me