Thứ Tư, 18 tháng 2, 2009

Partition Magic Publisher's Description

Partition Magic allows you to create, resize and merge partitions on your hard drive without destroying data. Partition Magic helps organize and protect your data, run multiple operating systems, convert file system types and fix partition table errors.

Features:

· Organize and protect the information on a hard drive
· Easy, step-by-step wizards help with performing partitioning tasks
· Preview the effects of partitioning a hard drive before implementing anything
· Safely manage multiple operating systems
· Partition hard drives as large as 80 GB
· Access and partition external USB drives
· Undelete a deleted partition from rescue disks
· Remotely copy, move, delete, and create partitions across a TCP/IP connection
· Create and run scripts to automate common partitioning tasks
· Shred partitions to ensure the security of corporate data on retiring hard disks
· Convert from one file system or partition type to another without losing data
· Supports FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and Linux ext2/Swap file systems
· Support for Windows XP

Notice: This is only small and unfunctional demo version. The full version can be buyed here for $69.95.

East-Tec Eraser 2009

East-Tec Eraser 2009 features three major options to make you feel completely safe online and offline: Privacy Guard, Erase Deleted Data, and Erase Files and Folders.

Privacy Guard.
The 'Basic' section configures your protection levels automatically and acts to enforce your security. If you are a beginner, simply choose 'Basic' protection and the program will automatically erase temporary and unnecessary files from Windows and installed applications.
The 'Advanced' section, allows you to select your system features that can eventually disclose personal data, like recently used files, alternate data streams, Windows application logs, etc. You can choose to clear temporary stored data like history, cookies, cache, etc. stored by the Web browsers. Other sensitive data, like P2P software logs and complete or incomplete downloads, can be set as well to be deleted by East-Tec Eraser 2009. If you are worried about the privacy of email, both web-based and news clients (deleted, sent items, and news masks) you can protect them as well with East-Tec Eraser 2009.

Erase Deleted Data.
The Data Eraser allows you to destroy beyond recovery the files in the Recycle Bin and to eliminate deleted data on your local drives. The erasing options include wiping the free disk space and the slack of existing files, as well as scrambling the properties of deleted files or scrambling the log files of system's transactions. You can choose from over a dozen different methods of wiping normal or compressed drives in order to make sure your data is gone for good. Some of these cleaning methods include stopping all software and hardware recovery tools, if there are any active.

Erase Files and Folders.
You can use this feature of the program in order to select files or folders that you want wiped off. You can drag-and-drop files and, of course, choose your favorite deleting settings.

The program interface is very carefully designed and it provides an ergonomic working environment. Wizards are also available for accomplishing tasks and there is also a scheduler, which helps you automate the most repetitive tasks.

Pluses: You get an extra option when right-clicking your Recycle Bin icon, which allows you to quickly erase all files beyond recovery. You can set the erasing process priority to low, normal, high, or real time depending on how busy you are. Where "low" means less usage of system's resources, and "real time" means maximum usage of system's resources.

I tested the program by erasing all the files in the Recycle Bin and we tried to recover them using a couple of file recovery software, but there were no files to be recovered, especially after using the '35 pass Gutman - Stop Hardware Recovery' method.

There are several other features, which I found extremely useful. The possibility to password-protect unauthorized access and to skip files older than a number of selected days were great. You can also establish a list of files and folders in order to prevent them from being erased accidentally.

Drawbacks / flaws:

In conclusion: we may say that once destroyed with East-Tec Eraser 2009 all files are gone forever. This is an excellent solution for safeguarding information both for individual and corporate users.

version reviewed: 9.2

East-Tec Eraser 2009 Publisher's Description

Protect your data and privacy and remove all evidence of your computer and online activity with East-Tec Eraser 2009. Eraser goes beyond U.S. Department of Defense standards for the permanent erasure of digital information and easily removes every trace of sensitive data from your computer: Internet history, Web pages, pictures, unwanted cookies, chatroom conversations and all traces of files, confidential documents or mails deleted in the past.

System Requirements
300 MHz Processor; 128 MB RAM; 15 MB Hard Disk

PortableApps Suite

A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. 'PortableApps' is a suite of programs bundled into a single setup kit and designed to be run from a removable device such as a USB Flash stick, for example.

This suite is skillfully designed to include a list of applications needed by the most of us. The installation package comes in three versions: Platform (911 Kb), Suite Lite (35.5 Mb) and Suite Standard (113.8 Mb).

The suite contains development tools (Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable, XAMPP), games (sudoku portable), Graphics tools (GIMP Portable), Internet browsers and tools (FileZilla, Miranda IM, Mozilla firefox and Thunderbird, etc.), Music&Video tools (Audacity portable, VLC Media Player Portable), Office tools (AbiWord, OpenOffice.org, Sumatra PDF, etc.), Mac-on-Stick operating system and some utilities (7-Zip, CalmWin Portable, etc.). In all, there are 72 portable applications which can be run from a removable drive.

Pluses: The main advantage of using 'Portable Apps' is the thing that you can go 100% mobile and secure your privacy. If you open end edit documents using portable applications or browse the Internet using portable application, there will be no traces left on the computer where you plugged your USB Flash device.

Another good thing is that your Windows registry remains unchanged, no matter how many application you install or uninstall. It's all going on on your removable device.

Drawbacks / flaws:

In conclusion: This suite is open source which means that you can download and use it for as long as you want to without restrictions. An excellent idea, in my opinion!

version reviewed: 1.1


PortableApps Suite Publisher's Description

PortableApps Suite™ is a collection of portable apps including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, sudoku game, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you're ready to go.

System Requirements
win98 or above

FlashFXP 3.6

FlashFXP' is a popular FTP client, which enables you to upload and download files to and from Internet using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). The program has many advanced features, but at the same time, it's easy-to-use. Most of the advanced features are available in the application's main menu. I liked the program because I didn't need to read countless tutorials and help files to learn how to use it.

The user interface contains two panels. It resembles Total Commander. By default, the panel on the left is used for browsing your computer, while the one on the right shows the content of the remote site. Either one of these panels can be switched to a local or FTP browser mode, by clicking a button. On the bottom, another panel displays status information, along with messages from the FTP server.

Resuming incomplete downloads, synchronizing directories, and scheduling tasks are some of this program's features worth mentioning. FlashFXP is able to compare directories based on the criteria you choose. It also supports searching on a FTP server.

Pluses: Many users need to set permissions to directories on the server, after uploading. This is an easy task for FlashFXP. You just need to right-click the folder from the server, and you can set its permissions (properties). The application also supports sending RAW commands to the server. You can have a quick access via to the program using the Internet Explorer Plugin.

Drawbacks / flaws:

In conclusion: A very intuitive design, multi-language support, combined with powerful features make FlashFXP worth a try.