Showing posts with label Files. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Files. Show all posts

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

FilExile Lets You Delete Files That Refuse To Be Removed

If you are a Windows user you probably came upon quite a few files in the past that you wanted to delete but could not. There are lots of reasons why you may not be able to delete a file in the operating system; from in-use files locked by a process that is still running, to too long paths or cryptic characters of languages that you cannot even identify properly.

Tools like Unlocker, IOBit Unlocker or Free File Unlocker aid users when files cannot be removed with a tap on the delete key on the keyword.

FilExile is another program for that task. The program does not add itself to the context menu in Windows Explorer, which some users may seem as a disadvantage. Everything is handled in the main program interface.

Here you select a single file or directory that you want to remove from the system. It is unfortunately necessary to use the browse button to select the directory or file that you want deleted. If you do not mind you get a sophisticated program that can delete stubborn files on the system that cannot be deleted.

filexile

A quick test revealed that it was able to delete files that were locked by another process. The program was also able to delete files with a too long file path and with invalid names.

The program contains a safety mechanism that will block the deletion of important system directories like the user or windows directory. You can switch to advanced mode under Settings to enable the deletion of those folders as well. Keep in mind though that you may remove important files or folders from the system that could lead to a crippled operating system that won’t start anymore.

Here it is also possible to enable the show output option to get a read on what the program is doing while it is doing it, and to enable logging.

Accessibility is a big issue that the developers should consider improving in future versions. Options to drag an drop files into the program windows, or a Windows Explorer integration would certainly make the program more appealing to interested users. Still, it is definitely a solid alternative, especially for users who cannot get the other programs to work or function properly on their systems.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday February 22, 2012 -
Tags:windows software

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Thursday, 15 March 2012

Zer0 Makes Sure Deleted Files Can’t Be Recovered Anymore

Every now and then you may want to make sure that files that you delete on a PC cannot be recovered anymore by other users. This may be important if you are passing on the PC to another user, working on a multi-user PC or system that others may have access to. It may even be a good precautionary method before you are passing borders with your notebook or mobile device.

Some might now bring forth the old argument of having nothing to fear if you have got nothing to hide, which has been refuted over and over again. One argument against is that you may value your privacy. There is really no need for someone else to see family photos, financial documents or private email messages when you are crossing the border.

Zer0 is a basic program for Windows that deletes files so that they become unrecoverable on the system. The developers state that it is using a “high security file deletion” algorithm, but fail to elaborate on that. Tests confirmed that files can’t be recovered with software like Recuva or Undelete My Files.

While that may do for private use, it is not recommended for corporate environments because of the lack of information.

Files can only be added via drag and drop to the program interface. Each file is listed with its full file path, size and a status code.

zer0 delete files permanently

A click on delete removes the selected files from the system and overwrites the occupied space on the hard drive so that it cannot be recovered afterwards. Successful deletions are indicated in the status column in the interface.

Zer0 is nowhere near as sophisticated as Eraser for instance. The program still gets the job done even though you’d probably would want to skip it if you are deleting a lot of files regularly on the system.

You can download the program from the developer website. Please note that a “free of all sponsored” offers version is provided on the download page next to the regular program versions. If you download the regular version, you will notice that it is filled to the brim with those offers that install toolbars and other gimmicks that you may not need on your system.

Free File Wiper is an alternative that provides more information about the file deletion process.

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Tags:file deletion, file-recovery, portable software, windows software

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Sunday, 26 February 2012

Protect Files From Unauthorized Access With Encoding Decoding

Full disc encryption or encrypted container files are useful to prevent unauthorized access to a larger number of files. This may feel like overkill though if you only want to make sure that a single file is protected from access. That’s where a program like Encoding Decoding comes into play. The program, available as a portable version and setup, can be used to encrypt and decrypt individual files in record time.

All that needs to be done is to drag and drop a file into the application window to encrypt or decrypt files. A password prompt is displayed if you drag and drop an unencrypted file into the program interface. This password along with an internal algorithm is used to encrypt the file, so that only users with the password can decrypt it to access its contents. Encoding Decoding displays the password strength of the selected password directly in the program interface which can act as a guideline for users who want to make sure they select a secure password.

protect files

Please note that the original file will remain on the system. If you do not want that, you need to delete it manually as there is no option to delete the original file automatically after a successful encryption. Check out securely delete files if you want to delete the file so that it cannot be recovered anymore.

The decryption works in exactly the same way. Drag and drop an encrypted file into the program interface and enter the correct password to decrypt the file. The file is then saved to the same directory the encrypted file is stored in.

encoding decoding

Users who do not want to drag and drop files into the interface can alternatively click in the program window to open the file browser. The program supports three different encoding algorithms which are unfortunately not explained in the program window, help file or the developer page.

Windows users interested in the program can download it from the developer website. It is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the operating system.

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Protect Files in Windows by locking them About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday January 30, 2012 -
Tags:file encryption, windows software

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Thursday, 23 February 2012

SmartCopyTool Lets You Copy Files From Large Folder Structures

If you are using Windows Explorer for your file copying jobs you have probably noticed that it is not the best tool for advanced operations like copying all mp3 files in a folder structure to another folder, or merging directories. That is where specialized tools like SmartCopyTool come into play. The free program lets you copy files from different folders almost effortlessly.

When you first start the program you are asked to pick a root folder first. This is the folder that you want to copy or move files from. You can then use the filter options under Options > Set Filters to define which files you would like to see in the listing. For music files, you would for instance use *.mp3 as a filter. This displays all mp3 files in the program interface.

You can naturally filter by name as well, or add multiple filters to the mix, for instance to list all music files and not only mp3 files.

smart copy tool

The tool offers multiple options to work with the filtered file listing. It is for instance possible to select some or all of the files before copying or moving them to another directory.

The developer of the program originally created it to move part of his 500 Gigabyte mp3 collection to a portable device. It quickly evolved though and can now also be used for backup and synchronization purposes.

Smart Copy files can be used to synchronize a filtered list with another directory. Always wanted to have all your photos from all folders on your hard drive backed up in another folder? Smart Copy Tools does that with minimal effort. There is a lot more that you can do with the program. From merging folders over deleting files to saving file lists.

The program executes all tasks quickly. Small or medium sized directory structures update near instantly when new filters are applied.

The ability to copy or move specific files stored in multiple folders is without doubt the core feature of the program. Windows users who would like to take the program for a test drive ca download it from the application’s SourceForge project page. The program requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0. on the system.

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Tags:copy files, windows software

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Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Export all Google Docs Files with Takeout

Google Takeout is a service that Google users can make use of to export their user data to their local PC. Not all Google services are supported by Takeout though, which limits the use of the service somewhat. Up until now, it only offered to export Picasa Web Albums, Google+ related information, Google Voice data or your Google Contacts.

The developers have now announced that they have added Google Docs to the list of services. Let me show you how you can export all of your Google Docs files now.

Visit the Google Takeout website. If you are not logged in you will be asked to sign in first before you can use the service’s functionality. The frontpage displays a list of all services that you can export data from.

google takeout

You can create an archive of data from all available services, or switch to the Choose services menu to select one service that you want to export data from. Pick Docs from the menu to initiate the export of Google Docs data.

Google Takeout will now calculate the data size of the Google Docs account. Additional services can be added to the archive, and a click on configure opens a menu where you can select the file types for different document formats. It is for instance possible to download spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel, PDF or Open Spreadsheet format.

Please note that the calculation can take quite some time before you will even see progress.

google docs takeout

Click the Create Archive button afterwards and wait until all files have been added to an archive that you can then download for a week before it automatically expires on the Google server.

Takeout is not the first service to export files from Google Docs. Check out Google Docs Adds Zip Document Export to find out how to export selected documents as a single zip document and Synchronize Google Docs documents With Local PCs for two additional options.

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Google Turning Google Docs Into Universal File Host [Google] About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday January 25, 2012 -
Tags:google docs, google takeout

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Friday, 10 February 2012

After Megaupload, How To Backup Your Online Files

Users who have been using the file hosting service Megaupload to host their own files were in for quite a shock when they received notice that authorities had taken down all company servers and files. For some it meant to upload the files again to another file hosting service, others who only had copies of the files on the hosting site realized that they did not have options to get their files back.

Uploading files to just another hoster is however no guarantee that the files stay available for a longer time. It should be clear by now that you need to have backups available either locally or in another location to reduce the likelihood that you will lose the data completely.

Mirror Services

One option that you have is to use so called mirror services such as Mirror Creator to distribute the files to multiple online hosting services. If one or two go down, you still have them available on others that you have selected.

mirror creator

The process of uploading files to those hosters is almost identical, with the difference that you cannot make use of existing accounts and their benefits.

Select files that you want to upload from your computer. A file limit is always displayed, in the case of MirrorCreator it is 500 Megabytes for free users.Select the file hosting services you want to distribute your files to. Free users can select up to ten services.Start to upload the files once, the mirror creation service will take care of the rest.

Here is a short list of file mirror creation services:

Gazup! – Supports six services in total, maximum file size 400 Megabyte if only four are selected.Upload On All – Supports 12 services in total of which ten can be selected for distribution. Maximum file size is 300 Megabytes per upload.Digzip – Lets you pick eight mirrors from a list of 18. Maximum upload size is 200 Megabytes.Multi Upload – Upload to a total of nine different file hosting servicesUpload Mirrors – Select up to 14 mirror servers where you want your files to be hosted. No information about file size limitations posted on site.

You can search for file hosting mirrors and similar phrases to find more services that distribute files for you.

Nothing changes for free users who stay below the upload maximum. Users who need to upload larger files have a few options as well. They could split the files using software like 7-zip or Haozip for this. Other services may be offered, for instance the option to delete uploads again, that are not available when mirror uploading services are used.

If you want to use a specific service, for instance because of the account benefits it provides, you should consider backing up your data at a second cloud hosting service to avoid total data loss if that particular services is no longer available. A suggestion here would be to use a backup and synchronization provider like Dropbox, or if more storage space is required Skydrive from Microsoft. This means however that you will have to upload the files at least twice for this. You could alternatively back them on a local device if you do not want to waste the bandwidth.

Have another suggestion? Lets discuss it in the comments.

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Megaupload Down, Here Are Some Alternatives About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday January 23, 2012 -
Tags:file backup, file hosting, file mirror



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Friday, 3 February 2012

Drag2Up Lets You Upload Files Via Drag And Drop In Chrome

If you upload files, images or text documents for instance, regularly from your computer to Internet sites, you’d probably realized that the process is everything but straightforward. This is especially true if you want to post a file on a site that does not offer uploading capabilities, a comment on a web blog for instance. What you would have to do then is the following:

Find an appropriate host for the file. This can be self hosted web space or a file hosting service.Open the file browser, locate the file on your computer and select to upload itGrab the link to the file and paste it into the comment form at the exact location that you want it to appear.

This process becomes a thing of the past with Drag2Up for the Google Chrome browser. You specify an image, text and binary hosting services from the available selection. Once you have done that, you can use any web form on the Internet to upload files to those services. Even better, the extension pastes the link to the uploaded files directly in that web form.

This is for instance ideal for users who like to post images on Twitter or other sites. Open the extension settings with a click on the Wrench Icon > Tools > Extensions, and the selection of Options next to the Drag2Up listing in the extensions manager.

drag and drop upload

Just drag and drop the file hosts that you want to use to the appropriate sections on the right. Here is the current list of supported hosts:

Images: Imgur, Imm.io, ImageShack, Snelhest, Flickr, Picasa, TwitrPix, Twitpic, Twitgoo, Img.ly, PosterousText: Gist.Github, Pastebin.com, MysticpasteBinary: Checmial Servers, DAFK Up, Minus, Hotfile, Dropbox, CloudApp, Box and Droplr

The selected hosts are then used as the default storage services when files are uploaded via the drag and drop operations. All you need to do from that moment on is to drag and drop files that you want to upload to forms on the selected web page. Let me give you an example on how this works on Twitter.

Visit the Twitter web page, and drag a file from your computer to the What’s Happening form there. You will notice that drop files here is displayed on every form on the page automatically.

twitter drag drop upload

The file is submitted to the selected file host, and the resulting link to the file posted directly in the Twitter form. This saves you quite a few steps.

You may want to disable the “enable marketing” option in the extension settings to avoid advertisement.

Google Chrome users can download the latest version of Drag2Up from the official Chrome Web Store.

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Firefox Drag And Drop Zones, Innovative Search About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday January 19, 2012 -
Tags:file upload, google chrome extensions, twitter

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Thursday, 2 February 2012

Sort Files Into Folders With FileSieve

If you have a large directory of files that has become just to messy to work effectively with, you may want to move those files into appropriate directories. We have already covered Extension Indexer, a program that lets you sort files based on their file extension.

FileSieve now lets you sort files based on a number of methods. The default option sorts all files by the first letter of their filename. A click on Method in the program interface lets you switch to a different sorting method.

filesieve

The following sorting options are available:

Attributes: Sort by file attribute, e.g. achive, hidden or read only.Biggest: Places the biggest source directory items in the destination directory.Consolidate: Moves files from all source directory folders into the destination root folder.Date Stamp: Sorts files by their creation time.Delimiter: Sorts items into directories based a delimited character within the items.Extension: Sort all files based on their extension.MP3 Tags: Sort mp3s into directories based on their album tag data.Owner: Sorts items into directories based on the file owner.Parent Rename:Renames the first file of the source directory to match the name of the parent directory.Smallest: Places the smallest items of the source directory into the destination directory.Standard A-Z: Sorts directories by first character.Substring: Sorts items into directories based on substrings.Words: Sorts items into directories based on words contained in their names.

sorting methods

Modifiers on the other hand allow you to modify paths, filenames or file extensions.

The program supports a simulation mode which runs a simulation of the process without actually copying or moving any files. It is highly recommended to use this mode to test the output before you start using the copy or move file modes. The program displays the original path and filename next to the new path and filename for each processed file.

sort files simulation

You can then go back and change sorting methods and options if you are not satisfied with the result, or switch to the real processing modes if you are.

FileSieve by default processes all files that are stored in the selected source folder or one of its subfolders. You can change those options under step 5 in the program configuration.

Windows users can download the latest version of FileSieve from the developer website. The program crashed several times during tests, but only if very large source folders were selected. The application is compatible with all recent versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday January 20, 2012 -
Tags:sort-files, windows software

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Friday, 20 January 2012

Virustotal Updated, Now Accepts 32 Megabyte Files

The Virustotal online virus scanning service is one of the services that I use on a regular basis. Whenever I find a great looking software in a “not so great” location, I use the service to check the software out before I execute it on my system. This is for instance the case when software authors host their files on file hosting sites, and not on their own web space.

The old Virustotal had a file size limit of 20 Megabyte which worked fine for most executables and setups, but not for all. If you encountered a single file that exceeded the 20 Megabyte limit, you could not use the service to scan it at all. The service had other issues that users encountered every now and then, like large queues or pages that were not loading properly.

The developers have recently updated the service website and virus scanning service that improves Virustotal considerably.

When you open the service’s homepage you will notice two of the changes right away.

virustotal

The first is a new professional feel and look, the second that Virustotal now accepts file sizes of up to 32 Megabytes. That’s a reasonable 60% increase that should resolve the majority of “file size to big” issues that users encountered previously on the site.

Once you upload a file you will notice that the reporting interface has changed as well.

online virus scan

The url scanner is now supporting a total of 19 different scan engines that includes a mix of well known (Google Safebrowsing, Opera, Phishtank) and lesser known services. Some url scanning services provide additional information that are now also displayed in the scan results.

Virustotal has moved to Google’s App Engine Service which, according to the developers, speeds up the analysis significantly. Developers of third party apps now benefit from faster response times thanks to a public API update.

Virustotal has improved significantly thanks to the recent update. Especially the maximum file size increase needs to be mentioned in this regard.

Have you used the new version yet? If so, what is your impression of the service? (via Dottech)

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Metascan, A Virus Total Alternative To Scan Files Online About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday January 15, 2012 -
Tags:online virus scan, virustotal



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Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Move Files Automatically Into A New Folder

Sorting files into folders manually is not the most comfortable option available, especially if you need to create multiple folders to move different files into them. I have reviewed a few programs in the past that automate that process, from I like To Move It which allows you to move files and folders based on rules set in the program’s ini file, to Dir Utils which has options to sort files based on their extension.

Files 2 Folder is a portable program by Donation Coder’s busiest member Skwire. The program registers a new shell entry when launched which can be used to automatically move the selected files into a new folder. Windows Vista and Windows 7 users need to run the program with administrative privileges to register the shell extension correctly. If they do not, the entry is not displayed in the context menu.

Just select one or multiple files in Windows Explorer, right-click the selection afterwards and select the Files 2 Folder option from the context menu.

The software creates a folder based on the filename if a single file is selected, and displays a popup otherwise.

files2folder

Here you can then select to move all files into a single directory that you have to name, or to move each file into an individual folder based on individual file names.

Files 2 Folders simplifies the process of moving files into new folders on the system. This can be a useful program for users who often download all kind of files into a single download folder to move them from that folder at a later time.

A file to uninstall the shell extension is placed into the program folder after registration of the extension. This can be used to remove the entry again from Windows Explorer’s context menu.

Windows users can download the program from Skwire’s website.

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Smart Folders, An Easier Way To Move Files and Create Folders About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday January 12, 2012 -
Tags:portable software, windows software

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Saturday, 14 January 2012

Manage Hosts Files From Within Firefox

The so called Hosts File can be used to redirect hostname requests to different IP addresses.

It is often used to block access to websites or servers, to redirect requests to a new or local server, or by malicious attackers who redirect websites to honeypots and fake websites. Web developers can use the hosts file to work on moved websites before the DNS propagates.

The concept is pretty simple: When you move your website to a new host, you need to tell the DNS system that your domain name is now accessible on a different IP address. This DNS propagation takes up to 48 hours. When you load the website before propagation you automatically load it on the old server and not the new one. This can be problematic for web developers who want to check if the website displays correctly and without errors on the new server. That’s where the host file comes in. You basically force your computer to use the new IP address instead of the old one to open the domain name in the web browser.

Check out our [block]2[/block] for a selection of programs that allow you to work with the hosts file.

The Firefox extension Change Hosts adds those controls, and a lot more to the web browser. Many web developers use the Firefox browser, as it offers access to great web development tools such as Firebug. With Change Hosts installed, they can change hosts files with two mouse clicks.

When you first install the extension you will notice that it adds information to the status bar of the browser. Here you see the name of the active hosts file and the current server IP.

firefox change hosts file

A right-click opens a context menu that displays all available hosts files in a menu, options to flush the Dns Cache, and to open the extension preferences.

The general tab displays whether the hosts file is readable and writable on the system, options to run another local file after changing hosts file, and whether pages should be automatically reloaded when a new hosts file is loaded.

change hosts

The Definitions tab offers options to add, edit and remove hosts file. Hosts files can be edited right away in a basic text editor in the browser, and changes become available immediately after they have been saved. It is furthermore possible to copy and paste information from one hosts file to another, or from the clipboard directly into a hosts file.

Change Hosts is a great extension for web developers that work with the Firefox web browser. The ability to maintain multiple hosts files, for instance for different projects, plus the ability to flush the DNS cache from within the browser are useful features. Firefox users can download and install the latest version of the extension from the official Mozilla Firefox Add-ons repository.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday January 12, 2012 -
Tags:firefox add-ons, hosts file

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