SearchMyFiles Review

Find it for sure



Excellent file search software that leverages an extremely customizable find menu to help track down very specific information. Search using a long list of conditions:

• Contents (binary AND text)
• Size
• Multiple dates (last accessed, created, modified)
• File type (hidden, compressed, encrypted, read-only, etc.)
• Can fiind folders OR files

Often, if you know where your software ISN'T this software can save you lots of time and energy, especially with very large, dynamic databases.

These conditions make up the bulk of the program's interface but there is a "stop searching after ___ files" item at the bottom, which performs a great "parking brake"-type feature, preventing endless searching.

Non-Indexing

The program does not try to make an "index" or a breakdown of information included on a drive. This offers several advantages to this because "the quality of the index and search quality may be degraded due to the mixed content and improper word proximity" (wikipedia), a problem present in programs like the outstanding portable Everything software and non-portable DK Finder.

System Requirements

If you can run Windows 2000, you can run this software. Works with all versions of Windows after Win2K.

Download

• Portablefreeware's listing (recommended)
• Official Homepage

Version: 1.15
Size: 67 k
RAM Usage: 5.3 megs
License: Freeware
Score: 8 out of 10 - In testing, was able to find files other software wouldn't. Wish there were still more options to find files including an easy way to add drives and exempted folders. Also, may scare away non-technical people.
In Kitchen Sink Collection: Yes

See also: Lifehacker's comments

PDFTK Review

Control digital documents

In the continued effort to bring reduce paper usage with digital tools, ways to modify and rearrange digital documents are becoming increasingly important. Although the portable document format (PDF) is thought of as something you only use at the office, tools such as the Kindle are coming out that might also make this the book distribution format of choice. PDFTK is just such a program.

Although far from the smoothest software I've worked with, its packed with easy-to-use and very useful features. If you work with PDFs and don't have a lot of money for all the Adobe software out there, this program is indispensable. Even if you do, the password control system may make it required to have for your computer

Features (from the webpage):

• Collate - allows you to rearrange (reorder, delete, & duplicate) pages in a single document and/or merge pages from multiple PDF documents.
• Split - cut long documents up into pages (each page getting its own numbered PDF file)
• Insert - once you've split, you can add the new pages and coallate.
• Stamp - (a.k.a. watermark)
• Rotate
• Add or remove Password Protection

Unfortunately, the last update was over a year ago at the time of this writing but this software is still chock-full of useful items.

Download:

• PortableApp's version (recommended)
• Portablefreeware's listing and how to make portable (requires Universal Extractor)
• PDFTK (regular download) Homepage

Version: 3.5.3
Size: 2.7 megs
RAM Usage: 3.5 megs
License: GPL
Score: 8 out of 10 - May scare away non-technical people -- help file is fairly sparse but most of the controls are self-expanatory.
In Kitchen Sink Collection: Yes - I use it regularly

GPG4USB Review

[Too] simple PGP encryption

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) has been an outstanding system for security. There are many, many applications for this great technology.

Unfortunately, leveraging this amazing tool has been difficult. Using Pretty Good Privacy for email and file protection should at this late stage be an easy: GPG was created to make a free version of the commercial PGP software, its been ported to almost every operating system, and its security over time has been very solid.

I've been begging for a simple, clean program that makes things ultra easy. Simply put, nobody will use anything else -- even my very security-conscious friends. GPG4USB could have been that program but unfortunately, it went so simple that it left out important features.

• Doesn't create or manage keys -- you need an external program for that. I had to use WinPT the author has a few other ideas to handle this but they may be too complex for some users.
  
• Text only - no file encryption.
  
• Only encrypts, doesn't "sign" messages -- sometimes its not necessary for a message to be private but it is necessary to confirm the identity came from who sent it. Signing does just that.
• Not fully stealth -- this issue is covered in the PortableFreeware Forums (1 and 2). This is only at install, however. After that, doesn't write any settings to anywhere but the program folder.

Hopefully the authors will continue work on really the only real effort I've seen in a while to make PGP simple, accessible, and clean. There's definitely a need for it and I don't think anyone else can or will.

Download GPG4USB

Version: 0.1.1
Size: 25.6 megs
RAM Usage: 10.4 megs
License: GPL (he might take donations)
Score: 6 out of 10 - For lack of alternatives, this is the best portable PGP tool. It does one thing and it does it well.
In Kitchen Sink Collection: No -- and because this isn't a good PGP intro tool, I'll probably leave it out.

Update: this program has continued development and has addressed many concerns in this article, especially regarding a basic key manager.

Making Digsby Stealth

Update: Digsby should be considered spyware and running it under some kind of protection, as described below, is the only way it should be run at all. Real shame the developers of this fine software didn't try to make money in other ways.

----

When portable chat software misbehaves

[image source]

One of the great things about portable software is that it doesn't write a bunch of garbage to your computer -- part of the reason I started this site. However, there is some software out there that claims to be portable, but isn't "stealth" portable, meaning it writes all sorts of information locally. The amazing IM tool "Digsby" has been reviewed elsewhere and its greatness at unifying your social world is well known. Although the software will behave portably, its not there yet. I had to find a way to use this software without the pain.

Unfortunately, the only way I could find to do this was with a a non-portable program, Sandboxie. There may be a way to make it work with the portable API Guard (which would be much more portable), but that's for another time.

Get Digsby stealth:

1. Download and install Sandboxie
2. Download Digsby -- get the version at the bottom of the page that mentions installing to a USB.
3. Right-click the Digsby installer and select "Run Sandboxed"
4. Go through the install sequence normally but save the install to the Desktop (you can move it if you want but it will affect the following steps)
   
5. Close Digsby or just don't select "Start Program Now"
   
6. Expand the folder list by clicking the "+" symbol next to the directires until you get to your desktop. Right click on Digsby and select "Recover to Same Folder"
7. Right click "Sandbox Deault" and select "Delete Contents"
8. Open the Digsby folder on your desktop (delete the uninstall.exe file if you like -- its useless)
9. Right click on the desktop and select "Create Shortcut"
   
10. Create a shortcut and put this in the "Target" feild: "C:\Program Files\Sandboxie\Start.exe" C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Digsby\digsby.exe
11. Right click "Digsby" and select "Run Sandboxed"
12. In the "Start In" feild, put: "C:\Program Files\Sandboxie"
13. Now you have an icon on your desktop that will always run Digsby portably.
14. Done!

The only negative is that the program won't save the username and password. Almost all of the software's settings apart from the window-docking trick are saved on Digsby's servers so you can log on using their software anywhere and get the same experience. For extra privacy, delete all contents of the sandbox (see in step 7) whenever you close Digsby.

Other advantages of this system:

1. If it turns out there are security flaws with Digsby, Sandboxie will prevent a security compromise from harming your computer.
   
2. Not writing system settings to your registry means that, over time, your computer will run faster and cleaner. Sandboxie blocks registry writes.
3. Of course, its not just Digsby -- other programs can be "Sandboxed".
   

Users interested in the other capabilities of Sandboxie may wish to look through the explanation on the site for more details. The software itself is not very elegant but if you're willing to work with it, you can do quite a bit.

Listsorter Review

Simple, simple, simple.

Users who want to take a list of text and make it easier to sort through alphabetically can use this to make their lives easier. It seems so obvious but over the life of the Kitchen Sink project, I use this program at least once a month.

1. Type in a series of things or copy and paste from somewhere else into the Input list.
   
2. Press "Sort"
3. Copy the resulting list and paste it elsewhere.
   

This program highlights in some ways the reason portable software is so important: downloading hundreds of small programs like this for your own use would take forever. To take them all through an install process is even more time-consuming. Yet they save time and effort.

Download Listsorter or from portablefreeware.

Version: 1.0 beta
Size: 2.3 megs
RAM Usage: 3.2 megs
License: freeware (they take donations)
Score: 7 out of 10 - I'm torn because although I love the simplicity, I wish the program would do more. Interface isn't very elegant. A "copy to clipboard" button would make more sense.
In Kitchen Sink Collection: Yes

Cyber Shredder Review

Don't just delete it.

You need a file wipe if you have data that you want that data to stay deleted and Cyber Shredder will handle 90% of this quickly and easily. If you don't think you need wipe software, check out Recuva and see how much you've deleted over time that hasn't gone anywhere. Data from months or even years ago may still be on your computer.

Just open and then drag-and-drop a file or folder you want to wipe with CyberShredder. The program uses obvious progress bars and has clear help information.

Users will only need to use "Very Quick Shred" to make files unrecoverable. Its the fastest and easiest and overwrites the file with random data one time. Wipe programs are very fond of pointing out how completely they obliterate data by overwriting it eleventy billion times, but the vast majority of users will only need to wipe it once since the expense to recover even basic data wipes is in the thousands.

If the data you're destroying is worth this much, you probably shouldn't be using Windows, and should at the very least be using a fully encrypted operating system. Unfortunately, some of us work with systems that aren't fully secure but there's still only a few people who will need a normal shred, especially if you work for a company where that is a policy requirement.

Did you already delete something that you meant to wipe? Look into Eraser portable software.

Download CyberShredder or from portablefreeware.

Version: 1.12
Size: 0.5 megs
RAM Usage: 5.2 megs
License: freeware
Score: 8 out of 10 - wish it would integrate a freespace wipe, always prefer open-source security tools.
In Kitchen Sink Collection: Yes

Related: The BBC gives a little more detail on data shredding.

Clipboard Recorder Review

Ctrl+C on steroids



Taking one of the most common computer activities "copy" and "paste" to the next level, Clipboard Recorder is blessedly simple and effective. By taking multiple "copy" or "cut" entries to a tiny menu that can sit in your taskbar, Clipboard Recorder helps prevent confusion and save time with everyday computer use.

For users who:

• Write repetitive emails and end up re-using bits of text frequently.
  
• Have simply asked themselves: "Why is there only one ctrl+c? If I want to record several things into memory, I should be able to."
• Use a word processor and want to rearrange multiple entries to many different places without cutting, navigating, pasting, re-navigating back, and repeating.
  

Animation on the web site points out just how easy this process is. Using just the keyboard, simply hold the Windows Key + V. Continue holding the Windows key, and press up and down to select from the list, and then just let go of the Windows Key. Or with your mouse, just click on an option and the information will be pasted into your current window. Just give the program a try -- you'll wonder how you went without it.

Even better, clips have symbols from the program they were taken from to help differentiate.

• Did you copy too many things and now you can't remember which is which? There's a search function to help you keep track:

• Want to clean up all those entries? Open the Floating window and select the "delete all" icon:

• Want only a select amount of text to be in the Clipboard Recorder? Right click on the task bar and select the pause button to stop gathering data when you press "ctrl+c".
  

Standard vs. Pro: there are advanced options if you're willing to pay some money but I didn't even find a way to use them. When the trial period runs out, you won't miss it much.

Tweaks: for additional privacy, delete "cbrecord_history" file after use.

Clipboard Recorder (be sure to select portable version) ... see also: portablefreeware page

Version: 4.0.3
Size: 1.8 megs
RAM Usage: 4.7 megs while running
License: freeware
Score (out of 10): 8 - because I won't use this software all the time, its very much just an optional addition.
In Kitchen Sink Collection: Yes

Update: Freeware Genius strongly recommends ArsClip, which has some pretty amazing features and has the advantage of being fully open source and, yes, portable. It also works with many more data types than Clipboard Recorder.

My initial work with ArsClip was negative but I plan to take a second look.