Hello again from beautiful downtown Ephrata. I know it has been a couple of months since you heard from me...and for that I apologize. But, as many regular readers know, Spring, Summer, and Autumn are busy times for me with art shows all over the Northwest. In addition, I've been doing a fair amount wedding, portrait, and event photography, so it has been a very busy 6 months. Finding time to write a blog is hard when one's head is in so many places.
But, the season is winding down (2 shows left as of this writing) and its time for me to get back into the blog mode...so let us see if I remember how to write. On this blog, I want to make some amends for all the months I have missed, so I will start out with two free gifts...outstanding free software...guaranteed.
The first is a program call Auslogics Disk Defragmenter. As the name implies, it is designed to defragment your hard drive so that your files are all in the same location on your drive...making it faster for your computer to load. Defragmenters have been around for years and you should use one at least twice a year. For several years I have used the one that comes with Norton Systemworks or the one that comes with Windows.
The problem with both of them is that they are so slow and it can take hours to do a complete defragmentation. The Auslogics Disk Defrag is much faster, according to reviewers and users who have written their own reviews. And after using it a few times, I agree. It is much faster than any defragmenter that I have ever used. Now, don't expect lightning speed. It still takes a while to run a defragmenting operation. But this one is the fastest I've used.
You can download this great, free program by clicking here.
My second free software gift is a program called "Xplorer2." The best way to describe it is that it is a replacement for Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer). I have never liked Windows Explorer and have been looking for a better file management software program for years. Along the way, I found a few that were good, but not great. Xplorer2 is great.
It works just like Windows Explorer, except that it gives you three columns instead of two, so you can work on two directories at the same time. When you start it, the program remembers where you were the last time you used it whereas Windows Explorer makes you start all over every time.
There are several other improvements that Xplorer2 offers that are too numerous to list here. If you would like to try it for yourself, you can download it here.
I promise more good blogs in the very near future and more good (free) software tips. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
