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volume 12 number 11 november 2007 TipSheet

Welcome to the November issue of MicroMetric's TipSheet.

This monthly newsletter is targeted at addressing the needs of our customers.

This month we'll continue a series on tips on Great Programs You Didn't Even Know You Needed.

Tip 607   Spybot Search & Destroy Category:   Programs

Please try to stifle your yawns. I'm sure you have heard of Spybot Search & Destroy, and I'm sure you're saying that you already have a perfectly decent program to track down spyware. That's fine. But you need to check out Spybot for two reasons. The first is that no single antispyware program is enough; I use four, myself, because I haven't yet found one that can catch all the insidious, constantly morphing, beastly programs determined to pester me until I pay for a video of Britney Spears getting out of a car.

Even if you're already using Spybot, you may need it in a way you're not aware of, because the program's creators hide one of its best features. They even try to scare you away from this feature with warnings of computer disasters, lost data, locusts, and earthquakes.

This secret feature is the ability to edit which programs and services launch when you boot your PC. Other programs give you the same ability, but what sets Spybot above the others is that it provides an explanation and recommendation as to whether most of the programs really need to be there sucking up memory. Without that information, most of us are left staring at program names written in computer gobbledygook and wondering if we should chance a plague of locusts. Be brave: Damn the locusts and take command of your startup. To download(Free Program), go to: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,22262-order,1-page,1/description.html

Tip 608   HyperSnap Category:   Programs

Windows thoughtfully gives you a PrintScreen function so at least one of the orphan keys at at the upper right of your keyboard has some reason for being. But Windows' PrintScreen is another example of software underachieving, as it gives you only a full-screen capture in .bmp format. Like anybody uses .bmp anymore.

Here's a better choice: HyperSnap. A screen shot of your desktop--in any graphics format you can think of and several you can't--is only part of what HyperSnap can offer. You set up hot-keys so that with a single, deft touch you can trigger image captures of individual windows, a region you select or several regions at the same time, any controls or toolbars, entire browser screens (including the part that hangs below screen level), or a single button. Once you have your screen shot, HyperSnap provides the tools to annotate it with text, arrows, circles, stamps, and more than you need, really. It also will capture text in error messages and other dialog boxes that usually resist being transformed into words you can actually use.

If you have to create instructions, document errors, or just illustrate online stories about 14 great programs people didn't know they needed, HyperSnap is the way to go. To download(Free Demo, $35 Program), go to: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,4561-order,1-page,1/description.html


Copyright 2007, MicroMetric, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Permission to copy in total, with this statement and copyright, is hereby granted.

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