Latest WinUtilities Pro on Giveaway of the Day, today only

[Seeker47]

. . . for a few more hours.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

If the reviews and user comments are to be believed, this one is likely a far more meritorious freebie than the last one I brought to your attention. (But I'm sure that Hech54 can still manage to find a lot of fault with it . . . .)

[hech54]

But I'm sure that Hech54 can still manage to find a lot of fault with it . . . .)

I don't remember that. What software was that?

[Seeker47]

But I'm sure that Hech54 can still manage to find a lot of fault with it . . . .)

I don't remember that. What software was that?

ExifCleaner. Hey -- Ya win some, Ya lose some with these.

[SLK001]

According to the GAOD blog, all their software is compiled to only be installed on the day of the free release only! If it ever needs to be reinstalled, then you have to buy the package.

No thanks. The site should be named "Free Trial of the Day".

[dylz]

I wonder if you could just note the date today and change windows date back to today when you want to register.

[ranchhand]

If you keep a full backup image, it should last indefinitely even if you restore to a different hard drive.

[DarrellS]

If you keep a full backup image, it should last indefinitely even if you restore to a different hard drive.

That's what I do.

I have gotten some software that could be installed later but it does seem like everything that I've downloaded the last year has to be installed on the download date. I downloaded a program a while back close to midnight and when I went to install it, it was expired. I guess the time depends on where they are at, not where you are at.

[Seeker47]

At this point, I'm not sure what program it was, but I'm pretty sure I got some good program from them a while back that -- once installed -- could be relocated to another computer. (But I'm sure it would be the exception.)

Lately, I've been getting more and more interested in portable apps, not liking to be limited to a particular location or tethered to that bleepin' Registry. And being able to take it with you on a USB stick is very appealing -- speed issues or No. In many cases, this is said to be doable with VM ThinApps, or another program I can't recall just now that may be part of a "kit." I would like to get familiar with this procedure, and then SLK001's concern might largely evaporate.

[pirej]

Well.. if you "google-up" for "WinUtilities Pro 9.97 for Free" or "WinUtilities Professional Edition 9.97 Free license" you will find the promo page for the full 9.97 pro version, with legal serial.
You can install it when ever you want

p.s. i would tell you the promo page, but im not shore about the forum rules about that.

[DarrellS]

At this point, I'm not sure what program it was, but I'm pretty sure I got some good program from them a while back that -- once installed -- could be relocated to another computer. (But I'm sure it would be the exception.)

Lately, I've been getting more and more interested in portable apps, not liking to be limited to a particular location or tethered to that bleepin' Registry. And being able to take it with you on a USB stick is very appealing -- speed issues or No. In many cases, this is said to be doable with VM ThinApps, or another program I can't recall just now that may be part of a "kit." I would like to get familiar with this procedure, and then SLK001's concern might largely evaporate.

.

I tried to make different versions of Internet Explorer portable so I could run them on the same machine without having to use a virtual machine but I couldn't get the correct downloads. In my unzipped folders, I'm getting a setup.exe file but not an Iexplore.exe file. Not sure how I'm supposed to use the different browsers without installing them.

[Seeker47]

Lately, I've been getting more and more interested in portable apps, not liking to be limited to a particular location or tethered to that bleepin' Registry. And being able to take it with you on a USB stick is very appealing -- speed issues or No. In many cases, this is said to be doable with VM ThinApps, or another program I can't recall just now that may be part of a "kit." I would like to get familiar with this procedure, and then SLK001's concern might largely evaporate.

.

I tried to make different versions of Internet Explorer portable so I could run them on the same machine without having to use a virtual machine but I couldn't get the correct downloads. In my unzipped folders, I'm getting a setup.exe file but not an Iexplore.exe file. Not sure how I'm supposed to use the different browsers without installing them.

Isn't IE woven into the fabric of the Win OS somehow ? (I recall some big lawsuit about this years ago, but not how it all got resolved.) If that is the case, it might be one of those things that can't be Portable-ized ?

The portable apps I've seen so far all seem to have a similar, recognizable directory ( = folder) structure. There is a stub file that launches the main program executable, and another section that takes the place of stuff that would otherwise have to be in the Registry. I've seen a couple other things that claimed to be portable app.s, but lacked this type of structure, and they turned out to be unworkable BULL SHIT ! So, I'm thinking I may have some clue about what to look for now.

[ranchhand]

I downloaded Audials and went to the Youtube site that I have been trying to extract the music from. It captured the video and music and converted the SWF to WMV. Quality was identical to original. Then I re-imported the WMV back into Audials and it stripped the audio and converted to Mpeg3, perfect quality. Whole thing took 2 minutes, including the video to play. I have been trying for two weeks to find a utility that would do this. I'm impressed. I did a full backup so this sucker is permanently on my hard drive. THANKS Seeker!

[DarrellS]

Lately, I've been getting more and more interested in portable apps, not liking to be limited to a particular location or tethered to that bleepin' Registry. And being able to take it with you on a USB stick is very appealing -- speed issues or No. In many cases, this is said to be doable with VM ThinApps, or another program I can't recall just now that may be part of a "kit." I would like to get familiar with this procedure, and then SLK001's concern might largely evaporate.

.

I tried to make different versions of Internet Explorer portable so I could run them on the same machine without having to use a virtual machine but I couldn't get the correct downloads. In my unzipped folders, I'm getting a setup.exe file but not an Iexplore.exe file. Not sure how I'm supposed to use the different browsers without installing them.

Isn't IE woven into the fabric of the Win OS somehow ? (I recall some big lawsuit about this years ago, but not how it all got resolved.) If that is the case, it might be one of those things that can't be Portable-ized ?

The portable apps I've seen so far all seem to have a similar, recognizable directory ( = folder) structure. There is a stub file that launches the main program executable, and another section that takes the place of stuff that would otherwise have to be in the Registry. I've seen a couple other things that claimed to be portable app.s, but lacked this type of structure, and they turned out to be unworkable BULL SHIT ! So, I'm thinking I may have some clue about what to look for now.

Yes they are but from what I read, they all use the same engine. Not sure about IE9.

I did find a download that had all IE versions from 1.0 to 8 that could all be installed on the same machine. I was kinda leery but since there were no bad reviews, I went ahead and installed 5.5, 6 SP2, 7 and 8. I installed them on an external drive. I wish I could get 9 to install on XP. I'm having trouble with my COX webmail and COX Phoenix sites taking a long time to open in IE 6, IE 7 and FF 3.6. They open a little faster in IE 8 and FF 4 but still a lot slower than they should. I tried both sites on a computer with Windows 7 and IE 9 and they both opened instantly.

[DarrellS]

IE 5.5 crashes and IE6.6 brings up the print driver every time I click a button and both show IE 7 in help about. IE 7 is the version that I have installed in C:\. IE 7 and IE 8 both work as expected.

[Seeker47]

I downloaded Audials and went to the Youtube site that I have been trying to extract the music from. It captured the video and music and converted the SWF to WMV. Quality was identical to original. Then I re-imported the WMV back into Audials and it stripped the audio and converted to Mpeg3, perfect quality. Whole thing took 2 minutes, including the video to play. I have been trying for two weeks to find a utility that would do this. I'm impressed. I did a full backup so this sucker is permanently on my hard drive. THANKS Seeker!

I did not even know about this until I saw your mention of it, with not much time left before the offer expired. So THANKS right back atcha ! Must have missed their email notification. And that would make two potentially worthy items from GAOTD on successive days -- almost unheard of ! (But today it's back to the much more common "Who Needs This ?" with some player I never heard of. There aren't very many good audio / video apps kicking around that won't be found listed in the Tools section here at VH !)

Anyway, I installed this Audials package first on a desktop system, only to discover that it dumped over 500 meg. worth of stuff onto an XP boot drive that was already starting to get crowded again. Quite a bit of that was due to good ol' Net Framework, which I had kind of been avoiding. Oh well. Regarding what I was saying earlier in this thread about portable apps, I did notice a rather unusual option with this AudialsOne offering, for it to be installed instead to a USB thumbdrive. That option appeared to be grayed out when I did the desktop install, but this must have been a hasty mistake on my part. A bit before the stroke of midnight (PST), when the offer expired, I went to install this onto a laptop as well, but connected a USB stick first and was able to install to that instead. It did leave a small launcher on the laptop, but installed well and at a much more reasonable size to the stick. Had I known about this earlier, that would have been my preferred choice, even with a speed penalty. The desktop install keeps popping up an annoying Upgrade Now nag screen, whereas I don't see that at all on the portable version. I'll give it a chance to show what it can do, but may wind up ditching the desktop version. I'm already annoyed by the bootup nag screen from Process Lasso, another and otherwise interesting freebie from GAOTD, but one which has other good and free alternatives.

[ranchhand]

The desktop install keeps popping up an annoying Upgrade Now nag

Odd, I haven't had that problem; try going into Options (lower left of screen), disable "Automatically check for updates" and see if that helps. If not, review the "Avira remove ad screen" (just Google it) and the principle there may also work for this situation. Avira has an ad screen that pops up every time it updates the indexes and I always nuke it every time I install Avira AV.

[cal_tony]

Thanks to Pirej for his post about googling (WinUtilities Pro 9.97 for Free) and thanks to Seeker 47 for first bringing the givaway site to my attention.

Most of the stuff being given away is not stuff I'm interested in but every once in awhile I see something and say" Hey, I really could use that"

Tony

[Seeker47]

O.K., it's another day and another giveaway -- but only until midnight today (4/7) PST / U.S.
Today's is Easeus Partition Master Pro 8.01. User comments at the site were commandingly positive, which is well above the norm. I haven't been a user of this program as yet, so I have no further info at this time.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com