Spy On Phones

Asoftech Photo Recovery is an effective, but not perfect, program that recovers documents as well as photos and video from memory cards. It didn’t recover some of the tougher items in my tests, but neither does most of the competition. The demo will find files, but not recover them (like most recovery programs). For that, you will need the full version, which costs $30.

I tested Asoftech Photo Recovery by trying to recover some files erased from an SDHC card. Photos–no problem, documents–no problem, video from my Canon 230SX–a problem. The program didn’t find the separate, linked headers that this Canon camera writes to the card, that are required for the .mov files to play properly. Only one program I’ve tried recovered these headers–the free, command line-based PhotoRec (though they must still be reconstructed by hand with a hex/sector editor such as Hexedit).

Though it’s bright purple and not particularly sophisticated, the Asoftech Photo Recovery interface is easy to use, and you can limit the types of files you’re looking for, which speeds up the scan process. But with freebies such as PhotoRec and Recuva available that work as well or better, it’s hard to recommend any pay program until you reach the level of more powerful (and complex) programs like R-Studio Data Recovery and its ilk.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

At one time or another, we install too much stuff. And who can blame us? The Internet is one big playground with lots to install and play with, and we eventually forget that too many installations can slow down and eventually crash our system. One key to a smooth healthy running computer is to keep it as trim as possible, with as little bloatware as possible. Enter Toolbar Cleaner (free) to make that task really easy.

As the name implies, Toolbar Cleaner…well….cleans your system of toolbars. But it actually goes further than that;  it also cleans your browsers of other items such as plugins and extensions. It also provides another service, which is to clean up your Windows start-up menu.So don’t think it is a one-trick pony. It is capable of more than you might think.

But one thing at a time. First you need to install the program, which will literally take only a minute due to the installation file weighing in at 1MB. But a word of caution:  During the installation process, the app will try to change your browser homepage as well as install something called an “anti-phishing domain advisor” (more on that later). You can easily bypass these by unchecking them before proceeding, but an unalert user with their eye on something else at the time may totally miss it.  So concentrate on the installation; otherwise, you will have something else to uninstall later.

When it is ready to go, fire up Toolbar Cleaner and you will immediately be presented with two tabs. The first tab, called “Browsers”, will show you all he toolbars, extensions and plugins that you have installed. he app supports all the big browsers such as Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer. Simply study the list, decide which toolbars, extensions and plugins you want removed and tick the boxes next to them. Then, making sure the browser is closed first, click “Remove Selected Toolbar(s)” and watch the progress bar methodically remove your choices. Then simply restart the browser and see if they are gone.

The other tab is called “Windows Startup”. Again, this is very self-explanatory. You will see a list of all of the services and software apps that start up when you boot up Windows. If you have too many, then Windows will slow down when you are trying to start it. So it pays to have this list as small as possible and only have the essentials starting up. Saying that, if you don’t know what something is, don’t touch it. Otherwise you could end up doing more damage than good.

If you know what something is, and it doesn’t have to start up during Windows boot-up time, then check the boxes next to your choices and click “Remove Selected Startup Item(s)”. They will then be disabled, not uninstalled (an important distinction to make).

Toolbar Cleaner is a nice small simple app which fills a need and does it well.  However, it is slightly spoiled by the fact that it tries to install something on your system as well as try to get your homepage changed. If the developer would remove that, they would have a perfect little app on their hands.

There’s one important point to go over. During installation, the program will try to install something called “Anti-Phishing Domain Advisor.”  You might think it ironic that a program dedicated to removing bloatware is trying to install some of its own. However, I checked with developer Visicom Media, and they told me that Anti-Phishing Domain Advisor is actually a security application that they develop for Lavasoft (makers of Ad-Aware) and Panda Security. The Anti-Phishing feed, which comes from Panda Security servers, is updated several times per hour.  The developer was keen to point out that installation is not obligatory.

Not all toolbars are evil. The Google Toolbar, for example, is well-made and recommended. But all too many toolbars are virus-ridden and malware-infected, doing nothing but slow your system down and send your private information back to the toolbar developer. Keep Toolbar Cleaner handy and run it on a regular basis to keep your system clean.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

Secure deletion utility Eraser is free, comes with a beautiful GUI, can do just about anything when it comes to secure file wiping.

Eraser includes its own interface into the Task Scheduler, letting you set automated disk sweep schedules from within the application. You’re not limited to wiping free space, either: Eraser can be set to securely delete the contents of any folder on a set schedule. That sounds like a scary proposition for me (remember, there’s no way to recover files securely deleted), but for braver souls, the option is there. Also, if you’d like to have your recycle bin regularly and securely purged, Eraser can help you there.

Last but not least, Eraser integrates with the file context menu built into Windows, so that you can right-click any file or folder and get an Eraser submenu. From there, you can securely wipe the file or folder either now, or the next time your computer reboots. All in all, if you’re serious about wiping files on a regular basis, Eraser is a very solid tool.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

DropIt is a free, open-source utility that processes collections of files according to rules you define. For example, you can set it loose at your Downloads folder, and telling it to sort all of the JPG and PNG files into an images subfolder, but only if they’re larger than 30KB (so you don’t have to save small images). It would then take all the ZIP files and put them in another folder, and delete all of the TMP files. In other words, you just configure a bunch of rules, and DropIt does the rest.

You can use DropIt by dragging and dropping files onto its desktop overlay (hence the name), or have DropIt sit in the background and constantly monitor one or more folders for any changes. Once you have a solid set of rules, that latter option offers a distraction-free way to get rid of file clutter, but only after you make some tweaks to the way DropIt works. By default, DropIt shows a progress bar whenever it’s processing files, and also prompts you when it stumbles upon a file it doesn’t know what to do with.

These behaviors make sense when you manually trigger DropIt, but when you have it running in the background, they can be maddening (imagine seeing a progress bar streak across your desktop every 60 seconds, 15 minutes, or however long the automatic scanning interval you set is). Fortunately, both of these features can be disabled in DropIt’s Options dialog.

For DropIt to be useful, you have to spend time carefully configuring it for your own use. After all, only you know how you like your files to be organized. But with time, it can become a useful file management assistant, sorting and removing needless files in ways that make sense to you.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor’s site, where you can download the latest version of the software appropriate to your system. This product is donationware; it is free to use, but the developer accepts and encourages donations towards further development.

There are many recovery programs dedicated to recovering photos and other multimedia files from memory cards. Most, such as Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery 5 work well—assuming they don’t encounter anything oddball.

I put Phoenix Photo Recovery 5 through its paces with some files erased from an SDHC card and it found nearly everything, including all my deleted photos, and some of the .mov files I’d erased. However, it did not find the separate, linked headers that the Canon camera writes to the card. Without these headers, the recovered .mov files won’t play. To be fair, only one program I’ve tried recovered these headers—the free, command line-based PhotoRec—and even it wouldn’t merge them with the corresponding data files. Currently, to the best of my knowledge, you must use a hex/sector editor such as hexedit and merge these files manually.

Stellar Phoenix works as well as most of the myriad pay photo recovery programs I’ve tried and its simple interface and straightforward approach make it easy to master. However, when there’s a free alternative such as PhotoRec that works as well or better, any pay program is going to be a tough sell.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.