Qashqarian

File have a nasty habit of getting very messy, very quickly, especially if you are a keen downloader, photographer or music buff. If your folders look like the computer equivalent of a teenage girl’s bedroom, take a look at my guide to keeping your files in top condition.
Get rid of the duplicates - this should definitely be step 1 in any re-organization. Duplicate Cleaner is top of my list - it’s fast, free and has all, if not more, of the features of its pay-for cousins.
Protect sensitive data - if you want to prevent your info from falling into the wrong hands, erase any secret files that you no longer need with Freeraser. Now create safe folders for the files you do want to keep with My LockBox.
Get rid of unnecessary folders - use Suction. This pint-sized app will suck the files out of your folders, so it’s prefect if your folder structure has become messed up over time and you want to start over.
Take care of major renaming - Batch File Rename Utility will help you get your file management back on track. It’s perfect for large collections of photos or music and is really flexible, so you’ll have no problem finding a quick and easily-accessible naming convention for your files.
Move blocked and locked files - they’ll only hinder your spring cleaning, so try using Unlocker Portable to shift them out of the way. If you get too enthusiastic while organizing, Recuva is your best option to recover deleted files.
By now, your files and folders should be model examples. Keep them that way by installing a few apps that will allow you to handle your file management like a pro. Q-Dir is a file explorer that’s a step up from Windows Explorer - it gives you considerably more control over your files, and will even let you color-code them, which I find really helpful.
Last but not least, help yourself find all these beautifully managed folders  Google Desktop is a powerful search utility. It’s as user-friendly as Google’s other products and if you’re still struggling with pre-Vista search, it’s a revelation.

If you’ve been using computers for as long as me, you can probably type quite well without looking at the keyboard. Improving your typing speed and accuracy has become increasingly important in today’s world, where computers, smartphones and other keyboard-equipped devices are almost omnipresent.

Typing faster means you can get your work done more quickly, answer your emails in a few minutes and update your blog by the end of the day, all in a much more efficient way. However, there are still people who use just two fingers to type. If you’re among them, don’t worry: you can count on software utilities, web apps and other tools to help you improve your speed and accuracy when typing. These are some of them:

• RapidTyping - Improve your typing by learning the right hand position and training specific groups of letters. The program then lets you use custom texts for advanced typing training, and keeps detailed statistics about your performance and improvement. There’s also a portable version of RapidTyping.

• GS Typing Tutor - Great typing tutor for beginners and advanced users. Learn to type from scratch with basic two-finger lessons, or acquire professional touch typing speed and skills with the program’s lessons and games. GS Typong Tutor keeps stats of your progress and focuses on practicing your most problematic letters.

• Bruce’s Unusual Typing Wizard - Learn to type and improve your speed and accuracy with this simple, efficient tool. It support multiple users and customizable practicing tests, includes a bunch of lessons with different difficulty levels and keeps statistics of your improvement.

• MaxType Typing Tutor - An advanced tutor to improve your typing speed. You can use any TXT file as training test, compete against a computer-controlled opponent in a speed test and record your own typing in order to keep track of your performance. The program measures up to 20 parameters of your typing.

• Klavaro Touch Typing Tutor - This tool helps you improve your speed and accuracy when typing. It includes lessons that become increasingly difficult as you make progress through them, from practicing two letters to writing full texts. Klavaro Touch Typing Tutor has support for many different keyboard layouts and languages.

We’ve all been there. In fact, I was there just yesterday, happily pressing “next, next” in a long installation process. Just a microsecond too late, however, I realized I had accidentally told the program to restart my system. Unsaved documents, half-finished reviews and long strings of tabs disappeared before my eyes. I looked frantically around for some way of stopping it, a big red button perhaps, or a giant STOP lever. Of course, there wasn’t one. To make sure you don’t fall victim to the same problem, I’m going to show you how to stop an unwanted system shutdown or restart.

The easiest way is to create an abort shutdown/restart shortcut. To do this, right click on the desktop and select New > Shortcut. In the box that appears, type shutdown.exe -a. Then call the shortcut whatever you like, and place it somewhere easy to access- in the taskbar if you like. The next time you accidentally tell your computer to shut down or restart, double click the shortcut and you’ll prevent the restart. Just don’t be too trigger-happy with the “Nexts” next time!

If you share your PC then sometimes it’s nice to know that you’ve got some control over what happens on it when you’re not there. Maybe you want to stop your kids accessing certain sites, or maybe you’ve got some confidential information on there that you don’t want prying eyes looking at. Whatever the reason, there are tons of mini-applications out there to give you a bit more peace of mind.

• Folder Lock - Protect folders and files from unauthorised access

• Folder Guard XP Edition - Make your folder invisible until you enter a password

• Anti-Porn - Prevent your kids and minors from viewing explicit pornography

• Clean Slate - A network administrators dream - roll-back any activity performed on a PC

• Winguard Pro Free - Restrict access to installed programs on your PC

• PC Locker Pro - Block access to your PC whilst you’re away from your machine

• USB Lock Auto Protect - Prevent another user from storing data on an external device

• Disk Drive Security - Hide internal and external drives connected to your PC

• iNet Protector - Restrict both internet and program access for children or employees

• BananaScreen - The ultimate security procedure? Unlock your PC with your face!

f you fancy having a bit of fun next time you use Skype then why not try out a voice-changing app? You’ll be able to do all sorts of cool things, from prank-calling your pals as Darth Vader to faking a sore throat in order to get a day off work. There are a number of software tools around that can change your voice in Skype, and none of them are particularly difficult to use.

Skype Voice Changer is a free app that does exactly what its name suggests. Install the application on your PC, open up Skype and agree to the permission request. You’ll then be presented with an effects panel that lets you alter your voice. There are a range of presets and you can tweak each of them using the sliders to change various aspects of the sound.

A more comprehensive and easier to use solution is MorphVOX Pro. The program has some really cool preset voices, including a demon, robot, woman, kid and even a dog! You can also apply background noises to your voice as you’re talking, such as a shopping mall or a traffic jam (perfect for a call to your boss saying you’ll be late for work). Another great thing about MorphVOX Pro is the ‘Voice effects’ section, where you can apply various filters to your dulcet tones, including nasal, growl, underwater and monotone. All of the presets can be customized using the ‘Tweak Voice’ control panel. The downside of MorphVOX Pro is that it costs $39.95, although you can try the program free for 30 days.

If you really want state-of-the-art then check out AV Voice Changer. This app is loaded with a multitude of options that let you really fine-tune your fake voice. There are lots of preset voices to make you sound young, old, sexy, patronizing, joyful or sarcastic. The program includes a ‘Parady Mixer’, which lets you sample celebrities voices before calling people up and pranking them. The tinkering you can do with AV Voice Changer is more akin to a professional audio production app, including a formant morpher (to alter acoustic resonance), voice equalizer and noise reduction settings. The only trouble with AV Voice Changer is the trial is pretty limited, and the program is more expensive than MorphVOX Pro.

If you really want an idea of the fun you can have with voice changers, then you must watch this video of a guy using MorphVOX Pro with some hilarious consequences.

If you’re looking for PDF utilities, you’ve got plenty of choice if you want to open and view without paying a fortune. What’s not so easy is creating and editing them, a problem that leads lots of users to avoid this handy file format altogether.

Just remember: creating PDFs may not be as easy as creating other types of document, but there are still lots of tools that will help you get the job done!

Creating PDFs is most easily achieved by using a PDF ‘printer’ like PDFCreator. Once installed, this program appears like another printer on your printer list. You create the document in your usual Windows application and once you are ready to turn it into a PDF, send it to the PDFCreator printer. This tool will convert your document into a portable, professional PDF, while PdfFactory Pro and Bullzip PDF Printer will do the same job.

What if you have a PDF that you’d like to edit or a form you need to fill in? This one’s a bit harder, as there are very few free apps that do the job well. Obviously there are master programs designed specifically for the purpose, but unless you have a spare $500, you can kiss that option goodbye.

If you have just one document that you want to modify, the trial versions of programs like PDFill PDF Editor and PDF Suite will do the job. If you need a less limiting - and free - option, PDF-XChange Viewer will give you plenty of editing powers. Also bear in mind that some office suites, such as OpenOffice, have PDF functionality built in.

As a final option, you could give online editors like PDF Hammer and PDFescape a try. Just remember that these tools get mixed reviews and only offer basic editing tools, especially in the case of PDF Hammer.

Have you ever wanted to open an ISO, IMG or CCD file but either didn’t want to burn it, didn’t have a blank DVD spare or didn’t even have a DVD burner? Well you can by mounting the file for free using a virtual drive cloning tool.

Virtual drive cloning means that you effectively create a new DVD drive for your computer - but it exists only virtually on your desktop. It’s pretty much like getting a new DVD drive for free with the added bonus that you don’t have to mess around with DVDs or burners.

I used the excellent Virtual CloneDrive although you can use any drive cloning app such as DAEMON Tools. When you install it, you’ll be asked whether you want to associate appropriate file types to it such as ISO, IMG, CCD, DVD and UDF files.

If you don’t intend on using an application to burn discs regularly using your physical DVD drive, it will make your life a lot easier if you select them all so that whenever you encounter one of these file types, Virtual CloneDrive will mount them automatically. Alternatively, you should see an option to mount the files in Explorer or failing that, right click on the target file and select Virtual CloneDrive from the context menu and then Mount. Read on…