Go2Convert: Universal Image Conversion Tool

Go2Convert: Universal Image Conversion Tool is a post on MakeUseOf for changing the format (and the size, if you like) of a photo or image.

Features:

• Universal image converter.
• Convert an image into more than 100 different image formats including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG,  PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG and others.
• Convert images up to 5 MB in size.
• Resize the output image for use as an avatar, as a thumbnail, for messages boards or other bigger sizes.
• Free, no need to sign up or enter your email.

How to recover deleted photos from your SD card

ZDNet has a post on How to recover deleted photos from your SD card.

Thumbview adds thumbnail support

FreewareGenius has a post on Thumbview which adds thumbnail support for a wide variety of image formats not natively supported in Windows.

Ever have a file not show you a thumbnail view of certain kinds of graphic files, like png or pcx?  This fixes that.

Open++ enhances your “Right-Click” menu

FreeDownloadADay has a post on Open++ which enhances your “Right-Click” menu.

Increase the options you have for files: send to new places, open new programs…  Freeware.

Enhance Windows Search with the Free Microsoft Filter Pack

Enhance Windows Search with the Free Microsoft Filter Pack.

If you’re using the new Windows Search function in Vista or later (or you’ve gotten it for XP), this will let you cover more types of Windows files.

Use MoveFile and PendMoves to Move a File That is Always in Use

Use MoveFile and PendMoves to Move a File That is Always in Use lets you move those files that are already busy running Windows.

For Vista.

Delete Files Permanently with SDelete

Delete Files Permanently with SDelete, a freeware utility that overwrites files so they cannot be recovered.

Posterous – The place to post everything

Posterous bills itself as “The place to post everything. Just email us. Dead simple blog by email.”

Recommended by Techbite, this is “a handy site for displaying practically any type of file: PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, Flash games, images, MP3s, documents, and videos in a variety of formats. The beauty of Posterous is that PowerPoint files display as they would if you had a PowerPoint viewer and image collections are automatically available as slide shows.”

Free.

ISO what?

ISO files are single files that contain the archived contents of a CD or DVD.  They’re often used to install operating systems or other big programs.  If you download an ISO file, you may need to burn it to a CD or DVD.

Some freeware programs being recommended by PC World are:

• ISO Recorder
• ISOBuster
• Active ISO Burner

Folder Size for Windows Explorer (XP)

Folder Size for Windows Explorer is a handy utility for XP (but not Vista).

When you display a list of files, you see the size of the files listed, but normally not the size of folders — you have to open the folders to get the size.

This changes Explorer so you see the folder size (all the combined files).

Freeware for Windows XP (but not Vista).

DLL Toys

DLL Toys is a specialized utility to find and delete unused DLL files, which are sometimes left behind by programs you uninstalled.

Freeware.

Send To list improved

Right-click on an icon and get the list of options, including “Send to”.

Your “Send to” list can be improved.

At the Start menu, select Run (or in Vista, type Run in the search box).

Type shell:sendto and press Enter.

The folder you get is C:\Documents and Settings\whatever your login is\SendTo and contains the places you might send that item to.  Just add a shortcut to wherever you want as another one of those places.  Then close the file.

Download Microsoft Private Folder 1.0

Softpedia offers Download Microsoft Private Folder 1.0.

Recommended by Maximum PC, this is actually a Microsoft program that they pulled rather than deal with all the people who forgot their passwords.

If you’re sure you can remember your password to this, you can hide anything in here, encrypted, with no backdoor access.

Use at your own risk!

Use Symbolic Links in Vista’s File System

Maximum PC has a post on  How-To: Use Symbolic Links to Master Vista’s File System.

“With Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced a new capability into its operating system: the ability to create symbolic links. Accessible only from the command line, symbolic links aren’t something the average user would need to be familiar with to use Windows, but they are a powerful way to manipulate the file system. In this article, we’ll provide a little background info about symbolic links and hard links, and show you how to use the mklink command to create them. We’ll also show you a couple of examples, including how to use mklink to manage your Steam games and music files. so read on, and find out how you could be taking full advantage of symbolic links!”

Unlocker for those undeletable moments

UNLOCKER 1.8.7 BY CEDRICK ‘NITCH’ COLLOMB is freeware that lets you delete files that Windows has locked while in use.

This is risky (may cause a crash or worse) but for certain files, it may be the only way to handle them.  That goes especially for virus/trojan/other malware programs.

Recommended by MaximumPC magazine.

Saving data from a bad hard drive

Internet Fixes has a post on how to save your data when a hard drive dies.

Step-by-step instructions and downloads for various brands.  This is something to try before you resort to an expensive commercial outfit to do a recovery for you.

Quotepad – free notepad that can save from websites

Quotepad is freeware that allows you to “select some text in any application, press Ctrl+Shift+Q and the selected text will be saved to QuotePad together with the URL of the webpage it was copied from.”

Never wonder “where did I find that, anyway?” again.

Ext2 IFS For Windows and Linux

Ext2 IFS For Windows “provides Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes (read access and write access). This may be useful if you have installed both Windows and Linux as a dual boot environment on your computer.”

WinMerge — what’s the diff?

WinMerge is what you use when you need to find the difference between two files or folders.

“WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.”

Freeware.

How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website

How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website is a Digital Inspiration post with practical instructions on how to handle RSS feeds, videos, audio, photos and slideshows, web albums, events from Google Calendar, very large photos, charts and graphs, animated gifs and screencasts, chat functions, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheet data, PDF files, Flash (SWF or FLV files), LinkedIn profile, Google Maps, another webpage, Windows Media or QuickTime movies, other fonts, and FriendFeed lifestreams.

Whew!