I have been using Desktop Calendar by Tinnes Software to schedule tasks and reminders at work for more than six months now. I’ve found the free version has everything I need. This product is clean and uncomplicated, with no bells and whistles to get in the way. It can bet set it to sit wherever the user likes on the desktop, then simply one clicks on a date to enter data.

The data is visible on the calendar, and pops up in a window when the computer starts up on the date in question. The calendar has few special tricks besides setting repeating events “birthdays, anniversaries, etc), but the learning curve is next to non-existent, and it gets the job done. Desktop Calendar is the software equivalent of scribbling notes onto a wall calendar. It’s simple, easy to use, and visible at a glance. Desktop Calendar

WebRoot Windows Washer – This nifty little software program can save you a huge amount of time in cleaning out your computer of temp files. It literally can remove all temp files from all directories on your computer, and this will save you a world of disk space and also improve the performance of your computer. Once downloaded, there are many options within this program to choose from. Simply select the options you want and click “Wash Now.”

This program also has a “bleach” option, so once those files are deleted, they can never be recovered. There is a charge for this program, but, in the long run, it will save you a lot of time, and you can be certain all files will be cleaned out for good. No longer will you have to clean our your computer of temp files manually. Just one click, and it’s done. Check it out at the WebRoot website. You won’t regret it.

PrinterAnywhere is a new solution to long distance printing. PrinterAnywhere is a wonderful little tool for printing to remote computers, or for hosting a globally-shared printer. Using this freeware software package is easy: you just sign up for a PrinterAnywhere account during the installation process, and then select which printers you’d like to share to ANYONE. Printing to another printer is easy, as well. Because PrinterAnywhere installs itself as a printer, you can select it from the Print dialog of any application. Once you click “OK,” you’re prompted to find a shared printer.

Using this application allows you to print directly to friends’ or coworkers’ printers, without the hassle of fax or file-transfers, and makes it easy to send documents over long distances, instantly. Security: There are limited security features, but hopefully future changes allow users to specify a “whitelist” of allowed users. Currently, you can only allow automatic printing of incoming documents from anyone, or from no one. The only option available to filter incoming print requests is to physically confirm each job (through a confirmation box). Despite these security setbacks, PrinterAnywhere is a promising and fascinating application. PrinterAnywhere

Joomla! is a free CMS (content management system.) I have begun using it in enterprise level situations. I am currently designing a system that will keep track of billing, schedules, and resumes for an office of 200. It is an open source project the forked from the Mambo project. It is written in PHP and uses open source databases to store data. It is quick and easy to set up. A novice web master would be able to set it up in under an hour. I am very impressed and its base functionality has saved me a lot of time. Joomla

Defrag Manager is a very slick software package put out by Winternals Software that allows remote defragmenting and monitoring of systems on a network. This is extremely useful in environments with many clients and/or servers that are on a strict schedule for maintenance periods. The interface of the program allows the administrator to set up groups of computers, define the times the computers start and end the deframent process, monitor the defrag progress on each computer in the groups, and view reports about each computer and group.

The software also the functionality to create boot CDs that allow offline deframenting of system drives for MFT and Paging file defragmenting. The program is compatible with modern Windows operating systems (2000, XP, 2003 server, 2003 64bit).

With family spread all over the country, it is nice to be able to help those who are far away with their computer questions. I researched quite a number of remote access programs and was happy to find that LogMeIn.com offers a free remote access program that allows me to connect to another computer and work as though I am at the other computer. LogMeIn Free is easy to set up. I was able to walk my relative through the setup in minutes. Now, they can just sit back and let me fix their computer problems.

For an annual fee, LogMeIn also offers products with features such as file transfer and remote printing. We enjoyed the free trial of LogMeIn Pro before deciding on our free version. It was very handy to be able to drag and drop files from my computer to my son’s computer, but with the free version I can, almost as quickly, copy and paste a document from his computer to mine. All in all, this is a wonderful service. It is easy to use and a great blessing to all of the relatives!