class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/jdownloader.png" alt="mass file downloader" />We’ve published href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/download-manager/">lots of articles about download managers here at MakeUseOf. FlashGet, Free Download Manager, and Download Accelerator plus are some of the favorites among Windows users. DownThemAll is usually the pick when we’re going for a mass downloader compatible with our favorite browser. One that we’ve yet to feature is href="http://jdownloader.com/">JDownloader. Some would say that it’s for the more advanced user, but it’s quickly becoming my favorite.

To help you guys fall in love with this little tool, I’m here to show you how to use JDownloader, in conjunction with a free and simple web tool, to mass download images or other files from open directories and websites.

In this example, I’ll be using an open directory that I found over at href="http://www.reddit.com/r/opendirectories/">/r/opendirectories on Reddit. That’s a great little spot to find downloadable content in ridiculous amounts. From there, I’ve managed to find an open directory full of sound effects. Let’s check out one href="http://silenteternity.org.nyud.net/Sound_Effects/BBC%20Sound%20Effects%20Library,%20The/ Animals%20&%20Birds">with sound effects for animals and birds (this link may be dead before you’re able to get to it, so a screenshot is below).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/opendirectory.png" alt="mass file downloader" />

We’re hoarders and we want it all. The next step is to go to href="http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-extractor.shtml">Webmaster Toolkit’s Link Extractor. This unique little tool will extract the links and images of any website you push through. Let’s copy and paste the open directory’s URL here. Since they’re links, we are extracting HREFs, not IMGs. IMGs would be used for extracting images. Those results should show up as displayed below.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/linkextractor.png" alt="mass file downloader program" />

Copy all of the results, excluding the last one. The last one is the parent directory link, which is basically one folder up in the directory. For anyone downloading from many open directories, you’ll always want to exclude the last result. Even if you include it though, you’ll just be downloading a single HTML webpage, so it’s not a big deal. Make sure the results are copied to your clipboard.

Your next step is to href="http://jdownloader.com/downloads/JDownloader.exe">download JDownloader and get it running.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/jdownloader_main.png" alt="mass file downloader program" />

Now let’s select where you’ll be saving the files to. Click on the Settings tab and you should see the following.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/jdownloader_settings.png" alt="mass file downloader program" />

After you’ve selected your directory, click the Linkgrabber tab. The Linkgrabber is basically JDownloader’s built-in system for checking the validity of links. That way, you won’t be attempting to download 404 pages or files that do not exist. It’s a good middleman between you and getting the files you want. Near the bottom left of this window, click Add URL(s). You should then see the following.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/jdownloader_list.png" alt="mass file downloader free" />

JDownloader has attempted to pull the list of URLs we copied from your clipboard, but for some reason the application seems to handle URLs with spaces incorrectly. Links should not include spaces, anyway.

Let’s bring up Notepad now. Paste your list of URLs. From the Edit menu, click Replace…. In the Find what: field, you want to put in a space. In the Replace with field, you want to enter “%20″ (without quotes). %20 is the hexidecimal value for a space. Then click Replace All. It should then replace all spaces with the hexidecimal value, and you’ll see an awful lot of them in your list. Don’t worry, that means it worked (you do not need to include this step in the process for websites without spaces in links, which is the case 99% of the time).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/notepadurls.png" alt="mass file downloader free" />

Now we want to copy that list of URLs. Delete the single line in the JDownloader list and paste our new list. JDownloader then proceeds to check every file in the list and gives you a total download size.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/linklist.png" alt="mass file downloader free" />

Now, click the play button at the top to start your downloads. You’ll be automatically switched to the Downloads tab and you’ll be able to monitor your download progress. Your files are now downloading!

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/linkdownloads.png" alt="mass file downloader" />

Remember, using the link extractor you can extract HREFs or IMGs. If you have a particular page, forum thread, or other website filled with images you want to save, you can use this exact same process.

If you need any help or have any other questions regarding this little method, feel free to drop a line in the comments. JDownloader is for more advanced users (in my opinion) and further unassisted configuration can get a little tricky. I’m here to help.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/featured-whs2011.jpg" alt="windows home server" />Windows Home Server is one of those obscure Microsoft products that you never knew you needed. It’s rock solid reliable, simple to manage with a familiar Windows interface, and my personal choice for a home file server and backup solution. Let me explain what it is and what it can do for you.

What Is Windows Home Server?

Based upon Windows Small Business Server 2008, href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx">Windows Home Server is a consumer-focused server operating system with Windows 7 at the core. It’s been hardened on the security front, slimmed down on the desktop features, and performs a variety of tasks that can really simplify your home computing life. It’s designed to be left alone in a cupboard, constantly on and working, but you can still run a lot of regular Windows software if you want. Full remote access is provided so you can log in and manage your server from any client in the house (or over the Internet).

In hardware terms, if it runs Windows 7 relatively well it will run WHS2011 just fine too, though if you’re building your own machine I’d suggest skimping on the graphics card and getting more memory instead.

Cost – & The Alternatives

Before I start introducing you to features, let me say upfront that Windows Home Server 2011 costs $49.99 if you purchase an OEM license – which means you’ll have to build the computer yourself that you plan to install it on. Legally, you shouldn’t buy OEM versions if you’re installing it onto an existing computer, but I’ve also heard it said that simply changing one of the cables or upgrading the memory classifies you as a “system builder” and therefore qualifies as OEM.

If you’re interested in purchasing a complete, ready built home server computer (usually with a wonderfully small form factor), check out the href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/buy.mspx">hardware section of the Microsoft site. The HP MediaSmart is a popular choice, and costs href="http://www.amazon.com/s/url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=mediasmart&x=0&y=0ronics&field-keywords=mediasmart&x=0&y=0">from $400 to $1,000 on Amazon. Of course, there are free alternatives that handle all the features that Windows Home Server can, and possibly more – but personally I find the complete package that Home Servers offers to be more reliable and less of an effort to maintain.

• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-home-server-amahi/">Amahi Linux is the most feature rich alternative, but the file duplication options aren’t quite there yet.
• FreeNAS is a solid fileserver / router linux distro, definitely for advanced users only. I plan to write an updated article on it, but for now href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/convert-your-old-pc-to-network-attached-storage-with-freenas/">we covered it once before in 2009.
• We regularly cover href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/backup">backup solutions.
• You could href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-new-life-bring-old-pc-to-life-with-ubuntu-pdf">“roll your own server” with Ubuntu Linux, which could run on older hardware too.

That said and done, let’s look at the features provided by Windows Home Server 2011.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/intro-screen-dashboard.jpg" alt="windows home server" width="580" height="406" />

Automated Backups

One of the main concerns of home users is how to implement a decent backup system. For me, this means full data backup, as well a bootable system backup so I can be up and running again soon. If you have more than a few PCs in your house, managing all those backups becomes a constant mess of USB drives and various free apps to handle bootable partitions and…..well let’s just say it’s just a big hassle that I don’t need. WHS handles backing up all your PCs and data with such simplicity, it’s hard to believe it’s a Microsoft product.

Once connected to the server, your computer will be set to back up automatically. That’s it. You can view all the connected PCs from the WHS dashboard and adjust settings for backup frequency or when to delete old backups, but the defaults are fine and it all just works.

In the event of a catastrophic drive failure on that machine, you need only change the drive for a working one, and boot from the supplied WHS recovery CD. All your data and system will then be restored in just a few clicks, over the network, from either the most recent backup set or any archived sets.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/full-system-restore.jpg" alt="home server" />

File Server

With full user access control, WHS is the most reliable file server I’ve used yet. It also gives you the option to backup those file shares, of course.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/manage-sahres.jpg" alt="home server" width="580" height="406" />

Yes, you could just share some folders from any Windows 7 PC, but as anyone with home networking experience knows, the results don’t always work as expected. It’s difficult to set up fine-grained access control without a central user server.

Media Sharing

As well as a secure file store for your media, WHS also allows to share your media with any standard DLNA device – the Xbox 360 for instance. Not limited to your home network only either, you can access your media remotely too over the internet – to show relatives a slideshow for example. You can also upload files to your server which is useful if you’re out on a long holiday.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/remote-slideshows.jpg" alt="windows home server" width="580" height="422" />

Admittedly, movie streaming isn’t a feature I use often and various codecs can present a problem.

One minor useful feature for me is the ability to automatically archive shows and movies from your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pvr-windows-media-center/">Windows Media Center (another fantastic Microsoft product I highlighted last week). This means you can keep all your media centralised and avoid having to put huge drives into your living room HTPC.

It’s Windows 7!

One of the problems with customised Linux distros is the fact that an entire computer is given over to the task, and all other little Windows apps I like to run suddenly need Linux alternatives. Not so with Windows Home Server, as it’s still a functional Windows environment.  However, Home Server doesn’t run some of the more advanced Windows components and isn’t suitable for gaming, for instance. Media Center is noticeably absent.

I do hope you consider using Windows Home Server to handle your homes file and backup needs, but there will always be free alternatives if you’re prepared to put in the time and effort to make it all work. If you have any questions about Home Server I’d be happy to answer them in the comments, or as ever feel free to share your own choice for home backup and file servers – I’d especially like to hear of any complete solutions that are relatively easy to set up. In the coming weeks, I’ll highlight some of the add-ins (plugins?) available for WHS2011 too, that add even more functionality to your server.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/team.png" alt="" />Team Viewer is one of the more popular remote desktop applications on the market. They have had an application available for class="vt-p" href="http://www.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewer.apk">Android for some time, and they have finally stepped up with an update for the Apple app store that allows transferring of files to and from the device for free. It’s great to see them step up with such an important feature.

They have an class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teamviewer/id357069581?mt=8&uo=6">iPhone and class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teamviewer/id379424610">iPad version of the application available for free to non-commercial users. If you are using the application for commercial purposes than they offer an app for class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teamviewer-pro/id357051966?mt=8&uo=6">iPhone and class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teamviewer/id379440657">iPad for $99.

The new app supports file sharing with Windows PCs, Lion OS and Linux systems, so no matter what type of computer you are using they have you covered. If you are looking to access your files while away from home, this is a must-have application.

The people behind Team Viewer actually conducted a national survey of 2,000 people and found that 74% of them wanted to be able to access their computer while away from home. I am actually shocked to find the number so high. If you are in that 74%, go and class="vt-p" href="http://teamviewer.com/en/download/mobile.aspx">download the free app, and access all of your stuff no matter where you are.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iphone_startscreen.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

Source: class="vt-p" href="http://www.macnews.com/2011/08/17/teamviewer-announces-ios-mac-transfer-apps" rel="nofollow">MacNews

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/filesortericon.png" alt="remove mac files"/>

I’ve written several articles on Mac automation software, including href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/automator/">Automator and Apple‘s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-the-awesome-automation-guide-for-mac-users">smart technology folders and albums. Much of our purpose with computers is to get work done faster and more efficiently. To this end, there are several paid third-party automation apps on the market, including Hazel and QuicKeys 4.0, that require no knowledge or use of automation code, as with AppleScript.

Well, finally, there’s a free option that might make a useful introduction to bulk file and folder automation; it’s called FileSorter—a free download in the href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filesorter/id411279149?mt=12">Mac App Store.

Let me say upfront, FileSorter is not the best app for what it does. It’s not even close. But it’s a useful introduction to folder actions if you’ve never used a similar automator program before. FileSorter requires no knowledge of automation code. It simply sorts files based on rules and actions you assign. It works fairly well, but as a version 1.0.2, it has many limitations I will point out later.

Setting FileSorter Rules

After downloading FileSorter, launch it, and in the welcome window click on “Create a new rule.”

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/filesorter.png" border="0" alt="remove mac files" width="550" height="392" />

There are three parts to creating rules and actions for moving, copying, or removing files. Here’s a practical rule you might find useful:

This FileSorter rule will move PNG files on your desktop to a designated folder. This rule can be used for any type of files that normally gets placed on your desktop, and that’s why you would want to have a quick way to move them. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/extension.png" border="0" alt="copy mac files" width="580" height="409" /> /> First click on the green + button in the menu bar of FileSorter. Click on the “Filename” and then on the  drop-down button, select “Extension.” Next, click on the second drop-down button and select “is.” In the final text box type “PNG” or any file extension, e.g. doc, pages, JPG, pdf,  that you want to quickly move. Before moving to the next part, assign a name to this action.

The rule we’ve set so far means that FileSorter will only act on files ending in the extension you specify. Next, we need to create a folder in the Finder to move selected files to when activated upon by FileSorter. So for example, you might move all the png files to a PNG folder inside the Pictures Folder of your Mac. Since for some files, FileSorter does not allow you to create a new folder inside its application, you need to create one before we add the action in the next step. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/choose.png" border="0" alt="copy mac files" width="580" height="409" /> /> Next, click on the “Add Action” button, and in the drop-down menu select “Move,” or Copy—whichever you prefer. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/move.png" border="0" alt="copy mac files" width="272" height="279" /> /> Now, click on the Edit button and select “Choose,” and then select the PNG folder you created for this action. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/choose1.png" border="0" alt="open mac files" width="580" height="409" /> /> Now, to test it out, simply select PNG files on your desktop or anywhere in the Finder, and drag and drop them on top of the FileSorter icon in your Dock. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/movetofilesorter.jpg" border="0" alt="open mac files" width="425" height="354" /> /> FileSorter will automatically move your selected files to your designated folder.

That’s the basic rule and action set up for FileSorter. This works for other type of files. For example, you can set up rules and actions to move items in your Download folder to various different folders in your Finder. This is a great way to sort say all those PDF and JPG files that get saved to your Downloads folder.

Similar Folder actions can be created using href="../tag/2-useful-tips-for-organizing-electronic-files-mac-only/">Automator as well. But again, since FileSorter is free, and if you have no experience with this type of automation you might want to download it and give it a try.

Growl Notice

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/preferences.png" border="0" alt="open mac files" width="206" height="116" /> /> In FileSorter‘s Preferences, you might to want to click the “Use Growl Notifications” which will inform you that FileSorter has successfully run your rules and actions. See more about href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/notified-growl-mac/">Growl here.

Other Rules

Another practical rule may be for quickly moving old files to the trash or an external drive. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/moveoldfiles.png" border="0" width="452" height="264" /> /> In this example, you might want to move all your Word doc files that were created last year to the trash. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/movetotrash.png" border="0" width="575" height="305" /> /> When you click on the Edit button, you can select to move the selected files to the Trash or just Delete them all together. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/200plus.png" border="0" alt="200plus" width="580" height="109" /> /> The similar rule could be used for moving or deleting files in a folder that are over a certain file size.

Finally, FileSorter allows you to add Automator workflows as an action. This is useful for including complex actions that FileSorter can’t perform by itself. To add Automator actions, select “Open” as an action, click the Edit button and add the Automator application you want to run. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/automatorworkflow.png" border="0" alt="remove mac files" width="483" height="261" />

Limitations

There are some big limitations with FileSorter, especially when compared to a paid app called Hazel, which has been around for quite a while and automates rules and actions without you having to manually select specified files and move them on an icon in the Dock.

The biggest limitation to FileSorter is that if you include two or more rules that are similar to one another, FileSorter will run them both. So say you make two different rules to act on PNG files. Both of your actions will run whether you want them to or not. Also, another limitation to the program is that Creation and Modification Date rules are limited to specific days. It would be better if it included parameters like, “in the last ___days”, for example.

But again, if this type of Mac automation is new to you, FileSorter might well be worth downloading and trying out.

Let us know what you think about FileSorter and other similar Mac automation programs you use. Also, check out my free MUO PDF, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-the-awesome-automation-guide-for-mac-users">The Awesome Automation Guide for Mac OS X.

  />
/>Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on href="http://www.makeuseof.dev/answers/" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf Answers!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/filesortericon.png" alt="remove mac files"/>

I’ve written several articles on Mac automation software, including href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/automator/">Automator and Apple‘s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-the-awesome-automation-guide-for-mac-users">smart technology folders and albums. Much of our purpose with computers is to get work done faster and more efficiently. To this end, there are several paid third-party automation apps on the market, including Hazel and QuicKeys 4.0, that require no knowledge or use of automation code, as with AppleScript.

Well, finally, there’s a free option that might make a useful introduction to bulk file and folder automation; it’s called FileSorter—a free download in the href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filesorter/id411279149?mt=12">Mac App Store.

Let me say upfront, FileSorter is not the best app for what it does. It’s not even close. But it’s a useful introduction to folder actions if you’ve never used a similar automator program before. FileSorter requires no knowledge of automation code. It simply sorts files based on rules and actions you assign. It works fairly well, but as a version 1.0.2, it has many limitations I will point out later.

Setting FileSorter Rules

After downloading FileSorter, launch it, and in the welcome window click on “Create a new rule.”

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/filesorter.png" border="0" alt="remove mac files" width="550" height="392" />

There are three parts to creating rules and actions for moving, copying, or removing files. Here’s a practical rule you might find useful:

This FileSorter rule will move PNG files on your desktop to a designated folder. This rule can be used for any type of files that normally gets placed on your desktop, and that’s why you would want to have a quick way to move them. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/extension.png" border="0" alt="copy mac files" width="580" height="409" /> /> First click on the green + button in the menu bar of FileSorter. Click on the “Filename” and then on the  drop-down button, select “Extension.” Next, click on the second drop-down button and select “is.” In the final text box type “PNG” or any file extension, e.g. doc, pages, JPG, pdf,  that you want to quickly move. Before moving to the next part, assign a name to this action.

The rule we’ve set so far means that FileSorter will only act on files ending in the extension you specify. Next, we need to create a folder in the Finder to move selected files to when activated upon by FileSorter. So for example, you might move all the png files to a PNG folder inside the Pictures Folder of your Mac. Since for some files, FileSorter does not allow you to create a new folder inside its application, you need to create one before we add the action in the next step. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/choose.png" border="0" alt="copy mac files" width="580" height="409" /> /> Next, click on the “Add Action” button, and in the drop-down menu select “Move,” or Copy—whichever you prefer. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/move.png" border="0" alt="copy mac files" width="272" height="279" /> /> Now, click on the Edit button and select “Choose,” and then select the PNG folder you created for this action. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/choose1.png" border="0" alt="open mac files" width="580" height="409" /> /> Now, to test it out, simply select PNG files on your desktop or anywhere in the Finder, and drag and drop them on top of the FileSorter icon in your Dock. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/movetofilesorter.jpg" border="0" alt="open mac files" width="425" height="354" /> /> FileSorter will automatically move your selected files to your designated folder.

That’s the basic rule and action set up for FileSorter. This works for other type of files. For example, you can set up rules and actions to move items in your Download folder to various different folders in your Finder. This is a great way to sort say all those PDF and JPG files that get saved to your Downloads folder.

Similar Folder actions can be created using href="../tag/2-useful-tips-for-organizing-electronic-files-mac-only/">Automator as well. But again, since FileSorter is free, and if you have no experience with this type of automation you might want to download it and give it a try.

Growl Notice

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/preferences.png" border="0" alt="open mac files" width="206" height="116" /> /> In FileSorter‘s Preferences, you might to want to click the “Use Growl Notifications” which will inform you that FileSorter has successfully run your rules and actions. See more about href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/notified-growl-mac/">Growl here.

Other Rules

Another practical rule may be for quickly moving old files to the trash or an external drive. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/moveoldfiles.png" border="0" width="452" height="264" /> /> In this example, you might want to move all your Word doc files that were created last year to the trash. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/movetotrash.png" border="0" width="575" height="305" /> /> When you click on the Edit button, you can select to move the selected files to the Trash or just Delete them all together. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/200plus.png" border="0" alt="200plus" width="580" height="109" /> /> The similar rule could be used for moving or deleting files in a folder that are over a certain file size.

Finally, FileSorter allows you to add Automator workflows as an action. This is useful for including complex actions that FileSorter can’t perform by itself. To add Automator actions, select “Open” as an action, click the Edit button and add the Automator application you want to run. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/automatorworkflow.png" border="0" alt="remove mac files" width="483" height="261" />

Limitations

There are some big limitations with FileSorter, especially when compared to a paid app called Hazel, which has been around for quite a while and automates rules and actions without you having to manually select specified files and move them on an icon in the Dock.

The biggest limitation to FileSorter is that if you include two or more rules that are similar to one another, FileSorter will run them both. So say you make two different rules to act on PNG files. Both of your actions will run whether you want them to or not. Also, another limitation to the program is that Creation and Modification Date rules are limited to specific days. It would be better if it included parameters like, “in the last ___days”, for example.

But again, if this type of Mac automation is new to you, FileSorter might well be worth downloading and trying out.

Let us know what you think about FileSorter and other similar Mac automation programs you use. Also, check out my free MUO PDF, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-the-awesome-automation-guide-for-mac-users">The Awesome Automation Guide for Mac OS X.

  />
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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/intro.png" alt="reduce pdf file size" />Lately, I’ve been trying to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-convert-scanned-pages-into-ereader-ebook-format/">scan my class notes and handouts, and transfer some e-textbooks so I can view them on my Kindle to save myself carrying too much in my backpack. This is something that class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/calibre-ebook-management-synchronization-software-multi-os/">Calibre could help convert easily to ebook reader-friendly formats, but the resulting PDF files are often huge, have several pages and thus, take sometime to load and smoothly display things. This is especially true for my Logic textbook, which is about 180MB.

So in my desperate search for ways to optimize PDF files, I’ve found that there aren’t many free options. Although there are a lot of shareware programs, there are also, thankfully, a few free programs can help you reduce a PDF file size.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.irfanview.com/">Irfanview & class="vt-p" href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostscript/">GhostScript [Windows & class="vt-p" href="http://www.wine-reviews.net/applications/irfanview-410-on-linux-with-wine.html">Possibly Linux]

If you don’t have class="vt-p" href="http://www.irfanview.com/">Irfanview, you should really consider downloading it. It’s a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/irfanview-blows-windows-viewer-out-of-the-water/">much better and lightning fast alternative to the default image viewer in Windows, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-cool-irfanview-plugins-enhance-simple-image-editor/">supports countless plugins that allow it to be extremely versatile, and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-convert-a-pdf-file-to-a-jpg-image/">converts images to different file types. You can use it to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-easy-ways-to-add-borders-to-your-photos/">add borders and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watermarks-marking-your-image-territory/">watermarks to your photos, and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-take-a-screenshot-batch-process-images-irfanview/">batch process many images at a time. You can also view PDF files, provided you download class="vt-p" href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostscript/">GhostScript first.

Once you have Ghostscript installed, you can use Irfanview ( class="vt-p" href="http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/irfanview_portable">portable version will work as well) to view PDF files and save them as new files. You’ll get a box on the right of the Save As dialog to choose compression levels.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/2.jpg" alt="reduce pdf file size" width="320" height="370" />

You can choose to save with lossless, best, high, medium, and ‘dump’ quality. In my tests, Irfanview reduced a 14MB PDF file to 8MB using the high-quality setting in Compression, while the lossless and best quality settings produced files bigger than the original size.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/3.jpg" alt="reduce pdf size" width="580" height="348" />

class="vt-p" href="http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx">PrimoPDF [Windows]

class="vt-p" href="http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx">PrimoPDF is a desktop application that allows you to create PDF files from image files and documents.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/4e.jpg" alt="reduce pdf size" width="563" height="600" />

It installs itself as a virtual printer, which makes optimizing PDF files a matter of opening the files and printing them with PrimoPDF, though you can also drag and drop documents to the PrimoPDF desktop shortcut. From there, you’ll get a dialog box, where you can choose the document quality.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/51.png" alt="reduce pdf size" width="579" height="401" />

For the smallest file size, choose the Screen setting. Pressing Create PDF starts the conversion.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=494">Free PDF Compressor (version 1.12) [Windows]

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/61.png" alt="how to reduce size of pdf document" width="570" height="255" />

This program is now shareware but the link provided leads to the last freeware version. It is pretty much just an executable that does a decent job at reducing PDF file sizes. In my tests, this program managed to reduce a 50MB PDF file to 45MB, with the maximum compression level, at an impressive speed (almost instant conversion).

class="vt-p" href="http://convert.neevia.com/pdfcompress/">Neevia’s PDFCompress [Web-Based]

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/7.jpg" alt="reduce pdf file size" width="580" height="406" />

PDFCompress is a simple web app that takes any PDF files smaller than 5MB and compresses them according to the presets you chose (low, medium, high and maximum). Maximum compression means the quality will be approximately a 10 in a scale of 100. In my test with a 3MB file and maximum compression, the optimized file was about 9% smaller, with no visible quality loss.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/8.jpg" alt="how to reduce size of pdf document" width="578" height="423" />

I should also mention PDF ReDirect which is another Windows-only PDF printer that lets you optimize and rotate PDF files, which we previously reviewed class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pdf-redirect-lets-merge-rotate-optimize-encrypt-print-pdfs-windows/">here.

What free software do you use to reduce PDF file size? Let us know in the comments! />
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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Format07.png" alt="computer file systems" width="280" height="188" />When you format class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-format-a-new-internal-hard-drive">a hard drive class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/format-usb-drive">or a flash drive, you prepare it for its use as a storage medium by an operating system. During this process a file system is set up and all information previously stored on the drive is removed.

You may have heard of computer file systems like FAT or NTFS before, but do you actually know what they do and which ones you are using? This article explains how they work and what their differences are. I also show you how to find out which file systems run on your drives.

id="more-63679">

What Is A Computer File System?

Hard drives are divided into sectors of about 512 bytes each. Sectors in turn are grouped into clusters. Clusters, also known as allocation units, have a defined size of 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes, so they usually contain multiple sectors. A cluster represents a continuous block of space on the disk.

Operating systems rely on a file system to organize the clustered storage space. The file system maintains a database that records the status of each cluster. In essence, the file system shows the operating system in which cluster(s) a file is stored and where space is available to store new data.

Which File Systems Should I Know Of?

The prevalent Windows file systems are FAT (File Allocation Table), FAT32, and NTFS (New Technology File System).

Briefly, NTFS supports a file size of more than 4 GB, partitions can be larger than 32 GB, it better manages available space than FAT or FAT32 and thus causes less fragmentation, and it comes with a number of security-related features including on-the-fly file encryption.

Compared to NTFS, FAT file systems take up less space, they perform less write operations to the drive which makes them faster and a better fit for small flash drives, and they are cross-platform compatible. The biggest drawbacks of FAT and FAT32 are a partition size limit of 32 GB and a file size limited to 2GB or 4 GB, respectively.

A new file system predominantly used for flash drives is exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table), also known as FAT64. Like NTFS it supports files larger than 4 GB, partitions larger than 32 GB, and its file management avoids fragmentation. At the same time it is fast and optimized for mobile personal storage and handling media files.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Format08.png" alt="computer file systems" width="580" height="289" />

Which Operating Systems Can Handle These File Systems?

While FAT and FAT32 are recognized by almost all operating systems, formatting a drive with NTFS used to be a sure way to make the device unusable outside Windows. Meanwhile, NTFS read/write is supported natively by most Linux distributions. A  class="vt-p" title="Enable NTFS read/write on Mac OS X 10.6" href="http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090913140023382">hack is available to enable NTFS read/write on the Mac OS X version 10.6, however, it appears to be unstable, hence the use of  class="vt-p" title="MacFuse to read/write NTFS on Mac OS X" href="http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/">MacFuse is recommended. exFAT on the other hand requires drivers for both Windows XP and Linux, while it is supported in the latest versions of Windows Vista (SP1), Windows 7, and Mac OS X.

Why Is Cluster Size Important?

If you have ever formatted a drive, you will know that you can choose the allocation unit size, also known as cluster size.

Depending on the cluster size (from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes) a single file can be stored in one or across hundreds or thousands of clusters. When a file is smaller than the actual cluster size, the remaining space is lost, a phenomenon known as wasted or slack space. Thus a large cluster size will lead to a lot of slack space, if lots of small files are stored on that drive. Choosing a small cluster size on the other hand means that large files are split up into many small pieces. This in turn can slow down the drive as it takes longer to read the respective file. In other words, choose the cluster size wisely.

How Can I Find Out How My Drive Is Formatted?

The file system is listed in the drive properties. Go to > Computer, right-click on the drive you wish to examine, and select > Properties from the menu. The > General tab shows the > File system.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Format05.png" alt="windows file systems" width="367" height="492" />

To find the cluster size of a NTFS drive, use the keyboard shortcut > [WINDOWS] + [R] and the Run window will open. Be sure you run the task with administrator rights. Type  > cmd into the text line and click > OK. Then run the command > fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo [drive letter] and hit > Enter.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Format06.png" alt="computer file systems" width="580" height="261" />

In Windows XP and Windows 7 you can also view and change the cluster size using third party applications, such as class="vt-p" title="Easeus Partition Master" href="http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm">Easeus Partition Master.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also be interested in these:

• class="vt-p" title="NTFS Formatting in Windows XP" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-optimize-usb-drive-with-ntfs/">How To Optimize USB drive with NTFS [Windows XP]
• class="vt-p" title="Fix Corrupted Windows NTFS Filesystem with Ubuntu" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-corrupted-windows-ntfs-filesystem-ubuntu/">How To Fix A Corrupted Windows NTFS Filesystem With Ubuntu
• class="vt-p" title="Make Corrupt USB Flash Drives Work Again" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-corrupt-usb-jump-drives-work/">How To Make Corrupt USB Jump Drives Work Again
• class="vt-p" title="Working with NTFS Drives on a Mac" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/macnifying-os-x-introduction-and-working-with-ntfs-drives/">Macnifying OS X: Introduction and working with NTFS Drives
• class="vt-p" title="Work With Linux Partitions From Windows" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/work-with-linux-partitions-from-windows/">How to Work with Linux Partitions from Windows

Which file system do you prefer on your storage devices and why? Did you ever run into trouble using NTFS and how were you able to fix it?

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style="border: 0px none;margin-left:20px;float:right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/amahi-app-store.png" />In my third and final article about Amahi Home Server, I’m going to show you how to create new network shares to store files in, set up file-duplication for critical files using the href="http://www.greyhole.net/">Greyhole storage pool, and have a quick look at the other applications in the app store, such as Transmission for downloading torrents. I also test the file redundancy by powering off a drive while the server is running!

If you haven’t already and wish to follow along with setting up your own home server with Amahi, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-home-server-amahi/">you should begin by setting up a basic installation, then href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/amahi-home-server-tutorial-2-adding-drive-server-linux/">adding a hard drive to your system.

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Turn on advanced settings

The storage pooling technology we’ll be looking at today falls firmly under the category of advanced, so you’ll need to enable advanced settings. Log into your HDA and click on Setup -> Settings -> tick Advanced Settings.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63009" title="2-0-advanced-settinges" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2-0-advanced-settinges1.png" alt="" width="580" height="273" />

Shares

Shares are the most fundamental part of your server. A Share is basically just a folder that you access on your network to store files on, and Amahi is set up by default with Shares such as Books, Movies, Pictures. To create a new Share, go to Setup -> Shares, and click the New Share button. The default options are fine, just type in the name of your new share and click Create.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63010" title="2-1-create-new-share" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2-1-create-new-share.png" alt="" width="580" height="270" />

File Duplication

With advanced settings enabled, you’ll notice that on the Setup -> Shares screen, a new menu option for Storage Pool has appeared. From here, we can select drives to add them to the “pool”. Once in the pool, we can duplicate files across them and ensure redundancy.

Note: the first drive listed is the drive that Amahi is installed on. It is strongly suggested that you don’t add this one to the pool, as filling it up would break your server.

For this, I’ve added two drives into the pool, so I’ll be able to create a maximum of 1 copy. Tick the boxes next to the drive to add them into the pool:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63011" title="2-2-add-to-pool" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2-2-add-to-pool.png" alt="" width="580" height="275" />

Now we need to tell the system to make copies of anything in a particular share. To do this, click back to the Shares screen and select the Share you wish to add the duplication feature to. In this case, I’ve chosen Movies. Scroll down to the Storage Pool option, tick Uses Pool, and select the number of additional copies.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63012" title="2-3-uses-pool-with-1-extra-copy" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2-3-uses-pool-with-1-extra-copy.png" alt="" width="580" height="464" />

To test it, I copied 20 GB of my favourite movies in and waited about half hour for Greyhole to balance everything. To simulate a hard drive failure, I pulled the power off one of the drives while the system was running. The results? Good and bad.

Firstly, I tried to access the movies again, and they were fine – the duplicates obviously worked. On the bad side, Amahi gives no indication by default that a drive has actually failed, so if this were a real-life drive failure, I simply wouldn’t know about it. I approached the creator of Greyhole (Guillaume Bordreu) in the href="http://www.greyhole.net/chat/">official chatroom to ask about this, and it appears the fault is with Amahi. Though Greyhole will send emails when errors occur, by default Amahi doesn’t enable outgoing emails. He suggested following this href="http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Enable_Outgoing_Emails">Amahi wiki tutorial on enabling outgoing emails, and then to edit the greyhole.yml and greyhole.conf with the email address you want alerts sent to.

Hopefully, future versions of Amahi will sort this out. I must say I’m impressed with the fact that I was able to get a comprehensive answer, from the creator no less, in under 5 minutes. The same could not be said of most software packages, and this one episode has given me somewhat more faith in the power of Linux and the open source community in general.

There’s also a useful page here on href="http://blog.stpworks.com/archive/2010/12/04/using-amahi-recovering-from-non-system-disk-failure.aspx">recovering from a hard drive failure with Amahi in case your system is restarted and cannot boot.

App Store and Transmission

One of the things I like to offload to my server is downloading torrents. Ideally, I’d like to just drop my torrent files in a network share, and let the server handle everything from there. In fact, this is the default behaviour for the Transmission app, which you can install from the Apps -> Available tab. Once installed, you’ll be able to access the torrent management page directly from the Transmission Web Interface, and a new share called Torrents is automatically created.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63014" title="3-1-torrent-added-automatically" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/3-1-torrent-added-automatically.png" alt="" width="580" height="292" />

Of course, Transmission isn’t only app available, so here’s a few that caught my eye.

WordPress: If you’d like to run own blog on the world’s most popular and actively supported blogging system, WordPress is it. This app makes setting it up to run on your home server easy, and when you start getting a few thousand visitors a day, you can easily offload your site to a real web host. (Bear in mind that some ISPs eplicitly forbid you from running a webserver on your home internet connection)

WebVNC: To make your server truly headless, you can install WebVNC, which lets you log in and view the desktop from any web browser, not just the standard HDA dashboard.

DLNA: Enables your shared movies and media files to be viewed on DLNA/UPnP-AV clients easily, such as the Xbox360 or Playstation 3. DLNA is essential if you’re planning on streaming movies rather than simply running a backup storage server.

CrashPlan: Though I haven’t a had a chance to try this one and can’t vouch for it, CrashPlan promises to be your ultimate back-up solution; with encryption, compression and automated backups on all of your Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux clients.

That’s it for this series. Thanks to all those who have contributed in the comments of previous articles and suggested alternatives that we can explore in the future, and do please let us know if you found this useful in setting up your Amahi server, or your experiences with it so far. Would you trust your files to it? />
/> Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/">MakeUseOf Answers!

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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/i.jpg" alt="comparison of file managers" width="241" height="239" />I have learned to love Windows Explorer from being able to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/upload-sync-files-skydrive-windows-explorer/">map Skydrive on my desktop, but it can be slow at times, showing me that “Not Responding” message that I really dislike seeing. I’m almost positive that’s one of the reasons applications such as class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/forget-windows-explorer-explorer-perfect-powerful-alternative/">Explorer++ and other class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/replace-windows-explorer-with-a-more-powerful-alternative/">Windows Explorer class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-5-best-windows-explorer-replacements/">replacement file managers exist. There’s even more dedicated class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fresh-approach-organizing-multimedia-files-fresh-view/">file browsers for multimedia, as well as open-source alternatives, such as class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/qmmander-replace-your-windows-explorer-with-an-open-source-alternative/">QMMander.

Here are two more file browsers that carry handy features that Windows Explorer lacks. The first one may even be hidden within your installed programs, while the second one is a new application with a twist.

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7-Zip File Manager (Cross-Platform)

You probably already have downloaded one of the best file compression/decompression tools out there, class="vt-p" href="http://www.7-zip.org/">7-zip, which shines with its high compression rate (and fares well compared to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-top-3-file-compression-extraction-softwares/">other free file archivers), but did you know it also bundles a lightweight file manager? Me neither, up until it was mentioned on class="vt-p" href="http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/stupid-geek-tricks-using-7-zip-as-a-blazing-fast-file-browser/">How-To Geek.

The 7-zip two-pane file manager just works and doesn’t get stuck like Windows Explorer might if you try to copy or move an enormous file around.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/17.png" alt="comparison of file managers" width="522" height="517" />

If you already have 7-zip installed, you can start using the file manager by simply typing ” 7″ in the Start Menu search box. If you want faster access, you can right-click on it > Send To > Desktop.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/25.jpg" alt="open source file managers" width="580" height="463" />

Best Features

• No delays whatsoever: If you’re looking for a fast file manager, you’ve found it.
• You can browse ISO files as if they were folders. In this screenshot, I’m browsing the ISO file that contains the setup file for Microsoft Expression Studio Ultimate, which I got class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/retail-software-free-student/">free for being a student.
style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/34.png" alt="open source file managers" width="527" height="243" />
• Quickly perform common tasks with keyboard shortcuts, including some that you usually need class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-more-tools-to-bring-power-to-the-right-click-menu-windows/">dedicated programs for.
style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/44.png" alt="open source file managers" width="353" height="559" />
• Quickly navigate to frequently-accessed folders with keyboard shortcuts (by adding that folder to your Favorites).
style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/55.png" alt="best windows file managers" width="558" height="292" />
• Change folder and file views with hotkeys (default view is Details).
style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/64.png" alt="best windows file managers" width="240" height="432" />

There’s also a way for you to omit the cascaded menu when you right-click on say a zip file and instead, have the 7-zip options when you right-click.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/81.jpg" alt="best windows file managers" width="486" height="800" />

To fix that, you just need to head to Tools in the File Manager menu bar and adjust your Options.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/73.png" alt="" width="411" height="585" />

Nemo Documents (Windows)

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/91.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="435" />

class="vt-p" href="http://www.nemo-docs.com/">Nemo Documents is also a lightweight, unobtrusive file manager that displays your file structure à la Google Calendar (which is supported!) or Outlook, that is, in a calendar view and provides more intuitive ways to find files, period. I can see the calendar view being useful to anyone that is GTD-conscious and may want to review files that s/he is working on.

Nemo Documents can also double up as a search tool as it integrates with the built-in Desktop Search function in Vista and Windows 7 to help you search for keywords or phrases inside documents.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/101.jpg" alt="" width="579" height="643" />

Thus, as the author’s website indicates, if you can’t remember the name of some file, you can combine these keywords along with “other clues that you can remember about the document, such as a specific month or the file type” to help you find a file.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/111.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="517" />

Windows 7 can class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-7-libraries-%E2%80%93-and-why-you-want-them/">bundle search results by month (as you can see in Jim’s screenshot), but now WinXP and Vista users can get this and additional views with the file manager in question.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/121.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="868" />

Another cool thing is that you can tag or label files, regardless of the file type.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/131.png" alt="comparison of file managers" width="556" height="251" />

Usually, you can only add tags to Microsoft documents, JPEG images and nothing else in Windows Explorer, unless you are using third-party applications, such as  class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-tags-for-your-windows-files-with-taggedfrog/">TaggedFrog or class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tag2find-%E2%80%93-tag-your-windows-files-with-web-like-tags/">Tag2Find. Thus, if you’re into tagging or could use more efficient file searches with tags, Nemo Documents might be for you.

Nemo Documents is as small as downloads come (the  class="vt-p" href="http://download.cnet.com/Nemo-Documents/3000-10743_4-75285596.html?tag=mncol;1">download file size is about 672 KB) and occupies 1.77 MB once installed. It seems like this product is pretty young so it might implement additional features later on as more feedback becomes available to the authors.

Have you got any alternative file browsers you’re extremely fond of? Share it with us in the comments!

Image credit: class="vt-p" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewcurrie/4643619466/">Andrew Currie />
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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/logo2.png" alt="convert to pdf format" />PDF files have been the ubiquitous file format for sharing documents, thanks to their ability to lock down the layout & formatting of the document and the tiny file size.  Adobe Acrobat has a hefty price tag that runs into many hundreds of dollars, so as awesome as PDF files are, creating them used to be quite costly.

Today we have a number of free and open source solutions to create PDF files. Better yet, these tools allow us to create the document in our familiar software environment, say Microsoft Word, and convert them to PDF format.

One such great app is Nitro Reader, which is free to use and is loaded with a lot of great features.

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Overview

class="vt-p" href="http://www.nitroreader.com/">Nitro Reader supports both Windows 32 bit and 64 bit platforms. On the download page, there is a field to enter your email address to get email updates about Nitro Reader. Submitting the email address is a not a mandatory requirement and you can download the file straight away.

Once the download is complete, the installation is very quick and does not include any other bundled toolbars or trialware. After installation, Nitro Reader set itself as the default PDF reader of choice without giving a choice, which I found a bit annoying. You can revert this back by going into the Preferences section.

Reading PDF Files

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Reading.jpg" alt="convert to pdf format" width="580" height="427" />

Nitro Reader has a clean, familiar ribbon interface just like Microsoft Office and a light footprint running smoothly without hogging system resources. It comes with the standard features we have come to expect from a standard PDF reader. Tasks and tools are separated appropriately for easy access.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Customizing-the-QAT.png" alt="create pdf files" width="580" height="526" />

The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is extremely customizable and you can pick & choose the shortcuts you use often to create an easily accessible group. Nitro Reader’s panes are context specific ie. they are displayed or hidden depending on the content on display.

An option to notify special features in the PDF file like security restrictions, digital certificates, or form fields is also available in Nitro Reader.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Tabbed.png" alt="create pdf files" width="580" height="264" />

Accessing multiple PDF files is such a delight with a browser-like tabbed interface. While reading multiple documents, it is possible with Nitro Reader to set different page view settings for each of the documents that are open.

Creating PDF files

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Creating.png" alt="create pdf files" width="550" height="417" />

Nitro Reader can create PDF files from a whopping three hundred different file formats. PDF creation process is extremely simple. Select a file from the disk, choose the file optimization level (to reduce the file size), assign a location to save the created file and you are all done.

Nitro Reader creates the PDF file keeping the layout and style of the original document completely intact.

Content Extraction

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Extraction.png" alt="convert to pdf format" width="552" height="386" />

Often we find the content formatting in the file to be too distracting to read or to save the images embedded in the file. Nitro Reader does a very fine job in extracting both text and images from the PDF file. The text extracted even the index without much damage to the original formatting & alignment.

Final Thoughts

For a free app, Nitro Reader is loaded with an unbelievable set of features. Nitro Reader also can save the data entered in a PDF form even after closing it until you reset it. To add a digital signature, all you have to do is upload an image and just start signing documents away. Transparency is automatically added to the images to give a watermark-like look and you can add multiple signatures featuring multiple users as well.

If you are interested in other Acrobat Reader alternatives check out our coverage class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/a-quadruple-of-light-alternatives-to-adobe-reader/">here. While you’re at it, you might also want to learn to use class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/can-you-convert-a-pdf-file-to-a-word-doc/">AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Converter and to turn all your class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/convert-pdf-file-flash-movie/">PDF files into flash movies!

What are your thoughts on Nitro Reader? I consider this app to be the best and would love to hear from you if there are better alternatives to convert files to PDF format.

 

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Music is the interest and hobby of plenty of. Different music tracks played by different instruments are liked by people. Their taste may vary but the common thing amongst them is to listen to music. Mp3 players are used to play the sound tracks with stereo effects. Mp3 CDs are used widely because of their storage capacity. It can store lots of tracks and still play them with nice clarity. Hence these are preferred by music lovers. Thus these players have gained demand in market and have come with new features also. This article is about how to play an mp3 in the automobile.

This article discussed of six ways in the following paragraphs.
The first way is to write an mp3 CD. Make definite your personal computer has the application which can write or burn CDs. The empty disc is inserted. Choose the songs which you need to listen to. Now a playlist is created in iTunes. This can be created by choosing the choice file and then new playlist. The songs are selected and added to the playlist. Check the capacity of the CD. Usually a CD can hold 20 songs. Then select the list. Select the choice burn disk. Give the CD type as audio. Now opt for the burn button and write the songs on your CD.

FM transmitters may even be used to play. A transmitter has been bought. It is obtainable in any shop selling electronic products. The mp3 is played by the transmitter by making use of the radio waves. The transmitter is connected to the player.

The second way of playing mp3 is by using FM transmitter. This transmitter can be bought from any local electronics shop. These use the radio waves and play the mp3 by the speakers. This can cost about 35 dollars. The transmitter is plugged in to the mp3 player. It may be wireless if not they must be connected in the lighter. The radio as well as the transmitter is tuned to an empty station. The mp3 players can then be used to enjoy songs.
An adapter of the cassette tape type is used to play. This is first bought from a shop. Now the adapter’s cassette finish is connected to the cassette player of the automobile. The adapter’s other finish is connected to the player. Now the play option of the cassette player is selected. The songs are played. An iPod is used to do the other operations.

The final option is to buy an mp3 compatible stereo method and installing it on your automobile. These types of stereo players are a little pricey. It is important to find out whether this type of stereo player is compatible with the model of your automobile. This can be verified by checking the automobile owner’s manual and also by consulting along with your automobile dealer or mechanic. These types of stereos have an aux output through which the mp3 player can be connected directly.

Thus the article would have taught you how to play a  car mp3 transmitter in the automobile. The user can select the system according to his convenience.

Getting free mp3 downloadable music from file sharing programs is extremely popular. It’s estimated that as many as sixty (60) million music lovers like you get music for your mp3 player or ipod this way. But have you ever considered the issues involved with downloading your favorite songs from file sharing programs? If you haven’t shared any music files yet, you really need to know the benefits and risks; and I wrote this article to provide you with an overview of what’s involved in getting mp3 downloadable music from file sharing programs.

The Benefits of Downloading Music From MP3 File Sharing Programs

The biggest draw to getting music from mp3 file sharing programs is the ability to download music you would ordinarily have to buy for free. Along with getting the music you want for free, there is no limit to the number of files or the size of the files you can download. Also, today’s p2p file sharing technology makes it possible for users to quickly search for, download and share music files at lightning speeds.

As exciting as it is to be able to search for, find and get fast downloads of the music you want for free, there are downsides to getting mp3 downloadable music from file sharing programs.

The Risks Involved In Downloading Music Files From MP3 File Sharing Programs

The greatest risks surrounding downloading music files from mp3 file sharing programs involves spyware and getting sued for copyright infringement. Many popular file sharing programs expose users of the p2p (peer to peer) network to spyware, adware and computer viruses. They are free open source programs or freeware, and as such, they may be bundled with spyware that slows down your computers’ performance or adware that tracks and reports your online activities. Additional computer security risks come from the files of other users in the p2p network. However, the most controversial aspect of getting mp3 downloadable music from file sharing programs involves the sharing and/or distribution of copyrighted works that hasn’t been legally licensed by the mp3 file sharing program or service. If you download and share copyrighted music that hasn’t properly licensed for digital distribution, you expose yourself to possibly getting sued by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for copyright infringement.

While the computer spyware and lawsuit risks are serious, there are steps a determined mp3 file sharing program user can take to reduce or eliminate those risks.

Clearly the draw, as well as the excitement of getting free mp3 music from p2p file sharing programs is hard to resist. On the other hand, the risks to your hardware and personal finances are hard to ignore. However, if your desire for unlimited free mp3 music outweighs your concern about these risks, getting mp3 downloadable music from file sharing programs might be the way for you to go.

What if you get error message “Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM or SOFTWARE” – How to Fix your PC?

If you receive any of the following errors while trying to boot up or during login phase, you probably have a corrupted Registry:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate System error: Lsass.exe When trying to update a password the return status indicates that the value provided as the current password is not correct.

Follow these steps to resolve such issue:

(Boot Method A – Using Windows Recovery console)

Insert your Windows CD into your computer and reboot. When it prompts you to “Press Any Key to Boot from CD”, press any key. When the screen appears that gives you the options to Setup, Repair or Quit, press R on your keyboard to enter repair mode. At the next screen select the installation of windows you would like to work on. For most people there will be only one option. When prompted enter your administrator password and press enter on your keyboard.

When you get the prompt, type “cd repair” (should be “c:\windows\repair”) to enter the directory where Registry backup are stored.

(Boot Method B – Using Reimage Boot-CD)

Build Reimage Boot CD. And after you are able to login, visit http://www.reimagepcrepair.com to run Reimage scan and Fix Reboot the PC using the Boot CD and reach Desktop

Also check the video using boot cd with reimage at http://pcfixeasy.blogspot.com

File sharing programs such as KaZaa, Ares, iMesh and Limewire have never been more popular. They are pretty controversial as well. You may have heard of the countless lawsuits against them by music records companies and the MPAA. So is downloading MP3 from these programs legal?

How Do File Sharing Programs Work?

Modern file sharing programs connects users directly to each other allowing them to share and download files. They are also called P2P, or peer to peer programs. Unlike old file sharing programs such as Napster who ran all connections through their servers. That is also why it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly who is downloading what.

File sharing programs by themselves are not illegal. In fact, they are legitimate uses for it. For example, it is used by academy institutions and universities to exchange research data and cross learning. They are also used by musicians and artists to showcase their talents by distributing their music free through file-sharing networks.

Many people are confused as to what is legal to download and what is not. The problem stems from the fact that it is so easy to download illegal MP3 and other illegal files from these file sharing networks that people often do not know they are actually violating copyright laws.

They do not have sufficient knowledge of copyright laws. Current copyright laws allow an individual to rip MP3 provided he or she has brought a copy of the CD. However, he or she cannot give, sell or upload MP3 to others. Beware due to MP3 piracy, record companies have recently developed technologies that do not allow you to rip mp3 from CD. Add to that, they are dozens of websites on the internet proclaiming to be able to download mp3 and movies legally when they are not!

How to determine whether you can download MP3 legally?

Technically, any MP3 posted on file-sharing programs without the permission of the artist is illegal. Most commercial MP3 on file sharing networks are illegal, so my advice would be to avoid them altogether.

There are a few reputable MP3 download sites on the internet you can trust. The most famous of all is itunes from Apple. Napster has a subscription service per month that allows you to download more than two million mp3 legally. Technically, you do not own the mp3 so do not give, sell or upload to file sharing networks.

That file recovery tool feeling makes data loss victims take illogical actions that make data often unrecoverable. Keep your cool, and let’s find the right course of action to recover your data.

If this is your first time using a file recovery tool, you may not be aware of all of the programs available. At times it can be overwhelming because there are so many. However, before you begin searching for the best file recovery tool, let’s address the actions you need to avoid in order to reach the desired results.

Always consider the safety of your data

Stop rebooting your computer. It’s not going to recover your data. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make when attempting to recover their files. Many mistakenly believe that by restarting the computer, the missing files will magically reappear. This is not the way to recover your important files and folders.Understand that even though your computer has marked your file as empty space, it could still exist. Just keep in mind, each time you restart your computer you reduce your chances of being able to successfully use a file recovery tool to recover your data. What can happen is your system could end up writing over some of the files you are trying to recover by restarting the computer. It can also happen when the computer is shut down, which brings up a second point…

Don’t shut down your computer when data is lost. It’s okay to shut of the computer when everything is normal, but never do this when data recovery is an issue and you’re trying to run a file recovery tool. Instead, simply unplug it. “What’s the difference?” you might ask. The difference is that you are letting the computer interact with the file system whenever you shut it off. However, if you unplug the computer, you will instantly cut all power sources, connections and interaction inside the operating system which increases the chances of getting your files back.

Believe it or not, an idling computer can also over-write data you are trying to recover. Unplug your computer from the power supply to cut communication, instead of shutting your computer down. If you are using a laptop, you will also need to shut off the battery supply at bottom of the computer. Performing any of the “don’ts” that were previously mentioned reduces the chances recovering your data with a file recovery tool.

Finally, if you are reading this information from a computer that you plan to use a file recovery tool on, you should immediately print the information to read later, close any open files and immediately cut the power source – unplug it!

Beware and be forewarned

Avoid using the computer’s recovery CD as a file recovery tool. This is the restore system CD that came with your computer when you purchased it. Sure, it can get your system up and running in no time, but the bad news is that you will lose your important data in the process. Your computer will be okay, but if you don’t have another drive containing your missing data as a backup, you will be in deep trouble. In fact, the chances of being able to restore your data after using a system recovery disk is next to impossible.

More important data recovery advice

You should also avoid installing or running a utility on your computer. Not even on a separate partition. Doing this can also cause your computer to write on top of the data you are trying to restore. You absolutely must download a data recovery tool, run it and then recover the data to another working drive. Remember, it is very important too download, run and recover data onto a second hard drive in order to protect your data. Some file recovery tools will allow you to run the program from the CD or diskette without using a second hard drive. Still, you need to recover your files somewhere, so it’s always a good idea to have a second hard drive.

Consult with a recovery expert

If you don’t really know what has caused your missing data, you should contact a professional data recovery service that has experience in using a file recovery tool. If you contact a generic computer repair service, you may be told that using a file recovery tool is unsafe. That’s bunk. Just remember, you can always send your drive to a data recovery company to have your files manually extracted if the file recovery tool doesn’t work out.

When you realize that you have lost important data, you need to immediately stop using your computer and start searching for a file recovery tool to do the data recovery for you. You might even find some free solutions. But if you just want to fix the problem now without taking chances with a file recovery tool, use in-lab services to take care of your data recovery needs.

It isn’t unusual that when pc users get a Windows XP that can’t run exe files are in the dark about how to fix these frustrating pc troubles. The good news is that the bulk of them can easily be pinpointed and fixed, even for those with no advanced computer knowledge. In the paragraphs that follow, I want to give you the scoop on how you can easily rid of these annoying pc troubles.

Click here to repair a Windows XP that can’t run exe files now!

It’s likely that in your pc’s life time, you have probably already encountered several problems related to your windows system. Regrettably, the majority of users don’t realize the truth that with most of these occurrences, one particular cause is responsible for a whole range of problems – the windows registry. If they don’t realize what the problem is, a large percentage of computer users use too much of their valuable time and money on procedures that may turn out to be pointless.

The most important thing that you need to do when your pc gives you a Windows XP that can’t run exe files is to find out if the registry might be to blame. This segment of your system is responsible for all your pc software and hardware adding, upgrading, removing programs and devices, etc. It catalogues, to name one function, the location of the many executables that your pc contains. A corrupted registry may cause, in many cases, systems’ failure to pinpoint the exact path of a program’s .exe file commonly resulting in all those unwelcome problems.

Well, now that you are aware of the causes of a Windows XP that can’t run exe files you should act quickly to locate the right solution and be done with this headache. “playing doctor” with your windows registry file may be hazardous to your computer’s health, so there are two ways you can go: either hire a technician (expensive) or installing a registry fix software. A well designed registry cleaning and repairing software from reliable developers has the capability to instantly restore your registry to its optimal state. I would highly recommend you to install a registry repair tool and see what a free scan does for your computer; i’m sure you’ll soon see that it’s just what you need to get your computer up and running at its best with very little time or effort – don’t delay!