Many software leave their traces in the Windows registry even through you have properly uninstalled them. When your registry is full of such traces(junk keys), your Windows performance is effected. Wouldn’t it be great if you could see what has changed in your registry and then take proper measures to remove the junk keys?

Back in February, I mentioned few ways to reinstall trial software when trial period has expired. One reason the trial software cannot be reinstalled is because during the reinstallation process it detects the previous key from Windows registry and deny another installation. Wouldn’t it be great if you could see which key was added in the registry and then remove it more easily?

Many tools have been reviewed before at AddictiveTips that lets you check the changes in registry and hard disk, but recently I have found a much simpler tool. WhatChanged is a tiny portable utility for Windows that lets you check for modified files and registry entries by taking snapshot and then later comparing it with the original snapshot. The whole procedure takes a total of two steps only.

First of all select the items that you would like to scan, files or registry. You can select the drives in which you would like to scan for modified files or select the main registry keys where you would to search for modified keys, you can also select both. When done, click Snapshot(Step 1).

It will take some time to scan all your files and registry, the time would depend on the number of drives and the registry keys you have selected. Once the process is complete, it will show you the saved list, click OK.

Now when you need to find for modified files or registry, simply hit Compare(Step 2). If Copy Modified Files To Directory option is enabled, then you will be able to save the modified files to any defined directory.

Overall, it is quite a handy tool that lets you check for modified files and registry instantly without any clutter. It works on all versions of Windows.

Download WhatChanged

For more, also check out TinyTask, which is a small screencast tool from the same developer. Enjoy!

What is Problem Steps Recorder

While using an application or software, you may face an issue which is hard to describe. Its frustrating, isn’t it? Microsoft feels your pain and they have  now come up with a solution which is available in Windows 7. The Problem Steps Recorder is one of the perks of windows 7 which lets users record their interactions with an application and provide a detailed screen-by-screen view with accompanying information.  From now onwards you won’t need to share your desktops or enable remote access because the problems can be easily explained with Problems Step Recorder. It is a type of screen capture software that captures every screenshot, mouse clicks, key strokes, etc and saves it in MHTML format.

How To Use It

First, go to start menu, type psr.exe in Start Search and then hit Enter.

Here is how it looks when launched.

Now click Start Record to start capturing  and perform the steps that you’ve had the problem with. It will capture all the clicks and key strokes in real-time. Once you are done with all the steps, click Stop Record and it will ask you to save the recorded file in MHTML format. You can launch this saved file in Internet Explorer only. For example, I have added couple of steps for testing purpose and here is screenshot how it looks when viewed  in browser.

It is very handy specially if you have to convey problems with any application to its technical support, this is because it will help you capture all steps to reproduce the problem.  Enjoy!

If you need to include an image without its background in Word document or Powerpoint presentation and are not familiar with Photoshop or any other image processing tool, then there is no need to fret. Background Removal Tool in Microsoft Office 2010 can do it for you. Among the long list of enhanced features in Microsoft Office 2010, there is Background Removal Tool. Removing the background of any image is now only a couple of clicks away.

First of all insert any picture into your document from Insert > Picture option.

Once you have inserted image,  Picture Tools will be displayed automatically as shown in following screenshot.

Now, locate Background Removal tool under Picture Tools.

Click Background Removal tool and the background for the particular image will be removed as show in following screenshot.

Wasn’t that easy? For more, also check out our previously covered tip on taking screenshot with Office 2010. Enjoy!

Suppose you want to share a quick screencast with your friend or co-worker, what will you do? Search a screencast tool, download it, install it, learn to use it, record the actual screencast, name it, save it, and send it. Woah! that’s a long lists. Instead you can simply grab TinyTask.

It is a free portable tool for windows that performs some basic automation tasks such as recording and playback. Just launch it, press record and it will begin recording. When done, press record again and it will stop recording.

When done, hit Play(hotkey F5) and it will play the screencast instantly. You can also hit Save to save the screencast in .rec format. The little utility has a total of 6 buttons, Open, Save, Record, Play, and Compile, and Options.

According to the developer, the entire program is only 29k - and 14k of that are icons, which means the executable portion is just a few K in size. Which in my opinion, is quite remarkable. From options you can choose options such as Play Speed, Continuous Playback, and Set Repeat Counts. It works on all versions of Windows.

Download TinyTask

Also check out TinyTalk, it allows you to talk over LAN or Internet. Even through the name sounds similar, both the apps are from different developers. Enjoy!

So you have an office or home setup where you receive all calls on your PC, you have a TAPI capable hardware installed such as ISDN card and use Outlook contacts? If yes, then you are missing SmartCallMonitor. It is a free phone monitoring software for Windows that gives you complete information about the caller.

This is how it works, when you receive a call this tool will automatically search for stored data in your Outlook Contacts and provide various information about the caller, such as, name, address, etc. If the caller information is not in your Outlook Contacts, then it will use an internet reverse search service to obtain the information.

The image above is taken from developer’s website

This tool simplifies the incoming calls, thus giving you an option as to whose call to accept and whose to reject. It will also show the calls that were not accepted, i.e missed calls. Further you can see the date and time each calls were made and add caller to contacts if he is not already present.

Overall, it is a must-have tool in my opinion if you are working in office and receive tons of calls on your PC. It works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003/2008 Server, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Download SmartCallMonitor

For more, also check out TinyTalk, a free little utility that lets you call your friends or co-workers over LAN or Internet. Enjoy!

I have reviewed two different tools before to extract text from various popular formats – Text Mining Tool and OCR Terminal. These tools allow you to extract text from various image formats, PDF and HTML format, etc. If you are looking for a much broader tool, a utility that can extract text from more formats, then teXtracta will come handy.

It is a tool that works on the principle of IFilter. A COM interface developed by Microsoft for it’s indexing service so that it can index files of various formats. These indexed files are then used in Windows 7/Vista Search, Windows Desktop Search, and so on. You must have appropriate IFilters installed on your computer before you can extract text from various formats using teXtracta. To install the appropriate IFilters, go here.

In this article I will explain how to extract text from a PDF document as an example. First download the appropriate IFilter from the link given above, grab teXtracta from the link give at the end of this article. Now load up the tool and select the single file that you want to process. You can also select a folder, in this way all files inside that folder will be processed. Next check the desired options, such as, Show Text, Save Text, and Include Subdirectories.

When done, finally choose the filters like I have choosen the PDF IFilter as shown in the screenshot below.

When you will select a file or folder, options such as Start Processing, Pause Processing, and Stop Processing will be enabled automatically.

Now hit Start Processing button to begin the text extraction process. If you do not have proper IFilter installed it will notify you immediately, otherwise the process will go smoothly. Note that the time taken by the process will largely depend on the file that you can converting.

If the Save Text option is enabled, the output will be saved in txt format in the same directory where the file or folder is present.

Download teXtracta

It works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Enjoy!

If you are really conscious about your system’s performance then it is necessary that you should monitor it regularly. All versions of Microsoft Windows has Task Manager utility which let you identify the processes and applications which are consuming the most system resources. Windows Vista offered Resource View which became very famous because it added some more functionality to Task Manager utility. Now what’s new in upcoming Windows 7 ?  Its Resource Monitor. You can say that Vista’s Resource View is a cut down version of Windows 7′ s Resource Monitor.  Resource Monitor lets you keep an eye on CPU, Memory, Network status and Disks status of your system.

To launch it, click Start Orb, type resmon in Start Search and press enter.

On the main window you will be greeted by the Overview tab. Here you will get an overview of the resource consumption. CPU, Disk, Network, and Memory are all there.

The CPU tab shows you Real-Time processes, CPU usage and Maximum frequency. On the right side window, you will see a graphical view of the CPU consumption. You can also dig deeper and search for Associated Handles and Modules.

Memory tab shows total consumed and free memory, you can also view memory consumed by each process. From here you can get an idea of the culprit programs if you are facing low system performance.

Disk tab describes the processes with Disk Activity and gives the overview of Storage.

Similarly Network tab displays processes with network activity, TCP Connections, and Listening Ports.

Resource Monitor will give you better insight into your system than ever before, making 3rd party tools useless. Enjoy!

You can use Windows 7 Credential Manager to save important credentials like user name and password so that you can easily login to different websites or secure computers. Once you have saved your credentials, Windows 7 will automatically log you in to websites or other computers when you access them. These credentials are saved in Windows Vault. Credential Manager is not a new concept, Microsoft has already used similiar feature in Windows Vista, but for Windows 7 Microsoft has added the ability to back up & restore your credentials. You can add Windows credentials, Generic Credentials and Certificate-Based Credentials.

To launch it go to Start > Control Panel > Credential Manager.

Here is the screenshot of main window of Credential Manager.

Lets see how we can add a new Windows credentials. Click Add a Windows Credential and then enter Internet or network address, user name and password and click OK. It will be saved securely in the vault and from next time you can easily login to this particular network host with saved credentials. For example, I have used it to save user name and password for my network printer.

Now whenever I will access printer, I will not be asked for user name and password, Windows 7 will use saved logins to connect me automatically. In the same way you can add other types of credentials as well.

Now, lets explore how we can backup and restore the Windows Vault. You will be able to see Backup up vault and Restore vault option on the main window of Credential Manager.

Hit the Backup vault option, enter path to store backup and click Next.

Now, Press  Ctrl + Alt + Delete to continue the backup process.

Now it will save the vault backup at your specified location. It is always recommended to save this backup on some removable media or some safe hidden location. You can restore the backup of Windows Vault from Restore vault option. Enjoy!

If you don’t have your Windows account password protected then there is a chance that everyone will use the computer without your permission. If you want to keep a tab on when somebody logged in and logged out of the computer, then MLL will come handy. Otherwise you can always create an activity monitoring software yourself to monitor all activities happening on the computer while you were away.

Marxio Login Logger(MLL) is a free logging tool for Windows that is not visible to ordinary users but keeps log of when someone logged in and logged out of your system. It is a simple log file that shows all details including the date, time, user, computer, ip address, and operating system.

The screenshot above is taken from developer’s website.

It is a small handy tool that focuses on some niche administrators who would like to keep tab on who is logging in and logging out from the system. It is fully customizable – you can change the log path, name and what it will contain.

Download Marxio Login Logger

It works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2003-2008. Enjoy!

Now there is no need to install additional programs or utilities to capture screenshots, you can use Microsoft Office 2010’s Screen Clipping Tool. Adding screenshots to your documents and presentations in only a couple of clicks away. It is one of the important features of Microsoft OneNote that has been added in both MS Word 2010 and MS Powerpoint 2010.

Lets explore how we can use it in MS Word 2010. First of all launch MS Word and click Insert Menu, you will be seeing Screenshot tool located at icon bar as shown in the following screenshot.

Now, you will notice the drop down button, click it and you will see list of available screenshots and screen clipping tool.

You can use any already created screenshot, otherwise click screen clipping, choose you screen area and it will be captured in MS Word.  For example, I captured a specific area of my desktop and here is screenshot showing the area captured in MS Word 2010.

Its that simple. Enjoy!