Some Computer Hints


File Manipulation

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7-Zip
I always use 7-Zip for all my file compression and decompression needs. Its native 7-Zip format provides better compression and encryption than the other formats it supports (7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, WIM; AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VMDK, WIM, XAR, and Z).
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Cobian Backup
If you are looking for a stable and reliable application to safeguarding your data, Cobian Backup will not disappoint you. Although it has some idiosyncrasies, it will meet your basic expectations of a backup-to-disk software.
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Windirstat
With today’s complex operating systems and software, you can easily fill up your hard disk and get stuck with very small free space. You will need a good and intuitive tool to analyze your disk usage and clean up wasted space. For this purpose, you can use Windirstat which is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for various versions of Microsoft Windows.
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Disk Usage
Analyzer
After switching to Linux, I started using Disk Usage Analyzer (also known as baobab).
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Renamer
You may come to a position where you have to rename a bunch of files according to some conditions. Renamer is such a tool which will allow to do this by specifying some string replacement rule sets (simple insert, delete, replace or more complex regular expressions, etc.) and even writing your own Pascal script, so that you may rename a file based on its contents (for example, rename JPEG files based on the information in their EXIF header). Renamer Lite is a free version which can be used only for non-commercial purposes. There is also a Pro version with extra features and removed limitations. The Lite version will suit your everyday needs.

File Synchronization

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WinMerge

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FreeFileSync

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SyncToy

You may need to store multiple copies of some media or data files on removable disks or network locations. In this case, frequently you will face the problem of keeping those locations in sync. The following tools will help you doing this:
  • WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.
  • FreeFileSync is a free Open Source software that helps you synchronize files and synchronize folders for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It is designed to save your time setting up and running backup jobs while having nice visual feedback along the way.
  • SyncToy was a free application from Microsoft to synchronize files and folders between locations. Typical uses included sharing files, such as photos, with other computers and creating backup copies of files and folders.
  • For Linux users, the command line tools rsync and rclone are good alternatives.