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Today’s Software
- WindowPad: control window locations with hotkeys
- Acronis Drive Monitor: check drive health
- CPU-M Benchmark: benchmark, erm, your CPU…?
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About Windows Software of the Day
Windows has hundreds of thousands of programs. Because of this great volume and lack of a central store, software discovery (aka finding new and useful programs) is extremely difficult. With our Windows Software of the Day initiative, dotTech aims to change that. Everyday we post three programs, allowing our readers to discover new software, daily. Enjoy! [Subscribe to our Windows section to never miss an article: RSS Feed | E-mail]
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Software for June 26, 2012
WindowPad
Want to easily control window locations quickly? Windows 7 added some support for this with its new Aero Snap feature, but it’s still not the most comprehensive. Enter WindowPad: this portable little freebie allows you to control any window with the tap of the Windows key. To move windows, just tap the Windows key, plus one of the number keys. Numbers 1, 3, 7, and 9 will pop your windows into their respective corners, while 2, 4, 6, and 8 will make them fill half of your screen. WindowPad is a super easy to use program, and it’s pretty much devoid of customization. If you want to change the controls, you can do that using the WindowPad.ini file, but using it requires knowledge of Autohotkey.
Price: Free!
Version discovered: v1.60
Supported OS: Windows unknown
Download size: 283KB
VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/42
Portability: No installation required!
[via AddictiveTips]
Acronis Drive Monitor
(Most) computers have moving parts, as much as it seems that they are just giant blobs of plastic and metal that magically work. One of those parts, the hard drive, is quite prone to failure after only a few years, and it’s important to know if your hard drive will die soon. Luckily, hard drives come with built-in sensors that can report their condition, and software has sprung up to estimate the condition of drives. Acronis Drive Monitor is one of those softwares. It comes with an easy-to-use interface, showing just the condition of your drive, any errors found in the Windows error log, and the status of any Acronis backups you may have. Of course, most people don’t use Acronis backup software, so it’s really just an ad for their software, but it’s still nice in the off chance you do use it. In total, Acronis Drive Monitor is a nice little program for monitoring drive health.
Price: Free!
Version discovered: v1.0
Supported OS: Windows XP+
Download size: 18.1MB
VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/42
Portability: Requires installation
[via Freeware Genius]
CPU-M Benchmark
Do you know you have the fastest CPU in the world? Prove it with CPU-M Benchmark. This is a free tool that lets you test and submit your CPU to a giant online database. Using CPU-M Benchmark is quite easy. You just click the large “Start Benchmark Test” and wait a few seconds. Note that you’ll receive a higher score if your computer is not otherwise being used, so if you’re serious about the competition be sure to close all other applications. When you’ve completed the test, just hit Submit My Score. You’ll be taken to a page listing your ranking and the top CPUs in the world. Although it’s impossible to test yourself against the top supercomputers in the world, it’s still fun to see where your comparatively crummy computer stands in the ranks. Personally, I was number 1068. Which one are you?
Price: Free!
Version discovered: v1.3
Supported OS: Windows unknown
Download size: 673KB
VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/42
Portability: Requires installation
dotTechies: We have tested all the software listed above. However, Windows Software of the Day articles are not intended as “reviews” but rather as “heads-up” to help you discover new programs. Always use your best judgement when downloading programs, such as trying trial/free versions before purchasing shareware programs, if applicable.
About the author: Locutus View all posts by Locutus
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About using Acronis Drive Monitor: it proved useful as it detected major problems with a HD, but I had to uninstall it as it created problems with other disks, i.e. it failed to identify USB connected drives and could no longer see other partitions, several users reported the same experience on forums. I had to find a substitute, CrystalDiskInfo, which seems to be doing the same job and working allright. As Acronis Drive Monitor is still version 1.0 I suppose the problems haven’t been solved.
http://download.cnet.com/CrystalDiskInfo/3000-2086_4-10832082.html?tag=mncol;1
five stars on above . so thanks for info.
Funny thing about CPU-M Benchmark, it shows I have a Pentium II Processor, when I actually have an Intel i5 quad core processor. Maybe it won’t recognize anything higher than a Pentium II on Windows XP who knows.
@JT:
“(…) who knows”
You might open up your computer and look what it says on the processor(s)? Just to make sure that you actually do know. LOL. Your BIOS will tell you all you need to know – i.e. if you can access it (e.g. it may be password protected). I’ve never known XP not correctly identifying a CPU, but since XP is no longer “supported” you may have a point. Comparing what Bios tells you with what XP and CPU-M claim, wouldn’t that solve the question?
Greetz,
Pat.
@Patrick:
Thanks for the thought on that. I don’t know why CPU-M sees differently, but the computer BIOS, and XP correctly identifies the processor as what it’s supposed to be as well. Maybe it has a bug when dealing with XP machines. My score was still relatively high at above 6900, but just found it funny that CPU-M doesn’t want to agree with what Windows and the BIOS says.
Cool – just found a blurb about WindowPad on Ghacks written by Martin Brinkman, with the reference for this page as being how he found out about WindowPad – see this at the bottom of his page: “WindowPad is an excellent portable program for the Windows operating system that enhances the functionality of Windows 7?s Aero Snap feature significantly. (found at Dottech)”
Found at http://www.ghacks.net/2012/06/26/windowpad-like-aero-snap-only-better/
Personally I find Crystal Disk Info works better for me as seen at http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html
I tried Acronis Drive Monitor when it came out but it would not give me a proper status on my USB drive. I then tested several more utilities before settling on Crystal Disk Info. It worked perfectly with all my drives and was way more configurable.
@Joseph Londe: @greg: @leland: Consider it tomorrow’s software! :D