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Hardware Computer Helpers from Boreham Library

These sites and services have been found useful or been recommended. This is not an endorsement or guarantee of safety. Sites, software and services subject to change without notice.

Definitions:

  • Shareware is software offered free only for a limited time or with limited functions, which should be paid for and licensed later; try before you buy.
  • Freeware is software offered with no payment requirement (although sometimes donations and/or feedback are appreciated).

Index to Computer Helpers

Advice here comes from a number of sources, including Gizmo's Tech Support Alert email newsletter, Windows Secrets email newsletter, Smart Computing magazine, and RSS feeds from Lockergnome, The Internet Patrol, Lifehacker, Robin Good, Infopackets Windows Technology News.

Hardware and Peripherals Help

Low Cost Sources for Students, Faculty, Staff

These listings are not intended as recommendations or endorsements. They are provided simply as possible resources.

Computer Relations (MP3 players, etc.)

Many devices now use computers to download files and perform other functions.

  • MP3, WMA, other music file players - some are compatible with certain devices, services, files, while others are not. Find what you can use with which software and hardware at PlaysForSure.com and avoid buying or using the wrong ones together.

Computer Hardware Maintenance and Repair

Hard Drive Erasing Software

These are intended to clear your hard drive(s) so nothing can be recovered, when you sell or junk your computer.

Mouse

Ergonomics for Computer Users

Hardware Help
  • ClearTweak Freeware. With this free utility, you can improve the quality of your LCD monitor's text display by adjusting your Windows XP ClearType settings. You can choose no font smoothing, standard font smoothing, or ClearType font smoothing. The program lets you enter sample text, so you can preview your changes before making them on your desktop. Recommended by PC Annoyances

  • DisplayMate This program includes six sample full-screen test patterns and associated help screens for setting up your display. It runs at any resolution, color depth, and screen shape or aspect ratio. Note: This demo only provides a glimpse of the full product, which includes 100-plus test patterns that are substantially more powerful. Recommended by PC Annoyances



Recycling Used Hardware

Computer equipment often contains parts which should not be discarded in landfills, etc. Also, obsolete equipment (in local terms) may be quite useful elsewhere in the country or world.

  • Dell recycling program For a small fee, Dell will arrange pickup of up to 3 items of old computer equipment (computers, keyboards, mice, monitors, printers, fax machines, scanners, etc.), of any brand (NOT just Dell). Partnered with the National Cristina Foundation to donate to disabled and economically disadvantaged across America (tax deduction possible).

  • Hewlett Packard recycling program For a small fee, HP will arrange pickup of any brand computer equipment. "HP uses state-of-the-art facilities developed with strategic partners, as well as the alignment with selected vendors worldwide, to ensure economical and environmentally sound management of end-of-life electronics hardware. This enables us to turn unwanted products into valuable commodities that can be reused to produce new products, thus reducing the burden on the earth's resources."

  • Freecycle.org for Sebastian County allows you to give your old equipment away to someone nearby. This is the local chapter of the Freecycle.org site, a growing international movement to recycle usable items instead of trashing them.


USB Flash/Thumb/Keychain/Jump Drives Software & Links

There are a lot of names for these little tools. "JumpDrives" is actually a brand name and should not be used for all USB Flash drives. They are called "flash" drives because they use "Flash" memory, which is a type of rewriteable memory chip, instead of a spinning hard drive as in your computer. This means they are relatively safer from bumps and jolts that might wreck a hard drive. While some larger drives can also connect through a USB port, they use more vulnerable spinning drive hardware, as in your computer's hard drive.

USB Flash drives also tend to be faster and hold a lot more than a floppy diskette (128 MB to several GB (a GB is about 1,000 MB) on a USB Flash drive, as opposed to only 1.2 MB on a floppy diskette).

Windows Secrets has an item on how to use a Flash drive instead of a laptop to keep your favorite software and data available wherever you go. There are also links for the fastest drives and speed tests for drives, a discussion of U3-or-not-U3 drives, and other information. Another article from them is here and covers various menu and suite choices as well.

A new standard, called U3, is for drives which allow you to run software from the USB drive just as if it were a hard drive on your PC. This also allows you to use your own programs and setups on other PCs.



Disabilities and Computer Use
  • FastWrite allows you to type with only one hand and 9 main keys. Freeware.




CD-ROM drives and software
  • Mounting ISO (CD) files virtually: The following tool for Windows XP allows image files to be mounted virtually as CD-ROM/DVD-ROM devices. This tool is provided here for your convenience and is unsupported by Microsoft Product Support Services. Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP. Recommended by Windows Secrets and other sources.

  • The Best Free CD / DVD Burner as recommended by Gizmo's Tech Support Alert newsletter: "CDBurnerXP Pro [1] has long been one of the best free burners around. With the release of the new version 4.0 it goes straight to the top of its class. The new version, now rebranded as "CDBurnerXP," is a total re-write. In the process they have stripped out unnecessary features and added many new ones, including support for Vista, Double layer DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. Other features include disk-to-disk copy, bootable disk creation and the ability to create, read or burn ISO files. Not to be dismissed is the latest version of the Open Source InfraCorder [2]. Like CDBurnerXP it handles CDs and DVDs, though not Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. That aside, the feature set is similar. Nero users will find the user interface both familiar and comfortable. My only complaint is that two of the ISOs I burned with InfraCorder were unreadable. It could be just my hardware, though CDBurnerXP didn't seem to have the same problem.
    I suggest you try both of these products and choose what best suits your hardware and personal burning needs. With software like this available for free, it seems hard to justify outlaying money on commercial burners.
    [1] http://cdburnerxp.se Freeware, Windows 2000 -> Vista, 1.97MB [2] http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/ Windows 2000 -> Vista, 2.6MB

Hardware Compatibility List for Windows

Microsoft has created the sites in this section to only open for Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Finding out what products work with which versions of Windows can be frustrating. Microsoft provides a list of what (as far as Microsoft knows) is expected to be compatible, at the Products Designed for Microsoft Windows – Windows Catalog and HCL site. For Windows XP and Vista, go to the Windows Vista Hardware Compatibility List (which covers both) and select one of the "works with" signs, and narrow it down more if you like.
It's a good way to find out if your printer or other hardware is supposed to work with that new computer you're thinking about buying.