There might be times when you are accessing your code snippets saved online from your friends PC or from a new workstation. Chances are less that you can get hold of WinMerge or any similar file comparison tool. But we have a simple dual file comparison tool online which gives us the comparison results on click of a button.

Features

• Ability to upload 2 versions of the files to be compared
• Code can even be pasted to the text boxes for comparison
• Automatic Wordwrap

Checkout Diffchecker

DiffChecker Info
App Name	DiffChecker
License	free
Type	online
App URL
More Info	link

AutoVer is a configurable automatic or real time backup and personal versioning system. It can be used as a simple real time backup or as a more complex, but transparent version control system (like a realtime incremental backup). The beauty of this system is that once you set it up (which is extremely simple) it does everything. No remembering to backup or to check in or check out files. Every time you save a file it is copied to your backup folder, drive or FTP server.

You can include and exclude certain files and browse the backups with the Backup Explorer. Great for backing up (or one way synchronising) your work or home documents to flash memory or saving every change you make to your source code or image files.

Making it Portable

Use the tool Uniextract to make this application portable. Check this article to know how.

Features

• Select any number of separate folders or folder trees (including sub folders) to watch for changes – each folder tree has its own independent settings
• Select straight backup or one of two versioning modes
• Select any folder, drive or FTP to backup to (including memory sticks and network drives)
• Option to create an initial backup before the automatic backup starts and ensure it is current on every startup
• Backups can be checked automatically, at a set time or manually
• Restrict which files and folders to include and exclude (by file mask) & maximum size
• Change the versioning date/time stamp format and versioning rate.
• Zip or delete old versions after a specified time (or just keep storing the files)
• Optionally delete backup files on original file deletion permanently or to the Recycle Bin
• Fault tolerance in case your backup folder/drive goes off line or source files are locked. Drives re-sync’ed when they come online
• MS Office, Visual Studio plus many others supported (temp file creation, delete then rename is treated as original file change)
• Backup file & version explorer included
• Open backups or file versions directly (file extensions are preserved) or via inbuilt explorer
• Compare file versions (using an external application)
• Restore file versions one at a time or all at once via inbuilt explorer or manually
• Run a program on each file change so you can encode, resize or do anything to the file – just use AutoVer for the change detection
• Runs discretely in the Windows System Tray & and can be 100% portable (AutoVer can be installed on removable media)
• x86/x32 (32 bit) and x64 (64 bit) support (Windows 2000 to Windows 7+)

AutoVer Info
App Name	AutoVer
License	free
Type	portable
App URL
More Info	link

WobZIP is a free online tool that allows you to uncompress your files online. It displays the list of files present in that zip file and it allows you to download only the needed files from the archive . If you get hold of any suspicious zip file, instead of downloading to your PC and extracting it to view the contents, you can enter the file URL in WobZip to ensure that its free from any executables. This also has an antivirus scanner which scans the files in the zip on the fly during decompression.

Once the files are decompressed on the WobZip server, its displayed to user as shown below

Features

• Web-based means hassle-free
  Now you can unzip your files at internet cafe, at work or anywhere as long as you have access to the Internet. No longer will you be limited by the inability to install programs onto admin-protected computers.
• Uncompressing online means safer
  We scan your compressed files using an anti-virus scanner so any infected files will be removed before you download them onto your computer.
• Uncompressing online means the freedom to choose
  Our aim is to allow users to uncompress as many compressed file formats as possible. This means that you can compress your files using the compression format of your choice and send it to your friends. Tell them about WobZIP and uncompress on the fly.
• Formats supported:
  7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZHCHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS

Issues Faced During the Test

• Tried with tar.gz and it is not supported
• Antivirus scan was not successful, got a message – ‘An unknown error had occurred while scanning for viruses.’ (Hope that they fix it soon)

Check WobZip out.

WobZip Info
App Name	WobZip
License	free
Type	online
App URL
More Info	link

There are various harddisk space analyzers which gives us a graphical representation of the files/folders which eats up our harddisk. These tools even provide options to visually navigate through the folders to view the space occupied by its subfolders. Here, we talk about few popular disk analyzers which are portable and worth giving a shot.

Comparison of all those are presented in a table at the end of this post.

Security Perspective: If you are an info sec guy, esp. in forensics, you can utilize the features of the these tools to identify the presence of hidden large files/archives which might possibly contain some sensitive data in it. Most of the time secret truecrypt files are hidden inside some OS folders to make it look genuine.

Note: Most of the apps mentioned here can be downloaded in a portable format. The others can be made portable using the method mentioned here

Comparison Table – here.

HDGraph

SpaceSniffer

DiskSpaceFan

WinDirStat

TreeSizeFree

SpaceMonger

OverDisk

JDiskReport

Disktective

Xinorbis

Scanner

FilePro

FolderSize

Comparison Table

[Go To Top]

FlashCookiesView is a small utility that displays the list of cookie files created by Flash component (Local Shared Object) in your Web browser. For each cookie file, the lower pane of FlashCookiesView displays the content of the file in readable format or as Hex dump. If you are a security tester, this can help you while testing for flash applications – to analyse the sensitive content in the flash generated cookies.

You can also select one or more cookie files, and then copy them to the clipboard, save them to text/html/xml file or delete them.

Flash Cookie Viewer

System Requirements

This utility works on any version of Windows, starting from Windows 2000 and up to Windows 7. Also, FlashCookiesView can work with any Web browser, because the Flash component always save flash cookies in the same place and in the same format, regardless the Web browser that you use.

Using FlashCookiesView

FlashCookiesView doesn’t require any installation process or additional DLL files. In order to start using it, simply copy the files to any folder you like, and run the executable file – FlashCookiesView.exe 
The main window of FlashCookiesView contains 2 panes: The upper pane displays the list of all cookies files found in your flash cookies folder. When you select a cookies file in the upper pane, the lower pane displays the content of the cookie. By default, FlashCookiesView parse the cookie file and display it in name/value format, but you can also view the content of the cookie file as Hex Dump, by choosing ‘Hex Dump’ view from Options->Display Mode (or simply by pressing F3).

You can also select one or more cookie files in the upper pane, and then use ‘Save Selected Items’ option to export the cookies list to text/html/xml/csv file, or ‘Delete Selected Cookies Files’ to delete unneeded flash cookies.

If you want to view the Flash cookies of another computer/operating system/user profile, simply press F9 and select the right base cookies folder.

Download FlashCookieViewer:

This post talks about few portable ipod managers which can directly run from USB devices and sync with your iPods. If you don’t want to install the heavyweight iTunes in your PC, choose any of the apps discussed here.

Various apps discussed in this post are

1. Floola
2. iDump
3. YamiPod
4. SharePod
5. SongBird
6. MediaMonkey

1. Floola

Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod (any model supporting iTunes except iPhone, iPod touch and latest iPod shuffle).

It’s a standalone application that can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux (any GTK2 distro), Mac OS X (10.3.9 or newer!) and Windows (98 or newer, including Windows 7).

Foola iPod Manager

Features

• Cross plattform
• Copy add and extract songs to and from iPod.
• Playlists -  Easily manage, import and export (m3u, pls) playlists.
• Last.fm
• Podcasts
• Web videos – add files to iPod just copying the page url
• Lyrics Support – even on older iPods (3G and above).
• Search for duplicates – Easily find duplicated songs on iPod.
• Convert audio and video incompatible formats

Download Page :

2. iDump

This program will allow you transfer your songs off your iPod to a PC. Connect you iPod and run iDump and you’ll have access to all your songs, select the songs you want to transfer then pick a destination directory and how you would like your songs to be named.

iDump iPod Manager

Features

• Output formatting – Gives you the option to select an output directory and the way the songs will be transferred.
• Unattended Transfer - deals with common errors like what to do if a song already exist on the destination drive etc.
• Search
• Playlists
• Export Playlists – This option will export all of your playlists in to the standard .m3u format.

Download Page :

3. YamiPod

YamiPod is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod under Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation. Take a look at the feature list to find out what it can do and feel free to suggest anything that might be missing.

Yamipod iPod Manager

Features

Download Page:

4. SharePod

SharePod was designed from the start to be lightweight, quick and responsive ipod manager

Sharepod iPod Manager

Features

• Add & remove music and videos from your iPod
• Add, remove and edit playlists
• Add & remove album art
• View and backup photos
• Copy music, videos and playlists from your iPod to PC
• Import music/videos into your iTunes library, including playlists and ratings
• Tag editing
• Drag n’ drop to and from Explorer
• Simple, clean interface
• Quick to load and use with no unnessary complicated features
• Support for iPhone and iTouch (Thanks to Nikias Bassen, Paul Sladen, Jonathan Beck, and Christophe Fergeau for making this possible)

Download Page:

5. SongBird

Play your iPod from Songbird and synchronize it with your Songbird library (with the help of iPod device Songbird extension). We can even copy songs to your iPod or synchronize your iPod from your Songbird library.

Songbird iPod Sync

Features

• Sync – Add a song or build a playlist, and Songbird automatically syncs it to your phone or MP3 player
• Manage – Search, sort, stream, sync. Add Flickr photos, YouTube videos, song lyrics, and blogs for every artist on your playlist, even the tracks you stream over the Web. It’s all part of the mix.

Install iPod Device Support Addon to be able to sync the iPods

Download Page:

6. MediaMonkey

Sync with iPhones, iPods, and most any MP3 phone or Audio Device. Just click the Sync button to sync tracks, podcasts, and related properties such as Album Art, ratings, play history, and playlists.

Media Monkey - Music Organizer

Features

• Organize music and edit tags in your audio library with a powerful, intuitive interface
• Create playlists and let Auto-DJ & Party Mode take care of your party.
• Sync iPhones, iPods, & MP3 players, converting & leveling tracks on-the-fly.

(Read this article to learn how to make MediaMonkey portable)

Download Page:

MonitorES is a small windows utility that helps you to turnoff monitor display when you lock down your machine.Also when you lock your machine, it will pause all your running media programs & set your IM status message to “Away” / Custom message(via options) and restore it back to normal when you back.

MonitorES - Turns MonitorOff/Mutes Audio When You Lock PC

Options are customizable and can be set as per our needs.

Monitor ES Options

Features

• Automatically turnoff monitor.
• Automatically pause running media programs.
• Automatically IM away status message.
• Mute master sound (XP)
• Turn on monitor for remote machines.
• Keyboard PAUSE key to pause/play running media programs(Gives single key control).
• Custom away messages for IM
• Support 16+ Media Players
• Customizable options
• Listen to your pause status
• Very small executable file (44 KB)
• No Installation Required / Portable Software

Supported Media Players

• Winamp, AIMP , WMP, WMP Classic , 1BY1 , iTunes , KMPlayer ,Media Monkey , GOM Player , AlShow, VLC Media Player (Via HTTP) , Spotify , Foobar2000, BSPlayer

• QuickTime , XMPlay Only Support with PAUSE

Supported IM

• Google Talk , Yahoo Messenger, Digsby , Miranda IM with custom away message

Download MonitorES :

3D TraceRoute is an all-in-one networking tool which has traceroute, whois, ping, nslookup, server header analyser, portscanner, telnet client and hell lot of tools coupled together in a single package.

This is a free portable tool and can run on almost any Windows operating systems (Pro commercial version with enhanced is also available)

Here I’ve documented few of the main features of the free version of this tool; download and experiment with 3D traceroute to get the complete picture of it.

Note: This article is targeted for the readers who have basic understanding or experience with using various networking tools.

Main Window:

To trace the route to the sever, we just have to enter the target’s URL and click on the Trace Button. The 3D Trace View is continuosly refreshed and is displayed on the main window. We have options to zoom, rotate and move around the display as per our requirement.

3D TraceRoute Main Window

Whois Details Window :

We can view the query options in the ‘Query’ navigation present in the left handside bar. Just click on the query to obtain the whois details of the server.

Whois Details Window

HTTP Spy :

One cool feature in this app is HTTP Spy which allows us to quickly obtain the details like name and version of the Server in which this target application is hosted. This is obtained by analysing the Response headers of the Request message sent by the server.

HTTP Spy Window

Email Header Analysis :

To trace down the source or details of the email message we have received we should see the raw email message and manually go through it. For example in Gmail we have an Option ‘show original’ to view the raw message. 3D TraceRoute has a email header analyzer which process the raw data and displays the IP address of the sender and whether it has been listed as Spam before.

Email Headers Analysis

Video Demo :

Features

• 3d traceroute display: multiple graphics modification options
• Statistics window: min, max, average, standard deviation and history window with destination ping time
• AS list: the usual data view with lots of features
• Long period Ping and HTTP monitor
• Whois query: everything with only one click
• Record and playback: record any trace and playback step by step
• Built-in Browser: and the browser is already built in.
• ASN inspector
• NSLookup: with UDP and TCP. And zone transfer capability.
• Day and Night trace: Admins beloved toy
• Command-line execution mode: full replacement for good old buddy tracert.
• Passive OS fingerprinting
• Portscanner (knows 3,612 well known ports)
• eMail headers Analyzer: against RBLs
• Connection viewer: TCP, IP, UDP etc. statistics
• HTTP Spy: query HTTP-headers and webpages
• Atomic Clock Sync
• Built-in TELNET client
• And lot more….

Download 3D TraceRoute :

Virtual Subst

This can be of very much use if mapping is done for folders with a long path, so that VirtualSubst can act like a bookmark.

TIP:

I usually take backup of my thumbdrive in a particular location, say D:\Usb. Now, when the thumbdrive is not connected, with VirtualSubst I can map the Usb back up folder to a drive letter which would have been assigned if thumbdrive was connected. So my backup folder acts as a virutal usb drive with the advantage of having active linking of most recent files list in my Word or any app. This also helps in creating desktop shortcuts of files present in the thumbdrive, which can be accessed if the thumbdrive is connected or not.

Features

• Tiny and Portable
• Option to enable virtual drives at startup
• Add/Delete any number of virtual drives quickly

Visual Subst Info
App Name	Visual Subst
License	free
Type	portable
App URL
More Info	link

Proper justifications/comparisons for why a particular app is ‘Failed’ will be mentioned. If you find that the failed app is still better than its alternative, mention that in comments.