Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- computerclub:helpcenter:websites_tools [2023/05/01 18:37] – [Software tools] phillip
+++ computerclub:helpcenter:websites_tools [2025/02/24 20:37] (current) – phillip
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-====== Websites and Tools ======
-The Help Center depends on internet web sites and software tools. If you are curious then this page may be helpful. If you are looking for answers, the content of this page may not contain the immediate answer, but may be the first step in finding an answer.
-===== Web Sites of interest: =====
 ====== Websites and Tools ======
@@ Line 26: / Line 20: @@
 [[https://www.thevillagescomputerclub.com/self-help.html|Self Help from the Villages Computer Club]]
-====== Websites and Tools ======
-The Help Center depends on internet web sites and software tools. If you are curious then this page may be helpful. If you are looking for answers, the content of this page may not contain the immediate answer, but may be the first step in finding an answer.
-===== Web Sites of interest: =====
-==== Sites/subdomains that appear within the sctexas.org domain. ====
-The Computer Club web site contains several interesting SIG (Special Interest Group) sections. I really wish the "Search" feature on the Computer Club web site was more functional. There is a lot of information in the SIG sections. A lot of time was invested by volunteers to share their knowledge and experience.
-[[https://www.sctexas.org/club/scripts/memfac/memfac.asp?NS=MEMFAC&MFCODE=SIG_WINDOWS|Windows SIG]] Some of the history of the Windows Sig is contained in the web site [[https://sctxwindows.com|sctxwindows.com]], created by Bill Buppert, one of the earlier participants in the Computer Club and a significant contributor to the evolution of the Help Center. Bill chose to require you to register to look at the content of his site. The site is a good resource of knowledge and experience. You may find the [[http://sctxwindows.com/Tutorials|Tutorial ]]section helpful.
-[[https://www.sctexas.org/club/scripts/memfac/memfac.asp?MFCODE=CCLUB_SEC#sidebar|Security SIG]] As relates to Windows security, John Jenkinson has been maintaining a [[https://sccccyber.blogspot.com/#sidebar|BLOG]] about security issues. [[https://krebsonsecurity.com/|KrebsOnSecurity]] may open your eyes about internet security.
-[[https://www.sctexas.org/club/scripts/memfac/memfac.asp?NS=MEMFAC&MFCODE=SIG_MAC|Mac Users Group]] (MUG)
-[[https://www.sctexas.org/club/scripts/memfac/memfac.asp?NS=MEMFAC&MFCODE=SIG_MAC|Idevices]]
-==== Sites that are not part of the sctexas.org domain. ====
-[[https://christitus.com/|Chris Titus ]]is a resource for computer knowledge in several domains. The material he covers can be educational and helpful. This is a video about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXXgbGwEnYw|Windows Utilities]]. Here is a video from April 2019 about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVy4GAtkh7Q|Windows setup]]. Watching this video will give you a taste of Chris Titus. This item and video are more current. The process depends on a PowerShell script. [[https://christitus.com/debloat-windows-10-2020/|Debloat Windows]] is the text version and this is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E6OT_QcHaU|Debloat Video]].
-[[https://www.hanselman.com/blog/scott-hanselmans-2021-ultimate-developer-and-power-users-tool-list-for-windows/comments#comments-start|Scott Hanselman]] created this blog entry. There is more than one good suggestions in this article.
-[[https://www.thewindowsclub.com/|The Windows Club]], All kinds of Windows stuff. However… Be CAREFUL. I have found plenty of "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait|clickbait]]" on this site
-[[https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/|Bleeping computer]].
-[[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/|Microsoft]]
-[[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10|Microsoft Media Creation ]]
-Note that the link above goes to the [[http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10|www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10]]. If you are interested in other software downloads start at this link: [[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download|Microsoft Software Download]]. Downloadable versions of Microsoft office are here: [[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/office|Microsoft Office]] . You will need the product key to complete the download.
-[[https://www.tomshardware.com/|tomshardware]]
-[[https://www.howtogeek.com/t/windows/|https://www.howtogeek.com/t/windows/]]
-[[https://www.lifewire.com/|https://www.lifewire.com/]]
-[[http://woshub.com/how-to-clean-up-system-volume-information-folder/|woshub.com (Windows OS Hub)]] might be helpful, but…. Watch out for click bait.
-[[https://archive.org/web/web.php|The internet archive]] is a goldmine of "older versions" of internet websites. It is hard to believe that an organization creates "snapshots"\\
-of the internet and makes those snapshots available to the world, for free. WOW!!! If you want an "older" version of a file you downloaded from a website, it is possible you can find it on the internet archive. When I discovered that later versions of minitool required payment for a feature that used to be free, I went to the internet archive and chose a snapshot that contained the older version of the software.
-====== Websites and Tools ======
-The Help Center depends on internet web sites and software tools. If you are curious then this page may be helpful. If you are looking for answers, the content of this page may not contain the immediate answer, but may be the first step in finding an answer.
-===== Web Sites of interest: =====
-==== Sites/subdomains that appear within the sctexas.org domain. ====
-The Computer Club web site contains several interesting SIG (Special Interest Group) sections. I really wish the "Search" feature on the Computer Club web site was more functional. There is a lot of information in the SIG sections. A lot of time was invested by volunteers to share their knowledge and experience.
-[[https://www.sctexas.org/club/scripts/memfac/memfac.asp?NS=MEMFAC&MFCODE=SIG_WINDOWS|Windows SIG]] Some of the history of the Windows Sig is contained in the web site [[https://sctxwindows.com|sctxwindows.com]], created by Bill Buppert, one of the earlier participants in the Computer Club and a significant contributor to the evolution of the Help Center. Bill chose to require you to register to look at the content of his site. The site is a good resource of knowledge and experience. You may find the [[http://sctxwindows.com/Tutorials|Tutorial ]]section helpful.
-[[https://www.sctexas.org/club/scripts/memfac/memfac.asp?MFCODE=CCLUB_SEC#sidebar|Security SIG]] As relates to Windows security, John Jenkinson has been maintaining a [[https://sccccyber.blogspot.com/#sidebar|BLOG]] about security issues. [[https://krebsonsecurity.com/|KrebsOnSecurity]] may open your eyes about internet security.
-[[https://www.sctexas.org/club/scripts/memfac/memfac.asp?NS=MEMFAC&MFCODE=SIG_MAC|Mac Users Group]] (MUG)
-[[https://www.sctexas.org/club/scripts/memfac/memfac.asp?NS=MEMFAC&MFCODE=SIG_MAC|Idevices]]
 ==== Sites that are not part of the sctexas.org domain. ====
@@ Line 125: / Line 56: @@
 I have all my tools installed on a thumb drive configured with [[https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html|Ventoy]].
-[[https://github.com/builtbybel/bloatbox/blob/master/README.md|Bloatbox]] is a tool that might help you remove unnecessary bloatware from Windows. Use with CAUTION. Read the documentation carefully
+[[https://github.com/builtbybel/bloatbox|Bloatbox]] is a tool that might help you remove unnecessary bloatware from Windows. Use with CAUTION. Read the documentation carefully
 [[https://clonezilla.org/|Clonezilla]] is a flavor of linux designed for some of the tasks that help you recover disks. To use clonezilla it is necessary to boot from a thumb drive or CD that contains the clonezilla system.
+[[https://www.diskgenius.com/free.php|DiskGenius]] Free is a disk management tool that includes cloning. The program can display the SMART features of a storage device. It is provided by [[https://www.eassos.com/|https://www.eassos.com/]], corporate headquarters in China.
 [[https://rescuezilla.com/|Rescuezilla]] is similar to Clonezilla. It is a recent discovery and has a prettier interface as compared to clonezilla. Clonezilla and Rescuezilla do NOT shrink partitions automatically. However, if you use [[https://gparted.org/|gparted]] to shrink partitions before "cloneing", you can copy/clone a large hard drive to a smaller solid state drive.
@@ Line 165: / Line 98: @@
 Here is a link that might help you understand the Dism options… [[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/repair-a-windows-image|Repair Windows Image]]
-DISM and SFC are inconsistent when it comes to "aiming" them at another windows installation.
+DISM and SFC are inconsistent when it comes to "aiming" them at another windows installation. This method is important if you are trying to "fix" a broken windows installation from a "bootable thumb drive" or the Windows PE environment.
 Examples…
@@ Line 179: / Line 112: @@
 [[https://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.io/home/|Gsmartcontrol]] More information about what and why of gsmartcontrol is [[.:smart_hard_drive|here]].
-[[https://sergeistrelec.name/|Sergei Strelec WinPE iso]] contains a large collection of Windows utilities. The WinPE components and utilities are later/newer than the components on Hirens or Bob.0mbs. Today (March 2023) it is the preferred tool. Downloading can be painful because the sites I have found provide "click bait" that conceals the "right download". I did download it successfully from [[https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/sergei_strelecs_winpe.html|MajorGeeks.]]  (May 1, 2023) There is some "magic/ reading" to downloading from the [[https://sergeistrelec.name/|Sergei Strelec WinPE iso]] web site.
+[[https://sergeistrelec.name/|Sergei Strelec WinPE iso]] contains a large collection of Windows utilities. The WinPE components and utilities are later/newer than the components on Hirens or Bob.0mbs. Today (March 2023) it is the preferred tool. Downloading can be painful because the sites I have found provide "click bait" that conceals the "right download". I did download it successfully from [[https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/sergei_strelecs_winpe.html|MajorGeeks.]] (May 1, 2023) There is some "magic/ reading" to downloading from the [[https://sergeistrelec.name/|Sergei Strelec WinPE iso]] web site.
 [[https://www.hirensbootcd.org|Hirens Win_PE]] This site offers two versions/collections of software. Apparently the original creator of the Hirens collection ceased to provide updates, so a community continued the process. The last version of the original Hirens is available, as is, a more current release. If you download and burn the latest ISO, you will discover a lot of utilities. Here is the download link for the [[https://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/HBCD_PE_x64.iso|1.3 gb iso]]. You can use [[https://rufus.ie/|Rufus]] to create a bootable thumb drive. Or, you can put a copy of the Hirens iso on a thumb drive with Ventoy.