Windows only: DP Shredder scrubs files, folders, and free disk space with Department-of-Defense-approved methods. Completely stand-alone and small, DP Shredder is a great addition to your flash drive toolbox. After selecting the disk, folder, or file you want to securely delete with DP Shredder, you can select the method and number of times the method will be applied. You can use a basic overwrite with all zeros, pseudo-random blocks of data, or opt to use more robust methods. DP Shredder can wipe with the power of US DoD 5220.22.M ECE 7X—which, if you must know, deletes the files, overwrite all locations with a character, its complement, then a random character followed by an overwrite, and it’s repeated seven times. At the end of a single round, every bit of data you’ve deleted has been over-written 49 times. If you need more assurance that your data is gone, it’s time to break out the drill and find a far-away landfill or e-cycling centre. DP Shredder is freeware, Windows only.
DP Shredder [The Portable Freeware Collection]Windows only: System utility FavIconizer fixes your Internet Explorer bookmarks, bringing back missing Favions to your favourites toolbar.Using the application (which requires no installation) is as simple as pushing the Find missing FavIcons button. Your bookmarks will be scanned and any missing icons will be populated, or you can choose to rescan all of the links in case Google updates their favicon again. This utility might come in handy for Internet Explorer users frustrated with icons disappearing randomly over time, or not showing up in the first place. FavIconizer is a free download, Windows with Internet Explorer only. Firefox users can customise any favicon with the previously mentioned Favicon Picker extension.
FavIconizerLast week we suggested 10 tools for sticking to your New Year’s Resolutions. Those with an iPhone or iPod Touch, though, have a few additional, always-available tools for keeping up the good self-improvement fight.
Here’s our list of apps that make tracking, remembering, and motivating your resolutions easier than willpower alone. All of them (except RunKeeper) run on both iPhones and iPod touch models.
AdSweep is a user script that blocks a good number of ads on some major websites, and works from a simple file you plug into your Opera or Google Chrome files. The instructions for installing the single AdSweep.user.js file in your Opera or Chrome browser are laid out step-by-step on AdSweep’s main page. Opera users have a mostly graphical process, while Chrome users will have to check their version and then make a few tweaks to enable user scripts. The site notes that AdSweep will work for Firefox as well, along with Safari and Internet Explorer with some third-party add-ons, but each of those platforms has their own ad-blocking solutions, like Firefox’s uber-popular Adblock Plus. Chrome users can also use a proxy solution like the previously detailed Privoxy to get annoying ads out of their way. We have to say it—the site you’re reading right now is, of course, supported by advertising, and we’d ask that you keep them displayed if you dig what we do here. But AdSweep is pretty easily tweaked with, since it’s just one file, and can be used for blocking of extremely annoying ads. It’s a free download, works where Opera and Chrome can install. Thanks, Saša! AdSweep
