Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
May 31, 2009
Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.
Volume 4, Number 51 — Sunday, May 31, 2009
IN THIS ON-LINE ISSUE:
1. Creating PDF Files with PDFCreator
2. The Lighter Side of Technology
3. Using PDFCreator to Save Print Jobs as Individual PDF Files
4. Using PDFCreator to Combine and Save Multiple Prints in One PDF File
5. My Computer Security Software Recommendations
6. Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends
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Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter. Its articles are not in the email issue — and the email articles aren't in the online issue — subscribe to my email newsletter so you can read both.
1. Creating PDF Files with PDFCreator
Product: PDFCreator
Class: Utility, pdf creation softwae
License: Free, open-source, GPL license.
Operating Systems: Windows
Version Reviewed: v0.9.8
I've written a number of times that I often Click2PDF, a PDF creation program, to create .pdf files to document the purchases I make on the Internet. Since Click2PDF is a commercial program (it's $19.95, and is well worth it), I often look for an alternative that can do the same things — since I don't want to buy a copy for the computers on which I will seldomly use it.
Tech Tip
What's a PDF file? That's the file extension of that is used for Adobe Reader files. By the way, there are other reader files besides Adobe Reader — and which are not as slow or intrusive.
This time, I've found PDFCreator, which is a free, open-source program for Windows. PDFCreator sets up as a printer driver do that it is recognized by your computer as a printer. Any program that prints from Windows can print to PDFCreator.
Most pdf creation programs will create a pdf file when you "print" to its "printer." The feature missing in them is the ability to combine multiple diferent print tasks into one file, e.g., saving the description web page of something you're going to buy, the invoice page as you buy the item, and the receipt / purchase acknowledgement, all in the same file. Most programs make you save each in a separate file.
PDFCreator, though, is a free program that solves that problem, too.
In the next two articles, I'll show how to create single "print" PDF files and how to create PDF files that include multiple prints. But, first, let's look at one of the other aspects of PDFCreator, from pdfForge.
The left image below shows the initial setup screen of PDFCreator — there's nothing surprising on it.
The image on the right, though, is about halfway through the license document and is NOT the license for PDFCreator (that was the first license shown). This license is for the toolbar that PDFCreator wants to install in Firefox and in Internet Explorer. I suggest that you read it very carefully and decide if you want the pdfForge Toolbar to be installed (I didn't want it).
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The next screen defaults to Standard Installation, and unless you're installing the program on a server to be accessed by other computers, that's the selection you need.
The image on the right shows a very important screen. Pay close attention to it — I did not on my first installation of PDFCreator.
On it, you can pick whether you wat Yahoo to be your default search engine — I don't and unchecked this box. That's how I learned that PDFCreator sets up uninstall options in Windows Add/Remove Programs for both PDFCreator and pdfForge Toolbar.
Initially, I thought that unchecking the Use Yahoo... checkbox would also prevent the pdfForge Toolbar from being installed — it does not. Notice the line that I have circled in red — the PDFCreator Browser AddOn is the pdfForge Toolbar.
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If you do not want the pdfForge Toolbar, you must check it on the Select Components screen. I also unchecked the "COM Samples" item, as it seemed to make no sense.
For now, let's follow through my first installation and see what happens when pdfForge Toolbar is installed.
The image on the right (Select Additional Tasks) has defaults that were fine for me, so I didn't change anything. I clicked Next and finished the installation process.
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At that point, WinPatrol immediately gave me three program alerts warning me of system-level changes. That's how I realized that I had accidentally installed the pdfForge Toolbar.
The first image warned me that there was a new program SearchSettings.exe that would start up every time I started my computer. I like to minimize the number of things that run automatically, so this was a great warning.
Tech Tip
When WinPatrol warns me of a new auto-starting program, I usually tell it "Yes" to allow the program to auto-start. Then, I open WinPatrol and use its Startup Programs tab to Disable the item.
I could remove it from the list, but Disable is a safer choice — if I make a mistake, I can Enable the item again.
On the right, we see the warning from WinPatrol telling me that the Widgi Toolbar from the pdfforge Toolbar has been installed as a toolbar for Internet Explorer.
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In the image on the left below, we see another warning from WinPatrol telling me that same thing as the last message.
However, as we can see in the WinPatrol image on the right, there were two warninngs because the WidgiToolbarIE.dll was set up twice — once as a Browser Helper Object (BHO) and once as a toolbar. We also see that SearchSettings.dll was set up as a BHO.
Notice WinPatrol's Remove button. All I had to do was to select an item and click Remove, then the second one and then the third.
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In the image below, you can see that WinPatrol shows me that the SearchSettings program is set to start automatically when I start (or restart) Windows.
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At this point, I uninstalled pdfForge Toolbar and PDFCreator, using the Windows Add/Remove Programs dialog box. Since I intended to install them again, and to skip the toolbar this time, I rebooted.
Tech Tip
If you ininstall and plan to reinstall, always reboot between those two steps. Sometimes Windows has added some of those files to the operating system that's running, and can't delete those files. It marks them to be deleted when the computer reboots.
In the next two articles, we'll look at using PDFCreator to save individual print tasks as individual PDF files and to save multiple print jobs as a single PDF file.
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2. The Lighter Side of Technology
This week's technology cartoon at Terry's Computer Tips!
3. Using PDFCreator to Save Print Jobs as Individual PDF Files
Once you have installed PDFCreator, it's easy to use it to document anything that Windows will print. All you have to do is to use the Windows Print dialog box to select PDFCreator as the "printer" that you want to use.
When you print, next, you'll get the PDFCreator dialog box shown in the image on the right. The Document Title will be filled in with the name of the file you're printing.
If you're ready to save that individual print job as a PDF file, click on the Save button. That will open the standard Windows Save File dialog box, which you can use to navigate to the folder where you want to save the file and in which you set the file name.
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If you're not ready to save that individual print job as a PDF file, click on the "Wait – button. That will open the PDFCreator PDF Print Monitor. At that point, you can print a second document, print a third document, etc.
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When you're ready to save the individual documents, you've got two options. They are not particularly obvious or intuitive, until you remember that PDFCreator works by telling Windows that it is a printer.
When you select the Wait – Collect button, PDFCeator puts a Stop or hold on its printing. You can see that in the image on the left below — there's a checkmark beside "Printer stop." That's our hint.
So, to save the first item we have in our list, we can either click on the Printer stop item in PDFCreator's printer list, or we can click on the Printer button (notice thte red x superimposed on the side of the printer.
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At that point, PDFCreator will open the standard Windows Save File dialog box, which you can use to navigate to the folder where you want to save the file and in which you set the file name.
After you save the first item, you get the Safe File dialog box for the next item you "printed."
In the next article, we'll look at combining multiple prints into one PDF document.
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4. Using PDFCreator to Combine and Save Multiple Prints in One PDF File
One of the features that I've had trouble finding in any PDF creation software other than Click2PDF is the ability to print multiple times into the PDF creation software's progam, and then to be able to save the prints as one big PDF file. Even better is the ability to delete some of those prints (if they're not exactly what I wanted) or to change the order of the items.
PDFCreator does all those things! It's not quite as easy as Click2PDFf, but the price is right...
First, we need to print a file to PDFCreator. We'll get the PDFCreator dialog box that would allow us to save the PDF file. But, more importantly we get a button hat says "Wait – Collect."
That button will put "printer" on hold so that we can print another document (or web page) into the PDFCreator workfiles.
In the image on the right, in the background, we see that there are two printed documents waiting for PDFCreator to do something with them.
If we wanted to change their order, we could right-click on one of the file names, and we'd get an option to move it up or down. We would also get an option to delete that item, if we like.
In the previous article, we saved the documents as separate PDF files. This time, let's combine them into one PDF file. As you can see, under PDFCreator's Document menubar, we have the option "Combine all" which will do that for us.
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In the image below on the left, we see the resulting combined file that's 2.23 megabytes. But, it is not a PDF file yet. It's just a combination of the data and is part of PDFCreator's work files.
Now, we need to turn that combined file into a PDF file, so we can save it with all its images and formatting.
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We can do that by using the PDFCreator menu bar's selection (click on Printer > Printer stop to release the PDFCreator printer to continue its work. Or, we can click on the Printer Stop icon in PDFCreator. Either way works fine.
Now, we get PDFCreator's print/save dialog box again. Click the Save button. You'll get the standard Windows Save File dialog box, which you can use to navigate, name and save the PDF file where you want it.
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5. My Computer Security Software Recommendations
I review my security software recommendations and update them for each weekly newsletter issue, if I think they need to change.
My Philosophy: Many people want to pick their most economical solution and prefer an all-in-one anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall solution. In concept, that's a great idea. In actual practice, I don' think that this type of package is likely to be the best in all the protection categories you need. Other people want to pick the best of each type program. I'm one of the these folks.
My choice of software that I am willing to recommend is driven by my search for software for me to use. I only recommend programs that I like and that I use. I will sometimes suggest alternatives to my recommendations, but I clearly note if I no longer use them.
I'm often asked for alternatives to the programs that I recommend, especially by people who want to buy one package to do everything. My choice of antivirus before I switched to Sunbelt VIPRE was ESET's NOD32, which I used for a number of years. I'm trying ESET Smart Security 4 as such an alternative on my notebook computer (my main computer). Smart Security 4 has gotten great ratings and includes antivirus and antispyware, both from their current NOD32 v4 version, and antispam and firewall. So far, I'm very impressed.
Anti-Virus
I'm often asked about several other popular anti-virus or anti-virus combination packages. Yes, I realize that they are not in my recommendation list. "Enough said..."
From 2003 through mid-2008, my personal choice was ESET's small, fast NOD32 anti-virus program, which offers a FREE 30-day evaluation license. I consider NOD32 one of the best in anti-virus protection — and it continues to get recognition andn awards. Unlike some of its competitors, ESET offers multiple-year licenses also, and includes program updates in the multiple-year license.
Tech Tip
Many antivirus programs will offer you an anti-virus signature subscription renewal when your subscription renews. I strongly recommend against this option — buy the full program or make sure you get program updates with the subscription renewal. Both NOD32 and VIPRE purchases include both program updates/upgrades AND antivirus signature updates.
Vendors routinely improve the capabilities and speed of the programs, too. If you update only the signatures, you miss any program improvements.
However, I've changed from my long-time programs NOD32 (antivirus) and CounterSpy (antispyware) to Sunbelt's new VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.
I've found that VIPRE puts even less load on my computer than the speedy combination of NOD32 and CounterSpy. I've also been impressed with the way its "deep scan" has found and eliminated risks that were stored in zip files, which is one of the latest malware email tricks.
Read more about anti-virus programs on my web site.
Related articles:
- Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
- Free Online Antivirus Scan
- NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32
- VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Review
Firewall Software
While the Windows XP firewall is much better than no firewall at all, don't count on the Windows XP firewall to meet your needs. You need a two-way firewall, which the Windows XP firewall is not!. Microsoft woke up and supplied a two-way firewall with Windows Vista.
The Windows XP firewall does not control outbound communications originating from your computer — and you should want to have control if adware/trojans/spyware or even commercial products want to talk to the Internet. Whether they are calling home or spewing spam, you want to be able to control your computer.
Do you want Windows Media Player to call home every time you play something? It does! Do you use the Search function in Windows Explorer to find things on your hard drive? Did you know that every time you search, Windows Explorer talks to Microsoft?
I didn't know that when I ran ZoneAlarm, but the Sunbelt Personal Firewall flags that to me, and I can stop it or allow it to happen. Many other programs try to call home when you run them, too.
I recommend my choice for a firewall program, which is Sunbelt Personal Firewall.
You can try the full-featured "paid version" of Sunbelt Personal Firewall free for 30 days — after that, you can register it or, if you're using it on a home non-business computer, you can let it revert to the free, lesser-function license.
Tip: Be sure to read my review of SPF for the settings I recommend.
Sunbelt Personal Firewall is regularly $19.95 (with discounts for multiple computers and/or multiple years!) for a non-expiring license for the program and includes one year of their updates subscription.
Related articles:
Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware Software
CounterSpy, from Sunbelt Software, has received many kudos from the computer press for its always-running and periodic full system scans. It has been my personal choice for my PC's and my family's PC's.
Sunbelt's CounterSpy v2.5, both improved CounterSpy's performance against malware and reduced its impact on system resources and responsiveness when its scanning.
Sunbelt continues to release updated program versions — the current version is v3.1 — and there's an even newer version about to be released. Nicely, Sunbelt do NOT install the updated programs automatically. You have to use the Update process in the program, which means that you'll know that something significant has changed.
Now, I've changed from my long-time programs NOD32 (antivirus) and CounterSpy (antispyware) to Sunbelt's new VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.
I've found that VIPRE puts even less load on my computer than the speedy combination of NOD32 and CounterSpy. My computer seems to have much more pep and power than it had previously. I've also been impressed with the way its "deep scan" has found and eliminated risks that were stored in zip files, which is one of the latest malware email tricks.
Related articles:
Anti-spam Software
In today's Internet world, the question is not "if" you will get spam, but "how much will you get?"
I use and recommend POPFile as my first choice for handling spam. POPFile sits on your computer, between your email program and your ISP mailbox, and handles emial as it downloads.
POPFile uses a different approach to handle spam than some other programs do — it does nothing to reduce spam. It is designed as an email classification tool — you train it to recognize spam and any other type of email that you want to classify. These classifications can help you sort your emails into appropriate folders in your email program.
Sunbelt Software, who makes the anti-spyware program CounterSpy (which I use and recommend) and the firewall that I use and recommend (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) also has a well-regarded, award-winning anti-spam program called iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express. Since I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I haven't tried iHateSpam.
Mailwasher Pro would be my first choice to handle spam before it ever gets into your computer's Inbox. Mailwasher Pro uses on-line Realtime Black Lists mail servers sending spam recently, "training" by you of what you think is spam, and your own "friends" and "blacklist" lists. Note: I found that PopFile generally meets my needs and stopped using Mailwasher Pro, even though PopFile works AFTER the emails have been downloaded. If I used a dialup connection, I would be more interested in Mailwasher Pro.
Mailwasher Pro can even bounce spam messages, as if your email address was not valid, although the usefulness and appropriateness of this is questionable. There is a free version called "Mailwasher," but it omits the functions that I consider critical for this purpose -- such as safely previewing the emails safely before they ever get to your email inbox.
Related articles:
Cable/DSL Router
If you have a cable modem or a DSL modem, you need to have another layer of inexpensive protection between you and the Internet. A cable/DSL router isolates your computer from direct connection to the Internet. Your computer can easily request your email, web pages, etc. through the router. The responses come back to the router and are smoothly routed to your computer. But, someone on the Internet side of the router can not initiate a connection to your computer — they can only respond to your request.
Even if you only have one computer to connect to your cable or DSL modem, I recommend that you purchase and use a cable/DSL router because of the protection it can give you against attempts to attack through some flaws in Windows itself.
A router isolates your local network, whether it is only one computer or several, from the Internet by actually making it a separate network. The router gets the "public" IP address and handles all your outbound communications and the responses to them. But, it blocks computers on the Internet side from being able to initiate communications with your computer! This will prevent you from falling prey to many worms that try to attack security holes in Windows itself.
For a wireless router, I recommend the Linksys WRT54G
If you don't want wireless, I recommend the Linksys BEFSR41
Tech Tip
By the way, if you get tempted by the new "802.11n" routers, please pay close attention. So far, the 802.11n specification has not been approved and finalized. IEEE is currently working on Draft 9 of the standard. The final standard is expected to be approved in January 2010.
If you buy one, you may be locked into a specific vendor's implementation of a draft of a standard that never got approved. I recommend choosing 802.11g for now, or recognizing and accepting that you're purchasing a model based on a work-in-progress, and that your router and computer's wireless card may not meet the final standard.
See these related articles:
6. Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends
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Volume 4, Number 51 — Sunday, May 31, 2009
Copyright © 2009 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.
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