Links to Computer-Related Web Sites - Page 3 - O to T

The website links are arranged in alphabetical order. Use either of the menus below to access them.

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OFFICE SUITES - Alternatives to the expensive MS Office Suite:

Open Office - Free Office Suite - Versions are available for Windows (98/ME/NT/2000/XP), Linux, and Solaris Operating System, in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese (simplified & traditional), Korean, and Japanese.

Home Page - http://www.openoffice.org/

October 22, 2005. - OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been released. Its presentation and user-friendliness is much improved compared to the previous version, and it has a new database module. OpenOffice.org 2.0 features a word processor - Writer - a spreadsheet - Calc - a drawing package - Draw - presentation graphics - Impress - and the new database module - Base - plus Math and Gallery. It is the first open-source office suite with full support for the OpenDocument format.

See http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/1.1/index.html

A very interesting comparison between Microsoft Office 2003 and the free OpenOffice suite:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1570801,00.asp

Portable OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta 3 runs from a flash drive

It is now possible to run a full free office suite from a flash drive. You can download the Portable OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta 3 from http://www.openoffice.org/. It contains a wordprocessor, spreadsheet, database, and drawing and presentation tools. Note that it is beta software that isn't yet the finished product.

The Software602 Office Suite - A free alternative to MS Office® compatible with Word/Excel files. The suite is composed of four full-featured applications: a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics editor and digital photo organizer. - http://www.software602.com/.

Atlantis Nova - [900KB] Word Processor - W9x/2000/XP - Free - http://www.rssol.com/en/

OPERATING SYSTEMS:

Alternatives to Windows - also look under L for Linux sites.

Free Tech Books - most of them on programming and operating systems. -

http://www.freetechbooks.com/

The OS Files... The truth is out there...

This site identifies around 50 operating systems - past, present, and future, and gives details about them. There is also a section on free operating systems. Well worth a visit. - http://www.theosfiles.com/

FreeBSD - http://www.freebsd.org/ - a variant of Unix.

FreeOS.com - a huge and excellent site for info, downloads, etc. on a wide range of alternative OSes.

http://www.freeos.com/

Outlook and Outlook Express tweaking and troubleshooting advice

Tweak Outlook XP - http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article08-104

Inside Outlook Express - http://www.tomsterdam.com/ and http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

Outlook/Outlook Express - stationery help - http://www.mindspring.com/~majik

Internet Explorer and Outlook Express - http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer

OVERCLOCKING AND COOLING - INFO/HARDWARE SITES:

The overclocking and modding forum: To visit it, go to http://www.computershopper.co.uk/ and click on the Interactive heading. A menu presents itself. Click Forums.

The Overclocking Database - http://www.sysopt.com/ocdatabase.html

Overclock.net Forums - http://overclock.net/

Tweak3D.net - several articles on overclocking processors and video cards - http://www.tweak3d.net/

Overclock.net Forums - http://overclock.net/

The following sites have forums or pages devoted to overclocking:

http://www.motherboards.org/

http://www.sysopt.com/

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

http://www.overclockers.com

UK Supplier of overclocked/overclockable hardware - http://www.overclockers.co.uk

Overclockers Club - Also provides 'hardcore hardware reviews' - http://www.overclockersclub.com/

GeForce4 Ti and MX (Video Card) Overclocking Guide - http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/hwGuides/article.php/1182771

COOLING SITES:

Coolermaster - USA - http://www.coolermaster.com/

http://www.1coolpc.com/
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/home.htm
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/
http://www.coolerguys.com/
http://www.ocworkbench.com/

PASSWORD AND DATA RECOVERY SITES:

Resetting the Administrator password in Windows XP

I would first try using a password-cracking tool such as Openwall's John the Ripper from http://www.openwall.com/john. It can be used to find out what the passwords used in Windows NT/2000/XP are.

If that doesn't work, try the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor from http://www.home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd. It looks complicated but when mastered it does the job well and is available as a bootable floppy disk or as a bootable CD. You can also use it to edit the Windows Registry.

If that is of no use, you can try using the Emergency Boot CD from http://www.ebcd.pcministry.com/. It is capable of resetting the Administrator password.

Ontrack's EasyRecovery recovers the data from inaccessible hard disk drives. Recovery software seldom comes free because of its complexity. This software is no exception to the rule. - Data Recovery Software - http://www.ontrack.com/software/.

But here is an excellent exception to the rule -

The free Drive Rescue utility - http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/index.html

PasswordTools.com (Password cracking software for a wide range of software - Word, Excel, etc. Not free)

http://www.passwordtools.com/

Lostpassword.com - http://www.lostpassword.com/

A free password recovery tool - Cain 2.0 - http://www.oxid.it/

A generator of secure passwords - generate passwords from 4 to 64 characters long, and even generate a phonetic equivalent to help you memorize it - http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php?guide=registry.

PC World - excellent site for purchases, reviews, how-to guides, and free downloads:

http://www.pcworld.com/

PC Guide - information on every aspect of computers, including a troubleshooter - http://www.pcguide.com

PC Support sites:

About PC Support - The "About..." site, which contains guides on dozens of subjects, also includes an excellent guide to PC support. So if your own PC is playing up, or you're a support person looking after other people's machines, here's a useful place to start. - http://pcsupport.about.com

PC Mechanic - The PC Mechanic site is free, though you do need to register. Once you've done so, it's a great way to get answers to your technical problems and queries. - http://www.pcmech.com

Experts Exchange - An online community of more than 400,000 users and IT professionals working together to help each other solve problems. And it's totally free too. - http://www.experts-exchange.com

There are more technical support sites at - http://www.techsupportalert.com.

PC Tuning Tips - Want to get more performance from your PC or broadband connection? Then visit this excellent site. - http://www.speedguide.net/

PCWorld.com - for comprehensive computer information - http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/index/0,00.asp

PC 911- masses of computer-related information and how-to tutorials -

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto.html

PRINTER SITES:

Click here! to go to the page on this site that contains some useful information about inkjet and laser printers and multifunction devices that print, scan, and copy.

Troubleshooting printer problems: inkjet, laser, and dot matrix printers - Solutions are provided for a number of the problems that occur with inkjet, laser and dot matrix printers on this Printer troubleshooting guide: http://kb.indiana.edu/data/acbl.html

FixYourOwnPrinter.com

Kits are provided to repair mainly HP printers, but Apple and Epson are provided for, but not to the same extent. Perhaps more different types will be added later, such as Canon and Lexmark. Other printer-related information is provided, such as the sources of drivers, etc. - http://fixyourownprinter.com/

Printer Troubleshooting - http://www.5starsupport.com/info/printer.htm

How to reset the monitoring information recorded by HP's latest inkjet cartridges -

http://www.misterinkjet.com/hpreset.htm

Printscreen - free utility - alternative to using the native Windows feature:

http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

Processor identification utilities:

The best tool processor identification is the free WCPUID utility, which is made available from http://www.h-oda.com/. Your browser may ask if you want to install various Asian character sets to view the pages, but you can refuse, because the download link and the actual software is in English.

Click here! to go to the links for more such utilities on this page.

Programming - also look under J for Java sites:

Functionx.com - a great site for tutorials on programming, databases, spreadsheets, etc. - http://www.functionx.com/

Free Tech Books - most of them on programming and operating systems:

http://www.tcfb.com/freetechbooks/index.html

"Thinking in Java" and "Thinking in C++" - free downloads if these excellent books by Bruce Eckel. -

http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/

Webmonkey - "The Web Developer's Resource" - HTML/XML/Java/JavaScript, etc.)

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/javascript/ (Use the Search box on this page.)

Experts Exchange - An online community of more than 400,000 users and IT professionals working together to help each other solve problems. All of the major programming languages are covered, and it's totally free.

http://www.experts-exchange.com

Programmer's Heaven - "It's all here." - http://www.programmersheaven.com/

Web Developer.com - programming discussion forums - http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum

http://www.codingforums.com/ (Forums for programmers)

http://www.pshack.com/ (Programmer's Shack)

http://www.perl.com (The Perl programming language)

http://www.python.org (The Python programming language)

RAM SITES:

Visit the RAM pages on this site for comprehensive information on computer memory.

RamBooster - Excellent free RAM optimising utility for systems with 32MB RAM or less -

http://www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster/index.htm

RAM part number ID sites - one of several sites that provide a searchable database of RAM chip part numbers.

Decode RAM Chip Numbers - At this site you just enter RAM chip part numbers to find out the details and specs: http://www.chipmunk.nl/DRAM/ChipManufacturers.htm

RAM Diagnostic Software - look under the letter D for Diagnostic Utilities

Ranish (Free) Partition Manager - The Readme info is very poor, so take care with it:

http://www.ranish.com/part/

RealPlayer - free plug-in utility - uses buffering for unbroken TV and radio broadcasts - http://www.real.com/

Reviews - Computer Hardware:

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/index/0,00.asp

http://www.sysopt.com/news.html

http://www.anandtech.com/

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

http://www.motherboards.org

http://www.techspot.com/

Motherboard reviews and US prices with links to processor and video card reviews and US prices. -

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/motherboards/index.php

Seagate

IDE/SATA/SCSI Hard disk drive manufacturer. Good FAQ pages and free disk utilities - http://www.seagate.com/

SECURITY SITES - COMPUTER SYSTEMS:

There were so many of them that I have moved the list of security-related links to the new Security pages on this site.

Shareware: - Look under the letter F for "Freeware and shareware sites".

Serial ATA - Site devoted to the new IDE drive standard - http://www.serialata.org/ - including a members' forum.

Silent - quiet - hardware for computers - specially designed silent fans, cases, PSUs, etc:

Quiet PC - http://www.quietpc.com/

Silent PC Review - based in Canada but the users are from the USA, UK, and many other areas around the world - http://www.silentpcreview.com/.

Sisoft Sandra - System information utility with comparative hardware benchmarks

Free version available, but it's not nearly as compehensive as the paid-for version.

Home page - http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/

Start-up programs in Windows listed and explained:

It's frustrating trying to edit the Windows start-up list because the filenames themselves tell you little about the program's function. These free sites list thousands of common start-up files, providing full descriptions of what they do and links back to the vendor's website. Make sure that you understand what you're disabling before doing so. If you don't understand what you're doing, don't do it. Make one change at a time, and reboot your system after each change to make sure of no ill effects. -

Pacman's Windows StartUp Online Repository - http://www.windowsstartup.com/

Start-Up Applications Unplugged - http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

AnswersThat Work - Look under "Task List" - http://www.answersthatwork.com/

Support sites - technical - see the Great Sites page of this site.

StarSuite Office 7.0 - office suite

StarSuite Office 7.0 is now easily a viable alternative to the MS Office suite. Sun has made substantial advances in the development of this office suite, which was free, but now costs a fraction of the cost of Office XP. -

http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/starsuite/

Note that OpenOffice 1.1 is a superb free office suite with a database that runs on Windows and Linux. See the first item under the letter O on this page for links and information.

SysOpt.com - Excellent system optimisation information, forums, news, and reviews:

http://www.sysopt.com/

Technical Support Resources:

See the Great Sites page of this site.

A Guide to the Web's Best Technical Support Resources - http://www.techsupportalert.com/

TechSpot PC - Gaming and Consoles - http://www.techspot.com/vb/menu11.html

The Register - The latest general computer information - reviews, etc. - http://www.theregister.co.uk

Tom's Hardware Guide - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

Tucows - One of the best free software and shareware providers - http://www.tucows.com/

Tutorials - PC - Windows - Applications - Networking, Certification, etc.

Functionx.com - a great site for tutorials on programming, databases, spreadsheets, etc. - http://www.functionx.com/

How to troubleshoot a dead computer - http://www.sysopt.com/articles/troubleshoot/index.html

How to - Bart's way to create bootable CD-Roms - http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/

Guides, free support forums, reviews, etc. - http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=71

Many free technology, Windows, and Windows application tutorials (Word, Excel, Access, etc.), and links to many of the best free technology tutorial sites on the web. -

http://members.tripod.com/MR_LEGO_JOE/free_online_tutorials.htm

Plenty of tutorials here - http://www.pcnineoneone.com/

IBM's tutorial and training page - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/training/?n-t-9131

Tech Support Alert - many PDF how-to articles - http://www.techsupportalert.com/index.html

How to get the most from your system's RAM, overclock a processor, flash a BIOS, etc: http://www.motherboards.org

HowStuffWorks - PCs - CD burners - search engines - networks, etc. - http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Lynda.com - $25 a month for complete access - 3500+ tutorial movies - Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop, etc. - http://www.lynda.com

TweakXP.com - Tweak Windows XP site - now all you need is XP - in the shops from 25/10/01 - http://www.tweakxp.com/

Tweak3D.COM - Comprehensive hardware tweak, review, information site - http://www.tweak3d.net/

TweakUI - the Microsoft tweaking utility that isn't officially supported -

TweakUI 1.33 - the latest version for all versions of Windows from 95 to Me and 2000 - http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp

TweakUI for XP (part of the Powertoys) - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

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