"Software Utility Flash Drives for the Help Desk Professional"

This little blog is being done to provide awareness of the utility tools available to the help desk agent. I've found eight tools which I find to be interesting and most helpful. I've used a couple of these personally, and I would be interested in a couple of them in the future.

1. Power Defragmenter "Power Defragmenter Download." Softpedia. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

If your computer is running slower than expected, defragmentation is bound to make its performance a little better. It does so by reorganizing the data on your hard disk in order to create larger portions of free space, thus reducing the chances of fragmentation.

2. Defraggler http://www.piriform.com/defraggler "Defraggler." RSS. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

Faster Computer

Defraggler speeds up your PC by assembling fragmented files on your machine and organizing them more efficiently. Defraggler does the hard work, so your computer doesn’t have to.

Safe and Secure

Defrag with confidence. Defraggler uses the same techniques as Windows to read and write files, so your files will never be damaged.

Defrag free space

Defrag free space on your drive and not just your files. A proactive solution that helps prevent defragmentation before it occurs.

Full customization

You have full control over which drives, folders and files you defrag. Or simply use the default settings and let Defraggler do the work for you. Simple enough for every day users and flexible enough for advanced users.

Scheduled defragmentation

Defragment while you sleep – and wake up with a faster PC. Set Defraggler to run daily, weekly or monthly.

Defraggler comes free; alone as professional pack for $24.95; and combined with CCleaner, Recuva; and Speccy for $39.95

3. Recuva "Recuva." RSS. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

Accidentally deleted an important file? Lost files after a computer crash? No problem - Recuva recovers files from your Windows computer, recycle bin, digital camera card, or MP3 player!

Superior file recovery

Recuva can recover pictures, music, documents, videos, emails or any other file type you’ve lost. And it can recover from any rewriteable media you have: memory cards, external hard drives, USB sticks and more!

Recovery from damaged disks

Unlike most file recovery tools, Recuva can recover files from damaged or newly formatted drives. Greater flexibility means greater chance of recovery.

Deep scan for buried files

For those hard to find files, Recuva has an advanced deep scan mode that scours your drives to find any traces of files you have deleted.

Securely delete files

Sometimes you want a file gone for good. Recuva’s secure overwrite feature uses industry- and military-standard deletion techniques to make sure your files stay erased.

Has a free version or comes packaged in a professional pack with CCleaner Pro; Defraggler Pro; and Speccy Pro for $39.95. Also sold alone for $24.95

4. Speccy http://www.piriform.com/speccy

Fast, lightweight, advanced system information tool for your PC.

Need to find out what’s inside your computer? Speccy has all the information you need!

See what’s inside your PC

Detailed Reporting

Save time trawling through your computer for stats like CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics cards and more. See everything laid out for you in one clean interface.

Proactive problem solving

See real-time temperatures of critical components so you can easily spot problems before they occur.

Save Snapshots

Speccy allows you to save your scan results directly as a snapshot, XML or text file for easy sharing. Handy for making sure your new computer has the right specs, or if tech support need to diagnose an issue with your computer.

Defraggler, Recuva, and Speccy hang out together because they are produced by the same company.

These packages look pretty interesting to me and more than likely would be very helpful to a helpdesk agent. I've used defrag on my machine and it seems to work pretty well. These pack look to have more helpful functions. It would be real helpful to know what is inside of a computer before suggesting what type of upgrades are needed.

5. System Profiler 2.0.1101

"System Profiler for Windows 7 - See the Whole Picture - Windows 7 Download." System Profiler for Windows 7 - See the Whole Picture - Windows 7 Download. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

Faronics System Profiler makes it easy to discover what hardware and software are installed in your computer. With a few simple clicks, this freeware utility will generate a detailed inventory of a workstation’s configuration and properties. System Profiler allows users to quickly view all hardware and software applications currently installed on a computer in either a summary or detailed report.

System Profiler is an invaluable tool when trying to diagnose and troubleshoot technical problems. It’s also great at tracking all applied application and operating system updates, including version numbers for all installed applications.

6. Rescue by LogMeIn https://www.logmeinrescue.com/

How It Works

LogMeIn Rescue is a powerful, easy-to-use remote support solution comprised of three main components: a Technician Console, a Customer Applet, and an Administration Center.

Technician Console

The Technician Console is the online interface used by support technicians to conduct remote support sessions. Technicians can initiate new sessions or respond to online customer requests waiting in a shared queue.

The Windows and Mac desktop apps enable technicians to access their console in one click, so they can provide support faster, without the hassle of a browser.

Multiple simultaneous active sessions can be conducted using:

• Direct connection to the customer via code or emailed link

• Desktop view and remote control, including whiteboard

• Detailed session history & notes

• Chat interface with predefined replies, URL push, and file transfer

• Detailed system diagnostics, including reboot & reconnect

• Shared global queue

A Help agent could use this to contol a customer's computer without having to be at the location. the ad says it is the #1 Premium Support Tool in the World. (Used by the top 3 computer manufacturers in world.) However, the cost is a mear $1299 per year.

7. Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit (Version 8.5a) "Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit (Version 8.5a)." Belarc Advisor. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

Belarc, located in Maynard, MA, allows users to simplify and automate the management of all of their desktops, servers and laptops throughout the world, using a single database and Intranet server. Belarc's products automatically create an accurate and up-to-date central repository (CMDB), consisting of detailed software, hardware and security configurations. Our products are used for software license management, configuration management, cyber security status, information assurance audits, IT asset management, and more.

Belarc, Inc. is a privately owned company.

You are welcome to read background information on the Company's founders.

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, network inventory, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, security benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

8. Password Cracker "Password Cracker." Download.com. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

Editors' Review by: Download.com staff on October 03, 2010

Passwords are perhaps the weakest links in the cyber-security chain; if they're complex enough to be secure, you probably won't be able to remember them. Add the fact that every other site seems to require a password, and it's easy to see why far too many people end up using one or two simple passwords that are easy to remember, and easy to crack, too. You can write your passwords down on a piece of paper that you can look for and fail to find when you need it, or you can download and install G&G's Password Cracker. It's a tiny, free, totally portable utility that can recover lost passwords from applications.

Password Cracker downloads as a compressed file but runs as soon as you click the unzipped program file. The tool's interface is a tiny dialog, about the size of the average error message, with two text fields, labeled Test and View, and four buttons: Enable, Options, About, and Help. Other than some links to the program's Web site and some of the developer's other wares, that's it. However, the button's labels describe their functions clearly enough, so we started by checking the options, which are minimal, with check boxes to recover passwords in Internet Express or all of Windows. We checked the latter, opened a browser window, and navigated to a site that required a password log-in. We clicked Enable, hovered the mouse cursor over the password field (as delineated by asterisks), and Password Cracker displayed the alphanumeric password in the View field. We repeated the process with a Windows program that requires a log-on to open, with the similar success. The always-on-top option is handy since it keeps the little dialog from getting lost in a stack of open windows.

We installed Password Cracker 3.88, the latest version, in machines running Windows XP and Windows 7. The program performed its function in XP but not in Windows 7. Since the Windows 7 update is a recent release, it may be buggy, and we can't recommend Password Cracker to Windows 7 users until it performs reliably. Other Windows users can certainly benefit from it, especially the forgetful ones.

I used password Cracker in Orinda's Computer Forensics class in 2014. It worked just fine in Windows 7. Took a while to break the password, but wioth the proper set up code, it went just fine.