Your computer continues to start up slower than you remember it doing when you bought it.  You may have already run Disk Cleanup, Error-checking and Defragmentation but things still frustrate you about its operation.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have some "anti-frustration" software on your side?

It may just be here now!  Soluto created by a new software company in Israel has been available since the end of May, 2010.

What Soluto currently does is relatively simple.  It monitors your computer’s start up boot sequence and suggests ways to speed it up.  I run Windows 7 which already runs pretty fast but as you will see below it still sped my computer up.  Some people have reported going from more than seven to less than two minutes to start their computers

After you install Soluto it will ask you to restart your computer so that it can begin gathering information.  Once rebooted the software will give you a graphic of all the programs that start in the background, some of which you may have no idea are even there.  They are then rated as to those you cannot remove from the boot, those you may not want to remove from the boot sequence and the "no-brainers" which should be removed.  It gives you details on each program so that you can decide what to do.

On my notebook it advised me that it took 2:40 to complete the start up with 82 programs starting.  The number one, no-brainer it suggested to remove was Snagit.  When I hover over the advice window it tells me what Snagit does and that I could choose to either delay or pause it.  If delayed, a program will start up after everything else is finished when you are using your computer.  If paused, a program will start when I manually start the program as it may not need to run all the time in the background.  I chose "pause" so now it runs only when I need to use it. 

I ended up removing all but one of the "no-brainers" and several others that were suggested.  My computer now boots in 1:53 minutes with only 67 applications running when it starts.  Many of them also took up RAM running in the background so now I should get a slight increase in overall speed, but not so much that I notice.

If your computer hangs up or frustrates you while Soluto is running you can right click on its icon and choose, "My PC just frustrated me".  It will then see if it can figure out what bugged you, look for a fix and send that info to the Soluto database.

Soluto is brand new software and is still improving.  It will continue to run as a background service which watches your PC while it is running.  It will be analyzing any frustrations that hit your system and trying to figure out "why" by comparing information they continue to gather from other users.  Over time Soluto may be able to suggest solutions you can resolve with just a few mouse clicks. 

After you have rebooted a few times you may want to hide the Soluto graphics from showing on your desktop.  If so, right click on the Soluto icon and uncheck "Live Boot Progress".  If you want to see it again later just recheck it.

Tags: boot time, help, restart, Snagit, Soluto, speed up, TechSmith

Thanks for the emails regarding the previous Firefox Add-ons I have written about over the last couple of columns.   Also, I’m glad to hear that several of you saved a lot of money using the "Invisible Hand" add-on I mentioned.  Tim wrote to say he saved almost $100 on a purchase he made using that add-on!  This will be the last week we’ll deal with Add-ons and then we will move on to something different.

Today I have three for you; one for help, one for fun and one for a neat application.

First, for Google-lovers is the "Google Toolbar" add-on.  If you use Google and/or Gmail and want a quick way to access their features you have to try this one out.  This add-on is also available for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  It is added into FF differently than the previous ones I’ve mentioned.  Go to "toolbar.google.com" in either browser and the correct toolbar will be installed.  After the installation is finished you will be able to search in Google and check your Gmail, as well as access many other Google related features conveniently from your browser.  Play with the options and see what other useful resources you can come up with!

Next is an add-on which is mostly for convenience, (OK, and a little bit of fun for the geeks out there) "Prism for Firefox".  Prism is the reason I no longer use Google Chrome which allows you to create a "web-application" from a web site.  Yes, I know it is a Google product and I am a Google fan-boy but I don’t care for their browser. 

Prism allows you to create an individual web-application out of any webpage.  For instance, for those of us who enjoy listening to the free music from Pandora.com, it can be combined with Prism to act like a separate program on your computer. 

After installing it in Firefox, log into your Pandora.com account (Prism will work on any site but Pandora shows how well it works.)  Now choose Tools from the menu bar and "Convert Website to Application".  You will be asked to choose a couple of settings such as where to save the link, etc. Placing the link on the desktop is a good starting point.

Next, go look on your desktop and you will see an icon for Pandora, or whatever site you used.  If you double click the icon only Pandora will open in a window. It will run in its own window.  You can run Prism with any website, including online games. 

Be creative and let me know how you have used these add-ons.

Tags: add-on, Firefox, google, Google Toolbar, Prism

I received many emails asking me more about Firefox Add-ons after last week’s column.  So today we are going to look at a few more.  Keep those emails coming since I want to write about what interests you!

If you have any questions about basic Firefox Add-ons you need to read last week’s column about "Invisible Hand" and "Tabloc" online at the DNR or at the DoubleClicks.info site.   

"Forecastbar Enhanced" is another helpful add-on.  It allows you to set your location, via zip code, to get your local weather forecasts.  The forecasts are from Accuweather.com.  Other than the current weather forecasts, radar images, etc., you can display it in different locations in FF.  I keep mine in the status bar at the bottom of the Firefox window, which is the default.  You can also set it up to show forecasts for several days in the future. 

The next one I would like to share with you is called, "FoxTab".  "FoxTab" will allow you to set the sites you most often visit.  It will allow you to add any site to your top site "list" and quickly go to it at another time.  It enables a screen preview of "My Top Sites" in several great GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) which you can pick from.  Not only is it useful, it also looks good.  Once you bring your top site window up by clicking a button on your toolbar, you click on the site you want to go to and it pops right up.  Yes, this is like your favorites but in a slick new format.

The last one I will mention today is for you Gmail users.  It is called, "Gmail Manager".  This add-on allows you to set your Gmail account to be visible in your status bar, showing your unread emails.  By clicking on the account it will open your Gmail account in Firefox as if you had logged into Gmail.com yourself.  Then you can deal with your emails as you normally would.  It is set to a default of checking for new emails every 15 minutes but you can adjust that, along with other settings in the options for this add-on.  It will also allow you to keep track of multiple Gmail accounts at the same time.  Of course, that is for you geeks who, like me have more than one Gmail account.

Have fun trying these out and remember they are all free.  If you don’t like them you can easily uninstall them. 

Let me know if you would like to see some more next week…I have about 20 add-ons that I use in Firefox.

Tags: accuweather, add-in, add-on, Firefox, Forecast, foxtab, Gmail, GUI, mozilla, radar, tabloc, weather

I get many questions about Firefox Add-ons and have not written about them for the past several years.  So today I will discuss two of my favorite Add-ons.

Add-ons "add" more features to this great browser and if you haven’t used FF you should download it and try it out at mozilla.com.  Add-ons can get extra info from the browser that can be really helpful and save time. 

Getting to Add-ons is simple.  While in FF, click on Tools | Add-ons and a window will open  revealing those currently installed.  Next, click the Get Add-ons tab and they will supply a few suggestions or you may search for others.  To search for others type in the name of the Add-on you need in the search box.  Double click on the one you want to try out and it will install.  You must restart Firefox for it to start working.

The first one I would like to suggest was built for those of you who like online shopping.  "Invisible Hand" is really a cost saver.  Once you install it, (without having to make any setting changes) it sits quietly in the background and you can forget about it. 

I was looking for a SanDisk® Cruzer® 32GB Flash Drive at an office supply site.  Within 15 seconds of reading about the drive; a bar popped up at the top of the page.  It gave me the exact item at three other sites.  You are thinking, "Well, terrific! That is no big deal."

However, the terrific part is that it lists the other three prices.  The site I looked at had the drive on sale for $139.99.  The other suggested sites had it for $58.90, $64.84 and $79.99, respectively.  It also does the math for you and says you could save $81.09!  Then (if I had $60 extra to spend) I could click the link and purchase it elsewhere.  And did I mention that all Add-ons are free?

Firefox has tabbed browsing as do all modern browsers.  When you look up something on Google or Bing you get a list of sites to check out.  When you click the link it usually replaces the search page with the link you clicked.  Then to view the other list items you have to click your back button to see them. 

With "Tabloc" running you can set it up so that when you double click a tab it locks in place.  This causes all other links on that page to open in a new tab.  Just view the other site you choose and click back on the existing search tab to check others.  This will significantly decrease your searching time.  Tabloc has other neat settings too, so explore the "options".

Last time I wrote about Add-ons I received overwhelming requests for more.  If that happens again I will talk about more next week.

Tags: add-on, addons, Firefox, invisible hand, mozilla, save money, savings, tabloc

Due to the Memorial Day holiday the Double Click column in not in the DNR this week.  So, as sad as it may be, it will not be here this week either.

Check back next week for, “Firefox Add-ons”.

Thanks for reading!

Ron