Must Have Software

Joeboo · Jan 7, 2013

Yeah, you wouldn't want to clone your boot/windows drive from a mechanical HD to a SSD, you want a fresh install of windows so it can default to the correct settings on an SSD. It would work, but you won't get optimal performance.

Alkorin · Jan 17, 2013

For Windows 8, if you dislike the Start Screen but want to retain the ability to run Metro apps if required:Pokki. It's a Start Menu with some sort of App Store built in. Even if you ignore the apps entirely, it's a really decent start menu replacement.

My only complaint about it is the lack of ability to right-click on things that would be context-sensitive in Win7, like say, Computer.

Alien911 · Jan 19, 2013

Winamp for audio listening

ronne · Jan 21, 2013

Maybe not for everyone, but I am in love with PushBullet. Absolute best way I've found yet for getting files on to a PC to your phone.

The tl;dr is it's a web interface that pushes a file to the notifications on Android devices, from where you can just download it directly from phone.

http://blog.pushbullet.com/2013/01/20/hello-pushbullet/

darkmiasma · Jan 23, 2013

Why don't you just use dropbox?

Jovec · Jan 23, 2013

darkmiasma_sl said:
Why don't you just use dropbox?

Or Airdroid/Kies

Silence_sl · Jan 26, 2013

Been using thisfor a few weeks. Replaces W7's craptacular flushing of its thumbnail cache every few hours.

Not perfect, but better than Bridge, and can be tweaked all kinds of ways.

Captain554 · Jan 27, 2013

readmorepostless_sl said:
If you've got a Western Digital hard drive in your computer (I think even USB drives), you can get a free version of Acronis. It might be a slightly stripped down or older version but it does the job.

http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...l.asp?swid=119

Good shit man

Astralcherie_sl · Jan 29, 2013

ya it freaking is!

Deathwing · Feb 6, 2013

Anyone have recommendations for secure storage of accounts and passwords? I've looked into LastPass, which seems just to work with your web browser. And I've heard using KeePass with an encrypted database stored in Dropbox folder is a good way to keep the data local while maintaining portability. Any others?

Denamian · Feb 7, 2013

I use KeePass with Dropbox. It can be a little awkward at times, especially if I update an entry without syncing dropbox on one machine, then make a change on another. It's a good enough system that I haven't bothered to look for alternatives though.

Void · Feb 7, 2013

Denamian_sl said:
I use KeePass with Dropbox. It can be a little awkward at times, especially if I update an entry without syncing dropbox on one machine, then make a change on another. It's a good enough system that I haven't bothered to look for alternatives though.

That's what I've been using for a couple of years now as well. Also, if you screw up and do what Denamian mentioned, KeePass will notice that one version is newer than it expects and ask if you want to merge the records when you save, instead of just copying over. So far, despite my own forgetfulness, it has worked perfectly.

Deathwing · Feb 7, 2013

Ok, keepass it is. Does it encrypt the database itself, or should I get a different program to encrypt? Haven't even poked around in the program yet, so might be a dumb question. Now, to only convince my wife to use it too.

Void · Feb 7, 2013

From what I understand the database should be. You have to type in a "master" password to access all the rest of your stored passwords, so if it weren't encrypted I'm sure someone would have hacked it by now.

Deathwing · Feb 7, 2013

I guess one other question: should I be worried about someone getting a hold of the database file(dropbox has been breached before) and decrypting it eventually? Yes, I could use the key file, but that seems like too much of an inconvenience.

Denamian · Feb 8, 2013

From the KeePass features page:

KeePass supports the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES, Rijndael) and the Twofish algorithm to encrypt its password databases. Both of these ciphers are regarded as being very secure. AES e.g. became effective as a U.S. Federal government standard and is approved by the National Security Agency (NSA) for top secret information.
The complete database is encrypted, not only the password fields. So, your user names, notes, etc. are encrypted, too.
SHA-256 is used as password hash. SHA-256 is a 256-bit cryptographically secure one-way hash function. Your master password is hashed using this algorithm and its output is used as key for the encryption algorithms.
In contrast to many other hashing algorithms, no attacks are known yet against SHA-256.
Protection against dictionary and guessing attacks: by transforming the final master key very often, dictionary and guessing attacks can be made harder.
In-Memory Passwords Protection: Your passwords are encrypted while KeePass is running, so even when the operating system caches the KeePass process to disk, this wouldn't reveal your passwords anyway.
[2.x] Protected In-Memory Streams: When loading the inner XML format, passwords are encrypted using a session key.
Security-Enhanced Password Edit Controls: KeePass is the first password manager that features security-enhanced password edit controls. None of the available password edit control spies work against these controls. The passwords entered in those controls aren't even visible in the process memory of KeePass.
The master key dialog can be shown on a secure desktop, on which almost no keylogger works. Auto-Type can be protected against keyloggers, too.

Someone who knows far more than me about this stuff can tell you how secure that is, but it sounds pretty good. I'd probably change all my passwords if dropbox got broken in to and there was a chance my database was copied anyway.

As far as the merging differences in the database, KeePass does that just fine. The problem is when Dropbox detects a conflict and creates a renamed copy of the database: Database(MachineX's conflicted copy).kdbx or somesuch. Then things get a little annoying but it's still easy to merge the two. Still far easier than trying to remember a ton of strong passwords and safer than reusing the same few over and over.

Scaffa_sl · Feb 15, 2013

Also bare in mind that for an encryption algorithm to be considered "broken", that means someone has found a way quicker than brute forcing to decrypt it.

Even if in that "quicker" way would still take sixty thousand years.

opiate82 · Feb 17, 2013

So Chrome has an app for remote desktop access now. Works really well and is easy to install

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...mpfmihenigjmpp

Wolfen_sl · Mar 13, 2013

Fuck me. Google is shutting down Google Reader.

SAIDIN_sl · Mar 28, 2013

Here is a bunch of tools for everyone. Be careful downloading some of them if you don't download through a virtual machine already. I'll add more later if the demand is high. I purposely left out like 30 more links because even the dumbest people could use them to attack their neighbors or learn how to DDOS their way to internet victory. This is for the WHITE Hats. Figured it was time to give back

Vulnerability Research Sites