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WeTransfer.com is a free, quick, easy, registration-free way to transfer big files to up to 20 other people.  Here is how to use the service:

1. Visit wetransfer.com
2. Upload your files by clicking the (+) and selecting them.
3. Enter the recipient(s) email address(es)
4. Enter your email address.
5. Type a quick message
6. Then click ‘Transfer’

Some more reasons why we recommended wetransfer.com:

• You can send up to 2GB’s worth of files.
• The data transferred can be downloaded for up to 2 weeks after the email is sent.
• A confirmation email is sent to the sender.
• Both the files and email data are kept private

We like it, let us know what you think!

Last month’s poll asked our readers…’Which TWO Microsoft Office Applications do you use the most?’  The diagram to the right (click to enlarge) shows how our readers voted.  As you can see Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook were the three applications to receive the most votes, which to us isn’t surprising as the applications are commonly used worldwide due to the overall quality, simplicity and flexibilty of the software.

PowerPoint and Publisher again are commonly used pieces of software but it is rare that the ‘typical’ home user requires them for their general computer usage.  Whereas Access is a far more specialist application for those who need to create/manage a database system.

Office 2010 is set to be released in June (2010).  Many companies are doing a deal whereby you purchase Office 2007 and can download 2010 for free when it comes out so have a look around on the internet for such deals! For example…Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student from Amazon (PC)

Picnik is a brilliant free online photo editing tool and ideal for all users (from novices to pros).  The website has a wide variety of features which can help you make ‘average’ photos look ‘amazing’.

Free features include rotate, crop, flip, re-size, exposure options (including exposure, contrast, highlight, shadow and brightness adjustments), colour options (including saturation and temperature adjustments), sharpening options (including sharpness, radius and strength options) and red-eye adjustments for humans and animals.  All you need to do is register with the site and then you’re ready to start editing!

If you want to use more features you can sign up to their premium package from just $2.08 (£1.30 at time of writing).

A feature explained…

Rotate

1. Select rotate from the features panel (click image to enlarge)
   
2. You can then press left or right to rotate the image anti-clockwise or clockwise respectively (click image to enlarge)
   
3. The image can also be angled by moving the ‘Straighten’ slider adjustment (click image to enlarge)
   
4. Finally, the image can be ‘flipped’ by clicking either of the two buttons to the right of ‘flip’ (click image to enlarge)
   

Want to find out more? Check out picnik.com

Windows Live Writer is a free desktop application for publishing to blogs and will work with almost any blog provider in the world including Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, WordPress, TypePad and more!

It’s a very simple piece of software which enables you to link your blogs to one central point for posting, rather than logging on to each website.

Live Writer has a variety of different tools available for use…from hyperlink, to pictures (single photos/albums), tables, videos, tags and more! Some of which may not normally be available from your software.

Interested in the software? Well download it from the Windows Live Writer site

Our most recent poll was ‘Do you use iPlayer?’ 67% voted ‘Yes’, 33% ‘No’ and thankfully there were no votes for ‘What is it?’

However, for those of you who don’t know what BBC iPlayer is read our Brandstar post about BBC iPlayer from back when it was introduced! See ‘BBC iPlayer – catch up on missed TV‘

Here at PCToolbox we think that the likes of the BBC iPlayer are brilliant and in the future I reckon they’ll be the main way people watch TV shows!

ITV (PCToolbox Review), Channel 4, Channel Five and Sky all have their own equivalents. Check them out!

Don’t forget to vote on this month’s poll…’where do you access Facebook?’

Our most recent poll was ‘Will you upgrade to Windows 7 straight away?’  50% of voters said yes they would compared to the 29% saying no and the 21% saying maybe.

To those who said no or maybe we want to urge you to upgrade to Windows 7.  Here at PCToolbox and Brandstar we’re huge fans of the new operating system.

If you’re not sure about the upgrade and you’d like to find out more check out our Windows 7 posts on PCToolbox and Brandstar!  Over the next few weeks we’ll continue to add to our range of Windows 7 posts!

So to conclude…buy Windows 7!

We recently wrote a post about performing a ‘Disk Cleanup’ on XP and we thought it would be a good idea to do one for Vista too! Disk Cleanup is a computer maintenance application included in Microsoft Windows operating systems. It’s designed to free up disk space on your computers hard drive. Therefore, it’s worth performing a cleanup every so often. The feature searches and reviews your hard drive for files which are no longer necessary. It will then, after you’ve made some selections, remove any files that are not needed on your machine.

Here is how to perform Disk Cleanup on Vista:

1. Firstly click on the start Orb and type ‘Disk Cleanup’ in the box.  Then click on the ‘Disk Cleanup’ option under programs (Click on image to enlarge)
   
2. Secondly, select whether you’d like to perform the task for just your account or every account on the system.
   
3. Next choose which drive you would like the cleanup to be performed on.  For this example we’ll use option (C:).  You can choose the drive from the drop down list.  Once you’ve chosen click ‘OK’
   
4. The computer will then scan your selected drive
   
5. Next you should make selections regarding which files you would like to be removed.  Simply click on the option, read the description and if you’d like this to be removed click in the box next to the option so it has a tick in it. (Click on image to enlarge)
   
6. To confirm your selections click ‘delete files’
   
7. Your computer will now perform a Disk Cleanup
   

We hope this has been helpful. Running Disk Cleanup can be a great way to increase the performance of your computer.  If you have any questions comment below!

Disk Cleanup is a computer maintenance application included in Microsoft Windows operating systems.  It’s designed to free up disk space on your computers hard drive.  Therefore, it’s worth performing a cleanup every so often.  The feature searches and reviews your hard drive for files which are no longer necessary.  It will then, after you’ve made some selections, remove any files that are not needed on your machine.

Here is how to run a Disk Cleanup on XP:

1. Firstly click ‘Start’ and select ‘All Programs’
   
2. Then Select ‘Accessories’, followed by ‘System Tools’ and finally ‘Disk Cleanup’ (Click on image to enlarge)
   
3. Your computer will now run a scan to locate files that could be removed or compressed.
   
4. Next you should make selections regarding which files you would like to be removed.  Simply click on the option, read the description and if you’d like this to be removed click in the box next to the option so it has a tick in it.   We recommend that you don’t select to compress files as it will slow down your computer considerably (Click on image to enlarge)
   
5. Your computer will now perform the Disk Cleanup.
   

Hopefully this tutorial has been helpful and will encourage you to run a Disk Cleanup.  It’s a free way to improve the speed of your computer!

We will post about Disk Cleanup on Vista next week!

See Also:
Defrag for XP
ScanDisk for XP

Last week we wrote a tutorial for the new Image Resizer for Windows 7 and Vista…and now it’s time to review it!  The software has been developed by CodePlex and is free to download!

As a whole we’re very impressed with the program and think it’s got a lot of potential.  The software itself is very easy to use and provides a very effective and efficient service.

If the product was to be developed further we’d like to see a couple of new features added.  Firstly, we think that there should the option to select the image compression.  By this we mean you can select the extent to which the image quality is compromised.  Secondly, there could be some basic image editing software within the application.

Overall we’re impressed and think it’s worth downloading!

See Also:
Downloading and Installing – Image Resizer for Windows 7 and Vista

Just over 1 1/2 years ago we wrote a post titled ‘Quick Tip – Resize Multiple Images Quickly‘.  One of the programs we mentioned in the blog only worked for machines running XP.  However, a company called CodePlex have adapted the software so it can be used for Windows 7 and Vista machines!  Here is a tutorial for the software:

Downloading and Installing

1. Before you do anything you need to download the program.  The software can be downloaded from phototoysclone.codeplex.com.
2. Click ‘Download Now’ on the right
   
3. Click ‘Agree’ if you are willing to agree to the license.
4. Next save the file to your computer by clicking ‘Save File’ (Firefox Users, wording may vary between Web Browsers)
   
5. Now you need to open the downloaded file.  Internet Explorer users should click ‘Open’.  Firefox users should go to the downloads window and double-click on then file then click ‘OK’.
   
6. Click ‘Run’
7. Now follow through the installation process until the end.
8. Once the installation process is complete you’re ready to get resizing!

How to Resize One Image

1. Firstly ensure that you’ve downloaded and installed the software.
2. Secondly locate the image you wish to resize.  For example, most images on computers are stored in ‘my pictures’.
3. Once you’ve found the image you wish to resize right click on it and select ‘Resize Pictures’ (click to enlarge image)
   
4. If there is size option you’re happy with select it but clicking on it and then click OK.
   
   Alternatively, if you wish to choose specific dimensions click ‘advanced >>’.  This gives you the opportunity to create custom dimensions, ask the tool to make images smaller but not larger and also ask the tool to resize originals and not make copies.  When happy click ‘OK’
   
5. Your images will then appear resized (see example below for users who chose for copies to be made)
   

How to resize a selection of images in one folder

1. Firstly follow step 1 and 2 from the ‘How to resize one image’
2. Once you’ve located the images you wish to resize click on them all whilst holding down ‘Ctrl’ (Control) on your keyboard. If you would like to resize all press ‘ctrl + A’ (Click image to enlarge)
   
3. Next you need to Right Click on one of the images you have selected and then select ‘Resize Pictures’ (click to make the image bigger)
   
4. If there is size option you’re happy with select it but clicking on it and then click OK.
   
   Alternatively, if you wish to choose specific dimensions click ‘advanced >>’.  This gives you the opportunity to create custom dimensions, ask the tool to make images smaller but not larger and also ask the tool to resize originals and not make copies.  When happy click ‘OK’
   
5. Your images will then appear in the folder resized (click to make image bigger)
   

We’re impressed with this program!  Watch out for our review on it next week!