It’s barely two weeks since Italian security vendor NoVirusThanks released a bunch of small tools as freeware, but it seems the company is still feeling seasonally generous -- another two of their utilities are now also entirely free to use.
Fast Raw File Copier Pro, for instance, is an apparently simple file copying tool: point it at one or more files, select a destination, and it’ll transfer the specified data at a click. Which sounds ordinary enough, but this program has a twist. It figures out where your files are located on the disk, then accesses the clusters directly, without going through Windows, and that means it can copy anything -- even files that would normally be protected.
If you want to make a direct backup of your Registry files, for instance, you could try copying the contents of the \Windows\System32\Config folder from Explorer, but you’ll just see multiple error messages complaining that the files are in use. And as the Registry is always open, this won’t ever change. Point Fast Raw File Copier Pro at the folder, though, and it’ll transfer the files to your chosen destination with no problem at all.
Some of the copying logic behind the program confused us a little, at first. We chose the “Copy Folders” option, set C:\Test as a source, and J:\ as a destination, expecting a J:\Test folder to be created. But instead everything in the C:\Test folder was copied to J:\ , leaving us with a little cleaning up to do. So it’s probably best to think of the “Copy Folders” option as more like “Copy Lots of Files”, and make sure you specify the precise destination you need.
Another oddity is that the progress bar is turned off by default (click Settings, check “Show Progress” to turn it back on). And despite the “Fast” tag, Fast Raw File Copier Pro worked at about the same speed as Windows in our tests. Still, if you’ve ever needed to copy files and found Windows won’t allow it then this is a straightforward (and now free) alternative.
The second NoVirusThanks freebie is Smart PC Locker Pro, a simple tool that claims to lock your PC or laptop at a click, ensuring no-one else can access the system while you’re away. It promises to disable Task Manager and CD-ROM drives, and even pop up when Windows loads so there’s no way an intruder can snoop on your files.
While all this sounds great, it just didn’t work for us. Sometimes we’d click “Lock” and nothing would happen. And when we could lock the system, rebooting was enough to give anyone access, even if we enabled the “Start with Windows and Lock Screen” setting. Still, if you need something like this and would like to see if you have more luck, the program is now available for free on the NoVirusThanks site.
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