What's Hot: Products From Gensortium, PlateSpin, and Qnext

Remotely Control User Desktops— for Free

Gensortium's GenControl

Simple, repetitive tasks such as adjusting a user's screen resolution or fixing the "my printer isn't working" problem can be quite time-consuming, especially when you have to physically visit the desktop system to solve the problem. Remote-access solutions let you administer user desktops from a central location, but many of those solutions require you to install client software on each system before you can administer it remotely.

Peter Vogel, a network and systems administrator from Vancouver, British Columbia,faced a barrage of tedious tasks but found a solution that didn't require himto install software on the client, saving him heaps of time. Vogel got his handson Gensortium's GenControl and quickly reaped the benefits. "Within secondsof installing GenControl, I could deal with maintenance issues on the otherside of the building. I simply installed the product on the administrative machineand was immediately presented with all workstations in the domain. I just clickedon the client machine, and I was in."

GenControl lets administrators perform maintenance tasks from the comfort oftheir own computers. When connecting to a client machine, the product dropsa small client file onto the remote machine and automatically removes the fileat the end of the session. GenControl is a free download.

Save Time with Server Migration

PlateSpin PowerConvert

Today's fast-paced work environment continually introduces new challenges toour work routine and requires us to do more in the same window of time. In noarea is this more obvious than IT. Dave Romesburg, a senior infrastructure managementanalyst for a large Pittsburgh data center, has in the past spent a lot of timeand money streaming servers between physical and virtual machines (VMs). Butwith PlateSpin Power-Convert installed in his infrastructure, he's seenthis otherwise costly, lengthy undertaking become a quick, seamless task. "Ican take an existing server, boot up using PowerConvert, and the product willtake a full server image and transform it to a virtual image on VMware ESX Serveror Microsoft Virtual Server. Additionally, I can take an existing server, specifyhardware and OS settings, and PowerConvert will take care of the configurationchanges and migrate the server to the new hardware."

PowerConvert also lets you store server images, then push them out to a new physical server or VM by dragging the image from the PowerConvert repository and dropping it onto the new server. Additional PowerConvert capabilities include server consolidation, disaster recovery, automated test lab deployment, and data center optimization.

Free All-in-One Communications Tool

Qnext

With all the types of Internet communications in use today, wouldn't it benice to have one solution that provides music streaming, photo sharing, filesharing, and remote access to your desktop? These are just a few of the featuresthat Veselin Kulov of Sofia, Bulgaria, has enjoyed while using Qnext.In addition to the features just mentioned, Qnext includes universal IM, audiochat, videoconferencing, file transfer, online gaming, group text chat, andInternet Relay Chat. "Best of all, Qnext is free," says Kulov. "I like thatI can listen to my home music collection while at work without downloading anyfiles. I have also saved hours when transferring large files and cut down collaborationtime with the product's built-in videoconferencing."

Kulov notes that Qnext is very secure. The product uses what it calls Zones,which gives you control over who has access to your photo albums, who can sharefiles with you, and who can chat by letting you assign permissions to specificindividuals. Qnext works not only on Windows XP, Windows Me, and Windows 2000but also on Mac OS X and Linux.