If I need to check differences in versions of a file that I have messed up I can use their diff feature which comes with the Advanced version. After diffing them to see which one you want to return to. Just right-click on the revision you want to revert to and choose ‘Restore’ from the menu. This will, of course, put your selected document revision back in the place of where the original file was. If the original file is missing restoring one of the revisions will put that file into the place of the original.

I have used this on Word documents, Excel files, Photoshop files, PHP, HTML and all kinds of other files. FileHamster can restore all of these documents and files to a previous revision in a snap. I really can’t tell you how much I am enjoying this tool. It’s not for lack of trying though.

Fences allows me to set up several little windows on my desktop that I can put all the items that I used to just throw out onto the desktop into each of these ‘fenced’ off areas. I don’t have to go through my desktop and organize it by hand anymore. If I want to move a certain type of file to a certain location all I have to do is go to the fence that hold that type of file and move it. Each fence allows you to size it so that you can choose how much space it will take up on the desktop. When there are more files than you have room for in a fence the fence will become scrollable. You can also choose to hide all the fences by double clicking on the desktop and unhide them by double clicking again. There are several other ways to make fences useful and customize things.

There are a couple of cons but they should be addressed by bug fixes in the future (I hope). The biggest problem I have is that after my machine has been on for a while the fences seem to disappear, but it is not that big of a deal to me.

Now that I use this my desktop is no longer a wasteland of unaffiliated files and folders. Things are in order and I have just a little bit more time to do more important things; time that I would have just spent reorganizing files and folders.

• FileHamster Basic = FileHamster Plus
• FileHamster Advanced = FileHamster Developer Bundle (w/ more plugins)
• FileHamster Enterprise = Everything including Team plugin

They no longer have plugins but have just integrated them into the different versions of their product. I have not previously purchased all of the plugins to check them out so now I am going to have to try to find a way to get them without having to pay for the new full version. Maybe they will throw me a bone since I just started this blog up and have mentioned them a few times. Still waiting to hear about that. When and if they do hook me up I will post about the different new features that the new stuff has.

Update: I just heard back from Mogware and apparently anyone who wants to upgrade from the old version can. I should be posting more on them in the next couple of weeks.

WinMerge will let you diff individual files as well as entire folders which is always nice. They have the ever popular drag and drop functionality for opening files to compare. Of course you also get the ability to merge differences over to the other file and save the changes too.

I was already well impressed with Winmerge as I used it with my backup management. But then I found some plugins on their site. They have plugins that enable me to compare backup versions of my Excel files and my Word documents. That was the icing on the cake.

For comparing changes in your text files Winmerge is my definite pick. It is a perfect utility to use with the diff feature in my windows backup software FileHamster.

FileHamster was originally introduced to me as a backup program. When I think of backup programs I think of massive storage and keeping copies in a different locations like using a Maxtor program or an online backup like Mozy. I checked it out and found FileHamster to be much, much more. I like to refer to FileHamster as a performance enhancer. As I work it saves each revision and allows me to go back and restore to older versions when I have badly screwed up some of my old PHP,  HTML, CSS, .wav or any other kind of file that it is possible for me to destroy beyond all recognition. As if that is not enough FileHamster has additional utilities that let me do all kinds of things from the interface. I can zip your “revisions” so as to save space. I can assign a diff program to different files which will let you view differences in versions. I can upload my modified web pages to my FTP automatically with each change. I can even assign a batch file to run and convert my .psd files to png’s or jpg’s automatically so that I don’t have to save each format from within Photoshop. I just save the psd and my other formats are created.

There’s a wealth of information that I will spend quite a few posts on because there are a great many features in this program to go over. It is one of my favorites. So be on the lookout and try to keep up.

ToolWatcher.com is dedicated to bringing you the best PC tools and utilities that I can find at a pace that will give you time to try each of them and make your life simpler.