Software Lab by Mike Robinson

Software by Mike Robinson

Software Laboratory
Free Programs
These programs are all completely free. I'm constantly working on new software and sometimes this leads to a useful program.

FileView
Check The Contents of a File
FileView is a FREE program. Donation of $10 is requested but not required. All features are enabled. No time limit. No advertising. No spyware.

Download Info Donate

If you are in Windows Explorer just select the file and right click and use the "Send To" and then select "FileView" as shown here:

It pops up the information screen shown above. It does this without leaving Windows Explorer.

You can also run FileView as a stand-alone program from the FileView desktop shortcut and it will allow you to select the file to view.

FileView can read the basic information such as size and date of any file type. If you click the "Get Extra Info" checkbox the program will display all of the unique extra information in the file header for that particular file type. It can read extra information for these types: ANI, ARJ, AVI, BMP, CAB, CUR, EXE, GIF, ICO, JPG, JPEG, MP3, PCX, PNG, SCR, TTF, TXT, WAV, ZIP.

This is a 32-bit program and will run on Windows ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10, and Windows 11. It also runs fine on 64-bit systems.

This program is free, but a $10.00 donation is requested. You can pay with PayPal or mail a check. PayPal also allows you to use a credit card even if you have no PayPal account.

The program works fine even if you do not pay for it. There is no time limit. It will run forever. It is fully functional. No features have been removed. There are no nag screens. It contains no spyware, no advertising.

Lock
Lock your computer when you step away

FREE program. Donation is requested but not required. All features are enabled. No time limit. No advertising. No spyware.
The Lock program can do these 3 things:

1. Lock your computer.
2. Shut off your monitor
3. Start your screensaver.

The basic program locks your computer and shuts off your monitor.

You can use optional command-line switches to turn any of these actions on or off:

Lock
Locks your computer and powers off your monitor.

Lock /L
Locks your computer.

Lock /P
Powers off your monitor.

Lock /S
Starts your screen saver.

Lock /L /P
Locks your computer and powers off your monitor.

Lock /L /S
Locks your computer and starts your screensaver.

I have a link to this program on my desktop so I can shut off my monitor when I step away from the computer.

This program started with experiments to write a program with a very small file size. Final file size is 49 kilobytes and this includes a built-in icon. You can download the program using this link:

link

lock.zip 49 kilobytes

Copy the file to a folder and create a desktop link to it. There is no installation program nor help file.

This is a 32-bit program for Microsoft Windows operating system. There is no Mac version. It will run on Windows ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10, and Windows 11. It also runs fine on 64-bit systems.

This program is Copyright © 2012 Michael Robinson. All Rights Reserved. Use this program at your own risk. No guarantees or warranties of any sort are claimed, made, or provided. You may give this file away free, but you may not sell it. Modification of the executable file is prohibited.

PREF - Programmer's Quick Reference
ASCII Reference Chart & More

FREE program. Donation is requested but not required. All features are enabled. No time limit. No advertising. No spyware.
Around 1987 there was a program called PREF that was included with TurboPower Pro programming tools. It was a 16-bit DOS program that made an on-screen chart like this:

On the right are codes to produce colored text when viewed through an ANSI.SYS driver included with DOS . On the left were codes for ASCII characters used in all versions of DOS. The slider on the left allowed you to scroll down through all 256 ASCII characters. I find this chart useful in programming even today so I made a version for windows and it looks like this:

You can download the program using this link:

link

pref.exe 157 kilobytes

Copy the file to a folder and create a desktop link to it. There is no installation program nor help file.

This is a 32-bit program for Microsoft Windows operating system. There is no Mac version. It will run on Windows ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10, and Windows 11. It also runs fine on 64-bit systems.

This program is Copyright © 2012 Michael Robinson. All Rights Reserved. Use this program at your own risk. No guarantees or warranties of any sort are claimed, made, or provided. You may give this file away free, but you may not sell it. Modification of the executable file is prohibited. None of the original DOS PREF source code was used to make this similar Windows program. The original source code to PREF in the link below bears this notice: Copyright © TurboPower Software 1987, 1992. Portions Copyright © Sunny Hill Software 1985, 1986 and used under license to TurboPower Software.

Turbopower Software went out of business in 2003 and released all of its tools as open source. The Pascal source code for the original PREF 16-bit program for DOS can be found here .

Show CPU
A Really Tiny Program
FREE program. Donation is requested but not required. All features are enabled. No time limit. No advertising. No spyware.

Using inline assembly code in Delphi (object pascal) I constructed a very tiny program. The showcpu.exe file is only 20,480 bytes. The entire source code is shown below.

The inline assembly code is between the Asm and End statements highlighted in red. This section gets the identification information from the processor using 3 calls of the cpuid instruction.

In the old days (of the original IBM PC series) any program could grab complete control of the entire PC and execute assembly code right down on the iron, on the physical processor. This has obvious security issues. Nowadays, in Windows, such code gets executed in an isolated "playpen" on a virtual processor. The code can still do damage, but it cannot subvert Windows and take control of the PC.

It is a console program meaning it appears in a standard Windows text-only terminal window.

The characters, on some lines, after the // characters, are comments, and not executed.

The source code:

----

Program showcpu;

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

Function GetCpu : String;

Var
A2, B2, C2, D2 : Array[0..3] of Char; // create array of 4 char variables of 4 bytes each named A2, B2, C2, D2
A3, B3, C3, D3 : Array[0..3] of Char;
A4, B4, C4, D4 : Array[0..3] of Char;

Begin
Result := '';

Asm
push ebx // push (save) register ebx onto the stack

mov eax, $80000002 // move hexadecimal number 80000002 to eax register
cpuid // execute cpuid instruction for eax value = 80000002
mov A2, eax // move eax register result to A2 variable
mov B2, ebx // move ebx register result to B2 variable
mov C2, ecx // move ecx register result to C2 variable
mov D2, edx // move edx register result to D2 variable

mov eax, $80000003
cpuid // execute cpuid instruction for eax value = 80000003
mov A3, eax
mov B3, ebx
mov C3, ecx
mov D3, edx

mov eax, $80000004
cpuid // execute cpuid instruction for eax value = 80000004
mov A4, eax
mov B4, ebx
mov C4, ecx
mov D4, edx

pop ebx // pop (restore) register ebx from the stack
End;

// return values in 12 registers of 4 bytes each, total 48 bytes
// for my specific PC hardware, the values are:
// A2 + B2 + C2 + D2 = 16 bytes = Intel(R) Core(TM
// A3 + B3 + C3 + D3 = 16 bytes = ) i5-10400 CPU @
// A4 + B4 + C4 + D4 = 16 bytes = 2.00GHz
// Result = 48 bytes full string = Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-10400 CPU @ 2.00GHz

Result := A2 + B2 + C2 + D2 + A3 + B3 + C3 + D3 + A4 + B4 + C4 + D4;
End;

Var
S : String = '';

Begin

WriteLn; // write a blank line

WriteLn(GetCpu); // write value returned by GetCpu function

ReadLn(S); // pause and wait for user to press a key

END.

----

When the program is run, it opens a terminal window and looks like this:

This computer has an Intel i5 processor model number 10400 running at 2.90 Ghz.

You can download the program here:

showcpu.exe 20,480 bytes, the executable program (.exe) file

showcpu.dpr 716 bytes, the Delphi project (.dpr) source code file shown above

showcpu-signed.exe 30,432 bytes, digitally signing the (.exe) program with my certificate adds 9,952 bytes

File Name ..... showcpu.exe
Bytes ......... 20,480
CRC ........... A6DF2D3A
SHA-256 ....... CB6222F422E03F158757617EEAF824DD2782C6FE203E9F0732C82E2A27CF55D5

File Name ..... showcpu-signed.exe
Bytes ......... 30,432
Time Stamp .... Oct 27, 2021 - 11:53:32 AM
CRC ........... C7FF2936
SHA-256 ....... CAC551535FA59980415B75774C040612185026AA77BF8EBED9E79F2796009613

There is no installation program nor help file. To keep it as small as possible, there is no icon in the file.

This is a 32-bit program for Microsoft Windows operating system. There is no Apple, phone, or Linux version. It will run on Windows ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10, and Windows 11. It also runs fine on 64-bit systems.

This program is Copyright © 2021 Michael Robinson. All Rights Reserved. Use this program at your own risk. No guarantees or warranties of any sort are claimed, made, or provided. You may give these files away free, but you may not sell them. Modification of the executable files is prohibited.

This program uploaded Oct 27, 2021.

Donations

These programs are completely free with no time limits, no nag screens, no advertising, and no spyware. They do not write to the hard drive or registry. They do not access the web. They do not install any other programs. They do not make any changes to your system other than the ones described in the documentation above.

I do accept donations. The PayPal links below are for a $10 (Ten US Dollars) donation but you can send more or less if you like.

PayPal $10 Donation

Or send payment by PayPal to: ElegantPie@HotMail.com

Or send personal check or money order payable to Michael Robinson

Michael Robinson
PO Box 95
Shelton, CT 06484

https://elegantpie.com