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Software

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

By Bill Detwiler March 14, 2007, 1:06 AM PDT Bill Detwiler on Twitter billdetwiler

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AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

AM-DeadLink

AM-DeadLink

In the past several years, my browser bookmarks list has ballooned to more than 200 links. I wanted to purge the dead and duplicate links from my list, but manually opening each link seemed just too time consuming. Luckily, I found AM-DeadLink.

Despite its quirks, AM-DeadLink does a good job of detecting dead and duplicate links on your Internet browser bookmarks or favorites list. This handy freeware application works on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server and supports Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, and Firefox. You can even double check AM-DeadLink’s results with the application’s internal preview feature.

You can download AM-DeadLink from Martin Aignesberger’s Web site.

By Bill Detwiler

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Setup and installation

Setup and installation

At 1.06 MB, AM-DeadLink’s installation file is a quick download.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Accept the license agreement

Accept the license agreement

You know the drill. Accept the license agreement and click Next.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Select a destination location

Select a destination location

The default location is C:\Program Files\AM-DeadLink. If so inclined, you can specify a different location.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Select a Start Menu folder

Select a Start Menu folder

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Desktop icon: Yes or no?

Desktop icon: Yes or no?

I rarely create program icons on my Windows Desktop.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Click Finish to install

Click Finish to install

Click Finish to begin the installation.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Select a language

Select a language

When run for the first time, AM-DeadLink will prompt you to choose a language. There are a host of languages to choose from, including Arabic, Basque, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Latvian, Polish, Spanish, Turkish, and many others.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

AM-DeadLink main window

AM-DeadLink main window

After selecting a language, AM-DeadLink immediately read my Internet Explore 7 Favorites file and displayed the links. AM-DeadLink’s main window lists links from the currently open bookmarks/favorites file.

As I use Firefox almost exclusively, my first task was to switch from the IE 7 Favorites file to my Firefox Bookmarks file.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Select your Internet browser

Select your Internet browser

Using the drop-down box in the main window’s top, left-hand corner, you can select one of the four browsers AM-DeadLink supports–Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, and Opera.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Browse to the Firefox bookmarks file

Browse to the Firefox bookmarks file

Once I selected Firefox from the drop-down list box, AM-DeadLink asked me to specify my bookmark file’s location. It took a little searching, but I eventually found the file.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Firefox bookmarks file

Firefox bookmarks file

Wow! I didn’t know that I had 204 bookmarks.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Sort the link list by Name

Sort the link list by Name

You can sort the bookmarks in ascending or descending order on any of the column fields–Name, URL, Error, Status, Absolute Path, and Folder. In this screenshot, I sorted the bookmarks by clicking the Name column heading.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Backup your bookmarks/favorites file

Backup your bookmarks/favorites file

AM-DeadLink lets you make a backup of your bookmark/favorites file before making any changes.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Check Settings

Check Settings

From the Check Settings tab, you can customize how AM-DeadLink checks each bookmark. The default settings, shown in this screenshot, worked well during my tests.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Proxy Settings

Proxy Settings

If you access the Internet through a proxy server, enter the settings here.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Bookmark files Settings

Bookmark files Settings

AM-DeadLink will automatically pull the current user’s IE favorites folder, but you must specify the location for Mozilla, Firefox, and Opera bookmark files.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

FavIcons Settings

FavIcons Settings

From the FavIcons Settings tab, you can specify the FavIcons directory location for Internet Explorer and Opera.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Default backup directory Settings

Default backup directory Settings

If left blank, AM-DeadLink will write the backup files to the same directory that stores the bookmarks/favorites file. If you would like AM-DeadLink to write the backup file to a different directory, you can specify that location on the Default backup directory Settings tab.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Running a check

Running a check

When you run a check, AM-DeadLink attempts to access each bookmarks. This screenshot shows a check running with the default 10 simultaneous connections.

The Status column shows the check result for each bookmark. You can track the progress of the check at the bottom of the AM-DeadLink window. In this screenshot, the check has churned through 33 of my 204 bookmarks.

I ran several checks and each took between 2 and 5 minutes. Most Web sites took no more than a second to check, but there were always one or two sites that seemed to have trouble. By default, AM-DeadLink will try to access problem bookmarks twice. You can increase the number to three if you want.

A sound plays to alert you that the check has finished.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Sort bookmarks with error to the top of the page

Sort bookmarks with error to the top of the page

After running the check, I resorted the bookmarks, moving those with errors to the top of the list. AM-DeadLink shows you the error code and text status of each problem bookmark.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

404 - File not found

404 - File not found

Using AM-Deadlink’s Open with browser feature, you can view each bookmark. In this screenshot, I am double-checking the first bookmark that AM-DeadLink reported with a 4040 error. This link is indeed bad.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Search bookmark with Google

Search bookmark with Google

AM-DeadLink has a built-in Google search link that can help you replace a broken bookmark.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Falsely labeled "404 File not found" bookmark

Falsely labeled "404 File not found" bookmark

During my test, AM-DeadLink performed well, but wasn’t perfect. The application mislabeled some bookmarks, like this one, with 404 errors. When I opened the link with AM-DeadLink’s internal browser, I found the link was still active, but the site required authentication. AM-DeadLink should have recognized that this site required authentication and noted it accordingly. It did so for other sites that required authentication.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Falsely-labeled "redirected, OK" bookmark

Falsely-labeled "redirected, OK" bookmark

AM-DeadLink also labeled several sites as “redirected, OK” when they no longer pointed to the original bookmark. This bookmark pointed to a story on http://www.tomsnetworking.com, which now redirects to http://www.smallnetbuilder.com.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Another falsely-labeled "redirect, OK" bookmark

Another falsely-labeled "redirect, OK" bookmark

Here’s another example of a “redirected, OK” bookmark that no longer points to the original page.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Third falsely-labeled "redirect, OK" bookmark

Third falsely-labeled "redirect, OK" bookmark

This Microsoft link was also redirected to a page other than the original.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

AM-DeadLink Help

AM-DeadLink Help

AM-DeadLink has a small help file that provides limited, but helpful information.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Error codes

Error codes

If you ever wondered what the different HTTP standard response code error messages were? Here you go.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Find duplicate bookmarks

Find duplicate bookmarks

AM-DeadLink can also locate duplicate bookmarks. I had bookmarked this page twice in two separate folders.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Selecting individual bookmarks to delete

Selecting individual bookmarks to delete

You can use Ctrl-click to select noncontiguous bookmarks.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Selecting a group of bookmarks to delete

Selecting a group of bookmarks to delete

You can use Shift-click to select blocks of bookmarks.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Deleting bookmarks

Deleting bookmarks

AM-DeadLink does a good job of detecting dead links. However, I strongly recommend you double-check the bookmarks you choose to delete.

Once your ready to delete the broken bookmarks, click the Delete icon from the toolbar. AM-DeadLink will prompt you to confirm you decision.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Save changes on exit

Save changes on exit

If you deleted any links, when you exit the application, AM-DeadLink will offer a reminder that you changed the bookmarks/favorites file and ask you to save the changes. If you click No, the deleted links will still exist within the bookmarks/favorites file.

AM-DeadLink: The Right Tool for the Job?

Browser must be closed to save changes

Browser must be closed to save changes

Even after confirming that you want to save the changes to the bookmarks/favorites file, you must ensure that your browser is closed before exiting AM-DeadLink and writing the changes. I tried leaving Firefox open when exiting and the deleted bookmarks were still there. I had to go back into AM-DeadLink, rerun the check, deleted the bookmarks again, and then exit the program–confirming my changes and closing the browser. The delete bookmarks were gone.

If you make a mistake and accidentally delete a link you want to keep, AM-DeadLink keeps a text log file of all deleted links. You can open that log file with your favorite text editor and bookmark the page again.

Take AM-DeadLink for a test drive!
You can download AM-DeadLink from Martin Aignesberger’s Web site.

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By Bill Detwiler
Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show.
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