Entries tagged with utilities - Channel 10

PCWorld Tells You How To Do Everything Faster

Sarah Perez — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:05:00 GMT

A new article over at PCWorld.com offers up 22 tips on more efficient ways to perform common tech tasks - things like reinstalling Windows, backing up your data, creating a podcast, making a web site, sharing photos, and more. Here are a few sample tips from the article:

Add a Folder to Your Favorites: Drag the beloved folder from Windows Explorer to the Start button, and from there to the Favorites menu. In Windows XP, you also have the option of opening the folder and then clicking Favorites, Add to Favorites from inside the Explorer window.

Fix a Photo's Exposure: Microsoft's Windows Live Photo Gallery app improves on Vista's Photo Gallery program. Select Fix, Adjust Exposure In Windows Live Photo Gallery (which runs in both Vista and XP), and you'll get both Highlights and Shadows sliders and a histogram, as well as the familiar old Brightness and Contrast options.

Read the News: A number of free services can send you RSS feeds over e-mail. My favorite is SendMeRSS.com, which is so easy that you don't even have to register with the site, although doing so will make adding feeds simpler. Just enter the URL for the RSS feed you want, type in your e-mail address, and click Feed. From then on, new items will automatically appear in your inbox.

Email Large Files: My rule of thumb: Never e-mail more than 1MB of content without the express permission of the recipient. As an alternative, try YouSendIt, a brain-dead-simple take on the FTP transfer. The service is free for any file under 100MB, and individual files can be downloaded up to 100 times. You don't even have to sign up and enter a password (though the service offers additional features if you do, and even more if you pay). Just enter both e-mail addresses, point to the file, and click the Send button.

There are eighteen other great tips like those above, so you're sure to discover some tip, idea, or software app to use that you didn't already know about before.

Custom Alerts for Your Windows Mobile Device

Sarah Perez — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:27:00 GMT

I just learned of some cool software called Watchflag from Jason Langridge's blog. The Watchflag software lets you create custom alerts for incoming messages as they arrive on your Windows Mobile phone. Although you can receive alerts on email in subfolders, as he points out, you can also do so much more, too.

Using rule-based notifications, you can have different mp3 sounds play based on sender or subject, have the display light up, have the phone vibrate, or have alerts repeat, and much more.

This could be really handy to help you sort through your influx of email, making sure that you don't miss that all important email from your boss or the meeting request from your department head. But personally, I like some of the examples uses that Watchflag comes up with, like a loud siren when you server goes down or a fight song for score updates from your favorite team.

The software is available for a free trial which you can download straight to your phone from m.watchflag.com.

PerfectDisk for WHS

Sarah Perez — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:04:00 GMT

Today, the guys at PerfectDisk announced on their blog that a new build of PerfectDisk 2008 for Windows Home Server is now available. This new version includes full integration with the Windows Home Server console, where PerfectDisk 2008 will now have its own tab.

The PerfectDisk software defrags and optimizes disks which leads to better performance and reliability. Their "Space Restoration Technology" also helps create a large piece of contiguous free space so there is less fragmentation in the future while also improving write file access, whereas typical defragmenters only focus on read file access.

If you already have PerfectDisk installed on your WHS, you'll need to remove that first before installing the latest version. Installation instructions are here. The software for WHS is only $39.99, or you can purchase a Home Site License and get 10 licenses for your network for $99.99.

App to Hide Your Desktop Icons

Sarah Perez — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:49:00 GMT

Desktop neat freaks, here's an app for you! With the Desktop Tools app, you can hide all your desktop icons with just one click. The app resides in your system tray and when you click it, your icons are gone. Another click brings them back. The tool does the hiding/un-hiding really fast, so there is no waiting for it to "think" before it reacts. There's no flickering and no hit on the CPU, either. Despite being called "Desktop Tools", hiding and un-hiding icons is all it does. But for those of us who would rather stare at our lovely wallpaper instead (like the app's developer, who is also a photographer), this little app is a great tool. (via Appaholic)

New MSN Toolbar Beta Released

Sarah Perez — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:45:00 GMT

The new MSN Toolbar Beta, powered by Silverlight, is now available for download from beta.toolbar.msn.com. The toolbar, with its Vista-like UI offers drop-down previews of MSN content in areas like News, Entertainment, Sports, Money, Autos, Shopping, Lifestyle, Health, and more. You can preview the content in these areas without having to leave the web page you're currently on thanks to drop-down windows showing the info in a preview pane. You can also get breaking news alerts and comparative search results from the toolbar - a feature that auto-populates the search box with your search query when you perform a search on another engine. This is very much like what Mahalo is doing with their sidebar tool, but without the sidebar taking up space on your screen.

Make Your PrtScr Button Actually Print the Screen

Sarah Perez — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:34:00 GMT

The PrtScr button on your keyboard is a holdover from earlier command-line based operating systems, when it used to actually take the contents of the current screen memory buffer and sent it on to the printer port. These days, the button takes a screenshot of your computer's screen, something many people use to take pictures of web site content. And now, with a new, little Windows utility called Purrint, you can make the PrtScr button a bit more user friendly. After the software is installed, you can hit Print Screen and choose from a few different options about what you want to do with the screen image you just captured: Copy to Clipboard, Print, or Save to a File. Alternately, you can configure the software using the "Options" button to always do one of the three choices by default, skipping the pop-up menu altogether.

Dock Your Apps!

Sarah Perez — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:27:00 GMT

As Windows users, you actually have a lot of options for implementing a dock on your Windows desktop as you can see via this post on MakeUseOf, which highlights their six favorite programs. However, one of my personal favs for implementing a dock is ObjectDock, a program which allows you to add a skinnable dock to your desktop. The newest version, which has a redesigned UI, has been sped up and now includes some useful utilities too, like the weather docklet. But it's Vista users who really luck out as we get live thumbnail previews as well as minimize and restore effects thanks to the new Windows Vista desktop graphics engine which provides hardware acceleration features. There's a free version available as well as a Plus! version for $19.95 which offers some additional effects and features.

PCWorld's 7 Office Optimizers

Sarah Perez — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:50:00 GMT

As part of a PCWorld article entitled, "50 Add-Ins and Utilities That Can Improve Your PC Experience," there was a section on Office optimizers that I thought was really useful. The list included some great extras and tricks to do more with Office. Here are some highlights:

Open Office 2007 files with older office versions via the Office Compatibility Pack
Use CenoPDF to build PDFs without ever having to leave Word, PowerPoint, or Excel.
Become a meeting power user with MeetingSense, which provides an extensive dashboard for meetings, agendas, creating minutes, etc.
Organize your data with ClearContext (See? I told you so!)

For the full list, check out the article at PCWorld.

IE Surfgear

Sarah Perez — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:19:00 GMT

IE Surfgear is freeware program that can help you read poorly designed web pages by fixing font and color problems. The software adds three buttons to the Internet Explorer toolbar, each of which addresses one of the following problems: tiny, un-resizable fonts, poor text colors, or poor background textures. With one click of a button, IE Surfgear will either increase the font size, remove background colors from text, or remove the textured backgrounds. If you want to see how it works, there's a demo on the product home page that you can check out first. Otherwise, you can download the program for free. (via gHacks)

Add "Send to Flickr" to Your "Send To" Menu

Sarah Perez — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:01:00 GMT

Love flickr? Not only can you upload to flickr using Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can also add flickr to the right-click "Send to" menu in Windows. From Adamant Solutions comes an app called "Send to flickr," which lets you easily upload photos to flickr from Windows Explorer. The app adds "flickr" to the "Send to" list in Windows, lets you preview files while they are being uploaded, and supports uploading multiple files at once, all without need of a web browser. The best part? The software is 100% free.

Supercharge Windows Explorer

Sarah Perez — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:21:00 GMT

DMEXBar is an add-on to Windows Explorer that lets you add extra features to Explorer. When you install DMEXBar, it adds a new toolbar to Explorer with features like the following: Arrange explorer windows side by side, rename multiple files at once, quick change to favorite folders, quick create directory, split files, calculate directory size, and more. One of the program's best features is the new button it adds that lets you quickly open up another instance of Windows Explorer right next to your current window. You can also add buttons that make it easier to launch a command prompt, copy or paste files, or mark them as favorites. DMEXBar works with Windows 2000 and XP. (via Download Squad)

Reveal Wireless Keys

Sarah Perez — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:47:00 GMT

Forgot the WEP or WPA key to a wireless network? If you've ever connected to that network from your PC, then the key can be retrieved. The freeware utility WirelessKeyView will reveal the keys to any network you've ever connected to using Windows' Wireless Zero Configuration (not 3rd party software). You can use the software to delete keys from old networks you no longer need and copy keys to the clipboard to send or save. This could be really useful when you're setting up your new laptop or if you need to give a key to a friend so they can use your wi-fi, but you can't remember your home network's key .You can download WirelessKeyView from here.

DisplayFusion 2 Released

Sarah Perez — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:00:00 GMT

You may recall an earlier post on the DisplayFusion software, which is software that allows for multi-monitor desktop wallpaper (see here for details). If you had been using the DisplayFusion program, you may want to check out the new version, DisplayFusion 2. This utility, which offers cool features like flickr integration and the ability to stretch images across desktop screens, is now available in both a free version and a paid version, and includes some of the features missing from the prior release. The Pro version now lets you change your wallpaper on a timer and has tray menu item for changing to the next random wallpaper or freezing on the current one. The Pro version also offers the ability to to background image position fine tuning, configurable window size HotKeys, configurable window moving HotKeys, and more. For only $10, the new DisplayFusion 2 is a worthy (and less expensive!) competitor to UltraMon, another program that offers similar abilities.

Tabbed Browsing in Windows Explorer

Sarah Perez — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:28:00 GMT

QTTabBar is Windows Explorer add-on that allows you to navigate files and folders in a tabbed browser, just like you do in IE7. The program, written in C#, works on any Windows XP or Vista (32-bit) machine with .NET 2.0+ installed. To get started, download the latest version and install the program. Reboot and logon to Windows again. Open a folder in Explorer and right-click on the toolbar. Check 'QT TabBar'. That's it! There's also a desktop toolbar available which you can access by right-clicking on the Task Bar and checking 'QT Tab Desktop Tool' in the 'Toolbar' menu. This is so convenient, I can't believe I hadn't heard of it before now!

Get Vista's ReadyBoost on XP

Sarah Perez — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:14:00 GMT

Which your copy of XP had Vista’s ReadyBoost benefits? Now you can with this new application from eBoostr. With eBoostr, you can use an additional drive (like a USB key or another hard drive) to add another layer of performance-boosting cache for your Windows XP install which lets you PC boot up much faster. The app smartly caches frequently used applications and files for maximum performance speed up and this cache file can be up to 4 GB in size. eBoostr is $29 to purchase and can be used on up to 4 PCs, but you can give it a dry run for free.

Project Dakota

Sarah Perez — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:13:00 GMT

Project Dakota is an easy way to update a Windows XP PC using a CD. (Why did I discover this after I left my I.T. job??) The CD contains all the updates found on the Windows Update website, including SP2 as well as standalone programs like Adobe Reader, Spybot S&D, Firefox, Java, QuickTime, and more. The updates comes with a standalone installed that runs them in the correct order (i.e. first the pre-SP2 updates, then SP2, then the post-SP2 updates). Using a CD to install updates is much faster than having to wait for them to download. It's also handy if the computer you're building doesn't have an internet connection available. Or if, I don't know, you want your PC to be patched and secure before you go online. The Project Dakota download is 702 MB and is in an ISO format so you can burn it to a CD. (via gHacks)

Quickly Locking your PC

Sarah Perez — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:01:00 GMT

I just saw a great tip on Steve Clayton's blog for quickly locking your Windows PC, so I just had to share. Instead of using "Windows + L" (not everyone can love the keyboard shortcuts, you know), Steve makes himself a little icon for his taskbar instead. Here's how:

   1. Right-click on your desktop and select "New," then"Shortcut"
   2. Paste this text in: rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
   3. Click "Next" and type a name for the shortcut (e.g. "Lock")
   4. Click "Finish"
   5. You can right-click on your new shortcut and change the icon (there is a lock icon as part of the collection in %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll)
   6. Now drag the icon to your taskbar.

Awesome!

Prank: Re-Map the Keyboard!

Sarah Perez — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:19:00 GMT

I wish I had known of this for April Fools Day! SharpKeys is a free utility that lets you remap any key on your keyboard. Essentially, SharpKeys is a registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard act like other keys. After you install the software, you can tell it what each key's new function can be. Although the software can be useful (like remapping CAPS Lock to Shift or turning it off if you have fumble fingers), it seems designed for pranking! The software works on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista. The new version (2.1.1) addresses the Vista's user security so you no longer have to explicitly run SharpKeys as an Administrator as before. (via Download Squad)

Green Printing

Sarah Perez — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:04:00 GMT

There's a new free edition of the popular GreenPrint software, called GreenPrint World Edition. The software, aimed at home users and non-profits, is designed to combat printing waste. The way the software works is by analyzing each page sent to a printer for extraneous content like banner ads, legal jargon, footnotes, or other unnecessary pages. These sections are highlighted in red for you to see before printing. If you want to print a page or section that has been detected as unnecessary, just double-click on it to include it in the document. You can also double-click on areas that are un-highlighted to prevent them from printing. According to the company, using GreenPrint can save you $90 per year and 1400 wasted pages. The software can also be used to create PDFs and it does reporting on the toner and paper savings you've accumulated by using it. GreenPrint World Edition is free by being ad-supported; to turn off the ads, you can upgrade to Home Premium Edition or for business use, there's an Enterprise Edition available. (via downloadsquad)

Get a Bigger Clipboard

Sarah Perez — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:16:00 GMT

Do a lot of copy & paste? In Microsoft Office programs, the included clipboard keeps a history of the items you have been copying and pasting. However, the Windows clipboard can only store one item at a time. If you've been looking for a way around this (besides using Paint and Notepad!), you should checkout a utility called ClipX. With ClipsX, everything is saved in a queue - screenshots, images, or text. The clips can then be accessed via a hotkeys. This can save you a lot of time of switching between various programs and possibly overwriting your clipboard contents. ClipX can be downloaded for free from here: www.bluemars.org/clipx. (Via Digital Inspiration)

Export Outlook Contacts and Import Them to Facebook

Sarah Perez — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:44:00 GMT

I've written a few posts about apps that get your Facebook contacts into Outlook - like FBLook, which provides access to Facebook via a toolbar add-in, and Facebook app, Fonebook, which syncs your contacts; but what about exporting contacts from Outlook to Facebook? If you are like most people, you still tread a fine line between work-related social networking and personal social networking. However, in most people's inbox (the most inclusive social network we all have), resides all different types of people and connections. You may want to export your work colleagues to LinkedIn but export your friends and family to Facebook. Now you can, with the new ClearContext Contact Exporter for Outlook (Beta). The program lets you create and export groups of email addresses found in messages that are stored in the Outlook folders you select.

Once you’ve created the list using the Contact Exporter tool, you can import these contacts into any services that accept CSV files. Here are import links for a few popular sites (log into the sites before clicking the links below):

LinkedIn
Facebook (click Email Application and scroll down to Contact File)
Evite
Socializr

You can also use the exporter to create distribution lists and new contact files in Outlook. The ClearContext Exporter for Outlook (Beta) is a part of the company's latest IMS v4 suite, which is free for 30 days during the trial period. However, the Contact Exporter remains functional even after the 30 days are up.

Rocker Mouse App

Sarah Perez — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:37:00 GMT

From the programmers at Lifehacker, Rocker is cool utility that lets you perform common computing tasks just by rocking your fingers across you mouse. For example, you could go forward and backward in Internet Explorer just by "rocking" across the mouse. Rocker actually requires that you hold one mouse button down while you click the other in a rocking motion. You can rock right to left or left to right and each direction gives you a different results. It's kind of weird at first, but those that get used to it say it's more natural to them that the usual clicking and double-clicking.

5 Programs for Tweaking Vista

Sarah Perez — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:40:00 GMT

Was TweakUI your favorite PowerToy? Have you been searching for something similar for Vista? Several different programs are available that may be what you're looking for. Here's a quick list:

TweakVI is a software program designed just to tweak and optimize Vista. The program comes in 3 editions - basic, premium, and ultimate - so there is sure to be one to fit your needs. Only the basic edition is free, but it includes desktop tweaks, Start Menu tweaks, IE & Firefox tweaks, Hardware tweaks, System info, Virtual Desktops, System folder tweaks, Mouse tweaks, Outlook tweaks, & Shutdown tweaks.
VistaTweaker is small enough (664KB) to run from a flash drive but has a huge list of tweaks available including IE tweaks, Windows UI tweaks, System tweaks, Software tweaks, Network tweaks, and more.
XdN Tweaker is small too (516KB) and supports XP, Vista, and even Windows Server 2003. XdN can tweak things like disabling Windows Mail's splash screen, disabling user account control, better save folder views, remove or replace IE7's search box, disable the "send to" option, and much more.
Stardock's TweakVista: Unlike other programs, TweakVista automatically prompts with enhancement recommendations, offering easy “one click” updates to otherwise complex changes, but it's also safe to use. TweakVista is a great way for casual tweakers to get their feet wet without having to worry about causing major havoc on their system. However, there are enough features for the experienced tweaker to enjoy it, too. The trial is free, the program itself is $20.
Vispa is a free executable that doesn't even require an installation in order to use it. It's focus is more on privacy, allowing you to do things like disable error-reporting and other similar communication. But you can also turn on settings like "fast shutdown," which is really a reg hack, without you having to dig into the registry.

A Flash Drive that Backs Itself Up

Sarah Perez — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:29:00 GMT

The 4 GB SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus USB flash drive is a new breed of flash drive. Instead of being a potential security risk, you can safely store your sensitive, important data on the drive without fear of losing it or deleting the files. The device is protected with password protection and hardware AES encryption, so you only you can access the files. When the Cruzer is plugged into an internet-connected machine, the drive will automatically back itself up online using 256-bit SSL encryption. If you accidentally delete files off of the drive, they can be easily restored from the online backup. Additionally, the files can be accessed via the website even when you don't have have the drive with you. The rugged, crush resistant case offers a layer of physical protection to the USB drive as well. An optional Lost-and-Found service can be utilized if you choose to pay the added expense for a BoomerangIt subscription. The drive comes with 6 months of the online backup service for free, after which you must pay the $30 annual fee to continue using it. For all this, the Cruzer's price of only $60 seems pretty reasonable for the security and peace of mind that it offers. (Via Webware)

Slide.Show Does Web Slideshows

Sarah Perez — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 09:12:00 GMT

Slide.Show is an open source Silverlight 1.0 control for publishing highly-customizable photo slideshows on the web. Created by Vertigo, the application lets you build rich, interactive web slideshows with minimal setup and configuration required. You can add your own transitions and customize various options like color, font, size, position, and behavior. You can even configure it to display your photos from flickr. The app is 100% customizable via XML or JavaScript and works on IE 6 and 7, Firefox 2, and Safari 2 and 3.

To see some great examples of the Slide.Show app at work, check out the links below:

http://www.duncanchannon.com/baddecisions

http://blog.offbeatmammal.com/post/2007/12/Silverlight-Slideshow.aspx

http://www.nikhilk.net/Silverlight-Slideshow.aspx

Slide.Show is available as a free download from CodePlex.