My Freeware Picks to Improve Windows Usability
Software can improve your life – so long as you know where to find it! The Internet is a treasure trove, filled with millions of tiny applications that'll help you through just about any quirk your OS delivers. Windows is replete with shortcomings, largely in its Explorer (otherwise known as the Shell). These utilities may seem frivolous to you, but they're quite helpful to me – and I bet you'll start using at least one of them on a regular basis:
- Windowpaper XP – With this, you can change the background of any folder on your system. Make it a solid color or set your favorite photo as the background. It's a snap to use, and helps making navigation easier (when you set certain folders to certain colors).
- TaskSwitchXP – A colossally improved task switcher, tweakable to your satisfaction. It takes virtually no resources when it's not being used – and seamlessly becomes your alternative Alt+Tab utility when you need it. Displays screen shots, extended process information, navigatable by mouse, etc.
- miniMIZE – When you normally minimize a window, it shows up in the Taskbar and is relatively information-neutral (other than the program's title and/or icon). miniMIZE maximizes your minimizes by shrinking the minimized program to a tiny screen shot on your desktop. Compelling, clever.
- Hawkeye ShellInit – I run at 1600×1200 on my primary monitor, but that doesn't mean I'm not worried about screen real estate! With this scriptable app, I can set up margins which open applications aren't allowed to touch – letting me have certain edges always exposed for me to see or use.
- iColorFolder – Are you a visual learner, too? Here's an open source utility that'll enable you to easily change the icon of any folder. Again, this makes it easier to see where you're going inside of the Explorer. “I remember the icon is blue,” is easier than trying to flip through folder names. This shell extension was partially inspired by the use of labels on the Mac.
- Folder2MyPC – The root of “My Computer” displays hardware and a few select folders. Now, you can actually select the folders that show up here. Consider this method an easier way of getting to your favorite or most frequently accessed folders.
- UberIcon – Visually speaking, Windows is bland – not even vanilla flavored. There's no feedback one receives after double-clicking on an icon. This tool turns on either visual “zoom out” or “bounce” feedback when you act upon an icon (file, folder, etc.).
- Visual Tooltip – Can't wait until 2009 when Windows Vista ships, but you want the enhanced Taskbar tooltip functionality today? Don't pirate a buggy copy of Vista – just use Visual Tooltip. Hovering over a program in your Taskbar will now produce a live / interactive window for you to see and use.
- Unlocker – What do you mean I can't delete the file or folder because it's being used? No, it's not – and I can prove it. Windows won't listen to you, so when some random process has locked a file, you can smack it around with Unlocker. No need to reboot in most cases!
- ClearTweak – While sub-pixel font rendering (ClearType) is an amazing experience to be cherished, No LCD screen is created equal. Even if you have the feature enabled for your monitor, it may not be optimized for the way your hardware was built. Tweak it clear – your eyes will thank you.
And I certainly thank you for paying attention to this point. I'm sure I missed thousands of freeware apps, so recommendations are appreciated and encouraged. Windows should work better for you now. And if it still sucks for you, there's always OS X.
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8 Comments
Kevin Respecki's Radio Weblog
May 17th, 2006
at 10:01am
. I downloaded and am using two of them right now, Taskbar Shuffle (rearrange your taskbar) and Visual Task Tips (visually see what programs are running in your taskbar). One of the comments on the post leads to apost on Chris Pirillo’s site, with some additional good downloads, including: icolorfolder (adds color to your folder icons), DesktopSave (saves the position of the icons on your desktop if they ever get rearranged, which they will do if you install icolorfoder!) and
Anonymous
May 8th, 2006
at 9:57am
Beware of obscure freeware programs. Many of them include delayed spyware modules, that don’t activate until you think that your safe.
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theblogplace.net: http://www.theblogplace.net
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Anonymous
May 8th, 2006
at 8:57pm
Sorry this is unrelated to your post but I just had to post it…
I bought a new Nintendo DS game called Brain Age and the character that pops up in between games looks like you! :P
klloyd1982
May 9th, 2006
at 8:30pm
I'm always interested in new freeware products that make my computer experience a better one! Awesome programs, such as those you mention in this post, are usually only found by those “in the know”. Thanks for putting us in the new! You and Lockergnome rock!!!
I keep a list of freeware programs that I find useful…kevinsprograms.net.
Anonymous
May 9th, 2006
at 11:31pm
One favorite application that I recently discovered is Launchy. Basically it allows you to type in your application and/or document name in directories that you specify and it will bring them up. You can see it in action at Launchy.Net
Oh and Chris, congratulations with your wedding.
Productivity Software Picks (GnomeREPORT)
August 14th, 2006
at 2:32pm
[...] Jake posted a list of great utilities on our new Doing It channel today: 10 Free Apps to Increase Personal Productivity. This is a pretty amazing list, and it complements my My Freeware Picks to Improve Windows Usability quite well. So much software, so little time! If you have other software suggestions, please post them in the comment threads? [...]
Ben
August 19th, 2006
at 2:01am
The retarded “freeware” on your site is full of pop-ups, banner ads, 30-day limitations, time bombs, extra downloads one has to get to make it work, installers that install God knows what, and one site even tried to redirect me to a Russian gambling site. I don’t trust anything with .ru at the end.
Geez. If it’s not really free, just say “no”, and don’t recommend it.
Computer Help Club
August 19th, 2006
at 1:12pm
[...] Groups Home | My Groups | Language | Help Computer Help ClubComputerHelpClub@groups.msn.com What’s New Join Now Homepage Disclaimer E-mail Problems? System Info Form General Mixed Messages Neat Tricks! Chat Room Cool Links C.L. Catalog Message Search Pictures Tutorials Documents Tools L_H_APP=’MSN Groups’;L_H_TEXT=’For help on reading discussions, click a topic:’;H_KEY=’mb_ReadAll’;H_CONFIG=’wcv9c.ini’;H_TOPIC=”;H_URL_BASE=’http://help.msn.com/en_us’;H_BRAND=”;H_FILTER=”;H_BURL=’/_PaneHelpFrame.msnw’;bSearch= true ; function Help(){DoHelp();} function openPostPopup(url) { window.open(url, ‘reply_popup’, ‘height=535,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=yes,width=600′); } Mixed Messages : 10 Free Apps (from Lockergnome){ & Irv ~ General} Choose another message board function set_mb_view_mode(mode) { document.cookie = “WSMBView=” + mode + “; path=/; expires=Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:20:00 UTC;”; window.location = “/ComputerHelpClub/mixedmessages1.msnw”; } function rep(s){window.location.href = ‘/ComputerHelpClub/mixedmessages1.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=102747&LastModified=4675585767439910242&openpopup=1&posturl=’ + escape(’mixedmessages1.msnw?action=mb_post&mview=0&ID_TopParent=102747&ID_Parent=’ + s)} Prev Discussion Next Discussion Send Replies to My Inbox ReplyRecommend Message 1 of 9 in Discussion From: Shannons69®™ (Original Message)Sent: 8/17/2006 5:55 AM From: princessmandi3529 (Original Message) Sent: 8/15/2006 3:09 PM Courtesy of Chris Petrillo of Lockergnome: (as provided by Irv) 10 Free Apps to Increase Personal Productivity. This is a pretty amazing list, and it complements my My Freeware Picks to Improve Windows Usability quite well. So much software, so little time! DupKiller – DupKiller finds duplicate copies of files across every hard drive on your computer. The software compares file name, modified date, file size or contents of the file. You can set a percentage match for updated versions of old files and include or exclude files based on a variety of filtering criteria. Free Accounting Software – Free Accounting Software is an intuitive, easy to use, robust , multi-user business management solution that includes inventory, customer management, vendor management, accounts payable, accounts receivable, extensive reporting and more. FreeMind – FreeMind is free mind-mapping software written in Java. Use mind maps to visually organize projects, notes, brainstorms, research or outlines in a hierarchical tree view designed to show visual connection between elements. Folder Marker – This utility lets you change folder icon (mark folders) by priority (high, normal, low), level of project completeness (done, half-done, planned) and type of information stored in them (work, important, temp and private files). Folder Size – Folder Size for Windows adds an additional column to the Windows Explorer Details view. The new column shows the size of folders as well as the default view for files.The app tracks which folders you view, scanning them in the background to update your system with an changes in directory size. Karen’s Replicator – Replicator automatically backs up files, directories, or hard drives. Backup specific files from one drive or folder to another. Source and destination folders can reside anywhere on your network. Make copies on a schedule, only copy changed files and replicate file deletion. Kurlo – Kurlo is a free, portable contact manager designed for personal and business use. Kurlo can easily be installed and run on a Windows computer and/or a portable device such as a USB flash drive or mp3 player. SimpleOCR – Convert your scanned images to text files or Word documents with SimpleOCR–the only OCR (Optical Character Recognition) application that is completly free. SimpleOCR is also a royalty-free developer toolkit (aka SDK or API) that you may use to add OCR to your custom software application. Stickies – Stickies desktop notes application offers all the advantages of peel-and-stick paper notes on your computer desktop. When you need to remember something, instead of sticking paper on your monitor, open Stickies and paste a note to your PC desktop. Notes remain after reboot. Customize color, font, background, links, send between computers and more. WinMerge – WinMerge is a tool for visual difference display and merging, for both files and directories. WinMerge has Unicode support, Flexible syntax coloring editor, and Windows Shell integration. Regexp filtering for filenames and lines. Side-by-side line difference and highlights differences inside lines. Yours Digitally, Chris Pirillo First Previous 2-9 of 9 Next Last ReplyRecommend Message 2 of 9 in Discussion From: Shannons69®™Sent: 8/17/2006 5:56 AM From: Latebird2 Sent: 8/15/2006 4:06 PM woohoo…I got that stickies thing :) ReplyRecommend Message 3 of 9 in Discussion From: Shannons69®™Sent: 8/17/2006 6:13 AM Free Accounting Software No link Irv….? Ya can’t expect me to pass up a new accounting program to play with…? Can ya? Free even!!! ReplyRecommend Message 4 of 9 in Discussion From: Bear Sent: 8/17/2006 6:41 AM Is This it Shaz & Irv? ReplyRecommend Message 5 of 9 in Discussion From: Me2Sent: 8/17/2006 7:04 AM … Or click the “missing link” for Lockergnome’s page ReplyRecommend Message 6 of 9 in Discussion From: princessmandi3529Sent: 8/17/2006 2:55 PM Shannon, The error is Lockergnome’s. No link for the free accounting software. U might want to try this link however: http://www.busyinfotech.com/ While I have your attention…..I tried using one of the other apps: DupKiller. It scans for duplicates, but I don’t know how to delete them. R U familiar with this program? It sounds good. Irv ReplyRecommend Message 7 of 9 in Discussion From: J4c?Sent: 8/17/2006 3:31 PM yea im waitin on a responce about the dupkiller program also … j4ck ReplyRecommend Message 8 of 9 in Discussion From: princessmandi3529Sent: 8/18/2006 2:20 PM Here is the e-mail I got from DupKiller: ********************************************** Wednesday, August 16, 2006, 2:37:57 AM, you wrote:> I did a scan….have a list of dupes. How can I delete the dupes?? Irving *************************************Righ-click on a dupe file and choose the ‘Delete’ option. Or select a dupe and press the ‘Del’ key.To remove a lot of file at once, use the ‘Autodelete’ option. Read a manual for more information.Good luck! Irv ReplyRecommend Message 9 of 9 in Discussion From: Shannons69®™Sent: 8/19/2006 3:46 AM Thanks for the links guys…. I will check it out at work in the morning…Don’t wanna install it here in the Vista puter… I have never used the dup killer — I have dup detector…It is really good but cumbersome to delete them all..I will check this new one out now…Maybe it is better? Will let you know. First Previous 2-9 of 9 Next Last Return to Mixed Messages Prev Discussion Next Discussion Send Replies to My Inbox function navAway(url) { window.location.href = url; } Notice: Microsoft has no responsibility for the content featured in this group. Click here for more info. Try MSN Internet Software for FREE! MSN Home | My MSN | Hotmail | Shopping | Money | People & Chat | Search Feedback | Help ©2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. 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