I love it when someone mentions a great software or tip in the comments of one of my articles. Mouser from Donation Coders mentioned his program Drag and Drop Robot in my article that explained how to unrar multiple rar files at once. It is basically a more versatile software that has - amongst others - the functionality to unrar multiple files.

Drag and Drop Robot can be described as a program that interacts with command line tools to add batch processing and drag and drop functionality to them. This might sound complex at first but in reality it is not. Several configuration files are already installed when you download the program, you can use them to zip and unrar data, hide and unhide data in pictures and encrypt or decrypt data.

If you would for instance like to unrar ten rar independent rar files you would simply choose the unrar configuration and drag and drop the ten rar files into the queue of Drag and Drop Robot.

continue reading "Drag and Drop Robot"

Microsoft introduced the .docx file format in its new Office and Word applications and wants it to replace the commonly used doc format. The problem with the change from doc to docx is that many users are still working with prior versions of Word or no Microsoft product at all and face the problem that they can’t load the docx file because it is not supported in their application.

The main question for those users is of course how they would open a docx file to be able to read and work with it. The answer is that it depends on what program and computer the user is working with. Let me outline several possibilities to open and work with docx file without using the latest Microsoft Office or Word software.

continue reading "How do I open docx files ?"

I rarely check if updates are available for the majority of softwares that I have installed on my system. The reason behind this is simple. It takes a lot of time to check the websites of the developers - if they are known - and compare versions. I had to check for updates regularly which means that I would be occupied and could not do more important tasks. My estimation would be that it would take roughly between 6 and 10 hours a month to keep all of my software up to date.

The Secunia Personal Software Inspector is checking your system for installed softwares and alerts you when it finds a outdated version. Its main purpose is to check for security vulnerabilities in the applications but it can only report them if an update or fix is available.

A System score is given after the initial scan of the system. I received a somewhat disappointing 76% score mainly due to outdated programs that I no longer use and several applications that were listed four to five times. It reminded me of a few programs like Winamp or Winrar which I no longer used and it did not make much sense to keep them on my system.

continue reading "Check if updates are available for your software"

Windows Vista in its default state needs a lot of battery power on my notebook which is why I deactivated several features like the Vista Aero theme or the sidebar when working without a power source. The free software Vista Battery Saver which is currently a beta offers a way to manage the power handling automatically.

It can be configured to automatically deactivate the sidebar and the aero theme when running on battery and enable them again when the notebook is connected to a power source. It is also possible to mange the Vista power plans automatically with the application and choose a power plan for battery mode and one when connected to a power source.

Vista Battery Saver has to be started with Vista to be able to change the power management for the user. The application does only need about 6 Megabytes of RAM and almost no CPU power.

continue reading "Vista Battery Saver Beta"

Rainbow Folders is a sweat little freeware for Windows which lets you colorize selected folders. The software has a size of roughly 600 Kilobytes and does not need to be installed at all. Just run it from the location that you unpacked it to. The application offers a folder browser on the left side and several options to change the selected folder on the right.

You can use the color bar to select a color for the active folder, change the saturation and choose if you want to use XP style icons or not. It is furthermore possible to create a so called Hint for the folder which is a phrase that popups when you move your mouse over the folder in Windows Explorer.

continue reading "Colorize your Folders in Windows"