Hot Corners is a relative small Open Source application for Windows operating systems. It was written in the Auto It language which means that some virus scanners detect it as a virus although it is not. The basic application of the software program is to launch functions, programs or services by moving the mouse around.

The software program provides two basic options. The first is to start services or applications by moving the mouse into one of the four corners of the computer monitor. Options like running a software program, locking the computer or handling windows. One action for every corner can be defined. It does work however best for the corners that are not occupied by the Taskbar especially if the taskbar is set to auto-hide.

The second option is to add the same set of functions to mouse movements. Only this time it can be activated by pressing the [Windows X] key while moving the mouse to the left, right, up or down.

continue reading "Launch Applications With The Mouse"

We have covered the Wikipedia Screensaver in the past which displayed and rotated through random Wikipedia pages. Some users did not like the randomness of the screensaver which could bring up inappropriate content on the computer screen.

The Wikiquote Screensaver makes use of yet another Wikipedia site but gives the user more control over what is actually displayed when the screensaver activates. Wikiquotes provides access to a large collection of quotations in several languages.

The screensaver makes use of an interface that can be used to add quotes to the screensaver. At least one quote has to be added before the screensaver starts working at all. This is done by searching for a name or term. A list of matches will then be displayed. By default all are selected to be added to the screensaver’s rotation.

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We have already covered the Windows Live Facebook plugin today which made it possible to upload photos from the Windows Live Photo Gallery application directly to Facebook. The Live Upload To Youtube plugin is a similar plugin by the same author with the difference that it provides the option to upload videos to Youtube directly from within Live applications.

To be more precise, the plugin is currently working with Windows Live Photo Gallery or Windows Live Movie Maker. It works by selecting one video in one of the supported applications and initiating the upload from the Publish > Live Upload To Youtube menu. A popup will appear asking for a Youtube username and password.

If the login is successfully a new window will be shown with options to enter a title, description, keywords, a category and permissions for that video. A progress bar will be displayed after sending the information that is showing the status of the uploaded video.

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The Windows Live Photo Gallery Facebook Plugin enables the direct upload of photos from Windows Live Photo Gallery to Facebook. Two applications are needed to make this work. Windows Live Photo Gallery [link] and the Facebook Plugin [link] have to be installed on the computer. There is no need for a Windows Live account but at least one Facebook account is obviously needed to upload the photos from the computer to Facebook.

The plugin should be installed when Windows Live Photo Gallery is not running. During first usage a Facebook account has to be linked to the Windows Live Photo Gallery application. This simply involves logging in to Facebook when the Windows Live application asks you to. A few other options will pop up during that process. An album has to be created if none is currently available. There is also the option to automatically accept images that get uploaded this way or to manually approve them instead.

Manually approving the images would mean to accept them on the Facebook website after transferring them from Windows Live Photo Gallery to Facebook.

continue reading "Windows Live Photo Gallery Facebook Plugin"

One of the more visible changes of the Windows Vista operating system was the Windows Vista Sidebar which made it possible to put so called gadgets on the Windows Desktop. Gadgets are small applications that can display all kinds of information such as RSS news feeds, contacts or system information.

Many Windows Vista users like the Windows Sidebar, others feel that it is to restricted to one part of the screen. Microsoft has already announced that they will change that behavior in Windows 7 so that users can place gadgets wherever they want on the desktop.

It was only a matter of time until someone would port the Windows Vista Sidebar to Windows XP. Joshoon managed to port the real Windows Sidebar to Windows XP by making use of Alky For Applications. You might remember Alky from the time when Windows Vista came out. That was at the same time when Microsoft announced Vista only applications and Alky was supposed to make them compatible with Windows XP (like the games Shadowrun or Halo 2)

continue reading "Windows Vista Sidebar For Windows XP"