Click the Start Menu and then enter “gpedit.msc” in the search box and press enter.

You will have to be logged in as an Administrator to make these changes. This is the whole point. Nobody else can make these changes without an Administrator password.

Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System. Under Setting, scroll down and then double-click on “Run only specified Windows applications”. If this is your first time attempting this and you are concerned about messing things up, simply create a restore point before commencing. This will allow you to go back and start over if you do something you didn’t mean to do. Restore points are a bailout. System restore allows you to undo changes.

When you double-click “Run only specified Windows applications, you will be presented with the following window and you will need to set to “Enabled” as indicated.

You may list as many applications as seen fit. The only trick is to get the name of the app or program correct. That’s it. Fill the list up with all applications to be shared and you are ready to go. When you are finished, close out the Local Group Policy Editor and you are done.

Should any user try to use an application that was not listed in the Local Group Policy Editor, an error message will be displayed and access will be denied.

Click the “Show” button located adjacent to “List of allowed applications”. This opens a dialog box where you will be able to enter all of the applications and programs that you want to allow users to run. In this example, an antivirus program was added. The user of this PC wants all users to be able to have access to antivirus software at all times, so the antivirus software is included. It is very important to list ALL applications, including startup applications and Windows itself or the user will be locked out of unlisted applications. This example lists only Webroot. If it were left at that, the user would only be able to use the antivirus software and no other programs. All of this is detailed in the text of the right portion of the window. Read it carefully.

You may list as many applications as seen fit. The only trick is to get the name of the app or program correct. That’s it. Fill the list up with all applications to be shared and you are ready to go. When you are finished, close out the Local Group Policy Editor and you are done.
Should any user try to use an application that was not listed in the Local Group Policy Editor, an error message will be displayed and access will be denied.

HTML Entities Converter

HTML Entities, what’s that again? It can happen that you want to post HTML Code, or any other code for that matter, on a website. You want to post that code, not execute it. It now depends on the website how the code is interpreted. It should be displayed and not executed, but some websites execute the code nevertheless. Instead of showing <font size="20px">Hi</font> it shows the text Hi in a font size of 20 pixels. The HTML Entities Converter converts code into a format that is not interpreted as code on websites.

Just paste your code into the form on the page and click the Make Code button afterwards to turn the code into text that is not interpreted by websites as code. (link)

Word Count Tool

Counting words may not always be important, considering that many services such as Twitter do that for you. If you write articles on the other hand you might want to count the words. Maybe you get paid per word, or you want to make sure that the word count does not exceed a limit.

The Word Count Tool counts the words of text that is pasted into its form.

Just paste the text into the form and click on the Submit button to get an exact word count seconds later. (link)

Creative Commons Search

The majority of contents on the Internet are not free to use. You can get into serious legal trouble if you use images, text or media without the permission of the copyright holder. An exception to that are contents that have been published under a CC license as they usually allow you to use them on the Internet.

The Creative Commons search engine crawls the web for those contents. Say you need a photo of a car or location to post on your website, blog or Facebook page. You can use the search engine to find that photo and use it even if you do not have the written permission to do so.

The search engine supports Google web search, Google Images, Flickr, Blip.tv, Jamendo, SpinExpress and Wikimedia Commons.

It is still recommended to verify the Creative Commons license before you start using the media. It is also fairly common that attribution is a condition for the license which basically means that you need to attribute the work to the original creator or website. (link)

Online Alarm

An online alarm may be helpful if you want to be notified at a later time, for instance that your tea is ready, that you have to shut down the computer now because you need to go to work or a meeting, or that your break is over and it is time to continue working.

Kuku Klok is a Flash based online alarm that runs in the background, provided that the web browser and page stay open. You can set the alarm and pick one of the available alarm sounds that include traditional sounds, a Slayer guitar riff and military trumpets. Should be something for everyone. (link)

Short Text

With Short Text it is possible to save text on the Internet. The text becomes available under its own web address, which could be handy for several purposes, like posting to Twitter or saving text in the cloud.

It does not seem possible to delete text once it has been posted though. (link)

Which useful Internet tools are you using? Let everyone know in the comments.

Text can be set as private, comments can be allowed, it is possible to use rich text and to link videos or images.

It’s mouser from DonationCoder.com speaking to you here. Martin has graciously invited me to make a guest post on ghacks about the latest event on the DonationCoder site, and I’m thrilled to be able to speak directly to the vast ghacks empire :)

Today we posted the results of our annual freeware celebration called NANY 2011 (that stands for “New Apps for the New Year”).

It’s an event where we invite all the coders who hang out on the DonationCoder.com forum and website to try to release a new freeware application at the beginning of the new year. Some of the coders even discovered us from ghacks(!). Over 34 new applications and web services have now been released, and we’ve posted a video screencast of each one.

Some of the entries include:

• JottiQ – Batch queuing utility for Jotti.org’s multi-engine malware scan website.
• AskApic – Web community service for posting images and asking questions about them.
• Webcam Video Diary – For recording and annotating videos/snapshots throughout the day.
• Quick Cliq – Windows productivity tool with multiple clipboards, hotkeys and gestures.
• Cautomaton – Commandline invocation of Windows right-click shell context menus items on files.
• UserQuotes – Web service for collaborative management of quotes/reviews about your products.
• SnapDb – Portable minimalist flat-file database application that can be distributed with data.

But there are many more. The page for all the even is here:

I hope you will stop by and check out the videos and new applications — and maybe see if one of them is useful to you. If you have a feature request, post it on our forum. And if you are a coder, think about joining us in next year’s NANY event!

Thank you!
-jesse (mouser from donationcoder.com)

Spoon needs to be installed first before it can be used. The Spoon plugin integrates into the Windows operating system. It is compatible with popular web browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.

The Spoon website lists applications and games in various categories. Here it is for instance possible to launch 7-Zip, VLC Media Player, Open Office, Google Talk, Paint.net, Picasa, uTorrent or Notepad++ directly from the web browser.

Buffering may take a while, depending on the speed of the Internet connection, the application’s size and the current load of the Spoon servers. The end result is an application window that looks exactly like the original.

spoon cloud app launcher

From there it can be used like a desktop app. It is for instance possible to load text documents into Notepad++, paste clipboard screenshots into Paint.net or download torrents with uTorrent.

The browser sandbox was a recent addition to Spoon. This sandbox can be used by web developers and interested users to work with web browsers without installation.

Spoon offers access to Internet Explorer 9 to Internet Explorer 6, Mozilla Firefox 4, Firefox 3.6, Firefox 3.5, Firefox 3 and Firefox 2, Google Chrome 6 Dev, Beta and Stable, Apple Safari 5, 4 and 3, and Opera 10 and 9 in the browser sandbox.

spoon

The web browsers can be launched from the Spoon website, and behave exactly like the “real deal” once they have been loaded fully. All operations are available that an installed or portable version of the web browser offers. Firefox users can for instance install plugins in the web browser.

spoon -browser sandbox

Even better is the fact that those customizations are saved, so that they are accessible on future runs of the application.

Spoon offers a flexible and safe way of running applications from a web browser. Users do not have to worry about program downloads or installations, everything is handled by Spoon after the initial installation of the plugin.

It is highly recommended for users who want to run or test applications without installing them first. Spoon is currently only compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

That’s not such a big problem on today’s computer systems on the other hand who have enough power to handle those programs. But there are many programs out there that provide great functionality and design without going over the board size wise.

This list is dedicated to those programs. It lists 50 software programs for Windows that use 100K or less. Best of all, the programs are functional and should be useful to many Windows users.

All programs have been tested on a Windows 7 Professional test system.

• Audioplayer: A fully functional music player that supports MP3, MPGA, WAV, MIDI, AU, WMA and ASF sound files as well as WPL, ASX, WMX, WAX and M3U playlists. Internet media is also supported and no install is required (64K) (homepage)
• Resize Enable: lets you turn usually non-resizeable windows into resizeable windows. (42K) (homepage)
• Picture Watermarker: Picture Watermarker is a simple and user friendly software that allows you to put text or image over your images and brand them. Picture Watermarker will allow you to open any .jpg, .bmp,.jpeg image and add text or image across the image. (16K)(homepage)
• Backup Utility: This program will copy all the files in a certain directory of a specified type into another directory. Effectively, it is a very simple and easy to use backup utility. Backup jobs can be saved, and you can specify restrictions such as file size, date, and type. (40K) (homepage)
• CD Recover: This is a lossy disc copying program. Designed for recovering as much information as possible from a corrupted file. The program is optimized for recovering corrupt video data from CDs. Supports multiple file retrieval methods. Say goodbye to CRC errors at the end of a file copy. (40K) (homepage)
• CPU Speed Adjuster: Ever tried to play an old game, or run an old program on a modern PC? Notice how everything runs way too fast? This program lets you slow down your PC so that you can run all your old programs again at the speed that you require. CPU usage can be limited to within a percentage. (30K) (homepage)
• Hoe Key: Tiny hotkey program, configurable with an .ini file. (26K) (homepage)
• Clipomatic: Clipomatic is a clipboard cache program. It remembers what was copied to the clipboard and allows you to retrieve it, even after you’ve copied something else to the clipboard. Clipomatic only works with text (96K) (homepage)
• Encopy: This utility is designed for data rescue from damaged mediawhen standard system copy fail, freeze and or reject medium. This software try rescue data from media like these and even in some cases of serious damage might restore data. It is not possible to rescue everything perfectly, but in most cases this way might be useful. (30K) (homepage)
• Roadkil’s Undelete: Allows you to undelete files that you have accidentally deleted from your drives. (51K) (homepage)
• Lens: Magnify any portion of the screen while you move the mouse cursor. (6K) (homepage)
• Minute Timer: Minute Timer (MinTimer) is a general-purpose, simple desktop count-down timer and alarm. (39K) (homepage)
• Windows Pinner: This utility allows you to “pin” a window to the top of all other windows.
  The idea for this tool arose when I had to do a documentation for some program. Instead of repeatedly switching from one window to the other I thought it helpful to have my word processor staying in front of the other one… (63K) (homepage)
• Dir Graph: DirGraph provides a graphical view of the space used by your files and directories. It allows you to navigate around this view – zooming in to see greater detail and zooming out to see the bigger picture. (35K) (homepage)
• Raw Copy: This program copys a disk as a raw image from one drive directly to another. This utility is designed for people who have faulty drive and want to transfer the data directly to another drive without doing a file by file copy. This saves the need for operating system re-installs and allows drives with an unknown file system to be copied (including from console game machines, data recorders, mac etc).(66K) (homepage)
• Roadkil’s Disk Speed: Performs disk speed test and provided details about how fast your disks can transfer data. The information provided includes data transfer rate for linear reads, random read transfer rate and the seek time of the drive. (48K) (homepage)
• Disk Wipe:Securely erases the contents of a disk replacing it with random data or leaving the drive completely blank. Numerous passes can be performed to ensure data is totally unrecoverable. Program works on hard and floppy disks aswell as USB/Flash drives. (49K) (homepage)
• File Splitter: FileSplitter is a freeware and open source, no frills tool to split up files into a specified number of chunks. Whether you’re on dialup and need to transfer large files over the internet without worrying about timeouts or disconnection; want to send that large presentation or document via email or even put that movie file on rapidshare (11K) (homepage)
• Dead Pixel Buddy: This is a dead pixel test program. It allows you to easily test your LCD screen for dead pixels. (26K) (homepage)
• Pitaschio: Pitaschio is a freeware which makes it convenient to use Microsoft Windows. (61K) (homepage)
• My Uninstaller: MyUninstaller is an alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all installed application, and allows you to uninstall an application, delete an uninstall entry, and save the list of all installed applications into a text file or HTML file (45K) (homepage)
• Notify: Runs hidden in the background until it detects any kind of change in a directory it has been told to monitor. When a change occurs (e.g. create, delete, modify a file) it visually alerts the user. Can be used, for example, to detect incoming information over a network or to detect tampering of files. Uses very little memory and practically no CPU time. (15K) (homepage)
• Mail PassView: Mail PassView is a small password-recovery tool that reveals the passwords and other account details (56K) (homepage)
• RegScanner: RegScanner is a small utility that allows you to scan the Registry, find the desired Registry values that match to the specified search criteria, and display them in one list. After finding the Registry values, you can easily jump to the right value in RegEdit, simply by double-clicking the desired Registry item. You can also export the found Registry values into a .reg file that can be used in RegEdit. (52K) (homepage)
• CurrPorts: CurrPorts is network monitoring software that displays the list of all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP ports on your local computer. For each port in the list, information about the process that opened the port is also displayed, including the process name, full path of the process, version information of the process (product name, file description, and so on), the time that the process was created, and the user that created it. (62K) (homepage)
• Dizzy: DIZzy displays DIZ, NFO and other confusing, ASCII-extended text files in a pleasing graphic format. It supports drag-and-drop, file associations and command line. DIZzy is an amazingly small, self-contained, flexible and free program. (8K) (homepage)
• Surecrypt: SureCrypt is an ultra small encryption program designed for fast processing of extremely large files. It can encrypt or decrypt files as fast as Windows Explorer can copy them. SureCrypt presents a flexible user interface with detailed record of all operations. (9K) (homepage)
• Metapad: Once upon a time, one of the most useful programs for everyday use was known as Microsoft Notepad. I realized that Notepad was quite powerful and did a lot of what I wanted in a simple text editor. Yet I found the user interface to be unlike most 32-bit Windows applications and actually quite poor.. (39K) (homepage)
• Capster: Have a program run at the startup of windows, but only if your caps-lock key is down at the time. (5K) (homepage)
• Startup Monitor: StartupMonitor is a small utility that runs transparently (it doesn’t even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents annoying programs from registering themselves behind your back. (60K) (homepage)
• Color Cop: Color Cop is a multi-purpose color picker for web designers and programmers. It features an eyedropper, magnifier, variable magnification levels, 3 by 3 and 5 by 5 average sampling, snap to websafe, color history, and a 42 color complementary palette. (61K) (homepage)
• CPUID: Displays information about your computers processor(s). Speed, cache size, features, clock multipliers, codename, brand plus much more information is displayed. (47K) (homepage)
• Tiny IRC: Are you tired of IRC clients bloated with features you never use? Your search is over! TinyIRC Pro packs the common features you need for day to day IRCing into a small package. If you want to take your IRC client on the road, with TinyIRC Pro its as simple as copying it from your hard disk to a floppy or USB key. (60K) (homepage)
• Kill disk: powerful and compact software that allows you to destroy all data on hard and floppy drives completely, excluding any possibility of future recovery of deleted files and folders. It’s a hard drive and partition eraser utility. (58K) (homepage)
• YourCPL: Some of the items in your Start menu really belong in Control Panel. YourCPL puts them there. Anything you can run from a command line can be added. (6K) (homepage)
• Startup Control Panel: Startup Control Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It’s simple to use and, like all my programs, it’s very small and won’t burden your system. A valuable tool for system administrators! (34K) (homepage)
• ‘Reso: Make a shortcut to run an app at your favorite resolution. (9K) (homepage)
• Emunge: A very simple program designed to take a piece of text from the clipboard or entered into the program’s left window pane and perform a series of regular expression search and replace operations, producing the output text in the other window pane. (19K) (homepage)
• Hash: Hash is a small GUI tool designed to perform MD5, SHA1and CRC32 hashing functions on a number of files. The file size and modified date is also optionally shown. Results displayed in the window can easily be copied to the Windows clipboard or saved to a text file. (16K) (homepage)
• Volumouse: Volumouse provides you a quick and easy way to control the sound volume on your system – simply by rolling the wheel of your wheel mouse.
  It allows you to define a set of rules for determining when the wheel will be used for changing the sound volume. (51K) (homepage)
• File Compare: Compares two folders of files in binary (recursive) to see if they are identical. (41K) (homepage)
• FoldersReport: The FoldersReport utility scans a drive or a base folder that you select, and displays essential information for each folder that it finds: The size of all files inside the folder, The real files size on the disk, number of files inside the folder, number of hidden files, number of compressed files, and number of subfolders. (27K) (homepage)
• Text Merge: Gives the user the ability to easily merge selected text files into a single file. (21K) (homepage)
• Serps Finder: SERPs Finder is a free SEO (Search Engine Optimization) utility that allows you to find rankings of your pages in all major search engines. SERPs Finder can easily check search engine position of your site for a given query in Google, Live Search, and Yahoo! Search. (37K) (homepage)
• TinyResMeter: A small tool that displays useful information about system resources in real time, but it also gives much more detail when you right-click on the displayed fields. (48K) (homepage)
• Mini Explorer: A fast and tiny alternative to Windows Explorer. (36K) (homepage)
• Boss Key: BossKey is a simple virtual desktop program. Create hot-keys to switch between the desktops and have one set of windows/applications on one and a different set of windows/applications on another and flip between them instantly with a single keypress (7K) (homepage)
• Memtest: A thorough, stand alone memory test for x86 architecture computers. (75K) (homepage)
• Win32Pad: Win32Pad is a feature filled text editor that is written with a programmer in mind. Its main purpose is to provide enough functionality that is missing from notepad without sacrificing file size and performance. It’s very fast and powerful. This editor is written so that you can install it and start using it. (39K) (homepage)
• Wireless Net View: WirelessNetView is a small utility that runs in the background, and monitor the activity of wireless networks around you. For each detected network, it displays the following information: SSID, Last Signal Quality, Average Signal Quality, Detection Counter, Authentication Algorithm, Cipher Algorithm, MAC Address, RSSI, Channel Frequency, Channel Number, and more. (44K) (homepage)

Top 5 distributions

Ubuntu: Although it is not my desktop distribution of choice, it is my “go-to” distribution in just about any situation. And the only reason it is not my desktop distribution is because of the next entry.

Elive: Elive combines my two favorite desktop tools – Enlightenment and Compiz. Without Elive, these two would not work together.

Debian: It is that which Ubuntu is based. Need I say more?

OpenSuSE: The YaST tool alone puts this distro in just about any top ten.

Fedora: I was a long standing Red Hat user so Fedora is a natural for a top ten distribution. And even though Fedora is “bleeding edge”, it’s still rock solid.

Top 5 applications

Let’s not pick nits and divide into categories. Let’s just see who bubbles up to the very tip-top.

1. OpenOffice: Let’s face it, without OpenOffice Linux, as a whole, wouldn’t stand a chance as a desktop distribution.

2. Firefox: Although Chrome is my weapon of choice, it doesn’t always cut it. And Firefox is one of the most successful open source applications of all time.

3. Claws Mail: If you’ve not used Claws Mail, you don’t know how much email power you are missing out on.

4. Nano: Nano is the text editor for all those who don’t want to have to bother with the cumbersome nature of vi or emacs. And without a tool like Nano, console-only Linux would be a real challenge.

5. Apache: Do I really have to say why Apache is in a top “anything” list for open source (or Linux applications)?

Top 5 desktops

You’ll never see any favoritism in this category. Will you?

1. Enlightenment: All the eye-candy, with have the weight of the big boys.

2. GNOME: If you want a full-featured, reliable desktop, look no further than GNOME.

3. KDE: Although KDE 4 began with a lot of issues, it has grown up to be quite a nice desktop.

4. Compiz: Although not a desktop on its own, Compiz adds such amazing features to your desktop, it must be included.

5. Fluxbox:If you are looking for the lightest weight desktop around, Fluxbox is your tool. It doesn’t offer all the bells and whistles, but it will bring new life to that old machine.

Top 5 commands

1. mkdir: Need to create a directory?

2. cd: Need to change to a new directory?

3. ls: Need to list the contents of a directory?

4. tar: Need to unpack a tarball?

5. man *. Need to find out about a command?

Top 5 places to get help with Linux

1. Ghacks: But of course.

2. Guru: Find yourself someone who knows Linux well and latch on. That’s how I got my start (with a shout out to Marc G.!)

3. Google: When in doubt, Google is your friend.

4. IRC: It’s old school, but there are plenty of Linux chat rooms still alive and filled with over-sized Linux brains.

5. Mailing lists: Just about every distribution has a mailing list. If you have a distro of choice, subscribe to that mailing list and read on.

Final thoughts

Do you have a top 5 that relates to Linux? If so, share it with your Ghacks readers.

There is a computer in our cars, TV’s, cell phones, our cable boxes, and other electronic devices. Without the software, these electronics would not work as they do. They may turn on, but the programs that we need to use would not work properly without the help of software.

The operating system that came with your computer is a computer software program. All computers come with an operating system, such as Windows aka XP, Vista, 2000, etc. Other operating systems are Linux and Mac. Without an operating system, your computer will not operate as it should. It may turn on, but it won’t run properly.

There are so many different programs today to do just about anything you want to on your computer. Some computer software program names are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Office, Print Shop, QuickBooks, video games, etc.

Some programs come in the form of CD or DVD, or floppy disks. This software can also be downloaded from the Internet, called electronic download. A software program is usually all set up to run on your computer. Each program will tell you what operating system and other criteria needed to use the program on your computer.
There are programs that will diagnose, troubleshoot, and fix problems that may occur with your computer, without the help of a computer tech.

Some programs online are in the form of a zip file, closed to make the file smaller. Most operating systems have a program on them that will automatically open a zip file so that you can install it onto your computer without a hassle. If you do not have a zip file software program, you can find a free program online. A great place to find free software downloads is at http://download.cnet.com/windows/.

Each program will tell you what the computer requirements are to run the program on your computer. It may specify that the program is only for Windows 2000 or XP, but most programs are available to run with Vista, Mac, and Linux now. http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx offers free trials for a lot of their software programs so that you can try it out before purchasing a copy of it.

Nearly everywhere we go or whatever we do, there is computer software running something. It is a wonderful idea to learn more about the computer world, as it will always be a big part of life. The technology continues to change and improve in most areas. A lot of the local Adult Education centers offer classes for free or at a very reasonable price to learn more about computers. Some local computer technicians also offer tutoring at reasonable prices. The World Wide Web has loads of free information on this topic as well.

F.Lux

I reviewed the computer monitor lighting solution a while ago and it is actually one of the few applications that run all the time on my main computer system. Flux changes the brightness color temperature of the computer display automatically. It uses a 24 hour graph to visualize the changes. The color temperature will be normal throughout the day and be lowered automatically as the day passes to adjust to the real world. You will love this application if you have to look at (to) bright computer screens especially in the evening and at night.

2. Speedfan

Speedfan is an interesting application to monitor system temperatures and control fan speeds. Users run usually in two scenarios. The first group thinks that their computer system makes to much noise while the second has to fight high temperatures that can lead to crashes and data loss. Speedfan can help both groups. It can lower the fan speed of connected computer fans automatically to reduce the overall noise level of the computer system. It can also warn the user if temperatures are reached that can cause damage and problems.

3. Drive Namer

Drive Namer is an excellent application to add names to optical drives such as DVD or CD drives. Windows is blocking the name changing on those drives by default which gets confusing if more than one optical drive is installed or virtual drives are used. All of the drives will be named DVD Drive or CD Drive. Drive Namer can change that name to something practical that helps identifying the drive at first glance.

4. Deltacopy

Windows Backup Software Deltacopy is a sophisticated backup software program that uses a client server approach which makes it ideal for computers located in a network.

It would not be Ghacks if we would not ask you to contribute to that list. The only requirements are that the software has to be free. It does not matter if they are Open Source, freeware or donation ware. If they are free they have a chance to make it on the list.

Asking for names for any kind of software program would make it very hard for us to turn the information into a list. We have therefor decided to divide the process into different articles which will only accept programs of one specific category.

We start with security applications. This can be anything from antivirus programs to antispyware, firewall or process monitors. Yes, some applications fit in more than one category. Name them whenever they fit in so that they can be included in the list.

Please include at least the name of the application. A link to the program’s website would be great and helpful as well. The results will be published at the Computer Software Recommendations article.

So come on. Let us create the best recommended software article ever.

SUMO will scan the applications listed in the Windows Start Menu by default but the user can let it scan specific drives or folders on the system and add executables manually. Users will be surprised that SUMO will recognize most of the applications that are added manually. A test with MWSnap and Newsbin Pro was successful. SUMO recognized the two applications and was able to check their version in the database.

One interesting option is to include beta versions in the update notifications which can be enabled in the program’s settings. Including beta versions raised the update count from 6 to 26 applications. Some like an update of Firefox 3.03 to Firefox 3.1 would require some research while others are no brainers.

The interesting feature is to add executables manually to SUMO. Not all executables will be recognized though because some developers do not include version information in their files. That’s however not a problem of SUMO but of all software updater.

SUMO will display the applications that need an update including the new version that is available. A click on Get Update will load a website with download links to the latest version. There is no option to download the files directly from within Sumo. The advantage is that the websites contain usually between 2-5 locations that contain the latest version of the software.

Users can propose a link on the websites, perform a Google Search and Report Errors or Beta versions. The latest version and the version of the user is shown on the page as well.

SUMO is missing a few features that would make it an universal software. An option to download all software updates automatically would be more than welcome. As would be a feature to add links to software applications manually to the software. It is possible to add applications but if SUMO does not have them in their database there is no way to update them. The only option is to click the Get Update link and propose a link.

The software program uses groups that can contain links to files, folders or web resources. Each group can be designed differently. The web resources could for instance display only the link text while the software applications display only the icon of the software. Icons and text can be combined as well and there are numerous ways to alter the appearance of practically any item in a group.

8start makes use of so called categories which can contain a number of groups each. Categories can be flipped like pages which means it is possible to create a smaller interface that is making use of pages to contain the same amount of information than a larger interface.

The status of each partition of the computer system can be displayed in the interface as well. It can be used to quickly access a drive. Each item displayed, be it application, web resource, folder or partition can be loaded with a single left-click of the computer mouse.

The note taking application uses a tree structure for the note taking. The main interface contains the keywords which when left-clicked will open a bigger Word-like document that can contain text and pictures that can be formatted using basic word processing controls.

A keyboard shortcut can be configured to bring the 8start interface up when needed so that it does not have to be visible on the desktop all the time.

8start is a sophisticated software applications launcher that is compatible to all Windows NT operating systems from Windows 2000 to Windows Vista.

The software programs are divided into four different categories named applications, definitions, recommended and utilities which all contain several programs and checkboxes in front of them. There is also a quick link to four software packages which activate several of the listed applications.

The good thing about this downloader is that it contains several of the most popular applications like Unlocker, Autoruns, Firefox, Comodo Firewall, JavaRa and CCleaner and that it will automatically check if those versions are compatible with the operating system.

The not so good thing is that it does not check if the application is already installed on the system in the latest version. There are also no descriptions of the applications available in the program itself. That’s pretty rough for inexperienced users.

I guess its great for a new system to download several of the recommended applications at once but nothing that could not be done with a web browser or download manager either. Good idea but needs the system scan option in my opinion.

Aviary is a suite of web based creative tools. Each of the tools has been named after some kind of bird, so you’ll have to get used to nearly 20 names like “Phoenix”, “Hawk” and “Raven”.

All of our tools are based right in your browser or as downloadable AIR applications. Our tools all communicate and relate to each other. To illustrate an example: You can import a swatch from Toucan into Phoenix, while doing complex bitmap processing of a 3D object developed in Hummingbird. Finally, you can take your finished artwork and lay it out in Owl as the DVD artwork for a music CD you and your friends put together in Roc and Myna and offer it for sale in our marketplace, Hawk.

Aviary is still very much under development and is strictly in invitation only beta. You can however sign up with the early “early bird invitations” form and specify what type of tools interest you, such as “image editing” or “desktop publishing”.

I actually have no idea how many of these tools are actually completed or at what stage the project is at. I have received an invite to two, “Phoenix” and “Peacock”, an image editor and pattern generator.

All I can say is that these applications are fantastic. They run from the web but act exactly like desktop software. It loaded fast and I experienced no lags or anything to indicate this wasn’t just a normal program running on my computer. Phoenix is fantastic program and almost matches Photoshop for functionality. In fact some of the example images produced are completely comparable to those produced by the commercial application.

When you receive your invitation you’ll get a user account which provides you with a dashboard and a place to save, store and showcase what you have created and a central place you can access all your applications from.

FreshAIRapps is a breath of fresh air (haha) on the web, I see so many sites out there just automatically aggregating content and posting 5% content and 95% adsense. This website does have some ads, but what the real value of it is that the writer actually takes the time to try each app. Clicking on an app will take you to its page where you can see a short description and a look from different angles, the design eye and the technical eye.

What’s great is that he actually manages to write negative stuff. I use about 5 apps that he showcases and he has found the exact problems I have, and this is what makes freshAIRapps such a valuable site. In addition the pics are wonderful and the content I hope will be increasing as AIR apps come out. If you’re in on the hype definitely check out this page!

Well, my prayers have been answered somewhat. I can’t stop receiving invites but I can block them so I don’t have ten friends sending me invitations for the same app over and over again. To do this, head over the ‘Requests’ page on your Facebook profile. There, you’ll see a list of all the invitations you received. Under the ‘Accept’ and ‘Ignore’ buttons is a small option that says ‘Block this application‘. Click on it and you’re done.

Considering the sheer number of invitations I’ve received, It will take me forever to block them all. I think a better option is to ignore all invitations from friends who keep sending you rubbish. This way, you cut it off at the source.

Has the Facebook application madness driven you crazy yet? What’s your strategy on dealing with them? Does it want to make you abandon Facebook altogether? Let me know in the comments.

This brings me to today’s post. I have a Facebook profile and I barely use it. Initially, I did not quite figure out what I was supposed to do with it. Then, the application overload started. I received my first ‘app’ invitation from something called Superwall. Not knowing any better, I said yes. After that, it’s just been one invitation after another.

Some Facebook apps are okay. For example, I was using Skreemr to add songs to my profile. However, for every decent app available, there have to be at least 10 worthless ones. The first one that hit me was Superpoke, which goes by the description ‘why poke when you can tickle, hug, pinch, or throw sheep’. Throwing sheep! How come I never thought of such a profound action?

Then there’s Zombies, and it’s spinoffs, Vampires and Werewolves. What do these ‘wonderful’ apps do? Why, bite your friends and turn them into monsters too. And if you fancy yourself a monster-killer, there’s Slayer to do the needful. I don’t see the point in these things. They are simply a waste of time.

The bottom line. I’ve stopped accepting requests for applications to be installed. Some people may have all day to play around on Facebook but I’m not one of them. Truth be told, I’m kind of fed up of everything and I virtually never log in to my profile these days.

Do you have a Facebook profile? Which are the most worthless apps you’ve seen on Facebook? What do you think the site should do to stop people getting tons of invitations for these apps?

The software that I would recommend are AVG Antivir, CCleaner, Audacity, Gimp, Skype, Filezilla and Firebug while the rest is in my opinion not necessary. The list compiled by Gili had the purpose to list applications that he did install on his newly bought notebook.

I actually knew all of the applications listed but one which was Zoho which seems to be an online Office suite. Head out to Connected Internet if you are new to computers or would like to take a peak at the list. It’s by no means perfect but good enough to suit most users.

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Software for your Computer at Connected Internet.

The FileHippo Update Checker scans your computer for installed applications and compares their version to the latest version hosted at the FileHoppo servers.

It then displays a list of all updates that it found on a website divided into full and beta updates. The version on the local computer and the latest version are mentioned in the list and a link to download the update is next to every entry.

Downloads start immediately if you click on the green download icons next to each application. Great that you do not have to navigate through endless webpages to reach the download.

FileHippo does not scan applications that they do not have in their database or do not provide version information that FileHippo can access.

Many useful free applications are not processed but a test scan on my system found 9 updates for applications and 2 for beta applications. Most have been standard applications like Flash Player, Java Runtime Environment or Nero Burning Rom. Great for a quick lookup. Works on Windows 98+