Some services offer free SSH accounts, so you can edit and access files anywhere, host websites, use them as proxies (or IPv6 gateways) and some even let you run processes like IRC bots and compilers.

Generally, such free Shell accounts impose a monthly bandwidth quota of a few megabytes, so you don’t use too much of their resources. Some providers are more generous than others, though, and some charge for additional space and bandwidth.

Most SSH providers offer Unix-based hosting. Mitja Sladovic offers a very large list of such free providers.

The most popular service is the SDF Public Access UNIX System, established in 1987. Free users are offered email hosting (POP or IMAP), games, access to the text-based ‘Lynx’ web browser, web hosting, various network utilities and 80MB space. For access to gcc, php etc., one must a one-off fee of $36. In order to validate your account, and receive access to network utilities, one must send them $1 or €5 (in order to deter spammers).

Blinkenshell is another interesting option. Free accounts get 50MiB of space, access to several compilers, an IPv6 tunnel, hosting, email, IRC access and even the ability to have MySQL databases. One can’t use Blinkenshell for IRC bots, though. A few services do provide access to eggdrop, a popular IRC bot, such as Polarhome and aeshells.

Naturally, novices may struggle with such services as no graphical interface is provided. These services do, however, provide a rapid way to compile applications on different platforms (like Linux and BSD) and allow boring processes, like IRC bots, to run for you.

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The application will display a configuration window after installation which is displaying the shell entries that have been added by the application. This includes copying the path, opening the command prompt, running files with parameters or opening notepad or paint.

Not all of the entries are needed though. It is possible to remove some entries from the context menu entry. New entries – called commands in the application – can be added as well. Every entry consists of a title, program name, arguments, directories and other variables that can be defined during creation. Entries can be moved around to change their position in the context menu.

It is for instance possible to add any executable file to the right-click context menu including specific launch parameters. Another interesting feature of Open++ is the ability to use short path and prompts for arguments when pressing keys on the keyboard at the same time.

The application is running as a rundll.exe process with about 3 Megabytes of computer memory usage after installation.

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A hash is just a string that has been computed with the use of an algorithm. That hash is always the same as long as the file that has been checked is not modified. This leads directly to many uses of hash values. They can be used to check that a file is still the same on one computer, that a file that has been uploaded to a remote computer is the same as the file on the source computer or that a download from an Internet website is not corrupt.

Hash Tab is a Windows shell extension that adds a tab in the File Properties window that is displaying has values of various algorithms like MD5, CRC32 or SHA-512.

One interesting feature of Hash Tab is the ability to compare hashes in the File Properties dialog. It is possible to select a second file on the hard drive and compare it with the first one or to paste a hash into one of the forms and compare the files that way. The second option is obviously thought for comparing files that are not located on the same computer. Helpful after downloading files on the Internet or transferring files to a remote computer.

Hash Tab is only one review that was posted by Demetris at his blog. He lists Fifteen useful shell extensions for Windows with lots of screenshots and information on his website.

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Users installing the software need to have administrator rights to do so and should note that only NTFS drives support the creation which means that it cannot be used on partitions formatted with FAT file systems. It should also be noted that Link Shell Extension is compatible with 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The type of link that is created depends on the source that is picked by the user. Picking files will create hardlinks, folders will create junctions and a partition will create a volume mountpoint. The benefit of creating that file system is that files and folders can be accessed in multiple places instead of just the source location.

In addition to the three link types specified above the Windows Vista version of Link Shell Extension supports the creation of Symbolic Links which have been introduced in the operating system.

The creation of remote links within SMB mapped network NTFS drives is supported by the software program as well. The easiest way to get an overview of the capabilities of Link Shell Extension is to visit the homepage which lists all supported modes and functions.

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Wherever Change Directory (WCD via Download Squad) is the name of a Windows script that is offering a way to change directories in the Windows command line blazingly fast. It indexes the directory structure of the computer system at first start of the application which takes a few seconds. After that it is possible to change directories with the command wcd directory, for example wcd desktop. The default search is to look for every directory name that begins with the search term that the user entered. Wildcards can be used to change that behavior.

WCD will display all directories with desktop in their name giving the user the option to pick one to change to. If only one directory with the name was found on the system WCD will immediately make the directory change.

Wherever Change Directory supports local directories, Windows LAN UNC paths, alias directories and subdirectories.

A user who has the intention to work regularly with the software program should either move it into a system path directory or add the new directory to the system path to be able to run wcd from every location and not only its source directory.

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You could for instance sort through your files and move all files belonging to one group into a new folder using Piky Basket. The file operations available are copy, move and delete. This is actually another nice application. I sometimes download large image collections from sites like Flickr using an automated downloader. Instead of going through each picture I could simply add all pictures that I want to delete in the basket and delete them at the end.

I would not have to mark them all while still browsing through them. Its also great for creating a CD or DVD with files from different locations, a backup for instance.

Another option is to copy paths to the clipboard. Picky Basket can get the file paths of selected files and folders and copy them to the clipboard. Found at Freeware Genius (any news about my shoes Samer, hehe).

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The three items of Windows Media Player that I’m talking about are a) Add to Burn List, b) Add to Windows Media Player Player List and c) Play with Windows Media Player.

Do the following to remove the Windows Media Player menu items: Press Windows R, type in regedit32 and hit enter. Now navigate to the following keys in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Clsid\. I would suggest to make a backup of the keys before deleting them. To backup a registry key you right-click it and select Export from the menu.

a) {8DD448E6-C188-4aed-AF92-44956194EB1F}
b) {F1B9284F-E9DC-4e68-9D7E-42362A59F0FD}
c) {CE3FB1D1-02AE-4a5f-A6E9-D9F1B4073E6C}

Changes will take effect immediately and can be tested by right-clicking a multimedia file like a video. Another working method would be to unregister the wmpshell.dll which is used to provide the context menu items. This is probably the easier method.

Press Windows R, type in regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll, hit enter

To register it again you do the following:

Press Windows R, type in regsvr32 wmpshell.dll, hit enter

Those changes take effect immediately as well.

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Learning the shell starts with explaining the shell concept: “What is the shell ?”. After that it goes straight into navigating, looking around and a guided tour which explains the default directory structure. After that it´s manipulating files, I/O redirection, permissions and job controll. The tutorial uses lots of screenshots to visualise the paragraphs, great way for beginners I think.

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