I sparsely enjoy screensavers on my computer because I tend to prefer to turn of the monitor if I take a longer break. Another reason is that I did not find a good looking lightweight screensaver that I could install on my desktop pc. That is, until I read about Flurry in the excellent Donation Coder forum.
Stick is a nice little freeware application for Windows that is able to add several tabs to the top of the screen each with its own functionality. The tabs are fully customizable and can contain any of the following five functionalities: Notes, Calendar, RSS Feeds, Calculator and Navigator tabs.
The autopatcher team finally managed to update all of their update packages for Microsoft operating systems to July 2007 which means that you can download all patches that Microsoft has released for your operating system and apply them at once instead of using automatic updates or connecting to a Microsoft server at all.
Lets say you got this nice little word document from a friend or colleague and stumble upon a word or words -like obiter dictum - that you do not know. How would you normally look it up ? You either pick up a dictionary or fire up your browser and search on the Internet for a definition of the word. This does not slow you down that much if it is only one word but what if there are more of them ? It could really slow you down unless you find a better way to lookup those words.
I normally do not have to create a lot of thumbnails, maybe one or two per day for my articles but that is it. I use GIMP for the purpose, definitely not the best choice because of the long loading times but good enough for the few that I have to create. Sometimes however I'm in the position to create thumbnails of hundreds of images and there is no way to create them with GIMP because it would take a very long time.
Optimizing a computer to improve performance while keeping everything stable is something that I really like to do. The first thing that I do when I get a new computer is to get rid of useless softwares and take a look at system settings to find ways to improve them.
After a few months of using Launchy and Rocket Dock I realized that I actually did not use the startmenu of my Windows operating system at all. I either use these great apps that give me more flexibility and speed or use icons on my desktop for certain tasks.
Another reason why I'm not using the startmenu anymore is that it really looks and feels messy after a while because every new application adds it's own folder to it. The question that came up for me is whether I needed the startmenu at all.
I'm using a sweet little freeware for some time now on Windows XP that tabs normal windows giving my desktop a clean look most of the time while still giving me access to all the folders that I need to work with at that time. I got used to it pretty quickly and thought that it would be a great way to expand this behavior to applications as well.
I think every Windows user experienced an error message like "Could not find xxx.dll" before and wondered what the hell happened with that dll. One reason could be that you used to uninstall a program that asked specifically whether you would like to remove the xxx.dll as well because it could still be needed by other applications.
Windows has a feature that groups similar windows, for example seven explorer windows, in one taskbar button which is great if you like your taskbar as clean as possible. There is however no direct way to change the amount of windows that are needed before Windows starts grouping them.
The MAC address is an identifier for most network adapters. Although several Internet websites and manufacturers claim that it is not possible to change the MAC address. SMAC leaves the hardware MAC address alone but offers a software based way to change it which remains changed even after rebooting the computer.
The default temporary directory in Windows is located on the same hard drive and partition as the operating system itself. This is not really optimized and you could speed up your operating system by moving the temporary folder from the default location to another hard drive.
Driver Grabber is a small application for Microsoft Windows operating systems which grabs all device drivers except drivers from Microsoft and saves them in the same directory where Drive Grabber was executed from. This can be extremely useful but the application is mainly geared towards techies and not casual users.
I thought it was not possible to to improve CoolSwitch but I was obviously wrong. Xilokit.com came out with another interesting concept that brings an interesting concept to Windows. It's a freeware application called Deskloops which offers an refreshing idea on how to handle windows in Windows.
The defragmentation tool that ships with Windows is pretty basic and does not offer features that are needed for instance if you have more than one partition or hard drive. Some users would like to defrag all of their hard drives at once while they go to work or sleep.
Messenger Plus Live is an add-on for the Windows Live Messenger which adds a multitude of new features to the main program. Messenger Plus Live works with Windows Live Messenger 8 and 8.5 and can be used on Windows XP and Windows Vista.
I always thought that it would be pretty nice to be able to add the most used folders and applications to My Computer. I personally use My Computer to achieve two goals. First I use it to access my DVD and virtual drives to start applications for instance. The second use is that I access folders that I tend to use very often. Folders like my mp3 collection, profile folders and several applications fall under this category as well.
I mentioned three days ago in my blog that the Autopatcher team released the June 2007 patches for Windows Vista and just now they announced that the updates for XP can be downloaded as well from their sites. In case you missed the last post here is what Autopatcher does.
The default clock that is shown on every Windows operating system in the lower left corner was always a thorn in my eyes. It displayed the time but the current date was always a click away. I always wanted to change this and customize the way the clock was displayed in the system tray leaving the boundaries of the Microsoft clock.
Windows XP offers a function that is hidden deep inside the user account menu. It is possible to create a so called password reset disk that can be used to reset the password of the account is has been created for. You simply pop in the disk if you have forgotten your password and use it to create a new one.
There is normally no way to store the components of the password reset disk on an usb device because Windows XP is unable to access it during logon. It is not a problem to store the files on an USB device but you will face troubles when trying to access it if you lost your password.
Autopatcher is an ongoing project that creates a monthly executable that contains all patches for Microsoft operating systems that have been released in that month. It is then possible to execute this program and apply all patches that have been released by Microsoft at once without connecting to the Microsoft server at all.
I had the chance to test hundreds of freeware and open-source softwares in the last months and would like to list 20 of them that I would recommend. I'm actually using half of them on my Windows XP computer right now and I'm glad that I made the change from some respected popular programs to lesser known but better alternatives.
I'm not sure why someone would want to have the Windows Vista startmenu for Windows XP because I feel that the missing run box is not properly compensated by the search box. The look and feel are nice though and this might be the main reason why some users would consider switching to the new startmenu.
I'm not sure why someone would want to change the style of his XP installation to that of Windows Vista but it seems that the demand for this is immense. Version 7 of the Vista Transformation Package has been released yesterday which turns your ordinary XP style into one that resembles the style of Windows Vista.
Nothing is more frustrating than to witness that the movie that you downloaded for hours won't play on your computer. Maybe there is only black screen, no audio, blurred pictures or out of sync audio and video. The most likely cause for this behavior is that a audio or video codec is missing on your system.
Don't you hate it when Windows creates a new folder all the time with the name new folder ? This can be quite problematic if you have to create a number of folders in a row or during your daily routine.
The tiny software integrates itself seamlessly into the windows Explorer adding advanced folder creation options to the right-click menu of it. You can choose a combination from any of the following:
Vispa is a free software that lets you change and disable many features of Windows Vista that you may not like or make use of. I'm thinking of features that phone home […]
Windows Vista Ultimate users have Dreamscene which brings video screensavers to their operating systems. Several hacked versions of Dreamscene have been published that can be installed on other Vista editions as well but not on Windows XP. Microsoft however released a video screensaver for XP in 2005 which makes me wonder why they limited Dreamscene to Vista Ultimate only.
The Microsoft Video Screensaver should work on all versions of Windows XP and includes one video from Microsoft. You can choose to use one or more of the videos located on your computer instead. You do this by pointing to a folder that contains at least one video.
Microsoft Brazilian Beaches, also called Microsoft Praias do Brasil, is a theme collection that contains four themes for Windows XP. All four do change the general appearance of Windows XP including the background image which is showing an image of a Brazilian beach with additional information attached.
The original Windows explorer undoubtedly lacks many features a lot of us would like to see and provides some that we don't need at all on the other hand. That's one of reasons why I mostly use a file manager instead (Frigate3, would recommend as a very good choice even though it's not 100% stable).
TeraCopy is a nice shell enhancement for Windows replacing the original copy popup with a more advanced version. It integrates itself into the context menu so that you work as usual and don't need to run additional external applications for the same process. TeraCopy gives you more options to copy or move files, e.g. a pause/resume function, error recovery and an dynamically adjusted buffer.
PStart is a nice handy application that makes it easy to start applications or open folders on your portable devices. One of the main disadvantages of Windows is that it uses absolute paths in its shortcuts which becomes a big problem if a drive letter changes. A click on the shortcut to the portable version of Firefox would return a not found error message if the driver letter of the USB device changed after the creation of the shortcut.
The default logon screen of Windows XP looks plain and boring and many users would like to change the background image and other elements of the logon screen to have a better looking interface. There is a sweet and easy way to replace the existing logon screen with a custom one by either downloading pre-made logons or creating one by yourself.
You do need the software Stardock Logon Studio which is available for Windows XP and Windows Vista. This article concentrates on logons for Windows XP and a future article will do the same for Windows Vista.
If you are looking for a universal archiv software other than 7-zip you should take a closer look at IZArc which lately replaced WinRar on my computer. The real beauty of IZArc is of course it's support of most known archiv formats such as zip, rar, 7-zip, gz, ace, tar and dozens others including formats such as iso, bin and nrg.
We all know that Microsoft has decided to make the latest version of DirectX 10 Windows Vista only most likely to drive more sales to the new operating systems. Some independent developers have decided to create a working version of DirectX 10 for Windows XP with the goal to run any application that requires DirectX 10 also on that operating system.
The current release is a alpha release and probably only interesting for developers or coders. The plan is however to support the two games that have been released for Vista only. Halo 2 and Shadowrun are the two games that can only be installed and played using Windows Vista at the moment.
Handy Recovery is a file recovery software that is able to recover (accidentally) deleted files on your system. If you have read my blog in the past you probably know that deleting files does not really delete them immediately but only removes the reference to the file.
Handy Recovery is a file recovery software that is able to recover (accidentally) deleted files on your system. If you have read my blog in the past you probably know that deleting files does not really delete them immediately but only removes the reference to the file.
A reader was asking me if I knew of a program that would observe selected folders and move new files automatically from those folders into different ones. It took a while until I found an universal software that is able to observe an unlimited amount of folders and move new files that are either moved or created in that folder into another one.
FileWarper is a German freeware which is fortunately not difficulty to use. I took the liberty and translated all buttons and explanations into English. You need to configure the tool once and keep it running in the background. Let me explain the various settings, don't worry, it is not much.
Don't you think it is annoying that Windows assigns drive letters automatically to certain drives such as the floppy disk drives A: and B: ? The A: drive letter is assigned even if no floppy disk drive is installed on the system. There is a way to reassign all drive keys in Windows by manipulating the registry.
A word of advise before I'm going to explain how this is done. Do not try to change the assignment of the drive letter C: which has to stay the way it is. If you change it Windows will not boot anymore. So, what you need to do is to open the Windows registry by hitting Windows + R, typing regedit and pressing Enter afterwards.
Wise Registry Cleaner is probably the most comfortable registry cleaner that I installed on my system until now. The free software has a size of roughly one megabyte and the installation takes only a couple of seconds. The application reminds you to create a backup of your registry before you proceed which can be done right from the reminder window.
After this has been done a scan can be started by clicking on the scan button in the toolbar. The main window will be populated with the results displaying information about the keys, values, data and categories. The registry cleaner rates every entry with "safe to fix" or "Not fully safe to fix" and checks only the ones that are safe to fix.
If you are looking for a versatile CD and DVD burning software that can be freely downloaded and that is supporting most known image formats you should take a closer look at ImgBurn. The program can either read a disc to an image file, build an image from files and folders or burn an image file from your hard drive to a new blank media.
Some programs ask you if you want to start every time when Windows starts while others do not ask but still add an entry to an autostart location. This is most of the time not that useful unless you do use the software a lot. I can only think of security products that would fall into that category. Makes no sense to always start the antivirus software after Windows has loaded.
We all know that we can prevent autostarts by using the msconfig utility which ships with every Microsoft operating system. The problem that arises here is that although the programs are not autostarted anymore they still exist in the list which looks rather messy because it is growing over time. It does not make much sense to keep them in the list if you disabled them from the list.
