Satsuki Decoder Pack: open any media file from any app with this nifty decoder pack - review & download link | freewaregenius.com

Satsuki Decoder Pack: open any media file from any app with this nifty decoder pack - review & download link freewaregenius.com: "Satsuki Decoder Pack auto-installs a collection of media decoders and filters on your system. It will allow you to view or open almost any media file or DVD using the enclosed Windows Media Player Classic or from within any other application. In order to avoid conflicts and clutter this pack does not include codecs, only decoders and filters."

Backup Utilities: Macrium Reflect Free Creates Disk Images On-the-Fly

Backup Utilities: Macrium Reflect Free Creates Disk Images On-the-Fly: "Freeware application Macrium Reflect Free creates disk image snapshots of any hard drive on your computer that you can restore on any other drive to bring your computer back to the same state"

Tracker Software Products Ltd - Homepage - Products for End-Users - PDF-XChange & Tools - PDF-XChange Viewer (Free)

PDF-XChange Viewer is a free PDF viewer and editor that offers a number of useful functions including form filling, typewriter mode (for forms that were not designed for filling), the ability to add annotations and draw shapes into your PDF, as well as the ability to leave comments and embed sticky notes into the PDF document.
Tracker Software Products Ltd - Homepage - Products for End-Users - PDF-XChange & Tools - PDF-XChange Viewer (Free)

SourceForge.net: Vista Drive Icon

SourceForge.net: Vista Drive Icon: "Changes the drive icons shown in Windows 'My Computer', to a nearly Vista drive icon, showing the drive's free space with a smooth colored horizontal bar"

Exchanger XML Editor - XML Editor and XSLT Debugger available to try for free

Exchanger XML Editor - XML Editor and XSLT Debugger available to try for free: "The Exchanger XML Editor is the most comprehensive multi platform XML Editor currently available. The Editor facilitates easy editing, browsing, managing and conversion of XML Documents."

Copy Path to Clipboard - ClipboardPath

Copy Path to Clipboard - ClipboardPath: "Copy Path to Clipboard - ClipboardPath"

Free Softwares by Quizo

Free Softwares by Quizo: "Tab bar for Windows Explorer
QT TabBar allows you to operates files and folders like tab browser
folder grouping, histories, etc."

Folder Guide

Folder Guide: a fastest way to access folders.

Folder Guide is a free handy utility that provides fast access to your frequently used and favorite folders. It can operate as the part of your context menu in your Windows Explorer.

thePeoplesToolbox

thePeoplesToolbox - Web Design Tools



a useful list of tools

wikidPad

WikidPad - wiki notebook/outliner for windows

wikidPad is a Wiki-like notebook for storing your thoughts, ideas, todo lists, contacts, or anything else you can think of to write down.

Technorati Tags: notepad, wiki

PandoraBrowse - Special browser for Pandora.com music!: "PandoraBrowse is a mini browse for the Pandora.com music service.

PandoraBrowse lives in your Windows systray and gets off your taskbar while still playing music! "

Indev: "FlashMute is a tool which allows you to mute/unmute Flash Movies loaded in a browser exclusively, or alternatively all sounds produced by the browser."

I want a Freeware Utility to ... 450+ common problems solved : eConsultant: "I want a Freeware Utility to ... 450+ common problems solved.
Extremely useful free utilities that do specific jobs really well and save time and money."

PCWorld.com - Burnatonce v0.99.5: "Burn like the pros without paying through the nose. Burnatonce copies data and audio discs and read/write image files, and it also offers advanced functions usually found only on expensive pay-only programs. This drag-and-drop CD coping program supports multisession and bootable disc mastering; it also supports long file names using Joliet, Long Joliet, and Rockridge"

Last Freeware version: jv16 Powertools, RegCleaner, PowerArchiver, PopCorn: "Last Freeware Version"

GlobeSoft | easy2share: "GlobeSoft has created easy2share to alleviate many of the technical issues and to overcome the apprehension around sharing information between computers connected through a network or ad hoc connected. "

Google Notebook: "Welcome to Google Notebook"

UNLOCKER 1.8.3 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB

this guy has put a close button (red x) next to the google addwords column. never seen this before. nice. I should figure it out and do the same.

Xentient Thumbnails (Freeware): "Xentient Thumbnails is a Free utility for replacing the generic icons of image files with thumbnail icons of the actual image. "

Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder: "The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor
Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Learn more about Audacity..."

Screamer Radio: "Screamer Radio is a freeware Internet Radio player for Microsoft Windows."

.:: m5studio ::.: "One of the most advanced codec pack.
Contains always the latest version of codecs to play popular multimedia formats."

Use cases, UCD and design practicesReports, Articles, and Papers from Constantine & Lockwood, Ltd.

iColorFolder: "With iColorFolder, customize the color of each WindowsXP folder"

The Duplicate Master. A free add-in for Microsoft Excel: "An Excel add-in by brettdj to manage Excel duplicates
(For Excel 2000 & higher versions)"

EverNote - A single place for all your notes!: "Quickly create, organize and find any type of notes on an endless, digital roll of paper."

Blog recomendation:
GTD Wannabe: SlickRun as a poor-man's Quicksilver: "My 2 cents about 'Getting Things Done', my favourite software, tips & tricks I have loved, and other miscellaneous tidbits. And yes, this is one incarnation of my procrastination monster :)"

Bubble Pop Software - Open Subfolder: "Open Subfolder is a contextual menu extension for Mac OS and Windows which adds the ability to open a folder located inside of the currently selected folder."

Veign - Freeware / Shareware downloads, Registry Hacks, and ActiveX Controls: "Want to add a right-click context menu item for registering / unregistering DLL's or OCX's?"

Veign - Outlook Attachment Enabler Homepage: "Control what attachments Outlook has deemed to be unsafe and be free to open any attachment you like"

Iconico - View Source Editor, the easy way to change the editor in Internet Explorer: "re you furustrated at Internet Explorer's insistance on using Notepad when you click View Source? This little application let's you use any text editor instead of Notepad. "

qjot - wordpad replacement��xtort.net: "QJot - A Lightweight Wordpad Replacement
QJot is a relatively small, completely USB compatible, alternative rich text editor that saves .doc files, inserts images and more. It is basically meant to serve as a good WordPad replacement. It supports Unicode and runs under Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Its native format is RTF, but it can open, edit and save Word and WordPerfect files (though not with all of their features). It can be used with any script that is supported by Windows and for which a font and a keyboard driver are installed, including right-to-left scripts. "

TweakHound's Super XP Tweaking Guide - Tweaking Apps: "Action: Print drive and folder contents Context menu *All Levels

Purpose: Administrative, informational.

More Info - Self-explanatory

All X-Setup Plug-ins > Appearance > Files&Folders > Folders Context menu > Print Contents Context Menu > check both boxes on the right and apply changes.

*'Please note: This command will only work if your printer is connected through the printer port (LPT1:), it will not work for USB or network printers.'

My way around this is I created a special registry file (see 'Creating Your Own Registry Files' section for more info):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Add Print drive and folder contents Context menu.
; When you use 'Print Contents' right-click option it will create a file
; called 'contents.txt' in the same folder or drive
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\PrintHere]
@='Print Contents'
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\PrintHere\Command]
@='C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe /c dir /a \'%1\' > contents.txt'
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\PrintHere]
@='Print Contents'
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\PrintHere\Command]
@='C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe /c dir /a \'%1\' > contents.txt'"

Guitar Shred Show - Mr.Fastfinger

Photoshop CS .PSD Thumbnails in Windows Explorer

notestips.com :: Photoshop CS .PSD Thumbnails in Windows Explorer

If you have upgraded from a previous version of Photoshop to Photoshop CS you will be OK but a fresh install of CS will NOT included thumbnail previews of PSDs. However I have discovered how to fix this, all we need is a missing DLL to be placed in the right folder.

1. Download psicon.dll from DLL Dump
2. Place the DLL in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell 3. Thumbnail previews of PSD files are now back

+ you will need to refresh some thumbs. will also make Picasa show you PS files.

Technorati Tags: graphics, photoshop, tips

Technorati Tags: graphics, photoshop, tips

JavaScript Kit- Comprehensive JavaScript, DHTML, CSS tutorials and over 400+ free JavaScripts!

complete freeware collection???multimedia software?|?xtort.net: "complete freeware collection - multimedia software"

windows software: daily updates?|?xtort.net: "freeware alternatives to expensive software for Windows"

some (old but not stale) good reading about UI GUI Design - Readings

BooZet's Free Software � Double Driver � Overview: "With Double Driver you can view which drivers are installed in your system and you can backup the drivers you choose, save and print the drivers list, and more."

Folder View - Official Home: "Folder View is a free (freeware) add-on for Windows that drastically enhances the way you browse the folders on your system"

Folder Size for Windows Explorer: "Folder Size for Windows adds a new column to the Details view in Windows Explorer. The new column shows not only the size of files, but also the size of folders. It keeps track of which folders you view, and scans them in the background so you can see complete size of all files within the folder. It's very useful for cleaning up your disk. Once you get used to having that information available, a directory listing simply looks incomplete without it!"

Folder Size for Windows Explorer: "Folder Size Explorer Extension adds a new column to the Details view in Windows Explorer. The new column shows not only the size of files, but also the size of folders"

Tweak PDF: "With the freeware utility Tweak PDF, you are allowed to set the initial view preferences of a PDF document, such as whether to center window of the PDF file when opened, whether to display document title, to fit window, to hide menubar, to hide toolbar, and to hide window UI. When window UI is made hidden, a PDF file is just like a PowerPoint slide zoomed to full screen."

InformationWeek > Fred Langa > Langa Letter: The Perfect Rescue Tool > June 23, 2003: "
Fred Langa explains how to make a custom, bootable CD containing the right tools to fix just about any system trouble
By Fred Langa "

Prevent Internet Explorer From Opening Office Files Inside Browser Windows: "Are you tired of Internet Explorer's insistence in opening Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel or Powerpoint) in a captive window within the browser? If you would rather have IE open Excel or Word documents in the native applications (and even give you a choice to save it to disk), here's how you can do it..."

The Portable Freeware Collection

WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins: "This plug-in will pause Winamp when you lock your computer or switch to another user"

Works as promissed. 'nuff said. Lookout for Outlook Download

Matt Kruse's IE Context Menu Toolset: "This is a set of tools which extend the right-click context menu of Internet Explorer. By simply installing these tools, your browser will have added functionality which can greatly help in debugging pages, designing sites, diagnosing form problems, tweaking design, etc. "

Best CD cataloger I have found so far, and the standard version is free...highly recommendedVB Knowledge Solutions - Products: "cdTree allows you to catalog all of your CD-ROMs, CR-RWs, DVDs, and even hard-disk folders for offline browsing. This will allow you to easily locate a file in your CD collection and it will let you manage space efficiently on all your CDs."

TweakLite Assorted 2nd page: "To restrict permission to System Tools, to change the default System fonts, to manage the SendTo menu contents.". have not installed, so can not vouch for this one. it is only here so I'll remember it exists

Just installed this, so I can't vouch for it yet, but it looks promissingOscar's Multi-Monitor taskBar:

"It adds second taskbar to the extended desktop on Monitor 2 (either right or left)

It can add third taskbar to the second Extended monitor if you have 3 monitors setup.
It shows only applications from that Monitor

It hides the applications on Monitor 2 from normal Windows Taskbar
Adds a Move to Monitor button to all windows applications. "

ok, I havn't gone through this list, and surely have not tried all of them, but i realy like some of them, and it seems the list a good legit list. worth checking.The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities: "The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities"

Easy PDF to Text Converter - Convert PDF to Text, Word, Html.: "extract text from pdf files".

Inplace CSS Edit IE Addin: "Inline CSS Editor (download) is an IE Explorer bar addin that's apparently based on the EditCSS Mozilla Firebird plugin. When it's enabled, it shows the applicable CSS for any page you browse to"

Rainbow Folders Rainbow Folders (RF) is an easy to use program, which allows you to change color of the icon representing chosen folder to any color you like.

How to create a "right click to register dll" entry:

; This adds the ability to Right-Click on a .dll or .ocx
; and get the Register / UnRegister options.

create a test file, paste the following (below the line), save as "rightClickDllREg.reg" and double click to merge. once done, you can register dll's from the contextuall menu.

----------------------------------------------------------------

REGEDIT4

; This adds the ability to Right-Click on a .dll or .ocx
; and get the Register / UnRegister options.

; ==========
; .DLL files
; ==========

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dll]
"Content Type"="application/x-msdownload"
@="dllfile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile]
@="Application Extension"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\Shell\Register\command]
@="regsvr32.exe \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\Shell\UnRegister\command]
@="regsvr32.exe /u \"%1\""

; ==========
; .OCX files
; ==========

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ocx]
@="ocxfile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ocxfile]
@="OCX"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ocxfile\Shell\Register\command]
@="regsvr32.exe \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ocxfile\Shell\UnRegister\command]
@="regsvr32.exe /u \"%1\""

; End

"Don't tell me you never had to right click a folder only to see in the properties the size of the content. If you never did it, skip reading this article!!! " The Code Project - Display content size for a folder in Explorer :

My Favorite Smallware :: MarkTAW.com: "Most of these programs are small, under a megabyte and don't require an install" (thnx to Edo)

JR Screen Ruler: "This Screen Ruler is a great tool that allows you to accurately measure anything on your screen. This is especially useful when measuring graphics, web page browser sizes or whatever. Screen Ruler can display Pixels, Inches, Picas or Centimeters"

AM-DeadLink: "AM-DeadLink detects dead links and duplicates in your Browser Bookmarks. If a Bookmark has become unavailable you can delete it from your Browser"

In-Place editing of web pages via IE...prety cool, and sometimes usefullEnable DesignMode

So I was asked about special not-so popular apps and progies I use. here are some recomendations by someone who wroteaudioapp - a very simple prgram which i tend to use so much.desktopApps - links

OpenExpert - open-with for explorer's context menu - freeware

less is more. a small utility to quickly mute/unmute your system.desktopApps - audioApp

No more looking for drivers...WINDRIVER EXPERT: "..........Worth its weight in gold! WinDriver Expert provides you with easy and fast detection, backup and restoration of all the hardware device drivers currently on your system."

A small dll that enables you to display the size of folders when browsing your file system. coo!The Code Project - Display content size for a folder in Explorer using shell extensions - Shell Programming

cool animationEvolution of Latin Characters

A backup tool Lazy Mirror

2BrightSparks.com | Software | SyncBack: "SyncBack is a powerful freeware program that helps you backup and synchronise your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive." and it is free!

CutePDF - Create PDF for free, Save PDF Forms, Edit PDF easily;.: "Portable Document Format (PDF) is the de facto standard for the secure and reliable distribution and exchange of electronic documents and forms around the world. CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial PDF creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a 'printer subsystem'. This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents - with just a push of a button!"

Retro games and then some...Home of the Underdogs

A nice set of bookmarklets. subSimple Experimental Bookmarklets: "Did you know you can always find a mirror site for a web page? Use this bookmarklet to show it.
try this one if you are using explorer:
A bookmarklet that will let you find a mirror to this site:
True Mirror Site

With HDCopy you can make an identical copy of a hard drive onto another hard drive. If you buy a new hard drive and don't wish to change your Windows configuration in any way, you can use HDCopy to copy your old hard drive completely to the new one (hidden files as well).
HDcloneXP and the HDCleaner are also worth checking out.
Mainpage KurtZimmermann

Microsoft Windows Media - Windows Media Bonus Pack for Windows XP

Dont you just haTE IT WHEN YOUr caps lock is pressed by mistake, i? here is a way to kill the caps lock button all together:
FirstCap 3.2

OK, I changed my mind. I no longer like Winamp. Well, it's not that I do not like it, but it seems that the sound output is not as good as Foobar200 for example. Actually, the main reason I am switching to Foobar2000 is that it works better with my new Indigo IO sound card and it's ASIO drivers. Winamp fails miserably with this card.

Both Foobar2000 Winamp can use alternate decoders, and I strongly recommend the MAD decoder (Underbit: MAD (MPEG Audio Decoder)) which sounds so much better on both players.

Get Foobar! - foobar2000

CUstomize the right click menuCustomizing Right-Click Menu Options in Windows

The Code Project - Display content size for a folder in Explorer using shell extensions - Shell Programming: "Display content size for a folder in Explorer using shell extensions"

Drive SnapShot 1.3 is simply the most amazing
drive imaging software for Windows: Create disk
image backups while running Windows; Continue
your work, while the backup is in progress;
Access files inside of backup images via any
shell (like Windows Explorer); Compatible with
FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, RAID; Does not require
installation, nor will it change anything in your
system configuration. (via Detlef Loeffelholz)
http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/index.htm

Drive Snapshot - Disk Image Backup for Windows NT/2000/XP

Computer Cops - Booby Trapped software! - information security - portal & forums - port scans - audits - patches - security

malware report

VB Knowledge Solutions - Products

plenty of nir sofer apps
turn flash off
shellex viewer
ServiWin v1.00
DriverView v1.00

System Downloads : DLL Archive /// AnalogX

Google Search: shell x

SHELL EXTENSION CITY, millions of free Windows power tools, explorer enhancements, windows add-ons, tweaks, system utilities, freeware, ie5

Quicknote
this is a very usefull little 'text pocket'. If you deal with a lot of copy-paste, or just need a handy tiny little text editing tool, try this one.

SpyBot-Search&Destroy

If you do not have it, you should. If you have it, but did not update the spyware list for a while, you should. Get rid of all the spyware on your system.
BTW, check carefully, as it might delete some tools that you do not consider as spyware.

PathCopyEx
A very simple shell extension that copies the text path of any file/folder in Explorer to the clipboard. Saves a bit of time on all those annoying Browse for Folder windows!
PathCopyEx.msi

Startup control panel
what more can i say? easier than MSconfig. very usefull. small footprint. get it.

rjhExtensions
rjhExtensions is a simple utility that will add a number of useful functions to the context menu of Windows Explorer. Including a path to clipboard function, DOS prompt, file encryption, file renaming, a file shredder, file duplicator and functions
Download

ieSpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of web-based text entry (e.g. web mails, forums, blogs, diaries).
ieSpell

Easy Cleaner
Finds invalid registry entries ----> deleting them speeds up your computer up to 20%!
Finds duplicate files ----> deleting them will free disk space!
Finds all unnecessary files like backups, temps etc. ----> deleting them will free disk space!
Finds all invalid shortcuts from start-menu ----> deleting them will free disk space and increase usability!
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/files/EClea1_7.exe

CD tree - free CD cataloger
offline browser for the files and directories on your CD collection, it facilitates space management on these CDs and eases locating the CD containing a specific file. The tool allows scanning your CD contents, categories and group the CDs, display the files and directories in and explorer-like panel, allow you to attach comments to any file or directory, and allow the search through either the filenames or the attached comments.
cdTree 2.1.8