From PC World by way of George Ure’s UrbanSurvival.com website. For hyperlinks to the various programs, go to the original article at http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135732/article.html
14 Great Programs You Didn’t Even Know You Needed
With these programs, you can eliminate a lot of annoying Windows limitations, and enhance your computing fun cheaply–or even for free.
Ron White
Sunday, August 12, 2007 11:00 PM PDT
It’s the little things that frustrate. You know how it goes when you try to make a picture stay on the wall. You place it against the wall and remove your hands … ever … so … carefully … and the picture goes crashing to the floor! You’d think that someone would come up with–oh, I don’t know–a little metal stick that’s sharp on one end. You could then use a rock–or, no, better yet, a heavy piece of metal with, say, a handle–to hit the little stick of metal so it goes partway into the wall. Then you could hang your picture on the piece of metal, and, voilá, a picture that won’t fall every time gravity kicks in.
Okay, that was a little silly, I know. But not as silly as some computer users get when they endure the same tiresome annoyances and petty, repetitious tasks because they don’t know that something better lies just over the next download. They assume that what they have is as good as it gets.
But when it comes to computing, there’s always a better way. In fact, I have 14 better ways for you: 14 great programs you didn’t even know you needed–and needed desperately. Some will have a major impact on the way you compute. Others are one-trick ponies. But oh, such clever tricks!
SharpKeys
You’re typing away merrily and, being the consummate typist you are, you don’t look at the keys–or the screen. (After all, did Jimi Hendrix look at his fingers as he played?) But when you do glance at the screen, you see that two paragraphs ago your left hand’s little finger slipped AND STRUCK THE CAPS LOCK KEY BY MISTAKE. NOW YOUR WELL REASONED AND CLEVER MEMO ASKING FOR A RAISE LOOKS AS IF IT WERE WRITTEN BY BANK ROBBERS ORDERING TELLERS TO HAND OVER THE MONEY.
You can eliminate such accidents with SharpKeys, a free, obscure little tool. SharpKeys allows you to move your keys around to suit your idea of how a keyboard should be laid out. For example, I’ve banished my Caps Lock key to the position of the Scroll Lock key, which had its heyday when Lotus 1-2-3 was hot. My Caps Lock now functions as another Delete key. The arrangement lets me kill files by mousing over them with my right hand and zapping them with my left.
You can come up with your own scheme using any key, including those that most macro programs won’t change. Well, almost any key. Some boards with keys devoted to gaming may elude SharpKeys, but it does work with multimedia keys. And it accomplishes all this by creating some Registry entries rather than by lurking in the background and soaking up memory.
PTFB Pro (Push the Freakin’ Button)
Regardless of what downloadable software you install, Windows will always insist that you reply to the same two pointless dialog boxes. One asks if you want to run the program you’ve just downloaded. Well, naturally. That’s why you downloaded it. Then a second dialog box warns you–even if the program is from Microsoft itself–that you should run software only from publishers you trust. (May be some irony there.) And it asks again if you want to run the software, which of course you do, unless you’ve been downloading and installing programs merely for the unbeatable thrill that comes with software installation.
It’s enough to make a mild-mannered computer user shout, “Yes! Yes! Just push the freakin’ button!” Or something like that. What you want is a simple, inexpensive program that saves wear and tear on your vocal cords and your index finger. It’s named, appropriately, Push the Freakin’ Button Pro, and if you ask it to, PTFB will push said freakin’ buttons every time they appear.
Because Windows is not the only software that asks the same perfunctory questions over and over, PTFB will get a workout on any computer, especially because it also lets you record macros that will respond to a whole bunch of freakin’ buttons, freakin’ asinine questions, freakin’ menus, and freakin’ check boxes, all in the same freakin’ dialog boxes.
Macro ToolsWorks
PTFB is fine for quick and dirty button pushing and macros. But consider the more complex tasks you’d like to automate that go beyond dialog boxes–and perhaps beyond a single program. Have you ever thought despairingly that the only way you could avoid their tortuous repetition would be to learn C++ and rewrite Microsoft Office? Despair no more. You have an easier way, and it’s Macro ToolsWorks, a pony with a three-ring circus of tricks.
The program lets you create simple macros by recording your keystrokes–and mouse strokes, if you dare. Some danger is inherent in the fact that windows do not always pop up at the same screen location.
A lot of macro programs let you do fast, slam-bang recording. Macro ToolsWorks makes your macros more powerful by providing simple programming commands that you insert into your recordings to allow the use of variables, flow control, text manipulation, macro menus, Internet functions, and other commands that even a programming virgin can master before the honeymoon is over. With them you could, for example, create a macro to download a file, search for paragraphs with certain words, copy them to a word processor, and send you an e-mail to announce everything is done. Use it a little or use it a lot, Macro ToolsWorks makes your software work the way you think it should.
The software costs $40 for a single user license, but you can try it for free for 30 days.
Xplorer2
As long as I’m bashing Microsoft–and really, can you think of a better way to spend a summer’s evening?–I might as well bring up other programs that do all the things Windows Explorer can’t do worth a darn. The most efficient approach is simply to chuck Explorer and run Xplorer2.
At first glance it may look as if you’re running Windows Explorer–until you notice the multiple file lists, the preview window, and the plethora of goodies strewn along its toolbar and menus. It’s filled with dozens of tweaks that should be standard in Windows.
Xplorer2 lets you search for duplicate files, display a history of programs you’ve run, and copy to multiple folders. And that’s just the beginning. Use its automatic script-generation wizard to create scripts to apply multiple commands to multiple files. Create your own commands and put them on the toolbar. Transform drives so they look like folders. Use “sticky clicking” and never again have to hold down the Ctrl key as you select files.
The utility’s best trick is that it lets you change the text and background colors based on file extensions so that you can identify files as a glance. I’ve given all my graphics files red backgrounds, but I use the text colors to distinguish among JPEGs, GIFs, TIFFs, and so on. It’s a computing rainbow. Makes me think Microsoft needs to hire not more programmers, but the art director for Hairspray.
Ycopy
Xplorer2 is, of course, a whole corral full of one-trick ponies. Ycopy has only one trick, one very small, modest trick. But at the right time, you’d rather see Ycopy’s little pony caper than a herd of horses performing Tristan und Isolde.
Why? Because the following has happened, or will happen, to you: One day, you discover that you have to copy a few hundred gigs’ worth of files from one place to another. Because this task will take a few hours, you decide to go on a long lunch while the files migrate. Three hours and four banana margaritas later, you return to find that the copy operation choked on the tenth file because the file was open on another screen, or had an error, or was read-only. All your computer has been doing while you were gone is display a message asking what to do about the problem.
This is when you remember that computers are not like people: Even the dumbest human would put aside copying that one file until you returned. So will Ycopy. When Ycopy finds a file it can’t handle, it makes a note about it and moves on to the next file. When you get back from lunch, you still have to do something about the recalcitrant files, but at least all of the other ones are taken care of.
Spybot Search & Destroy
Please try to stifle your yawns. I’m sure you have heard of Spybot Search & Destroy, and I’m sure you’re saying that you already have a perfectly decent program to track down spyware. That’s fine. But you need to check out Spybot for two reasons. The first is that no single antispyware program is enough; I use four, myself, because I haven’t yet found one that can catch all the insidious, constantly morphing, beastly programs determined to pester me until I pay for a video of Britney Spears getting out of a car.
Even if you’re already using Spybot, you may need it in a way you’re not aware of, because the program’s creators hide one of its best features. They even try to scare you away from this feature with warnings of computer disasters, lost data, locusts, and earthquakes.
This secret feature is the ability to edit which programs and services launch when you boot your PC. Other programs give you the same ability, but what sets Spybot above the others is that it provides an explanation and recommendation as to whether most of the programs really need to be there sucking up memory. Without that information, most of us are left staring at program names written in computer gobbledygook and wondering if we should chance a plague of locusts. Be brave: Damn the locusts and take command of your startup.
HyperSnap
Windows thoughtfully gives you a PrintScreen function so at least one of the orphan keys at at the upper right of your keyboard has some reason for being. But Windows’ PrintScreen is another example of software underachieving, as it gives you only a full-screen capture in .bmp format. Like anybody uses .bmp anymore.
Here’s a better choice: HyperSnap. A screen shot of your desktop–in any graphics format you can think of and several you can’t–is only part of what HyperSnap can offer. You set up hot-keys so that with a single, deft touch you can trigger image captures of individual windows, a region you select or several regions at the same time, any controls or toolbars, entire browser screens (including the part that hangs below screen level), or a single button. Once you have your screen shot, HyperSnap provides the tools to annotate it with text, arrows, circles, stamps, and more than you need, really. It also will capture text in error messages and other dialog boxes that usually resist being transformed into words you can actually use.
If you have to create instructions, document errors, or just illustrate online stories about 14 great programs people didn’t know they needed, HyperSnap is the way to go.
StrokeIt
I suppose most people, at some time or another, have had a reason to use a computer with only one hand. For those occasions, there’s StrokeIt. (Perhaps not the name I would have chosen.) StrokeIt allows you to issue commands and execute recorded actions using only mouse gestures.
It comes with enough predefined gestures to cover generic commands, such as save, open, and maximize, as well as gestures for particular programs, such as selecting tools in Photoshop and playing back music in popular media players.
Most of the gestures are simple to learn: O for open, N for new, P for play or print, depending on what program you’re using. You can add new gestures and new programs to control by moving your mouse. If you’re using them when I walk by, don’t get up. Just gesture.
[There is more: Go to the original article.]