The Computer Boss [TIPS | TRICKS | HACKS | MORE]

[Windows] Manage your Desktop Real Estate using WinSplit

WinSplit is a light weight utility that you can use to easily organize your active windows by tiling, resizing and positioning them to better utilize your desktop real estate.

As you can see in the screenshots below, the advantages of using WinSplit is that it saves you from having to drag and drop windows by allowing you to snap windows into specific tiled configurations using simple keyboard hotkeys.

I use this app many times a day for work, and it’s worth a try- it’s free.

Download here

Add comment June 24th, 2009

[Windows] Download Microsoft’s Free Antivirus – Microsoft Security Essentials

The highly awaited free anti-virus software from Microsoft is now in public beta. Codenamed Morro- Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is set to replace Live OneCare, and supersede Windows Defender. There are a limited number of download slots- it is capped at 75,000 downloads. Get this fast before time is up.

Give it a try here – and let us know what you think in the comments  section below.

UPDATE: The Beta is now closed.

Add comment June 24th, 2009

Alternatives to Adobe Software…which are FREE!

Adobe is the standard in the digital design, and illustration industry. They are also moving into the audio and video sector with Adobe Premiere, and Soundbooth. One problem, they are very expensive. A struggling artist will have a lot of trouble affording it- luckily there are some great alternatives out there for free. Here are my favorites:

Photoshop Alternatives:

Gimp

Gimp is a very popular alternative to Photoshop. It has a very different interface when compared to Photoshop, but is able to perform pretty much the same tasks. It is available for Linux, Mac, and Windows. http://www.gimp.org/

Paint.Net

An amazing photo editing software for Windows (XP, Vista). It has won many awards such as PC World Best Freebies 2007, the Webuser Gold Award, Cnet 5 Star review, and more.
I’ll let the following quotes review it for you:

“Impressive.” – PC World, #19 on “Top 100 Products of 2007″

“It raises the quality bar,” - Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror

“… An absolute joy to use.” - WebUser Magazine Review

Download: http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

Dreamweaver Alternatives:

Kompozer

This is an open source WYSIWYG HTML editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows. It does the job.

Download: http://kompozer.net/

Adobe Premiere Alternatives:

Avidemux

Avidemux is a free video editor perfect for simple cutting, encoding, and filtering jobs. It supports AVI, MPEG, MP4, and ASF using different codecs.

Download: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/

VirtualDub

VirtualDub is a video caputure application for Windows. It is geared towards the processing of AVI files, and can read MPEG-1 (not write).

Download: http://www.virtualdub.org/

Adobe Reader Alternatives:

PDFCreator

PDFCreator allows you to create PDF documents from any Windows application that support printing. After installed, it will get added to your set of installed printers as a virtual printer.  When the virtual printer is selected, for example in Word, it will output the document as a PDF file, and allow you to save it anywhere you want. Very handy for professionals.

Download: http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator

Foxit PDF Reader

A true light weight champion. This application is so light, yet so feature rick, you will never go back to Adobe Reader again!

Download: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/

1 comment June 23rd, 2009

[Windows] Top 101 Useful Freeware Apps

Sick of over-priced, and mediocre applications– I present to you a list of free and useful Windows applications.

Audio and Video

1. Audacity – Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows

2. VirtualDub – VirtualDub is a video capture and video processing application for Windows

3. Avidemux – Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering, and encoding tasks.

4. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack – K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codes, needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play most of the popular audio and video formats, even the rare ones.

5. SUPER – If you need a simple, efficient, and ugly tool to convert any of your multimedia files into any other format, then SUPER is all you need

6. FormatFactory – If you need a simple, efficient, easy-to-use, and a not-so-hideously-ugly tool to convert any of your multimedia files into any other format, then FormatFactory is all you need

7. iTunes – iTunes Is an audio player for playing and organizing digital music files, and purchasing them from the Apple Store.

8. VLC Media Player – VLC Media Player is a multimedia player that can play most of the audio and video formats out there, including DVDs and CDs, without the need of a codec.

9. WinAmp – WinAmp is a fast and flexible music and video player for Windows

10. Media Player Classic – Media Player Classic looks like Windows Media Player 6, but with additional features, such as AVI subtitle support, QuickTime and RealVideo support, and a few built-in codec. And it doesn’t have the bloat the Windows Media Player 11 has.

Automation

11. KeePas – KeePas is an opensource password manager which helps you manage your passwords in a secure way

12. MemoKeys – MemoKeys allows you to create shortcut key combinations (hotkeys) and associate them with any text information of your choice.

13. AutoIt – AutoIt is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI

14. AutoHotKey – AutoHotKey is a free keyboard macro program. It supports hotkeys for the keyboard, mouse, and joystick.

Compression, Backup, and File Recovery

15. PeaZip – PeaZip is an open-source file and archive manager

16. 7Zip – 7zip is an open-source file archiver predominantly for Microsoft Windows OS

17. GMail Drive – GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Mail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium

18. Mozy – Mozy is the industry-leading solution for online backup. Its offers 2GB storage for free.

19. Recuva – Recuva is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentaly deleted from your computer

Blogging

20. Windows Live Writer – Windows Live Writer is a desktop blog-publishing application that has many features.

21. BlogDesk – An easy-to-use desktop blogging client

Browsers

22. Mozilla Firefox – The award-winning web browser is better than ever. It’s unlimited extensibility, thanks to the hundreds of useful add-ons available, makes it an absolute must have.

23. Opera – A full featured Internet browser, Opera includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like an email program, RSS newsfeeds, and IRC chat.

24. Google Chrome – Google Chrome combines a minimalistic design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. As with all things Google, Chrome is in beta.

CD and DVD Tools

25. CDBurnerXP – Free CD Burning software

26. Ashampoo Burning Studio Free – If you’re looking for a fast, responsive, and high-quality burning software that does not cost a dime, then Ashampoo Burning Studio Free is for you.

27. DeepBurner – DeepBurner is a free CD and DVD burning tool

28. DAEMON Tools Lite – DAEMON Tools is a virtual CD/DVD-ROM emulator

Cleanup, Tuning, Tweaking, and Updating

29. Defraggler – Defraggler lets you defrag individual files, without having to process the whole drive, and it allows you to schedule runs

30. CCleaner – CCleaner is a system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused temporary files from your system, allowing it to run faster, more efficiently, and giving you more hard disk space.

31. Startup Delayer – Startup Delayer allows you to setup how many seconds after Windows has started, to load each program.

32. RevoUninstaller – RevoUninstaller can be used to uninstall programs, and scan for leftover registry keys, files, and folders.

33. Eraser – Eraser is a secure data removal tool for Windows

34. SUMo – With SUMo, you’ll be able to keep your PC up-to-date by detecting required updates for your software.

35. RadarSync – Stop searching for drivers and app updates, update your PC for free with RadarSync

36. FileHippo Update Checker – The Update Checker will scan your computer for installed software, check the versions, and then send this info to FileHippo.com to see if there are any newer releases. These are then neatly displayed in your browser for you to download.

Desktop, System & UI Enhancements

37. Samurize – Samurize is a popular advanced desktop enhancement engine for Windows

38. Yahoo! Widgets – The Yahoo! Windget Engine lets you run small utilities called ‘widgets’ on your desktop.

39. TaskSwitchXP – TaskSwitchXP is an advanced task management utility that picks up where the standard Windows Alt+Tab switcher leaves off. Aside from providing the functionality of Alt+Tab, it adds visual styles to the dialog, and enhances it by displaying a thumbnail preview of the application you want to switch to.

40. Launchy – Launchy allows you to launch programs with just a few keystrokes

41. ObjectDock – ObjectDock is a program that enables users to add a mac-like dock to their Windows desktop

42. RocketDock – RocketDock is a smoothly animated, application launching dock similar to ObjectDock

43. Google Desktop – Google Desktop makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google

44. Visual Task Tips – Visual Task Tips is a lighweight shell enhancement utility that provides a thumbnail preview image for each program in the Windows Taskbar.

45. Microsoft TweakUI – This Microsoft PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface , including mouse settings, explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

Developer Tools

46. FileZilla – FileZilla is a powerful FTP client that is easy-to-use, has many features, and is fast and relaible.

47. SmartFTP – Aside from the usual features any FTP client has, the unique thing about SmartFTP is that multiple FTP connections can be opened at the same time in different tabs. You can also copy files from one remote host to another.

48. Kompozer – WYSIWYG HTML and CSS editor derived from Nvu

49. HTML-Kit – HTML-Kit is a full-featured and customizable HTML text editor that can be used to create and edit web pages.

50. Ades Clr Picker – AdesClrPicker is a very easy-to-use, yet powerful color picker application for web designers.

51. PuTTY – PuTTY is a free telnet and SSH client for Windows and Unix platforms

52. Notepad++ – Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages.

Download Managers

53. Internet Download Manager – Internet Download Manager is a tool that can increase download speeds, resume, schedule, and manage downloads.

54. FlashGet – FlashGet is a free download manager that allows you to spit the files you’re downloading into different sections.

55. Free Download Manager – Free Download Manager supports resumable downloads and multiple simultaneous downloads.

Imaging

56. Picasa – Picasa is a software that helps you find, edit, and share all the pictures on your PC

57. GIMP – The GIMP is a multiplatform photo manipulation tool. It’s suitable for a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction.

58. IrfanView – IrfanView is a very fast, compact, and innovative graphic viewer for Windows

59. Paint.NET – Paint.NET is an image and photo manipulation software. It’s meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems.

60. Photo Story 3 – Photo Story 3 allows you to create video slideshows of your digital photos with music and tites

61. Google SketchUp – Google Sketchup is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program

Messaging and Chat

62. Mozilla Thunderbird – Thunderbird is a great email client from the same people who brought you the Firefox browser

63. Digsby – IM, email, and social networking in one easy-to-use application

64. Pidgin – Pidgin is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows

65. Skype – Using Skype, you can make telephone calls over the Internet, and calls to other people using Skype.

66. SAM – SAM is a simple voice answering machine for Skype users

67. XChat – XChat is an IRC program for Windows and Unix operating systems

Office and News

68. OpenOffice – OpenOffice is an open-source, multi-platform, and multi-lingual suite comparable with MS Office.

69. AbiWord – AbiWord is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word and is rapidly becoming a state-of-the-art word processor.

70. PowerPoint Viewer – PowerPoint Viewer lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions.

71. CutePDF – CutePDF installs itself as a printer subsystem and enables any Windows application that can print to create professional quality PDF documents.

72. PDFCreator – PDFCreator can create PDF files from almost any Windows app

73. BullZip PDF Printer – BullZip PDF Printer allows you to create PDF documents from Windows applications.

74. Adobe Reader – Adobe Reader, the original PDF software from Adobe, let’s you open, view, search, and print PDF files.

75. Foxit Reader – Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer and printer. It’s incredibly small (just a few MBs), with a breezing fast launch speed and a rich feature set.

76. FeedDemon – Looking for a great way to view and manage your RSS feeds from your desktop? Look no further than FeedDemon, the most popular Windows RSS reader.

77. RSS Bandit – RSS Bandit is a free desktop news aggregator for Windows built on the .NET framework.

78. ReadAir – ReadAir is an OSX themed desktop RSS client for Mac or Windows

Screen Recording/Screenshot Taking

79. CamStudio – CamStudio records screen into standard AVI files. It’s an ideal tool for creating software demonstations.

80. Gadwin PrintScreen – Gadwin PrintScreen is an easy-to-use utility that allows you to capture any portion of the screen, and save it to a file, copy to Windows clipboard, print it, or email it to a friend.

81. Screenshot Captor – Screenshot Captor is a program for taking screenshots on your PC, with many features.

82. FRAPS – FRAPS is a benchmarking, screenshot capturing, and video capturing software for games.

Security

83. AntiVir Personal Edition – The AntiVir Personal Edition offers effective protection against computer viruses.

84. Avast Home Edition – Avast Home Edition is a full-featured anti-virus package designed exclusively for home users

85. AVG Anti-Virus – AVG AntiVirus is a well known anti-virus tool that is easy-to-use and doesn’t slow the system down

86. BitDefender Free – BitDefender Free Edition uses the same scanning engine found in other BitDefender products, allowing you to enjoy basic virus protection for no cost at all

87. Comodo Internet Security -

88. ZoneAlarm Free – ZoneAlarm Free is one of the best and well know free firewall software in the market.

89. Ad-Aware Free – Ad-Aware provides protection from spyware

90. Spybot Search & Destroy – Spybot Search & Destroy can detect and remove most spyware from your PC.

91. HijackThis – Hijack This is a tool for in-depth scanning of your computer for spyware

92. Windows Defender – Windows Defender is an anti-spyware program from Microsoft

Torrents

93. uTorrent – uTorrent is an efficient and feature-rich BitTorrent client sporting a very small footprint.

94. Vuze – Vuze is a java BitTorrent client offering queing/priority systems, start/stop seeding options, and more.

95. BitTorrent – BitTorrent is a BitTorrent client and a good alternative to uTorrent

96. PeerGuardian – PeerGuardian is the premier IP blocker that protects your privacy on P2P. You can’t go without this one, if, um, you’re downloading stuff you’re not supposed to download.

Others

97. Mozilla Sunbird – Sunbird is an open-source, cross-platform calendar application.

98. BitMeter – BitMeter is an Internet Bandwidth monitoring app.

99. Google Earth – Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps, and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geopraphic information at your fingertips.

100. nLite/vLite – nLite is a tool for pre-installation Windows configuration and component removal at your choice.

101. FreeMind – FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java

Please mention your favorites in the comments section- thanks!

Add comment June 22nd, 2009

[Windows] Is your Computer Secretly Connecting to the Web?

It’s pretty scary when you think your computer may be connecting to web servers without your knowledge. A compromised computer can be used to send Spam emails, report your personal information and keystrokes, infect other computers on your network, and more.

These threats can go completely undetected to an unsuspecting user- luckily there is a command you can use to check every ping your computer has made in a given time.

Here’s how to check what your network connection has been up to:

• Go to the Start Menu >Type cmd in your Windows Run box (Search box for Vista).
• Type “netstat -b 5 > activity.txt” (without quotes) and press enter.
• After about 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.
• Type “activity.txt” on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)

This .txt file will have a record of everything that has made an Internet connection in the last couple of minutes; you can then check your task manager to find out where it is and take care of it.

Add comment June 18th, 2009

[Windows] Do You Know Where Your Storage is Going?

Do you ever wonder where your storage is going? You would’ve of sworn you had 20 more gigs yesterday- but can’t figure out where it went? There is a free solution to that problem- WinDirStat.
WinDirStat scans your entire drive, and displays a virtual image map of the location and size of each file. It’s a quick overview, which makes file management quick and very easy (see image below).

Bigger files are represented by bigger boxes- hover over it with your cursor, and it will show you the directoy the file is located in. You can just right click on the box, and delete if need be.
This is a very useful utility which no computer geek should be without. Download here.

Add comment June 18th, 2009

[Firefox] Don’t Bookmark, Just ‘Read It Later’!

We’ve all bookmarked an interesting site while surfing around. But, we usually forget to go back to the bookmark, and end up cluttering our Bookmarks with sites we’ve forgotten about.  Now there is a nifty little app available by the name of “Read It Later”.

It’s a Firefox add-on that provides users with a solution to the issue of forgotten bookmarking. Once you install it, just right click on a cool website, and select “Read this Page Later”. The page will be saved to the app, which will prepare a queue of sites you can come back to when you have a chance. All you have to do is click on the top-corner of Firefox, where it says “Read it Later”. Once done reading, just check it off!

The current version (0.9945) includes offline reading, synchronization of reading list between multiple computers, and more.

Donwload it here.

Add comment June 16th, 2009

Find and Remove Duplicate Files with Duplicate File Searcher

If you’ve been using your computer for a long period of time without re-formatting it, you have probably built up duplicate files due to copying and moving all over the place.

In my case, it is a large number of media files such as videos, music, and images. I may lose track, and copy the sames file more than once to any given directory. Windows does not provide you with a  duplicate file checking solution, but there is freeware that does the trick.

Duplicate Files Searcher checks and removes duplicate files. It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. You can preview files before deleting, or set DFS to automatically delete duplicate files.

Features:

• Searching results can be saved and loaded in future
• Checks any files, folders and drives
• Works with removable drives
• Decide on automatic deletion or preview
• Works on all OSes

Download here – requires Java Runtime Environment, so please install JRE first if you haven’t already

3 comments June 16th, 2009