The Windows Fix » Freeware

Get an Overview of Windows Shortcut Keys with ActiveHotKeys

T.J. Mininday — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:46:17 +0000

Most people don’t know it, but there are dozens and dozens of Windows shortcut/hotkeys out there for you to use. Whether it be using the Win, Ctrl, Alt or Shift, there are plenty to choose from. The issue that most have with it though, is that none of us really know what they are and some of us want to create our own with the available ones.

ActiveHotKeys is a simple and free application that can give you a quick and easy overview of your entire plethora of shortcut keys. Whether it be a couple key strokes with the Win key, or a few with Ctrl-Alt-Shift, this application will display them all and help you take advantage of the ones that you’re not using on a regular basis.

This program does not however list what particular application a shortcut key may be registered for, and it also does not allow you to create your own. It’s a just an easy way to get a quick look at the ones that you can presently take advantage of.

via Elite Freeware

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A Simple View of Windows Programs Auto Starting

T.J. Mininday — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:46:48 +0000

There are several different places that Windows looks to find programs starting automatically. There’s a couple of different places in the registry, services and of course the Windows Start-Up folder. You can of course modify these files and registry entries manually, but you can also do it with built-in Windows apps such as MSCONFIG. These still aren’t quite as easy as programs such as AutoStart Explorer though.

AutoStart Explorer is a simplified view of all the items that start in one for or another on your Windows machine. You can not only view all of these items, but also have the ability to modify them as you please, retrieving those always needed system resources.

AutoStart Explorer – via Life Rocks 2.0

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Windows Quick Tip #3 – Add Google Search to Right-Click IE Menu

T.J. Mininday — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:14:12 +0000

I rarely use Internet Explorer, but there are certain situations that I still have to, and I find myself right-clicking sections of text all of the time to search Google for something on a certain website. Firefox has this built-in ability, IE does not. Winhelponline has found a simple and quick fix to adding such capability to the right-click menu in Internet Explorer 7 and 8.

1. Download google.zip and extract the files to a folder

2. Move google.htm to C:\Windows\Web directory

3. Double-click google.reg to run it

4. Open a new Internet Explorer window and select the text which you want to search using Google, right-click and then select Search with Google option. (Using the option with SHIFT key pressed, opens the Google search page in a new Internet Explorer window.)

Go there to check it out: Winhelponlineblog

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Keep Caps, Num or Scroll Lock Always On..or Off

T.J. Mininday — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:02:03 +0000

One of the big annoyances I continually find myself running into is that the number lock is never on when I need it to be. I open up Excel and find my highlighted cell jumping all over the place, with no numbers to be seen. I look up on the keyboard and…duhh, the number lock is of course off. This typically happens during a reboot.

There are also times where you find yourself bumping the the caps lock key as well. It would be nice to permanently have these on or off. Well, there are registry hacks to do it, or you can do it with this simple free utility.

Numlocker quite simply allows you to “lock” the state of the Caps, Num or Scroll lock keys to Always On or Always Off. That’s all it does. It resides quitely in the background of your Windows PC and does just that. Locks the state of those keys.

Download Here – via Elite Freeware

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Remove Factory Installed Software with PC Decrapifier

T.J. Mininday — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:00:10 +0000

The major problem with buying a new PC at discount prices from your Best Buy, Dell, and HPs of the world that although they do come at a reduced cost, they do come LOADED with junkware. Trial Office, AntiVirus, Cheap ISPs and added security features, just to name a few. Removing these features typically is accomplished by going to Add/Remove Programs in the control panel and removing one-by-one. Fortunately however, there is an all-in-one solution called PC Decrapifier.

PC Decrapifier is essentially an uninstaller that detects junkware that is installed on your factory built laptop or desktop. It runs a quick detection process on your PC, determines what is and what isn’t needed, and then displays what can be removed.

After you select what you’d like to remove, it runs the uninstaller for each and every specified application, one-by-one, making your machine squeaky clean and diverting you from formatting the machine completely.

The program is update every few months with new applications to remove, and it is continuously monitoring what items are being consistently uninstalled, display it on their website.

PC Decrapifier

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Snackr – Scrolling RSS Reader for Windows

T.J. Mininday — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:49:36 +0000

The go to method to receiving up to date news information these days is via RSS feeds. Whether through blogging, news, or just a periodically updated website, it is THE defacto method of delivering information. Although to those who aren’t quiet as tech savvy, may have no idea of its purpose, those of us whom are, are always looking for new way to receiving our “feeds”.

Google Reader quickly came to the forefront as the most popular RSS reader on the net. There were many online and offline competitors to Google’s powerful product, none have really come close thus far. One that I recently discovered that works much differently than most, is Snackr RSS.

Snackr RSS Reader is both an on and offline RSS reading solution that has a much different approach to displaying feeds. Snackr utilizes Adobe’s amazing Air product, scrolling your news across the bottom, top, left or right sections of your screen.

After you begin either manually entering your feeds, or importing them via a OPML file, Snackr will begin randomly scrolling your various articles at your specified location. As they scroll across the screen, you can simply click on any item and see a quick snippet of what it has to offer. If you want to continue onto the full article, you can do so quickly by clicking “View Post”, where it will take you to the posting in your default web browser.

via MakeUseOf

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Discover File Extensions and Freeware to Open them on Openwith.org

T.J. Mininday — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:23:39 +0000

Discovering files that you cannot open can be a real annoyance. Whether you have downloaded it, received it via e-mail or found it on your company’s network, discovering an unknown extension typically leads you straight to Google. There are a lot of file extension sites out there, but none quite like this.

OpenWith.org is a simple online and offline application that can quickly find whatever extension that you are searching for and not only tell you what program it’s typically used for, but also free apps that will open them as well. Trying to find a conversion tool or combing for a free alternative has never been any easier.

In the below screenshot, you’ll see that I looked up the popular Powerpoint Presentation Extension, PPT. It has given me not just one, but two free options to opening this file type.

Openwith.org

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Password Protect any Windows Folder from Anyone

T.J. Mininday — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:49:21 +0000

Protecting confidential data is highly important in today’s world. In a life scammers, identity thieves and many other crooks. The built-in security in Windows sometimes just isn’t enough protection when it comes to protecting tax documents and confidential data. If your PC is left on and someone wants to walk in and peruse your folders, it can easily be done. Having password protection on folders even against the administrator account is necessary.

My Lockbox can password protect any folder from any user account on your computer. It has the ability to require a password from even the administrator and even in safe mode. Almost any folder can be protected.

As you can see above, protecting folders is as simple as browsing to its location, selecting it, and setting your password of choice.

Just another added piece of security, in a every growing insecure world.

My Lockbox

via Techie Portal

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A Tabbed Windows Explorer Called SurF

T.J. Mininday — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:01:45 +0000

One of the most important and definitely most favorite items that came along with Firefox is tabbed browsing. The ability to open multiple websites without cluttering you taskbar and completely confusing yourself, made life much easier. Granted, Firefox wasn’t the first to do so. The first application that you and I probably first saw it in, was Microsoft Excel. Now several years later, we’re beginning to see it in most every app, including Windows Explorer.

SurF is a free Windows program that uses a pyramid tab style for opening Windows Explorer. You’ll get a better idea in the screenshot below, but essentially, it makes for MUCH easier browsing of Windows directories on your PC. Instead of manually browsing or entering the address of folder locations, you can simply click to where you are going in the pyramid.

Along with the pyramid style of browsing, for each different directory that you open, you begin seeing multiple tabs for each of these locations. The below screenshot has a couple of different locations, each with their separate pyramid for navigation.

It’s a very simple and free alternative to Windows Explorer. It may not be as advanced as other Explorer alternatives, but it gets the job done in a much easier and better fashion.

SurF

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Close Inactive Programs with JustCloseSomeTasks

T.J. Mininday — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:13:44 +0000

As programs build up throughout the day, they tend to go unnoticed and begin eating up lots memory and resources. Cleaning these up on your own becomes quite annoying and it would be nice if some type of automated process would close some of these off on its own. Enter JustCloseSomeTasks…

JustCloseSomeTasks sits hidden in the background tracking how long apps are open and offering to close them after they reach your designated expiration time. You may then press a your specified hotkeys and close these tasks if need be.

Along with that, over an extended period of use the program begins to learn your program behavior and adjust your expiration time automatically.

JustCloseSomeTasks

via Lifehacker

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