Poke Me In The Eye

Add another point in the Google column of programs that are extremely useful!

I installed Google Desktop some time ago and although I had a couple minor issues once I figured out what I wanted from it I’ve installed it on practically every machine I can get my hands on.

In its most simple form it is a search engine for your computer. I’ve always been frustrated with the basic “file search” program embedded in Windows (you know the one I’m talking about…it has a cheerful little dog that can’t find jack). But it goes much further than that.

If you have multiple computers connected on a network it will “index” all files on all computers across the network. This comes in very handy when you’ve got stuff spread out all over the place (like I did when I was using my laptop often). It can be configured in multiple ways too. You can have a search bar on your taskbar, a floating bar on your desktop, a keyboard shortcut activated one (which is what I use) or a full column on the side of the screen (what I did when I had a dual monitor setup).

When you’ve got the full column activated you can enhance it with a huge variety of add-ons and automatic searches…weather, news, sports, movies, recent searches…it’ll display a slide show of pictures you have, has a music player…all kinds of stuff. But what really blew me away is that when I’d so something like search www.craigslist.org for “Acura parts” it would automatically continue to search craigslist at set intervals and update me with new posts/ads. I’m not sure if that is part of that RSS stuff (that I know next to nothing about) or something it “figured out”…but either way it was brilliant.

It’s come in especially handy for the computers at work. We’ve had a ton of different people using the PC’s in our office over time and they’ve spread out files all over the place. Before it was frustrating trying to find something…now a simple “ctrl-ctrl” click and up pops the search bar…type in what I’m looking for…and here come the files! It even shows relevant web pages that have been visited that pertain to that keyword. That is useful…but can also be used to spy on those that are a bit less computer savvy!

When fully activated as a column it can be a handful. It is constantly updating itself with new information and I found it a bit distracting as it would pop up things every couple minutes. If I was doing a lot of heavy computer work I’d probably like it that way…or at least would customize it to be a bit more selective. But running in it’s most basic form it’s been amazingly handy.

I highly suggest this program to anyone that wants to be able to pull up information on their computer quickly and easily. And for those that are seeking massive amounts of information from the internet or their network…with a little fiddling/customization…you won’t find anything better…or more useful.

Download Google Desktop

I found Microsoft ClearType purely by accident. I found some page where this guy was talking about software that he always installs when he has to reinstall Windows. I had never heard of it so I decided to take a look at it. The software is totally free and helps to make text much easier to read on your monitor. I never really had much difficulty reading my fonts so I installed it more out of curiosity to see if it would really make any difference. I was quite surprised by the results to say the least. After installing ClearType my text is super crisp and much easier to read.

Once you install it you go through a few menus picking which block of text looks the clearest and then after you have chosen the change is universally applied to all your windows. No need to restart or anything.

I have been pleasantly surprised with results and it doesn’t seem to take up any system resources. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

You can download it right here. ClearType Tuner PowerToy

For as long as I’ve had a computer I’ve had a soft spot for those cleaning utilities. Obviously the best known is Norton but there are a hundred similar programs out there…and this one is free!

The basic gist of this program is that it cleans out all the useless junk that is sitting in your computer. The first page that pops up when you start it is used to clean out old files that are no longer in use. I typically find that I’ve got around a hundred megabytes of stuff that is no longer needed. This is the “Cleaner” mode and you can also use it to delete old programs. The “Issues” selection will check your hard drives for…well…issues. This can be ActiveX/Com files, old icons, shortcuts, extensions, bits left over from installations/uninstallations, blah blah. I usually have a decent amount of these as well. You can use “Tools” to uninstall programs or change/remove startup programs. Finally you’ve got “Options” where you can delete (or save) cookies, tell the program when to run and how it interfaces with the Trash Can and a couple other settings.

Now…how well does it work?

Um…it seems to delete things. Like I said before I’ve got a soft spot for these sort of programs. I imagine that they are diligently going through my hard drive and helping sort out the horrendous messes I’ve created with my rampant install/uninstalling of a massive amount of programs. In my mind it is making my computer faster, more efficient, better organized and above all…sanitary and clean.

But to be completely honest I’ve no clue how good a job it does, or if in fact it is actually doing anything worthwhile. It’s one of those “comfort programs” that have nice little bars that extend and ask you, politely, if you really want to delete those registry files. I run it once a week or so and sure…it seems to bring up the same things over and over…but I feel better once it’s done its thing. Is the computer faster? Hell if I know…but I want to believe it is. So I’ll keep using it.

One annoyance though…it seems every time I run it there is a new update. Updating what? Hmmm.

So far it’s caused me absolutely no problems and has given me a feeling that I am doing good things for my computer. And that…to me…is the essence of a quality free program.

Download CCleaner right here.

Whether it’s porn, sensitive documents, banking stuff, we all have some stuff on our computers that we don’t want other people to see. Using this free little program called Folder Lockbox you can completely hide any of these files. Setup is amazingly easy, when you install you choose a directory that you want to be your lockbox, choose a password and that’s about it.

To access these files you can either go to your start menu and find the install directory like any other program or you can access it via a keyboard shortcut. Just press the keyboard short cut (default is ctrl+shift+P) which pops up a screen where you enter your password. Enter your password and access your files. It’s really simple and very effective.

One nice aspect of this program is that your designated lockbox folder doesn’t even show up in the directory if the folder is locked so you no one will ever click on the folder and get curious. The file is invisible until you enter in the password.

It’s a nice simple piece of software and of course it’s free.

Here are a few more screenshots for you.

   

You can get it right here. Folder Lockbox

I’m one of those people that is always messing with my computer. And I am one of those people that has done horrible things to their computer. Yes I’ve destroyed my OS and been forced to re-install several times.

But this cool little program will do something very simple. It will tell you EVERYTHING you could possibly want to know about your current configuration. And even better than that…it doesn’t change anything!

To put it simply, SIW is a program that’ll give you so much information about what your current rig is like your head will swim. Would you like to know every single driver you’ve got installed? The current temp of your hard drives? Your product key to your Microsoft software (yes I mean Windows, Office, etc!)…all the passwords that you’ve typed into your browsers (perfect for spying on others using your PC)…the stats on your RAM (product number, manufacturer…hell, the manufacture date)… The list is so tremendously long I couldn’t possibly get it all down here.

Plus it has a couple cool little extras… Got a password that has been replaced with *****? Well using the “Eureka!” button you can find out exactly what those letters/numbers are. It’s almost frightening.

All of that and a mountain more is available. And as always the program is free!

As always we do NOT guarantee that any of this software is even remotely safe to use. It could be full of viruses, bugs or perhaps make your computer catch on fire. Use it wisely…use it safely!

Get it right here System Information for Windows

One thing I have always disliked about Windows XP is the serious lack of themes. Sure you there is software out there that allows you to highly customize your look and everything but I personally don’t like using them as they worry me a bit. Enter Royal Noir.

The story goes that a Channel9 member who goes by the name W3bbo noticed an interesting theme being used in a television commercial and after tireless searching unearthed the XP theme by Microsoft.

W3bbo had this to say about his discovery:

During Royale’s development (the XP Media Center theme), the graphic artists also produced a black version of the skin, sans the overused “glass” effect. The result is an aesthetic black skin named “Royale Noir”, it even works with Office 2003. Since the skin was never released (or reached final adjustments) there are a few issues with it: some of the colors don’t meet the overall “feel” (they’re too purple-ish compared to the greys of the bitmaps) and the inactive titlebars are a little too dark. You’ll find it’s been signed by Microsoft and doesn’t require a custom UxTheme.dll in case there are any doubts as to its authenticity.

If you already have Royale installed, you’ll need to remove it as both of these skins share the same name.

This skin has not been released to anyone outside Microsoft, until now.

I have been lusting for a nice dark theme for ages and this theme is just wonderful and a huge improvement over the old, tired default XP themes. Best of all, since it was produced by Microsoft there is no tweaking to get it installed.

Installing is quite easy. Download the theme (link at the bottom) then extract the files to “C:\windows\resources\themes\royale noir”. Next, double click on the “luna.msstyles”. Then simply choose Noir as your color scheme.

Here are a few screenshots to show you what it looks like.

   

Pretty nice huh?

You can download it right here. Royal Noir Windows XP Theme

Note: Do not trust anything you download from the internet. There is always a chance that it could have a virus, be unstable in your OS, or generally screw shit up horribly. I do NOT guarantee that the link provided is safe!!

When I was living in Switzerland I had a craving for video entertainment. The only TV I had access to had shows in languages I didn’t understand. I had a couple DVD’s I had brought with me but after watching those several hundred times I grew bored with them. But since I was in college with a lot of other students we soon were sharing video files with each other.

And one problem I ran into was trying to play this HUGE variety of formats, codecs, languages, etc etc etc. Good old Winamp and Windows Media Player couldn’t always handle the stuff I threw at them…so after a little research I came across this gem.

The K-Lite Code pack includes codecs for every single freaking audio/video format I’ve EVER run into. Yes…I’m sure there are people out there that will have some wacky song or movie that won’t play using this program…but I never have. I’ve thrown everything I could find at it and it spits them back to me without an issue.

The Media Player Classic program that comes with it has been great too. It’s a far more simple program than other audio/video players…so don’t expect fancy playlists, visualizations, add ons, integration into other programs…etc. On the plus side it uses only a small amount of computer power and resources to run and has some good keyboard/mouse shortcuts already built in.

When I downloaded the program (some time ago) it gave me a HUGE list of options for other programs to be included…far too many to list here. I’ve barely cracked the surface of these programs and considering I’m not some extreme power user I don’t have the need to do some of the things it can do. But they are there and I’m sure that someone out there in internet land can tell you all about them.

This program group has been, perhaps, the absolute best free software group that I have ever used. Sure it occasionally causes some issues, it doesn’t integrate with all your other software perfectly, and isn’t all that pretty…but if you want to watch any video…listen to any song…this is a great tool.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack (with Media Player Classic)