Useful Programs

12 - Lammer Context Menu

2010-02-09T18:55:00.008-07:00

WEBSITE

1.0.2.4 (32 and 64 Bit) / November 30th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

This program is awesome! I use it for copy shortcuts (does both the file or the folder) for pasting into other things, but it has MANY uses all from an explorer window.

04 - dnGREP

2010-01-06T18:48:00.007-07:00

WEBSITE

2.4.0 / September, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

This program is great for searching inside files. I use it all the time to search for serial numbers or whatever in random documents I've placed somewhere. I highly recommend it!

14 - Mozilla Firefox

2009-12-22T17:18:00.005-07:00

WEBSITE

3.6.13 / December 9th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

Firefox has its quirks at times, but it's a solid browser. I have always preferred it to other alternatives.

21 - VLC Media Player

2009-12-22T17:14:00.006-07:00

WEBSITE

1.1.5 / November 15th, 2010

DOWNLOAD

It "plays everything" as advertised. Very impressive.

10 - HyperSnap

2009-12-22T17:12:00.007-07:00

WEBSITE

6.90.03 / January 27th, 2011

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW
HyperSnap (formerly Hypersnap-DX) is the fastest and easiest way to take screen captures from Windows screen, and text capture (TextSnap") from places where normal text copy is not possible. HyperSnap combines the power of a first-class screen capture application with an advanced image editing utility - wrapped into one easy-to-use tool!

It's perfect for capturing images that you want to include in your Help system, online tutorials, manuals, training handouts, presentations, marketing materials, Web pages, emails and more. Use HyperSnap to quickly share a picture-perfect representation of anything on your screen. HyperSnap is versatile and extremely easy-to-use. You can quickly customize menus and toolbars to fi your needs. Assign your own keyboard shortcuts, create instant toolbars, and even control HyperSnap with voice commands!

I purchased this program (in 1999) as it is a fantastic screen-capture utility. I use it daily for capturing text as it works great. I don't know what I'd do without it. $35.00 for a new license. $15.00 for any version updates (builds are free).

13 - Launchy

2009-11-05T18:37:00.009-07:00

WEBSITE

2.5 / April 4rd, 2010

DOWNLOAD

2.6 Beta 2 / November 2010

DOWNLOAD

This program is outstanding. I hated it at first, however I get used to it and HIGHLY recommend it. You just hit Alt-Spacebar and you'll get a box that you can type into for any application that's on your start menu, quick launch, or desktop as a shortcut! Awesome! I don't even use the Start Menu hardly at all now. :-)

01 - 7-Zip

2009-11-05T18:36:00.009-07:00

WEBSITE

9.20 (32/64 Bit) / November 18th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

This program rocks! It's a freeware compression utility that does rar, zip, etc.. It's clearly the best program of its kind, second only to WinRAR, however that's a paid program.

09 - Flashpaste

2009-08-19T18:23:00.005-07:00

WEBSITE

5.22 / July 5th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

Flashpaste is a new breed of text copying utilities. The Windows clipboard is sufficient for most computer users but writers, coders, and developers need a more powerful, easily customizable and practical tool. Flashpaste is all that, and more.

Flashpaste has two key features. The first is smart boilerplate text insertion. While writing e-mails or creating documents,people frequently resort to copy & paste boilerplate text to avoid typing the same words phrases, greetings, e-mail addresses and URLs. This is especially true for those who provide customer service via e-mail, because most questions have been asked and answered numerous times before, so boilerplate replies can help. Flashpaste is also a handy tool for web developers or web designers to easily copy and paste repeated strings of HTML code.

How does it work?

With Flashpaste, a user "programs in" frequently used addresses, e-mail text blocks, HTML codes, words, phrases and paragraphs as text templates. Then, the material can be inserted by pressing a hotkey to launch a selection list, and navigating to designated item to insert a particular phrase.

Flashpaste can also be used to create text macros, strings that are either replaced or processed by an application. Using macros, you can paste current time and date, insert commands that emulate pressing the Tab or Enter keys, and more.

Anything else?

The second key feature is clipboard history. While the standard Windows clipboard inserts only the last copied text segment, Flashpaste records all recently copied words, numbers and phrases, allowing easy reuse. The feature eliminates repeated copying and pasting, and is highly useful for software developers and writers.

What can Flashpaste do for me?

Save time.

Eliminate the boring retyping of the same boilerplate text over and over.
Help to avoid misprints due to errors when typing addresses or passwords.

I like it. It's a great program once you get the hang of it. Real timesaver! I bought this one.

16 - Process Explorer

2009-07-14T18:36:00.004-07:00

WEBSITE

14.01 / November 23rd, 2010

DOWNLOAD

I use this daily. It's great for watching processes in a little window in the systray.

20 - UltraISO

2009-04-28T19:06:00.006-07:00

WEBSITE

9.3.6.2750 / February 8th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

This is a nice program for adding files to an already-created ISO file. It has other uses as well. I haven't bought it yet, however the $29.95 pricetag isn't bad.

18 - Tag&Rename

2009-04-28T18:57:00.006-07:00

WEBSITE

3.5.7 / November 15th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

Highly recommend this one for 'tagging and renaming'. LOL.. seriously: This is great for updating ID3 tags and album covers, etc.. You can connect directly to Amazon and update your collection! Go you! :-)

07 - Everything

2009-04-27T19:00:00.005-07:00

WEBSITE

1.2.1.371 / March 13th, 2009

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

Alpha: 1.2.1.451a / November 25th, 2009

DOWNLOAD

I'm really digging "Everything". The program is lightning fast at searching. EVEN when indexing! I would recommend this program to anyone..

February 2nd, 2011: It appears this program's development may be 'dead'. I really hope not, because this is one of those programs you won't be able to do without once you try it and further development would be fantastic.

19 - Treesize Professional

2008-07-31T20:10:00.010-07:00

WEBSITE

5.4.4 / December 13th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

There is a VERY CRIPPLED freeware version of it, but the program is worth the money. It really helps you arrange your hard-drive. You decide if it's worth the $47.95 registration fee.

17 - Revo Uninstaller Pro

2008-06-24T10:32:00.008-07:00

WEBSITE

2.5.0 / December 14th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

This program recently went "paid" and was freeware before. Was concerned, but the paid version of course is the only version that support x64 (what a surprise!), so I bought it. It's an excellent program and is occasionally on sale.

23 - WinMerge

2008-04-24T11:54:00.008-07:00

WEBSITE

2.12.4 / June 6th, 2009

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

I'm a fan of this program. Very easy to use, and it works fantastic for verifying differences between text files (how I use it).

22 - Winamp

2008-03-31T18:40:00.009-07:00

WEBSITE

5.601 / December 7th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

It really whips the llama's ass!!!

15 - Newsleecher

2008-03-31T18:34:00.010-07:00

WEBSITE

Version: 4.0 / November 30th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

The best news binary downloader there is! PERIOD. I also bought this one. $29.99 yearly.

03 - Clipdiary

2008-03-25T10:57:00.010-07:00

WEBSITE

3.3 / January 27th, 2011

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

The contents of the standard Windows clipboard constantly change as you use it to copy and paste various information. But your data isn't stored for a long time - when you turn off the computer or just copy some other text, the data is lost. In most cases, that isn't a problem, but have you ever needed the text you copied 30 minutes or an hour ago? Maybe your computer is hanging and the program hasn't saved the data, or maybe you copied some interesting information from a web page, but got distracted and forgot to paste it where you wanted? Or you may simply want to recall what you were doing at the computer a month or a year ago. There are many cases in which you might want to review your clipboard content. We have a solution.

Install our free Clipdiary utility and you will never lose data once copied. The utility, which runs on Windows startup, will record everything placed on the clipboard into the database. At any moment, you can view the clipboard history, copy the item back into the cache memory or paste it into an application. All you have to do is press the "Ctrl+D" key combination or click the program icon in the system tray.

I use this program on a daily basis. It's fantastic for repetitive tasks. It is a paid app now, but COMPLETELY worth it.

02 - Autohotkey

2008-03-11T10:43:00.008-07:00

WEBSITE

1.0.48.05 / September 25th, 2009

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Auto Hotkey_L 1.091.04/ December 29th, 2010

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You definitely have to know what you're doing, but there's many tutorials on their page. The script I use is below. If you have any questions, just ask! (jerryfar at gmail dot com);############
;Run xplorer2
;############
#e::
Run C:\Program Files\Dave\xplorer2\xplorer2_UC.exe
Return
;###########
;Run Notepad
;###########
#n::
;Run EditPlus
Run C:\Program Files\EditPlus 2\editplus.exe
Return
;################
;Maximize Window
;################
^.::
WinMaximize,A
Return
;##############
;Restore Window
;##############
^,::
WinRestore,A
Return
;##############
;Advanced IP Calculator
;##############
#c::
Run C:\Program Files\DAVE\Advanced IP Address Calculator\Advanced IP Address Calculator.exe
Return
;##############
;Close Window
;##############
^/::
WinClose,A
Return
;##############
;Traceroute
;##############
#t::
Run C:\Program Files\DAVE\Visual Trace Route\VTraceRoute.exe
Return

24 - xplorer2

2008-03-04T18:53:00.010-07:00

WEBSITE

1.8.1.0 (x86/x64) / December 4th, 2010

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

This is another one I purchased. I am very happy with it. There is both a freeware (limited features, but not time-limited) and a shareware version. $29.95. I haven't had it ever ask me for more money, so I think that's a one-time fee for all updates.

08 - FastStone Image Viewer

2008-02-10T23:48:00.010-07:00

WEBSITE

Version: 4.3 / January 14th, 2011

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW

FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches the four edges of the screen. Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF and DNG).

The *BEST* image viewer I've EVER used. Hands Down. It's better than IrfanView, ACDSee, AND Picasa combined!!!. FastStone is CONSTANTLY updating this product as well. They attempted to make this shareware and charge I think $40, but apparently that didn't work as the next beta that came out was again freeware. Not sure what happened with that. I would have bought this program and asked no questions.

February 1st, 2011: I just found out this amazing program has been recently updated *and* it's still free!!! Yeah!!!!!

05 - Editplus

2008-02-10T23:45:00.014-07:00

WEBSITE

3.30 / April 19th, 2011

DOWNLOAD / WHAT'S NEW
BUG PATCH FILE - April 26th, 2011

EditPlus is an Internet-ready 32-bit text editor, HTML editor and programmers editor for Windows. While it can serve as a good replacement for Notepad, it also offers many powerful features for Web page authors and programmers.

Syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, Perl, C/C++, Java, JavaScript and VBScript. Also, it can be extended for other programming languages based on custom syntax files.

Seamless Web browser for previewing HTML pages, and FTP commands for uploading local files to FTP server.

Other features include HTML toolbar, user tools, line number, ruler, URL highlighting, auto-completion, cliptext, column selection, powerful search and replace, multiple undo/redo, spell checker, customizable keyboard shortcuts, and more.

EditPlus is by far the best application I've used for text. So good, that I bought it.

25 - True Launch Bar

2008-01-11T18:22:00.013-07:00

WEBSITE

5.1 (32/64) / December 7th, 2010

DOWNLOAD WHAT'S NEW

This program puts the Quick Launch Bar to shame. If you use the Quick Launch Bar like I do, then you'll love this program. There is a freeware version as well called Free Launch Bar with less features, but still a fantastic product. $19.90 (Personal), $49.00 (Home - 4 computers)