Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Computer Smarts - My Must Have Software

Just doing a little personal inventory of software gadgets I run on my PC and must have applications, including what I use them for and of course a link to their download pages...

You may want to follow this for other peoples suggestions and updates I make!






Software Gadgets
Peek Through - Makes current application transparent using a hotkey.
4t Tray Minimiser - Pin application windows to be on top and roll up application.
WizMouse - Scroll the screen the mouse is over rather than the currently active screen.

PhraseExpress - I actually only use this for spelling auto correction, if there is a phrase that I reuse, I use ditto. Not a big fan of PhaseExpress, I think I'm missing something with it.
Ditto - Clipboard Manager. This is my number 1, I CAN NOT live without this...
CatchChar (trialling) - Inserts Special Characters LIKE GBP £!!! (That is not available on US keyboards)!

Must have Applications

Google Chrome - Primary Browser
Firefox - Secondary Browser
DropBox - Sync a folder with the Cloud.
InSync - Sync Folder with Google Apps/Docs.
Thunderbird - Use it to Sync with Gmail, effectively backing up all email.
Pixie - Colour Checker.
Paint.net - A decent and free paint package.
Beyond Compare - A well layed out Comparison Tool
Notepad++ - Better than NotePad.
Primo PDF - Print anything to a PDF file.

Chrome Extensions
The Great Suspender - Removes open tabs from memory while keeping the tab open still.
Google Mail Checker - A count of all unread Gmail (nice if you get your Gmail tab to show unread priority emails only).
Rapportive - Information from various sources about your email participants.
I would like "Right Inbox for Gmail", but it stopped working and there were a lot of popup prompts to sign up to the paid version, so that's disabled.

4 comments:

  1. Just installed "One Tab" (http://www.one-tab.com/) too. Moves all your open (and only unpinned) tabs to a single tab where you can restore them individually or all of them. Going to be playing with this over the next week or so.

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    Replies
    1. One Tab didn't really work for me. I can see the use and benefit, but I just didn't use it. I think it's a case of out of sight, out of mind. So I don't want those tabs out of sight!

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  2. Just installed MaxMax http://www.kmtools.win-os.pl/omaxmax.php?lang=ang. It will limit the size of maximised windows, so if you always want a program to be visible, you can set MaxMax to leave a certain number of pixels untouched and therefore useable for your other program. I've got a task list that I always want visible, so have given it 280px on the right side of my screen.

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  3. My apps have stayed the same over the last year, expect for the addition of Team Viewer, but that's not really for my benefit... ;-) Remote Control app, useful for helping other, supporting and showing them how to use their PC AND Viber Desktop http://www.viber.com/dl, which does what it says on the tin!

    As for Chrome extensions, there have been quite a few changes over the last year, mainly with security, which has lead me to use
    - Extension Defender - https://www.extensiondefender.com/ for protection against malware.
    - Imagus - http://tiny.cc/Imagus which expands image thumbnails just by hovering over them.
    - mxHero for Chrome - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mxhero-for-chrome/ijhapcklhkanndjbdnhichfmolhiaekg which replaced "Right Inbox for Gmail".
    - Notes for GMail - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/notes-for-gmail/mhjceedeiokhkokngbljcgkbfcpnodag which allows you to store notes on individual gmail messages, the entire gmail message thread or on your gmail inbox.
    - MightyText - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sms-from-gmail-facebook-m/iffdacemhfpnchinokehhnppllonacfj which allows me to send and receive SMS messages from my PC once linked with my Android.

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