Friday, May 27, 2011

ScreenPrint32

Easy to use tool to take snapshots (images) of computer screen either just a part of the screen or full screen. For full screen, you can use Windows feature to "PrnScn" or Press "Alt-PrnScn" to capture only the active window. ScreenPrint32 allows you to capture smaller portion of the screen and either save to file, print or even just in email or document. Unfortunately I am not able to take screen capture of the tool that I use in this blog. Will find alternative and paste below later.

Scan2PDF

Simple and easy to use Freeware to scan a paper from your scanner and make a soft copy in PDF format. Use this tool. This tool allows you to scan multiple pages and make a single PDF file.




PDF Split and Merge

Most of the time we use PDF as just read only documents. Sometimes you need to only take a page out of it to send it as email or share with someone. PDF Split and Merge is a powerful tool to cut a multi-page PDF document into single PDF or join multiple PDF documents into one.


Cinta Notes

Exceptionally good tool that can replace Memento notes is Cinta Notes. Features include:
1. Hot key to clip text. You can customize heading of each note, either to take application name or first line.
2. Tagging
3. Search all notes
4. Sort based on date, title, size
5. Can create new Notebooks, Import/Export notes
6. Backup notes - hourly, weekly, monthly
7. Portable edition makes it easy to make notes and program available anywhere
    You can use portable option in combination with services like Dropbox.


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Virtual Desktop from Microsoft

Second useful desktop utility from Microsoft that is better in User Interface and simplicity is the Microsoft Virtual Desktop Manager (MSVDM). This allows 4 virtual desktop screens to group your Windows. It allows you to configure different wallpaper for each virtual desktop. It is easy to switch between virtual desktops. To go to second (top right) desktop just type keys “Win+2”. Typing “Win+W” will show all 4 desktops, like below.

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Another option is to have access to this as part of taskbar. You can get single icon for switching to all screen mode or you can additionally get desktop numbers displayed in the taskbar. That will allow you to click on the number with mouse and go to that desktop.

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SyncToy from Microsoft

There are few freeware from Microsoft that are really good as Desktop utilities, one of them is the SyncToy. Compared to other freeware, I settled on this tool for the simplicity of the UI. You will find this tool useful if you what to sync-up directories  and files between say Computer and external USB hard disk or Computer and your mobile. Then this tool is very handy.

The tool lets you choose multiple profiles, which is set of source and destination drives or folders. Then in each profile, you can have set of devices to sync. For example, in below picture you will see profile to sync between my mobile SD Card and computers. This is mainly to sync-up songs. Button ‘Preview’ will let you get list of differences between folders/devices. Clicking on ‘Run’ will actually perform the sync operation. The operation I found it to be fast. For around 3 GB data, it got sync-ed in around 25 minutes.

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Analog Clock in Taskbar

An essential freeware for those who prefer Analog clocks over the digital. This small and handy tool sits in corner of the taskbar where the digital clock is displayed in Windows. This application also has options to sync-up automatically and manually with Atomic Clock servers. 

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There are few configuration options to change GUI settings, like display seconds hand, skins, days of another month.

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