This freebie file dialog enhancement has been recommended by two of the readers here at Clif Notes.
First, back in 2006, it was suggested by AK in comments.
Recently, CC sent me an email and said it was a 5 star pick. He must really like it.
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Folder Guide is a free handy utility that provides fast access to your frequently used and favorite folders. It can operate as the part of your context menu in your Windows Explorer.
After quick install it will appear in context menus of Windows Explorer and Open/Save dialogs as "Folder Guide" item. With Folder Guide, you no longer need dozens of mouse clicks to navigate to your desired folder. Now reach your favorite folders in just 2 mouse clicks. Select from right click menu "Folder Guide" then click on your desired folder. Folder Guide runs automatically as part of the Windows Explorer context menu, so you will never need to start the program otherwise you want to edit the list of folders. It also works from the desktop, the Start button.
Folder Guide is a freeware and 100% Spyware FREE. It does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses.
Here's a quickie review from one of the readers of this newsletter.
I really appreciate your recommendations for new programs in the comments.
Quote from thebluejay:
Grabtxt is great for getting text out of windows dialog boxes. It works much more quickly and easily (and better!) than Grab Text.
It's perfect for copying things like error messages that you want to send to a forum or support site.
thebluejay
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as most developers, while testing a program I get runtime errors displayed as windows error message boxes and I have to type these error messages in a search engine to find more about these errors and how to fix them. This tool will make this task very easy.
this tool is free and you can download it and use it:
Mp3tag allows batch or single edits to effect such changes as case changing, autonumbering, tag and track name flipping, and user-defined actions. There's playlist support and configuration exporting in six formats including CSV, HTML, and RTF. Support for more than two dozen languages offer the program up for international use, and a Favorite directory setting makes it easy to return to your My Music folder, or wherever you store your tracks.
I have been interested in these free services that let you use your work computer at home. Naturally, the IT guys at work might frown on my tests when they see all the traffic on the network. Fortunately, there are people out there that either don't have IT guys watching their every move, or they have permission.
One of the bloggers at Download.com seems to like this free service from LogMeIn.com.
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LogMeIn Free functions so well it makes an excellent case for ditching the VPN entirely. I installed the program on my work computer before I left San Francisco, created an account at the LogMeIn Web site and then logged out, leaving the machine on but in standby mode. The next step was installing the LogMeIn client on my laptop. Once I arrived in Massachusetts, I hit a coffee shop with a reliable Internet connection, and fired up Firefox. The LogMeIn client runs at start-up, an essential feature for the computer you want to use remotely. It also uses 256-bit SSL encryption, dual authentication for the application and the remote computer, and RSA SecureID, which assuaged my security concerns.
All those tools in one package? Hmmmm, sounds great.
Do I need VPN? No.
Do I need a chat client? Yes, but I prefer Meebo.com online chat service. No install needed.
Do I need file sharing? Not really.
Do I need a remote control program? Yes, but I won't use this program if that's all I need from it.
If you do need all those tools, maybe you should consider Remobo. Take a look at this review from the DownloadSquad.
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Hamachi is a great app. So is VNC. Torrents are great, too. You see where I'm going. These are all great on their own - so when Remobo rolled them all in to one, tasty package, I was pretty excited.
Set it up, add your buddies, and you've got an instant, private P2P network. Click the My Shared Files link and create torrents of your folders and files with two clicks. When your buddies view your shares, they'll see a simple web page with links to the torrent downloads. It's simple, and it works quite well.
Clicking windows file sharing on a buddy will display their Windows file and printer shares (like Hamachi does). File access speeds (even over my sluggish DSL) are good, and at least on par with Hamachi's free offering.
There are tons of tweaks for your desktop, applications, program launchers, and other stuff. If you want to, you can make your Windows look like it is actually another operating system. I've tried quite a few system enhancements and I typically end up back with the basic Windows look and feel after a brief spell.
Here is a tweak that I'm tempted to try. On the other hand, it really doesn't change the way your Explorer window works. It will simply look better. At least that's what this blogger at AppAholic says.
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Quote from AppAholic:
Change the style of the windows explorer by adding a new customisable toolbar. Many many designs on deviant art, all free to download. Even includes OS mimics like vista and mac leopard and tiger style toolbar. Also includes other graphical enhancements like drop shadow and icon placement and icon size.
So, you already skinned your OS to look a bit different using Uxtheme Patches. Surly its about time to do something about that blasted windows explorer? I think so!
I found this on a bit of an off chance a while ago, and have only got round to testing it today. I’m glad to say, I’m really impressed, and it IS going to be staying on my system. The very simply named Styler, works rather simply as well. Download, install, find a few different styles you like, try them, and your away. It took a me a little while to work out where to find the styles to download, but deviant art came up trumps again, as it often does with graphical things.
I was a tad skeptical about the ease of this app. The screen shot showed a simple windows with different styles which could be applied to windows explorer. The download comes with the vista style, but naturally there are many more to download.
I was initially interested in this tool when I saw the blog post. After a minute or two, I thought, "I need to ask an expert about this".
I wrote Tom (master of Temerc.com security forums) for his opinion ... here's what he said.
Those types of ‘kits’ don’t much impress me. For one, they make an assumption to ‘target all the tools you’re going to need’. Well, I tell ya what, LSPFix is certainly not one of those tools. I can’t recall the last time I used it, prolly been over a year at least.
And there isn’t anything there that 9 out of 10 users don’t likely already have on their system or something that is very close to those apps. Most update regularly.
I also don’t like going thru ‘third parties’ for anything, direct links are the way for me. No affiliate BS and I know what I’m getting.
So it’s not really anything that I’d recommend to anyone on any level.
Quote from the DownloadSquad
For those of you charged with the unenviable task of malware removal and defense, keeping your toolbox current can be a lot of work. Lunarsoft's Anti-Malware Toolkit simplifies the process by providing an easy way to handle downloading.
The Toolkit is really just a downloader which fetches the current versions of programs like Super Antispyware, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, HijackThis, Spybot, Autoruns, CCleaner, and LSP Fix. It also grabs programs that you'll want to install to prevent further issues: Avast, Firefox, Comodo Firewall.
Point it to your USB flash drive or network share, hit the download button and grab yourself a cup of coffee.
While you could do this with just about any decent download manager, why bother? Anti-Malware toolkit already targets most of the tools you're going to need and it's as simple to maintain them as clicking a single button.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a magic wand you could wave over your PC so that your web browsers would be safer to use?
Sorry, it ain't happening.
If you want to make Microsoft's Internet Explorer safe to use, you may have to roll up your sleeves and do a little work. The tutorial below doesn't include screen shots and easy to follow instructions, but it covers a great deal of tips on making your IE a safer place to surf from.
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The components that make up Internet Explorer are tightly integrated into the Windows environment, so making changes to them affects many other programs including Outlook (Express) and Windows Media Player. Be aware of the changes you make!
Even if you mistype an address you might fall into the hands of someone who has bad intentions. A simple example is the well known search engine of Google. If you mistype this as Goggle, you'll end up at a site for SpyBouncer...|
Every day, new security holes are found in Internet Explorer, so you should always keep Internet Explorer up-to-date, even if you use another browser like Opera or Firefox. By not updating you might leave holes to be used in other programs.
Another cause for trouble is active content. ActiveX controls and Java applets can bring the net to life, but they also introduce possible risks in that they will have programming errors that can be used maliciously.
I don't often use online photo editing tools. I should get to know them a little better. One of my goals is to try to make sure I can do my job from any computer with internet access. I'm almost there, and some of these online apps may get me a bit closer.
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Quote from the website(I corrected this for grammar):
Online image editors are starting to get popular now. This is true especially with users of social networking sites like Myspace, Friendster and Facebook. Simplicity and ease to use are the advantages of online image tools. You don’t need know about layers, masking and blending. Just click, click and boom! Your image is ready to show on your page. Of course, these services are not limited to social networking users, even web developers often use them to customize site banners or other images on their websites.
Here we go again. Every online PC magazine puts out a list or lists of web sites they like. I just can't resist these and I usually end up wasting lots of time.
If you'd like to waste some time, by all means, take a look below.
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Each year, a team of PC Magazine editors, bloggers, and analysts assembles to find the best Web sites of the year. We pour over thousands of submissions from PC Mag staffers, proud Web admins, enthusiastic PR flacks, and readers just like you. We then painstakingly whittle the list of nominations down to 100 Undiscovered Web Sites
Gary at Internet Fixes continues to amaze me with hundreds and thousands of tips for your PC. Whatever your operating system, or how you use it, a visit to Gary's site will soon have you saying "So that's how you do this!".
This service allows you to make phone calls for free over the net. It is ad supported, but it's so new, they don't even have anyone lined up for ads yet.
I tried it briefly tonight and it does work. The sound is fine most of the time but the connection does lag by about a second or so. There is a large selection of countries I could have called, but I didn't test the international service.
I've seen other start-ups do this before. None of them lasted long as a free service.
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EvaPhone is a free Web2.0-powered VoIP service that allows you to make free international PC-to-phone calls. It saves you money and doesn't add the complications listed above.
Unlike other VoIP programs, this application doesn't require any software installation. Instead it works directly from your Web browser. All you need to make a phone call is navigate to the website in a browser and dial the number right there in the browser window.
Another benefit of the program is that it doesn't require registration with a service. To make a call to any number in any country, simply dial the number. The recipient will not have to pay for the incoming call, unless he/she pays for incoming calls anyway.
Your call to a landline or mobile phone is supported by a short ad, which is displayed while your telephone connection is being established. You may discontinue viewing the ads by registration at a nominal cost. But even with a membership account you have the ability to call at the price of a short ad. Registration benefits also include your own personal phone book and call history. EvaPhone's toll rates are considerably lower and its quality of sound is higher than those featured by providers of stand-alone applications.
Recently I've seen drop.io mentioned several times in blogs and other places. The other day at work, I had to send two large files to a vendor. This vendor's email service seems to choke on files much larger than 10mb. In the past I've used YouSendIt, BoxDotNet and SkyDrive to allow them to pick up my files. This time I used drop.io. I was very pleased with the security of the service and the vendor did not raise any questions about it because I had it password protected. That's a service I'd expect to register or pay for but drop.io offers it for free and no registration is needed.
Quote from the website
Drop.io is the simplest way to share files online.
Simply set up a private space to drop any files by phone, email, web, widget or fax and then share them with whoever you want via a variety of outputs.
I've been using this service for a couple of months. It's really a great service but for some reason I can't get too excited about it. Maybe it's the fact that it's from Microsoft? Maybe it's also the fact that I really don't need it?
In any case, SkyDrive may not be for me, but if you have tons of files you need to store online, this may be a big help to you.
You want some cool old games for free? Abandonia has them and a few other goodies. I think I've run into this site before, but for some reason I never bookmarked it.
Abandonia is one of the biggest and best-known abandonware sites around. Abandonware is software the copyright holders don't support or distribute any more. Why does that matter? Well, it means that they mostly don't care whether someone like Abandonia distributes it for free ...
I ran into this one day last week and I thought it was a very cool idea. The email they send out actually only contains a link to their site and the recipient can read the message there.
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KickNotes is a completely free service to send and receive self-destructing online messages. Self-destructing messages are configured to delete themselves at a certain point. When composing a message on KickNotes, you can set the maximum number of times the message can be viewed, the amount of time that the message actually exists, or both.
COOLSITES is a list of safe, fun, useful, informative and just plain cool websites and programs that are FREE, FREE and FREE. All of the programs and websites I list are free. If I list anything that is so good but isn't free I will list the price with it.
Wow! Over 900 people and still growing! I invite all of you to record your locations on this map. You can include as little or as much information as you wish. I think you'll enjoy seeing yourself there.
Here's a small look at my frapper map.
Get Gmail! and Get Firefox!
You need a free 6 GB Gmail account to access many of the cool features at Google. After more than two years in beta testing Gmail is open to the public. Just go to http://gmail.com and sign up for an account.
I think Gmail works best in the awesome Firefox browser. It's free, easy to use, and it's way more secure than Internet Explorer. My favorite thing to do is to customize Firefox so that it does much more than IE ever could. You can select new button controls for your toolbars, install extensions to add new features, or change the look of your browser with themes - the way Firefox looks and works is under your control.
I get many of the reviews in the newsletter from the readers. You don't have to be a genius or computer guru. Just answer a few questions and send me a review. I'll probably put you in the newsletter.
What do you have to say?
Just tell me what article you are talking about and leave me your comment.
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