Obscure yet indispensable Windows apps
We all use some obscure Windows utilities that we couldn’t do without every day but that hardly anyone knows… Here are some of the programs that are installed on every single Windows machine I own:
Xplorer2
The Windows File Explorer is laughably mediocre, starting with the fact that it doesn’t even offer a two-view pane (not shown in the screenshot below) and makes it very hard to achieve the simplest things. Xplorer2 to the rescue. It’s a free file explorer that allows lightning-fast file manipulations, especially if you like keyboard shortcuts. Every little feature of this program shines with optimization and it’s clear that the author is an efficiency nut. My favorite features are: hold ALT to execute the action in the other pane (such as ALT-click to open a folder in the other pane) and F8 to create a directory. It comes with a “quick” HTML help file (which is still several pages long and is a must-read) and a real user manual. It comes in a “lite” (free) and pro (commercial) version.
StartupMonitor
With the increasing threat posed by AdWare and viruses, I have become a bit paranoid about what’s happening with my computer. StartupMonitor is a lightweight program that informs you whenever a program is trying to register itself at start-up and gives you the opportunity to deny the change. Since this is a relatively obscure utility, it’s quite likely that viruses and MalWare won’t bother checking for its presence, so it makes me feel safer. Note that SpyBot S&D contains a similar utility called TeaTimer.
ProcessExplorer
Written by the good people at Sys-Internals, this is a souped up task manager that lets you not only inspect which tasks are running and how much resources they consume, it’s also more effective that the Task Manager at killing certain tasks, it shows you the launch hierarchy of your tasks and, most importantly, allows you to determine which process locks a certain file (very handy when you are trying to delete such a file and Windows tells you it is being locked by “a” process).
Finally, I am currently playing with Rock-It Launcher in a quest to find a universal keyboard-based application launcher. The probleme here is that the most important applications I use have an icon in the QuickLaunch bar, but not all of them, and sometimes, I just forget where they are stored. I need a launcher that will let me type a few letters belong to this application and will automatically find it and launch it for me. Rock-It Launcher does a decent job at that but I once used a different program that had a more friendly GUI. If you have suggestions, please let me know…
Comments (26)
<strong>Obscure yet indispensable Windows apps</strong> <p><a href="http://beust.com/weblog/weblog/archives/000214.html" rel="nofollow ugc">Cederic's blog</a> lists some of the cool windows apps he uses in daily life. I'd never seen any of these ...</p>
God bless you Cedric...these utilities are pretty useful. Guess I need to be reading PC Magazine again. Got a utility to make WL Workshop load faster? :-)
Have you seen SlickRun? (http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/) It's a pretty good keyboard based app launcher.
How about PTFB? PTFB is a freeware Windows utility for pushing buttons on annoying dialogs. Just drag the PTFB finger over one of the buttons on the annoying dialog, and PTFB will push it for you from now on. It also works with web browsers -- drag the PTFB finger over buttons or checkboxes that you want to be pushed for you automatically. Great for bypassing logon screens. (Note: you need to hold down both buttons -- this tells PTFB to click by *coordinate*).
BTW, "PTFB" stands for "Push That Freakin Button"
Stop messing with these mediocre utilities and get MacOSX Panther with Quicksilver. Focus on being productive rather then removing adware and spam.
It's commercial software, but AppRocket is the best keyboard application launcher I've used. It's a bit like SlickRun but has a much nicer interface and seems to be more customisable. It's very hard for me to do without it now.
Sorry, AppRocket is on http://www.candylabs.com/approcket/ As well as Startup Monitor, Mike Lin's Clipomatic and Startup Control Panel are pretty much indispensible. btw have you removed the URL field from the comment form deliberately? I'm not sure everyone wants their email exposed :)
SysInternals are gods when it comes to Win utilities. You mentioned Process Explorer which is the best thing since sliced bread, but i also use FileMon (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml), with this software, you can see everything going on on your filesystem. Sometimes its too much info one brain can handle, but for a programmer its quite nice to see what certain programs do on the filesystem. For the network guys and the ones programming network stuff (so virtually any java programmer ;-) use: TCPView (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/tcpview.shtml)
It's probably not helpful to point out Mac utilites, but Quicksilver is the best keyboard launcher for any operating system I've ever used. It lets you launch applications, open folders, send email, play songs, visit bookmarked websites (or urls in my browser cache), and dozens of other actions just by starting to type the relevant data. And its extensible via a plug-in architecture. Next time you're in front of an OS X machine, give it a look -- more than show you just how much greener the grass is over here, it may help you define what you're looking for in PC keyboard launchers.
Hi Cedric! A very nice application I have found is AutoHotkey. With a very nice scripting language you can create any shortcuts/app launchers/etc. You compile this script and have finally an executable (that you can register on startup). From there everything is quite easy. I am using it for 2 purposes: 1) i have remaped the win key to a second CTRL on my laptop and 2) have very short :-) shortcuts for my signature. Give it a try and you'll like it.
Cedric, To this list I will add : - VirtuaWin to handle multiple desktop on Win2k - WinRoll to fold windows in title bar - Cool Beans System Info to have a silent semi-transparent always on top window showing cpu, mem and swap A+
When you used SlickRun ,you will love it. :)
Totoal commander is also a powerful File Explorer .
Cedric i can only suggest you the good utilities at http://www.nirsoft.net/ there's a bunch of really useful free utilitie taking about 10KB each!
Nice, but I see that "Autoruns" from SysInternals was forgotten: http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/autoruns.shtml It's idea is similar to "StartupMonitor" but it seems to be much more powerfull (I just didn't try "StartupMonitor" yet) My "must have" is WinKey (http://www.copernic.com/winkey/) mapping Win+AnythingElse shortcuts to the programs, URLs, files ... Makes me launch practically anything in seconds.
As a launcher, you may want to try out "typeandrun", http://galan.dogmalab.ru : it's damn good. Of course the best file manager in the windows world is by far "total commander" by christian ghisler (http://www.ghisler.com).
I use Servant Salamander as a file browser. PowerPro started by RunModule as a minimalist replacement Shell. PowerPro has excellent keyboard binding and application launching features. Also offers virtual desktops and uses less than 800k of RAM to run. One of the best Windows apps in existence.
<strong>Next Meme: Obscure Yet Indispensible Windows Applications</strong> This deserves to become a meme: Cedric posted a list of obscure but useful Windows applications. Here's a collection of lesser known applications that I depend on.
http://www.activewords.com is probably as good as quick silver. They offer a 60 day license. I wouldn't mess with the rest. For 20 bucks you get a lot more than an app launcher. I also like http://www.muukka.net/multidesktop/. It's not the best virutal desktop software but it's free and stable. I use it on my w2k box. Also looking at clipomatic now...
Good work.
Xplorer2 is no longer free, its a 21 day trial shareware these days. However, A43, while not as impressive is still free and does many cool tricks. Check out http://www.shawneelink.net/~bgmiller/
nice... here's my list of windows utility: http://www.javamart.ca/blog/index.php?p=4#comments
I like this small cool utility, CuteType, at http://www.tooto.com/cutetype/
big thank
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