[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com].

Netalyzr is not the traditional freeware covered here at Freewaregenius, but it is a free service that allows you to test and find out more information about the Internet connection you’re paying for. With no real established metrics for what an ISP must provide, Netalyzr gives you the inside scoop in a convenient report. By running the test, not only will you find out information about your connection and its capabilities, but you’ll also share information with researchers that may improve the Internet infrastructure and provide data to the Net Neutrality argument. From their Learn More page:

The Netalyzr analyzes various properties of your Internet connection that you should care about — including blocking of important services, HTTP caching behavior and proxy correctness, your DNS server’s resilience to abuse, NAT detection, as well as latency & bandwidth measurements — and reports its findings in a detailed report.

Netalyzr is a simple 3-step process and simply requires that you have Java installed and visit a site with your browser. From the ICSI Netalyzr home page, just click the Start analysis link. If you don’t see the text, Start analysis, it means you don’t have a compatible version of Java installed. After you start the test, you’ll be prompted to allow the Java Applet run from the International Computer Science Institute. Hit Run, if you want to take the test.

After the Applet begins running, you can watch the status to see all the different things that are tested. The test will take a few minutes to complete so you might want to let it run while you’re doing something else. Visiting other websites should not effect the final results, so maybe go play some Chibi Knight or go visit my website, 404 Tech Support.

After the test completes, you’ll get a long list telling you the results of the tests in accurate, but not-too-technical terms. This can alert you to any problems with your connection, issues with your router, or limitations of your ISP. A small example of what the results can tell you include NAT detection, Access to remote ports: FTP, IMAP/SSL, BitTorrent, DNS, HTTP; Connection Latency; Upload and Download speeds; IPv6 compatibility, and many more. Netalyzr has a sample results page that you can view to see all of what gets tested.

One small note is that your antivirus might give you a notice (not an alert or a warning) because of some of the ports that Netalyzr tests, but everything is safe.

You can visit the site and take the test at ICSI Netalyzr’s page hosted by UC-Berkley. Be sure to check out their links to similar projects if this kind of thing interests you.

Another day, another free utility that puts nifty function in the right click context menu. And although it may seem that we’ve seen a lot of the functions that Lammer Context menu offers before, a closer look will reveal some very interesting and noteworthy functions on here, such as mounting folders as virtual drives, search and replace file contents, batch file-and-folder renaming, select all similar files by type, and path operations (copy/move/list/delete) using regular expressions. Supports 32 bit and 64 bit operating systems both.

This app was mentioned in the comments section of my JDcontextmenu review (thanks reader “Free” for letting me know about it). This was the same discussion where it was mostly agreed that LopeSoft’s FileMenu Tools was likely the best free app (or at least one of the best) in it’s class in terms of installing useful functions in the context menu.

However, you should definitely check out Lammer Context menu for the following reasons:

• The functions are noteworthy and interesting (see my top 5 favorites below)
• The program is generally very well designed; you can tell that a lot of attention to detail went into each and every function.
• 32 bit and 64 bit versions available. I mention this because every since I switched to 64 bit Windows 7 a few months ago I’ve noticed that a lot of Windows extensions do not offer 64 bit support. It plays nice with the Windows UAC as well.

My Top 5 Lammer Context Menu functions

(1) Batch Rename:

Very handy tool with a well designed tabbed interface. Supports a wide range of interventions, and can be used to batch-rename files using a base name and number sequence. Will display previews of changes before renaming.

(2) Mount path as virtual drive:

This option allows you to right click on any folder and mount is as a virtual drive; i.e. give it its own drive letter and access it as a drive from “My Computer”. This lasts until you reboot or right click on the virtual drive and unmount the folder later on. If you want a more permanent way to do this, or at least one that survives a reboot, check out previously mentioned Visual Subst.

(3) Search and replace

Right click on a folder in order to perform search and replace operations on the files within it. You can search using regular expressions and search recursively through subdirectories as well. Search results are neatly displayed within the interface and so that you can preview the search/replace operation before implementing.

(4) Path operations

This will let you perform copy/move/delete or change attribute operations on folder contents intelligently. Suppose you want to move all files that are bigger than x K in size, whose modification date is on or after a certain date, who have either .jpg, .gif, or .png extensions to a new folder while preserving relative paths, this function can easily do this for you. This function will process folders recursively, supports regular expressions, and will let you invert your set of results by simply checking a box.

What’s worth mentioning is that if you have a set of criteria/filters that you want to re-use you can easily save them as a template.

(5) Select by Type

Right click on any file and choose “select by type” and all of the files of the same extension in that location will be selected for you. Very cool.

The verdict: this app gives an impression of being generally well designed and well built. What I like about it is that it packages a range of useful functions in one place in the right-click context menu. Aside from my favorite functions detailed above, it also includes staple functions that everyone should have such as “command prompt in current folder”, “copy path”, “jump to shortcut target”, and “calculate checksum”, etc.

And although it doesn’t offer the range of functions that FileMenu tools offers (or the ability to customize the context menu and manage other, third party extensions), it still offers a lot of value.

Note that this app is still in its early stages and some aspects of it (e.g. help files) are not fully implemented yet. These kinks will be ironed out in time, and I hope that new functions will be made available going forward, as mentioned somewhere on the program web site.

Version Tested: 1.0.1.4

Compatibility: Supports Windows XP through Windows 7, 32 and 64bit. Requires .NET Framework 3.51 for XP.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.51 megs).

A nice little utility that provides a number of useful tools at your fingertips, and packages them neatly in a single context menu entry. Most of these functions are self explanatory (copy full path, copy name, CMD line here, MD5 checksum, FileDateTime Stamp, send fullname by email as link, add file to startup folder); however, here are a few notes that may be of interest:

1. Lets you pick and choose: the functions you would like to display and use.
2. The "clear folders" function: is interesting. It allows you to right click and clear temp files or empty folders from a folder. You can define your own wildcard/pattern for the kind of files you want to delete (see screenshot to the right).
3. The "new folder" function: also interesting. Can create a bunch of numbered folders.
4. The favorite folders function: lets you define favorite folders and access them via the context menu (see screenshot to the right). But this is flawed, unfortunately, as (a) it only works when you are right clicking on a file or folder (as opposed to when you are just hovering on the desktop), (b) it doesn’t work in windows open/save dialogs, and (c) it requires users to restart Windows explorer when adding or changing favorite folders for the changes to "take", which is rather inconvenient.
5. 32 bit only: no 64 bit version, unfortunately.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• A 64 bit version: please
• The ability to install entries in the root of the context menu: rather than within the JDcontextmenu entry, as an option.
• A better favorite folder function: see point #4 above.

The verdict: a nice utility overall. I am very keen on cool functions added to the right click menu (see Shell Tools, Open++, QwikTulz, and my favorite FileMenu Tools).

I’ve already gone over my wish list above on how JDcontextmenu can be better, but will re-iterate the hope that the would release a 64 bit version as I am running a 64 bit version of Windows and cannot use it on my machine. If you’re running a 32 bit version of windows definitely check this one out you will like it.

Version Tested: 1.3

Compatibility: Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003. I tested on Windows 7, so I would add Windows 7 and Vista to this list. 32 bit OS’s only.

Go to the program home pageto download the latest version (approx 4.75 megs).

If you’ve switched to a 64 bit versions of Windows, as I have, you may have noticed that many right-click shell extensions associated with some programs (specifically those written for a 32 bit environment) no longer appear in the Windows context menu. These shell / Windows extensions, however will still work in a 32 bit environment, and the objective of this app is to quickly launch a 32 bit file browser that provides instant access to any 32 bit Windows/shell extensions that may be installed on your system.

To use this program you can right click any file or folder and choose “FileBrowser32″ from the context menu. A 32-bit file browser will appear in the current folder location, allowing you to right click on files and use the 32-bit context menu. That is all the program is supposed to do (selecting files and clicking on them will do nothing). Another way to invoke this program is to launch the program from the start menu; it will appear in the system tray and can be accessed there.

The verdict: some readers, like myself, will be quite excited about this little context menu utility; others, however, who might not have any 32-bit explorer extensions they particularly use or miss do not need this.

If you do use a 64 bit Windows it is best to find Window tweaks/extensions and generally speaking software that does what you want and is specifically compiled for 64 bit OS’s. But that is not always possible, especially with free software that may no longer be in development; in which case this little app will come in handy, at least for the time being.

If I were to suggest one improvement it would be to remove the “FileBrowser32″ context menu entry from the 32 bit browser. I am not sure why it is there, if any reason at all.

Version Tested: 1.01

Compatibility: Any 64-bit Windows OS.

Go to here to download the latest version (approx 140K).

Acer GridVista supports a custom configuration for each monitor, and provides a great user experience. It also offers a handful of other functions, such as transparency and stay-on-top options.

The ability to snap your windows to sections of the screen has become very fashionable after it was introduced with windows 7, and once you get accustomed to having this feature it becomes integral to the way you use your computer. Acer GridVista is one of a handful of free programs that provide this and has a few points to recommend it:

1. It is activated on drag and drop, or by using the special buttons it adds to the top right of your open windows next to the default minimize, maximize, and close buttons (see image to the right).
2. It works with multiple monitors, each with its own custom configuration. It also allows for extending the desktop into external monitors (a feature which I did not test because I do not have one).
3. It sticks to a range of 4 possible configurations, giving users an excellent range of options while not going overboard with too many screen configurations that may be too complex or esoteric (see images to the bottom, to the right).
4. It adds a couple of other functions: namely transparency and pin on top of other windows.
5. Can easily be disabled: on any individual window: using the aforementioned button extensions on the top right of your window.
6. Plays well with Windows’ 7 snap function. This is because the Windows 7 snap behavior kicks in once you drag a window to the edge, while GridVista can kick in the moment you hold down the mousebutton.

Wish list: I am not sure if this program is still in development, but all the same here are some suggestions that can make this program can be even better.

• The ability to set it to be inactive by default. With GridVista any window you move will be poised for snapping to a pre-defined area, even if you are simply interested in moving it. You can disable GridVista easily using the buttons on the top right, but it would be nice if you could set it to be inactive by default and only activate it when you need it.

The verdict: if you do not have Windows 7 and would like the snap functionality this program is an excellent option and one of the best programs of the sort around (I’ve reviewed a few which I will mention below). Acer GridVista is free, useful and delivers exactly what it promises.

If you would like a more powerful program, however, that offers more options (although admittedly at the cost of more complexity) you might want to look at WinSplit Revolution, which is one of my favorites.

Thanks to user usersp001 for letting me know about this program (he/she mentioned it in the comments for my MaxTo posting, which is another similar program).

Version Tested: 2.72.317

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to this page on Softpedia to download or go here for more information (approx 1.8 megs).

Prism HUD (heads up display) is a free, lightweight performance and resource monitoring software. It provides a wealth of information in real-time right on the desktop. Although there are many free system monitoring tools out there, what is unique about Prism HUD is the way it displays information: it does not display continuous chart; rather, colorful icons appear on the desktop in a designated area of the screen only when events are taking place, and disappear altogether when the event has passed.

The five performance areas include CPU (total usage and each core’s load); Memory (total usage and hard faults); Disk (used space, utilization and transfer rate for each drive); Network (each interface’s transfer rate); and Process (the CPU usage, memory usage, page faults and IO transfer rate for each process). If you only care for a subset of these metrics you can customize the program to show exactly the ones you want.

If you’re interested in what’s going on inside your computer Prism HUD is an excellent resource and performance monitoring software. Here are a more notes on this program:

• Drill down: which is to say it doesn’t just report the macro level but individual performance data for each process (memory usage, CPU usage, etc.; see screenshots above).
• Customizable: metrics are displayed within 3 invisible floating panels on the top right of the screen by default. You can add or remove panels or move them around, and you can specify which performance measure (or submeasures) to be displayed in which panels (see image to the right).
• Lightweight: around 10 megs in memory.

The verdict: if you’re looking for a visually appealing system monitoring software then by all means give Prism HUD a try. It is very light on resources and will let you make the little visualizations as large or small as you want, and place them exactly where you want them to be. If there is one feature that I would have asked for, however, it would be for some sort of logging support, which some people would find crucial for this sort of app.

Version Tested: 1.x0

Compatibility: Windows XP or higher.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 242K).

Another nice launcher. I’ve been using this one for a few days and am very pleased with it. I like that it can easily be used as an organizing tool; for example, you can easily organize your desktop icons into tabs you create in FSL Launcher and get rid of desktop clutter. I also like that it automatically reconciles shortcuts you drag to it and links to the original icon (you can, for example, drag a shortcut on the desktop to FSL Launcher and then delete that shortcut, the icon in FSL Launcher will still work). Here are more notes on this one.

• Adding icons: select the appropriate tab and simply drag and drop icons (shortcuts, files, folders URLs) to the interface.
• Tabs: users can freely add or edit tabs. Tabs (called “groups” in the program terminology) exist as folders placed inside a specific location within the FSL Launcher installation folder, you can move files in or out of these straight from Explorer if you so choose.
• Cussomizable: in many ways (optional single click icon launch, optional stay on top, can minimize if user clicks outside the interface or will optionally stay open, icons+text can be displayed or icons only, can tweak icon sizes, etc.)
• Resides in the system tray: once minimized.
• Navigating tabs: aside from clicking on tabs with the mouse, I like that you can switch across tabs using the “Tab” button. Or you can use “<” and “>” keys.
• Free vs. Supporters versions: the “supporters” version seems to be the full version of this program and is made available to users who donate to the author. Has a number of additional features, such as customizing the mouse click location to launch the program, and the ability to launch the app using a keyboard shortcut.
• Skins: there seems to be (a) skin support, and (b) a skin development contest going on. However, I couldn’t figure out how to change the skin or how to download new skins.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• The ability to link to any folder to use as a group: it would be great, for example, if I could link to my “D:’data’” folder and use that as a tab in FSL Launcher. I tried placing a folder shortcut in the “groups” folder in the hopes it might work in lieu of an actual folder, but it did not.
• The ability to customize where the “groups” folder resides: currently it is located in the Windows user folder on the main (c) partition. I would like the ability to move it to another partition and to a specific location.
• The ability to custom order tabs in the interface: currently it simply uses alphabetical sorting from left to right.
• Portability: the ability to use this app to launch apps on a USB drive would be great. May be available in the so-called “supporters” version; I am not sure.
• Launch by keyboard shortcut: a feature which is offered in the supporters version.

The verdict: I like this one very much. As a launcher it works great, and I especially like the fact that you could use the tabs to organize your work; I was recently trying to de-clutter my desktop and FSL Launcher really came in handy, and I was able to simply move a lot of icons out of the desktop and into the appropriate tab on the launcher. And while there is a full “supporters” version as well as the free version reviewed here, I still strongly feel that the free version is excellent and adds a lot of value (and is not crippleware).

Thanks to user Guy for letting me know about this one!

Version Tested: 1.1.4.4 SR1

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7; 32 bit or 64 bit.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 3.13 megs).

Ninite is a revolutionary new way of installing the software you want. Instead of having to download and install each program individually Ninite will do it all for you. Simply go to the Ninite website, choose the programs you want, download the installer and run it. That’s it. That simple. You can now go off and do something less boring whilst Ninite downloads and installs the programs for you.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Carbonize. Check out his tech blog here].

Ninite is also clever and it will not install toolbars or anything else that the programs try to install. It also checks what language your PC is using and whether it is 64bit or not and then installs the correct version of the software.

Ninite has only supports a limited number of programs at present (66) but does offer some of the more popular and better known software. The software is ordered in sections such as web browsers, messaging, media players and security. The software featured includes popular titles such as Firefox, Opera, , Pidgin, Thunderbird, iTunes, KMPlayer, Aimp, Paint.NET, GIMP, Irfanview, Open Office, Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast, Spybot, Flash (both IE and non IE), Silverlight, uTorrent, Dropbox,CCleaner, CDBurnerXP and 7-Zip (and one of my favorites, Digsby).

The only problems I have with Ninite are just little niggles. The first is that it installs software with it’s default settings. Whilst this is not a bad thing it does mean that you get everything that Spybot does including security center integration and it’s system monitoring. Also, whilst it does install the appropriate version of the program for your language, it does not always install the correct version of your language. So for me here in the UK I get the English version of things like Firefox and Thunderbird but it is the US English and not the British English. As I said only minor niggles and not major show stoppers.

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program home page to download.

Why this app is cool: it provides a really neat way to browse folders in-place from a shortcut or on the Windows 7 taskbar. I am finding this a great substitute to keeping files/icons on the desktop, by stashing these in folders while keeping them instantly accessible via stacks.

Here are more notes on this app:

• Stack Types: vertical stacks, grid stacks, and menu style. In Windows 7 you can have up to 10 stacks on the taskbar.
• Stack behavior: can be customized such that stacks”close” whenever you click anywhere outside of them, or otherwise only close when you either click on an element in the stack or on the stack icon itself.
• Stacks are Browsable: you can move in and out of folders in place. Menu stacks cascade like the start menu in XP.
• Opening a folder in explorer: the last entry in your stack will always be the option to open the folder you are browsing in explorer, which is a great idea.
• Windows’ context menu: right clicking on file or folder within a stack displays the default Windows context menu items, making it possible to perform normal file operations on these.
• Icons: for the stack itself is customizable; it will prompt you when you set a stack up or simply change the shortcut icon for your stack after it is created.
• Customizability: you can change the height and font sizes of stack items, you can choose between white font on black background or the opposite, and you can choose whether to have text and icons or just icons in your stacks. You can also choose to display a thumbnail preview for image files although this will not show if you make your icon size too small.

Wish list (or how this app can be even better)

• Using vertical stacks, I encountered a bug whereby if you browse down a couple of levels (subfolders) and then attempt to right click on a file or folder you get an error message and the windows context menu doesn’t show (on Windows 7 64 bit).
• Editing a stack: when right clicking on a stack icon in Windows 7 in order to edit the stack, only the last created stack seemed editable.
• I wish that the “back” and “open in explorer” entries in the stack would use distinctive icons, such as arrows or something like that. It would make a very positive difference in the user experience I think.
• Skins: I wish there were more of them.

The verdict: a potentially very useful program (especially on the Windows 7 taskbar, imho). This app is somewhat similar to previously mentioned Standalone Stack, and when stacks are browsed as cascading menus 7Stacks is very reminiscent of MenuApp. However, 7Stack is different from both of these in that the stacks are browsable and more interactive. I like the way some of the behavior is handled, esp. with respect to stacks being open until their icon is re-clicked, and also the fact that items in the stack are can be right-clicked on to perform normal file or folder operations on.

Having said this, there are a number of bugfixes and little changes that can be made to make this program much better (see the wishlist above), and I hope that the developers will address these in future versions.

Version Tested: 1.5 beta 1

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7.

Go to the program home pageto download the latest version (approx 2.74 megs).

This post will outline how to get rid of these security prompts without switching off the UAC altogether, by using a free app called TweakUAC to switch the UAC to "quiet mode".

There is always a tradeoff between defense mechanisms and quality of life. You may be more secure if you walled off your house completely yet might end up concealing what might be a nice view, and if you never risked rejection you might never start a romance with someone you really like, etc.

This is basically how I feel about the UAC in Vista and Windows 7: a well-meaning device that basically costs too much in terms of the quality of the user experience. What’s more, the presumed protection that the UAC provides is very debatable (see below).

The rest of this article will consist of 4 sections as follows:

1. Why UAC does NOT work
2. Why UAC does work
3. A definition of the UAC quiet mode
4. How to enable quiet mode using TweakUAC

1. Why UAC does NOT work: in a nutshell, because you do not listen to the boy that cries "wolf". The frequency of these security prompts makes them essentially useless. If in 99.9% of instances I am being asked to give permission to safe apps and processes how can I be expected to take note of the 0.1% of the time when it may not be wise? This seems to me like a classic case of technologists forgetting that their users are human beings.

Moreover, the UAC is really intended to protect you from yourself. In itself it is not adequate security and you still need to have the usual arsenal of protection software (an antivirus, antispyware, and possibly firewall).

2. Why UAC does work: it works because, after reading up on the subject it seems that the primary impetus behind UAC is probably a policy decision by Microsoft intended to force developers to create applications that only require standard user rights. My guess is that in the long run this objective will have some measure of success, but it only reinforces the idea that as a normal user in the here-and-now it would be a good idea to simply get rid of UAC. Or at least to switch it to "quiet" mode.

3. A definition of the UAC quiet mode: the so-called UAC quiet mode offered by TweakUAC suppresses the elevation prompts of UAC without turning the UAC off completely. The following is a direct quote from the TweakUAC web site:

"In such a mode, you keep all the positive effects of UAC, such as Internet Explorer operating in the protected mode, applications starting without the administrative privileges by default, etc. The only thing that gets changed is that you will no longer see the infamous "Windows needs your permission to continue" messages whenever you attempt to make a change to your Vista configuration, or when you run a program that needs administrative rights."

(Note: click here to visit the original page where this text was found)

In addition, quiet mode seems to disable prompts in your administrator account while maintaining these in other user accounts.

4. How to enable quiet mode using TweakUAC:

Go to the TweakUAC program page; download, install, and run. Select "Switch UAC to quiet mode" and click ok (you will not need to reboot). UAC prompts from this point onward will not appear, but the UAC is not completely switched off and preserves some measure of protection as defined above..

This is where the free Jumplist Launcher steps in; it is an app that allows you to pin any combination of elements (any documents, folders, or apps) to the taskbar within the Jumplist Launcher icon and organize these into groups that make sense. You can even pin multiple, separate instances of Jumplist launcher to your taskbar.

This is the first Windows 7-specific app that I review on Freewaregenius. The author first emailed me about this app almost 6 months ago, but I just only finally installed Windows 7 (which I quite like) after skipping Vista altogether.

This program is essentially a launcher that resides on the taskbar and exhibits "Jumplist" behavior, much as any app placed on the taskbar in Windows 7. The difference is that you can place anything you like in "Jumplist Launcher", including apps, documents, and folders, and you can categorize these into groups. More notes below:

• Drag and drop: you can drag and drop icons from explorer straight onto the Jumplist Launcher dialog, or otherwise onto the Jumplist Launcher button on the taskbar. Strangely, dragging the icon "pinned" to the Start menu doesn’t seem to work, but dragging from the start menu proper does.
• Number of elements: 60 different shortcuts can be placed within the Jumplist Launcher.
• Customization: you can rename anything you place on the Jumplist Launcher, change the icon, reorder, etc.
• Multiple Jumplist Launchers: this runs comes in a portable zip archive, and I found that copying the folder and placing multiple Jumplist Launchers on the taskbar is possible (at least on my 64bit Windows 7). This could be useful, say, if you would like your shortcuts for project A on one Jumplist Launcher and your shortcuts for project B on another.

The verdict: very nice and useful. The drag and drop feature seemed a bit erratic at times, but otherwise delivered a very nice user experience. It would be nice if the program supported multiple Jumplist launchers without having to launch separate instances of the program, but as is it works well.

This is the sort of program that, once you start using it regularly you will likely become addicted to it. Check it out for yourself.

Version Tested: 1.x

Compatibility: Windows 7.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 477K).

Coffee was originally designed to enable changing file associations to portable apps but will work with installed apps as well. It will allow you to store your file type configurations and carry these portably in order to instantly switch the default handlers of selected file types to apps on your USB in any new environment. Coffee can be disabled at any time to revert back to the system’s default applications.

[Editor’s note: this post was written by Freewaregenius contributor EngineerHead. Check out his tech blog here].

The use of portable applications is growing rapidly, whether because they can be utilized at any workstation or because they can be used without installation or writing to the registry. This app allows you to temporarily re-assign file types to both portable applications or installed applications, and can be used, say, on a system where you are not familiar with the installed applications and prefer to use your own out of a USB, or temporarily re-assign filetypes to alternate apps on your own computer. Once Coffee is terminated, all filetype assignments revert back to normal. Here are more notes:

• Set Primary and alternate applications: Coffee will allow you to set a primary and alternate application, as there may be cases when you want to switch between two applications to launch a file (the applications can installed or portable apps). When you double click the file holding ALT key, the alternate application will launch the file. You can set an secondary alternate application without setting a primary one if you like.
• Relative Paths: of the chosen applications are stored in a configuration file. This makes your preferences portable also.
• Auto Associate New to Host: you will be prompted to set a new association once you run Coffee and click on any file type. This behavior can be disabled to avoid being asked to set an association whenever a double click is performed on file type that are not already configured in Coffee.
• Double Click Sensitivity: can be increased or decreased according to your own preference. You can figure out the response time by double clicking in the test area.
• Shortcut Keys: are supported for almost every function, such as Pause, Refresh, etc.
• Works only from within Windows Explorer: once you set an alternate app (and assuming Coffee is activated), double clicking from within Windows Explorer will open the file using the alternate app. However, note that launching from any environment that is not Windows Explorer (e.g. an explorer replacement, a desktop search app, etc.) will open the file using Windows’ system defaults.

The Verdict: A tiny but handy utility that is also very original; I have never come across a utility to handle the default behavior of file types. It can not only change the default apps to portable apps, but will allow you to carry the new configurations on a USB to instantly transfer these preferences to any new environment. Give it a try, especially if you are an avid user of portable apps.

Version Tested: 0.1 R2

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Seven

Visit the program home page to download the latest version packaged with source code (approx 0.4 MB).

This program provides an interesting way of looking at information, displayed within semitransparent windows that look like they are embedded within the desktop wallpaper. Note, however, that the windows are not part of the active desktop but in fact are semitransparent floating windows. More information as follows:

• Customization: you can optionally have a title bar or scroll bar for your windows. You can also customize the font color, two background colors that constitue a gradient, as well as the level of transparency.
• Interaction: you can move these windows about (whether or not they have a titlebar), scroll up or down using either the scrollbar or up/down arrows, or select and copy text. You cannot edit and/or add text though.
• Multiple windows: one nice thing about Klogshow is that you can have a number of windows on the desktop simultaneously.
• How to use: right click the tray icon, go to the "files" tab, browse to the desired file(s), then add the file(s) to the list. Next, right click the tray icon, go to log select, and check the files you want to be displayed on the desktop.
• Memory usage: about 18 megs, which is not quite lightweight but not too large either.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better):

• The ability to set a transparent background: strangely, while you can create a two-color gradient for your background, it does not seem to allow for a simple transparent (non) background.
• Hiding the program entries in the taskbar: for each text window that you display the program will have an associated taskbar entry. Which is kind of strange. Although the program allows you to hide it altogether (text windows and taskbar entries both), it would be better if you could hide the taskbar entries without hiding the text windows themselves.
• Always on top, or always on bottom: for each individual window, would be great.
• The ability to render a window non-interactive; i.e., to affix it to a spot without being resizable or movable.

The verdict: depending on the circumstances (and how creative your are), this could be a really useful program, although it can be much better (see wish list above). Note that there are other programs that provide a similar function, such as multi function system monitoring and desktop enhancement tool Samurize.

Version Tested: 1.0.4

Compatibility: Windows, Linux.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 5.6 megs).

As they say: when it rains it pours! I had I reviewed RUNit, a really cool launcher that I liked, only to discover MouseExtender a week later. Both of these share one important characteristic: that they are quickly and easily accessible. But MouseExtender has the edge in terms of the coolness/style factor.

• How to use: simply click on the middle mouse button anywhere on screen and the launcher appears. you can set other mouse+keyboard combos to do this, useful for laptop users like myself.
• Tabs: the top titlebar displays tabs (which actually look more like little buttons) that can be used for organizing shortcuts. You can click a little desktop pin in the titlebar to "pin" the launcher to the screen and keep always on top of other screens.
• Drag and drop: the easiest way to add shortcuts is to drag and drop; however, note that you will have to "pin" the launcher to your desktop to be able to do this. You can drag shortcuts from anywhere (e.g. the desktop, the start menu, the Quicklaunch area, etc.) One really cool option is its ability to add shortcuts for programs running in memory.
• Managing shortcuts: simply right click on the launcher interface to delete, rename, move to other tabs, etc.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• The option to label shortcuts: this is not an issue for program icons, but for file, folder, or URL shortcuts their icons will look the same, necessitating hovering over the icons to display tooltips that show the name. It would be cool if they could implement (optinal) visible labels, although it may clutter the stylish, economic looking interface.
• A smaller memory footprint: this program requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 sp1 or better to work, which makes its memory use a little inflated (and somewhat hard to ascertain).

The verdict: overall a very nice launcher that combines form and function. I like the tabs feature as well as the "pin to desktop" function.

Version Tested: 1.5

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7. Requires MS .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 109K).

This is a kind of swiss army knife of tools for working with file types and extensions. As you can see from the description above, it does more in Vista/Windows Seven environments than in XP. And since I am using Windows XP I will not cover DefaultPrograms’ ability to edit autoplay handler programs, no’r will I be using it to edit the registered default programs and their assigned types.

Instead, for this review I will go through two exercises that can (a) show what this program can do and just how cool itis in general, and (b) illustrate the user experience a little bit.

Exercise #1. Changing the default icon for PDF files on Windows XP.

I use PDF-XChange Viewer as my default PDF reader, and don’t particularly care for the default icon it uses for PDF’s. Here’s how DefaultPrograms can change the default used icon for a specific file type.

1. Click the "Icon" button in the interface
2. The next screen will display a list of file extensions
3. Filter by the desired extension ("PDF" in this case)
4. The next screen shows the current icon used. Click "Browse" to select a new icon
5. Select the new icon. You can point to executables, individual icon files, or icon libraries
6. Click "Save Icon" and you’re done

Exercise #2: Changing the context menu options a file type (.JPG).

You may have noticed that, at least in XP, when you right click an image file and click "Edit" in the context menu, the default program used to edit is MS Paint. Here’s how you can use DefaultPrograms to edit the context menu for JPG’s.

1. Click the "Icon" button in the interface
2. The next screen will display a list of file extensions
3. Typed "JP" in the filter then CTRL-selected four image types at once (see image to the right)
4. Next, in the list of context menu commands, select "Edit" and click "Edited Selected Command"
5. The next prompt shows the command name and program path
6. Change the path and parameters to the new program; in this case I will be using my favorite "PhotoScape"
7. That’s it (although you will need to do this for remaining image types).

The verdict: what I like about this program is the user interface, which is simple and intuitive, and the fact that it works and does exactly what it claims to do. I’ve seen and written about a number of programs whose functions intersect with this one (Types and Icon Phile come to mind) but DefaultPrograms is without a question the utility that I would prefer to use to perform these sorts of tasks. Highly recommended.

Version Tested: 2.4

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7. MS .NET Framework 3.5 required.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 675K).

It happened to me a couple of weeks ago: my computer started acting flaky and unreliable, taking an unreasonably long time to boot (and sometimes failing do so), and driving me nuts in the process. In these situations most people I (believe), start wondering if they’ve contracted a virus or other malware, or puzzling over whether a recently added software might have caused the matter. All of these are plausible avenues of exploration, but if nothing seems to work you should check to see if your hard drive might have bad sectors on it that may be causing the problem. This is what Surface Scanner does and performs the job quite rapidly.

Surface Scanner vs. Windows’ check disk tool: the main reason why you would use this is for a quick diagnosis – it is considerably faster than Windows’ built in checker and the scan can be performed from within Windows without a reboot. However, it does not have a “repair” bad sectors option which the Windows utility offers.

A couple of quick notes:

• How to use: install then run; mount the hard drive you want to check then press “scan”. This can be done from within Windows, no need to reboot.
• Fast: it took about 10 minutes to scan my 5400 rpm 80-gig drive.
• If you encounter many errors: then stop the scan; you now have the information you need, and forcing the scan might further damage the drive and decrease the chances of salvaging your data.

The verdict: the scan is fast enough that its worth doing every once in a while if your system is acting weird, seeming to work fine in one instance and hanging up the next.

If you do find bad sectors: the first thing I would do is get my data out of there ASAP. Next you might try to run software that will attempt to apply fixes to the problem. Windows’ own check disk seems to have an option to do that. I am not sure if there are any good freeware tools that will attempt to fix bad sectors … if you know of any let me know in the comments. In any case fix or no fix if you have bad sectors you should start planning to replace the drive immediately. (Oh, and in the case I described above my hard drive turned out fine, to my relief!).

Version Tested: 1.0

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.78 megs).

I learned about this from a comment on the RocketDock post that read “best launcher ever – RUNit 2.0.1b!” (thanks to reader “rws”). So I searched for and found it and … I really, really like it.

As launchers go the unique aspect of RUNit is the way it is accessed, by right clicking on the upper edge of the screen (or alternately you can enable shift-right-clicking anywhere on the screen or simply ctrl+shift). Which isn’t quite revolutionary, except that it can be accessed extremely quickly and somehow delivers a really nice user experience. Here are more notes:

• Set up different lists: you can create wholly different lists of items and specify different shortcuts for accessing them. For example you can set it up such that right clicking the top edge of the screen can display your apps while right clicking the bottom edge displays favorite URLs or whatever.
• Drag and drop: to add items, simply drag shortcuts, files, URLs or pretty much anything from anywhere to the RUNit setup dialog. The setup has a button that can reconcile shortcuts automatically, though I am not sure why the user has to actually “press it” for this to take place.
• Customizable: you can select large or different icons, change the font used, edit the order of items, launch apps minimized or maximized, and even set the coordinated on screen where you want a particular app to be placed when launched.
• Cascading menu structure: is supported; use dividers and create folders and subfolders within your menu.
• Portable: unzip and run; does not write to the registry.
• Source code: is available for download.

The verdict: the RUNit site states that “no one who has ever tried it could live without it anymore”, and after trying it I can see that there’s a lot of truth to that statement. A very nice launcher indeed.

Version Tested: 2.1beta6a

Compatibility: WinAll; no info on Vista.

Go to program home page to download the latest version (approx 67K).

I have a soft spot for little apps that access to favorite items on-the-fly. JumpTo provides access to folders, files, apps, and URLs from anywhere and can be displayed in any program. It is very similar to previously mentioned Folder Menu, with some differences. Here’s a list of pros and cons.

PROS:

• Launch your favorite folders, files, apps, or URLs from anywhere: simply launch the app via its keyboard shortcut and you can be quickly on your way.
• Memos: JumpTo also includes a simple notes app. It can quickly
• Create your own submenus: which is to say it lets you create and organize the cascading menu entries as you like.
• Adding items: can be performed via the context menu entry, by highlighting an item and pressing Alt+shift+S, or by opening the add items dialog and dragging and dropping items into it.
• Less than 4 megs in memory: makes this program truly lightweight.
• Extra functions: via the "extra functions" context menu entry launch a run box, insert dates dynamically into your text, or strip any text in the clipboard from any formatting. You can also hide and display windows.
• Portable version: is available for download on the site.

CONS:

• Does not provide access to favorite folders in Windows open/save dialogs: unlike for example similar apps such as Folder Menu.
• Does not support icons: which is to say your app shortcuts and other shortcuts will be represented using text only. Not a big deal, but could have looked better with icons.

The verdict: a nice little app that and is truly lightweight. It has room for improvement in terms of accessing folders in open/save dialogs but as it is it can be extremely useful and a huge time saver.

JumpTo video Tutorial:

Version Tested: 1.0

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 787K).

Although I have a handful of folders designated for specific projects and topics, I notice that whenever I am working on something most of the files I am using invariably end up on the desktop. If this is your experience as well (or indeed if you download a lot of files into the desktop and have to sort them out later) then you should check this program out.

What DragTargets does is allow you to set up your frequently used favorite folders as buttons in a floating desktop widget. You can then drag and drop your files to the appropriate folder in the DragTargets window to copy or move them to the right place, or simply click on the folder button to open the folder. More notes on this program below:

• Copy or move: dragging files copies them by default; to move files instead check the little box next to the “stop” button.
• Open folders: click on the folder button to open it in explorer
• Portable: unzip and use, no install needed.
• Memory use: about 7 megs, which is fairly small.

Wish list (or how this program can be a lot better)

• Minimize to tray: essential, I think, for a program like this.
• Show and hide by hotkey: would make it so much more useful.
• The option to switch off semi-transparency

The verdict: a nice little program that can potentially be extremely useful. It can however be much improved with a few little tweaks though (see wish list above!).

Version Tested: 1.0

Compatibility: WinAll.

Click this link to download (approx 281K). Developer homepage here but does not provide any info. See this page for more info on this program.

This is one of those programs that are difficult to write about just because they contain so many functions and do many things. In some ways Signo is comparable to such automation tools as AutoHotkey, although it is less complex and more accessible. However, unlike AutoHotkey Signo does not have a scripting component so it is not a full fledged macro engine and development environment.

Aside from its accessibly what I also like about Signo is that it is very small (occupies a mere 9 megs in memory); I also like that it can give you a sort of "shortcut report" for your system that displays all of its keyboard shortcuts as well as ones that are used by other apps and by Windows (part of which is in fact pictured in the screenshot above).

Here are 7 (Seven!) cool things that this program can do:

1. Snap windows to the edges of the screen: in the style of Windows 7, using keyboard shortcuts (Alt+Win+Up/left/right/top/bottom).
2. Minimize to tray: (Ctrl+Win+T) will minimize the current window or app to the tray. Interestingly, you can minimize all windows to the tray in one fell swoop by pressing (Ctrl+Win+Z).
3. Launch apps and URLs: from the system tray or via hotkey.
4. Auto corrections (and abbreviations): we’ve seen this before with AutoHotkey; you can add frequently misspelled words to a list such that every time you type in a misspelling it is automatically corrected for you.
5. Insert predefined text: you can either set a custom hotkey that would insert a specified text, or define a "textkey" that you can type in and watch it magically being transformed to your predefined text (e.g. you can set "#sig" to automatically insert your signature/name/etc. inside the text you’re writing).
6. Optimize applications’ memory utilization: this program is by the same developer who released Minimem, an excellent memory optimization utility designed to reduce the memory footprint of individual programs. It would appear that they have incorporated that program’s functionality into Signo such that you could add any app from within Signo and create a shortcut that would optimize its memory use. Super cool!. For browsers use the predefined Shift+Win+B if your browser starts gobbling up large amounts of RAM.
7. Context menu of functions, anywhere: Ctrl+Alt+leftmouse will display a handy context menu of Signo functions anywhere you happen to be at that time.

Wish list: (or how this program can be even better)

• Disabling functions: although it is possible to delete functions you don’t want, I found myself wishing I could simply de-activate them without deleting (as it is you have the option to export them then delete, which keeps the option to re-import later if you want to).
• The screenshot function: needs to be improved. I was not able to capture a screenshot of a context menu (the program kept releasing it for me), wasn’t able to define a quality setting for my saved JPG, wasn’t able to attach a suffix or prefix to filenames. A "Repeat last capture" function would also be good.

The verdict: a nice program overall. If you find that it contains a bit too many functions and shortcuts you can always remove the ones that you don’t want and customize the keyboard shortcuts if needed. And at 9 megs in memory, Signo manages to be both powerful and small. Check it out.

Version Tested: 1.4

Compatibility: Windows 2003, Vista, Server 2008, 2000, XP, Windows 7.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 2.46 megs).