Add Ons

On my previous blog i had mentioned some feature present in the system and how to use them to utilise your system more effectively. This time i ll concentrate on additional tools which might be of use for you

1. Ava Find

This is basically a search tool but is many times faster than the ordinary Windows search because it maintains a database of the files in the system and the scout bot checks for any file changes. The link for ava find is
http://www.think-less-do-more.com/avafind/update/?update=1&ver=1.5.218

2. Tuneup Utilities

Though there are a lot of tools for windows tweaking i believe this one gives a complete package for managing the system and change styles of the system. The one click maintenance usually cleans the system for any malfunctioning and in addition it has options for changing boot screens, welcome screens and system icons. It also has options for file undelete i.e recovering deleted files.
http://www.tune-up.com/download/tu2007/

3. Partition magic

Having many drives in the system usually helps for proper classification of data. But many preinstalled systems come with only the system drive. In order to create new partitions and delete existing partitions or merging partitions with our losing any data, this utility can be useful.The link for partition magic is
http://www.soft32.com/Download/free-trial/Partition_Magic/4-151-1.html

4. Notepad++

For people who think notepad is too monotonous or very plain to use, Notepad++ may entertain more. It has features for indentation for writing scripts. It highlights the keywords and attribute names for helping in coding easily by syntax highlighting etc. It supports html, javascript, etc. Its a freeware and is available from
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

5. Powertoys for XP

PowerToys add fun and functionality to the Windows experience. They are tweaking tools provided by microsoft but donot come with Windows. Some of them are
Color Control Panel Applet
SyncToy
RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer
ClearType Tuner
HTML Slide Show Wizard
Open Command Window Here
Alt-Tab Replacement
Tweak UI
Power Calculator
Image Resizer
CD Slide Show Generator
Virtual Desktop Manager
Taskbar Magnifier
Webcam Timershot

These are available from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

6. 7-zip

This is a freely available open source compression decompression archiever. It can decompress rar and zip files and the compression ratio compared to the others is higher. Can be used as substitute for winrar and winzip. It is available from
http://www.7-zip.org/

7. Magic ISO

MagicISO is a powerful CD/DVD image file creating/editing/extracting tool. It can open / create / edit /extract CD/DVD image files, and it can convert bin to iso and back. as well as make ISO file from DVD/CD-ROM or hard disk, and handle bootable information at meanwhile.Available from
http://www.magiciso.com/download.htm

8. Foxit Reader

The Adobe Reader has been to bulky and uses lots of resources when opened. Instead we can use this light weight alternative which is freely available for download. Some extra features are also available like creating a pdf merging pdfs which must be downloaded seperately. The advantage is it is only 2.13MB compared to 20.8MB of Adobe Reader and also has options for making notes in a pdf.Available from
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/

9. Picasa Web Albums

This is a tool for organising all pictures in the system. It has all the pictures listed in folders and years taken. It also gives options to make modifications to pictures. And for uploading them in the web.It comes as a part of google apps. It can also be seperately downloaded from
http://picasa.google.com/download/thanks.html

10. Download Accelerator plus

The name itself should explain its purpose. It speeds up the download process by downloading all parts simultaneously. It also has option for pausing the download and resuming them so that we dont have to download everything from beginning. The video accelerator speeds back the streaming video from youtube.etc. It is available at
http://beta.speedbit.com/

11. K-Lite codec pack

Also called as Media player classic,t his is a movie player having the older WMP look but supports nearly all video and audio codecs available presently. It replaces the need for real and quicktime players too. It is available from
http://www.free-codecs.com/K_Lite_Codec_Pack_download.htm

12. Vista like look

People who like to have a different look of their systems can use this software to transform their XP to look like Vista. It has all the style features of Vista like Object Dock, Aero Theme, etc. It is available from
http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.130.htm

Thats all for now. Next time i ll discuss some sites which can be useful for online purposes and also some online tools. Bye for now