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windows
Helpful programs you might want in MS Windows.
ahk autohotkey - Dave Horner's Website - if you haven't used Autohotkey, you should.
Chocolatey Gallery - Chocolatey NuGet is a Machine Package Manager, somewhat like apt-get, but built with Windows in mind. chocolatey/chocolatey create yourself a custom feed and automate your installs. Get ALL your #SharePoint tools installed in 20 minutes - Melcher.it
Registry and Shell Extensions
Import this registry file into your registry. When you right click on .ocx and .dll files you will get a context menu for registering and unregistering the ocx/dll. Also shows OLEView and stuff for tlb,olb,etc. Very handy. [Reg File]
Here is a registry file to remove the recent documents feature of WinXP. Recent documents is a "feature" that I never use. [Reg File] Right click save as and import into your registry by double clicking.
Copy path of a file to the clipboard from a context menu in explorer.
I can't say how powerful this program is. Paths are a pain in the butt. This makes it so I can copy a normal path or even C quote a path for inclusion in code. I believe it has saved me more time than I would like to know. (In Vista,Win7,etc hold down the shift key when right clicking into the context menu, you'll find "Copy as Path". Maybe not as useful as the below extension, but it will save you time.)
Copy the full path of a file to the clipboard from a context menu in explorer. [Link] [Local Cache] [XP DLL]
Run exe files from content menu in explorer with command line params. [Link] [Local Cache] [XP DLL]
When you download files off the web, many times they provide MD5/SHA checksums. Get [Hashtab].
Helpful programs
Restore deleted files on FAT and NTFS filesystems - Restoration
FTP client and server with SCP support! - FileZilla
A good program for keeping your passwords. KeePass (Even port to PocketPC)
Another FTP/SCP client but I use it mostly for SCP and SFTP. WinSCP
Virtual CloneDrive - mount ISOs in windows(vista too)...free
Freeware MagicISO Virtual CD/DVD-ROM(MagicDisc) - usually I use the CloneDrive, but it doesn't have x64 win2003 support yet. This works too, and freeware.
daemontools - another ISO mounter with 64 bit support. (free)
The Official ImgBurn Website - ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application for windows.
Looking for some a good codec for movies in windows? Try using the ffdshow filters.
Putty
putty is one of the best SSH clients out there for Windows. The best part is that it is free. However, I've always wanted tabbed ssh sessions. Today I found PuttyTabs
PuTTY Connection Manager
putty-launchy-plugin - Google Code - A plugin for listing saved PuTTY sessions in Launchy
Web resources
WinXP FAQ from aoaforums.
Volumouse
Volumouse is really cool for controlling the volume on your devices using your mouse. I
use it exclusively for volume control on all my MS machines. I leave all my speakers on and volume set high...makes it real easy to manage using synergy too.
Volumouse
Sysinternals - some of the best tools in windows...
Sysinternals makes some really nice utilities for finding out information about processes in windows.
All the tools are available from here... \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\procexp.exe
Checkout Process Monitor and Process
Explorer
Another great tool from sysinternals is AutoRuns, which allows you to see processes that start on boot. Very handy to find information about startup programs but it also exposes a lot of information about other dlls / hooks that take place within windows. Use it to get a better idea of what is happening in your machine!
Then there's ProcDump a great utility to save crash dumps of a program that might hang or spike CPU usage. The author's blog The Compound Case of the Outlook Hangs - Mark's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs talks about using procdump to catch hard to find issues... nice blog.
Robocopy
If you haven't seen it already, windows now has Robocopy which provides better copy/move features than normal copies/moves.
Utility Spotlight: Robocopy GUI -- TechNet Magazine, November 2006
Download details: Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools
Wink - a freeware tutorial recording app.
How to Use the Shadow Copy Client
µTorrent - The Lightweight and Efficient BitTorrent Client
Synergy: control many PCs with one keyboard and mouse / multi-platform support
I would have to say that this is one of the coolest applications I've found in a long time. This allows you to copy and paste between multiple platforms (ie. windows, mac, linux). Control one PC till it makes you wait, then move on to the next machine. I feel much more productive with it. Give it a try.
synergy-plus - Project Hosting on Google Code
Synergy
mycroes all day long: Synergy when you need it
Synergy: NOTE: cursor is locked to screen || DEBUG1: locked to screen
woah, I did not know about scroll lock in synergy and it was frustrating. I assume many other people to not know about the nature of scroll lock with synergy. when scroll lock is on, the mouse is locked to that particular computer; so when you try scrolling into another computer, it will indicate cursor is locked to screen. Scroll Lock to get the cursor moving from machine to machine again.
windows - Synergy stopped moving cursor over to client computer (config worked previously) - Super User
SyncToy: a free powertoy download for file synchronization
BgInfo v4.12
Looking for a free and easy to use MP3/OGG encoder? LameDropXPd is a single exe that gives you the encoding power of LAME with drag-n-drop support... (includes source!)
In windows, your start menu can get a bit large. This makes launching programs a chore. You end up searching visually for your application for a long time. Using a windows launcher like Launchy: The Open Source Keystroke Launcher for Windows... you can keep your hands on the keyboard at all times. Or at least you should be, sometimes programs don't have good tab field order. This means you end up entering fields in the incorrect order. (30 steps instead of 1)
wingrep, or grep for windows with replacement!
grepWin | Stefan's Tools - Regular expression search and replace for Windows (ContextMenu!)
Vista/XP Virtual Desktop Manager - Home - expose for windows, without hot-corners, though it is opensource on codeplex.
screenclip or animated gif cast
Cropper - Home - open source windows screen cap!
Cropper Plugins - Release: 1.1 Release - includes a lot of really great plugins, my fav. is the animated gif plugin with neural network change detection to reduce redundant frames...
Welcome to Gyazo | Seriously Instant Screen-Grabbing
gyazo's Profile - GitHub - gyazo clients are open.
Benchmarking tools
Crystal Dew World - Software - CrystalDiskMark - CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software.
Measure Computer Performance | wPrime Multithreaded Benchmark
Download | Unigine (3D engine for games and real-time virtual worlds) -Heaven Benchmark DirectX Benchmark
Disk Defrag
Five Best Disk Defragmenters for Windows - Kevin Hatfield’s Blog
Disk Defrag - Fast and Safe Defragmenter for Your Disks
Defraggler - Download
TCP-Z, Best TCP/IP Patch: Universal Termsrv.dll Patch V1.0b Build 20090425 Release - patch your system to allow for multiple rdp sessions at once.
GIMP - Windows installers
Turn off displays
Yes, MS didn't give us a simple way to turn off the displays... there are many ways to accomplish it using tools and win32 apis.
SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND /*0x0112*/, SC_MONITORPOWER /*0xF170*/, 2);
It's easier to install a tool, than to drag around a small binary that just broadcasts a message, I now use nircmd.
command line - Turn off display in Windows 7 without additional software - Super User
NirCmd - Windows command line tool
Install nircmd, run the following, and you'll find a shortcut on your desktop.
PatchCleaner - safely clean your windows installer directory
Created: 2006-01-10 16:30:56
Modified: 2017-10-28 06:28:44
