My recent articles “Increase your typing speed” and “Awesome Keyboard Remapper – Clavier+” were to help you make better use of your devices. In line with this, I will today point out three more of the essential utilities I find indispensable on my netbook.
These are listed below in no particular order of usefulness or importance;
1. Everything / UltraSearch
2. FILEbox Extender
3. xNeat Clipboard manager
EVERYTHING / ULTRAsearch
The purpose of these two programs is to provide superfast search on your hard drives. The functionality offered by these two can be used to augment the search facility natively offered by by the Windows OS. They are fast, search-as-you-type, and thorough.
I have a problem deciding which is superior to the other, so I just use the two as my mood determines! I press Ctrl-E and Everything pops-up. At other times, I hit “Ctrl-U” and ULTRAsearch pops-up, courtesy of Clavier+
With these two applications, you will never every need to look for any folder or applications again! Everything supports Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 and Windows 7 and can be downloaded from http://www.voidtools.com/download.php
ULTRASearch supports Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7, including the 64Bit editions and can be downloaded from https://www.jam-software.de/customers/downloadTrial.php?article_no=670&language=EN&
Give them a spin.
FILEbox eXtender
Under the Windows operating System, we are all familiar with the “Recent List” (which gives a list of recently opened files ) as well as the concept of “Favourite “ lists.
Well, FILEbox takes these concepts even further. Once installed, ANY file open operation operation on any program will have two additional icons added to their normal ‘Open’, ‘Close’ & ‘Minimize’ icons.
One of these icons allows you to open a ‘recent list’ – it gives a list of systems-wide, recently accessed files. Note that the ‘recent/ file list is usually limited to the particular application you are running. This method is infinitely more useful.
The other icon allows you define your favorites list. This can be your frequently assessed files or folders. There are a whole lot more you can configure. Take a look-see
One other interesting functionality offered by FileBox is the ability to allow all open application windows to be ‘minimized’ to the ‘Title Bar’
That is, it always on top and Roll-up buttons on windows
It implements a “push-pin” button to your “top level” windows. This prevents any window you pinned to the desktop from being covered by any other windows. Great for keeping an eye on one program, but use another.
FILEbox eXtender supports Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/NT and can e downloaded from http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/FileBox-eXtender.shtml
Keep favorite folders at your fingertips – literally!
xNeat ClipBoard Manager
This is a ClipBoard Manager for the Windows XP / Vista (32-bit) Operating System.
The purpose of this utility is to address an annoying deficiency in all versions of the Windows OS – the inability to copy multiple items to the clipboard, and choose from the list for ‘paste-ing’ purpose.
Where this utility really shines is the fact that the multiple items copies to the clipboard persist even when you switch off the system.
You can customize the number of items stored in the clipboard, as well as the hotkey used to invoke (pop-up) the extended clipboard list..
The default keystrokes combination to wake up xNeat is Ctrl-Shift-V.
Ordinarily, Ctrl-V is the key combination used to paste the clipboard content in the Windows OS. Pressing Ctrl-V gives you the last item copied to the clipboard, while invoking ”Cltrl-Shift-V” pops-up the list of clipboard items you copied.
While a program such as the Microsoft Word offers multiple clipboard functionality, this particular utility makes this feature available in ALL programs. Neat!
xNeat ClipBoard Manager can be downloaded from http://www.xneat.com/clipboard-manager/
I hope you find these utilities as useful and indispensable as I found them.
