Sunday, November 30, 2008

Gearing Up Windows (to make it usable)

At my workplace I am using Windows Box. I have been using windows since Windows 3.1.x when we use to boot with DOS and then run it to get the GUI. Windows was never this difficult to adjust :( for me.

I have never use windows for my work, I mean I start my career on a Linux box and I just loved it. Customize it the way you like, you always have alternatives for every thing, the community is absolutely wonderful and all of it is open source, Linux is just great specially when you really like to play with software ohh forgot this blog is not about Linux ;).

Due to some environmental constraint I have to use windows, (I have FC 8 as the other booting OS and CentOS in a VM) I was having real hard time on adjusting to windows so I start gearing it up.

I am just listing tools I have install to make windows usable (For me of course):

yod'm 3d: Just can't work without multiple desktop, unfortunately its no longer free-ware, 1.4 is the last free version and its hosted by KLT. My personal experience with Yod'm have been very good, it's a portable application i.e. you don't need to install it and it works straight away.


TrayIt!: Yeah I don't like many application at my Taskbar, I have seen people using 3 even 4 rows taskbar :-0, come on guys use multiple desktop with Tray IT! .
Application which are likely to be accessed from multiple desktops (Your development IDE for instance) should be in system tray, application which just runs in the background (Like real player) should never appear in the taskbar. Tray IT! can do all this (and much more) for you and It is absolutely free.


clipX: Clipboard, yes that's it I just need a good clipboard application and clipX is just great, just press the hotkey and select what to pate.

MoRUN.net Sticker Lite: Instead of using notepad and multiple files to log or temporarily hold things I use sticky notes, again they don't take your taskbar space, you can access them with hotkeys and you don't save as they get saved automatically, MoRUN.net Sticker Lite will do all this fro free.

launchy: Do I really need to say anything? What people still click on start button, click on there desktop icons and use default file manager, with Launchy you just use Hotkeys.

ExplorerXP: I need a tabbed interface File Manager, Its absolutely mandatory I just can't work without a Multi Tab file manager. ExplorerXP Is one such good freeware (for non - commercial use) file manger.

QTTabBar: Multi Tab file manager is so mandatory for me that I have installed two of them, Even if by chance the default file manager is open I can get tabs with QTTabBar. Its an Add-In that gives Tab Browsing Feature to your Explorer. Folder grouping, histories, etc and I love it :). There is just one prerequisite for windowsXP which is Net Framework 2.0 or later should be installed on your system.
My email client is Thunderbird with quite a few addons (reminderfox, Provider for Google Calendar, Lightning, MinimizeToTray, Minimize To Tray Enhancer, Display Mail User Agent to name a few ).

If you are wondering why don't I have screen shoots and all that, I am writing this on Ubuntu 8.10 and I am @ home.

No comments:

Post a Comment