Sven Slootweg's Blog

As you might know, there are many handy tools out there to make your digital life just that bit easier. In this article, I will go into ten of the best tools that are available for Windows.

1. Taskbar Shuffle
This handy tool allows you to reposition your task bar icons and system tray icons in the way you want them. This is very useful if you are working with a lot of programs simultaneously, and want to have related programs close to each other. You can simply drag and drop a taskbar button or system tray icon anywhere on your taskbar, and it will reposition itself. Another handy feature is being able to close a window or program, simply by clicking on it’s taskbar button with your middle mouse button. You can download it at http://nerdcave.webs.com/

2. Fences
This free utility from StarDock (known for their organization and skinning software for Windows) enables you to create groups of icons on your desktop. It also enables you to hide all of your desktop icons with a double click on an empty space of your desktop. It’s very useful for keeping your desktop organized, especially since Windows has the tendency to mess up your carefully crafted icon layout. Download it from StarDock: http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

3. TrayIt!
TrayIt enables you to put a running program into your system tray, quick and dirty. Just right-click a minimize button, and send your window to the tray. Perfect for programs that should run in the background, but do not provide a send-to-tray function. You can download it at http://www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm

4. Orbit Downloader
This clean and easy-to-use download manager can handle multiple connections to multiple URLs, and has P2P technology built in to speed up your downloads. It also features quite seamless integration with many browsers, and a DownThemAll-like functionality for Internet Explorer. It is one of the best download managers available, and can be found at http://www.orbitdownloader.com/

5. VideoCacheView
This utility by NirSoft enables you to extract basically any multimedia files out of the cache directories of basically any browser. If you watched anything that streams, you can save it to a permanent location in seconds with this tool. You can find it at http://nirsoft.net/utils/video_cache_view.html

6. CDBurnerXP
A must-have for anyone that regularly makes copies of CDs/DVDs, or burns ISO files. This free and VERY lightweight program can 1:1 copy disks, burn ISO files, make ISO files, and make audio CD’s. It is highly recommended to have, since it requires way less system resources than software by Nero, Roxio, Ashampoo, and similar vendors. It’s available from http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

7. Everything
An unusually quick alternative for local file searching as Google Desktop does. It needs a bit of time to build a database, but when it’s done, it will crawl your database on-the-fly. Simply double-click the Everything logo in your system tray to bring up a search window, and type what you are looking for. It will update the results while you are typing. Highly recommended. The only missing feature is that of searching external harddrives. Download it fromhttp://www.voidtools.com/

8. jDownloader
This download manager is specifically aimed at quick uploading sites like Rapidshare and Megaupload. It can download a queue of files all on his own, and even automatically extract archives (if the archive requires a password, you can enter it during the downloading) and convert multimedia files. It is able to fetch URLs frm your clipboard automatically and check them for validity. It can even download videos from sites like YouTube, and convert them to another format right after it’s been downloaded. To cut it short, it can do all your downloading jobs, completely on it’s own, without any further interaction required. You enter downloads, leave the computer, and when you come back your freshly downloaded file is all unpacked and ready to use. You can find it at http://www.jdownloader.org. NOTE: This software, while compatible with premium accounts for quick uploading sites, does not require them. It does require you to read their TOS, and sticks to their rules. It’s not a ‘bypasser’.

9. Foxit PDF Reader
This very lightweight and free alternative to Adobe Reader, performs much better, and uses a lot less system resources. In everything else, it’s completely identical to Adobe Reader. Download it from http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

10. Startup Delayer
When your Windows boots, it usually takes a long time before all programs have started along with Windows. It sometimes seems like the programs are clogging up each other, and making everything run slower in general. Startup Delayer can delay the starting of programs. You can set an individual interval for every program, which defines how long after booting it will start. This effectively makes your computer boot faster. Get it fromhttp://www.r2.com.au/software.php?page=2&show=startdelay