It has been awhile since I posted the last article. I was busy setting up my new website http://wpmarketing.org . Anyway, I stumbled this introduction page of free desktop application from lifehacker , my favorite DIY site. I am using many of the list, and love to tell which ones I am using. I will mark them with Red Color.

61 Free Desktop Applications, Webapps, and Tools We’re Most Thankful For

1. Firefox (see also: Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3, Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features)
2. VLC (see also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC, VLC Hits 1.0 with Better Playback and File Support)
3. CCleaner (see also: Five Best Windows Maintenance Tools)
4. Dropbox (see also: Use Dropbox for More Than Just File Syncing, Sync Files and Folders Outside Your My Dropbox Folder)
5. 7-Zip (see also: Five Best File Compression Tools)
6. OpenOffice.org (see also: OpenOffice.org 3.1’s Usability Tweaks, OpenOffice.org Screenshots Preview a Ribbon-Like Toolbar)
7. Google Chrome (see also: The Power User’s Guide to Google Chrome, 2009 Edition)
8. µTorrent (see also: Tweak uTorrent’s Settings for Faster Downloads, Five Best BitTorrent Applications)
9. Notepad++ (see also: Five Best Text Editors, AutoSave Adds Reassurance to Notepad++ Editing)
10. Gmail (see also: Our full Gmail coverage)
11. GIMP (see also: Gimp 2.7 Beta Improves Text Editing, Streamlines Saving)
12. Paint.NET (see also: Paint.NET Releases Big Update, Still a Killer Photoshop Alternative, Paint.NET Plugin Lets You Open Photoshop Files)
13. Microsoft Security Essentials (see also: Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus App Leaves Beta, Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft’s Security Tools Are Good Enough)
14. Revo Uninstaller (see also: Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads)
15. Evernote (see also: Evernote 3.5 Beta Brings Tons of Tiny Fixes to Windows, Expand Your Brain with Evernote)
16. Thunderbird (see also: Thunderbird 3 Release Candidate Available for Download)
17. Audacity (see also: Geek to Live: Make a ringtone from any MP3)
18. ImgBurn (see also: Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster, Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools)
19. Picasa (see also: Picasa 3.5 Organizes Your Photos with Facial Recognition)
20. Skype (see also: Our full Skype coverage)
21. Pidgin (see also: Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin, Five Best Instant Messengers)
22. Ubuntu (see also: First Look at Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony)
23. iTunes (see also: iTunes 9 Improves Syncing, Network Sharing, More)
24. foobar2000 (see also: Screenshot Tour: The beautiful and varied world of foobar2000, Hack Attack: Roll your own killer audio player with foobar2000)
25. Foxit Reader (see also: Five Best PDF Readers, Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads)
26. FileZilla (see also: Five Best FTP Clients, Build a Home FTP Server with FileZilla)
27. VirtualBox (see also: The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox)
28. TrueCrypt (see also: Geek to Live: Encrypt your data, Five Best Portable Applications)
29. Avast! (see also: Five Best Antivirus Applications)
30. Defraggler (see also: Five Best Disk Defragmenters)
31. KeePass (see also: Eight Best KeePass Plug-Ins to Master Your Passwords, How to Use Dropbox as the Ultimate Password Syncer)
32. Opera (see also: Opera 10.10 with Unite Media Server Released)
33. AVG (see also: AVG 9 Free Now Available for Download)
34. Digsby (see also: Five Best Instant Messengers, Digsby Sees the Light, Removes (Some) Bundled Crapware)
35. Google Reader (see also: Our full Google Reader coverage)
36. Winamp (see also: Win7shell Adds Windows 7 Jump List Support to Winamp)
37. Google Earth (see also: Google Earth 5.1 Speeds Up Your World Browsing)
38. TeraCopy (see also: Five Best Alternative File Copiers)
39. Launchy (see also: Our full Launchy coverage)
40. Transmission (see also: Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Mac Downloads)
41. Eclipse IDE
42. SpyBot Search & Destroy (see also: Five Best Malware Removal Tools)
43. Adium (see also: Adium Updates with Security Fixes, Better Facebook Integration)
44. PuTTY (see also: Add Tabs to PuTTY with PuTTY Connection Manager)
45. Songbird (see also: Songbird 1.0 Release Official, Fixes Bugs, Plays iTunes Purchases, Killer Add-ons Make Songbird So Much Better)
46. Sumatra PDF (see also: Sumatra 1.0 is a Blazing Fast Replacement for Adobe Reader)
47. XBMC (see also: Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap, Customize XBMC with These Five Awesome Skins, Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation)
48. Blender (see also: Learn Blender with free e-book)
49. CDBurnerXP (see also: Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools)
50. Everything (see also: Everything Finds Windows Files As You Type, Top 10 Tiny & Awesome Windows Utilities)
51. HandBrake (see also: HandBrake Updates to 0.9.4 with Over 1,000 Changes, 64-Bit Support)
52. Rainmeter (see also: Rainmeter 1.0 Brings the Enigma Desktop to Everyone)
53. AutoHotkey (see also: Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut, Hack Attack: Knock down repetitive email with AutoHotKey)
54. Google Calendar (see also: Our full Google Calendar coverage)
55. MediaMonkey (see also: MediaMonkey 3.2 Syncs with More Devices, Adds Auto Folder Watching)
56. Quicksilver (see also: A beginner’s guide to Quicksilver)
57. WinSCP
58. Google Voice (see also: Make Unlimited Free Calls on Your Cellphone with Google Voice, How to Ease Your Transition to Google Voice)
59. Boxee (see also: Build a Cheap But Powerful Boxee Media Center, Boxee to Launch Beta with Loads of New Features)
60. AdBlock Plus (see also: Top 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions, 2009 Edition)
61. Media Player Classic (see also: Five Best Video Players)

Okay, I only use 21 programs out of 61 listed. But here are some of terrific freeware that I am using, but not mentioned on the list.

1. RocketDock – Application Launcher just like Apple OS X. The dock can be set to hide and to appear with mouse moves.
2. Any Video Converter – I have reviewed several free video converters few months ago. This was the best and quick and easiest converter out there among the free ones. Check the download menu and go to the bottom to get the free version.
3. QuotePad – This is sticky notepad with alert function. The best feature I like is that it can dock to the side of the screen and hide and appear whenever mouse moves over it! It saves the desktop space.
4. Windows Live Writer – Must have tool for any blogger. Wordpress has very good interface for writing articles, but sometimes it is awkward to attach images or formatting article layout. But Windows Live Writer comes to the rescue! It supports various blogging platform including Wordpress. You are able to set Category, Tags, Publish Date. And provides intuitive interface just like any other desktop document word processing software. You can easily attach images by just copy and paste screen capture images.
5. Recuva – To recover deleted files or to completely delete them.
6. PhotoScape – Simple and Quick image editing or manipulation tool. I know Paint.NET is very good one, but it’s just too heavy to perform simple editing. But PhotoScape is lighter and I prefer to use it most of the time. I rarely use Photoshop after I found PhotoScape.
7. Ashampoo Burning Studio Free – Full featured CD DVD Blu-ray discs burning tool. I am not sure how this commercial grade software can be free, but it is truly free. It do have ImgBurn installed, but I think I never used it.

That’s about it for now. I will update the list if I find good ones worth to mention.

Thank you and enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Best Freeware for Windows by LifeHacker
2. Quick list of the popular freewares
3. List of Free software from Microsoft

I often store various data files in the hard drive , but forget where it is almost every time. But with ‘Everything’ File Search Tool , I do not worry. In fact, it is very light and fast, so I prefer ‘Everything’ over Google Desktop Search or even Locate32.(Locate32 is simliar search tool based on filename exported to Windows from Unix.)

It only searches filename and does that job very well. It does not search the file contents. It lists up all the files that includes the search keyword that I type in real time.

You need to have NTFS file system, and only indexes local and removable NTFS partition. It does not support networked computer shared folders by default. However, you can search network computer by running another instance of Everything in the remote server as ETP server (See the website for more info)

It supports various boolean operators , wild cards , and regex expressions . It is so amazing. For example, To search files with particular extensions, let’s say mp3, try this.

.mp3

You wan to search mp3 or jpg,

.mp3 | .jpg

If you want mp3 or jpg files in D:\down folder, try this

D:\down .mp3 | .jpg

For more keyword samples, check the homepage FAQ.

Thank you for visiting Hana & Sarah’s Freeware Blog.

Webpage for Everything: http://www.voidtools.com/

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2. Aduna AutoFocus
3. Ebay Desktop – Adobe AIR App

At work, I have to write many emails and record work history. But frequently I forget the day’s date and have to move mouse over the task bar clock and wait for the tooltip to appear with the date or double click to access default windows calendar when I get impatient with the tooltip.

But here is my little freeware solution that helps me a lot! Now I know the date by just looking at the task bar clock. No more mouse hovering is needed!

Here is the original task bar clock

And this is the task bar after TClock was turned on with custom date & time format string.

Of course you can set the font type and size. In fact TClock has more functions that you can play with (Alarm clock and addtional options that can change Taskbar’s look) Below is the properties dialog screen shot.

Just unzip the downloaded file to a folder and drag the executable to your startup folder. So whenever the computer boots , TClock would show you the date information.

Related posts:

1. RocketDock – Windows App Launcher
2. Where is that Folder?
3. Sarah flvtools2 Helper for Windows – embedding Metadata into FLV

Here is another Flip 3D emulator for your XP.
This one is actually better than Shock Aero. (Here is my previous posting on Shock Aero. The Shock Aero has become too heavy and slow. It also requires serial number that you can get from the developer’s homepages. But it’s just an unnecessary extra step as a freeware.)

WinFlip is light and fast, it requires DirectX9.0c. But you should already have it in your XP.

Pros

• It doesn’t require setup. You can execute after unzip.
• WinFlip is light and fast.
• Showing Alphabet letter besides each window to directly access it.
• The short cut is Window + Tab but you can also trigger the Flip screen by mouse movement. If you make a circle movement with your mouse, the Flip screen is shown. That is very neat and kind of addictive. These setup can be changed from the options.

Cons

• It’s unstable. If you open lots of windows and application, WinFlip becomes unstable and crashes.

If you love Vista’s Flip 3D, WinFlip maybe the best freeware solution for you but note that it becomes unstable after several hours. But let’s hope that they fix this problem soon. Until then, I decided to remove the winflip from the startup menu.

Related posts:

1. Vista Flip 3D emulator in Window XP
2. Quick dictionary lookup using The Sage and Launchy
3. PrimoPDF – Free PDF converter

Launchy is quite convenient and easy to use. The default shortcut keys are Alt + Space which can be easily changed from the option menu that you can access by right clicking on the border of Launchy.

It provides slick interface design which is skinable. Also, it is easy to add new executable location. You only need to define the parent folder in the Catalog menu and Launchy will scan all sub-folders and index them too. It is smart and self learning so once you executed ‘putty’ ssh by typing ‘pu’, it will show ‘putty’ as default entry next time you type ‘pu’. One thing that I didn’t like was that it consumes about 18 MB of memory. It is little too much for a simple application, but I guess it’s because of the graphic interface. But I couldn’t find better alternative.

Basically I like it because it’s pretty and smart enough to remember my favorite applications.

There are some similar free softwares introduced here at Lifehacker.com site. I did tried recently became freeware Enso. It is less intuitive (with no pretty graphics interface, showing only large bold letters on the left top corner) and hard to learn . Also it uses about 34 MB of memory. It was just not for me.

With the RocketDock and Launchy, I am in full control of my desktop.

Related posts:

1. Quick dictionary lookup using The Sage and Launchy
2. RocketDock – Windows App Launcher
3. The complete list of best freeware that you will ever need

But with so many folders and sub directories, it is virtually tiresome for me to search the right folder every time I open an Explorer Window.

However , with the help of these three freeware utilities, Now it’s quick and easy to find the right folder. Efficiency has increased 200%.

In the below image , the right column icons are all actual folders.

1. iColorFolder
This utility lets you change the folder icon and its color. By default you are required to select the folder icon styles ( Aqua, Mac OS X, Vista , Windows XP) and you can change the color of the folder icon. Therefore, it helps me to distinguish each folder with different importances and classifications.

You can change the icon by right mouse click on the folder.

DOWNLOAD : http://icolorfolder.sourceforge.net/download_icolorfolder_page.htm

2. Shedko Badges
This program allows to show small emblem icon over the Windows Icon. There are 10 different types of icons you can mark. This program is not confined to Folders. It can apply the emblem icon to any Windows file and folders.

DOWNLOAD : http://eng.softq.org/badges.htm

3. Folder Guide 1.1
This program allows you to setup the favorite folders to appear in the right mouse context menu of Windows Explorer.

DOWNLOAD: http://www.freeware365.com/desktop/folderguide.htm

All three utilities are also perfectly working in the Open/Save File Dialogs.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft SysInternals
2. Outlook : Search Folder Name & Remove Duplicated Emails
3. Microsoft Power Toys

The program is called Shock Aero and can be run without any setups.

Of course , it is not exactly the same as Vista’s but it works for me.

The 3D windows are flipping when you scroll mouse wheel or ALT+TAB continuously.

Vista Flip Style

Mac OS X style

Pros

• Freeware
• Very nice 3D effect . Very similar to the Vista Flip 3D effect
• Macintosh OS X style can be selected instead of Vista Flip 3D style. But Mac style seems little bit slower than Vista Flip style.
• No setup is required.

Cons

• Slow loading the Flip screen compared to the original ALT+TAB

Website : http://www.docs.co.kr
Direct Download

Related posts:

1. Free Vista Flip 3D emulator – WinFlip
2. Where is that Folder?
3. Best Photo Editor for Blog – Photoscape

I was longing for such App launcher for Windows and tried some yahoo widget previously but they were very disappointing. When I first found this free software and I was very excited and satisfied with its powerful features that I always wanted.

Actually there are several similar Dock App for Windows, but this is good enough for me not to try other Dock / Launcher softwares.

• You can add and remove icons by just drag and drop.
• You can change the icon image with the regular image files (jpeg, gif, png)
• Multi language support
• Full control setting of its behavior (Icon Enlargement, Menu hides…)

Take a look at this movie that they made for showcase of RocketDock.
http://one.revver.com/watch/160224/flv

You may need 3rd party ICON images to decorate your dock. Try Everaldo’s free Crystal Icon Series. They are great and comes in various sizes from 16X16 to 128X128. If the above site does not work, try CrystalXp.net. They host many icon image sets, and I believe that they are free for personal use. But I guess you need to contact the author for the commercial use.

Other similar Windows Docking products are ObjectDock and AquaDock.

Related posts:

1. Launchy
2. Best Freeware for Windows by LifeHacker
3. Virtual Dimension – Virtual Desktop Manager with Transparency Support