Favorite Files

1. AIMP
2. AllMyNotes Organizer Free Edition
3. Bvckup
4. CloneDVD
5. CrystalDiskInfo
6. Defraggler
7. Diffuse for Windows
8. Foxit Reader
9. ImgBurn
10. K-Lite Codec Pack Full
11. LameXP
12. MusicBee
13. MyDefrag
14. Notepad2
15. Opera for Windows
16. Pixia
17. Process Lasso (x32) Free Edition
18. Process Monitor
19. REAPER for Windows (x86)
20. Screenshot Captor
21. Stickies
22. Sublime Text
23. Sysinternals Suite
24. TagScanner
25. TeraCopy
26. Total Commander (32-bit/64-bit)
27. Transmute Standard
28. True Launch Bar
29. UltraMon
30. VirtualDub
31. WildBit Viewer
32. XnView for Windows

Recent Posts

1. 
   Review - Notepad2

   4.2.25-rc7 (Apr 15, 2011)

   While I do use this editor, it's certainly not my primary editor. And comparing Notepad2 to UltraEdit32 is one of the most ludicrous statements I've ever read.
   
   The second-most ludicrous would be comparing to Notepad++ - which is a great feature-rich editor, that may or may not crash for no reason whatsoever. From VAX to Unix to DOS to Windows and Linux, I've used dozens upon dozens of Editors, and Notepad++ is the only one (of two) that has crashed.
   
   Notepad2 is a decent 'quick-edit' feature-light editor that has a few annoying quirks that the dev doesn't want to fix, but at least it has never crashed. If you require heavy-lifting and extensive customization, you should look elsewhere. And if stability isn't important to you, but free is, go for Notepad++.
   
   My full-featured editors of choice, EmEditor, and CodeLobster PHP.
   Notepad-like editors: Notepad2, Ted's Notepad (v6 beta), and good-old Notepad.
   
   For ~$40 EmEditor (perpetual license, so far) stomps all over (feature-wise) the outrageously priced UltraEdit32, and the "free" Notepad++.

2. 
   Review - Sysinternals Suite

   Build 10/14/10 (Oct 15, 2010)

   Changelog can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sysinternals/
   Perhaps BetaNews could add it to the links above.
   
   Use junction all the time, the others not so often and some never at all.
   
   Much like the NirSoft utilities, the SysInternals Suite suffers from fragmentation. A gui-toolbox that would allow you to drop-in/snap-in the tools; possibly add a comment/Tip to the tool description line would make it much easier to access infrequently used SysUtilities.

3. 
   Review - True Launch Bar

   4.4.9 RC1 (May 18, 2010)

   Considering that you can just add a folder to the TaskBar,
   ie: "My Documents"\Shortcuts, or even your "Desktop".
   
   and Shortcuts might contain (folders with .lnk's):
   Image\
   ColorCop.lnk
   IrfanView.lnk
   XnView.lnk
   Utilities\
   TrayMenu.lnk
   
   etc. All Your shortcuts are organized in a folder. You can also do something like this with AutoHotKey, or a plethora of "Menu Tools" like digitalis' ShortPopUp, CLCL (Clipboard utility, that allows for Hotkeys and MenuPop ups) among many others.
   
   I'd have to agree with the value proposition: $20 is highly overpriced. Even my FileManager and Text Editors that are used constantly were only $30-$40 -- and lifetime licenses.

4. 
   Review - XnView for Windows

   1.97 (Dec 3, 2009)

   @ TGB72
   I really think it depends on what you are using XnView | IrfanView for. IrfanView's line-command (batch-script processing) can't be beat as far as I know.
   IrfanView : Viewer, Batch Processing, Minimal Editing, Thumb/Html.
   XnView: Image Manager, Viewer, Complex Interface.
   
   I find I still use IrfanView more often for quick access to files and manipulation of said files.
   
   As far as Image Management is concerned, I prefer PicaJet -- hopefully they'll actually release v3 at some point.
   
   For ease of use, Vista/Win7's explorer does most of what a basic user would need

5. 
   Review - AIMP

   2.60 Build 510 RC3 (Nov 4, 2009)

   Decent player (option-wise), yet the sound when Equalizer is enabled and presets are used leaves something to be desired -- when compared to WinAmp 2.95 and various comparable presets AIMP sounds tinny.
   
   Minor Flaws:
   (-) Unable to move the Equalizer from its left/right position (cannot be put underneath the main player).
   (-) The TagList Editor cannot resize the FileList (which only shows a couple files) vs the huge amount of space taken up (below) for showing File Details + Cover Art.
   (-) Inability to customize the Main Player's spectrum analyzer (Thin Bands, Dropoff, Firemode, etc etc.)
   (-) Bitrate display is constant (average): no display update for VBR files.
   
   Personal Preferences:
   Prefer Winamp's customizable Windowshade mode: which can windowshade each gui element (player, playlist, equalizer...).
   
   Major Flaws:
   (-) Sound (Equalizer) is worse than WinAmp (2.95) from 2003 (Especially noticeable with the "Rock" preset among others).
   (-) Very Limited Visualization options, and no customization.
   
   The Good:
   (+) The player itself looks good.
   (+) Functionally it works well, and the interface is intuitive.
   (+) Tabs for playlists.
   
   Perhaps it's bad presets, but there's definitely something wrong with the sound when the Equalizer is used. This would be a very competitive player if at least the sound issue was resolved.
   
   For now I'll stick with WinAmp 2.95 and J.River's Media Jukebox 12 (some of the coolest visualizations I've seen). Perhaps users don't care much about Visualization options, but the lack of options and customization in that area make this player seem incomplete to me.

6. Comment - Hotmail becomes 'Web-based Outlook,' sends email from other POP services

   2.60 Build 510 RC3 (Nov 2, 2010 - 3:56 AM)

   Hotmail still sucks. No matter how many features and extras they add. They still completely purge your inbox if you don't login for XX-days. ( I don't know how long it is now, but it used to be ~30, and they still do it).
   
   Interestingly, they purge my inbox, but don't delete my SkyDrive files. Ludicrous.
   
   Glad I didn't switch all my email over from Gmail and Yahoo. As there have been periods over the years where I had no net-access for a month or more in succession. Everything would be gone. Neither gmail, yahoo, operamail and likely no other webMail provider is so outrightly hostile to it's own users.

7. Comment - Opera 11 launches in alpha, offers new features to test

   2.60 Build 510 RC3 (Oct 28, 2010 - 2:24 AM)

   So turn cookies off. Or set them to on your permission only. Or a mix of turn them off and allow them for sites you want to.
   
   I used to bother with all of that, but really it matters not. "They" might know where I go online, or collect info/data for more accurate targetted advertising... not really that important in the grand scheme of things.

8. Comment - Opera 11 launches in alpha, offers new features to test

   2.60 Build 510 RC3 (Oct 25, 2010 - 6:23 PM)

   Well... there are differences obviously. Just like how I can't
   1) "duplicate a tab" in Firefox
   2) Make a new tab open beside the current active tab.
   3) Open a tab in the foreground OR background.
   4) Open a (windows) Panel, select a bunch of tabs, and move them to a new Window.
   
   I don't find S h i f t+End, Reload that problematic. Then again I usually have a hundred tabs open spanning a couple different windows, I wouldn't want to reload them all.
   
   I know there must be things that FireFox can do better than Opera, but all I ever hear from anyone in threads when the fanbois come out to play is the lack of Ad-Block and Opera's "gawd-awful" gui (of which every single element of the gui can be turned off or customized† ), and a few other things.
   
   Opera has definitely lost some quality control in the 10.x series, especially after 10.10 - so they have some work to do there before shoveling more junk into the binary. Hopefully soon, as the prospect of switching browsers is not a bright point. Opera is even more customizable than Total Commander -- and doesn't look like it's from the 90's.
   
   I really doubt most long-time Opera or FireFox users are even interested in switching, what they have works and works to their expectations.
   
   † : -- Customized to the point where you can have buttons that do multiple actions based on a short click or a long click: I have a button that when quick-clicked opens up Preferences, and when long-clicked (less than a second) :: opens up the Skin Settings (Appearance). And that's just a simple single javascript string. Since every single command in opera is available to be hotkeyed or triggered/Javascripted.

9. Comment - Opera 11 launches in alpha, offers new features to test

   2.60 Build 510 RC3 (Oct 25, 2010 - 4:46 PM)

   Yes. Open up the panel and enable the [Windows] icon. This will list all of your open tabs in all of your Opera Windows. Select the ones you want, right click and choose Reload.
   
   Most Windows ListBox keyboard shortcuts work here (except Ctrl+A), e.g. Click + S H I F T Click, or S H I F T + Down/Up Arrow, S H I F T+Home / End, PgDown/Up, Ctrl+Click to toggle selection of an item. Those shortcuts work in any panel: BookMarks, Links, Windows(Tabs), etc.
   
   (Gaaah, Betanews still hasn't fixed the filter that wont let you type "S H I F T"

10. Comment - Docs.com: The surest sign yet of Microsoft's defeat

    2.60 Build 510 RC3 (Apr 24, 2010 - 12:28 AM)

    The cloud's Google Doc's couldn't even open an .RTF document without completely ruining the document into a mix of binary / tags and text.