Windows

NirCmd is a freeware utility that allows you to perform tasks from the command line, .bat files, desktop shortcuts and even Launchy. There’s a large list of commands on the NirCmd website. I’ve picked out a few that I’ve found useful, but you may find another great use for NirCmd after reading through the examples. This was written and tested in WindowsXP but it should also work in other versions of Windows. [click to continue...]

Launchy is a open-source keystroke launcher for Windows (including Vista) covered briefly here last month. Here are some advanced tricks I’ve found for Launchy. [click to continue...]

So, I’m trying two new things with this post. The first is writing it as I’m looking into this application, and the second is actually using the application. It’s Instantbird, a cross-platform instant messenger built on Pidgin and Mozilla. It should be noted that this is far away from a stable release. [click to continue...]

Sumatra PDF is a very simple PDF viewer that I find to be faster than other programs like Adobe Reader (an 80MB app to read PDFs?) and Foxit. It may lack a lot of features compared to Foxit, but if all you want to do is quickly read a PDF after you’ve downloaded it, this is the program for you. You can download it here. It is also usable as a portable application, as it’s just one file with no external dependencies so you can easily run it from external USB drive.

After you have it installed, go to Start -> All Programs -> SumatraPDF and click on SumatraPDF. It might ask you if you want to make it the default PDF viewer, in which case you should say yes. If it doesn’t, you can go to File -> Make SumatraPDF a Default PDF Viewer.

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The following is another “guest blogger” tutorial by Skyler Huse

Foobar is an application I think everyone should try. It’s an audio player that plays a lot of different file types (MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC / Ogg FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU, SND, CDDA, WMA and more with optional components). It also does more than just play your music. It can rip songs from CDs, convert songs to many other formats, you can edit the tags of your songs, customize virtual everything, and lots more. And the best thing about it is that it uses less ram when compared to most other audio players. This makes it perfect for using while playing games, if you use it for nothing else. [click to continue...]

DVDflick is a free program for Windows XP, 2000, and Vista that can help you burn virtually any video file into a DVD player playable disc. You can download it here. Install it, run it and the DVD Flick window pops up. Keep reading for a quick rundown of how to make a DVD. [click to continue...]

ClipX is a free tool for Windows (I can’t find anywhere that tells me exactly which operating systems, but it works great for me on XP) that allows you to hold more items in your clipboard. The clip board is where the stuff you copy stays until you replace it with something else you copy. Unless you have ClipX, that is. Check out the screen shots and download it here.

Scroll down on that page a little and under Download ClipX you should see the latest stable version, which is fairly dated. Under that is the beta version, which was updated earlier this year. I have been using the beta for a long time now with no problems, so I suggest you use that. Most users will want the one with x86 at the end, unless you are using a 64 bit version of Windows. Underneath the downloads is a list of plugins for ClipX. The only one I have used is the auto update, which works great and is easy to install.

After you have the ClipX installer downloaded, double click it and go through the installation. It’s pretty straight forward. When it asks you if you want to run it, click Yes unless you’ve also downloaded a plugin. If you have downloaded a plugin, after the main installation of ClipX, run the installer for the plugin. Then you can start ClipX. Unlike other programs, it won’t put an icon in your tray by default. So go to Start -> All Programs -> ClipX and click on ClipX. This should bring up the ClipX Configuration window, shown below. You can change how many items to keep in your clipboard among other things. I recommend checking Run ClipX on Startup.

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There are a lot more options for you to look through, so set it up however you want. Click Apply when you are done and enjoy this very useful little program!

This tutorial will guide you step by step through using uTorrent to automatically find and download your favorite TV shows, as soon as they’re available on bittorrent sites. It’s important to mention up front - depending on the country you live in, downloading television programs from the Internet may not be legal. Be sure to check before you proceed. [click to continue...]

Katmouse is a program that is kind of hard to explain. What it does is very useful, but you don’t really realize until you’re without it. In a nutshell, it enhances how your mouses scroll wheel works. It lets you scroll any window that is under your cursor. Usually, a window will only scroll if it is active, or on top. Katmouse changes that. [click to continue...]

This is a follow up of my previous post about using the CCCP to play any video file on Windows. This time I’m going to show you how to use FFDShow, which is installed with the CCCP, to enhance the look of your videos. [click to continue...]

The CCCP (or Combined Community Codec Pack) is set of video codecs and players designed to play almost any type of video file, and with a few more downloads discussed later, it will play everything you can throw at it. You can download the CCCP from here. After you’ve downloaded it, double click the file and begin the installation. [click to continue...]

Pitaschio is a small program (a 60.2 kb download) that adds a lot of features to a Windows 2000, XP, or Vista desktop. [click to continue...]

Here we go again. Another new firmware, another jailbreak tutorial. This one will guide you through the process of jailbreaking your iPod Touch running the 2.1 firmware. [click to continue...]

There’s a well known feature/trick that allows you to right-click using just your trackpad in OS X. What’s slightly lesser known is that the same trick can be extended to XP and Vista running via BootCamp, or guest Operating Systems running in Parallels or VMware Fusion.

1. For Operating Systems running on your Mac via BootCamp, all you have to do is place two fingers on the trackpad, and click the button. That will bring up the right-click menu.
2. For guest Operating Systems running in Parallels or VMware Fusion, open the OS X System Preferences and select Keyboard & Mouse. Place a check in the box labeled For secondary clicks, place two fingers on the trackpad then click the button.



3. Now when you’re running a guest OS in VMware Fusion, you can right-click by placing two fingers on the trackpad and clicking the button once.



4. Same thing for Operating Systems running in Parallels.