Free Software List for Vista

[MilesAhead]

OneKey

OneKey
I wrote a simple Hotkey program that sits in the tray called OneKey. You can download from my page here:

Hotkeys

I have written other launchers and use other programmer's launchers but the idea of this one is to set up a single hotkey(default is function key F11) to do tasks that I do all the time. You can change the hotkey via command line param or using the Tray Menu command. You can associate the hotkey with any shortcut, data file, .cmd batch file, or executable file.

It's for that one task you do so often that you just want to be able to hit a key and that's it.

As example, since I have a couple of USB docking stations I find that often I use sync.exe to flush the disk buffers to the drives. I was typing "sync" in a command prompt. Then I made a shortcut so all I had to do was click the shortcut. But I do it so often that I just hooked it to OneKey. Now every time I press F11 a command prompt comes up, runs sync, then waits for 3 seconds so I can see the results, and closes.

It's free for you to use at your own risk. Should work on XP and later.

 

[ilikefree]

In case your lappy gets stolen
Open source anti-theft solution for Mac, PCs & Phones – Prey

Do you need your wifi turned on all the time with this?

 

[MilesAhead]

Enigma Virtual Box

The free version of Enigma Protector, Enigma Virtual Box, got an update on the 14th. I've tried it a bit. Usage is similar to an installer where you select main app executable, any dlls or other support files, but instead of creating an installer it wraps it all up in one exe file.

Worth a look:

The Enigma Protector - Software Protection and Licensing System

 

[MilesAhead]

ReRun

Here's another Hotkey I wrote called ReRun. It sits in the tray and watches the active window. If it detects a program, it adds the icon to a Most Recently Used set of 10 Buttons.

The idea is if you close a program that's tough to dig out, not in your QuickLaunch or other launcher, Superbar etc.. and want to bring it up again, you can open the Popup Window for ReRun with a hotkey. The default hotkey is F9 function key but you can change it with a Tray Menu command. Also double clicking the Tray Icon will pop up the window.

Hovering the mouse over the icon will show the program name in a Tooltip. I try to screen out windows that are minimized to system tray etc.. but it's not perfect. It's just a rerun for recent programs. For opening programs you use constantly some other launch method is preferable.


I recommend putting a shortcut in the Startup folder so it will start with Windows as it takes awhile to fill up with apps. The collected apps are not saved between runs.

It's free for you to use at your own risk. You can download from my page here:

Hotkeys

edit: I just updated this utility with some new features. Now it can detect the working directory and command line arguments of some apps if they were launched with such info. See About MsgBox for 3 ways to press the Buttons.

 

[americancritic]

Hello Shawn

You have been working like crazy wow the list has grow'n, great job and very helpful.

Tom

 

[MilesAhead]

KeyDrive 1.6.0.0

KeyDrive is a Hotkey that sits in the tray for opening drives in Explorer. Instead of making a Hotkey with every drive letter it takes the approach of using 5 Hotkeys for various tasks. Four of the Hotkeys prompt you to press one or two letters to open those drives. The drive can just be opened with no placement, or snapped left, snapped right, or 2 drives side by side. The side by side can be the same drive for 2 views of the same drive. Just press the same letter twice when prompted. Also instead of using dialog boxes, it uses ToolTips to prompt you or notify of an error. After you use it for a few minutes you know what the prompts will say. No need of a big dialog box. The ToolTip is just an indicator the Hotkey fired as well as reminder which function you pressed. The ToolTip error notices disappear after 3 seconds.

The fifth Hotkey only works if the active window is an Explorer Window. It restores the window then sizes it to 60% of the desktop work area, then centers it. A good way to downsize a maximized Explorer Window that has a restored size nearly or the same as that maximimized. Also if you "snap" drives side by side it's a way of changing the elongated window easily.

Note: KeyDrive does not simulate fully the Windows Seven "Snap" feature since that is for windows already open. KeyDrive opens a drive window, then snaps it in one go. There are other free utilities for emulating W7 Snap on Vista already out there.


Just look for the KeyDrive download link on this page:
Hotkeys

 

[Fresco]

Holy Smokes... whatta great list!!!!

thank you, I will be sure to stop back often as the need arises... bookmarked!!

I haven't gone through the whole thread, but loving the list is in Alphabetical order on the first page.

(If I can make a suggestion... maybe make a similar list, but grouping the links in batches according to the task they perform? The assumption is that we already know the name of the program ahead of time... for noobs like myself... I would have no clue Audacity even exists and is good for recording music... what if the program was called Wowdacity... and I never got down to the "Doubleyous" to find it. But what if I was looking for stuff grouped for music, or related to sound, I could find it in the AUDIO section in a heartbeat, and then I would know what the program was called)

again... thanks tons for the awesome list!!

 

[MilesAhead]

When Vista was new it was necessary to have a place where apps that would run on it could be found. Now it's been out for awhile we should probably get somebody at one of the freeware recommendation sites to go through it since they already have software categories with OS compatibility.

It's kind of duplication of effort now really. I don't know if board software allows it but it may be time for an auto age kill for the posts. Just a heads up then 2 weeks later it goes away. Would be nice if we could submit it someplace where it wouldn't be ignored though. Volunteers at those type of sites are already processing freeware all the time, if you know what I mean.

Although the thread search feature does work. So if you search Audio it should find stuff with audio in the description. Just set it to display as posts rather than as thread.

 

[Fresco]

now that you mention it, I completely agree... thanks for the reply, MILES AHEAD... (it never dawned on me to do a search)

Those free ware sites scare me, and I avoid them like the plague... this thread feels safer, since no link shows up unless a moderator wills them to, and are subject to peer review.

If my 'puter don't gets up running soon, I may just chuck it and upgrade to whatever is out there now... good bye Vista!

Seems that Windows 8 is the next hornet's nest out there. Even though my machine is only 2 or 3 years old, I should be running Windows 7, but held off the free upgrade until the bugs were worked out, but by that time, it was too late. (sorry for thinking out loud... guessing its obvious folks only come here when they are in deep doo doo, and not feeling the love for their current machine.) This thread could be a reason to come here when the going is good for a change.

thanks again

 

[MilesAhead]

Don't beat yourself up too much. Often I forget to thread search because it was broken for awhile intermittently. People, including myself, would search the thread before submitting a freebie, only to have someone follow up with "it's already in the list." But I think they do have it fixed now.

 

[MilesAhead]

MaxaMiser 1.1

I wrote a hotkey Tray utility so that you could "maximize" a window and still leave a gap next to the TaskBar. It's called MaxaMiser.

You can download from my page here:
Hotkeys

and read a detailed description here:

MaxaMiser 1.1 - DonationCoder.com

It's free for you to use at your own risk.

Edit: Updated to 1.3 See details here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=26927.msg251033#msg251033

 

[MilesAhead]

Re: Taskbar Gap 1.4.0.0

Taskbar Gap is a tray hotkey to toggle the desktop work area between normal and sized with a Taskbar Gap. Sorry but I only have a single monitor setup. I can't support multiple monitors.

You can download from my page here:
Hotkeys

Important Note If you are using Taskbar Gap please update to v. 1.4.0.0. The new version detects screen resolution change. The program reloads to save the correct new work area information.

 

[tom982]

Nice tool!

Upon clicking on the Which Key button, then closing it with the X in the corner of the dialogue box, I was displayed this error:

 

[Sweet]

Thank you very much for that info Tom
This error is related to the fact that HTA does not support wscript (Windows Script Host).
I have run the tools on two computers with different OS,
and I got no error, only when I run it in the debugger.
So I thought there was no problem.
Actually, you can ignore that error, but to keep the tool user-friendly,
I changed something in the code, so now I hope that the error is resolved.

You can download the (hopefully now bugfree) RegistryTools below,
if you encounter more errors, please let me know.

Thank you
Sweet

RegistryTools-Readme

 

[niemiro]

Nice tool!

Upon clicking on the Which Key button, then closing it with the X in the corner of the dialogue box, I was displayed this error:

Indeed there are quite a few ways of getting similar error messages. The code needs a LOT more error handling!

Really, something like this:

#define ERROR_SUCCESS 0
#define ACCESS_IS_DENIED 5
 
...
 
int hresult = Function();
if (ERROR_SUCCESS == hresult)
{
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]hresult = Function2();
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]if (ERROR_SUCCESS == hresult)
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]{
[COLOR=#ffffff]----------[/COLOR]// Continue... 
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]}
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]else 
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]{
[COLOR=#ffffff]----------[/COLOR]if (hresult == ACCESS_IS_DENIED)
[COLOR=#ffffff]----------[/COLOR]{
[COLOR=#ffffff]---------------[/COLOR]// Handle gracefully.
[COLOR=#ffffff]----------[/COLOR]}
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]}
}
else 
{
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]if (hresult == ACCESS_IS_DENIED)
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]{
[COLOR=#ffffff]----------[/COLOR]// Handle gracefully.
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]}
[COLOR=#ffffff]-----[/COLOR]... // Every other possible error message - look up every single return code which can be thrown in the documentation.
[COLOR=#ffffff]-------[/COLOR] //  Also, use try..except/try..catch if the function call returns exceptions.
}
 
...
 
//Global try..except/try..catch and handle gracefully.

Anyone who doesn't follow that sort of coding style...well...

 

[AlOnan]

Here is a great media player.. AVS Media Player http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Video-Players/AVS-Media-Player.shtml

 

[MilesAhead]

TopmostToggle 1.5.0.0

I wrote a small Hotkey utility awhile ago called TopmostToggle. It just turned on and off the "stay on top" attribute of the active window by Control Right Clicking the mouse.

Now I've added Alt-Tab visibility toggle. If you Shift Right Click the mouse on a window it should toggle Alt-Tab visibility. Also the window will visibly change in and out of "toolbar" style. It doesn't work on everything. For example Chromium browser still wants to be in Alt-Tab list. But it works for command prompts and some other application windows esp. where the app uses a single main window.

You can download here:

Hotkeys

It's free for you to use at your own risk. Should run on XP and later.
Source code and custom icon is included.

Edit: updated to 1.7.0.0 - Fixed Atl-Tab visibility bug.

 

[MilesAhead]

MakeDiscDir 1.0.0.0

MakeDiscDir 1.0.0.0 is a simple Windows command line utility for XP and later. It saves some typing when creating subfolders for CD box sets.

You can download here:
Faves Downloads

There's no install. Just copy the exe to a folder in your Path.

Usage: MakeDiscDir N (N > 0 and N < 100)

When you make an empty containing folder for
the box set, open a command prompt to that folder
so that it will be the current working directory.
Then enter the MakeDiscDir command.

Example: MakeDiscDir 20 will produce empty
folders in the current directory named
D01 D02 .. D20 up to D99 padded with 0
if needed to sort correctly in Explorer.

It's just a simple utility I wrote to avoid
creating folders one at a time in Explorer.

 

[MilesAhead]

Selector 3.0.1.0

Selector 3.0.1.0 Quite a few changes. You can see the change log here:
FavesSoft History

But the biggest is a new Paste Button. Basically it takes selected or clipboard text and writes it to a temp file, then opens the selected program with the temp file as parameter.

Handy for snapping up program code or scripts from web pages. Or if you want to highlight a block of text in one editor to open in another etc..

Here's some new screen shots:

Also I got rid of Topmost attribute and instead set it to show a button in Taskbar when the PopUp window is open. Makes it easier to drag shortcuts to populate the list. Also shows in Alt-Tab list now.

 

[MilesAhead]

Comment Explorer

On another board someone requested a means to see comments for files as you look through Explorer. Since I did some shell extensions for this in the past, and the user has a 64 bit system(32 bit shell extension won't work unless hosted in a 32 bit File Manager) I decided to write it as a simple Hotkey app that sits in the tray. By using the clipboard to get the selected file instead of an Explorer extension, it doesn't care if the OS is 64 or 32 bits.

It does require Scripting.Dictionary be on the machine. Afiak Scripting.Dictionary should be there for XP and later.

The way it works: sits in the Tray. When you use Up or Down Arrow keys in Explorer, a ToolTip shows by the Mouse cursor. If there is a comment for that file or folder, it is shown. If not, the file or folder name shows in the ToolTip. Press Shift-F11 to add a comment for the selected file.

It uses Scripting.Dictionary to look up the comment using the complete file path(e.g. C:\downloads\MyDownload.zip) If anything is changed in the path such as drive letter, the file is renamed etc.. the link is broken.

Comments for files should really be part of the file system. But since it isn't a kludge like this is better than nothing.

Download CommentExplorer

It's free for you to use at your own risk.

It uses the clipboard without saving the previous clipboard contents. For this reason you can double click the Tray Icon to toggle the active state. When disabled the tip for the Tray Icon will show "CommentExplorer =//=>" when Enabled it will show "CommentExplorer ==>". Just more convenient than loading and unloading to avoid clipboard conflict. If you had something bulky in the clipboard like a large graphic image, shifting it back and forth with every arrow key press would just bog it down.

edit: btw the download includes AutoHotkey_L source code. AHK_L still tends to show a lot of false positives in AV apps. You can download AHK_L and compile CommentExplorer yourself. That way you know what's in the .exe file.

edit2: Updated to v. 1.4.1.0. Now the ToolTip is shown at top left corner of active Explorer window. This gets it out of the way of mouse tooltips generated by Windows. Also the ToolTip is only shown if there is a comment available. The ToolTip will time out after so many seconds if neither Up nor Down Key is pressed. TimeOut setting in the .ini file adjusts this. Valid range is 1000 to 10000 milliseconds(1 to 10 seconds.) The default value is 5000 for 5 seconds.

It's coming together well enough now I think I'll use it myself.

edit3: Now clipboard text is preserved while using Up and Down keys in Explorer. Renaming files selected with the arrow keys should work normally now. btw I always use Details View. I haven't tried the app any other way.

edit4: Here's a screen shot showing ToolTip when Arrow key selects a file that has a comment:




edit5: now you can select multiple files/folders for comment.

edit6: v. 1.8.0.0 Added Control-F11 Hotkey to copy comments. Also added a Quick Start section to the top of the Readme.


edit7: v. 1.9.1.0 Comments display when you click a file in Explorer now. I got rid of the time out as it was causing bogging. Now just press Esc to get rid of hanging ToolTip.

edit8: v. 2.0.0.0 Added Progressbar to Comment Compaction routine.