Explorer++ is a good Windows explorer replacement

Overview:

Explorer++ is a free multi-tab clone of Windows Explorer, featuring several enhancements and additions.

Features:

• With the option to save to the registry or a configuration file, Explorer++ is completely portable.
• Browse both real and virtual folders.
• Tabbed browsing for easy management of multiple folders.
• Display window shows previews of images as they are selected.
• Easy-to-remember keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation.
• Customizable user interface.
• Full drag-and-drop support with other applications, including Windows Explorer.
• Advanced file operations such as merging and splitting supported.

Review:

Explorer++ is basically a clone of the Windows explorer except with some added features like portability, tab browsing, hotkeys, file merging/splitting, secure file deletion and a neat look that includes small previews when images are selected. Explorer++ main drawback is that it's isn't as powerful as some of the other programs i have featured before like FreeCommander and xplorer² Lite, also it wouldn't hurt to be able customize the Explorer++ hotkeys along with having an actual help menu (there isn't any). In conclusion if you have grown tired of the default Windows explorer and want a simple alternative Explorer++ is for you. Available for Windows XP/Vista.


Get it at http://www.explorerplusplus.com/

See and review your recent web searches with MyLastSearch

Overview:

MyLastSearch utility scans the cache and history files of your Web browser, and locate all search queries that you made with the most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) and with popular social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace). The search queries that you made are displayed in a table with the following columns: Search Text, Search Engine, Search Time, Search Type (General, Video, Images), Web Browser, and the search URL.


Review:

MyLastSearch is a neat and portable little app that can display the most recent web searches that you have made in browsers like Firefox, Internet explorer, Opera and Chrome. Once run MyLastSearch will show the search engine used (google,yahoo, myspace,twitter,Etc.), keywords used, the date, the URL and even the web browser that was used. Of course you can open the results in your web browser if you want and export them into a txt file or a html document. My only problem with MyLastSearch is that will only show searches made with in the last day, anything older then that will not be shown by the program (that was my experience) which is a real shame. Anyway give it a try if you are interested. Available for all Windows versions.


Get it at http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/my_last_search.html

Weekend fun: The Chzo Mythos

If you like adventure games and horror then the Chzo Mythos games are worth a look. There are 4 games in the series and they are: 5 Days a Stranger, 7 Days a Skeptic, Trilby's Notes and 6 Days a Sacrifice. 5 Days a Stranger the first game released in the series puts you in the shoes of a thief called Trilby who because of a set of unfortunate circumstances gets locked in a mysterious house with a set of complete strangers, shortly after murders start happening and you begin to uncover an ancient curse. The game is well written and can be sometimes scary which is always a plus, the other games follow a similar formula except for Trilby's Notes that switches the standard point and click interface for a text parser, meaning that you have to type what you want to do. In conclusion these are wonderful games that should help you past the time.

Direct downloads links for the games:

5 Days a Stranger

7 Days a Skeptic

Trilby's Notes

6 Days a Sacrifice

Quickly compare the checksum of many files with P2CheckSum

Overview:

Do you need to know the checksum of a file to ensure it hasn’t been tampered with? P2CheckSum is the tool for you. Drag and drop a file and P2CheckSum instantly analyses the file and calculates the MD5 checksum. Need to process more than file – easy!! P2CheckSum handles folders recursively.


Review:

P2CheckSum can be a handy utility if you frequently download stuff from websites that give the MD5 checksum of a file for verification purposes. Just like the previously featured WinMD5 this program will display a file's checksum and will allow you to quickly compare it to the one on the website, the main difference with WinMD5 is that P2CheckSum can handle folders recursively so it can calculate the checksum of many files at once. In conclusion this is a simple and portable that should get the job done if you like using checksums. P2CheckSum is available for Windows XP/Vista and it requires the .Net framework.


Get it at http://p2labs.com/exen/index.php/products/p2checksum/

Updated Adsense notice

I dunno if any of you noticed but i updated the Google's adsense notice that i have on the site as i was required to do by Google, i did this before the 8 of April deadline but i forgot to let my readers know until now. It's located on the side bar below the other stuff i have there, you can check it out anytime.

Converber is an easy to use tool for unit conversion

Overview:

Converber is a unit converter. It is a powerful software utility that will help make easy conversions between 1241 various units of measure in 33 categories. Converber converts everything from length and force to flow and temperature.


Review:

Converber is a small and portable utility for unit conversion similar to the previously featured Convert, unlike that program Converber uses a list interface instead of a tabbed one and it supports favorites meaning that you can boomark your favorite conversions for easy access. Converber supports over a thousand units of measure so chances are pretty high that you will find the units that you are looking tough if you want you can make your own custom units with the equation editor. In conclusion this is a pretty nice app that could help when making unit conversions. Available for all Windows versions.


Get it at http://www.xyntec.com/converber.htm

Find out where an image is used or if there are altered versions with Tineye.com

Tineye.com is a very interesting and neat image search engine, what makes it unique it's that you can upload or link to an image and find out where the image came from, if there are altered versions out there, if an image appears in another image, if there are higher resolutions available, Etc. You can get an example of how the service works by visiting the cool searches section of the site, later you can try the service yourself and i am pretty sure you will be impressed, i sure was.

Weekend fun: The Battle for Wesnoth

Overview:

The Battle for Wesnoth is a free, turn-based tactical strategy game with a high fantasy theme, featuring both single-player, and online/hotseat multiplayer combat. Fight a desperate battle to reclaim the throne of Wesnoth, or take hand in any number of other adventures.


Review:

The Battle for Wesnoth is an open source turn-based game with a fantasy theme that comes with a bunch of campaigns and multiplayer support. The gameplay is simple but challenging and mostly revolves around correctly positioning your units in the terrain and selecting the right soldiers for a fight while capturing towns that provide gold for recruiting more soldiers. The Battle for Wesnoth is a good game with plenty of content that should keep you busy for along time so give it a try. Available for Windows, Linux and MacOSX.


Get it at http://www.wesnoth.org/

Lock the state of the num Lock, caps Lock and scroll Lock keys with NumLocker

Overview:

NumLocker allows you lock state of Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock keys. You can force these keys to "Always On" and "Always Off". With NumLocker, you can prevent accidental pressing and changing state of there keys.

Review:

NumLocker will help you freeze the state of the num lock, caps lock and scroll lock keys preventing you from changing their state by accident. You can set each lock key to be "always on" or "always off" depending on your needs, this could be pretty handy if have careless fingers. NumLocker used between 4 to 5Mb of memory in my system so you shouldn't have any problem in keeping it in your system tray while you work. Available for Windows 2000/XP/Vista.


Get it at http://www.mystercrowley.com/sw_numlocker_en.php

Drivesight will analyse your drives for files that can be used with SharePoint Server

Overview:

DriveSight is a customizable freeware tool designed by Trilogy Solutions to assist the SharePoint community in analyzing drives, folders and files which may be uploaded into, or indexed by, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. DriveSight can analyze both local drives as well as drives across the network, categorizing each file by size, type, age, and whether or not it's indexable or blocked by SharePoint. DriveSight displays the results in real-time during the scan, and generates a comprehensive printable report with tables and charts.


Review:

If any of you use Microsoft's SharePoint then you may find DriveShare useful. The program will analyse a drive and show which files may be uploaded into or indexed by SharePoint server. DriveSight can display a large number of statistics like the number of files found, average size of files, average files per folder, number of common Word documents, number of compressed files, number of multimedia files, Etc. The results can be exported into a Word document for easy sharing with other people. While DriveSight was created to be used in conjuction with SharePoint you can also use it for simply knowing more about your hard drives. Available for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista.


Get it at http://www.trilogysolutions.com/products-drivesight.html

Weekend fun: Grand Theft Auto 1 & 2 + Wild Metal Country

Some years ago Rockstar games decided that it would release some of their classics again for free (registration is required), this is great because free stuff is always awesome. Two of the released games were the first two parts in the Grand Theft Auto series, GTA 1 & GTA 2. The are different from their more newer brothers in that they are in 2D and feel more Arcadey if that makes any sense. Wild Metal Country is a lot more interest¡ng that the other games in my opinion, you take control of a robot which you must use to collect some special items in huge stages while fighting hostile robots, the game has a basic physics systems which can work for you or against you making thinsg unpredictable. However the lack of a save system during missions and difficult controls hurt the game, nevertheless it's definitely worth a try specially now that it's free. So if you don't have much to do this weekend give these games a try, i am sure they will help you in killing some time.


Get them at http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/

AnalogX Extension Changer will easily change your file extensions

Overview:

If you've ever found yourself with a directory full of files with the wrong extension, then AnalogX Extension Changer is for you! It operates both as a standlone application or integrates into the Windows Explorer making it easier than ever to rename everything from single files to entire directory tree's. Exchange Changer also features an undo feature which allows you to reverse any batch renames it does.


Review:

AnalogX Extension Changer is a simple and useful utility that can quickly rename the extension of several files at once without changing the file format, this is handy if for example you downloaded a bunch of pictures without an extension. AnalogX Extension Changer can function from either the context menu or by dropping files into the program's window, then you can select a new extension and finally click "rename". There's a convenient but cumbersome undo function, in order to undo a rename you have to use the logs (in txt format) that the program makes. Extra features include being able to look up file extensions online, Upper/lower case changing and test files with their new extension before renaming. While AnalogX Extension Changer has some problems it works very well as a file extension renamer. Available for all Windows versions.


Get it at http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/extchg/download.htm

TCPView will show your open TCP and UDP endpoints

Overview:

TCPView is a Windows program that will show you detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including the local and remote addresses and state of TCP connections.


Review:

TCPView is a simple and portable utility that can display all the currently open TCP and UDP endpoints complete with their process name, remote address and state. New endpoints are shown in green while endpoints that are closing are shown in red, yellow symbolizes that an endpoint is changing. The program also comes with Tcpvcon which is the same thing as TCPView but in command line form. TCPView works pretty well and is a useful tool when trying to know more about your TCP and UDP connections. Available for all Windows versions.


Get it at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx

Convert your Windows start button into a clock with StartClock

Overview:

Shows the current time in the start button.


Features:

- Hover the mouse over the Start button or the tray icon to show the current date and more.
- Doubleclick the tray icon to show Windows' calendar.
- Blinking colon.


Review:

StartClock is a small portable utility that can change the normally useless Windows start button into a clock, the start button is too small to display anything but the time however if hover your mouse over it StartClock will display info like the day, month, year,Etc. In order to access the Windows calendar (if you decide to get rid of the standard Windows clock for this app) just double click StartClock's system tray icon. StartClock works pretty well and only used between 1 to 5MB in my system so give it a try if you want a different way of checking the time in Windows. Available for all Windows versions.


Get it at http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#StartClock

Hide and reveal messages in images with P2Stego

Overview:

Do you need to send a secret message to someone? Do you want to store information on your machine away from prying eyes and yet right under their noses? P2Stego is for you! P2Stego allows you to store messages inside bitmap files (*.bmp). Only people using P2Stego and knowing the correct password will be able to retrieve the information. Anyone else opening the file will see the bitmap image


Review:

If you ever wanted to feel like a spy or just want a cool way to send secret messages to someone then the DonationWare app P2Stego is a good solution. With this program you can embed text messages into BMP images. All you have to do is to select a BMP image, select a password and click "hide message". P2Stego will then make a copy of the image with the text message inside it, to reveal the message you will have to use P2Stego again and input the password. The program is pretty easy to use so most people shouldn't have any problem using it which is important if you plan on sending secret messages with this program. P2Stego works pretty well and is portable too so try it if you are interested. Available for Windows XP/Vista.


Get it at http://p2labs.com/exen/index.php/products/p2stego/

History Submenus makes browsing your Firefox history more easy

Overview:

This places each day's entire browsing history in a submenu of the history menu.


Review:

I have always found the Firefox history menu to be pretty much crap, it's just isn't good enough. The Firefox addon History submenus attemps to fix this a little by sorting your history into submenus, this way you can easily browse your history for today, yesterday, 2 days ago, Etc. History Submenus apparently has some problems when used in the Firefox versions 3.05 and 3.06, i think this is fixed for the newer Firefox versions since i haven't any problems for the 3.08 build i am using right now. Also i think the options menu is unusable if you install the addon in an non-english Firefox installation, it might be just me tough. Anyway despite these problems History Submenus is a Firefox addon worth a look.


Get it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/682

Weekend fun: Spelunky

Spelunky is an awesome little game that combines plataforming with the randomness of roguelike games. You are in control of an Indiana Jones like explorer that stumbles upon some caves and like any good explorer you will travel across a series of caves looking for treasure, killing enemies and ocasionally saving some ladies for an extra heart. What makes the game unque is that every time that you start a new game the levels will randomly generate making it impossible to memorize the terrain, therefore you must always expect the unexpected which makes the game loads of fun. However the game is hard, be prepared to die dozens of times before you are even near the ending. The game's fun at least for me it's finding out what crazy new stuff you will encounter next while at the same trying to advance to the deepers levels little by little. If you are gonna play the game use a gamepad, the keyboard controls are rather hard. In conclusion if any of this seemed interesting then give Spelunky a try, you will probably not be dissapointed.

Get it at http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4017.0

Zoom and draw into your screen with ZoomIt

Overview:

ZoomIt is screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. ZoomIt runs unobtrusively in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys to zoom in on an area of the screen, move around while zoomed, and draw on the zoomed image.


Review:

ZoomIt is a small and portable app that allows you to zoom into your screen (default Ctrl + 1) using your mouse wheel or keyboard arrows, also you can draw and write stuff (default Ctrl + 2) into the zoomed screen making ZoomIt a handy tool for presentations. ZoomIt main limitation consist of the screen not being updated while zooming, this is kinda fixed in Vista with the LiveZoom mode but with the drawing featured being axed entirely among other annoyances. Regardless if you do presentations or if you just want to zoom into your screen ZoomIt is worth a try. Available for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista.


Get it at http://technet.microsoft.com/es-es/sysinternals/bb897434(en-us).aspx

So yeah...

So yeah i know it's April's fools today and i was planning to make a gag or something until i realized i am not a very funny person so that though quickly went away, i will probably try something special next year. In other news i only wrote about Donation Coder apps through all of March which is good since i was able to keep my word, from now on you will see programs from other sites too. Also sorry for the lack of frequent updates lately i have been busy with school and with managing my marijuana farm, those things don't grow on their own you know? i will try to update the site more often now.