FREE Great Programs for Windows 7

[Britton30]

FastStone capture is a free (ver 5.3) screen capture tool which will also create a compressed video of your activiities on-screen.

 

[MilesAhead]

Set Work Area 1.1.0.0

Set Work Area 1.1.0.0 Command line utility for XP and later to show or set the Desktop Work Area.

You can download from my page here:

Faves Downloads

Note that setting the work area will not "stick" unless the Taskbar AutoHide is disabled.

This utility is meant for those who have taskbars or launchers on more than one side of the screen. Or if you prefer entering the exact numbers for the work area in pixels.



Install: None. Copy to a folder in your Path.

Uninstall: None. Just delete SetWA.exe.

Usage: SetWA
Displays current work area numbers and help switch

Usage: SetWA /?
or SetWA and anything other than 4 numbers
Displays Usage with valid ranges for parameters.

Usage: SetWA Left Top Right Bottom (e.g. SetWA 0 0 1280 908)
Will attempt to set the work area to the specified numbers.

Note that I only have a single monitor setup. Therefore I can't support
multiple monitors.

Hint: If you chop the work area down too much and didn't make a note
of the original work area numbers, 2 easy ways to get back to normal.
Either log off, then back on, or Enable Taskbar AutoHide, then Disable it.
Either way Windows will reset the work area to normal.

 

[MilesAhead]

Adjust Work Area 1.0

Set Work Area 1.1.0.0 Command line utility for XP and later to show or set the Desktop Work Area.

You can download from my page here:

Faves Downloads

Note this has been superseded by Adjust Work Area that can be downloaded from the same page. The new download is only 40 KB. I rewrote the command line program using FreeBASIC compiler. It's a stand-alone win32 exe. No run time needed.

It works the same. See the included Readme.txt.

 

[Oaken]

HostsMan is a very handy little app with which to manage your Hosts File.

Features

Automatic update of hosts file
Enable/Disable hosts file
Built-in hosts editor
Scan hosts for errors, duplicates and possible hijacks
Hosts file backup manager
Exclusion list
Local HTTP server (very lightweight)- update and merge MVPS Adware/Spyware blocklists

Requirements

Windows 98SE, Me, NT4 SP6, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, Windows 7

 

[Brink]

Thank you Oaken. HostsMan added.

 

[CGA1]

FileBox eXtender, enhances Windows standard open file and save file dialog boxes by adding favorites and recent items. Booth 32 and 64 bit versions, tested on W7 64.

 

[Brink]

Thank you CGA1. Added.

 

[Wallonn7]

Hi Shawn.

NetSpeedMonitor

 

[Brink]

Thank you Hallphy. Added.

 

[Dwarf]

I've come across this Email client whilst searching for a suitable one to use with Windows 8. It is very easy to use and configure.

Sylpheed is a simple, lightweight but featureful, and easy-to-use e-mail client.

Sylpheed - lightweight and user-friendly e-mail client

 

[polycue]

Menu Uninstaller is a tool that makes it easier to get rid of programs you don't want hanging around your system any more. Instead of having to navigate through multiple layers of directory structure, with this app installed all you need to do is to right click on your application's icon. You will see an Uninstall option in the context menu that lets you uninstall the app from right there. It'll dig through the mess to find the right uninstaller stuff, confirm that it's removing the right application, and then get rid of it for you.
Menu Uninstaller is a free Windows application. It is compatible with systems running WinXP and later.

 

[MilesAhead]

Pixie

Nice simple utility to get the color of the pixel under the mouse:

Pixie / Nattyware

 

[MilesAhead]

Selector 2.9.0.0

Selector 1.1 is one of my Windows Hotkey Utilities. I've tried it on Windows 7 32 bit build 7077, Vista64 Home Premium SP1 and XP Pro SP2.

Updated to v. 2.9.0.0 Now has ini file option to set Windows7 Transparency background color. Use a 3rd party "pixel get color" utility such as Pixie I posted about earlier, to get the color hex code.

Here's a new screen shot. Notice there's no longer a blotchy area in the Radio Button Group:



Edit: Updated to 3.0.1.0 Biggest change is a Paste Button to write selected or clipboard text to a temp file, then send the file name as param to the selected program. Great for snapping up scripts batch files or program code from web pages.

You can see updated screen shots here:

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html#Selector

 

[JaidynM]

I'm surprised to see that Google Chrome isn't on the list.
Google Chrome - Get a fast new browser. For PC, Mac, and Linux

 

[kado897]

 

[Brink]

I'm surprised to see that Google Chrome isn't on the list.
Google Chrome - Get a fast new browser. For PC, Mac, and Linux

Hmm, I thought I had. It's added now.

 

[MilesAhead]

I'm surprised to see that Google Chrome isn't on the list.
Google Chrome - Get a fast new browser. For PC, Mac, and Linux

Hmm, I thought I had. It's added now.

Also keep in mind you can get the latest Chromium Win32 snapshot here:

Index of /f/chromium/snapshots/Win

If you use the Win32 Zip file instead of installer it's a lot easier to back off to your old build if you run into a bug. Just make a copy of your Chromium folder from UserId\AppData\Local folder. Otherwise a newer build may have a setting the old one doesn't. If you just copy back your folder with the old chrome.exe it may complain about a version clash.

Surprisingly I've found these builds to be very solid. Usually if there's a bug it's something like losing your favicons for bookmarks or some other minor issue.

Each build folder also has an xml change log. I look in there. If there's a lot of stuff I pick a different build to try.

 

[StalkeR]

Pretty Flow

Automate your tasks with PrettyFlow. Define actions which perform different things in PrettyFlow project. Backup your files to zip, update sources, build project, compile help, build setup, copy files, ftp actions and many more. With PrettyFlow server your projects can be triggered by different triggers like when file is changed, when drive is inserted, after some time,...You can also connect to PrettyFlow server with PrettyFlow client or through browser and ASP.NET application.
You can take PrettyFlow projects with you and run them on any machine using PrettyFlow Executor.

Works with XP,Vista and 7.

Download Pretty Flow

 

[kado897]

Google Sketchup

For anyone starting 3D modelling this is the tool for you. Google SketchUp. It is easy to use and there are some excellent training videos too.

 

[Zirro]

Sizer
Handy little program for resizing any window to an exact, predefined size.

Sizer

The author mentions it may have issues on Windows 64-bit, however I have been using it to re-size my browser window for a couple of months with no problems at all.

Trillian Instant Messenger
Seems to have improved a bit lately.

Trillian

I use this as family and friends all seem to use different IMs.