Ten Must-Have Additions to Windows XP
Whenever I do a squeaky-clean install of Windows XP (which seems to be at least once a month grr), there are always applications/additions/extensions/what have you that I add right away. I was recently contemplating yet another reinstall and, in making the list, thought it might be a good idea to put them down here so I don’t have to go chasing after these links when I need them in case people don’t know about (some of) them.
10.
Alt-Tab Replacement
A
Power-Toy from Microsoft, it shows you a thumbnail preview of the running applications when you press ALT+TAB (normally, you just get a small icon). This is especially useful if you’re one of those people who have twenty applications running at the same time.
9.
ColorPic
Probably useful only for Graphics Designers and Web Designers. It allows you to pick colors from anywhere on the screen. It gives you the color values in RGB, HSV, and hexadecimal (used for web); it even tells you what web-safe color is nearest to the color that you picked (all though I typically don’t use this option all that much).
Here’s a link.
8. iTunes
I doubt I’m going to have to do any explaining, so I won’t.
7.
FileZilla or SmartFTP
FTP Clients. I used both of them, and both are good, fast, and realiable, but I have a slight preference for FileZilla over Smart FTP Client. Also, FileZilla is free whereas Smart FTP Client is a shareware. Which one you use ultimately depends on your personal tastes. Link to FileZilla. Link to Smart FTP Client.
6.
ClamWin and WindowsDefender
Both are free virus-scanner for Windows; the latter is from Microsoft and still in beta. Link to ClamWin. Link to Windows Defender. .
5.
Cropper
Screenshot utility. Before Cropper, making a screenshot meant going through the tedious task of hitting Print Screen (which grabs the whole screen), and cropping it in Photoshop (which doesn’t exactly have the fastest startup time). Trust me, Cropper is way better.
4.
Firefox or Flock (or both)
There isn’t much to say about Firefox other than it rocks (most of the time). However, I’ve grown very fond of Flock, despite the fact that I rarely ever use its features (built-in photo management and blog-posting among others). It definitely has a better default UI/theme than Firefox.
3.
Process Explorer
This is possibly (probably?) of interest only to more technically-inclined people, but all the same, Process Explorer from Sysinternals is an indespensible tool when it comes to digging up information about all the processes running on your computer, and oh so much better than Windows Task Manager.
2.
WindowsBlinds or StyleXP
The default themes you get with Windows are ugly. (Fortunately, Microsoft seems to be going in the right direction with Vista.) WindowsBlinds and StyleXP allow you to install themes and turn your atrocious environment into something you just might like looking at every morning.
(
StudioTwentyEight’s Tiger 2 Visual Style is quite excellent for all Mac-look enthusiasts out there.)
1.
ClearType LCD Text Enhancement Power-Toy from Microsoft. I found this little gem six months ago, installed it, turned it on, and never looked back.
Above links provided for convenience and NOT an indication of the safty or usability of the application. Neither VR-Zone or bbmf news require or reccommend the use of links of apps in this article. sa: http://notebook.nikhedonia.com/index...to-windows-xp/