The Ramblings of Rob Cooper: Applications

Great Add-on for Vista Start Menu

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:52:45 GMT

I am a huge fan on SlickRun - its a great little tool that you can use to create "magic words" that execute commands when you enter them into the little command prompt thing.. I found it REALLY boosted my productivity.

However, when I moved to Windows Vista, one of the features I fell in love with was Instant Search. So I thought I would have a look to see if anyone has expanded on the functionality provided by Instant Search to provide something similar to SlickRun.

Well, I quickly came across Start++ a great tool developed by Brandon Paddock, a great guy who seems very passionate about what he does, which is what I like to see. So I instantly added his blog to to my RSS Reader (Google Reader).

So, what is it and how does it work?

Well, its a very, very similar concept to SlickRun, except that is runs from the Instant Search prompt. You can create shortcuts for the commands you want to execute, type it in the search, and if found by Start++, a little icon pops up with the name you entered for it. You then simply hit return, and it runs the command you specified.

Here's a screen shot of me executing my command to open my Live Blog:

Also, it has some pretty neat feature called "Startlets" - these provide the ability to integrate your string into queries for search engines and the like (such as Google, Live Search and Wikipedia) as well as the Indexing features of Windows Vista to play music and videos that meet your criteria (e.g. a particular artist).

Anyway, enough talk, go see for yourself!

Technorati Tags: Vista,Start++,SlickRun,Start Menu,Productivity,Shortcuts

Great Code Colouriser from CarlosAg for Windows Live Writer

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:52:52 GMT

Found a link to this great code colouriser from CarlosAg in the blogosphere to plug into Windows Live Writer. Works really well, and nice and quick (found many that either format incorrectly or do it perfect but slowly).

Here's a sample:

/// <summary>
/// Says Hello to the User.
/// </summary>
public void SayHello()
{
// Say Hello to the User.
MessageBox.Show("HELLO!");
}

And a screen grab:

Special thanks to CarlosAg for sharing.
Check it out!

Technorati Tags: live writer,plug-in,code colour,CarlosAg

Excellent Tool List from Scott Hanselman

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:57:37 GMT

I had a post come up on Google Reader the other day advising me to check out an updated Tool List from Scott Hanselman. I am glad I did, I added another couple to by "Tool Box" (ha). You do not have to be a developer, maybe just someone who uses their computer a lot!

It was nice to see that a few of the tools I have picked up of my own accord in my own "quest for the right stuff" appear on his list (Paint.NET, FoxIt Reader and Daemon Tools to name a few).

I definitely recommend checking out the list, its pretty comprehensive and their is bound to be something you might pick up. One thing I was surprised to find on there was DarkRoom - interesting app, and something I have never really thought of before! There has been so many times where I have wanted to just write. This app is ideal, you get a blank screen and a cursor, that's it! No messy desktop, toolbar's or any other crap. Just a cursor. Excellent!

So thank you for this excellent list Scott! Appreciated.

Technorati Tags: blogging, applications, tools, utilities, developer, power user

Another Great App.. Virtual Desktop Manager "Virtual Dimension"

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:43:17 GMT

Following on from my recent post on a "Nice PDF Reader App", it got me thinking, maybe I should invest some more time in finding a good, free app to deal with some of my other annoyances (I'm an easily-annoyed person when it comes to software).

So, my next problem.

I always find my Taskbar cluttered, I don't like the grouping that Windows provides as I like to see the names of the windows themselves. I can make my Taskbar taller, but then I lost some screen real-estate.

So, I figured a Virtual Desktop will be the way to go, back when I was running a Linux distro on my desktop for a while (openSUSE Linux), I really liked the virtual desktop, and it seems most Linux distro's have it. I won't apologize for my lack of knowledge on Linux, I didn't like it!

For those of you that do not know what a virtual desktop is, it basically allows you to have separate "views" of your desktop. So, for example, you could have a document you are working on in the foreground, and your emails and stuff tucked away a virtual desktop in the background (still running), when you want your email, you then switch to that desktop. Neat, and tidy! Obviously, there is some overhead with this, and it is easy to forget you have all these app's running, and then wonder why your system is running slow when you are only staring at Notepad. Oops! I forgot I have my email, some mp3s, two games and disk defragmenter running on three other desktops in the background. Be warned! So, I hope you get the idea.. Very useful for people like me that tend to have a lot of unrelated but necessary stuff open.

So, I began checking out what is available, for free. Here's what I found!

Microsoft's Virtual Desktop PowerToy for XP
Didn't like this at all really, I found it slow running, and not a "slick". Some app's seemed to stay available on all desktops without me knowing why. Not very customizable. Promptly uninstalled.

"Virtual Desktop" on SourceForge.net
I thought this one would be the keeper TBH, runs as a service in the background, so no additional clutter on the (already cluttered) desktop. Took me a while to find out what the keys are (no readme was attached - that I could see). But ran OK, simply ALT + Number (1-4) to switch to that desktop. Few little kinks to iron out ("Run" and "Minimize All" only work on the first desktop), but on the whole, I would have stuck with it, until I found...

"Virtual Dimension" on SourceForge.net
This baby has it all. It's quick, it runs well, its very customizable and has all the features I need/want. The only think I could suggest for it is that it has a thumbnail preview of the desktops on the preview window. Other than that, it's staying right on my desktop!
In fact, I am typing this blog within my second desktop (I have a Visual Studio Project open on my first) right now!
Put simply, get it!

If anyone else has any suggestions, then please let me know!

Technorati Tags: applications, virtual desktop, microsoft, powertoy, sourceforge, virtual dimension

Nice PDF Reader App that Deserves a Mention

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:01:09 GMT

Well, it's been a long time coming, but I finally had enough of the stupidly long load times for Adobe Reader. Like a lot of people now, I use PDF's a lot for printing (via CutePDF) articles for later review, print shopping receipts for online transactions, passing documents via email rather than paper and so on and so forth. PDF's are handy!

When you just want to check something within a few seconds, waiting 10 seconds+ for Adobe to fire up is a more than bit of an annoyance, and as I have become more reliant on PDF's, I have become more annoyed.

So I finally took the plunge and decided to invest some time in finding a lightweight, free reader that can give me basic functionality (such as search, various views etc.) and load as quickly as possible. After about 10 minutes, I came across FoxIt Reader, its reputation preceded it on many forums, so I figured it would be worth a look.

Well it has a good reputation for a good reason, its great, it simple, its quick, its easy. That's what a document READER should be, nothing fancy, just a bit of kit to read documents and be good at it.

Well done to the guys at FoxIt, great job!