Favorite Windows Programs

One of my favorite geek pastimes is trying out new software. It's the thrill of the pursuit--finding a program that does something perfectly just makes me happy. It doesn't usually even matter if I didn't know I needed to do this task until I found the program that will do it--I just like trying them out. In this issue, I'll share with you my very favorite of the Windows freeware/shareware market.

Tclockex

This is perhaps my absolute favorite Windows program. It's a tiny little program that lets you customize the clock in your system tray in a variety of ways--namely, by adding the date. Within two days you will have forgotten you even have it installed--except when you try to live without it. I can't imagine why Windows doesn't have this feature by default, but this is the perfect (and free) solution to the problem.

Editpad

Speaking of correcting problems with Microsoft's default settings, Editpad is a great little replacement for Notepad, which easily tops my list of "Most Worthless Applications Ever." I've seen countless variations of text editors, but I really like this one. It's everything that a text editor should be--it allows tabs, it's not swimming with useless features and it doesn't have a restriction on how large a file can be. Simple and sweet, that's what I like. Editpad Lite, which is what I use, is free for non-commercial use and the full version is $39.95. (Also available for Linux.)

Opera

Opera is a great alternative browser. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is buggy and featureless, but Opera is not. It's a standards-compliant, feature-rich, tabbed browsing dream. You can also customize it to your heart's content--even context menus, not just toolbars. It's also smaller and faster than any of its competitors, and it blocks pop-up windows if you want it to. A free version with ads is available, or you can purchase a copy without ads. (Multi-platform.)

CoolRuler

Most people probably never need to measure anything on screen, but as a web designer, I use this quite a lot. I've had a couple different rulers, but this one happens to be the best I've tried, and it's free to boot. It measures pixels, inches and centimeters, and also allows for custom measurements.

Pixie

Pixie tells you what color (in hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values) your mouse is hovering over in any Windows application. If you work with graphics, this is extremely handy.

AVG

Everyone knows--or should know--by now that it's not safe to be online without virus protection. You could pay one of the big companies lots of money every year, or you could use AVG for free. Of course, virus protection only works if you use it--protect yourself and others from the idiots of the world.

Capture Express

You can make a screenshot in Windows without a special program by pressing the PrintScreen button on your keyboard, which copies the image to your clipboard, ready for pasting into another document. If you need to do it a lot, though, you might try Capture Express, which is cheap at $15 and gives you more options than you will probably need. Nice little utility.

PocoMail

I looked for an email client that I actually liked for five years before switching to this one, so you might be able to guess that I'm pretty picky about the program that handles my email. It's not completely perfect, but it's close. It's customizable--something I'm a big fan of, as you can tell--and it allows for advanced filtering and marking of email. $34.95 after a 45-day free trial.

This article and accompanying information is provided as a resource only. Mosaic Minds, its editors and staff cannot be held liable for any problems stemming from the use of any of the software, techniques or technologies mentioned.