Login | April 19, 2024
Windows free desktop improvements, part 2
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: March 21, 2014
Continuing on with free Windows applications that could be helpful/useful:
Searching the desktop. Windows comes with a barely-functional desktop search program. Google used to have a desktop search program, but doesn’t anymore. Two usable desktop search programs are Everything and Copernic. Both let you find all of the files in your computer Copernic by key word in a simple search window, and Everything by file name.
File transferring. In Windows, especially pre-8, and especially large files, can be a frustrating experience. Try TeraCopy for file transfers. It is faster than the native file transfer app and far less prone to errors. It has drag-and-drop, and allows you to pause and resume a transfer.
Process manager. Windows comes with Task Manager, an OK process manager (ctrl-alt-del), but MS itself offers an improvement on the native app with Process Explorer, available on most download sites.
Decompression. Sometimes WinZip works; sometimes it doesn’t. Download 7Zip for an alternative that is supported by the open source crowd. 7Zip also creates .zip and .7z files, so that you can compress your own large files.
Windows limits the files you can open to one per window, which can make for a cluttered desktop if you have multiple files open. You can clean that up by downloading QTTabBar, which allows you to open multiple files in a single window. Clean!
For a new computer, everyone agrees that you need to install and run PC Decrapifier, which I’ve written about before, but which bears repeating. Check it out.
Keep all of your software up to date by installing Inspector by Secunia (I use it). This app patches and updates all of your programs in the background. You need it.
PhraseExpress kind of expands spell check and other word processor helpers to everything you type (like emails). It works with the keyboard, not a program, so it is universal on the desktop.
Want a PDF reader that isn’t tied into Adobe, and so isn’t always hacked and updated? Try Sumatra PDF.
And last—if you want to look at a lot more usable downloads, go to Ninite, a general site which lists and connects to useful apps.