Thread: Share those tiny little (or mighty big) programs you could not live without.

I don't go to My Computer...everything I have is in my Start menu programs, neatly organised into directories and subdirectories where needed.

I think it's faster to click Start and do a few smooth mouse movements than type something out simply because it takes your hands away from the mouse to the keyboard and then back again, so typing speed doesn't even matter much.

Ah, but I can't live without IrfanView.
Quick file saving, resizing and the most optimal size/quality optimisation I know of.

I adore my custom file system. I use explorer on both of my OS's. I find launcher programs boring. And stupid.

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

I adore my custom file system. I use explorer on both of my OS's. I find launcher programs boring. And stupid.

Custom file system? Like... SeismoNTFS or ext2saur?

Originally Posted by Identity X

Custom file system? Like... SeismoNTFS or ext2saur?

Um. No. lol

I use the windowz button and type what I want, same one button and type method you use - I am on Vista see

Anyway, my programz I cannot live without:

• Photoshop
• Dreamweaver
• Flash
• word, excel, access, visio
• captivate
• Firefox :p

Photoshop -- Every day after school or at work

Photoshop, iWork, iTunes, XCode, iChat, and Time Machine

Windows

Hmm... Alarmp3. It lets me set an .mp3 file as my alarm, a different one for every day for a week in advance. All different times, if I so choose. Gmail Notifier, so I don't have to actually, y'know, check my email. And Ditto, a nifty little clipboard replacement program. It works like KDE's clipboard tool. I couldn't live without it.

And though not exactly a program, Synaptics' little system tray app that lets me program my laptop's touchpad left/right scroll button to change the volume instead of the awkward Fn+Up/Down cursor that it was, and set tap zones to right-click, play/pause Media Player, minimize the current window, and skip to the next track in Media Player. It's a life saver.

Originally Posted by Man of Steel

And Ditto, a nifty little clipboard replacement program. It works like KDE's clipboard tool. I couldn't live without it.

I might try that out, thanks. Most things on KDE make sense after all (except the names).

Might not be an app, but it has the power of one: YubNub! It's the quickest way to navigate the Web, having never needed to go to any home page ever again and simple typing in "yt hello" to search YouTube or "ih omfg warez" for IsoHunt. Commands exist or most sites. You can even add you own (increasing sophisticated) commands.

I have it set to the default search engine in Opera, which among other things allows me to type queries directly into the address bar. Woo! (As a side-note, searches can be created in Opera by right-clicking on any field and choosing "Create Search...")

Oh and talking of Opera, it is brilliant. Truly, truly, brilliant. But you know that already, right?

IE7 actually does have that feature, if you give it a query it first checks to see if there is a website by that name then it goes into a search. It uses LiveSearch though, and I don't think there is a way to change that.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

IE7 actually does have that feature, if you give it a query it first checks to see if there is a website by that name then it goes into a search. It uses LiveSearch though, and I don't think there is a way to change that.

That's not what I meant at all.

Every browser under the sun has that feature. Including Firefox, who redirect to Google (that's how Firefox, Opera et al make their money - being Google bitches).

There's all kinds of stuff I like to use, but really, given a good scripting language and a bunch of command line tools... you can make your own "awesome indispensible little toys"

Identity X, that Launchy program sounds a lot like quicksilver for mac... which I love using. I'm checking it out now....

Originally Posted by Adam

Anyway, my programz I cannot live without:

• Photoshop
• Firefox :p

Woooo

Anyway, that launchy proram is cool, thanks for telling! I don't have any cool prorams myself. Maybe a few plug-ins and addons for Firefox, like addblocker, Nukeverything, line stuff and other thing

Originally Posted by Grod

Identity X, that Launchy program sounds a lot like quicksilver for mac... which I love using. I'm checking it out now....

Quicksilver is amazing.

Check out the "Mouse Gesture" extension for FireFox. It takes a little bit to figure out, but once you've configured it for your desires, you'll hardly ever use your keyboard again, when in FireFox

Originally Posted by Marvo

Check out the "Mouse Gesture" extension for FireFox. It takes a little bit to figure out, but once you've configured it for your desires, you'll hardly ever use your keyboard again, when in FireFox

*cough* Opera did it first *cough*

Originally Posted by Merlock

I think it's faster to click Start and do a few smooth mouse movements than type something out simply because it takes your hands away from the mouse to the keyboard and then back again, so typing speed doesn't even matter much.

I find the exact opposite most productive. I keep my hands on the keyboard whenever possible, which includes for launching desktop applications. Grod mentioned Quicksilver, which I use all the time. Launchy sounds like the Windows equivalent (but without the extra features of QS).

Originally Posted by Identity X

Might not be an app, but it has the power of one: YubNub! It's the quickest way to navigate the Web, having never needed to go to any home page ever again and simple typing in "yt hello" to search YouTube or "ih omfg warez" for IsoHunt. Commands exist or most sites. You can even add you own (increasing sophisticated) commands.

I have it set to the default search engine in Opera, which among other things allows me to type queries directly into the address bar. Woo! (As a side-note, searches can be created in Opera by right-clicking on any field and choosing "Create Search...")

I also depend upon this functionality. Firefox and Camino have it builtin (they call it keyword searching). I myself use a plugin for Safari 3 called Sogudi (Safari Sogudi --- "So far so good" ), which makes my life a whole lot easier.

Originally Posted by Replicon

There's all kinds of stuff I like to use, but really, given a good scripting language and a bunch of command line tools... you can make your own "awesome indispensible little toys"

Truer words have never been spoken (outside my immediate vicinity )

Originally Posted by Identity X

*cough* Opera did it first *cough*

It's probably an extension for Opera, converted to FireFox later on

OneNote. I use it for one of my classes.

Although there can definitely be some improvements to that thing.

I hate how you can only install office programs (like Word, Excel, etc) twice from the CDs you purchase.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

I hate how you can only install office programs (like Word, Excel, etc) twice from the CDs you purchase.

That's why people use OpenOffice.org ...
Seriously, though, if you hate the fact that proprietary software comes with restrictive licenses, why don't you just use free (libre) software?

Originally Posted by dsr

That's why people use OpenOffice.org ...
Seriously, though, if you hate the fact that proprietary software comes with restrictive licenses, why don't you just use free (libre) software?

Well, the CDs were a gift.

Originally Posted by Marvo

It's probably an extension for Opera, converted to FireFox later on

No, Opera did it in-house years back. Same with tabbed browsing, before it was cool (and Opera still supports split-screen viewing and whatnot that Firefox ignores). Opera doesn't support extensions per-se, and I like it that way.

Originally Posted by dsr

I also depend upon this functionality. Firefox and Camino have it builtin (they call it keyword searching).

As does Opera, but YubNub is different. It's a social app where people have set up their own commands so you don't have to, and there are more complex things you can other than simple query-string replacing.

Originally Posted by dsr

That's why people use OpenOffice.org ...
Seriously, though, if you hate the fact that proprietary software comes with restrictive licenses, why don't you just use free (libre) software?

I downloaded StarOffice (Sun's proprietary fork of OOo (which was a fork of StarOffice )) from the Google Pack, but I am somewhat alarmed at the Googleness of it all. It's covered in Google task bars and phones home every now and then.

Should have not been greedy and gone for OOo (needed neither, tbh, I have Office 2003).

As for scripting languages, yes they are pretty neat. I endorse Python and I'm currently using the brilliant Windows version of Cream, a really nice version of VIM without the weird control scheme. I was previously an XEmacs user, but Cream is far easier: