Tooling Around

Tidings and tip-offs on the ten most terrific freeware toolbars.

Most of us are so khush with Google Toolbar (www.toolbar.google.com) or Yahoo! Toolbar (www.toolbar.yahoo.com) that we tend to turn our nose up at any new developments and enhancements in the rest of the toolbar universe. Kyon bhai? Haven’t you heard the saying “Seek always, for by looking for one thing you will surely find another.”

Here’s the skinny on some the best toolbars I have encountered recently. So plunge into hitherto uncharted waters to peek at what lies beyond the horizon. (All the toolbars mentioned here are free. A few of them however tend to harvest personal info. Do check their privacy policies first.)

A-ToolBar
www.metaeureka.com
It has 50 pretty awesome tools. General tools include metasearch, web catalog, news RSS reader, spam remover, desktop search, links manager, app manager, language translator, dictionary, PIM, world clock, reminder, password keeper, weather and more. The network tools encompass telnet, ping, trace, DNS lookup, WhoIs etc. And then there are URL tools of all kinds… Ah, don’t miss the biorhythm charts and love calculator!

Advanced Searchbar
www.advancedsearchbar.com
An award winning toolbar that search over 100 search engines, over 60 news providers, and three-dozen email clients and is packed with features to ease Net trawling. It integrates with several spyware-removal proggies, blogs, and IMs. Icons allow easy access to lots of applications, including a built-in file shredder, calculator, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader, and pop-up eliminator.

Blinkx Pico
www.blinkx.com
This amazing one meg download toolbar searches over 4,000,000 hours of audio, video, podcast, vlog and TV along with conventional Web pages automatically! Instead making you trigger a search after figuring out what to search for, navigating through results etc., Pico brings you relevant results automatically using advanced algorithms to assess the info you’re viewing. Leaves me quite keywordless!

Copernic Meta
www.copernic.com/en/products/meta/index.html
This engine metasearches for images, audio, multimedia, news, auctions, and more. You can add your fav search engines and info sources to it, assign keyboard shortcuts and easily sniff around in located pages via highlighted keywords. You can search from within an application without opening your browser. It also features specialised categories like Web, Shopping, Dictionary, and Thesaurus that query multiple search engines at once. "Alt+Click"ing any word triggers start a search on it.

Furl Toolbar
www.softplatz.com/Soft/Network-Internet/Browsers-Tools/Furl-Toolbar.html
Furl is wonderfully huge online filing cabinet genie that almost metamorphoses the Internet into a personal Web by storing as much as 5 GB of your surfed pages--saved, “dog-eared” and accessible to from any PC, anywhere, anytime. You can keep Furl as a toolbar, in your bookmarks or as button. Great tool for students and researchers as apart from saving Web pages on the fly, you can also annotate and search them.

Quero Toolbar
www.quero.at
Amazingly simple and user friendly IE address bar replacement and Flash blocker for IE that enhances your Web efficiency. It lets you pick from 12 search engines. A built-in Flash and pop-up blocker kills unwanted ads. It also offers address spoofing protection, IDN and favicon support. Keyboard shortcuts, find as-you-type functionality and a built in zoom feature add to its ease of use.

jetToolBar
www.cowonamerica.com/products/jettoolbar
An uncomplicated, unobtrusive, position-anywhere, size-anyhow program launcher that also responds to voice commands. It lets you to find, administer, and launch programmes, utes, and bookmarks via tabbed app shortcut categories for easy access. Drag-and-drop functionality allows you add or annihilate buttons and categories in jiffy.

Viewpoint Toolbar
www.viewpoint.com/pub/products/toolbar.html
Viewpoint Toolbar has an interesting graphically enhanced search feature that depicts website thumbnail images in addition to text.

You store thumbnail images of bookmarked sites in a Visual Bookmarks tray. Web search aside, this is also a good photo management ute that helps you organise images from your camera and on your PC. You can also share photo albums online or e-mail pictures to people.

Productivity Cheat Sheet 16 - Outlook Express

Some four years ago, a British explorer named David Mills found himself marooned on an iceberg around the North Pole. The iceberg was disintegrating rapidly. All his attempts at convincing the authorities to send a plane to pick him had come to naught. A plane couldn’t land on the iceberg, reasoned the rescue team. So Mr. Mills dug up a short runway on the ice floe, took photographs of it, and e-mailed them to his rescuers to convince them of the feasibility of landing a plane.

Only long-term inmates of Rapunzel’s Tower would not have witnessed how e-mail has revolutionised the way we communicate, think, and react. Be it at work or in our personal lives. And almost unarguably the single most popular application responsible for this has been Outlook Express. So in this episode of our cheat sheet series let’s we look at the “fastest fingers first” for this ubiquitous mailing programme.

MAIN WINDOW, VIEW MESSAGE WINDOW, AND SEND MESSAGE WINDOW
F1: Opens Help topics
Ctrl + A: Selects all messages

MAIN WINDOW AND VIEW MESSAGE WINDOW
Ctrl + P: Prints selected message
Ctrl + M: Sends and receives e-mail
Delete or Ctrl + D: Deletes e-mail message
Ctrl + N: Opens or posts new message
Ctrl + Shift + B: Opens Address Book
Ctrl + R: Replies to message author
Ctrl + F: Forwards message
Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + G (only news): Replies to all
Ctrl + I: Goes to Inbox
Ctrl + > or Ctrl + Shift + >: Goes to next message in list
Ctrl + < or Ctrl + Shift + <: Goes to previous message in list
Alt + Enter: Views properties of selected message
F5: Refreshes news messages and headers
Ctrl + U: Goes to next unread e-mail message
Ctrl + Shift + U: Goes to next unread news conversation
Ctrl + Y: Goes to folder

MAIN WINDOW
Ctrl + O or Enter: Opens selected message
Ctrl + Enter or Ctrl + Q: Marks message as read
Tab: Moves between Folders list (if on), message list, preview pane, and Contacts list (if on).
Ctrl + Shift + A: Marks all news messages as read
Ctrl + W: Goes to a newsgroup
Left arrow or + (plus): Expands news conversation (show all responses)
Right arrow or - (minus): Collapses a news conversation (hide messages)
Ctrl + J: Goes to next unread newsgroup or folder
Ctrl + Shift + M: Downloads news for offline reading

MESSAGE WINDOW--VIEWING OR SENDING
Esc: Closes message
F3: Finds text
Ctrl + Shift + F: Finds message
Ctrl + Tab: Switches between Edit, Source, and Preview tabs

MESSAGE WINDOW--SENDING ONLY
Ctrl + K or Alt + K: Checks names
F7: Checks spelling
Ctrl + Shift + S: Inserts signature
Ctrl + Enter or Alt + S: Sends (posts) message

ADDRESS BOOK
F1: Lauches Help
F5: Refreshes View
Ctrl + N: New Contact
Ctrl + G: New Group
Ctrl + R: New Folder
Alt + Enter: Properties
Ctrl + F: Finds People

Powering Up – Part 3

Need for speed and other tweak tales.

Bill Bhai, muaf karna but of the scores of smirky stories swirling the hurly burly annals Microsoft folklore, this is one of my favourites: Kehtae hain, that in May 2003, popular American singer, songwriter, and multiple Grammy winner Christina Aguilera (www.christinaaguilera.com) was loitering around a Las Vegas tech show. As she stood staring seemingly perplexedly at a PC demoing Windows XP, a man came up to her, introduced himself and asked if he could help her. Presuming that he was trying to hit on her, she turned away muttering, "Thanks buddy, but I've already got a computer guy who can do that."

Seconds later she was told by her companions that the man who had introduced himself to her was none other than the one and only “Bill Gates”, Biggest Dada of Doodads and Dollars in the universe! Can’t say whether this was fact or fable. But the fundas that follow are decidedly factoids that will facilitate the fine-tuning your XP.

Defragging Your Boot
You know that defragging your hard disk regularly helps make PC vroom faster. By the same logic, placing relevant boot files adjacent to each other in your primary disk helps your PC boot faster as well. This option is enabled by default. To verify if things haven’t come unstuck over time, here’s what you need to do. Run Regedit (like we explained last time). Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction. In the right pane here, ensure that the Data value in front of Enable is Y. Else right click on Enable, pick Modify and type in the value “Y”. And it’s time to reboot, Ronaldinho!

Nuking Names
When looking for a picture (or ten) in a cluttered Thumbnail view, sometimes you need to glimpse as many images as possible in one screen. You can easily maximise your viewing by turning off filenames and utilising the space vacated for more thumbnails. How? Press Shift when you open a folder. Or when you switch into Thumbnail view. Wants the filenames back? Repeat the process bhaktjano…

And Killing the Kuradaan
I told you how to bypass in Recycle Bin three weeks ago. But if, like me, you hate the very sight of the Recycle Bin on your Desktop, you can kill it and bury its entrails into the beyond. For this, run Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/explorer/Desktop/SNameSpace. Here, click on the Recycle Bin string in the right pane. Hit Delete and click OK.

Living in the Shadows
Want to make your Desktop Icons look more interesting? Go to Control Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Visual Effects. Tick Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop. Yup, that’s it.

Faster Finds
Sick of your PC’s slow snout? Make your files searches scamper like a super-charged Doberman by getting Windows to create a file index. For this, launch Search using the Windows key + F shortcut. In Change preferences (in the left pane), choose With Indexing Service (for faster local searches). Now go, baby go…

And Swifter Soul Searches
Talking about speedy searching for lost souls, here are a tiny tip: Next time, you’re looking for file/phrase via Windows Search, try using appropriate letter capitalisation. Yani kae, typing “Karan Johar” will produce results a mite faster than typing “karan johar” where your cases are all garbar.

Still can’t find “Karan Johar” on your PC and want to snoop around on the Net for him? Don’t bother to scramble off to Start or your Desktop for your browser icon. Just hit the Search the Internet button in the left pane of this very same Windows Search and key in “Karan Johar”.

Okay now, abhi alvida hai kehna...

Productivity Cheat Sheet 15 - Outlook 3

The shortest distance between hearts may be love. And the shortest distance between friends may be a smile. But the shortest distance between your productivity and an application programme is often the keyboard. Continuing our sanguine saga of clickety-clack quickies, here is the concluding episode for Microsoft's ubiquitous personal information manager, Outlook.


DATE NAVIGATOR
Alt + Home: Goes to first day of current week
Alt + End: Goes to last day of current week
Alt + Up Arrow: Goes to same day in previous week
Alt + Down Arrow: Goes to same day in next week
Alt + Pg Up: Goes to first day of month
Alt + Pg Dn: Goes to last day of month

ADDRESS CARD VIEWS
Select a card in the list. Type one or more letters of the name the card is filed under or of the field you are sorting by.
Up Arrow: Selects previous card
Down Arrow: Selects next card
Home: Selects first card in list
End: Selects last card in list
Pg Up: Selects first card on current page
Pg Dn: Selects first card on next page
Right Arrow: Selects closest card in next column
Left Arrow: Selects closest card in previous column
Ctrl + Spacebar: Selects or unselects active card
Shift + Up Arrow: Extends selection to previous card and unselect cards after starting point
Shift + Down Arrow: Extends selection to next card and unselect cards before starting point
Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow: Extends selection to previous card regardless of starting point
Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow: Extends selection to next card regardless of starting point
Shift + Home: Extends selection to first card in list
Shift + End: Extends selection to last card in list
Shift + Pg Up: Extends selection to first card on previous page
Shift + Pg Dn: Extends selection to last card on last page

TIMELINE VIEW (TASKS OR JOURNAL)

When an item is selected
Left Arrow: Selects previous item
Right Arrow: Selects next item
Shift + Left Arrow or Shift + Right Arrow: Selects several adjacent items
Ctrl + Left Arrow + Spacebar or Ctrl + Right Arrow + Spacebar: Selects several nonadjacent items
Enter: Opens selected items
Pg Up: Displays items one screen above items on screen
Pg Dn: Displays items one screen below items on screen
Home: Selects first item on timeline (if items are not grouped) or first item in group
End: Selects last item on timeline (if items are not grouped) or last item in group
Ctrl + Home: Displays (without selecting) first item on timeline (if items are not grouped) or first item in group
Ctrl + End: Displays (without selecting) last item on timeline (if items are not grouped) or last item in group

When a group is selected
Enter or Right Arrow: Expands group
Enter or Left Arrow: Collapse group
Up Arrow: Selects previous group
Down Arrow: Selects next group
Home: Selects first group on timeline
End: Selects last group on timeline

When a unit of time on the time scale for days is selected
Right Arrow: Moves forward in increments of time that are same as those shown on time scale
Left Arrow: Moves back in increments of time that are same as those shown on time scale
Shift + Tab: When lower time scale is selected, selects upper time scale
Tab: When upper time scale is selected, selects lower time scale

MOVING BETWEEN FIELDS IN A CARD
Ensure a field in a card is selected. To select a field when a card is selected, click the field or press F2.
Tab: Moves to next field and, from last field of card, moves to first field in next card
Shift + Tab: Moves to previous field and, from first field of card, moves to last field in previous card
Enter: Moves to next field, or adds line to multi-line field
Shift + Enter: Moves to previous field without leaving active card
F2: Displays insertion point in active field to edit text

MOVING BETWEEN CHARACTERS IN A FIELD
Ensure a field in a card is selected. To select a field when a card is selected, click the field or press F2.
Enter: Adds line in multi-line field
Home: Moves to beginning of line
End: Moves to end of line
Pg Up: Moves to beginning of multi-line field
Pg Dn: Moves to end of multi-line field
Up Arrow: Moves to previous line in multi-line field
Down Arrow: Moves to next line in multi-line field
Left Arrow: Moves to previous character in field
Right Arrow: Moves to next character in field

Powering Up – Part 2

Hacking and honing Windows XP Registry.

Perhaps you know this. Perhaps you don’t. The Windows Registry is a database of the operating system’s settings and options. It keeps track of the settings for all your PC’s hardware, software, users, and associated preferences. Whenever you modify Control Panel parameters, install software, change file associations, or rework system policies, the amendments are stored in the Registry. Therefore, tuning and tampering with the Registry can have a major impact on the workings of your PC. Here are a few moves you gotta groove to.

Flush It Clean
We talked about this before. We’ll say it again. Keeping the Registry squeaky clean is very important for an optimized PC. Litter left by uninstalled proggies, broken shortcuts, erroneous paths, unemployed file extensions, and various dead ends all bog down efficiency. For a good Registry cleaner, try a freeware called CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com). This sanitises your Registry by killing unused file extensions, ActiveX controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, uninstallers, shared DLLs, fonts, help files, paths, icons, shortcuts etc. It also creates a Registry back up and cleanses your browser. Non-XP walas can try RegClean (www.createwindow.com/wininfo/regclean.htm). And RegMon (www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Regmon.html) is a good tool for monitoring your Registry.

Speedy Start Menus
If you’ve got XP crawling on a slower relic, you’ll definitely want to quicken things up. Well, here’s a tiny tweak that makes the Start menu and its submenus scurry along as swiftly as it possibly can. Click on Start > Run. Type “regedit” in the box. Hit Enter to launch the Registry Editor. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and select it. In the right pane, double-click on MenuShowDelay. Then change Value data from its default of 400 (that’s milliseconds) to 0. Hit Enter. Prankster pape, I can hear your evil mind ticking… Yeah, you can make the menus on your pal’s PC really plod by changing the value to 3000 or 4000!

Killing Dead Apps
XP’s delay in displaying the End Program dialog to force a frozen program to close can be agonizing. I could almost feel my toenails grow while waiting for it to return control until I discovered that I could end hung processes automatically. For this, load regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and select it. In the right pane double-click AutoEndTasks. Alter Value data to 1 and hit Enter. Then, in the same pane double-click HungAppTimeout. Reduce the Value data field to number of milliseconds you want to wait for an unresponsive app to die. (The default is 5000 ms—that is, 5 seconds).

Personalising IE
Want to see your name (or your current mehbooba’s) imprinted up there in your Internet Explorer title bar? Click on Start > Run and launch Regedit. Now navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main and select it. In the resultant right pane, double-click the Window Title icon. (Can’t spot this icon? Right-click in the right pane and pick New > String Value. Type “Window Title” here. Hit Enter.) Type in the name of your dil ruba (or kutta/billi/kachua). And this is what will appear in IE's title bar when you reload it henceforth.

Backing Up Reggie
Playing with the Registry is like playing with fire. So it’s best to have a backup in place. Fortunately Windows backs up the Registry automatically when you create a System Restore point. For this, Click on Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. This initiates the System Restore Wizard. To back up the Registry, select Create a restore point. To restore the Registry, choose Restore my computer to an earlier time.

Ideally you should also make a CD copy of the Registry. For this, click on Start > Run. Type in “regedit”, press Enter and open the Registry Editor. Now click on My Computer in the left pane. Click on File > Export. Type in a file name and choose a location to store the back up file. And dump this on a CD.

Powering Up – Part 1

Taking stabs at bettering Windows performance and productivity.

Aa aa aashiqui mein teri, jaa jaa jaayegi jaan meri
Tu meri jannat hain, tu hi meri chahat hain
Tu meri bechaini, tu hi meri raahat hain
Tu hi manzil meri…

May the chief muse of the English language (and Himmesh bhai) pardon me for this blasphemous blending. Problem is I can’t think of any other words that describe my sentiments for Windows better. I have spent a quarter of my life seeking ways to optimise working in Windows--perfecting its pedigree, polishing its parts, finding workarounds, ever seeking new methods to eke a wee bit more out from it. So much so that tuning, twisting, twirling and tweaking the OS has become almost an indecent obsession for me. Hence the several inches of space devoted to it here. Let's kick off with some simple file management quickies that can help you take a stab at better performance, productivity and pace.

Need to select more than one file or folder at a time? Switch to List or Details view. Press Shift before clicking on the first and last file to select all the files betwixt them. Want to make a non-sequential selection? Keep Ctrl pressed and click on the files you want to pick. If you need to select most of the files in folder, use Ctrl+A to select all files. Then press Ctrl and click on the ones you don't want selected to weed them out.

Once you've made your selection you know you can right-click and use the SendTo menu to jiggle the files to a few predefined set of destinations. But that's not all: You can even rework these right-click default destinations. Click on Start > Run. Type “sendto” in the field and hit Enter to open the SendTo folder. Now just copy/drag the folder/drive shortcuts you want appearing in the right-click menu. Dat’s it!

Remember, if you want to copy files from one folder to another in the same drive, press and hold the Ctrl key down as you drag the files. Else Windows will automatically move the files. And if you need to move files from one drive to another, hold Shift down to ensure that they are moved, not copied.

To eradicate files without having them lounging around in the Recycle Bin, hold Shift down when you hit Delete. And if you want to bypass the trashcan permanently, right-click on the Bin, select Properties, tick Do not move files to Recycle Bin, and click OK.

Ever tried renaming a number of files in one sitting? It is tedious and a major pain. You can attain salvation here via a batch processing freeware called Rename Tool at www.1-4a.com/rename.

This was only a soft opener. Hang loose, I have a whole caboodle out there. Because:
Tu meri saansen hain, tu hi meri dhadkan hain
Tu meri madhoshi, tu hi meri tadpan hain
Tu hi manzil meri


Shoo that Mouse!
The mouse doesn’t necessarily make life easier. Or faster. Many a time, the keyboard is the quickest way to get from Point A to Point B. Here’s how:

Win key + E: Launches Windows Explorer
Win key + Pause/Break: Launches System Control Panel
Win key + M: Minimises open windows
Win key + Shift + M: Undoes minimise
Win key (or Ctrl + Esc): Start menu
Win key + R: Launches Run command box
F1: Launches Help
F2: Renames selected file or folder
F3: (or Windows + F) Launches Search
F4: Views drop-down menu for Address bar in Explorer/IE
F5: Refreshes/reloads current window
F10: Selects first menu item at top of window
Alt + Enter: Views properties for selected object
Alt + Double-click file/folder: Views file/folder’s properties
Alt + Down Arrow: Expands drop-down menu
Alt + F4: Closes current window or program
Alt + F6: Switches between dialog boxes within the same program
Alt + Spacebar: Displays selected window’s System menu
Alt + Tab: Cycles between open programs
Shift + Del: Deletes item permanently
Shift + F10: Launches context menu

Productivity Cheat Sheet 14 - Outlook 2

It is said about those who have seen the Earth from space--and for perhaps thousands more who will do so in the years to come--the experience changes your perspective and outlook for ever. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us. Even if it’s something incredibly small.

So along with an episode of keyboard shorties for Views, let me share this quirky little Outlook easter egg with you. Create a new sticky note via File > New > Note, or Ctrl+Shift+N. Type in a couple of words. Grab the note by its title bar and drag it around—zigzagging, looping, whatever. Now press Ctrl+Z see what happens. You can keep pressing Ctrl+Z repeatedly to reverse the process. Apart from moving the note around, you can resize it and change its color (via the icon in the upper-left hand corner). Once you got the hang of it, try writing your name on the screen with the sticky (dragging it over the Outlook window too)!

Fun done. Time for elbow grease…

TABLE VIEWS

GENERAL

Enter: Opens an item
Ctrl + A: Selects all items
Pg Dn: Goes to item at bottom of screen
Pg Up: Goes to item at top of screen
Shift + Up Arrow or Shift + Down Arrow: Extends or reduces selected items by one item
Ctrl + Up Arrow or Ctrl + Down Arrow: Goes to next or previous item without extending selection
Ctrl + Spacebar: Selects or unselects active item
Ctrl + Home or Ctrl + End (with in-cell editing disabled): Moves every item in selection to top or bottom in list order

WITH A GROUP SELECTED
Enter or Right Arrow: Expands group
Enter or Left Arrow: Collapses group
Up Arrow: Selects previous group
Down Arrow: Selects next group
Home: Selects first group
End: Selects last group
- (numeric pad): Collapses group
+ (numeric pad): Expands group
Right Arrow: Selects first item on screen in expanded group or first item off screen on right

IN ALL GROUPS
Ctrl + - (numeric pad): Collapses all groups
Ctrl + + (numeric pad): Expands all groups

IN DAY/WEEK/MONTH VIEW
Alt + key for number of days: Views from Day 1 through Day 9
Alt+ 0 (zero): Views 10 days
Alt + - (hyphen sign): Switches to weeks
Alt + = (equal sign): Switches to months
Ctrl + Tab or F6: Moves between Calendar, TaskPad, and Folder List
Shift + Tab: Selects previous appointment
Left Arrow: Goes to previous day
Right Arrow: Goes to next day
Alt + Left Arrow: Moves selected item to previous day when multiple days appear
Alt + Right Arrow: Moves selected item to next day when multiple days appear
Alt + Down Arrow: Goes to same day in next week
Alt + Up Arrow: Goes to same day in previous week

IN DAY VIEW
Home: Selects time that begins work day
End: Selects time that ends work day
Up Arrow: Selects previous block of time
Down Arrow: Selects next block of time
Pg Up: Selects block of time at top of screen
Pg Dn: Select block of time at bottom of screen
Shift + Up Arrow or Down Arrow: Extends or reduces selected time
With cursor on appointment, Alt + Up Arrow or Down Arrow: Moves appointment
With cursor on appointment, Alt + Shift + Up Arrow or Down Arrow: Changes appointment start or end time
Alt + Down Arrow: Moves selected item to same day in next week
Alt + Up Arrow: Moves selected item to same day in previous week

IN WEEK OR MONTH VIEW
Home: Goes to first day of week
End: Goes to last day of week
Pg Up: Goes to same day of week in previous week (5 weeks back in month view)
Pg Dn: Goes to same day of week in next week (5 weeks ahead in month view)
Alt + Up, Down, Left, or Right Arrow: Moves appointment up, down, left, or right
Shift + Left, Right, Up, or Down Arrow; or Shift + Home or End: Changes duration of selected block of time