Three more free applets that can make your life that little bit simpler
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| FileTypesMan, which works with all recent versions of Windows, allows changing all aspects of file association, even the icon you see in Explorer. |
The postman always stops at the super-garish yet somehow calmingly lush Database suites high above the Mother of Rivers. He is almost always carrying terrific new software from world developers. And the competition is fierce.
I refer of course to my co-workers, especially those of a certain gender more frequently identified with grabbiness than deference to women. Lucky for me, then, that I have managed to perfect the art of the accidental elbow and the strategic high-heel placement to the extent that I wind up with pretty much all the good stuff.
The only problem with that then becomes how to get all the good stuff on to the far better-mannered readers. So once in a while I just throw some of the best little stuff up in the air and the first three or four that come down get reviewed. It's soft of helter-skelter, but it's better than keeping it secret. Here are this quarter's winners.
LicenseCrawler does in a few moments what you probably should have been doing for a few months or years - collecting and noting the product keys and serial numbers of the software you have purchased.
These days, most programs like Microsoft Office, various Adobe applications, Nero and the like squirrel away this valuable information in the Windows Registry. LicenseCrawler goes and gets it for you.
Some day, in some way, you probably will need one or more of these numbers. The most common reason is that you need to reinstall software; that happens all the time.
Or you may want to upgrade, and the company charges less than buying a whole new version. You may have to prove you are a legal owner in order to get help.
LicenseCrawler works on all Windows versions from 95 to present. It also reaches out to all machines on a network, presuming you have security authorisation.
After the program runs, click on File, Save and it makes a neat list as a text file, useable anywhere.
FileTypesMan makes it a whole lot easier to handle one of Windows' more aggravating problems - changing the "file association", meaning the program that opens a document, photo, song or whatever when you double-click on it.
This is a tedious job in Windows even if you manage to master the seriously illogical manner that Sir William's minions set up for it. That way is to open some folder, then click Tools, Folder Options, File Types, then choose Add, Change, New or Pull Your Hair.
You most commonly want to change file associations when a rude, new program hogs your MP3s, say, or decides that it knows best what you want to view PDFs.
Now to be honest, there is one pretty simple way to get one filetype back in line. Let's say, for example, that your new Zip program has decided it will open all your .Rar archives - but you would rather that WinRAR should do it.
To change this one association, find a .Rar archive in Windows Explorer. Right click and choose Open With. Scroll down to Choose Program, and select Browse. Burrow down to the WinRAR folder and double-click on WinRAR.exe. Then tick the box that says to Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.
FileTypesMan is for more detailed work or for working with many file types. It allows you to work safely with the Windows Registry and to change pretty well anything you want about any file type, even including the icon it will display in Windows Explorer.
FileTypesMan is by the amazing Nir Sofer, a true king of tiny, useful programs. While it's not the most elementary program itself, it's far simpler than the Microsoft way.
Finally, one of those programs you might never need - but if you do, this is the one you need.
Color Cop meets all the technical requirements we're looking for. It's small, it has one file, it doesn't install and can be put, copied or moved as you see fit. In my own opinion, it is tops in its class no matter how big the software.
So the question is, do you need it?
Color Cop grabs a colour from any pixel on the computer screen, including inside itself, and gives you all the information you could want to use it.
And why would you use it? Typically, you are building something and need a section of a particular colour. It could be a web page, it could be a game, it could be an attractive layer or texture for the report cover - something of that sort.
Color Cop has an eyedropper to pick up the colour you want, and a magnifier to help if it's just a tiny pixel or two.
I can't think of anything else it needs: Automatic copying to the clipboard of the colour details, with a history of the last seven, output in HTML/RGB, hex and seven other formats for programmers, an average sampler to get a coordinated colour, palettes for the same purpose ... on and on.
And it's all in a small footprint you can drag out of your way any time. Colour pickers are a special variety of specialty software, and they can get very big, with installation programs and all. Nothing I've seen beats Color Cop, either in features or in convenience.
Color Cop is described and illustrated in detail on its own web page, which is at colorcop.net.
LicenseCrawler is the work of the generous Martin Klinzmann of Leichlingen in Germany's apple-growing region and, virtually speaking, of the bilingual web site to be found at http://www.klinzmann.name. FileTypesMan is one of dozens of useful and free utilities at you'll find at http://www.nirsoft.net.
Email: wandasloan@gmail.com.
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