Puush: a quick and easy way to take and share screen captures
Sharing an image of your desktop can often be a useful way to help someone understand a point you’re trying to make, but making this happen isn’t always entirely straightforward. You’ll have to figure out how best to capture the screen, get the image to a file and send the file to your contact, for instance. And while none of this is complicated, it can take a little while, especially if you need to share several images with several people.
Puush is an application and web service which can greatly simplify this process, though, by capturing your image, uploading it and making the file accessible to others in a single step -- potentially a real time-saver.
F.lux soothes the eyes by adjusting monitor color temperature
If your eyes often feel tired after a lengthy session on your PC then one possible explanation is that your display isn’t using an appropriate color temperature. Monitors will be typically be set very high, which may be fine in bright daylight, but is less appropriate for night-time viewing (and may, some suggest, even contribute to sleeping problems).
You don’t have to put up with this, though. Not with a little help from F.lux, a simple free program which uses your location, the date and time of day to figure out your sunrise and sunset times, then automatically adjusts your monitor’s temperature to an appropriate level.
VirtualBox 4.2.6 delivers many fixes
Oracle has announced the release of VirtualBox 4.2.6, the latest edition of its powerful cross-platform virtualization tool.
This is a maintenance release, and so looks more or less unchanged. But the build does include plenty of welcome bug fixes and other small improvements.
Track your entire family’s medical history with HeyDoc!
Keeping track of your medical history is no easy task (there’s just so much to record), which is probably why many people simply don’t bother. And most of the time that probably won’t matter, as your doctor should maintain all the key details for access whenever necessary.
If you’re changing doctors, though, or seeing a specialist, or need to monitor a particular condition, then it can be very useful to maintain records of your own. And the free HeyDoc! makes this much more straightforward than you might expect.
Watch TV channels from across the world with ChrisTV Online! FREE
Let’s be frank: most free internet TV apps are utter rubbish, little more than a front end to a collection of web links which either don’t work, or point to channels or shows which you’d never want to watch anyway.
One or two applications are a little more interesting, though. And ChrisTV Online! FREE, in particular, shows rather more ambition than most of its more basic competition.
LoopJam helps you make sweet music
Audio loops are a great way to speed up the process of creating your own music, but it can be hard to get the precise sound you need. One possible solution might be to spend an age browsing your favorite online loop libraries in the hope that something turns up, but a simpler option it just to install LoopJam, which can remix existing WAV loops with a click.
Launch the program and it’ll immediately start playing a demo sample. This is also displayed as a waveform and divided into segments, each of which can have one of several effects applied (Highpass, Lowpass, Stutter, Reverser, and so on) by clicking in a grid.
Remove desktop distractions in a flash with CinemaDrape
Install an application or two and the typical Windows desktop can quickly become a distracting place. There might be animated taskbar buttons, system tray notifications, desktop gadgets and more, each clamoring for your attention, and that can be a problem when you really need to focus on one particular task.
You can minimize this to a degree by turning everything off, perhaps, and maximizing your main application window. But the free CinemaDrape provides a more flexible way to focus solely on your areas of interest.
Pokki: find free apps for your Windows desktop
Apple, Google, Microsoft: everyone seems to have their own app store, these days. None of these are much help if you’re running a Windows XP, Vista or 7 system, of course, but if you’re feeling left out then there’s always Pokki, a simple framework which can help you find, install and run free apps on the Windows desktop.
The program installs quickly and easily, and is so unobtrusive you might be left wondering what’s actually changed. There should now be a Pokki icon to the right of the Start button, though. Clicking this displays the Pokki launcher, currently empty, and selecting App Store will allow you to browse its various offerings.
View all your web browser histories from MiTeC’s Internet History Browser
You visited a great web page yesterday, and read a really helpful article -- but now you can’t remember where it was. It’s easily done, but viewing your browser history should give you the information you need.
Of course, if your PC has multiple browsers installed then reviewing your (or anyone else’s) activities can be a little more challenging. Unless, that is, you run the free Internet History Browser, which collects your histories from all the main browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari) and displays them in a single, simple interface.
Manually detect malware with SX System Suite 2.0
A good antivirus suite will protect you against the vast majority of malware, but of course there are no 100 percent guarantees. It’s still possible that, just occasionally, something will penetrate your defenses.
Fortunately help is at hand, in the shape of SecurityXPloded’s SX System Suite 2.0, a free collection of system monitoring tools which may be able to help you manually detect an infection.
Want more from Windows search? Try Locate32
Microsoft may claim that Windows Search has improved considerably in recent years, but you don’t have to look very far to find those who disagree. Many people prefer the older XP-style interface, for instance, and PC speedup guides commonly recommend turning off the standard indexing service to save resources.
If you’ve also had enough of the standard tools then there are plenty of commercial desktop search alternatives around, of course. But if your needs are simple – you mostly search for file names, not content -- then you might prefer Locate32, an open source tool and portable which makes it easy to locate the files and folders you need.
Have Windows 8 your way with sTabLauncher dock
What’s the best way to organize and launch your programs? The arrival of Windows 8 has generated endless “Start menu vs Start screen” debates on this topic, but these have tended to miss an important point: many people really don’t like either.
If you’re looking for an alternative way to arrange your applications, though, there are plenty of simple but effective options around, and sTabLauncher’s dock is an excellent example.
Free Music Downloader 1.30 supports YouTube search and convert to MP3
The SZ Development released Free Music Downloader 1.30, the latest edition of its MP3 download tool, and the update is mainly about extending its list of supported sites.
The program provides a simple, free and portable way to search a number of sources for music. This update adds support for BandCamp, Hypem and Xiami to the existing list of sites and services, which also includes www.last.fm, vkontakte.ru, goear.com, GrooveShark.com, SoundCloud.com, mixcloud.com, ProstoPleer.com and 8Tracks.com. Elsewhere, a bug fix sees LastFM searches and downloads working again.
MaxMax stops maximized windows covering your whole screen
Maximizing a window on your PC is great when you want to focus on a particular program: it allocates all available screen real estate to that application, and removes any distractions as well.
What if you want to have easy access to some other content, though? Launchers, maybe. Sticky notes. Or maybe you’d like to continue monitoring real-time information such as share prices, or eBay auctions. Maximizing other applications may hide this -- unless you get a little help from the free MaxMax.
Rename thousands of files in one click
Download a few files from the Internet and one problem you’ll soon notice is that they won’t exactly follow any sensible naming conventions. Some will leave out key information you need to tell what they are; others will add unnecessary extras, like dates or numeric IDs; and they’ll be in a mix of upper, lower or mixed case -- a real mess.
Renaming one or two names in Windows Explorer is easy enough, of course. But if there are any more then it all becomes just too tedious. Unless, that is, you install a batch processing tool such as the free Solid Renamer.
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