Automated System Utilities and More--This Week's Top Freeware Picks!
Posted 11/03/08 at 01:00:00 PM by David Murphy
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The best kinds of system applications are the ones that make your life easier without you having to lift a finger. While the freeware applications we're profiling in this weekly roundup still require you to input a few settings, they're great tools to help automate some of the critical parts of your daily computer life. From hotkey creation utilities to applications that help you conserve power by turning off your PC at specified intervals, these freeware tools are must-have additions to your computing repertoire!
HotKeyz
What it does: Remember gMote? It's an application that lets you create mouse gestures for any function you want on your PC. HotKeyz is similar, but instead of twitching your mouse around to launch your favorite application, you just jam on a specific combination of keyboard buttons. You can set your little combination to launch programs, folders, or run commands in a normal, minimized, or maximized state! Start your screensaver, shut down your computer--with HotKeyz, your fingers can command nearly any task!
Download it here!
Startup Delayer
It's ok. Not all of us can sport the fastest PCs, the largest chunks of memory, or the fastest hard drives. And sometimes, when you go to start your machine, it can just be agonizingly slow as a result of your underpowered rig. That's where Startup Delayer comes into the picture. Rather than letting Windows attempt to start up all of its applications and processes immediately after your machine logs in, Startup Delayer lets you set specific time intervals before each program can start. Instead of launching 10 applications at once, you can now space them out and--who knows--use your PC. It sure beats sitting there and watching your hard drive activity light blink!
Download it here!
AMP WinOFF
So what do you often use your maximum pc (and maximum broadband connection) for? Downloads. And when's the best time to fill your Internet's pipe, as to not hack off your roommates who also depend on your connection? Nighttime. But suppose you hate the idea of leaving your souped-up, energy-sucking rig on needlessly. We do too. That's why we use AMP WinOFF to manage our computer's uptime. You can set the program to perform any number of shutdown actions for your PC, including a normal shut off, a restart, a log off, et cetera. These can run by timer or CPU usage--if your processer drops below a certain rate of use for a set period of time, the application can flip off your PC! Watch your electric bill go through the floor thanks to one simple little utility!
Download it here!
US Presidential Polling Screensaver
Hey, did you know that there's an election coming up? An important election? If you did, and you're one of those hardcore folk who cling to the latest polling numbers and statistics, then this is your screensaver. The screensaver pulls updated polling numbers from the 'net and displays them, state-by-state, in a beautiful DirectX-based screensaver. Show your pride in your statistical knowledge and prevent monitor burn-in all at once!
Download it here!
Path Installation Bug ...
Submitted by Cannonade on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 2:44pm
I rebuilt my installer using the large string version of NSIS and it is no longer reproducable.
Submitted by Cannonade on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 2:43pm
Just a follow up for my last post. I finally found the cause of the path bug that happened to at least one user of my software. This was a bug in the NSIS installer code available through the NSIS wiki. For system path greater than 1024 characters, the path would be truncated. You can find discussion of the problem here:
http://bit.ly/lwEi9
I am very dissapointed that this code was available through the NSIS wiki, but hadn't been properly tested. The post on this comment log is the only place I found an affected user, so hopefully this problem didn't affect too many people.
Submitted by Cannonade on Thu, 11/06/2008 - 6:55am
I am the author of the Electoral College Screensaver and offer my humble apologies for the system path bug that you encounted. I can only imagine how irritating that must have been.
The system path append code is part of the NSIS library and I assumed that it was bug free. Unfortunately it wasn't . I have put some special handling in my installer to check for this case. I can only assure you that this case was the exception and that most users didn't encounter the fault, which is the reason I missed it. It certainly wasn't anything deliberately malicious, though I imagine how it may have seemed that way.
I don't imagine many people will be downloading the screensaver now the Election is over, but I thought I should fix the problem regardless ....
Again, my apologies and I hope your system path wasn't too difficult to rebuild. Please contact me if there is anything I can do to help.
DONT INSTALL US SCREENSAVER!
Submitted by SteveCamper on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 4:17pm
It wipes out your complete path environment variable when you install it so all those other nice paths that have been added properly by other programs and windows itself are GONE! I am trying to figure out how to recover my path but I think I am hooped!
Murphy?
Submitted by winmaster on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 6:13pm
Aren't you supposed to be done working for the magazine or something. Did they forget to turn off your onling article writing rights, and have yet to relize that you are still posting articles. Or are you being phased out slowly, starting with the podcast, then the mag, then online?
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
I can't seem to get the
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 11:49pm
I can't seem to get the Screen saver up and running. I'm running Win Vista SP1 64bit. All I can find is the option to uninstall the software.
Submitted by Lighsword on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 11:25pm
I love this section! I'm finding all sorts of great applications, keep up the good work!
Currently, it is a race between programmers trying to create bigger and better idiot proof programs and the universe trying to create better idiots. So far the universe is winning; Mac users are proof of this fact. :-P Just Kidding! :-D
Submitted by billysundays on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 5:50pm
These software picks features you guys have been posting have been great, but do you guys at MacPC have any prefered online bandwidth monitoring software. I think its relevant with all the recent hubbub over ISPs (Comcast) implementing bandwidth caps.
Submitted by soccer1105 on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 4:33pm
I like how the presidential polling screensaver comes up now... a day before the election. very useful guys, thanks.
I like it but the flashing
Submitted by WindowsXP on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 7:30pm
I like it but the flashing lights all around are very annoying.
Submitted by SteveCamper on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 12:28pm
Are ya? How's that other job thing working out for ya? When are you going to make a guest appearance on the podcast?
but can AMP power on your
Submitted by nekollx on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 11:44am
but can AMP power on your computer on a timer as well?
Submitted by Digital-Storm on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 11:57am
Can you run your favorite apps while the computer is off? No.
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 11/28/2008 - 4:05pm
that's a fecetiou sargument. I mean it's not impraticaly to ask if something can do remote boot, and remote boot is worlds different from running firefox with the system off
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