Archive for the 'Windows' Category

Adobe came to Minneapolis for their Summer 2007 On AIR bus tour, where they introduced the new AIR runtime environment built to deploy internet applications to the desktop.

RSS Popper is a feed subscription plug-in for Outlook and Outlook Express users that bring RSS, RDF and Atom support, as well as auto-add from Internet Explorer and synchronization support with other readers like Bloglines.

Launchy is a keyboard application launcher for Windows. Keyboard launchers are generally considered easier and faster at launching applications because a user’s hands never leave the keyboard. I’ve been using Launchy at home and at work for a couple of months, and could not go back to using my computer without a keyboard launcher. Launchy consumes just 12MB of memory (on my system), and becomes a natural way to open applications or perform other simple tasks because it is so fast. Launchy is open source and is designed to be skinnable and highly extensible.

Microsoft Photo Info is a tool for adding metadata to your photos. Released in January 2007, this is a free tool for Windows XP SP2 or Vista (32-bit versions) that will help you update batches or individual photos with titles, keywords, descriptions, locations and other information. I’ve been using Photo Info to add metadata to photos I’ve shared on Flickr for 2 days, and it has worked better than any of the other Windows solutions I’ve tried thus far.

After Thomas Hawk’s (heavy user of Flickr and CEO of Zooomr) recommendation of jUploadr over the supported Flickr Uploadr, I was curious to try it and see if it would save me time. jUploadr is written in Java, which means you can run it on Windows, Mac or Linux, where you have a Java runtime environment installed. The Flickr Uploadr tool is Windows and Mac only at this time (I have never used it in OS X).

Google Video Player lets you download and watch videos in full high-resolution quality instead of the low quality streamed video available at video.google.com. Videos that contain detailed visual information (like application demos or code samples) must be viewed in their native resolution to discern fine details. This player combined with downloaded video solves the problem of “fuzzy” (but fast) streamed video available online. Google makes a downloadable player for Windows and Mac (though I didn’t test this).

After a fresh installation of Windows XP there are a number of tasks I complete to customize my installation, improve performance, and reduce system resource utilization. The quick tips below show you how to remove balloon notifications and Windows XP Genuine Advantage warnings, fill functionality gaps with Windows PowerToys, and prevent certain actions from happening or applications from starting. If you find some of these tips useful, or have related tips of your own, please share them in the comments.

In a previous article, I described how to burn DVDs with DVD Shrink. Some forms of copy protection found on newer DVDs will cause DVD Shrink to produce some confusing errors, which will prohibit users from ripping discs with DVD Shrink. Errors I have seen include “Cyclic Redundancy Error” or “Invalid DVD navigation structure”.

This article is a tutorial that explains the process of backing up a DVD on a PC using DVD Shrink. While there are many software solutions for backing up DVDs, the one on Windows I like is DVD Shrink. The program I use to burn CDs and DVDs is Nero. This article assumes your computer is already equipped with a burning program. An explanation of DVD Shrink and its features is available in a previous article. DVD Shrink will use Nero for burning if it is detected, but does not require Nero.

DVD Shrink is a lightweight, freeware, windows application that makes DVD burning easy. If you have a DVD burning drive, you can rip and burn a DVD by following just a few steps. A couple of years ago, I would have to use something like DVD Decrypter to decode the built-in encryption on the DVD, then rip the disc to an image on my hard drive, then use a burning utility like Nero to burn the image. DVD Shrink simplifies this process, down to one click if you have two optical drives.