The New Freebie Thread

[MilesAhead]

I wrote another variation on Toggle called Toggle2. It only toggles the active window. You can use a keyboard hotkey(Alt F10 by default) or Alt Left Mouse Click to toggle the active window. Very simple to use. Instead of Maximize/Restore just toggle between 2 non-maximized window sizes and positions.

You can see more details in this article:

http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php?topic=21869.0

[MilesAhead]

Firefox 3.6 64 bit

I guess I can't resist playing with the Firefox freebies for long. Someone tipped me to the "Namroka" Firefox 64 bit build of FF 3.6. I'm using it now. So far everything seems normal. No flash player support or 32 bit plug-ins of course. But my AddOns like NoScript seem to be working fine. GradientiCool theme likes it.

Here's the link for those who want to try it:

http://wiki.mozilla-x86-64.com/Firefox:Download

Use Custom install otherwise it will try to install into
Program Files (x86)

but Task Manager shows it as 64 bit. The installer must be hard-wired to the 32 bit releases.

edit: I'm also trying the 3.7pre Minefield 64 bit from the same page. The graphics seem to snap up all at once. Makes it seem faster. So far it seems stable but I've just started running it. The 3.6 seems to have a warping into place of the graphic images that's a bit disconcerting. I think I prefer the snap up at once approach instead of a bent image that straightens out after a fraction of a second.

[dr_ml422]

Please let us know how these Fair, and if you eventually find that they are not pure Native 64 bit as well. something trying to go into the x86 folder is fishy. Though if you're sure it's the .exe then w/e. I still don't get why their lagging on x64 software, especially a Big boy like Google. Whether there's not too many sites x64 is irrevelant imo. Maybe if they would put out a stable x64 Browser some more webmasters would start making the move.

[MilesAhead]

I don't know that much about the x64 and Firefox. I do think it is 64 bit but the way they do things in FF is weird.. esp. installers. I installed the 32 bit portable 3.6 on my external USB just so I wouldn't have to wait forever if I wanted to load the browser while the HD was busy with a video encode. It won't run if another Firefox is open. Plus you have to be careful of options or it will use the profile of the original FF install on your main HD. I don't know what they use to install and configure this stuff. Maybe it's some weirdo scripting thing so they can write one installer for all the OS or something.

afaik the main block to people doing 64 bit FF client is no Flash Player. But I'm new to it. These are just my impressions.

[dr_ml422]

Thnx Miles. I'm glad you confirmed FF and their weird ways. I haven't used them since I had issues a while back that may or may not have been FF. All I know is IE has been steady. Even when using Google.com to video chat via Gmail. Let me tell you that video chat feature's really great. Real quick install for the feature. Small also. You don't need any xtra sw from your cam either. PNP. I ditched Logitech's SW. It kept calling in some old Windows Update from 2007 or so. Another reason I get PO when they use these patch up jobs to make things so-called compatible. If compatible then why was it calling in a old Capicom Update? Cam works great though or I would of sent it back for a full refund.

Glad your into sw that way you can spot stuff like the aboveforementioned and share w/us.

[MilesAhead]

I haven't done the video chat thing. But I have used Firefox watching some sports on the browser. During the big tennis tournaments they typically only show a few matches on TV when there may be 10 or 12 going on concurrently in the early rounds. With the live cam you can pick the one you want to watch. I'm surprised how good the video is considering it's streamed over the web. Plus sometimes it's a pleasant change to just hear the ball being hit and the umpire calling the score without all the commentary from the TV guys.

[dr_ml422]

The browsers overall got better w/the whole video thing. I go to my sports sites also n watch. Once the buffer's full they're good to go. Can't stand the commentators anymore. So ridiculous the things they come up with.

You will not be disappointed w/Gmail's video Chat. I talk for 2-3 hours every time w/my gf from the Phillipines. No breakups or anything. Using IE also at Google.com. I have the built-in mic in the cam. My mom's couldn't believe it when I put her to say hello. She's 84 so all this tech stuff is way out. Lol...

[MilesAhead]

I missed watching Leo Laporte on Screen Savers. Now the guy is almost always on Twit TV Live. There's so much info on the web now it's almost dead the idea of getting a tip from one of those guys. So they more or less discuss the state of technology or something.

[dr_ml422]

Leo is still around w/tips. Idk if the tips are a bit old but several times this month or so I've Googled a How to do something and he showed up. It'll ask you on his sight if you want to receive his newsletter etc... I like him myself as I see he's not too biased one way or another. At least from what I've read and learned from him.

Have to admit though that many times lately when Googling a lot of torrent/prolly spam stuff has shown up as 1st page results. Even for simple questions. They need to clean that up a bit.

[MilesAhead]

I always liked Leo. I don't even watch Tech TV or G4 they call it now, since ScreenSavers left. I'm not into gaming so there's nothing of interest there for me.

[MilesAhead]

btw I updated Toggle2 program to v. 1.3.0.1

Now when you toggle the active window, if it's a program window, such as Firefox or Notepad, rather than an explorer folder, it saves the screen position info to the .ini file.

Also has optional Shift-Middle-MouseClick so that you don't have to let go of the mouse to hit the hotkey.

You can get it directly from my site on this page:

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html

edit: updated to v. 1.5. Now if an application window has duplicate position info(the 2 positions and sizes are identical) it will prompt to move/size the window. Also has updated Tray and program icons.

[MilesAhead]

Free Ramdisk

This free ramdisk has been around for awhile. I tried it a couple of times and gave up on it because I thought I had to run the configuration program to start the ramdisk every time. Not so. So easy to use I couldn't figure it out until about the 3rd try.

You just configure how you want the disk. If it doesn't give a drive letter the first time, while the ramdisk is running just go into Administrative Tools(in Control Panel) and click on Disk Management. You should see it in there. Right click to assign it a drive letter. From then on it should hold onto the drive letter.

It seems pretty stable esp. if you don't need to save the data to image file across boots. I'm running Firefox 3.6 portable out of it quite nicely.

I has pretty good documentation. I'm probably the only one that didn't get how to use it right away. Just whiffed on it.


Dataram Ramdisk

[MilesAhead]

StandAloneStack 2

I was using 7stacks on my Vista64 QuickLaunch to categorize programs. After awhile though, it really bogged popping up. Disk defrag, reinstall, nothing helped. Someone on another board suggested StandAloneStack 2.

It uses the stack library for RocketDock, but it works with your QuickLaunch.
It has sorting and other options that can be changed when the stack is in place, and so far it really snaps up there.

See the screen shot for one stack I created for file related utilities.

Here's the link:

http://www.chrisnsoft.com/standalonestack/

[MilesAhead]

DriveAlive 1.01

DriveAlive is a small software I wrote to sit in the tray and keep specified drives alive. It's meant to be used with external USB drives or a drive in a docking station that would otherwise spin down after an idle time out.

I just bought a pair of Sharkoon USB 3.0 docking stations that have this spin down feature. afaik there's no way to change the time out or disable it. So I wrote DriveAlive to create an empty file in the root of each specified drive, and overwrite this file, named drive_alive_dummy.txt, every 5 minutes.

It's especially useful if you are going to perform some operation where you read from one dock/drive and write to the other, but there may be a few minutes delay before the drive is accessed. Instead of letting it spin down, only to spin up again a minute later, launch DriveAlive before you start the operation.

Usage is simple, just specify the drive letters with colon on the command line or in the Target line of a shortcut:
DriveAlive G: Z:

for example.

When run with no params a usage dialog is displayed, then DriveAlive exits.

When you hover the mouse over the Tray Icon it shows what drives are being kept alive. On program exit, the dummy file is erased.

DriveAlive does not create any Registry settings or .ini files.

You can download from this page on my site:

http://www.favessoft.com/downloads.html

edit: for those who prefer to download from a large download site, DriveAlive 1.1 is now
on Softpedia:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/DriveAlive.shtml

edit2: updated to v. 1.1. Removed error message if a 2nd instance is launched.

[MilesAhead]

PromptHere

PromptHere v. 1.0

This is a variation on the old Command Prompt Here but for mouse-oriented
people. Alt Middle Mouse Click opens a command prompt for folder(s)
selected in Explorer.

You can download from my hotkeys page:

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html