Five free & Phenomenal Vista Utilities
Windows Vista, take it or leave it, has a pretty handy graphical user interface (GUI). That doesn't, however, mean there isn't room for improvement. Conveniently, little applets and big tweaking utilities, most of them free (or at least partially free), abound all over the Web.
Some such apps started as homemade projects that, after gradually gaining popularity, ended-up being distributed worldwide through the Internet. Others are major projects from development houses. For the purposes of this article, we're going to stay away from the huge, Norton-level, resource hogging pigs that cost a ridiculous amount of money and require annual subscriptions.
Instead, let's browse through five interesting apps of varying scopes:
- Launchy—a simple and easy to use start-up/launching application.
- TweakVI Basic—an automated window resizer.
- Sizer—allows you to tweak settings both available and hidden throughout Windows Vista's GUI.
- Vispa—similar to Sizer, but with much more options and versatility.
- AllSnap—an applet that provides a big convenience in how your desktop windows sit next to each other and the edges of the screen. Continued...
For years now, Stardock has been making utilities to customize your Windows experience. With the right software, you can change the way windows look and behave, move around core interface elements, customize icons and their behavior, animate your desktop wallpaper, change sounds, and more.
These elements have been available as separate utilities, but also sold in a package called Object Desktop. Over time, the utilities have grown a little too numerous and complex for the average user, so for this year's release the company is doing something a little different: They're splitting Object Desktop into two products.
Object Desktop 2008 includes all the core elements a user would need to fully customize the way their Windows installation looks and feels: WindowBlinds, DeskScapes, IconPackager, SoundPackager, DesktopX, and MyColors. For power users that want to create their own themes, widgets, icons, and so on, there's Object Desktop Ultimate: all of the above plus IconDeveloper, Keyboard LaunchPad, ObjectBar, SkinStudio, TweakVista, and WindowFX. Continued...
Eat your heart out, Firefox! Well, maybe not. Internet Explorer 7, the current version of Microsoft's browser and the one that comes with Windows Vista, can do a lot of the stuff Firefox can do. One of those things is the ability to handle add-ons (formerly "extensions" in Firefox).
The problem with IE add-ons is that most of them cost money. Finding decent, free ones is hard enough; even searching for free IE add-ons turns up scores of IE toolbars and little else. Toolbars! It seems like virtually every company with a product of some sort has an IE toolbar, evidently trying to capture the success of the ubiquitous Google Toolbar. Do we really need toolbars for casual game publishers, or for jazz radio?
We spent hours digging through the toolbars and other freebies to find ten totally free IE add-ons that don't suck. We split them into two categories: Useful Stuff and Fun Stuff. Each entry links to the Windows Marketplace page where you can find more information and a download link for each add-on. Continued...
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