The next time I register my car with the DMV, I'm going to request a
vanity license plate: "I [HEART] UTILITIES." Call me a propeller head (you
probably will anyway), but when I find a tool that does one job exceptionally
well--without bells or whistles--I'm in love. Over the years I've collected
many gems for my toolbox. These are the indispensable five, the ones I use
regularly--even daily--and would hate to live without. Did I mention that four
of them are free, and the other has a 30-day free trial? Tough to beat those
prices.
Better dialog boxes: Dialog Helper is a utility hidden
inside Ontrack's PowerDesk, the free, powerful substitute for Windows Explorer
that I've mentioned in the past, most recently in my November 2001 column, "Your Second
Line of PC Defense." The program puts two icons in the
upper-right corner of your applications' Open File dialog boxes: One contains a
list of 20 recently used files; the other has 20 recently used folders. Use
Dialog Helper once and you'll wonder how you ever did without it. One caveat:
Dialog Helper doesn't work with some applications, but turning the utility off
in those programs is easy.
Files side-by-side: I must have a million and a half
files on my hard drive, a bunch of which are duplicates, or at least kissing
cousins. There are lots of utilities that ferret out the dupes automatically,
but I like doing some file comparisons manually. SoftByte Labs' free Comparator
utility shows a side-by-side list of the contents of any two files so I can see
what's missing and what's new. With it I can easily sync the files to ensure a
perfect match.
A well-read PC: I've had some eerie PC experiences, but
listening to a disembodied voice read my e-mail is one of the eeriest. Don't
get me wrong--my screen-reader utility comes in handy. MoneyTree Software's
ReadPlease 2002, a freebie, reads text that you copy from anywhere on your
screen and paste into the program's window. While I'm doing some mindless
chores--say, paying bills--ReadPlease lets me listen to white papers and press
releases. And the utility is a terrific tool for proofing important documents.
Its natural-sounding voice handles difficult words and punctuation with ease.
The AxMan cometh: Some of my video files are huge--20MB
isn't uncommon--and I often encounter problems when I send them to family and
friends. Attaching them to e-mail isn't the answer--my ISP has a hearty laugh
and then rejects any attachment larger than 5MB. I use Mosaic Software
Solutions' AxMan utility to slice and dice large files of all sorts into
manageable pieces (it can even compress the pieces if necessary). AxMan can
divvy up a file to fit on several floppies, or let you set the file's maximum
size to ensure that it will fit on a CD-ROM, for example. The program's great
for moving large files between hard drives, bypassing Windows' 4GB limit. And
unlike Humpty Dumpty, the files are easy to put back together. If you're on the
receiving end of "axed" files, use the free AxManRestore program to restore
them. For the great things AxMan does, its $15 price is a pittance. It even
offers a 30-day free trial.
Icon beautification: Give Windows' bland, lifeless
folder icons some sizzle with Max Maischein's free Folder Icons for Win32
program. The colorful icons it adds make finding the folders you use most often
much easier. For instance, I changed my Quicken folder to a dollar sign, and My
Documents now looks like a document. The icons are really useful for spotting
folders quicker in Windows Explorer.
Get these nifty utilities at
our
Downloads library, and visit my
newsletter
archives to read about more of my favorites.
Contributing Editor Steve Bass is president of the Pasadena IBM Users
Group. He can be reached at
steve_bass@pcworld.com.
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