Flutter : Play and pause your media with a gesture

Flutter is a small app that uses your webcam to let you pause or start your music playback with a hand gesture. Simply install Flutter, open your music player and listen to some music - to pause playback, just hold up the palm of your hand toward your webcam for a second and the music will stop. To continue listening, simply us the same gesture again, and Flutter will resume playback. A similar gesture is supported for skipping to the next or previous track.

Flutter works best if you gesture within a 1-6 feet distance from your webcam. If you get too close or are too far away it may have difficulties recognizing the gesture. Flutter runs in the system tray and will automatically activate your webcam when you launch your media player.

Currently supports Windows Media Player, iTunes, Spotify and WinAmp.

Download Flutter from here.

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Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Google Earth

With Google Earth you can view some really amazing information relating to the 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami. The earthquake measured 9.0 on the richter scale and triggered tsumanis and after-shocks that affected countries as far as Canada and the United States. You will need Google Earth and the Real-time Earthquakes KMZ file to view extensive real-time updates on earthquakes not only in Japan but around the world.

Download Google Earth from here.

Download Real-time Earthquakes KMZ file from here.

Also useful is the Real-Time Day and Night Earth KMZ file which can be downloaded here.

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Prevent CHKDSK running on boot in Windows XP

After a while, when booting Windows XP, CHKDSK seems to run even when there doesn't seem to be any errors on your drive. To prevent CHKDSK from running, follow these simple steps:

Go to Start > Run and type CMD

At the prompt type FSUTIL DIRTY QUERY D:
You will most likely be told that the drive is dirty.

Next type CHKNTFS /X D:
The /X tells Windows to NOT check that particular drive on the next reboot.

Next manually reboot your computer and CHKDSK should not have run.

Once Windows has rebooted, again go to Start > Run and type CMD

At the prompt type CHKDSK /F /R D:
This will clean the dirty bit from your drive.

Finally, type FSUTIL DIRTY QUERY D: and Windows will confirm that the dirty bit is cleared from your drive.

That's it you're done!

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Easily recover deleted files from any media

PC Inspector Smart Recovery is a data recovery program for Flash Card, Smart Media, SONY Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, Multimedia Card, Secure Digital Card(SD) or any other data device for digital cameras. It enables you to recover accidentally deleted or formatted pictures, videos or sound files from the selected media. The program also offers a mode that enables you to check the media for errors.

Download PC Inspector Smart Recovery from here.

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Make a PC remote using your Bluetooth-enabled phone for free

If you're one of those lazy persons (like me) who hate having to go upto your computer to increase / decrease the volume, change the song playing etc. in Windows Media Player (or your favorite media player) or for that matter just control your PC desktop, then you need a PC remote to do just that.

If you have Bluetooth-enabled phone, you can easily make a PC remote for yourself. All you need is a USB Bluetooth dongle which should cost you about Rs.150/- or less.

Just plug in the USB Bluetooth dongle into any free USB port and a Bluetooth icon should appear in your taskbar. You can right-click this icon to Add / Remove Bluetooth devices, Send / Receive files and more.

Once you've added your phone, look for the Remote Control option in your phone and you're good to go.

Have fun being even more lazy!

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Rearrange taskbar buttons and system tray icons with Taskbar Shuffle

In an earlier post, I wrote about Taskix, a neat little utility which allows reordering taskbar tabs easily.

Taskbar Shuffle is a program that goes one step further. It not only allows reordering taskbar tabs, but also system tray icons.

Download Taskbar Shuffle here.

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System Ninja: Companion to CCleaner

System Ninja is a program for cleaning your computer of unwanted junk that constantly slows your entire system down. System Ninja features a fast and powerful file cleaner, Startup Manager, Process Manager and Startup Log Generator, plus several useful tools such as CCEnhancer, FileAnalyzr and MalRunDestroyer.

Download System Ninja here.

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FileToFolder: Easily create folders for files

FileToFolder is simple to use and focused in it's purpose: make folders from a selection of files and move those files into their respective folders. This is most easily accomplished from the Context Menu in Windows Explorer where FileToFolder is registered but the full application can be launched and operated as a conventional application as well.

Download FileToFolder here.

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AntiFreeze: Recover from PC Hang-ups

AntiFreeze offers a last recourse when you find your computer in a hung state. Because programs consume too much CPU or too much memory or too many programs have been started, your computer has become unresponsive. The mouse still moves but no programs are responding, you cannot switch to other programs or even close them. You have even tried to start the Windows Task Manager even that won?t work because it does not get enough attention from the scheduler to respond to your mouse clicks and keyboard presses. You are ready to press the reset button, instead you can press the hotkey of AntiFreeze. It will put to sleep all running programs except the most critical ones, giving you the opportunity to close down the programs which are causing problems. You may even be able to save or recover your work.

Download AntiFreeze here.

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CCEnhancer: Enhance CCleaner to support hundreds of additional programs

CCEnhancer is a small tool which adds support for over 270 new programs into the popular program CCleaner. The tool uses the WinApp2.ini system built into CCleaner to easily add new rules and definitions for programs.

Download CCEnhancer here.

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Reorder taskbar tabs with Taskix

Taskix is a free utility destined for those who keep many open windows at the same time. It allows you to reorder taskbar tabs with drag-and-drop, scroll through tabs with the mouse wheel, or close tabs with middle-click, supports UltraMon taskbars, can Show Desktop and maximize/restore windows. It is small, straightforward to use, fast and uses very few system resources.

Download Taskix here.

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Type securely with KeyScrambler

KeyScrambler is a free plug-in for your Web browser that protects everything you type from keyloggers. It defeats keyloggers by encrypting your keystrokes at the keyboard driver level, deep within the operating system. When the encrypted keystrokes reach your browser, KeyScrambler then decrypts them so you see exactly the keys you've typed. Keyloggers can only record the encrypted keys, which are completely indecipherable. Unlike anti-virus and anti-spyware programs that depend on recognition to remove keyloggers that they know about, KeyScrambler will protect you from both known and unknown keyloggers. What's more, KeyScrambler provides protection without getting in your way. You don't have anything to learn about the program and you don't have to do anything differently, but with KeyScrambler your important personal information will be a whole lot safer.

Download KeyScrambler here.

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Make any program's progress bar less boring with Instant Elevator Music

Instant Elevator Music is a program that plays elevator music or music of your choice while you wait for programs to open, files to copy, and downloads to finish. This program works with practically any program that has a progress bar.

Download Instant Elevator Music here.

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Toggle Flash: Easily toggle flash in Internet Explorer

Toggle Flash is a free add-on which can easily toggle flash on a page in Internet Explorer. When installed, a toolbar button is added to the Internet Explorer toolbar. A single click turns off Flash functionality in the background and vice versa.

Note: This is an Internet Explorer 7 only addon.

Download Toggle Flash here.

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Shell Tools: Add extra useful functionality to the context-menu

Shell Tools is a collection of free Unicode-aware Windows shell extensions and utilities. The package contains the following shell extensions:

FontLoader - Adds Load/Unload/Install/Uninstall commands to context menu of font files (TrueType, OpenType and TrueType Collections supported). Windows Vista UAC is supported.

FileNote - A program to add comments to files by creating text file that has the same name as selected file and opening it for editing in text editor (Notepad or another). If such text file already exists, it will be opened for editing.

RegisterEx - Adds Register Server and Unregister Server commands to context menu of DLL, OCX and EXE files that export DllLoadLibrary and DllUnloadLibrary functions, to easily register/unregister COM servers with ease, by right-clicking. Windows Vista UAC is supported.

CopyURL - A program to copy different information from one or more selected favorites items (internet shortcuts) to the clipboard. The commands to copy strings can be fully customized.

Apart from the above, Copy Filename, Show Hidden Files and Show File Extensions, Fresh Icons, Fresh Icons are also included in the package.

Download Shell Tools here.

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Minimize Apps to the System Tray with Trayconizer

Trayconizer can minimize virtually any application to the system tray rather than having it take up valuable space on the taskbar. There is also an option for starting an application initially in the minimized state. Additionally, multiple Trayconized applications are handled by a single instance of Trayconizer to avoid wasting system resources. Trayconizer will automatically shut itself down when you close the application you are Trayconizing. There are no DLL's required beyond the base Win32 API libraries and will not store any entries in your registry.

An earlier post introduced a cool Adobe AIR application - Antenna. The application does not have the option to be minimized to the tray. Using Trayconizer, it's easy to do this.

Locate the shortcut(s) for your application, in this case Antenna and right click to get the context menu. Select Properties.

In the Properties dialog, click the Shortcut tab.

In the Target field, insert the target path for Trayconizer in front of the target path of the application making certain to leave a single space in between the final quote mark of the Trayconizer target path and the beginning quote mark of the application's target path.

The Target field should change from

"C:\Program Files\Antenna\Antenna\Antenna.exe"

to

"C:\Documents and Settings\Eric P Pereira\My Documents\My Downloads\Software\Trayconizer\Trayconizer.exe" "C:\Program Files\Antenna\Antenna\Antenna.exe"

Note: Trayconizer changes the shrotcut icon to it's own icon.

Note: Replace the paths of Trayconizer and application as per your PC's paths.

That's it. You're done.

Download Trayconizer here.

Note: Read more about Antenna here.

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.NET Framework Setup Verification Tool

This .NET Framework Setup Verification Tool is designed to automatically perform a set of steps to verify the installation state of one or more versions of the .NET Framework on a computer. It will verify the presence of files, directories, registry keys and values for the .NET Framework. It will also verify that simple applications that use the .NET Framework can be run correctly.

Download the .NET Framework Setup Verification Tool here. Alternately, you can download the .NET Framework Setup Verification Tool here.

Read the .NET Framework Setup Verification Tool User's Guide here.

NOTE: Read more about .NET Framework Cleanup Tool here.

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.NET Framework Cleanup Tool

.NET Framework Cleanup Tool is designed to automatically perform a set of steps to remove selected versions of the .NET Framework from a computer. It will remove files, directories, registry keys and values and Windows Installer product registration information for the .NET Framework. The tool is intended primarily to return your system to a known (relatively clean) state in case you are encountering .NET Framework installation, uninstallation, repair or patching errors so that you can try to install again.

Download the .NET Framework Cleanup Tool here. Alternately, you can download the .NET Framework Cleanup Tool here.

Read the .NET Framework Cleanup Tool User's Guide here.

If you plan to re-install the .NET Framework after running the cleanup tool, you can download the various versions of the .NET Framework from the following locations:

.NET Framework 1.0

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d7158dee-a83f-4e21-b05a-009d06457787

.NET Framework 1.0 SP3

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6978d761-4a92-4106-a9bc-83e78d4abc5b

.NET Framework 1.1

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3

.NET Framework 1.1 SP1

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a8f5654f-088e-40b2-bbdb-a83353618b38

.NET Framework 2.0

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5

.NET Framework 2.0 with SP1

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=79BC3B77-E02C-4AD3-AACF-A7633F706BA5

.NET Framework 2.0 with SP2

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5b2c0358-915b-4eb5-9b1d-10e506da9d0f

.NET Framework 3.0

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043

.NET Framework 3.0 with SP1

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EC2CA85D-B255-4425-9E65-1E88A0BDB72A

.NET Framework 3.5

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=333325FD-AE52-4E35-B531-508D977D32A6

.NET Framework 3.5 with SP1

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7

.NET Framework 4 Full

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7

.NET Framework 4 Client Profile

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544

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Soluto: The Anti-Frustration Software

Soluto is a unique startup manager that can help you make your PC boot faster by disabling or delaying certain auto-start items. Unlike similar applications that merely list the programs that are set to start automatically whenever your computer starts, Soluto actually analyzes the boot process and shows you exactly which applications are starting on boot and how they influence your overall boot time. Based on community feedback and internal data, Soluto can classify programs into groups that suggest which applications can be safely disabled (No-Brainers), which require some advanced knowledge and which are required by the operating system and cannot be disabled. Whenever available, Soluto provides detailed information for each program as well as statistics that show what other users did with it. You can choose to disable (pause) a startup program or delay the start until after the boot process is complete. Other features include long-term boot time statistics and optional participation in the community Wiki.

Download Soluto here.

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Mount Microsoft Live SkyDrive in Windows Explorer

SDExplorer is a free, easy-to-use, but very powerful extension for Windows Explorer. With SDExplorer you can make any every-day operations with your documents from Microsoft Live SkyDrive service using Windows Explorer, as if they were on your computer. Moreover you don't need to install and configure any additional programs or ActiveX components. SDExplorer will organize the interaction with the online storage itself.

Download SDExplorer here.

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