by WebKeyDesign | Apr 18, 2006 | Software
It seems that Windows users specifically have problems with running out of disk space. This is usually the result of too many MP3 files or installed games, or perhaps a program’s log file becoming too large. Whatever the reason and whatever the technical proficiency with Windows, almost everyone could use some help with deleting unneeded files from your Windows hard drive. And this is where CCleaner comes in. CCleaner is a small utility that takes care of safely removing a bunch of old files from your system, without you worrying about it. And it is free (and spam-free), so you can recommend it to everyone regardless of their Windows skills.
Download CCleaner for Windows
by WebKeyDesign | Jan 10, 2006 | Software
On Windows98, Microsoft had a built-in utility for shrinking the registry, but on Win2k, there is no such utility that I could find. It’s not so much that the registry takes up a whopping 58 megs last time I checked it, it’s that it loads into memory, and so the smaller the better.
Warning: run at your own risk!
I found two freeware utilities that do wonders for shrinking and defragging the registry:
NTREGOPT will optimize your registry for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP. It will not remove any registry keys, it just rewrites the registry, and dumps any deleted data. When I tried it, it meant going from 58MBs to 42MBs.
PageDefrag goes ahead and defrags the actual registry and paging files, on your actual hard disk. You only need this utility if you are running WindowsNT or Win2k. XP already does this automatically.
To check the registry size on Windows2000, go to My Computer, Right-click – Properties – Advanced – Performance Options – Change – Registry size – Current registry size.
by WebKeyDesign | Dec 19, 2005 | Software
If you ever used Mac OS 9 extensively, one of the things you probably miss on Mac OS X, is the old Apple Menu. Mostly because the Apple Menu was sort of an applet launcher. While the OS X Dock now takes over a lot of those duties, it is somewhat lacking as a program launcher, because sometimes a drop down menu is so much more easier to deal with than 20 or so icons. You can however setup a folder and create aliases for all your favorite applications, then drop the folder onto the Dock so that this gives you a menu of programs to choose from in the Dock. A better idea though is to use a program launcher of some sort, of which there are many.
For me, Ranchero Software’s TigerLaunch is my favorite program launcher. It is simple to use, and does only one thing, it gives you a right side menu with a list of programs to launch. There is a simple Configure option which lets you pick any of the programs in your Applications folder and deselect the ones you do not want showing up. If you install new applications, the Refresh option will automatically add any new programs and you will need to open up the Configure option if you need to deselect them.
You can under Accounts in System Preferences add TigerLaunch to your startup list of programs, so that next time you restart your Macintosh, TigerLaunch will automatically startup without you having to manually launch it.
Best of all Ranchero Software does not charge anything for TigerLaunch.
TigerLaunch requires Mac OS X 10.1 or greater and I have personally used it on 10.3 and 10.4 without any problems.
by WebKeyDesign | Nov 21, 2005 | Software
Last month I wrote about how useful I found the Firefox Extention Web Developer, and how even Microsoft had gotten into the act with their own IE Web Developer toolbar, which was still in beta (and which was just updated on 10/31/2005). This time around I’ll point out that Apple’s Safari and Opera have web developer tools of their own.
Opera 8-9:
Web Developer Toolbar & Menu are based loosely on Chris Perderick’s Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox, and adds more features and references. You must install both the Web Developer Toolbar and Web Developer Menu. There is also a Micro Web Developer Toolbar with less features.
Safari:
In Safari’s case, I can’t find an actual toolbar, but Safari WebAdditions is a plugin which adds a menu. Safari WebAdditions enables disabling (hiding) images, showing table structure, blocking level elements (divs, paragraphs, forms), displaying diverse image properties (size, path) and links. Les Nie has made separate versions for Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4. You can download Safari WebAdditions from Les Nie’s Download Page.
Part 1 of Web Developer Toolbars covered Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
by WebKeyDesign | Oct 21, 2005 | Software
If you are serious about web design and using CSS, then you probably have found Chris Pederick’s Firefox extension, Web Developer indispensible for investigating web rendering issues. However, Web Developer is only for Firefox and Mozilla browsers, when it came to Internet Explorer, we were out of luck, that is until now. Microsoft now has a Web Developer Toolbar for IE6 and IE7. It is still in beta, but definitely something you need to download and start using.
Now all we have to do is get Apple to make something similar for Safari.
You can download either toolbar here:
by WebKeyDesign | Jun 27, 2005 | Software
Most web design requires you to look at html source code, because even if you design your pages in a graphical editor like Nvu or Dreamweaver, you always end up with typos that you have to go back and fix quickly. Perhaps you forgot to close a tag or you misspelled something in your content section, either way, you will need some type of text editor. On Windows most users rely on MS Notepad for this, but there are better editors out there.
Florian Balmer‘s free editor, Notepad2 is not the world’s greatest text editor, but it is simple and has many features over MS Notepad. Best of all you can manually setup Notepad2 as your default in Windows, by renaming notepad.exe. Note, that you have to replace the notepad.exe in multiple locations first and then let Windows know you want to keep the new file.
What I like is that Notepad2 has no nagging ads or spyware.
Download Notepad2.
