Remarkable productivity is often about a thousand unremarkable steps. And occasionally you find an app so ordinary that it feels lost among the crowd of shiny new tools. But give AutoSaver a chance to impress you because it's all about that everyday productivity.

Every wished that all of your favorite apps had auto-saving features so you wouldn't have to worry about losing your work? AutoSaver automatically saves your work in any file or tool you're using according to a pre-set interval (minimum is one minute).

There are two other good things about this app:

  • It's a tiny freeware download of 21 KB.
  • It's a portable app that you don't need to install.

If you're still using Windows 7 or earlier, you'll have to install .NET Framework 4 first.

Don't Worry About the Next Crash

A computer crash is often a massive headache. Add your own forgetfulness to save your work regularly and you have a recipe for a productivity disaster.

You can cut both losses by downloading AutoSaver and letting it automatically keep pressing Ctrl + S for you every so many minutes or hours. You don't need to remember to save a file again.

Run the tool from its unzipped folder. A floppy like icon appears on your system tray. Click on the icon to bring up the Preferences dialog. Drag the slider to set the auto-saving interval. You can also run this tool when Windows starts.

The developer has thought of excluding specific programs from the auto-save trigger because it can get annoying sometimes. For instance, your browser will prompt you to save the current tab with its Save As dialog after set intervals. Use the little box to choose the apps you want to use the software for.

Notepad might be a good idea. Or any graphics editing applications you use every day. I tried out the tool with Notepad and Paint to see if it works.

A Simple App for a Basic Habit

Some tools are meant to rescue us from our poor computer habits. AutoSaver is ordinary -- after all, the code just triggers the universal Ctrl + S keys to save any file. But maybe the simplicity is the pill you were looking for.

Want to get a taste of the elation of salvaging a lost document? You just should read the comments that flow in even today for this old article that tells you how to recover an unsaved Microsoft Word document in seconds.

Many tools have an auto-save feature built right in. Almost all web apps can save your work in the cloud. On the desktop, there are tools like Notepad++ and Microsoft Office suite with this feature. But others could use this.

Which are the software you use every day that should come with an auto-save feature enabled?