There are open source free desktop applications, then there are free cloud-based applications. Microsoft has been working on a free version of its popular Office franchise as well. The free version would be available online. Microsoft recently launched a tech preview. It is an invite-only preview, however you just need a Skydrive account and some URL tweaking to try out the Microsoft Office Web Apps Preview.

Here is how:

• The following steps seem to work only if you have ?mkt=en-us appended to the Skydrive URL. So click here.
• Create a Skydrive account (Windows Live Account) if you don’t have one, or log into your existing one. It gives you 25GB of online space you can use to store/backup your files. We wrote about it some time back.
• Make sure there is a Word/Excel file in your Skydrive. If there isn’t, you can upload one.
• You will see an option to join the tech preview to edit the file.

• Click on the link, read and choose to accept the terms. Silverlight should be installed for you to use Office Online. Don’t worry, you will be given instructions to download and install in case it is not found on your computer.

With all that done and completed you are in and ready to test out the latest in cloud office apps.

So how good is it?

Well to begin with – the Microsoft Office web apps have the same ribbon interface of Office 2007 and Office 2010. So if you were hoping to get back to the Office 2003 like menus and buttons, you will be disappointed. The similar look definitely makes it easier to find your way around. All the icons, menus and options (though few) resemble the ones you would find in the desktop version of the software.

As for the file format, Microsoft Office Web Apps uses Office Open XML formats (i.e. the .docx, .xlsx, .pptx formats). However, you can still use the older formats, only they will be converted to the newer OOXML formats before Office Web Apps allows you work on them.

Overall, it is limited and don’t expect to see all the functionality of the desktop version or something reasonably close to it. You would be better to make a comparison with some of the web-based office suites instead, in which case the functionality seems respectable, no amazing over-the-top stuff that would overthrow Google Docs.

Collaboration is the key feature, as is often the case with most cloud-based applications. You can share files with others, make your files public, choose whether they would be able to edit documents or not. People can leave comments as your file gets edited, re-edited and refined.

Go ahead check it out and let us know what you think. Do you think Office Online offers the features you need to do your day to day work? Or is it too stripped down to be used for any decent job? Give it a thorough spin and sound off in the comments!

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Most people out there have already discovered that these files can be opened by Notepad or another text processing application. This ‘works’ in the most basic sense of the word, but it’s clumsy and pretty ugly – you’re missing out on a lot of the fun.

To really use NFO files to their full extent you’ll need an NFO File Reader or Viewer – an application specifically designed to deal with these files. Today we’ll take a look at three of the best free NFO File Readers (and one creator) on the software market.

ACiDView 6

ACiDView is currently one of – and in my personal opinion, the best NFO file reader out there. This free application is actually an all-around image viewer, with support for JPEG, GIF, and other popular image formats. It might not be the best image viewer you’ll encounter, but as an NFO viewer it easily beats its competitors because of all the extra functionalities.

Perhaps one of the most useful features is the browsing sidebar, which allows you to quickly select your NFO and other files. I’ve tried out several other NFO viewers in my technological past, and this is a feature you’ll start to miss fast.

You can also autoscroll the NFO files, view them fullscreen, and change the resolution and basic formatting options such as font type and colour palette.

For the real freaks, ACIDView can stream an NFO file to simulate the desired speed of a certain modem connection and slow down the animation accordingly.

DAMN NFO Viewer

DAMN NFO Viewer makes a good second to ACiDViewer. It’s not as graphically oriented as other applications, but instead more like a text viewer with ASCII support. As such, it’s got a tighter letter spacing and a reversed (or actually, ‘normal’ colour palette). This makes it a lot better for reading, but less ‘fun’ and good-looking for the ASCII (fear not, this can be fixed).

DAMN NFO Viewer supports NFO-, DIZ- and TXT files. It’s the basic package, without too much extra stuff – just read your NFO’s and optionally tweak your formatting a little bit.

NFOlux

Last but not least is NFOlux. This tiny application will both let you view or create NFO files. Although the viewer doesn’t stand up to big guys like ACIDViewer, it’s extremely rare and useful to have an NFO reader and creator in one – to my knowlege, this is the only application that does this.

The special features are to be found in the creation section. There’s an ‘auto generator’ that’ll create an NFO for you, based on some basic release information, with a Movie- and an Application template included. Custom characters can be added with the integrated characters palette and the click of a button.

NFOlux won’t do anything special in the reading department, but offers a few unique functions for creating NFOs – it’s the combination of these two applications that makes NFOlux a winning formula.

What NFO file reader application do you use? Something fancy, or haven’t you been able to leave Notepad yet? Let us and your fellow MakeUseOf readers know in the comments section below – we’d love to hear how do you open nfo files!

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Instead of opening each file with their own respective application, this feature is really a great time saver for those who just want to have – well – a quick look.

But defining this feature as merely ‘peeking’ is an understatement of its ability. Quick Look for Mac is able to display a wide range of file formats, from simple text to keynote presentations to movies; and is also accessible from within many native Mac OS X applications like Mail, Time Machine, and Trash(!).

Beyond the spacebar

There are a few ‘unused by most’ nifty things that you can do by utilizing Quick Look abilities, such as:

1. View Before Restore/Delete

As mentioned above, you can use Quick Look inside the Trash and Time Machine. I find this ability most useful when I about to bring some files back from the (near) dead. Without Quick Look on your Mac, there’s no way to know the content of the file that you want to restore (or in some case, to completely delete).

2. View Pictures As Slideshow

If you select several pictures in the finder instead of one and hit the spacebar, you’ll have the additional option at the Quick Look pane to view the items as a slideshow. But you can jump directly into the full-screen slideshow by using the key combination of Command + Option + Y.

3. Using Index Sheet To View Multiple Images

Still on the subject of selecting multiple images and using Quick Look to view them, you could also view all the images in one sheet by clicking the Index Sheet button.

4. Quick Zoom

You can zoom the image viewed by Quick Look by clicking the image while holding the Option key (to zoom in) or Option + Shift key (to zoom out).

5. Navigate Between Files

This one should be obvious but it’s possible that some of the users miss it – like I did. When you open a file with Quick Look in Finder, you can move between files by using the Up and Down arrow key.

6. Overcoming The Filetype Limitation

As powerful as it is, there are still many file formats unsupported to be looked quickly. For example, Quick Look cannot play flash movies or show you the content of a folder. User will only get an icon with some information about that file/folder.

But users can overcome some of these filetype limitations by adding Quick Look Mac plugins. There are lots of options that you can find in the QLPlugins page from plugins for viewing Mobipocket eBooks files to Adobe Illustrator files. The ones that I find most useful are: Zip File Viewer, Folder Viewer, Flash Video Viewer and QuickChm. Different users will find different plugins to fit their individual needs.

Here are the steps to activate the plugins:

• first, download and uncompress the plugin files.
• then put the “.qlgenerator” files inside the ~/Library/QuickLook folder
• restart the Finder by executing this command line using Terminal: killall Finder

Similarly, you can uninstall any Quick Look plugin by deleting the files inside the QuickLook folder and restarting the Finder.

Here’s the display of the Quick Look view of a folder after installing the Folder Viewer plugin:

Do you have other Quick Look Mac tips and tricks? Please share them using the comments below.

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Won’t it be great if you can listen to the whole songs (or CD) before you buy? iTunes store and Amazon has the preview feature, but they only come with a 30-second preview, which is not enough to sample a song.

We need some alternatives, great alternatives. So, here are my favorite websites where users can listen to CDs before buying them.

1. AOL music

AOL music is one of the best place in the Web that offers free full length songs and music for listening. It has a huge database of songs. You simply pick the songs you want. If the song is not available, AOL will search for it in the web and playback (from the remote location) the song on the fly.

In addition, AOL music always have a “New music releases” section where you can listen to new CD releases for free in their entirety every week.

This is not only a good way to sample the CD before you buy, it is also a good way to discover new CDs in the market.

2. Youtube

At Youtube, you won’t be able to sample the whole CD at one go, but surely you will be able to find most of the tracks (in music video and other forms) in its database. When you search for the songs/artists/albums in the search bar, there is a high chance that you will find what you want in the search result.

Furthermore, with all the YouTube and other video conversion tools previously highlighted by MakeUseOf, you can also convert and download the music video to your desktop, even though the music quality differs a great deal from those in the music store.

5. Rhapsody

With Rhapsody, you never have to worry about a lack of songs. They have more than a million songs in their database and there is a very high chance you will find what you want. Rhapsody operates on a subscription model (only available in US), that is to say, you pay a subscription fee every month ($12.99) and you have access to all the songs in their database and you can listen to them again and again, unlimited times.

With the subscription account, you can also download the software and access to your favorite songs from your desktop.

If you are not willing to pay the subscription fee, Rhapsody also allows its users to listen to 25 songs for free. That should be enough for you to sample two and a half CD of songs before you make your purchase decision.

4. Imeem

Imeem is a social network that enables its users to share media, including music, video and photos with each other.  In here, you are likely to find the songs/CDs that you want. Some of the music are restricted by the label/artists and features only a 30-second preview, but there are still a great deal of them that are full length and you are able to listen to the full CD.

5. Baidu MP3

This may not be suitable for everyone, but if you are a Chinese song lover, like I am, then this is the place to listen to free songs.

All you need to do is to perform a search with the search bar and it will fetch the required songs from the artists. You can then scroll to find his/her current album or previous albums. You can click on the link beside the song to hear the full song.

Other alternatives that did not make the list

MySpace

I am sure some of you will swear by MySpace. I am not an active user of MySpace and I don’t have much love for it. Personally, I find the layout very messy and it crashes my browser (and computer) very often.

Last.fm

While there are plenty of songs and information in Last.fm, you seldom have the chance to sample the full CD of your favorite artists. I do use it for occasional listening, but when it comes to CD sampling, I guess there are better sites out there.

If you are interested in purchasing music online, Simon listed out 3 Ultra Cheap Alternatives to the iTunes Store. Check it out.

What other websites do you go to listen CD before buying? Do you prefer digital copies or physical CDs? Comment away!

Image credit: SChristineBrink

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Now, while you are downloading the movies, wouldn’t it be great if you can preview it, check out its quality and then decide if you want to continue the download?

VLC

We all know that VLC is a versatile media player that can play almost any media format you throw to it. Well, another thing that you can get it to do is to repair and playback the partially downloaded video.

Open your VLC and load the video file. It will automatically detect that this is broken file and will prompt you to repair it. For instance, it can open broken avi files.

Click the Repair button to start the repair process. It could take quite some time depending on the file size of your video.

Once the repair is finished, it will automatically playback in the player.

To avoid damaging the integrity of the partially downloaded torrent file, it is best to first duplicate a copy of the video file, then use VLC to repair and playback the duplicated copy. When you are done previewing, simply delete the duplicated copy.

DivFix++

DivFix++ is complete rewrite of the “DivFix” application simply because the developer feels that the original DivFix program is too slow and take up plenty of CPU power. What DivFix++ is capable of doing is to fix broken AVI file, rebuild the index of the video and allows you to playback in a media player.

Indeed, after using DivFix++, I do find that it is much faster (than DivFix and VLC), not CPU-intensive and able to reproduce the AVI file in good shape. The best thing is, it doesn’t require any installation. Karl has written a well explained article about DivFix++, so I will not  go into great detail here.

One thing that I like about is the ability to fix a file to a temporary location so you won’t hurt the original file. Similarly, you can preview the fixed video with a media player and then delete it once you are done.

Like VLC, DivFix++ works in Linux, Windows and Mac and it is a great software worth trying out.

GOM Player

On the frontend, GOM player looks just like any of the media player in the market. It allows you to play videos (of various format) and have great subtitles support. However, what really distinguishes GOM player from the rest is its patented technology that allows you to play broken AVI files on the fly.

Don’t ask me how the patented technology works, I know nuts about it. The only thing that I know is that when I playback the partially downloaded file, it doesn’t show any error message, nor a prompt to ask me to repair the file. What it does is to repair the file quietly on the backend and playback when it is done. It is just like streaming video on the Web, the initial process might be slow, but if you pause the video and wait for the streaming (backend repairing) to complete, you will get smooth playback in no time.

GOM Player is currently available only for Windows platform.

The above three software have helped me a lot when I was downloading bitTorrent videos. What about you? What software do you use to preview partially downloaded video?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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We have previously covered Google Labs features for Gmail. Here are 7 more innovative Gmail labs features that should not escape your awareness.

To enable Gmail Labs features, log into your Gmail account, go to >Settings >Labs, browse all experimental features and check enable for the ones you would like to use, then finally save your changes. As will be described below, some features require further settings to come into effect.

Signature Tweaks

No one wants to scroll through pages of quoted text to find contact information in the signature, right?

Signature Tweaks is one of the most simple features, taking care of this signature dilemma.

It tweaks your signature so that it will appear above the quoted text, rather than below it, which would be the default behavior. Simple, but cool.

Location in Signature

If you travel a lot, Location in Signature could be a fun feature or simply an easy way to share with your friends where you currently are.

To make your location appear in your signature, you need to enable this feature, have a signature (>Settings >General) and check “Append your location to the signature” below the signature box.

If you’re sneaky you could of course cheat a little and change your location manually. I wonder whether anyone has sent eMails from Mars, yet. April Fools Day anyone?

Superstars

Superstars gives you several more “stars” to star or visually tag your mail.

You can edit your superstars by going to >Settings >General and dragging icons from “not in use” to “in use” and vice versa.

Personally, I would love to see an even bigger variety of icons, for example gif images to draw extra attention and smileys.

Previews In Mail For Yelp, Picasa, Flickr & YouTube

Here we have one of the newer set of features added in mid March. It’s actually four individual features, but the essence is the same. If someone shares a Yelp review, a Picasa, Flickr or YouTube link, you no longer have to open the URL in a new browser tab. You can view the preview right in your mail.

Multiple Inboxes

Gmail supports filters, but filters can too easily drag mail from your attention, by silently moving them into the target folders. With Multiple Inboxes you can move important mail back into your field of vision. It gives you five extra panels that will appear in a custom location next, above or below your inbox.

Once the Multiple Inboxes feature is enabled, you can go to >Settings >Multiple Inboxes and add search queries for messages you always want have handy.

Here is how that will look like. On the left is my inbox, on the right you see the extra panels, which are starred messages, drafts and eMails from Twine.

Mail Goggles

This one will keep you from sending stupid mails in the middle of the night by making you solve math problems before being able to send an eMail.

Per default it is active Friday and Saturday between 10pm and 4am, but you can manually adjust days, times and difficulty level under >Settings >Generals.

Undo Send

Despite any precautions, accidents happen. So if you still send the wrong mail to the wrong person, you may be delighted to learn that Google has just recently implemented a feature that allows you to call your mail back.

Unfortunately, the undo feature will only work for a few seconds right after the message was sent. So you have to quickly realize your mistake!

What novel features would you like to see in Gmail Labs?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Besides, there’s not much compression that can be done to multimedia files, and we know that today’s hard drives can be filled with LOTS of pictures, sounds and videos. I tried to compress a 2,142KB video file and the result was a 2,088KB Zip file. Insignificant savings.

Folder versus Archive

Sure, people still use compression utilities, although these days we call them by a different name – archiving utilities – simply because the purpose is more to archive than to compress.

“Then why not use a folder instead?” some might ask. Because ten files in a folder will be counted as ten files while ten files in an archive equals one file. A folder is better if we talking about storing the files in the hard drive for easy browsing and viewing.  An archive is better and faster for sharing and moving files between storage spaces.

But there are times when you will need / want to do a quick browse inside an archive without needing / wanting to unarchive it first. There are a few commercial pieces of software which are able to do that while the free options are second to none. Luckily, I found Zipeg.

Quick and Simple Archive Explorer

Available for Windows (XP and Vista) and Mac (Tiger and Leopard), Zipeg is a free alternative archiving utility to WinZip, WinRAR, and/or StuffIt. It supports a wide variety of archiving formats (ZIP, RAR, ARJ, LHA/LZH, 7z, TAR, and more) and provides users with the ability to browse, preview and open specific file(s) directly from inside the archive.

You can read the full list of features from their website, but here are a few that I find helpful:

• users can see what’s inside the archive BEFORE extracting files.
• it allows users to open files using associated application directly from the archive
• it displays image thumbnails (EXIF) in tooltips;
• it can explore CD and DVD “.iso” image files.
• users can extract/unzip items simply by dragging them.
• users can choose which archiving formats to associate with Zipeg (using menu: “Options –> Settings –> Files” for Windows or “Zipeg –> Preferences –> Files” for Mac).

Zipeg supports password protected archives – the user still needs to provide the password to be able to extract the content. Zipeg also supports multi-part archives – just open the first part and the other parts will be picked up automatically. Just make sure that all the parts are within the same folder.

As an added bonus, Zipeg is also able to open CBR (Comic Book Archive – RAR) and CBZ (Comic Book Archive – Zip) format. So now I can decide wheter or not to read the comic by previewing the pages quickly.

Do you know any other free alternatives to Zipeg or do you have thoughts about it to share?  If so, let us know in the comments below.

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Now a graphical representation of your open programs is OK but a real screenshot or tab preview would be awesome.

How about being able to use your mouse to select open windows after hitting Alt-Tab?

You can achieve something like this with an app called TaskSwitchXP. Let’s take a look at this Windows alt tab replacement program for XP.

TaskSwitchXP uses your Windows Style to make it fit into your theme nicely. By right clicking on a open item in the right pane you see you get a context menu. The context menu lets you do the same things you can from the task manager such as Switch to, Minimize, Minimize To Other Screen as well as Restore, Maximize, Close and my favorite, End Process.

Below you can see the appearance tab from the configuration console. From here you can choose and customize exactly how your new turbo charged Alt Tab will display. You can choose where on the screen it should appear as well as drop shadow, transparency, fade animation. You can override the settings where it takes on the look and feel of your Windows theme here as well.

Under the preview tab there are even more customizable options for the look and feel of the previews for each open task.

That would make your days of switching between 100’s of open programs a breeze (as long as you have enough memory right?).

This app will not bog down your system and it uses very little system resources and uses less than 1 MB memory!

Unlike the standard Windows switcher, TaskSwitchXP will render using your Windows XP Visual Styles. TaskSwitchXP also allows standard Windows XP shadow and transparency effects, fade animation and more.

So if you want to customize your Alt-Tab experience and optimize your productivity when working with multiple windows then you should check out the download available for free here.

This is a Windows only application and we would love to hear your feedback on how you like it or hate it. What do you think – does it compare to the Vista Alt-Tab/Aero effect? Or is it better? Are you aware of any other Windows Alt Tab replacement program?

Do you use something similar?

Well then what are you waiting for? Share it with us in the comments kiddies!

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Since then, I’ve gotten a little wiser, learnt that I can’t really please everyone and mainly focused my attention to my target audience: recent Mac switchers. This particular group of people are those who used to work with Windows (or any other operating system) and somewhere along the way, switched to a Mac. Hence the term – Switchers. There’s something unique about this group of people. Their perception of computers have been brought along for the ride, so they think that the traditions which worked on Windows will also be suited to the Mac.

Reinstalling your OS, for instance, or as most people would know it – formatting, is one of such traditions. It used to be an annual event (or sometimes biannual) for me when I had a Windows laptop. I admit, when I first started using a Mac, I assumed that I would have to format it every now and then as well. Oh, I’ve been proved wrong (and flamed for it). Now, I advise most people to refrain from formatting their hard disks unless there is a OS X upgrade. Formatting is a tedious and time-consuming process of backing up data, keychains, preferences, reinstalling the operating system, updating it and finally putting everything back into place. But…

If you’ve formatted your hard disk recently, you’ll always require a reminder about which applications to get back. Or what I’d like to call the Essential Apps. These apps are always on my Mac and will always be the first to be installed. So, I’d like to re-introduce the 10 Essential Mac Apps To Install After Formatting v2.

Before we start off, let me just say that Quicksilver isn’t on this list, in case there are some eager QS fans trying to redeem its usefulness after Spotlight has been so extensively enhanced.

1. Sequential

OS X’s Quick Look is good for previewing documents without opening Pages or Microsoft Office, it is also good for previewing movies. But what I find it is not very good at is previewing multiple images because of the funny way one has to navigate through the images (if Finder is set to Icon view). Fine, you could enable the full-screen mode to make browsing easier but then another issue pops up: you can’t view the filename unless you return to the Index Sheet.

Sequential is an image viewer that makes it a whole lot easier to browse through a multitude of images in order. It is also able to browse the images within an archive (zip, rar). Just perfect to quickly skim through a folder full of photos and note the ones to be deleted or preserved because their filenames are always displayed in the navigator.

2. Inquisitor

Inquisitor is a plugin for Safari which tremendously enhances its search capabilities. It retrieves results from Google (or Yahoo!) instantly and presents them in a drop-down box as you type your query into Safari’s search field. Not only that, if you’re not exactly sure of what you’re searching for, it will try to suggest some probable keywords.

Find out more about Inquisitor from this post I wrote, comparing it to another popular Safari plugin, Glims.

3. iStat Menus

iStat Menus is a much better application compared to MenuMeters in terms of monitoring system information like CPU load, memory usage, network activity and CPU temperature. All this information sits neatly on your menu bar, thus making the readings very accessible.

Of course, you could go Pro, but iStat Pro is a Dashboard widget. Personally, I prefer iStat Menus even if it means that I get less information compared to using iStat Pro.

4. TeamViewer or Schnitz Remote Lite

Both of these applications are tools for attaining remote help. Assuming that you are a Mac newbie and often require rescue or assistance; and provided you have someone to help you out, either TeamViewer or Schnitz are right for the job.

There are many write-ups about TeamViewer here on MakeUseOf and I have personally written a short tutorial about how to use Schnitz Remote Lite.

5. NTFS-3G and MacFUSE

One of the very many reasons I hear come out from people who refuse to switch to Mac is compatibility. True enough, one of Mac’s main compatibility issues is NTFS write capability. Macs can read NTFS-formatted hard disks just fine but when your mate brings his NTFS external hard disk over with the intention of copying some stuff from your Mac – sorry, that operation is invalid.

It’s hard to swallow that such a refined operating system cannot provide write-capability for an archaic file system. Nevertheless, it’s not the end of the road. By using NTFS-3G together with MacFUSE, you’ll be able to write to NTFS drives at almost native speeds. To find out how to install them, check out my post on NTFS Blues.

6. AppCleaner

A free alternative to the very popular AppZapper, AppCleaner is an application you will need to use when uninstalling other programs from your Mac.

Apple teaches its users that the way to uninstall an application is to simply drag it to Trash but by doing that, you’re leaving behind a lot of junk files in your Library folder. An Uninstaller is all you need to remove programs and its associated files from your Mac.

7. OpenOffice

I’ve just listed OpenOffice because I’ve been coerced into saying, “OpenOffice FTW!” but actually I can switch between OpenOffice and NeoOffice, which is a Mac OS port. Honestly, productivity suites are exactly what they are: for work. Aren’t we able to get to work without being too picky?

8. Evernote

If you haven’t heard of Evernote, which rock have you been hiding under? It is a fabulous note-taking application. It collects information in whatever medium you give it (photos, text, audio) and stores them in your Mac and online in your Evernote account so that you’ll be able to retrieve it from just about anywhere.

If you have an iPhone, even better. Evernote has a mobile version (iTunes link) which will allow you to sync the information from your Mac to your iPhone wirelessly.

What makes Evernote so impressive is its ability to search for words within pictures, even handwritten notes succumb to it. It makes the content of photos searchable and by that, you won’t need to add notes to photos explaining what is contained in it. The pictures speak for itself.

9. Secrets

Secrets is a system preference pane with a database of hidden settings for OS X. And yes, you can change every one of them and tweak them to your heart’s desire. Using Secrets, you can change almost any setting possible, from altering the login background to enabling high definition movie trailers in Front Row. And if you changed something which you shouldn’t have, there’s always that safety net: the Revert button.

Secrets will only work for Mac OS X Leopard.

10. Skitch

This application isn’t absolutely a necessity but if you’re looking for a great way to instantly share screenshots, you can’t get any better than Skitch. Also, I use Skitch for its resizing and cropping capabilities. Rather than opening up Preview to perform simple cropping and resize tasks, I launch Skitch. Since it is always on the menu bar, it is very accessible. After I’m done, it shrinks back to the menu bar obscurely.

There they are. The 10 updated essential apps. This list does not completely replace its predecessor but merely complements it. There are some applications in the earlier list which cannot be replaced, like Adium, Transmission and Perian, for example.

How would you alter this list? Are there any other free applications that you would have in place of any of the ones here? Let me know in the comments.

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As you may be aware, Windows 7 build 6801 was handed out to 8000 PDC (Professional Developers Conference) attendees.  A few days later I got hold of a copy myself.

I’m going to assume that for you the main issues you have with Vista are the following:

• Performance (both perceived and real)
• User Account Control (UAC)
• Bloat and bundled software

Well I can say that all three have been the main focus for the Windows 7 development team and all have received substantial changes and improvements.

Performance

The big one. With updated drivers, Windows Vista performance is actually equal or better than Windows XP regardless of what you hear.  However Microsoft wanted to do a lot better than that with Windows 7.

I’m finding startup times (from turning the computer on until you get to the login screen) is improved but only by a few seconds over Vista.  From the login screen to a usable desktop however is hugely improved, down from around 30-40 seconds to closer to 10 seconds. Shutdown time is similarly reduced, two thirds faster by my estimates.

RAM usage is down slightly, but this doesn’t necessarily indicate any differences in performance. In general the desktops seems slightly more responsive than Vista, although that could also be from other factors such as Windows gadgets not loading up from the first login.

Battery performance is substantially improved as well, in fact my notebook has gone from squeezing one and half hours from Windows Vista on power saver to nearly 3 hours using Windows 7. That’s a huge improvement and Windows 7 running on power saver is also much faster and more responsive than Windows Vista.

User Account Control

UAC never particularly bothered me much, except for when I was trying to delete things and UAC denied access to me, even if I was the administrator.

In Windows 7 the major changes involve UAC prompts no longer graying out the desktop, no longer appearing for basic system tasks like changing the time and date and generally only popping up during software installations.

It’s a huge improvement and one everyone will be happy with. Also included as you can see in the following screenshot is a slider control for no UAC prompts, or even more for extra security.

Bloat and Bundled Software

You may have heard that Windows 7 is going some of the way towards removing the ‘bloat’ which is present in Windows Vista. Well, in many ways this isn’t true. Windows 7 comes with nearly as much as Windows Vista does, perhaps more considering the number of new features.

I personally don’t have a problem with Microsoft bundled software because I actually use just about all of it, however I can see why some people would have a problem.

What Windows 7 does do is remove some of the duplicate functionality which was present in Vista such as between Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Instead now we just have Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center and you can choose if you want to download Windows Live Photo Gallery or not.

What is interesting is that Windows Explorer is now almost as good an organizer of media as the dedicated programs themselves.  Perhaps this is the way Microsoft is headed? I know they have announced their intention of bringing the concept of an OS back to just the platform between the hardware and the software and this is a way in which Microsoft could achieve this while still retaining many of the same features and functions.

In particular the new displays of music within Windows Explorer is fantastic.  You’ll never have to worry about folder hierarchies again for your music collection.  Using the meta-data, Explorer can display the files as Artist > Album > Song which is great for instant organization.

Anyway I hope this was interesting as a preview of the upcoming release of Windows 7.  You should be able to download a public beta within a few months.   In the meantime, let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Integration

Xplorer2 Lite isn’t a full replacement for Windows Explorer. What I mean by this is that if you click on a folder after Xplorer2 Lite is installed, it will still open with Windows Explorer. However, right clicking on a folder now gives you the option to open the folder in Xplorer2 Lite. This is a minor inconvenience, but it’s worth it. You’ll see.

Basic Functions

Upon opening Xplorer2 Lite, you will immediately see the difference and the uses you can get out of it. There are two window panes that allow you to easily drag and drop files from location to location. I love this feature when moving music from my laptop to my networked drive. I no longer have to have two windows open or copy and paste. I can do it easily within one window.

Bookmarks and FTP Client

If you use a folder consistently that is buried somewhere on your C drive, you can easily bookmark it, so it will come up with one click instead of going through the entire file tree. You can also bookmark your FTP server in order to easily drag and drop files from your computer to the server. This makes all of those tedious file transfers seem easily done because you can do them all in this one program.

Tabs

If two window panes just aren’t enough, Xplorer2 Lite acts just like your favorite web browser by letting you open tabs in each window. This makes it extremely easy to manage lots of transfers at the one time.

File Manipulation

Xplorer2 Lite also allows you to do some basic file manipulations. Of course, you can create and delete files just like normal, but you can also merge, split and shred files within the program.

Preview Window

Keeping with the trend of not having to open other software to do basic tasks is the Preview Window. This window gives you a preview of the file you click on. This can be pictures, videos or audio. It is nice not to have to double click and get another program loaded to find whether that is the right picture or not.

Shortcuts

Xplorer2 Lite was made for power users as well. Almost every feature that I’ve covered and the ones that I didn’t cover have shortcuts. Becoming a shortcut master of this program could greatly increase your file management productivity.

Drawbacks

Xplorer2 Lite is a great overall program, but it is the free version of a paid software. Lots of times free versions are independent of their paid big brother, but Xplorer2 Lite seems to be Xplorer2 with several options turned off. This can be frustrating, because some of the options that are unavailable are not clearly labeled. Also, you must use Windows Explorer Search to search for any files. Even with these complaints, I have found Xplorer2 Lite to be extremely useful and I will definitely use it more than Windows Explorer.

You might also want to check out Shankar’s 7 Windows Explorer Addons for Power Users. I discovered a couple of really good tools there.

I know there are a few other alternatives out there, and I am definitely interested in what everyone else uses, so let me know!

[rating=4]

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The following apps lets you overhaul your Windows interface and add some eye candy and usability enhancements at the same time. You wont need pliers and screwdrivers – promise!

1. Get the Cube Rolling – YodM3D

Let’s start with the much talked about 3D Cube effect. To get the 3D cube effect on Windows try “YODM3D”. The site was down when I wrote this (you can download it from here), but I wonder if it’s in development anymore. Nevertheless, it surely does what it promises to do and that is to give you a nice 3D Cube effect with virtual desktops. You can customize the transparency, zoom levels, hotkeys and the image that will appear as the background when the cube rotates. Just run the application, choose the language, set up the options and hit the hot key and there you go – “A nifty 3D cube effect”.

2. WinFlip

Windows Vista will allow you to do this if it thinks your hardware is good enough for it! However if it thinks otherwise, use XP and you can easily get the effect. WinFlip is what you need. A mere 598 KB download, you just have to extract it and run the executable. Then just hit the Win + Tab key and there you are switching in 3D. The software gives you plenty of options – you can customize the hot key or specify how would you like to invoke the 3D flip with your mouse. You can even exclude some windows from being included in the flip by specifying them in the exclusion list. A letter appears beside each window’s representation, hitting that letter directly navigates you to that particular window

3. DExpose2

If the 3D flip is not what you like, how about getting the expose functionality? Check out DExpose2. Hit F9 and it exposes (lays out on the desktop) all of your open windows. From there on you can switch to a particular window or minimize or close windows. You can also hit F11 to minimize all windows and show the desktop.

4. TrueTransparency

TrueTransparency is a nice application that changes the borders (or frames) of your windows to transparent and it does so very well. You can choose from among four skins to skin your Windows borders. I didn’t find an option to add more skins.

5. Transparent Windows – Glass2K

There are a number of applications that give you control of the transparency of the complete window and not the window frame alone. Glass2k is one of them. Glass2k gives you hotkeys and a right click (on the title bar) pop up menu that you can use to change the opacity of the windows. You can also save these settings.

6. Animating Windows – Lebendig

Try Lebendig for the minimalistic animations that you can get on your Windows desktop. Lebendig animates Windows on launch and on close. These are not the prettiest animations out there specially if you compare them with Compiz Fusion animations, but Lebendig surely provides you a bare minimum if you really long for rotating, fading, stretching your Windows! Here is a shot of all the options available

7. Animating Icons UberIcon

UberIcon - UberIcon animates the icons when you launch folders and applications. You can choose what animation you want or you can download plugins to get more animations.

8. DeskONtop!

If you are like me then you like to keep your desktop clean. However no one can argue that the desktop provides an easy and fast way to launch programs. Need the best of both worlds? Try Deskontop. Deskontop (direct link) provides you with a mini snapshot of your desktop when you click on the DeskOnTop icon in the system tray. You can then launch your programs from this mini desktop version just as you would do it originally from the desktop! As you can see now I can get away with a cluttered desktop because I can hide all the icons on the desktop (Right click on desktop choose Arrange Icons By and uncheck show desktop icons), but still access them via this app! Left Click on the DESKonTOP icon in the tray gives you a visual preview while Right Click gives you a list.

9. QTTabbar & QT AddressBar

QTtabbar is an Add on for Windows Explorer that not only adds some visual appeal but also includes some very awesome features that increases your productivity when working with Windows Explorer. Some of the awesome features includes

1. Tabbed file management in Windows Explorer
2. Create groups of favorite locations
3. Create groups of frequently used applications
4. Tab appearance customization
5. Tab behavior management

QT Addressbar on the other hand gives you a Vista-like address bar (both appearance and functionality wise). Not for you if you are already using Windows Vista.

10. Visual Tooltip

Visual tooltip gives you a thumbnail preview of the windows when you hover your mouse over the taskbar icon representing the window. You can also set the options to display all the windows on a dock as thumbnails instead of using the taskbar. You can adjust the size of thumbnails, the animations and colors. Here is the screen shot:

There is a lot of other software you can use to add a little spark to your interface. Here are some of them that I didn’t mention in the list above:

• ViStart – Gives you a Vista-like Start menu with transparency and indexing. Very pretty and useful but I had an issue (I think it was on my side) with it, nevertheless kept it back to mention here. You can try it if you want.
• Rainbow Folders – Lets you add colors and customized tooltips to your folders.
• XPScene – Gives you an animated desktop background.
• Docks – Alternative ways to launch applications.

Even now I am sure some of you might have other software to mention that can improve or increase the usability of the standard Windows interface. Let us know in the comments.

(By) – Varun Kashyap – A tech enthusiast, programmer and a blogger who blogs about the latest on the web, tricks, tips, productivity hacks, step by step tutorials on his TechCrazy Blog

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(1) Vertigo – This awesome extension moves your tab bar to the left side of the browser window and stacks tabs vertically. Highly recommended for people with 20 and above inch screens. You can add a splitter to resize the tab bar to any width you want.

(2) ColorfulTabs – Colors tabs into different colors and makes it easier to distinguish and navigate between multiple tabs. Simple yet very useful. Alternatively you may consider numbering the tabs.

(3) Tab Scope – Quickly preview tab contents by hoovering your mouse cursor over tab. Preview window shows a mini version of the page and a bunch of navigation buttons (Back/Forward/Reload/Stop). Extremely convenient. Although, I wouldn’t recommend using together with Vertigo. Both of them are great addons, but they just don’t go well together. (Note: Tab Scope doesn’t work on Mac OS X.)

Highlights include:

• Real-time preview of tab contents.
• Scroll pages using a mouse wheel.
• Click links or buttons directly in preview.

(4) Tab Mix Plus – Extremely useful extension that adds lots new features to Firefox’s tab browsing capabilities. Some of the better features include undo closed tabs/windows, line tabs in multiple rows, show tabs at the bottom and crash recovery. (Needs some settings adjustments when used together with above mentioned Vertigo.)

(5) Faviconize Tab – This extension adds a “FaviconizeTab” option to the tab context menu. When it is clicked, the width of the tab becomes small up to the size of the favicon (tiny logo icon). When clicked again, the tab window is back to normal.

(6) PermaTabs – This can turn tabs of your choice into permanent tabs. Permanent tabs don’t have close option so can’t be closed accidentaly. Even if you close you tabs accidentally they will reapper in the next Firefox startup. Tabs can be set to (and removed from) permanent mode via right click menu. (Again, may not work on Mac OS X.)

(7) FishEyeTabs – As the number of open tabs increases tabs get smaller and harder to distinguish. Enter Fisheye. It allows user to zoom tab labels by moving the mouse cursor over them.

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It works along the same principles as the HTML “alt” tag. After installing InfoTags, just move your mouse over the desired file and it will tell you the first few lines of what is inside :

It is also useful if you have say a mis-named MP3 file on your computer and you want to see what the file really is without playing it. If the ID3 tags are inserted, then InfoTags can read them for you :

It would be nice if the program extended support to other file formats such as PDF but in its present form, I am finding InfoTags extremely useful for navigating through the hundreds of Notepad files in my hard-drive.

(By) Mark O’Neill is a freelance writer, proofreader and blogger. Visit his blog at BetterThanTherapy

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