Windows
Increase the button size on Windows 7 Tablet PCs
Windows 7 wasn’t designed for the touch screen of a tablet PC. The buttons and scroll bars are far too small to easily use Windows 7 on a tablet PC. It’s all too easy to click the small Close button rather than the small Minimize button. Thankfully, there’s a couple of easy tweaks to make the buttons and scroll bars much larger on a Windows 7 tablet PC.
Touch screen apps for Windows 7 tablets
Over recent months a couple of great tablet PCs have launched sporting Windows 7. The new Dell Duo, with its unique flippy-screen has to be a favourite by far, and bolder people than I have touted the Dell Duo as the next iPad killer. In this post I give you some neat software and flash apps to use with a tablet PC like the Dell Duo, Viewsonic Viewpad or any other Windows 7 tablet PC.
Semi-productive online tasks to avoid doing real work
Sometimes real work seems too much effort. Motivation has taken a beating. If you’re a home worker, it’s easy to start tinkering when you should be working. In this post I give you a bunch of my top ideas to be semi-productive instead of slaving over real work.
Take breaks to prevent RSI with this reminder prompt
Windows. Slouching over a laptop blogging all day will eventually take it’s toll on your wrists and back. And if you’re like me, it’s not always top of your priority list to take 10 minutes out to do some stretches to loosen things up. With this great little free app, you can set up some reminders to force you to take a break every so often.
Keep your public wifi sessions secure with Hotspot Shield
Windows and Mac. Even password-protected and encrypted public wifi connections aren’t as secure as you think. There remains the potential for a 12 year old prodigy to steal your passwords and credit card details. Also, with ISPs being forced by government agencies to publish details of your surfing habits, you may want to think about securing all your browsing and downloading habits. With this simple secure VPN solution from Hotspot Shield, you can be sure your browsing and socialising is secure from prying eyes, your ISP, and even your employer. More >
The best free software download sites
In this post I’ve rounded up the very best sites on the internet to download free apps giving you access to over a 1000 free applications. These download sites for free software contain really good lists of tried and tested applications. The download sites below have links to the very best free applications, utilities, system tools and online apps. If you can’t download the free app you need from these lists, it probably doesn’t exist.
Find folders quickly using Favourite Folders in Windows 7
I came across this great little feature in Windows 7 to add folders and locations to the “Favourites” in My Computer / Explorer. With this neat little shortcut, you can add any folder you use often, and save you having to continually hunt around for it. The favourite folder is always available when you open or save a file in any other application – ideal for opening and saving files in Office applications. More >
The best free Sticky-Note apps
Throw the post-it notes away and replace them with virtual sticky-notes on your desktop. Sticky-notes complement your to-do list by nagging you to do the tasks you really need to do today. I give you five of my favourite free desktop sticky-notes tools. More >
Rip and download DRM free music from Spotify
This guide shows how to rip and download DRM-free music from Spotify. The music we’ll download from Spotify is DRM free so you can play the tracks on your favoured MP3 players. In order to rip from Spotify you’ll need a piece of $20 software, plus an Open (free) account with Spotify. There is some reported success by decoding the Spotify locally cached files but the method we’ll use is to simply capture the music stream from Spotify.
Mount compressed files as virtual folders
If you have some large archive files (zip, rar, iso), and just need to extract or update one single file, it can be a little painful to have to extract the whole folder. However, with this free Windows tool you can easily mount the archive file as a folder, and explore or write to it just like any normal folder.
Pismo file mount allows you to mount ZIP, ISO, CISO, CFS, ISZ, DAA, and PFO files as virtual folders within Windows. More >
The Best Bulk-Installers for Free Windows Apps
The Best Bulk Installers
Bulk installers simplify the process of downloading and installing all your favourite free applications. Bulk-installers often work by providing all the necessary installation files in a neat package which can be installed on different PCs. You can also select precisely which applications you want in the bulk install package, and make sure you have all your favourite freeware. More >
How to access and edit OneNote notebooks over the web
In a previous posting on voato, I talked through all the new features of OneNote 2010. One of the main issues I criticised was not having the ability to access a notebook online which was a big deficiency when compared against Evernote. However, I’m pleased to report that this is now supported and provides some great functionality. In this post I tell you how to access your OneNote notebook via the web.
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