One of the most common problems with other Desktop Search results is their ability to help you easily navigate through search results.   Exalead provides a very initiative interface allowing you to quickly filter by document type,  date range, author, recipient, file type and so on.  It supports up to 120 file formats (300+ if you purchase the professional edition),  and also supports fairly advanced search for Lotus Notes email client and MS Exchange.   Exalead also helps you find any attachment hidden inside an email, and has a built in spell checker to help you find documents with difficult names.

Installing Exalead desktop search is simple,  and installs a small web server and indexing component on your PC.  It then uses a web browser interface to help you navigate through the search results.   Basic requirements are as follows.

Windows 2000 (SP4), XP (SP2 and SP3), Vista/Vista SP1, Windows 7
Internet Explorer 6+ and FireFox 1.5+
To index emails/contacts: Outlook Express 5.x/6.x, Outlook 2000/XP/2003/2007, Windows Mail, Microsoft Exchange, Mozilla Thunderbird, Lotus Notes (from version 5.09)

What do you use for Desktop Search?

Visit Exalead Desktop search and download the tool.

Most people will have tried using Google Apps or Microsoft Office Online for online collaboration,  with mixed levels of success. However,  one of the best alternatives to Google Docs for collaboration and whiteboard application, is the lesser known,  Zoho Productivity and Collaboration suites.

Supporting an huge number of collaboration applications, including free 1-on-1  web conferencing, online document management, online spreadsheets, note takers, online project planning, and web mail,  this could be your one-stop-shop for your collaboration needs.

Perhaps one of the best features of Zoho is the free 1-to-1 conferencing.   Online web conferencing and collaboration is notoriously tricky for remote workers due to firewall constraints, or administrator access to the PC.  With Zoho Web Meetings,  all you need to do is logon,  create a meeting, send an email invitation to the other person,  download a small light-weight app,  and away you go.  You’ll be sharing screens, PowerPoint presentations, and Word documents in no time.   You can also give control to the other party for true collaborative creativity.

Other essential collaboration features of Zoho include a full online Wiki for sharing snippets of information and full document management capabilities. Zoho give you 1GB of space to store and share documents,  with the option to pay for more storage if you need it.

There is also a fairly basic To-list and Track tracker, a word processor and an online presentation tool. Overall,  a fairly comprehensive and free online collaboration suite.

Visit Zoho for the best online collaboration suite.

What do you use for online collaboration and white boarding?

Whether you’re looking for an application to burn DVDs,  unzip compressed files, clean the registry, or manipulating photos,   Liberkey has something for everyone. Liberkey does a great job of categorising the applications into a browser friendly structure including

• Audio (format converters, rippers, MP3 Players)
• CD/DVD (burning tools, image tools, cover tools)
• Education (typing, astronomy)
• File Management (backup, compression, search, defrag)
• Games (card, puzzle, action)
• Graphics – Photos (viewers, screen capture)
• Internet (browsers, bookmark managers, Email, FTP)
• Networking – Server (scanners, SSH client, bandwidth monitors)
• Office (office suite, sticky notes, text editors)
• Security (Anti-virus software, password managers, secure delete)
• System Utilities (benchmarking,  cleaners, tweakers)
• Video (capture, authoring, players)

Best of all, it’s free and fully portable so it can easily be copied onto a USB stick if you need to lend this handy little kit-bag to a lesser prepared cohort.   Liberkey version 4.7 comes in 3 different flavours depending on how much of the suite you need.
 

• Basic – 24 apps,  60M download size
• Standard – 96 apps, 158MB download size
• Ultimate – 168 apps, 205 download size

Visit http://www.liberkey.com/

What’s your “swiss-army-knife” suite of applications?

Visit Freeware Genius to download the free apps.

What’s your favourite Windows Enhancement?