Filed under: Design, Photo, Text, Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, Freeware
Windows XP Virgin Install Part Two: Power Toys
by Victor Agreda, Jr. Aug 18th 2005 at 10:15PM
Last week I installed a fresh, clean, virgin version of Windows XP. The point? I'm going to add applications, in small batches, to see what horrible things happen when innocent downloads go terribly wrong (RealPlayer I'm looking in your direction). Well thus far my C drive looks positively sparse. There are four, yes ONLY four folders in there!I am not slipstreaming anything in or including any wacky drivers. Sometimes it's nice to see what Microsoft really intended with their OS. My VAIO came preloaded with a bunch of junk, some of which mine can't use (like PicoPlayer). Anyone who buys a PC with an OEM version of Windows is often in the same boat.
So I've been conservative with my downloads once again. This time I turned my attention to Microsoft's own Power Toys...
Upon trying to simply enable ClearType, I hit my first speedbump:
First off, I really like Clear Type. Maybe it's because I tend to use a Mac most of the time, but antialiasing just looks better to me. So big thumbs-up there (except for that website confusion).
Next up, the HTML Slideshow creator doohickey. Pretty slick, just a simple wizard for generating a slideshow. Of course, I had to chuckle when IE brought up the old "This page might have some nasty thing going to hurt you" and made the clonking noise... Uh, guys, didn't you make this yourselves? Guess I need to turn down those security settings, huh? No matter, it works, and it was easy.
I really do love the Alt-Tab replacement. Something tells me it's a harbinger of what's to come in Vista— daddy like. Just a little thumbnail preview of whatever you Alt-Tab to before you go there. Nice!
Open Command Window Here is a pretty good timesaver too, for someone who used to have to write batch files. Right-click on a folder and you can immediately drop into that directory within a command line. Q.E.D.
Tweak UI has so many settings it's scary. Guess that's what puts the Power in this Power Toy. I'll go into more detail next time, but I was impressed with the goodies it delivers.
Image resizer is a wonderful time saver for me, as I constantly have to simply resize an image. I know there are a zillion apps to do this one task (why everyone does it in Photoshop I'll never know), but this saves resources by shrinking that functionality down to one right-click.
Virtual Desktop Manager was really impressive. Granted, it's totally stolen from Linux, but it's way cool. I still wish my Mac would do this. Once you add the toolbar to the taskbar you can switch among 4 virtual desktops. There's even an Exposé-esque animation to go along. Great way of managing workflows. Four thumbs up!
The last item is a bit of a waste, but I guess it's useful. Taskbar Magnifier just gives you a teensy window that magnifies whatever the cursor is on. Whoop-dee-doo! My Mac has a full screen zoom feature that is nicer, but again, I wonder if that isn't coming in Vista as well...
Next week I'll get down and dirty with customizing the UI (first stop: Tweak UI). Can't wait to add some of those freaky shells...
Don't forget to send any ideas along in our tip form.
Went to MS's ClearType page, and tried to turn CT on... It said, "check the box to turn it on and click next." Well, if you click the box, then try to click anywhere else, the box is turned off again. Every time you try to click next it'll tell you to turn CT on first. AGH! Feedback loops aren't really my cup of tea...
So I had to download the PowerToy. Which just made me want to try ALL the powertoys...
Here's what I installed:
- ClearType Tuner
- HTML Slide Show Wizard
- Alt-Tab replacement
- Open Command Window here
- Tweak UI
- Power Calculator
- Image Resizer
- Virtual Desktop Manager
- Taskbar Magnifier
First off, I really like Clear Type. Maybe it's because I tend to use a Mac most of the time, but antialiasing just looks better to me. So big thumbs-up there (except for that website confusion).
Next up, the HTML Slideshow creator doohickey. Pretty slick, just a simple wizard for generating a slideshow. Of course, I had to chuckle when IE brought up the old "This page might have some nasty thing going to hurt you" and made the clonking noise... Uh, guys, didn't you make this yourselves? Guess I need to turn down those security settings, huh? No matter, it works, and it was easy.
I really do love the Alt-Tab replacement. Something tells me it's a harbinger of what's to come in Vista— daddy like. Just a little thumbnail preview of whatever you Alt-Tab to before you go there. Nice!
Open Command Window Here is a pretty good timesaver too, for someone who used to have to write batch files. Right-click on a folder and you can immediately drop into that directory within a command line. Q.E.D.
Tweak UI has so many settings it's scary. Guess that's what puts the Power in this Power Toy. I'll go into more detail next time, but I was impressed with the goodies it delivers.
Image resizer is a wonderful time saver for me, as I constantly have to simply resize an image. I know there are a zillion apps to do this one task (why everyone does it in Photoshop I'll never know), but this saves resources by shrinking that functionality down to one right-click.
Virtual Desktop Manager was really impressive. Granted, it's totally stolen from Linux, but it's way cool. I still wish my Mac would do this. Once you add the toolbar to the taskbar you can switch among 4 virtual desktops. There's even an Exposé-esque animation to go along. Great way of managing workflows. Four thumbs up!
The last item is a bit of a waste, but I guess it's useful. Taskbar Magnifier just gives you a teensy window that magnifies whatever the cursor is on. Whoop-dee-doo! My Mac has a full screen zoom feature that is nicer, but again, I wonder if that isn't coming in Vista as well...
Next week I'll get down and dirty with customizing the UI (first stop: Tweak UI). Can't wait to add some of those freaky shells...
Don't forget to send any ideas along in our tip form.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ando said 3:47AM on 8-19-2005
You do know you can enable ClearType in Display Settings right?
Reply
Oliver said 7:40AM on 8-19-2005
People use Photoshop for image resizing because their resizing algorithms are the best in the business. One way of comparing this is to create a blank image, then draw a series of evenly spaced vertical and horizontal lines down and across the image (forming lots of squares - the more lines, the better). Then resize the image. Many resizing algorithms will simply drop individual lines. Photoshop generally doesn't, especially if you play with the options to get the best quality transformation.
Reply
Jos?le said 9:18AM on 8-19-2005
The ClearType tuner powertoy does more than just enabling the ClearType, it actually helps you choose the best settings for your particular screen, giving you several options of which setting looks the best. Simply turning it on gives you the default settings.
The Image Resizer is great for those of us who *don't* have Photoshop. Yes there are people like that out there...Image Resizer makes it easy to right click on an image and resize it pretty much on the fly, and is easy when you have just taken a pic and want to email or post it real quick.
The Magnifier is especially helpful when you are helping elderly computer users. I installed this for my grandmother and it helped her immensely. While it may not help most users there definetely a market for this (and replaces a few apps which cost upwards of 50 bucks too.)
Reply
Revo said 3:12PM on 8-21-2005
this is all unneeded. klite megacodec pack and autopatcher(.com) or intergrate your iso with ryanvm update pack and it will intergrate a bunch of powertoys and updates.
Reply
Chip Hayner said 9:03AM on 8-22-2005
I enjoy the Image Resizer PowerToy, but I wish there was a way to set the compression level. I have and use Photoshop, but sometimes want a quick resize (without having to load a new program). However, I have recently noticed so much artification on the resulting images that they weren't usable for what I needed them for.
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L'Emmerdeur said 4:23PM on 8-22-2005
I used TweakUI to get rid of the annoying arrow on shortcuts and to automate the Windows login. When they say "use at your own risk", those Microsoft boys and girls ain't kidding. I installed TweakUI a couple of months ago on my A/V machine after a fresh install, and it broke my OS. I couldn't run .exes, and no amount of registry hacking would fix it. Finally had to reinstall XP again, and just live with the ugly shortcut arrows and manual logins.
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