Apps I Don’t Want to Do Without

As regular readers know, we’ve recently replaced our seven-year-old Gateway with a new PC - exactly four times the processor speed of the old machine (and dual-core to boot), with four times the memory and 25 times the storage. It’s a big change. For one thing, I now understand what all the Google Earth fuss was about. For another, our high-speed DSL downloads are now running about 6400 Kb/sec., T3 speeds. (it’s supposed to be six Mb service, but never was.) I didn’t know that would be affected, but I’m darned glad! Life is good these days at the Webbsite.

Some things don’t change, though. One of the principal reasons I went with XP Pro instead of switching to a non-Windows OS was not wanting to lose the convenient little programs that I’ve become accustomed to over the years. I know that in many cases they can be replaced by others that do essentially the same things. However, in the past I’ve had trouble finding Windows programs that would perform like some of my favorites. For my purposes, it just wasn’t worth the hassle. Anyway, while reinstalling some of the old faithful apps, it occurred to me to mention a few of them here in case some of you would like to try them. I recommend them all wholeheartedly. They’ve served me well for at least a year each, several years in the cases of some, and have no discernible bugs as far as I’m able to tell. (Disclaimer: I have no association with any of the companies involved, unless noted.)

I do a lot of photo editing. Thus I look at a lot of icons that don’t necessarily show detail (in the case of thumbnails) or even the image if they happen to be on the desktop. So I use Context Thumbview from Context Magic. This is not freeware. After evaluating it, I paid the twenty bucks with a smile on my face. It’s a small picture viewer that provides image files previewed directly in the right-click menu. It supports most popular formats, including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PCX, WMF, and EMF.

To launch Context ThumbView, you just right-click on an image file in Windows Explorer (or anywhere else, as far as I can tell). Bing! Up pops the context menu with an enlarged thumbnail of the image. Another click will give you a still larger image (up to 600×600), with choices to save thumbnails, send them by email or copy them to the Windows clipboard. This is a really handy way to send small email-able images, BTW, if you don’t mind using Outlook or Outlook Express.

Download a trial copy and give it a whirl. I’m betting you’ll like it as much as I do. Context Magic has a similar application at the same price, called Instant ThumbView, that will show you an enlarged image instantly when you mouse over the file. I tried it, but found it really annoying. It persisted in showing me everything, even when I didn’t care to see it. If it was five bucks it would be worth it, but when you can get its big sister for the same $19.95, there’s no contest. A right-click is no big deal. Unexpected images flashing up on your screen are, after a while.

If you buy, don’t forget to record the serial number in a .txt file and burn it and the installer onto a CD in case you want to reinstall later. Suppliers are usually good about helping you out in such cases, but it’s really easy to do it right — and much easier when the chips are down.

More suggestions next time.

[tags]gateway, pc, Context Thumbview, Windows, Instant ThumbView, Webbsite[/tags]