If you’re like me and prefer to keep files and folders on your hard drive in an organized mess (i.e. a strict hierarchical structure) it may become a severe pain to access deeply buried locations. The golden rule in organization advises not to let folders become nested beyond eight levels, which may seem like a lot at first, but readily becomes trivial as hard-drives and data continue to grow beyond proportion.
Double-click & Go-To
To remedy this, Code Sector has developed a small and free app called ‘Direct Folders’. After installation, you can double-click on an empty space in any Explorer-window (that includes the Desktop) and a list with saved folder locations will appear. This list looks like a regular right-click context-menu and is configurable in any way you prefer. Direct Folders will keep a list of your recently explored locations, which are accessible from the ‘Recent’ window.
Looking up locations in the ‘Open File’-dialog gets easier too, since you can take advantage of Direct Folder there as well.
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The third wave of Microsoft’s online services called Windows Live has leaked to the internet today. Grab the combines installer at Softpedia. Some screenshots:
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‘Cloud Computing’ is the next big thing that’s eminently happening on the Internet. It’s unclear who coined the term initially, but I’m sure most are aware of its meaning. While its current implementation is patchy, Microsoft is making a first leap at delivering it in an integrated form.
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This trick enables you to regain the ability to use Google’s “I’m feeling lucky”-functionality on the fly from Firefox 3’s address bar, as was natively possible in Firefox 2. To accommodate this, we’ll use OpenDNS’ network shortcuts. Once configured, you’ll be able to type stuff like “goto drupal” and be taken to drupal.org right away.
Note: As advertised, you need to be using OpenDNS for this hack to work. If you don’t know what OpenDNS is, you may want to read up on it, since it’s a great thing to have.
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PDF (Portable Document Format) is the omni-present file format for all important documents that need to travel from one place to an other. They work on every platform, so long as a reader is installed, and they aren’t editable. The key is that every PDF document comes across exactly the way the author intended it, save the infamous inconsistencies proprietary software like Microsoft Word often impose. PDF, in itself, is also proprietary, though. It’s not open. It’s just been around long enough to seem that way.
Adobe Reader (formerly known as Acrobat Reader) is the official reader software that accompanies PDF. Throughout the years, Adobe Reader has put on weight and has become increasingly bulky, and.. slow. Panning through a document containing more than a few dozen pages usually bogs down your system, peaking CPU performance along with it.
You aren’t necessarily tied to Adobe’s own reader, though. There are dozens of other, faster applications that handle PDF fine and even provide a [roughly] comparable set of features. I’m talking about Foxit Reader 2.3, in particular: A free application that incorporates nearly all of Adobe Reader’s features with gracious speed.
Foxit supports all the usual: bookmarking, commenting, magnifying, tabbed browsing, etc. And, best of all, no more panning through documents in slow motion.
Foxit Reader is available for free on Windows and Linux.
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Active@ ISO Burner is a freeware application that does exactly one thing: burn ISO-images to disc. This app is great for people who don’t often use their burner and don’t feel like purchasing a whole Nero-suite or something similar. It will burn images to CDs and DVDs alike.
Additionally, command line is supported in order to enable automation.
If you insert a used re-writeable disc, it will automatically be erased (Quick Erase). Secure erasing is also possible using the free Active@ CD/DVD Eraser. ‘Secure’ in the sense that every sector on the surface will be overwritten with a neutral pattern, whereas ‘Quick Erase’ only modifies to file table to make whole disc seem empty (the actual data remains).
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Get both freeware applications at NTFS.com.
7Zip is an open-source compression/decompression utility that supports most of the popular compression formats. In addition, it also introduces its own high-performing format called LZMA. According to the 7Zip, LZMA supports:
- a high compression ratio
- compression speed of 1MB/s and higher (based on a 2GHz CPU)
- decompression speed of 10 to 20 MB/s (ditto)
- low system requirements
- multi-threading and hyper-threading
Not only does it support regular ZIP, its compression ratio for ZIP is 2 to 10% higher than the its commercial counterpart, WinZip. In true open-source fashion, 7Zip is available in more than 60 languages and can be used on older computers without too much trouble. Furthermore, it comes with a custom file manager that allows advanced functionality like:
- splitting files
- combining files
- calculating checksums of files
If you’re not (or can’t be) tied to a single computer and you prefer to carry your applications around on a USB-stick, there’s a portable version available at PortableApps.com, too. Sure, it doesn’t support every single possible format like WinRAR does, but it does a heck of a good job. And hey, it’s free!
7-Zip is available for Windows, Linux, Mac and most other Operating Systems out there on their official download page.
Get the portable version of 7-Zip here (Windows Only).
Supported Formats
Compression and decompression:
Decompression only:
- RAR
- CAB
- ARJ
- Z
- RPM, DEB
- ISO
- And others…
If you’re like me and prefer to keep files and folders on your hard drive in an organized mess (i.e. a strict hierarchical structure) it may become a severe pain to access deeply buried locations. The golden rule in organization advises not to let folders become nested beyond eight levels, which may seem like a lot at first, but readily becomes trivial as hard-drives and data continue to grow beyond proportion.
To remedy this, Code Sector has developed a small and free app called ‘Direct Folders’. After installation, you can double-click on an empty space in any Explorer-window (that includes the Desktop) and a list with saved folder locations will appear. This list looks like a regular right-click context-menu and is configurable in any way you prefer. Direct Folders will keep a list of your recently explored locations, which are accessible from the ‘Recent’ window. 
