Send To option is very useful option to send an item instantly from one location to another like a removable drive, Bluetooth or just a folder. It would have been great if we could have customized this option by ourselves and also added more to it.

With the help of a tool called Send To Toys, we can do much more functions than just send. Send To Toys is an enhancement of the Send To system menu.
Send To Toys Control Panel Applet allows you to manage the Send To system menu content, and configure the various Send To Toys settings. Whether it is Quick Launch, Recycle Bin or some other location, just use this tool.
The tool is a freeware and can also be used to add customized options to the context menu send to option.
Download Send To Toys

While Windows Vista and 7 have this special feature of Alt + Tab that is seeing a preview of the Windows while switching, Windows XP lacks it. With the help of a tool mentioned here, users can get even better preview for not only XP but also for Vista and Win 7.

The tool is called VistaSwitcher which is an elegant and powerful task management utility for Windows OS. Once installed, it replaces the default Windows Alt-Tab dialog with a nice box that shows a list of all running tasks, with their names and preview snapshots, and enables the user to take actions on them using the mouse and keyboard shortcuts.
As show in the snapshot above, users can not only see the list of all the applications running but also a nice and big preview of the application which adds more appeal to the users while working on the system. Moreover the tool is free to use.
The main advantage of VistaSwitcher is a brand new Alt-Tab switching window. Unlike to the stadard Alt-Tab, VistaSwitcher shows a full-sized preview of each task window and easy-to-read relevant lists of tasks running, all shown clearly with titled icons so you can find the one you need within seconds.
Download VistaSwitcher

Deleting old and unused files from your PC is very tedious and time consuming process. All these old and junk files not only acquire the space of your hard drive but even effect the performance of your computer. So if you don’t want to waste your time and effort in searching for old files in your PC, even if you know locations, then today we will be telling you about a tool named Delete Files By Date using which you can delete all your old files.
It is the best solution to delete files that are older than a certain date even if you don’t know location of those files. This tool make it easy to find old unused files that are no longer needed and delete then in just one click. All you need to give is date and size and this tool will then automatically scan your complete computer with all those files which were created before that date.

Now in the main Window, you will see two options. First is Start with Windows. Tick mark on this option if you want this tool to run automatically at the time of booting of your computer. Now the next option is Protect with Password. This is the wonderful feature of this tool that you can password protect it. All you need to do is to place tick on this option and then put a desired password in both the boxes, and then click on Apply.

So next time when you will open this tool, you will prompted to enter password without which you won’t be able to run this tool.

These two are features of settings. Now the another option available on the main window of this tool is  Delete Files. Click on this option to delete the old files from your system. You will see following option when you click it.

So the three main option available are Search for Files, Date and Size. In Search for files you can click on All files if you want to scan for all files extension or you can even make your search more specific by giving a particular extension and search all those files which are of those kinds. Next option is Date. Here you can search files by the ‘created date’, ‘modified date’ or ‘accessed date’. In next box you can will different options like less than, between, greater than etc. You can customize all this option to make your search more specific with date and time.

Now next option is size. This option will allow you to specify your search with desired size. Once you done with all the settings, all you need to do is to click on Add button and then add a folder or complete disk. Then this tool will start processing.

When the search get finished, it will show the results in the Window and from there you can choose all those files which you want to delete and then simply click on Delete button to remove all those unused files rom your PC.

The size of this tool is 4.05 Mb and still it will not take much time to get installed and as usual it will create a desktop shortcut which can be used to access this freeware. This tool is compatible with all the versions of Windows and has been tested successfully on Windows 7 Ultimate-32 bit edition.
Source:technixupdate
Download Delete Files By Date

If you are working on say 10 applications at the moment and after the work you need to close them all then what should you do? Click Close button on each of them? Just use this tool that can close all the applications and windows running at the moment at once.

The tool I am referring about is called CloseAll that can terminate all the currently opened windows and applications at once. This program lets you close all running applications with just a single click. It doesn’t use system resources because it only flashes a ‘close’ signal to all open applications on the desktop and then ceases.
The tool is best to use when you want to shut down your computer. Just create a shortcut to the tool in the Start Menu, Quick Launch, Windows 7 Taskbar or elsewhere and double click to execute it. The tool requires no installation and hence can be run directly from the USB drive too.
For detailed information and its usage, visit the link below.
Download CloseAll

If you miss the Timer feature the most in Windows then third party timer tools should suit your needs. There are lot of timers available for Windows but they are not that simple to use as this tool called SnapTimer.

SnapTimer is a free Windows Countdown timer that you can run to time your activities. Along with being free, it is also one of the simpler timer tools available for Windows. Just run this tool and type in any time you want to count, SnapTimer should work for you.
SnapTimer is also light, portable and require no installation, thus can be run directly from the USB drive as well. Find all the features below:
•    Simple, clean interface
•    Displays time in the taskbar, as a hint in the tray and even in the right-click menu of the tray icon.
•    Tray icons indicate the mode of the timer (running, paused, completed)
•    Multiple alert types - message box, tray icon popup, audio file and any application
•    Stopwatch mode when you set minutes to 0
•    Play an optional ticking sound while the timer is running
•    Countdown can be paused and restarted, or reset
•    Portable (runs from your USB flash drive)
•    Can stay on top of other windows
•    No install required
•    Low RAM usage
•    Can automatically start counting down immediately
•    Includes over 20 loop-friendly alarm sounds (Meaning they’ll play over and over until you reset the timer)
•    Can automatically restart timer when it finishes
•    Lets you quickly and easily change the countdown time with mouse or keyboard shortcuts
•    Automatically saves all settings (optional)
•    Accepts time as command line argument, so you can create preset timer shortcuts or run the timer from a launcher (FARR, Launchy).
•    Can be minimized to tray
•    Supports multiple instances (You should disable always on top and probably autosave settings as well)
•    Can be docked to a corner, in the center or restore the last screen location
•    No internet access required
•    Doesn’t write to your registry
•    No ads, spyware or malware
•    100% free
Being a freeware, it can be used for all the purposes without any limitations. SnapTimer supports all the versions of Windows on both 32 and 64 bit systems.
Download SnapTimer

If you have used Windows Home Server, you know how much everybody wants it to be turned on all the time so they can access their media files, make a backup etc. Though servers are built for 100% uptime but not everybody is at home all the time and there are situations at which keeping it turned off makes more sense. Smart Power application is a power management utility which can be a boon to this situation.
This application can hibernate / shutdown or make it sleep when you haven’t said it so. For example if none of the users are accessing the shared files connected or you are not de-fragmenting your home server. This application gets installed in your computer as a service which keeps on checking for the rules.

As this service targets the state i.e. Hibernate / Sleep and Shutdown, make sure you create the plans wisely. You can configure rules based on :
Schedules :
Your home server can be scheduled for each day individually. When to start and when to end. So if most of your members are at home from 6 PM evening you can wake it up from sleep at that moment.

Connectivity :
You can check if a computer is connected to your Windows Home Sever either by IP address or by host name. Using a host name makes more sense unless you have configured for static IP while connecting them to the router.
Network activity :
It is possible that your Home Server is connected to the router using Wi-Fi or by Lan. Smart power lets you configure to create rules based on the network activity to with which the server is connected. So if you router is connected to Internet directly, you can create rules to watch the activity in terms of throughput.
For example if you are downloading a windows update on your home server the activity will be high and you don’t want the machine to go down.

CPU and Processes :
When defragging your home server the CPU usage is high  or even when you are encoding a video. Moreover there are some processes which should not be stopped suddenly. Both of this can be configured to keep your machine from getting into a different state.
Download Smart Power

At home, we usually have a single computer or laptop which is shared by all the family members so it becomes difficult to save our personal data. Also in offices, our colleagues’ evil eyes are always searching for important data in our computer. So, to keep our data safe there are two options either hiding our folder using hide icons application or using a freeware called Secure Folder which will help us password secure our folders. Secure Folder is a tiny application for commercial as well as personal use which will lock/unlock folders and drive with password. It is supported by windows 7,  vista and xp. It is downloaded as an exe file so there is no need of installation. When you will run the exe file it will ask you to enter the password to login. You have to remember this password because you can later unlock your folders using this password only. After login, you can see the main window of the application which is user-friendly with few options so that you can make your folder secure in just few clicks. For making your folder safe, you just have to click the option ‘Add’ and add your folder and the folder is locked. It doesn’t provide the option of drag & drop. Now, when you want to open that folder, you have to right-click and click ‘[Lock/unlock] with secure folder’. After that, it will ask you for the password which you have entered at the time of login to unlock. NOTE: Now, the folder will get unlocked so you have to again lock it to make it safe by going to the application. You can also unlock the folder in the main window by marking the desired folder and using the option ‘Unlock’. It also provide you the option of changing the password by going in the option ‘File’ and then ‘Change Password’ which will show you the this window where you can set the new password. So, it is a smart utility for hiding our personal information from the people whom we don’t want to see it.
 Source:Troublefixers
Download Secure Folder 1.0.0.0

Alt+tab is the most quickest and easiest way to switch across opened windows and programs but sometimes the size of the small thumbnail in alt+tab switching makes it difficult identify the what is actually going on a particular opened program window.
Alt+Tab Tuner is a free program which helps you increase the size of the thumbnail, and tweak lot more other settings of the thumbnail images of the programs showing while alt+tab switch.
  
As shown in the screenshot of this application, you can change the margins around thumbnails, increase columns in thumbs grid shown, increase the spacing in between thumbnails shown, increase the icon size and shit its location, increase the thumbnail and increase the fading and transparency of alt+tab switch. You can also revert to the old style alt+tab as there in windows xp.
You can get get the layout of alt+tab switching like the one shown below just with minor tweaking.
  
How To Use ?
Using and testing this program is quite simple just, change the options, click apply and then see the changes in alt+tab switching.
Download Alt+Tab Tuner

We all love pictures and often take a lot of pictures with our cameras, So there are times when there are some pictures lying in a folder and the view type is such that you are not getting the idea how does this image actually look, in such a case you can use a free utility called Menu Viewer which will show you a thumbnail image of the image file, as well as its actual dimensions, when you right click in that image file name in windows explorer.  

As shown in the screenshot above it will show you a small thumbnail preview of the image, and also show the actual dimensions of the image. If you click this preview in the right click context menu it will open that image in your image viewer. This application is really useful in getting the preview of any image without opening it.

This shell extension uses FreeImage, and currently supports: BMP,DDS,Dr. Halo,GIF,HDR,ICO,IFF,JBIG,JNG,JPEG/JIF,KOALA,LBM,Kodak, PhotoCD,MNG,PCX,PBM,PGM,PNG,PPM,PhotoShop,Raw Fax G3,SGI,Sun RAS,TARGA,TIFF,WBMP,XBM,XPM
Download Menu Viewer

Technology is evolving with every second passing by and so are the computers. With the fastest computers in the market every buyer thinks of buying spacious Hard drives as well, which could store data upto 1 TB(1024 GB) or even more. Storing more data in your hard drive is not a problem but managing it is certainly a tedious work.
If some files are lying in one partition, and one wishes to transfer it to another then he/she certainly will follow the traditional method of opening several windows at once, of all those files which need to be transferred and the partition to which they are to be transferred.
Clicking on each window separately and then copying or pasting the files is the next problem you face while transferring them, which eventually takes quite a while to complete.Since no one can work like this for rest of their lives a new software occupying 2.2 MB of space has been developed, named NexusFile – Windows File Manager.

The software is amazing in terms of usefulness since it allows you to perform a lot of tasks from a Single window. Similar softwares are also available in the market namely EFcommander etc which resemble a lot in terms of user interface but the number of features are less.

Key Features of NexusFile

• Dual-Pane Interface file manager
• Color coded file management
• Easy copying or moving files between folder
• Quick navigation to favorite folders
• Changing file and folder attributes
• Advanced renaming operations
• 3 customizable color schemes – Black, Classic and Grey with transparency support and custom view styles
• FTP transfers along with folder comparison and synchronization
• File splitting and joining
• Disk Cleanup
• File shredding and much more

Compatibility

As we all know that windows 7 contains a new animated boot screen which shows animated items/balls that come together to form Windows logo.
If you want to enjoy the same boot screen in windows xp or Vista, then here is a good news for you. "killer7ben" and "TSR-Pr" have created boot screens for Windows XP and Vista which look very similar to Windows 7 boot screen.

You can download the boot screens using following links:
Download Windows 7 Boot Screen for Windows XP
Download Windows 7 Boot Screen for Windows Vista
You'll need "Tuneup Utilities" to apply these boot screens.
NOTE: The above boot screens are not animated.

TuneUp Utilities is one of the best system optimization suite for Windows. It provides various options to tweak your system. It also provides options to change Windows theme, boot screen, login screen and icons.
Here is a step-by-step procedure to change or create new boot screen in Windows XP and Vista using TuneUp Utilities:
1. First download and install TuneUp Utilities from the following link:
Download TuneUp Utilities
You can either purchase the full version or download 30 days trial version. After installation, run it from desktop or from Programs menu or by right-clicking on My computer icon and select "TuneUp Utilities".
2. Now click on Customize Windows ->  TuneUp Styler

3. It'll open a new window. Click on "Boot Screen" link in left-side pane:

4. Now click on "Add -> Load Boot Screen From File..." option:

5. Select your boot screen file and click on "Install Boot Screen" button:

6. You can also create your own boot screens. To create new boot screen, click on "New Screen" button. It'll open a new window. Now click on "Search Local Drives" link and select the image.

You can also set the image alignment, borders, background color and progress bar position.
7. Once you finish, click on "Save boot screen" link and provide a name to your boot screen.

8. You can even see the preview of the boot screen by clicking on "Show large preview" link or by clicking on the image in Preview pane:

9. That's it, your new boot screen is ready. You can apply it by clicking on "Install Boot Screen" button.

Customization is one thing without which no daily computer operator can survive since one cannot keep looking at the same interface and backgrounds again and again. People try to find as many softwares as they can to simply give their personal computers a little interface makeover and such modifications range from changing the icons or background wallpapers or the screensavers used.
Moreover some users even try their hands on changing the Logon Screen Background which certainly is a bit intricate process and sometimes end up crashing their PC’s or corrupt some files associated with windows. Isn’t there any software which can change your logon screen background according to your wish at a single click? Well to surprise all you readers, a new software named Logon Changer has been developed which lets you change your logon screen background very easily.

This software has a very simple & easily understandable interface with which even a new user can play around and change his/her backgrounds without getting into any kind of trouble regarding the operating system. And surprisingly the utility hardly occupies any space with the 247KB of size it possesses.

Unique Features of Logon Changer

Procedure To Change Logon Screen Background

• Download the software and open the executable named TweaksLogon and you will come across a very simple interface as seen above. From here click on the Change Logon Screen button which takes you to the archive of the backgrounds, or you can locate your desired backgrounds as well.

• After selecting the background the program will ask you for compressing the background maintaining the highest quality if, the size exceeds 247 KB where one needs to click yes in order to proceed.

• As soon as you click yes the background will be changed which can be be tested as well. The image below will gove you a clear view of how the new background will appear like.

• Now you just need to close the program and enjoy the new background. In order to revert back, one has to click on the button saying Revert to Default Screen as seen in the above image and the screen will be brought back to the original one.

Windows 7 booting screen is best till now among all the versions of windows released till date, first because it does not show the nonsense nonstop progress bar and secondly because it shows the cool new animation windows in which each different colored section glows.

A deviantART artist Kolle86 has recently created a cool windows 7 boot screen animation screensaver which you can use on windows xp, vista and also on windows 7, so this way you can see the beautiful boot screen animation in windows 7 as screensaver all the time in front of you when your pc becomes idle.


Download Windows 7 Boot Screen Animation Screensaver

One of the most amazing feature I liked in windows 7 is it most useful and productive taskbar which consist of iconized taskbar items which can rearranged when and how you feel like arranging them.
The most amazing thing about the windows 7 taskbar is that it no longer displays the name of the programs, on the other hand it displays only icons by default which provides more space for other programs and opened windows to fit in

It will replace the normal taskbar of windows xp with this windows 7 like taskbar which is more beautiful and manageable for different windows and  applications opened. It provide more space and good look feel as compared to the boring looks of windows xptaskbar.

There are times when you may need to know the product key of the windows you are using, you have a right to know your product key however Microsoft does not allow or provide any software which can help you view the product key of your computer, you can also use this free software Microsoft Product Key Finder but I am not sure that it works on both 32 bit and 64 bit version of windows, however it might work also.
We have written another tip on how to retrieve windows serial number which applies to all windows versions till now, including windows 7, You can also recover other software licenses installed on your computer stored in registry with License Crawler. Today we will tell you about another useful utility called WinKeyFinder which can recover windows license key which works on all the versions of windows and also works with both 32 bit and 64 bit of windows, although we have tested this program on our windows 7 ultimate.
   
This application is simply a straight forward application which helps you find the product key in windows, you can copy it save it or print it for any use, it will also display the build number of your windows if there are any service packs installed.
Download WinKeyFinder

Forgetting your password isn’t just embarrassing, it’s a show stopper for your productivity. Suddenly a wall goes up between you and all of your documents, and you’re powerless to access them. Things get even worse if you don’t have the password for any admin account on the computer, because logging in is almost entirely impossible. The good news is that it’s possible to recover the password, and doing so isn’t terribly difficult.
1. There are many ways that can help you in recovery passwords, as you may try logging in with no password administrator login. To do the same, you can go to the default admin account which keeps information of admin credentials. If you haven’t changed its password, try signing-in windows without password.
2. The next idea is about resetting of passwords. In accordance with Microsoft’s Windows support knowledge base you can set a new password by following these steps. If you have typed the wrong password, you’ll receive a message that says your user name or password is incorrect. When this message appears click Ok, click reset password, and then follow the instructions.
3. If last idea didn’t work, you can try this one. Download Windows Password Key 8.0, it is a complete operating system bootable from CD\DVD or USB flash drive.
4. The last way to recover lost admin password. Notice that if you are using an admin account to reset the password, you would not be able to access any E-mail messages, encrypted files and other details ever.
Log on to the administrator account that you will be using to reset the lost password. Open local users and groups, This can be done by clicking the start button icon of the start button, typing Iusrmgr.msc into the search box, and then pressing ENTER. Administrator permission required if you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide verification. Double click local users and groups, and then click users. Type and confirm the new password.
This post has been written by one of our readers Anny. Thanks for the article.

Most of the new Operating Systems like Windows Vista And Windows 7 consume good amount of hard disk space. To add to it, heavy installation programs like games and photo-editing tools, multimedia players etc which many of us have also consume disk space. Not only this, Internet browser’s cache, temporary files, temporary installation files,  restore data, recycle bin data etc. all add up to the space consumed on the hard disk.

Although there is an inbuilt Windows Disk Cleanup feature which can free most of the space occupied by the unused and unusable stuff that computer can live without, yet it does not provide a comprehensive cleaning which can clean a lot more space than what it does.

In this article I am going to review a free and highly effective disk space cleaning utility called DiskMax which provides powerful and advanced options to free up several GB of disk space in some cases. It cleaned up around 4GB space of my hard disk.

DiskMax is a powerful Disk Cleanup tool which works in several modes, which are – Quick , Standard , Detailed And Complete. Each of these mode has different level of disk cleaning. I tested the standard one.

When you launch it, it gives you a start screen like the one above, select the type of cleanup you want. Depending on which type you select and how much stuff it clean, it may take several minutes to do the job. It took about 15 minutes on my desktop machine.

The standard scan is very comprehensive and will ask you your preferences related to cleaning and will remember them so that you don’t have to set them again and again. Below are a few screenshots of many steps it goes through to ask your preferences.

The tool is compatible with all version of Windows 32bit and 64bit OS up to Windows 7. You can install it and use it once a month or few weeks to reclaim the disk space which otherwise remains occupied with useless stuff.

Download DiskMax

Out of 10 people around 7 will always have a cluttered desktop in windows with lots of usefull and not usefull icons this I can say as per my experience from the time, I have been using computers for 5 years.
Even they know it looks very cluttered but they are used to using it although we have already posted on how can you clean your cluttered desktop automatically. But most of the computer users are much used to the large number of shortcuts they create on their desktop.

Yesterday, I found a cool application called Hide Icons, which lets you hide your desktop icons in a double click on the application icon which loads itself into the system tray ( as shown in the image below ).


You just need to double click on the application icon shown in the image above to hide your desktop icons. Hide Icons supports both windows xp and vista.
Note: But in order to make the application work successfully we recommend you please minimize any other opened application by pressing Window + D  to showdesktop,  before double clicking on the application icon in the system tray ( as shown in the image above ).
[ Download Hide Icons | Application Home Page ]

You may release sometimes that there are several icons spreading across the screen on your computer, and due to these icons your desktop looks messy and you may not be able to see the current wallpaper due to these icons.
Here is how you can hide these icons and desktop gadgets in windows 7

Follow the procedure given below
1. Right click in the empty area of your windows 7 desktop, and go to View >> Show desktop Icons – uncheck it.

Similarly you can also uncheck the option Show desktop gadgets to hide windows 7 sidebar gadgets shown on desktop. I hope you like this simple and easy windows 7 trick,