Useful Windows XP Utilities

Useful utilities are created every day, finding them can be a chore, but once
found they can say a great deal of time. Utility programs are small software
creations, normally focused on a single feature or task. They are answers to
a particular need, and created by programmers with a bit of time on their hands,
who just can't stand having to work through the same task, over and over again.

The few I have listed here fall into that category, and are some of my personal
favorites.

Folder Size

The first one is called FolderSize, from a small project hosted on SourceForge.net.
FolderSize is very useful when you are trying to hunt down folders on your system
that are using a massive amount of space. A time consuming process without this
utility, a very easy, and rather enlightening one with FolderSize. For example,
I use to use WS FTP Pro as my FTP client. It is a good program, but what I didn't
know is that it's caching tendency was very aggressive (caching in a 'temporary'
folder nearly everything I've ever transferred).

Once you install FolderSize from the download you can get on SourceForge, you
will have a Folder Size option in the directory columns of your folder window.
Just check that option (you might want to remove the Size column, since it is
redundant now), and move the column over to where it is viewable.

Wink



Like the flash demonstration I used above to show how to use FolderSize? Not
a bad utility. Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words. To make
the flash demo, I used free utility called Wink.

Wink records program windows and desktop actions, offering several feature
levels to do this, and allows you to edit the captured screens. Once captured,
you can then edit the screens in Wink's UI, and then output the animation into
several formats, one of which is flash.

You can also add text balloons, and voice-overs to help explain what is going
on. Very nice for tutorials.

Empty Temp Folders

Once you discovered all those heavy laden temporary folders with FolderSize,
using Empy Temp Folders allows you to clean them out with the click of a button.

With this utility you setup all of your temporary areas, cookie areas, and
other folders which you want to be able to clear out periodically. Once set,
a single click clears them all, and recovers your disk space.

Very cool for laptop owners.

Trillian

Some people use the IM chats, and some people live on the IM chats. With as
many people as I have to keep in contact with on a regular basis (or at least
have to be accessible to), I have accounts on just about every IM service there
is. Running all of those (Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Jabber) at the same time, is resource
draining and opens me up to a great deal of advertisements, and "helper"
programs I don't want installed.

Trillian offers a solution. All of the IM chats, in one simple to use utility.
Now I log in one program, and can talk to multiple people, on many IM services,
at the same time.

Trillian also has a host of plug-ins which are very useful. RSS news readers,
application controls (such as controlling WinAmp, and Skype). Trillian comes
in a free version, and a paid for version. If you spend a great deal of time
IM'ing, this may be a great program for you to explore.