Extended Cron

I wrote a Reminder/Notification program for Windows called Reminder 19 (you can check it out at http://reminder.relic19.net.)  I wanted to be able to cleanly define many different kinds of alert schedules and decided to use cron as my starting point.  I ended up extending the format because I wanted to have things like time delayed alerts and a year field.  This is the format I came up with... I think it's pretty expressive.  The only way I think it would be more expressive is if I added conditional alerts (for example, an alert should be shown on the 31st if the month has 31 days, otherwise it should be shown on the 28th).

Format 1: Advanced Schedule By Dates and Times
  +------------------ minute (0 - 59)
  |  +--------------- hour (0 - 23)
  |  |  +------------ day of month (0 - 31)
  |  |  |  +--------- month (1 - 12)
  |  |  |  |  +------ year (number between 1700 and 9999)
  |  |  |  |  |  +--- dayOfWeek (0 - 7, 10-17, 20-27, 30-37, 40-47)
  |  |  |  |  |  |  + optional command and parameters
  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Each of the patterns from the first six fields may be either a single in range number, * (the asterisk character, which means the field matches all legal values), or a list of in range numbers separated by commas (such as 2,3). There may be no spaces following commas and fields may not end with a comma.  There is also an optional special seventh field.

The hour field (field 1) is specified using the 24-hour format.  0 is 12 AM, 4 is 4 AM, and 15 is 3 PM.

The month field (field 4) is defined as a number, where 1 is January and 11 is November.  Alerts will not be shown for non existent days, such as September 31.  Please note that an alert will not show on September 30 instead.

For the day of the week field (field 6), both 0 and 7 are considered Sunday.  The dayOfWeek field can be two digits, where the first digit represents its position in the month and the second digit is the day of the week.  For example, 31 would mean the third Monday of every month.  A position of 0 means every postion, so 03 means every Wednesday.  In deciding the next wake up time between, for example, the 1st and 31st, the soonest wake up date is chosen.

An alert is shown when the time/date specification fields all match the current time and date. There is one exception: if both "day of month" and "day of week" are restricted (not "*"), then either the "day of month" field (field 3) or the "day of week" field (field 6) must match the current day (even though the other of the two fields need not match the current day).

The command field (field 7) is completely optional.  If it is present, then an attempt will be made to execute the command.

Example 1:
00 16 1,2,31 2,3 2008 1,45
This alert specifies the following date and times:
February 1, 2008 at 4:00 PM
February 2, 2008 at 4:00 PM
February 4, 2008 at 4:00 PM (A Monday)
February 11, 2008 at 4:00 PM (A Monday)
February 18, 2008 at 4:00 PM (A Monday)
February 22, 2008 at 4:00 PM (The fourth Friday)
February 25, 2008 at 4:00 PM (A Monday)
March 1, 2008 at 4:00 PM
March 2, 2008 at 4:00 PM
March 3, 2008 at 4:00 PM (A Monday)
March 10, 2008 at 4:00 PM (A Monday)
March 17, 2008 at 4:00 PM (A Monday)
March 24, 2008 at 4:00 PM (A Monday)
March 28, 2008 at 4:00 PM (The fourth Friday)
March 31, 2008 at 4:00 PM (The 31st and a Monday)

Example 2:
00 4,16 * * * * "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" ? http://www.google.com
Every day at 4 AM and 4 PM, an instance of Internet Explorer will be launched that navigates to http://www.google.com.


Format 2: Advanced Schedules by Time Delays
  +------------------ the start minute (0 - 59)
  |  +--------------- the start hour (0 - 23)
  |  |  +------------ the start day of month (0 - 31)
  |  |  |  +--------- the start month (1 - 12)
  |  |  |  |  +------ the start year (number between 1700 and 9999)
  |  |  |  |  |  +--- increment in minutes (+[number of minutes to delay])
  |  |  |  |  |  |  + optional command and parameters
  * * * * *  *  *

No field in this format may be * (an asterisk character.)  Field 7 (the command field) is optional, but all other fields must be defined.

Each of the first 5 fields must be a single number in the specified ranges.  They will be used to define the start date.

The hour field is specified using the 24-hour format.  0 is 12 AM, 4 is 4 AM, and 15 is 3 PM.

The months are defined as number, where 1 is January and 11 is November.

For "increment in minutes" field (field 6), a non-negative number must be specified, prefixed by a '+' character.  The number represents the number of minutes to wait between alerts.  For example, +59 means that the alert will be triggered every 59 minutes after the start date.

The command field (field 7) is completely optional.  If it is present, then an attempt will be made to execute the command.

Example 1:
00 00 31 3 2008 +30
This alert will be shown every 30 minutes after March 31, 2008 at 12:00 AM.  So the first alert will go off at March 31, 2008 at 12:30 AM, the next alert will go off at March 31, 2008 at 1:00 AM, and so on.

Example 2:
00 00 31 3 2008 +60 "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" ? http://www.google.com
This alert will be shown every 60 minutes (one hour) after March 31, 2008 at 12:00 AM.  So the first alert will go off at March 31, 2008 at 1:00 AM, the next alert will go off at March 31, 2008 at 2:00 AM, and so on.  Whenever an alert goes off, http://www.google.com will be launched in Internet Explorer.

Decoding Text Formats

Occasionally, you're get text documents in different formats.  I'm a plain text kinda guy.  I like that it's really flexible.  Anyway, here's a list of decoders I used.  These have been virus and functionally tested.

CHM Decoder (CHM to HTML) - It's useful to me because sometimes the text is too small to read on a CHM and there's no nice way I know of to increase the font size.  You can download it at: http://www.shareup.com/CHM_Encoder-download-26404.html

CLIT (LIT to HTML) - I found a similar program to convert LIT files to HTML.  Although it has a slightly unfortunate name, it works really well.  You can download it at: http://www.convertlit.com/download.php

ReNamer

I wanted to replace a lot of text in filenames without any hassle, so I quickly looked for a program to do it for me.  The first program I tried worked perfectly, had no installation process, and had a "no install" version (the archive version.)  So, if you need to rename files easily, I suggest giving this a program a try.

Try out ReNamer

Hex Editing Programs

So, I got obsessed over the past two weeks or so "solving" archive files. This involved trying to extract the resources from video game archive files. Even if I don't care about the result, it was like solving a puzzle to figure out how to get the resources out. I'll probably write about it sometime.

What I wanted to point out now is the hex editor I used. To solve archive formats, you need to open up the archive files as binary. I started off using Textpad, since it's my text editor of choice on windows. It's not that convenient though... after reading some tutorials, I settled on Hex Workshop.

Hex Workshop lets you easily copy and paste binary, allows you to easily set bookmarks to binary fragments, easily lets you color-code the binary, easily lets you jump to specific offsets, lets you have multiple files open simultaneously, and has a hex calculator. I heartily recommend it. It is pretty pricey (~$90)... but that's pretty much the price of two video games. I think it's worth it as I've had so much more fun doing this than playing games recently. Hex Workshop



On another note, on a slow day, I played around with Cheat Engine. It was a lot of fun. Cheat Engine lets you easily mess around with Windows memory. The most obvious use is changing game memory to give you unlimited whatever. It's really fun to play with in general and comes with a great tutorial that'll get you started. If you have some time, give it a try. http://www.cheatengine.org/

Subversion Intro

I've been using subversion (nope, not a git guy yet) for most of my own work, even got our projects at my current job onto subversion. It's much better than source safe/offsite (which I used at a previous job) and I even prefer it to CVS. Subversion is designed specifically to be a modern replacement for CVS and shares a number of the same key developers. It uses a copy-modify-merge for file sharing. To read more about subversion, you can read their very good documentation at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/. The following is a link to an appendix from the svnbook that introduces subversion for cvs users. I think that it will be a very helpful and painless way to quickly understand subversion with a cvs background. You can read it starting at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.2/svn.forcvs.html.

Subversion’s homepage is http://subversion.tigris.org/. I install it using the instructions found on http://www.excastle.com/blog/archive/2005/05/31/1048.aspx.

The most direct way of using subversion is through the subversion client tool called svn. You can download the tool from subversion’s site, http://subversion.tigris.org/. For directions on using the tool, refer to the appropriate section at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.

Another subversion client option for Win32 users is TortoiseSVN, which is implemented as a Windows shell extension. TortoiseSVN can be downloaded from http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/. It is very simple and intuitve to use as all commands are added to the right click context menu when using windows explorer. Special icons are used to show which files and folders are under revision control.

If you're using Eclipse, there is a plugin called SubClipse that will integrate Eclipse and Subversion. You can download the plug-in from http://subclipse.tigris.org/. A good guide to installation and usage for the plug-in can be found at http://dev2dev.bea.com/pub/a/2005/11/subclipse.html?page=1.

Hiren Boot CD

I'd heard about Hiren's Boot CD before, but I never needed it until last weekend. There were a few Windows machines that none of us knew the passwords or even account names to anymore. Using Hiren's Boot CD, we were easily able to get back in. We could see the accounts on the machine, we could reset the passwords, and we could lock/unlock accounts. It was very convenient.

There aren't many times most people would need a tool like this, but it's nice that it's there just in case. Read more about it (and get links to it) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiren's_BootCD A mac version of this type of program seems to be Boot-123.

Web Screnshots

Making screenshots of web pages (whole long screenshots, from top of the page to the bottom) is pretty important, so it's pretty useful to have a good screenshot tool. The one I use is FireShot. It's a firefox extension, but it can also be installed on IE. It's nice, easy to use, and free. You can save in different image formats as well. It's a good tool.

Firefox
Internet Explorer

Manga Meeya

A while ago, I wrote a post about CDisplay, an awesome Comic Book Reading Tool. I had several problems with it (such as its non customizable shortcuts, full screen mode that didn't work with my dual screens, random crashes while opening certain archives, difficulty in dealing with archives within archives...), but I didn't think that anything better existed out there. I tried CDisplayEx, but that was way worse. I was even tempted to write my own manga viewer called "CDisplayEx+Alpha." But there's no need, because I found MangaMeeya, which is everything I ever wanted in a comic reader and more.

My favorite features about MangaMeeya are its ability to display two pages at once, its smart look ahead feature, its ability to view pages either left-to-right or right-to-left, its fit-to-page image resizing, its ability to automatically deal with compressed files, and its customizability. On top of all that, MangaMeeya is blazingly fast. In addition to comic reading, it works really well as a generic image viewer... you can even delete images using MangaMeeya and use it to organize your galleries. I really can't even imagine a better sequential image viewing tool.

I don't really know the history of MangaMeeya or where it came from. I don't even know its home page. I think that it's a Japanese commercial product, but that development has ended over some copyright dispute. At some point, some guy unofficially translated it into English. If anyone has more information about MangaMeeya, please let me know, since I would like to pay for the program.

Link to Download English MangaMeeya:  Download Here

Context Menu

Although its internal file browser is nice, you will definitely want to add MangaMeeya to your right click context menu. That'll allow you to right click on any file or folder and have it open in MangaMeeya. You can do this by going into the registry and adding new shell commands to the '*' and 'Folder' extensions. Or you can download this batch file I wrote and then run it in the directory where MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe is located. I've tested it on Windows XP SP2, Windows XP SP3, and Windows Vista. It will modify your registry, but I can't imagine how it could ruin anything. Still, I assume no responsibility if you somehow use it to wreck your system. The context item will be named CMangaMeeya, which should always put it near the top of your right click list.

CMangaMeeya.bat

view plaincopy to clipboardprint?

1. @echo off  
2. if not exist MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe (  
3.   echo MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe Not Found In Current Directory.  
4.   echo Please run this file in the MangaMeeya Directory!  
5.   echo.  
6.   pause  
7.   exit  
8. )  
9.   
10. echo Creating Registry file...  
11.   
12. echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 > mangameeya.reg  
13. echo. >> mangameeya.reg  
14. echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell] >> mangameeya.reg  
15. echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\CMangaMeeya] >> mangameeya.reg  
16. echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\CMangaMeeya\command] >> mangameeya.reg  
17. echo @="\"%cd:\=\\%\\MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe\" \"%%1\"" >> mangameeya.reg  
18. echo. >> mangameeya.reg  
19. echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell] >> mangameeya.reg  
20. echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\CMangaMeeya] >> mangameeya.reg  
21. echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\CMangaMeeya\command] >> mangameeya.reg  
22. echo @="\"%cd:\=\\%\\MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe\" \"%%1\"" >> mangameeya.reg  
23.   
24. regedit /s mangameeya.reg  
25.   
26. echo Successfully Added Manga Meeya to Context Menu as CMangaMeeya!  
27.   
28. pause  

@echo off<br />if not exist MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe (<br /> echo MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe Not Found In Current Directory.<br /> echo Please run this file in the MangaMeeya Directory!<br /> echo.<br /> pause<br /> exit<br />)<br /><br />echo Creating Registry file...<br /><br />echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 > mangameeya.reg<br />echo. >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell] >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\CMangaMeeya] >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\CMangaMeeya\command] >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo @="\"%cd:\=\\%\\MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe\" \"%%1\"" >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo. >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell] >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\CMangaMeeya] >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\CMangaMeeya\command] >> mangameeya.reg<br />echo @="\"%cd:\=\\%\\MangaMeeyaCE-English.exe\" \"%%1\"" >> mangameeya.reg<br /><br />regedit /s mangameeya.reg<br /><br />echo Successfully Added Manga Meeya to Context Menu as CMangaMeeya!<br /><br />pause

My CDisplay Clone Set Up

Since I've used CDisplay for a few years, I've gotten used to many of its key shortcuts. Since MangaMeeya is so customizable, I switched many of the key shortcuts to be more CDisplay-like. If you're in the same boat as me, feel free to use my configuration settings. Simply download my file and swap it with the file in your MangaMeeya directory.

My Configuration Settings File:  Download Here

My Frequently Used Commands:

Right Arrow: Goes to the next section or page.
Left Arrow: Goes to the previous section or page.
Ctrl+l: Foes to the next directory or compressed file. It's a lowercase 'L', not the number one.
Ctrl+Shift+l: Goes to the preview directory or compressed file. It's a lowercase 'L', not the number one.
l: Allows you to select a folder to open. It's a lowercase 'L', not the number one.
o: Allows you to select a file to open. It's a lowercase 'O', not the number zero.
`: Exits the program
Ctrl+Return: Switches between full screen mode and Windowed mode.

Well, if you read comics on your computer, I hope that you give MangaMeeya a try. It's definitely worth it.

Keep What You Stream

Streaming Video and Streaming Music are all nice and good when you have a good internet connection. But that's not always the case. Fortunetely, there's free software to help you grab your favorite online media without having to reload a web page endlessly. These are the ones I use, there may be better programs out there, but I've been fine with just these.

Download Helper
I think I've made it clear that I use firefox, this video downloader is a firefox plugin. Let's say you've just watched a YouTube video and want to save it. If you have this installed, then you can just right-click the page, go to the "Download Helper" option, and then choose the flv file. (Youtube videos are flv format, K-lite Mega Codec allows you to watch them, or there are tons of easy to find "flv to avi" programs.) I used Youtube in this example, but this Download Helper will work with just about any streaming video site. Oh yeah, here's a good tip, go to the preferences menu and add 'swf' to the MediaLink and MediaReq tabs so that you can download flash files.

Audacity or Free MP3 Sound Recorder
These two programs will allow you to record sounds, both can record to the MP3 format. Audacity doubles as an editing program, Free MP3 Sound Recorder is more limited but much simpler to use. Both seem safe to me. If you don't trust me, you can google search to find a bunch of other options. Oh yeah, you need to choose either stereo mix or wave in for the sound device if you want to record stuff playing on your computer. This is a problem for certain computers, all the fixes for it seem expensive.

Download Statusbar
And while we're talking about downloading stuff... if you're using firefox, please also be using download status bar. It's a million times better and less intrusive that that default download pop-up manager.

CDisplay

Edit: Since writing this post, I've switched over to Manga Meeya, which is much, much better.

In my opinion, there's (edit: almost) no program better than CDisplay for reading downloaded sequential art (that's comics!) I use it for photos and other image browsing too. My favorite features are the smart look ahead, ability to show two pages at once, ability to view pages either left-to-right or right-to-left, automatic resizing, smart preloading, ability to automatically deal with compressed files, and easy commands. I can't think of a better sequential image viewing program. I'll tell you how to set it up and use it.

- Setting Up -

First, download CDisplay here. Extract it into "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\". Double Click on CDisplay.exe. You can press 'w' to show or hide the menu bar, whichever you prefer. I like to keep it hidden to maximize the viewing area. Now you have to customize the program. Press 'c' to open up the configuration options. Customize them however you like, these are my setting changes from the default:

Notice the option "Japanese Mode" under Program Settings. It's used for going right-to-left instead of left-to-right, in case you're reading asian sequential art. After this is done, start enjoying CDisplay! 'l' (lowercase L) will allow you to choose the files you want to open.

- My Most Used Commands -

l: Allows you to select a file to open. It's a lowercase 'L', not a one.
Ctrl+l: Goes to the next directory or compressed file. It's a lowercase 'L', not a one.
Ctrl+Shift+l: Goes to the preview directory or compressed file. It's a lowercase 'L', not a one.
Space: Goes to the next section or page.
Ctrl+Shift+Space: Goes to the previous section or page.

- Context Menu -

I think it's very convenient to add CDisplay to the Windows XP right click context menu for zip/rar files and folder icons. This is how to do it:

- For Zip/Rar Files -
1. Open "My Computer"
2. In the menu bar, go to Tools->Folder Options.
3. Click on the "File Types" tab.
4. On the "Registered file types:" list, find and click on "ZIP"
5. In the "Details for 'ZIP' extension" area, click the advanced button. An "Edit File Type" windows will pop up.
6. Click the "New..." Button
7. For Action, type: CDisplay. For application, type: "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\" "%1"
8. Close up. Now, whenever you right click a zip file, you can choose CDisplay to open it in CDisplay. To do this for rar files, repeat steps 1-7, switching the word ZIP with RAR.

- For Folders -

1. Create "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\CDisplayFolder.bat" with the contents:

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
cd %1
for %%i in (*) do set name="%~1\%%i" !name!
%2 %name%

2. Open "My Computer"
3. In the menu bar, go to Tools->Folder Options.
4. Click on the "File Types" tab.
5. On the "Registered file types:" list, find and click on "Folder" (under the File Types column)
6. In the "Details for 'Folder' extension" area, click the advanced button. An "Edit File Type" windows will pop up.
7. Click the "New..." Button
8. For Action, type: CDisplay. For application, type: "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\CDisplayFolder.bat" "%1" "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\CDisplay.exe"
9. Close up. Now whenever you you right click a folder, you can choose CDisplay to open the images.

You can not edit a folder context command using the above directions. If you need to edit the newly created CDisplay context command for folders do the following. This is playing with the registry, so you shouldn't do this unless you really have to:

1. Press "win+r" for Run and type: regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folder/shell/CDisplay/command. Be careful to not go to ".Folder".
3. Double Click the (Default) file to the right.
4. You can now edit the command, it's the value field of the pop up window.

- Closing Notes -

The CDisplay project is no longer being actively developed and the author vanished off the face of the earth (or something ^_^.) Others try to continue his work, but I haven't given them a try yet. You can find links to them here, if you want to try them. Anyways, that's all I have to say about CDisplay. After all this explaining effort on my part, you better go try the program out! It's really nifty. ^_^ Have fun.

Essential Program End

So it did end up taking a full month for me to list all my much-loved programs after all. I don't think I'll be doing it again. Instead, I'm going to put up the full list of my essential programs over here, which I'll keep updated with all the good stuff I find and use. I don't think that this will happen very frequently, except with those firefox plugins. I also added a section for the quick games that I like to have around; a solitaire hater's solitaire.

Essential Programs 1: Nifties

These are applications I love... but I guess I could live without. They make my life easier and help keep my eyes, brain, and wrists happy. For me, they are necessary applications for convenience.

() Unlocker
I organize (read: cut and paste) my directories a lot and use external drives frequently. Windows is pretty stupid sometimes (read: very often) and annoyingly locks files so that they can't be moved or deleted and the external drive can not be stopped. Using this program, it's very easy to free things up (right click and click unlock over any file or folder.) Now you can delete and move stuff or stop your external drive.

() TaskSwitch XP
Much desired (by me anyway) improvement to alt-tab. It allows the window to be "stickied" and it will not close unless the enter or escape key is pressed. Also, it allows you to exclude programs from the list, move minimized windows to the end, and all kinds of other convenient things. Download it, play with it, and if you don't like it remove it. But you'll probably like it.

() EjectMedia / RemoveMedia
To safely remove external disks (like an external hard drive or a USB drive), you normally have to right click some icon, double click another, right click again, and finally tell windows to stop the disk. These programs allow you to do this in one step: "EjectMedia.exe E:". Tie it into your Super Smart Windows Input/Output Box and you get a much simpler way of stopping your devices. You could also script it together with Unlocker for better use.

() TweakUI
This allows you to tweak a bunch of stuff in windows. Like... it let's you remove the recycle bin from the desktop, customize displays... man, too many stuff. Just download it and play through the options. If you don't see anything useful, just uninstall it.

() More Firefox Extensions

() Statusbar Clock
Puts a clock in the status bar. I use dual screens, usually with firefox opened, so this allows me to see the time when I look at the bottom right no matter what. This is important to me, though it may not be for most people. I just really like to know the time.

() Clear Private Data Button
Adds a button to clear private data. It's useful when you need it.

() Mouseless Browsing
This is an extension that I love the concept of, but I still think needs a little work. Essentially, it assigns numeric ids to links so that you can quickly select the links without needing to use a mouse. However, sometimes it can take quite a while to assign all the numeric ids, which makes the whole thing pointless. I would like it a lot more if I could have it automatically be on for certain sites. Nevertheless, I like the extension a lot and I do use it when I really want to avoid the mouse.

() All-In-One Gesture
This allows you to do tasks (like back and forward and close) by using the mouse. I'm still undecided whether or not I really like this. I'm not quite sure how much it gets in my way and causes me to do stuff on accident. The only gestures I occasionally use are for back (left), forward (right), next page (>), previous page (<), and close (down) anyways. I dunno... I'm generally anti-mouse anyways also... but even though I rarely use it, it is really cool idea...

() Customize Google
Another one that I'm not quite sure if I really like or not. I don't want to block google ads and the customization doesn't really mean that much to me. Mostly, I like the google images links going directly to the real image. Is it worth having a whole extra extension for this? I don't really know.

Essential Programs 1: Occasionally Essential

I use these, but not all that much, so I wouldn't really say I *need* them. They are incredibly useful the times I do need them, which might happen a few times a month, if that.

() Virtual CD: D-Tools
Every once in a while, I find this useful. It allows you to load a cue/iso file as a real CD. I prefer it to Alcohol 120%. Also, It's free.

() Office: Microsoft Office
Sometimes Microsoft Word and Excel are necessary, so... I very rarely use this stuff anymore though, mostly just when people send me stuff or expect me to send them stuff that is in these formats. I prefer html tables to organize my lists and text documents nowadays for my
work. At work, I do use Excel frequently though. Too bad the suite isn't free.

() CD/DVD Burning: Ahead Nero
Yeah, this is common and it's not free (though you get it with most of your Burners nowadays). I rarely burn stuff anymore (external hard drives and usb drives have replaced most of my needs for cd/dvd), but when I do need to create a cd/dvd, this is what I use. Perhaps it's not the best tool. I really don't care.

() Visual Studio
For C# and windows application development.

() More Firefox Plugins

() IETab
(Text stolen from joelonsoftware) IETab takes advantage of the fact that Internet Explorer is available as an ActiveX control, which is available to be embedded in any Windows application, to open certain websites in Firefox using Internet Explorer. Whenever a website comes up complaining that you need to get "Netscape 4.0 or some
other modern browser" you can just right click on the tab and it'll pop up right in Firefox being rendered by Internet Explorer. You can set up a list of websites that always come up in IE tabs.

() Web Developer Extension
This helps web developing an incredible amount. I can't imagine not using this toolbar and trying to design a site. It lets you disable anything, resize the window, mark boundaries, validate code, and tons more.

Essential Programs 1: Essentials B

() System Measurements: Rainmeter
This program is a bunch of meters. It has a plug-in architecture that allows you to measure anything you want, but I find plug-in writing... very time-consuming, though I wrote some that I use. Most importantly, it does all the measurements of the task manager. However, it stays on your desktop and you can (somewhat) easily configure the appearance. I admit that this kind of slows down the system and isn't all that necessary... but... I can't help but use it because it looks cool. I have a key combination that pops it up on the screen for me. Here's a snapshot of my set-up:. And here's some skins.
() Skin Set I use. It's a modification of other skins that I found.
() Original Ayuka Skin in English
() Original To Heart 2 Skin
() Good weather set

() MP3 Player: Winamp
Okay, I really have no good reason for using this other than it was my first MP3 player. My wife prefers the Windows Media Player, and most people use iTunes now (it seems)... but, I stick with winamp. I don't really configure it at all (I have four different playlists and make sure breaks between songs are clear). All I use it for is listening to MP3s, which I can queue (but so can everything else). Well, although I don't strongly recommend it, I've never been dissatisfied with it, so that is that. I use an old kare-kano skin for it because I haven't spent any time looking for new ones. But it is really annoying that winamp does not internally support Unicode (or any other kind of language support).

() Anti-Virus: NOD32
This is not free at all, but it's the best Anti-Virus program I know of. It catches a lot of stuff Norton and Symantec don't catch, and that doesn't seem to happen the other way around. Anyways, you can search for free anti-virus programs if the cost for such an important program is an issue (but in that case, why are you using xp instead of a unix-like system?)

() Anti-Spyware: AD Aware
Not that good, but it gets rid of spyware. I'm currently looking for a replacement to this.

() Registry Cleaner: RegCleaner
Based on what I've seen, I believe that cleaning the registry helps. This is the best free registry cleaner that I've found and I've read it has one of the lower chances of messing things up. Lots of people suggest the general tool CCleaner to me, but I don't like it as much.

() FTP Client: Filezilla
A simple to use FTP Client that has all the features you'd expect. It's also completely free, which is a huge plus to me.

() Cygwin
Umm... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygwin. Either you need at and have it, or you have no idea what you'd do with it. I guess there's that slim chance you need it and haven't heard of it... but... well, just read up.

Essential Programs 1: Essentials A

() Text Editor: TextPad 4
This program isn't free (though there is a never-expiring evaluation version) and isn't really all that great (compared to vi and emacs, anyways). However, I've been using it for my windows development for a while and I really got it customized to my likings, so I stick with it. I hope to migrate over to emacs soon, but the learning curve for a good Text Editor is just so steep and I'll have to translate all my plugin code. So for now, I've got this.

() Video Codecs: K-Lite Codec Mega Pack
This is all that you need in order to play video on your windows machine. Whenever you find a new video format you can't play, all that means is that you haven't gotten the latest codec pack. It comes with the "Windows Media Classic" and "BSPlayer" players. Personally, I use "Windows Media Player Classic." Make sure you get the "Mega Pack" version, otherwise you don't get Real Media and Quicktime alternatives.

() BitTorrent Client: Azureus
For me, this had the best download speeds of the three I tried (uTorrent, BitComet, Azureus). This could have merely been coincidence, so I'll be redoing my tests soon and my client may change as a result. However, I really like the plugin architecture and there are a few plugins that I really love. Plus, I've got lots of memory and I grew up on Java. The plugins I really like are:
(1) Auto Speed
(2) Auto Scheduler
(3) SafePeer

() Super Smart Windows Input/Output Program: Windows Miko
The mouse slows you down. While it's great for intuitive design, it's horrible to use for things you do a lot. I know it hurts my wrist, slows me down, and annoys me in general. And so I really suggest writing what I call a "Super Smart Windows Input/Output Program." It's basically a command prompt (I really miss using *nix at work), except more catered to your needs. "Windows Miko" is my implementation, written in Ruby. The main idea is that you type something, and Miko does something as a response (opens a web page, makes a note, gives you information, does a calculation, launches a program...). It uses regular expressions and is very extensible. She has a plug-in personality and appearance also.

() Hot Launcher: PS Hot Launch
This application allows you to run programs from key presses. There are some keys and combinations it doesn't allow you to use, but letters, numbers, alt, shift, and win are all available in any combination. It's wise not to use too many keyboard shortcuts though because they aren't intuitive at all. I think a Hot Launcher is best used with scripts. For example, my key press "Ctrl+Down" replaces "Alt-F4" via an AutoIt3 script. Also, I use "Win-V" to go to Windows Miko, and from there I can quickly get to run any progam by some nickname. This is faster than using a mouse to double click an icon somewhere and doesn't require worrying about key conflicts or contrived combinations.

() Sequential Art Viewer: CDisplay
The best, by far, image viewer to read my manga with on a windows machine. At some point, I considered writing my own software, but there isn't anything that I would do differently than this program. If you read scanned comics in Windows, this is probably your best bet, you just have to try it for yourself to really understand. Its best features are allowing you to view two pages at a time and its smart "next" feature. I also modified my right click menu to open folders with CDisplay.

() File Archiver/Zip Utility: 7-zip
Unzipper, basically on par with WinRar in its unzipping. The major difference between the two for my purposes is that it is completely free. I actually do like using WinRar better, but I'm not willing to pay for it yet and so refuse to use it. You may have a difference of opinion.

() IM Client: Trillian
This is the instant messenger client I use. It allows you to chat with people using AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ protocols. I have friends that use these different clients, so it's useful to have one program I can use to chat with all of them. I'm aware of the IM client Miranda, which can be made to look very cool. Since I like how Trillian looks on my desktop and it seems to have no other benefits, I've stuck with Trillian.

() Image Editing: Photoshop 7.0
Definitely not free, but I think it's worth it. Plus, I've been using it for years, so I am pretty familiar with it. For web sites, I think it's pretty important to have a real good image editor.

Essential Programs 1: Web Browser

Web Browser: Firefox
My main browser, I doubt I have to justify its inclusion to you, so I won't. I will admit Opera is tons faster. But firefox's customability (its options, themes, and extensions) wins me over. For themes, I switch between the default, opera, and iFox themes. As for extensions (plug-ins)... They are the reason I love firefox, so I'm going to list out all the ones that I use.

() Linkification
This plugin changes plain-text urls to hyperlinks in html (stuff you can click on). For example, certain forums do no allow hyperlinks, so instead people type them out. To visit their links, you probably have to copy and paste into the address bar and press enter. Linkifcation will style the link text and let you click on it directly. This extension is very similar to Text Link (which allows you to go to the textual link by double clicking on it.) Supposedly, Linkification is slower to use because it needs to parse the entire page first. I decided to go with the better usability, but I'd use Text Link if i was worried about performance.

() NextPlease!
This extension allows you to easily go to the "next" and "previous" pages. For example, instead of clicking the "Next" link on a google search, I press Shift+Ctrl+Right. This becomes very useful for me when browsing forums. It works by looking for links with certain keywords (reg-exp) or specific images, and you can customize it as you need. I think it's my favorite plug-in.

() Tab Mix Plus
Gives you a lot of control over your tabs; you really have to install this and play around with it to understand its usefulness. A few of the nice features of this is session saving, tab progress bars, specifying tab widths, and allowing multiple rows of tabs. This offers so much, so I won't even try to explain it all, you just need to try it out. If you want to see my preferences, here they are: My Preferences.

() Download Status Bar
Shows your downloads in a new bar above the status bar instead of opening that annoying popup download manager. I hate the download manager and this interface is very, very nice (and customizable.)

() AdBlock
() Adblock Filter Set G
Probably the best ad-blockr available. I think Firefox has a lot of these features built it, but it really makes customization and setting up new things to block very simple. I tend to leave text and most image as, but I block all pop-up and flashing ads. The filter just allows Adblock to update its list of bad ads every four days or so.

() Gmail Manager
This extension notifies you of new gmail for multiple accounts. You set it up to check for new mail at set intervals. It'll bring you to your account in a single click. It's very handy, at least, if you use gmail with multiple accounts and are forgetful in checking it (that's definitely me...)

() Organize Status Bar
This extension allows you to organize your status bar. It's useful because a lot of these extensions will place (usually useful) icons in the status bar. Sometimes, you really don't want them. Other times, you want them in a different order. This extension can fulfil both wishes.

() Menu Editor
This extension allows you to edit firefox menus. This includes all the top menus (like File and Edit) as well as the menu when you right click anything. Similar to organize status bar, this is mostly useful to remove the clutter from the other extensions. However, I did end up clearing up a lot of menu items under the Tools menu as well.

() Session Saver
This extension lets you save your sessions. It automatically goes about its business in the background, so even if Firefox crashes or you accidentally close it, you can have it go back to what it was. It even saves the text and such that you had entered. Tab Mix Plus does this, but I find this plug-in does a better job.

Intro to Essential Programs

I thought about it, and I decided to start listing out the programs that I use most often. If you're anything like me, you'll like the list, unless you already use all of it. Oh, last thing. Please don't take the following few posts as a best of list... seriously, I don't have the time or energy to research what "the best" is. These are just my favorites out of what I've seen, I don't claim to have sniffed out the best out there (hopefully they're among the best though). If you want more general yet all-encompassing "best of" lists, let me point you to:

The 46 Best-Ever Freeware Utilities

100 Best Freeware Utilities

So, pretty soon, I'll start posting stuff, let me know if you have any suggestions of better stuff, I'm always willing to take a look at other tools. This series of posts may very well completely fill up the rest of the entire month.