NirSoft Freeware Utilities AsterWin IE v1.02 -- This free utility reveals the passwords stored behind the asterisks in the web pages of Internet Explorer 5.0 and above. You can use it for recovering a lost web site password, if it's stored on your computer.

The Elder Geek on Windows XP

SHELL EXTENSION CITY, millions of free Windows power tools, explorer enhancements, windows add-ons, tweaks, system utilities, freeware, ie5

myWebAttack: "This free Browser Extension Manager enables you to take control over many Internet Explorer customizations and extensions that are often added by third part products or ISPs and sometimes left behind or difficult to change. Among several other options, the tool allows you to view and remove BHO extensions, context menu entries and more."

How to upgrade your system to Windows XP

Merijn.org: "TransIcon: This does exactly the same as TransText, but is WAY smaller and more flexible. It uses a tweak to make the background color of the text below desktop icons transparent, and exits. The effect should last until the next boot, so a shortcut to this program in your Startup folder works perfectly. Needs command line parameters (add them to the 'Target' field in the shortcut) to specify the color you want the icon text itself to be in the form of hex values (e.g. FFFF00), RGB (e.g. 16711935) or words (e.g. white). Note: this program is not useful on Windows XP, since that has support for this tweak natively."

Use the free ToolbarCop to remove unwanted Toolbars and Browser Help Objects

Black Viper's Operating System Guides
Installing Windows XP
Windows XP Services Configuration
Windows XP Super Tweaks

Windows 2000 Professional and Server Services Configuration by Black Viper

Sample chapter on TweakUI by Microsoft Press When an application needs your attention—or when it simply wants to annoy you—it steals the focus from the application in which you’re currently working. This leads to frustration as you flip back and forth between windows. The settings in the Focus category prevent that scenario by causing applications to flash their taskbar buttons to get your attention rather than stealing focus from the application in the foreground.

Setting Name Type Data
HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop
Prevent applications from stealing focus ForegroundLockTimeout REG_DWORD N
Flash taskbar button until I click on it ForegroundFlashCount REG_DWORD 0x00
Flash taskbar button N times ForegroundFlashCount REG_DWORD N

kellys-korner-xp.com: "Registry Edits for Windows XP"

thegline.com: "For those of you who missed it the first time around, the PowerToys and TweakUI are some of the most popular add-on downloads for Windows around. This new version is specifically for Windows XP and no other version of Windows -- not even Windows 2000 -- so XP users will want to give this an in-depth reading. Note that if you have any previous versions of these applications installed, you will need to uninstall them completely before you can load the new ones. Tweak UI itself is easily the most powerful and versatile of the apps listed here, so I'll tackle it first. The idea behind Tweak UI is just as the name would imply: it lets you edit or 'tweak' various undocumented features in the Windows user interface. There are tons of settings broken down into various categories; you could easily spend an hour or two wading through them all. I'm going to go through most of them briefly here and note what changes I made to my own system and why."

Windows XP Fixes, Tips and Tweaks

Leopard is a fully featured programming language created solely for beginners. The majority of computer programming languages these days make programming seem to be a very difficult skill to learn. But it does not have to be. Leopard blends simplicity and power in one easy to learn package, and it's free!"

A Different Perspective on Power Supplies ATX power supplies have been around a long time—since the mid 1990s. A replacement for the earlier AT standard, they added a 3.3v line and power switching through the motherboard, enhancing power saving features and allowing for less expensive boards with fewer voltage reductions for system components...

The latest system components put ever-higher stress on the power supply, especially the 12v rail. This is mainly due to processors such as the latest P4s drawing power from this rail rather than the traditional 3.3v line. The 3.3v line could no longer supply the amperage needed for these high-wattage parts. Since volts multiplied by amps yields watts, using the 12v line for high-wattage items allows manufacturers to continue using relatively thin, flexible cables for power. Even some video cards now supplement their power with a 12v line connection...

How much power do you need? Looking at UPS readings from various high-end P4 systems, I’ve found 200-250W is the norm. Lesser systems use less power. So why must people buy power supplies of 350W or more rated capacity?

Copy all files to another hard drive: "With HDCopy you can make an identical copy of a hard drive onto another hard drive. If you buy a new hard drive and don't wish to change your Windows configuration in any way, you can use HDCopy to copy your old hard drive completely to the new one (hidden files as well)."

NoBuck$ Freeware Connection Homepage

PhotoIsland.com: "Print an image or several different images in multiple sizes on a single sheet of paper. Supports JPG, BMP, TIF, PCD, GIF, TGA, PCX and FlashPix file formats and templates for Kodak and Avery photo paper products. Fit all your favorite photos on one page. Saves paper and time, and makes printing fun! Works great with your color printer. Make your own stickers, photo-labels, postcards and notecards. Free LE version. "

IconXTractor This freeware tool extracts icons, which you probably figured out just by looking at its name. Think of it as a crowbar that'll pry those pictures out of files with EXE, DLL, CPL, ICL, CUR, BMP, or SCR extensions. Now, you can use those icons for other images, programs, or shortcuts (if you so desire). The interface is self-explanatory; just click on a folder and the icons will appear. You can then choose to save them as icons or a BMP / JPG image. IconXTractor introduces complete support for Windows XP Icons !

Startup Control Panel, by Mike Lin, is a nifty [freeware] control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It's simple to use and, like all my programs, is very small and won't burden your system.

StartupMonitor is a small freeware utility that runs transparently (it doesn't even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. "

It's thievery and arrogance I tell you.

Microsoft invents new words for common words. General Motors calls nuts and bolts nuts and bolts, but haven't you noticed that Microsoft never uses ordinary terms?

Microsoft doesn't seem to invent or offer only its own privately developed ideas as many firms. It merely looks around for inventions and ideas and packages them under its own terms and with new terms of description.

Who pays for this practice? Its newly invented words cost us billions of dollars to acquire and learn.

Microsoft has been taking terminology and words from our labs and offices for years and years. Microsoft writers "re-document" our words. Our definitions and our meanings remain the same, but Microsoft pressures us to make our words change. We use Microsoft's words to describe our ideas. Too often.

It seems to most people that we must use Microsoft's new words. Less often we use our words to teach ourselves, but more often we license and use what Microsoft tells us to use.

Microsoft alters our words for ideas and inventions. Microsoft knows it. Its new words mean what they did when we used our own words. But its new words are private property.

Want an example? The term shortcuts for the word links. And many, many more.

Microsoft's private property. Which it copyrights.... Writes off at our expense.... And sells back to us.... Which it prints into every document. Which it delivers all over the world to convince every teacher, university and trainer to convert. Then it sells it back to us -- our ideas, understandings and inventions and the words we use to describe ideas, understandings and inventions.

We give the copyright. We provide the compensation and the incentives. Microsoft can barely lay a justified claim to any of this. We're being bilked.

Arrogant, I tell you. Just why would Microsft confuse every student, teacher, every scientist, technologist and computer user -- every global person -- by forcing its private and copyrighted terminology down our throats?

Microsoft frauduently claims property it cannot own. Words and ideas have often been misappropriated, stolen, and intentionally re-shaped in order to promote the use of Microsoft's newly created terms.

Microsoft is arrogant. Microsoft has a belly of lousy minds, a school of aggressive diligence, a mania of myopia and me-ism. Microsoft policymakers must be groups of swarthy savants that climb all over themselves to commandeer our public sphere.

We could easily use the word 'links'. Conscientious persons all could see that the term is a foundation term of our language to define the internet. Anyone could see that the populations of the world rely on the idea, understanding and the word 'links'. But Microsoft cannot slow its habits. It reached out and made effort to steal a use of a word and to substitute its own property into our langauge.

Out from under clouds of fraud, forcefulness and treachery... and, without the unwitting assistance of the complacent and toothless halfwits that run our agencies and nation, Microsoft should be required to become a positive social member and corporate citizen.

Were Congress to ask (another story) what is the horrid cost and effect when a party such as Microsoft with its incessently subjectively incorporate crew conspires and arranges to take public property... and to use that usurping... to make extensive claims of property... and to propel the costs of these false acquisitions... again and again upon the people... and after pilfering our language, its convenant and its sovereignty, causes the public to lose value, utility and to, of all things, lose the inalienable right to foster and preserve its language, then it has taken rights allowed only to all and never to one....

With a terrific recklessness Congress is unable to govern the issues of copyright while it provides too many rights too easily to those who march its hallways instead of those who pay for the parade.

Would an analysis show that Microsoft's market position is as much in the control of its 'terms' as it is in code? Microsoft is a tyranny so puffed in manufacturing 'terms' ( the documents and rules and voice of a company and corporation ) taken and altered from the raw material of the public discourse, that it has crossed the line in the realm of crime. Microsoft has sytematically conspired to steal and has stolen from and converted out of our practical and ancient and 'sovereign' public language.

It seems even the words of the law are vulnerable to Microsoft's interpretations. Until the wit and oratory of a properly courageous attorney can describe that Microsoft is engaging in a form of post-modern thievery that can only be called "socio-industrial crime", then we lose.

We let a private party define a public resource.

Microsoft invents words and seeks to have us then replace words already in use, often in broad far reaching use. Microsoft has taken everyday and useful language to describe events and processes in the marketplace and in our forum. It has taken both idea and word.

It has gathered our sovereign resource as its own. It has asked us to copyright and protect these thefts. It has made our very ideas, understandings and descriptions become contraband controlled and extorted by Microsoft. It has asked us to refund its fees and taxes as it deliberately and fraudulantly makes additional claims and demands by hoisting unjust costs for property it has no right to own.

Its products and works come with high fees, cruel margins, and dangerous consequences. Microsoft has built a hardship upon education, management, operations, policy and leadership throughout the world. This extreme behavior for a corporate citizen is indictable.

An operating system. An operating system. We want an operating system. A system, a legal system, a governmental system, a public system that operates.

Let's not let Microsoft take the operating out of our system.

Useful freeware. Thanks for these utilities that would never, never, never come from the thoughtless, arrogant, inconsiderate social leeches that hawk over-worn operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. Growl.

BlueFive Software
HTMLlink -- easily create HTML source code for Internet links. I [BlueFive] wrote this utility to quickly manage a sort of "News headlines". Any list of links or shortcuts will do. Just point, copy and paste...."

ColorPicker -- easily previews body, background, link, hover, visited

TempLab -- A handy temperature conversion tool. This tiny instrument will simultaneously show Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin degrees with one push on the slider.

HEXwrite -- converts keyboard into HEX or ASCII, depending on what program mode you selected. The conversion works both ways.

Lodger -- easy to configure date reminder utility

BlueFive Software: "If you want to alter your system date just for a short period of time then Beyondo is the free tool you want."

InformationWeek >Fred Langa Ten More Ways To Make Windows XP Run Better

The Harrow Technology Report: "Moore's Law (that the number of transistors on a chip will double every eighteen months at the same price) is the culprit behind the exponential growth of the computer-related technology that has dramatically altered how we work, live, and play over the past 35 years. This massive, rapid, compounding growth of computing power provides, perhaps for the first time in history, the opportunity for average people to detect, observe, and participate in the results of exponential growth.

But of course, even though it's hard for us humans to perceive and appreciate even ONE exponential effect, Nature is FULL of exponential things, such as distance. For example, the diameter of the Earth is 12.76E+6 meters wide (12.76 times ten to the plus-six power), while a common plant cell is 12.76E-6 meters wide (12.76 times 10 to the minus-six power), or 12 orders of magnitude (powers of ten) smaller. And that comparison is right under our noses. But how far does this go? See 'Powers of Ten'."

Edskes File Download Mirror: "Real Alternative 1.11 will allow you to play RealMedia files. This way you can play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer/RealOne Player. You do need a player that is capable of playing RealMedia. The included Media Player Classic supports it and works very well. Supported: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), ReadPix (.rp), RealMedia embedded in webpages. .smi and .smil files sometimes only play the first part of a clip. This is a limitation of the current Media Player Classic. The RealMedia Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape and Mozilla.

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Plus look for QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player. As a bonus, Internet Explorer will play all QuickTime movies that are embedded in a webpage. You do need a media player that is capable of playing QuickTime files. The included Media Player Classic supports it and works very well. The QuickTime Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape and Mozilla. The QuickTime plugins include iPIX and QuickTimeVR.

Tech-Critic: "Skype uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to connect you to other users. Not to share files, but to talk with them for free. The technology is extremely advanced, but very simple and easy to use. Unlimited free high-quality voice communications to people all over the world. Superior sound quality (better than your regular phone). Download latest beta at skype.com."

Tech-Critic: " ByteGuardian is an unique tool that allows you to protect your most important files against digital corruption. Data can get corrupted for many reasons, viruses, hardware or software failure and so on. When this happens a simple backup just won't always do. ByteGuardian can tell you if your files have been corrupted, and what's amazing, it can automatically fix them!

Did you know that a typical CD-R disk can start to lose its data a bit by bit even after a few years after its creation? ByteGuardian solves that problem, but it's not specific to CD-R's or to any other media, it works with all kinds of files and with any media, CD-R, DVDs or normal hard drives. $40 -- sorta costly."

Outer Technologies: "CachemanXP is a system service designed to improve the performance of your computer by optimizing several caches, auto-recovering RAM and fine tuning a number of system settings. Auto-Optimization makes it suitable for novice and intermediate users yet it is also powerful and versatile enough for computer experts. Backups of settings ensure that all user modifications can be reversed with a single click. Due to the system service nature it requires Windows NT4/2000/2003 or XP to run, uses minimal resources and virtually no CPU time. "

ToniArts: "EasyCleaner is a small free program which searches Windows' registry for entries that are pointing nowhere. EasyCleaner also lets you delete all kinds of unnecessary files like temps, backups etc. You can search for duplicate files and you can view some intresting info about your disk space usage! You are also able to manage startup programs, invalid shortcuts and add/remove software list.