Useful Apps thread - Page 21

driver8 · 25-10-2019, 08:52

Greenshot - Greenshot is a light-weight screenshot software tool for Windows ($2 for Mac version) easy to understand and configurable, an efficient tool for project managers, software developers, technical writers, testers.

Quote:

Quickly create screenshots of a selected region, window or fullscreen; you can even capture complete (scrolling) web pages from Internet Explorer.
Easily annotate, highlight or obfuscate parts of the screenshot.
Export the screenshot in various ways: save to file, send to printer, copy to clipboard, attach to e-mail, send Office programs or upload to photo sites like Flickr or Picasa, and others.

Image Resizer for Windows - simple right click to custom size presets = ESSENTIAL!

File Converter - images, audio, video, documents - just trying this now.
.
.
.

Chris Locke · 26-10-2020, 11:23

Wow - a year since this was last updated. Naughty!
I've been reinstalling a bunch of laptops over the weekend, and while Ninite has been recommended before about installing software, I've got to recommend Chocolatey.
https://chocolatey.org/

They hold 7900+ packages (although there are duplicates ... Firefox, firefox install, firefox portable, etc) but installing stuff is so much easier than Ninite. Want to install paint.net, firefox, notepad++ and Virtualbox? 'choco install paint.net firefox notepadplusplus virtualbox'.
One line. OK, a long line, but memorable. Its all done via Powershell, so scriptable.
It handles all the updates too, so just run 'choco update all' and everything gets updated. Or just the bits you want.
Ninite was useful, but the resulting .exe had to be a million characters long to let you know if it was a full install, or just a subset of packages. Grabbing paint.net from there was useful, rather than navigating paint.net, realising its the wrong website, etc, etc.
Anyway. I'd recommend giving Chocolatey a go.

I'd also recommend Windows 10 debloat by Chris Titus.
https://christitus.com/debloat-windows-10-2020/

Again, a simple powershell script.
Linked to that is O&O ShutUp, which nobbles some privacy options in Windows 10, and disables various components.
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Xeon007 · 26-10-2020, 18:28

If you're doing all that in a terminal (or use one a lot), give Microsoft Terminal a go: https://github.com/Microsoft/Terminal

Also recommended is Microsoft's PowerToys: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys

Chris Locke · 26-10-2020, 18:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeon007

If you're doing all that in a terminal (or use one a lot), give Microsoft Terminal a go: https://github.com/Microsoft/Terminal

How DARE you give a URL when I've just wobbled on for an hour about Chocolatey!

Install chocolatey, then 'choco install microsoft-windows-terminal' - or yes, via the /spit/ Microsoft Store.

It's not entirely obvious if running Terminal how to get an admin version ... you just get the 'run command prompt' or 'run powershell' and no 'run elevated command-prompt' etc... simply run Terminal as Administrator (you can right-click on an existing running copy, right-click 'Microsoft Terminal', click 'Run as Administrator'... now all tabs will be as an administrator...

These five tips are also worth reading, as the settings for Terminal is a hoooooooge JSON file. Not very user friendly!
https://endjin.com/blog/2020/05/5-ti...nal-experience

Chris Locke · 27-10-2020, 14:19

Have you ever pulled a hard drive from another computer and wanted to delete the Windows directory, or hiberfil.sys, etc, but couldn't? After fighting with permissions, owners, etc, I found 'SetACL Studio' which is a GUI to change owners/permissions on files, registry keys, etc. However, another 'trick up its sleeve' is to delete just about anything regardless of permissions. It hacks its way neatly through a hard drive. It also works on remote PCs.
https://helgeklein.com/setacl-studio/

Check the 'download' link (https://helgeklein.com/download/) as it contains a key to upgrade the trial to the full product.

Chris Locke · 27-10-2020, 14:52

Oh my. Using chocolatey, it suggested 'synergy', and got the last free version. Having a desktop and laptop on the same desk now means both can be used using the same mouse and keyboard. Yay!
'choco install synergy'.

scoobyood · 27-10-2020, 15:21

Tried Synergy a few years ago, paid version. Was awful when it came to games. It had no awareness of fullscreen or windowed fullscreen games and when looking to the side in a game it would transfer onto the other screen/computer... got a refund.

Chris Locke · 27-10-2020, 15:41

Can imagine it wouldn't be ideal for that. I noticed 'Barrier' is a fork of the last free version of Synergy, and is still maintained - they state, "Hassle-free reliability. We are users, too. Barrier was created so that we could solve the issues we had with synergy and then share these fixes with other users.". I can't see any 'exclusions' in the config though, which I would have thought would be the obvious thing.

Xeon007 · 30-10-2020, 22:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Locke

How DARE you give a URL when I've just wobbled on for an hour about Chocolatey!

Install chocolatey, then 'choco install microsoft-windows-terminal' - or yes, via the /spit/ Microsoft Store.

It's not entirely obvious if running Terminal how to get an admin version ... you just get the 'run command prompt' or 'run powershell' and no 'run elevated command-prompt' etc... simply run Terminal as Administrator (you can right-click on an existing running copy, right-click 'Microsoft Terminal', click 'Run as Administrator'... now all tabs will be as an administrator...

These five tips are also worth reading, as the settings for Terminal is a hoooooooge JSON file. Not very user friendly!
https://endjin.com/blog/2020/05/5-ti...nal-experience

Those tips might be out of date - might be best to check the official docs

And while I've got your attention, go get Oh My Posh and make sure you've got a decent font.