What 'Off the Wall' utilities do you use?

[alber]

i was browsing zd.net's file archives and was thinking there are a lot of cool little utilities that people think up for whatever reason and was wondering what people use...and by 'off the wall' i mean NOT Winzip, i mean file renamers, folder hiders...etc...anything kind of different and cool!

i really don't have any myself other than magic folders(a file folder hiding utility), i do have a batch file renamer too, but don't use it much..

[mairving]

I kind of like AtomTime myself, for updating my PC's time. Better than a Timex.

[LawyerRon]

Well I don't use it any more but when I was running WIN95, "StartUp Cop" was a must. It worked like msconfig in WIN98 and allowed you to easily adjust what loaded at start up.

[HAL9000]

I also use the AtomTime on one of my machines. For some reason it will lose 1 hour overnight. If I leave it the 1 hour behind, it stays that way. The moment I put the time back to the proper setting, it loses that 1 hour overnight again. AtomTime takes care of that one.

The other one that I use that I like is Wetsock. It's a nice little weather forcast utility.

[SARGE]

Hal, that scenario is going to drive me crazy. You set it correctly, it loses 1 hour and stays. If you leave it alone after that, it doesn't lose anymore. Am I missing something?

[troysvihl]

I have a similar quirk. My clock loses three hours, at what seem like random intervals. It's happened about three times over the last month.

[alber]

funcky battery maybe...just a guess and a totally uneducated one at that!

[HAL9000]

I have seen more than one machine do this before and it's not the batteries, tried new ones. I don't get it either. I leave it overnight, it will lose an hour. If I leave it the one hour behind, I can leave it for weeks and it will remain 1 hour behind and not ever lose another single minute. If I set it back to the proper time, sure enough, in the morning, it's exactly one hour behind again, go figure. So, I just run the AtomTime and not worry about it, the computer runs fine then.

I actually posted a while back about using an NT server to set the time on the client machines. One of them that they are using an evaluation program on (1 year trial period), will randomly skip ahead two years! If they leave it, no problem, it stays in the year 2003. The problem is, then the evaluation program expires and they have to call tech support to unlock it again.

This kinda stuff can drive you nuts, screw it, work around it.

[troysvihl]

while my clock has been screwy, i didn't really think about it before, i just changed the time back.

But now that I've took the time to think about it, I gotta say, that's really odd! I mean think about it: How does the computer know what time it really is? It can't. So why does it stay at one time when it's running behind, but not right on time?

The only possible answer is that something must be giving it a cue from outside. And the only place I can think of is from the net somewhere. So there's got to be some web-site or program that is doing it. And since it's an even one-hour loss in time, then it's probably due to a conflict with another computer in a different time zone.

Weird.

[HAL9000]

I agree that it has to be software based somewhere, because think about it, we don't use daylight savings at all here in Saskatchewan and when it goes out, it's always to the minute, exactly one hour out.

[LawyerRon]

Can someone please explain what AtomTime is and what it does?

[troysvihl]

Are you saying that it's got something to do with daylight savings time?
How does the computer know that's it daylight savings time?

Obviously, it can check from the date, but it still doens't know what the correct time is in order to set it back an hour.

[HAL9000]

The computer doesn't know it's daylight savings, but if there is a program that runs using dates and times that assumes the world is on daylight savings, then compensates for it, I dunno, your guess is as good as mine, this is why I run About Time (a minor correction, I thought it was AtomTime that I have, but it's About Time)

Ron, AtomTime is a program that runs in the background and can periodically set your clock to the Atomic clock (considered to be the most accurate clock possible). About Time that I am running is the same idea.

[troysvihl]

Yeah, but in order to know how much to compensate for daylight time, it still must be getting some sort of out-side cue.


lol. Isn't this wierd?

[audiyoda]

Originally posted by SARGE Hal, that scenario is going to drive me crazy. You set it correctly, it loses 1 hour and stays. If you leave it alone after that, it doesn't lose anymore. Am I missing something?

No...it's a Canadian computer.

-Craig

[morriswindgate]

Tweakui - Power tools from Microsoft
RegClean - Error checcker from Microsoft Power Tools
Ad Aware - Free Spyware Cleaner, will remove stuff like comet cursor without a lot of work. Amust if you have kids using the computer.
Windows Washer - Clean out dead beat files.
FLMask - A masking utility for japanese porn originally, but has one of the best slide show features for going through digital photography on a machine. Allows some correction of contrast, brightness, Gamma, and sharpness. Has delete feature to enable you to get rid of unusable photos as you go through through them.

[pcoopers]

well, I don't like Windows Explorer, so I use Powerdesk, which came with
Ontrack SystemSuite. (before anyone asks, systemsuite is comparable to
Norton SystemWorks)

Windows does a poor job of managing memory, so I tried a lot of memory manager
utilities. I finally found and settled on a FREE program, RAMIDLE. Anyone
interested can find it at http://customizer.tripod.com

The wife and I fight over utilities on these computers, she likes the silly
frilly things that serve no purpose other than eating memory. My functional
things, she claims messes up the computer.

I beta tested Tweakmaster, It is still on my machine because it actually speeds
up my connection some, maybe 20%. She swears the computer won't run with it.
go figure. Tweakmaster can be found at http://www.tweakmaster.com.

[oryx]

Atom Time. It doesn't appear from this thread that it's all that uncommon.
Cookie Cop.
AnalogX Hypertrace. A traceroute program.

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by troysvihl Yeah, but in order to know how much to compensate for daylight time, it still must be getting some sort of out-side cue. lol. Isn't this wierd?

It might explain it on my computer with a full time internet connection, but what about a computer that has no internet connection, not even dialup?

[christo418]

Oryx - thanks for the traceroute tip!
My favorite utility is SiSoft Sandra.

[Carl Price]

Hey Hal, if you set it ahead one hour and let it lose that hour, it ought to stay correct.

[reboot]

Atomtime is good for win9x, but I just let the XP built in one do it's thing.
Unusual utilities?
I have a 5 gig partition full, but my favorites are:
Push the freakin' button.
Easycleaner, from toniarts.
Both found on my website, and both work in 9x/2K/XP.

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by Carl Price Hey Hal, if you set it ahead one hour and let it lose that hour, it ought to stay correct.

You know, I tried that, it went 2 hours back (1 hour behind the correct time). I think that computer is the real HAL9000 and is going to try and kill me soon.

[troysvihl]

It might explain it on my computer with a full time internet connection, but what about a computer that has no internet connection, not even dialup?

Doen't motherboards have an internal clock that's run by an on-board battery? I havne't looked at mine for awhile, but I thought I saw somethign that looked suspiciously like a jewler's battery mounted on the circuit board. If it's got a battery, then it problaby has a constantly runnign internal clock too.

If there is an internal clock, are they usually set correctly or do they come off the assembly line set to any random time?

[pcoopers]

I think troysvhil got it, If it always does it, it's probly resetting
to the bios clock, which is an hour behind.

Have you tried to go into setup, and reset the bios clock?

[HAL9000]

Every time. The BIOS clock is set to the same time as Windows displays.

[nulab]

TurboNote - Let's you post virtual post-it notes on your desktop. http://www.turbonote.com

NoteTab Light - A wonderful replacement for Notepad. You can have several files open at one time and each time you start the app, those files will all open up as different tabs at the top of the app window. It's features should appeal to users ranging from the novice to the very demanding. Whether you create Web pages, write source code, send e-mail, take notes, analyze text, read files, or do anything related to text, you will certainly find NoteTab a worthy tool and a great time saver. http://www.notetab.com

Both of these have saved me copious amounts of time here at work.

[Kubie]

I use all the utilities Rboot suggests. No mess, no fuss!
Carl

[Demosthenes]

Push the Freakin' Button. I forgot about that one. I have not seen that for a while.

Cool Desktop: Little program that hides all the icons and taskbar so you can actually see the wallpaper.

Boot Log Analyzer: I have a ton of diagnosis proggies, but this is one of my favorites. Shows you how long it takes for everything to initialize.

SmarterChild: Technically not an app, but I have found myself talking to this precocious little AI agent. You can find him on AIM. Surprisingly well written.

Those and a thousand and one others that I draw on from time to time.

Respectfully,

Demosthenes

[DrZaius]

NetCaptor: Web browser with tabs so you can have many pages open at once and nicely organized. Uses the IE HTML engine too, so it's always up to date.