The Geek Forum

Main Forums => Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap => Topic started by: Demosthenes on September 15, 2010, 10:57:00 AM

Title: 5 free apps to make Windows 7 more usable
Post by: Demosthenes on September 15, 2010, 10:57:00 AM
I'm planning on doing a writeup of this on my Linux blog (http://linux-critic.com), since I'm doing this from a Linux user's perspective forced to use Windows 7 at work.

But I figured I'd share these with you guys as a preview, and to see if anyone has any others they use that I should consider adding to my writeup when I finally do it.

Title: Re: 5 free apps to make Windows 7 more usable
Post by: xolik on September 15, 2010, 11:40:55 AM
I'm sending these links to the Desktop Support group when I get to work.
Title: Re: 5 free apps to make Windows 7 more usable
Post by: Demosthenes on September 15, 2010, 11:58:21 AM
I just found out that you can get a "normal" context menu by SHIFT+right-click on an application on the Win7 taskbar.

That would have been nice to know when I was fumbling around with it for 15 minutes at 4:00 this morning, trying to get an application off of my non-existent 2nd monitor.   :x

Jerks.  Way to make such essential functionality intuitive, you asswipes.
Title: Re: 5 free apps to make Windows 7 more usable
Post by: Banshee on September 15, 2010, 12:28:13 PM
I'm planning on doing a writeup of this on my Linux blog (http://linux-critic.com), since I'm doing this from a Linux user's perspective forced to use Windows 7 at work.

But I figured I'd share these with you guys as a preview, and to see if anyone has any others they use that I should consider adding to my writeup when I finally do it.

  • UBitmenu: (http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/) I know, this one's more for Office 2007, not Windows 7, but it's too good to not share.  It fixes the stupid Ribbon UI in Word and Excel by adding a "Menu" tab to it that has the classic style toolbar already built in it.  

  • Dexpot: (http://www.dexpot.de/index.php?lang=en) Adds the ability for users to create virtual desktops, something that's been the norm in Linux window managers and desktop environments for years.  

  • 7 Taskbar Tweaker: (http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker) Fixes the broken (or lack of) context menus on the Windows 7 taskbar.

  • Ext2Explore: (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/ext2explore.shtml) Lets you read Ext2 and Ext3 filesystems, something Windows should really be able to do out of the box in this day and age.

  • Explorer++: (http://www.explorerplusplus.com) A full-featured, flexible, tabbed file manager that's far better than the default file manager in Windows.  After using Explorer++ for the past month or so, I find myself wishing that there was a Linux version of it.

What are Ext2 and Ext3 filesystems?
Title: Re: 5 free apps to make Windows 7 more usable
Post by: Demosthenes on September 15, 2010, 12:30:46 PM
/me bans Banshee
Title: Re: 5 free apps to make Windows 7 more usable
Post by: Banshee on September 16, 2010, 11:56:43 AM
/me bans Banshee

 :cry: