Tag Archives: desktop

Exclusive: How To Create A Computer Activity Monitoring Software For Free

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Editor’s Notes: Sometimes it is better not to pay for a software. We at AddictiveTips do our best to find out ways to solve a problem for free without having to pay for a commercial software. One tool alone cannot quite accomplish a task, this is why we are going to use multiple tools to create our very own Computer Activity Monitoring Software. This method can be followed by almost everyone, since it does not require even a single line of code to be written. ;) By definition, a computer activity monitoring software means a tool that can monitor the activity without the person knowing that he is being watched. Auto Clicker Typer is not a monitoring tool, but we will convert it into one by making some clever modifications.

Installing and Setting Up Auto Clicker Typer

To begin, first install Auto Clicker Typer. Once done, open it and check the Record Cursor Movement checkbox. Read More

Convert Your Computer Into Live Video Streaming Server

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Services like UStream and JustinTv are a good platforms to broadcast live videos, but what if you want to convert your computer into a video streaming server? BroadCam is a free tool for Windows that let’s you stream live videos over both local network and internet. Apart from basic live streaming, you can also stream pre-recorded videos instantly. The pre-recorded videos can be either in Divx(AVI format), Windows ASF AND WMV files, or DV videos files.

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Restore Accidentally Closed Files, Programs, And Folders In Windows

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Alright, so you were browsing a folder or were running an important application and it got closed by mistake, what will you do? Panic, of course. But don’t fret yet, ReOpen is a free portable tool for Windows that can restore all accidentally closed programs, folders, files, etc. It sits silently in the system tray and takes very less system resources. To restore an accidentally closed program, you can either double-click the system tray icon or hit the Hotkey(Shift+PgUp). This will open the main window, where you can select the program that you want to restore and hit Open Selected. Read More

Get Full Control Over ‘Windows Firewall’ Right From Your Desktop

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Vista Firewall Control is a free portable tool that lets a user have complete control over his/her Windows Firewall. Unlike Windows default Firewall program, it lets you easily manage the Incoming and Outgoing connections of each and every app more quickly. Once a program tries to access the Internet, it will immediately notify you as a pop-up message. At the same time it will ask you to edit the application’s zone settings.

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Prevent Others From Viewing Your Screen And Getting Sensitive Data [Privacy]

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If you work in an office environment sitting close to your co-workers, how will you protect your privacy? In cases where you have to read and reply to important or personal emails, how will you prevent others from viewing your screen? One of the most common way is to move the monitor a little further from your co-worker, which can be rather awkward and embarrassing sometimes. CE Desktop is a free portable data protection tool for Windows that covers most area of your computer screen. Simply move the box to the area where you are working and don’t worry about prying eyes anymore. Read More

Quick Review: bDule Is An Awesome Twitter Desktop Client

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If you are on Twitter, you must have given various twitter desktop clients a try. bDule is a new player in this field, but takes a very different and fresh approach. It has a clean user-friendly interface and lets you choose the template. Unlike other clients, Twitter Search is build right inside this app and works quite fast.

After you have installed this app, select any one template out of 16 shown.

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XBList Brings Xbox Live Friends And Activity To Your Desktop

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If you own an Xbox or Xbox 360, then this tip is for you. XbList brings your Xbox Live friends to the desktop in a buddy-list format(same format as Live Messenger). It also updates your friend’s activity right on your desktop and shows both Gamer pictures and Gamer cards. You must have an Xbox Live account to use this software. This tool is for those gamers who spend more time on their computers. Since you cannot stick to the Xbox console 24/7, this software makes perfect sense. Read More

Access Google Calendar Events From Your Desktop

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Google Calendar used to be a unpopular service until GMail came out. Almost 1/5th of all GMail users now have Google Calendar widget in their sidebar. If you are one  of those users who use Google Calendar to mark down all important events, then this tip is for you.

Since Google Calendar can be synced with your mobile and desktop email clients, it has vast benefits. GMinder is free tool for Windows that displays all Google Calendar events in the desktop system tray. Since, it downloads Calendar events from your Google account, it works offline.

Just run the tool and it will show you a setup window. Click Set, enter your Google account details, and click OK. Now click Download and it will add your account in the list and also save all events in that were present in your Google Calendar.

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e2spreadsheet Is A Free Cross-Platform Desktop Spreadsheet And Graphing Application

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Do you want to make a quick chart, graph, or maybe want to work on a spreadsheet? Ofcourse, Google Docs and OpenOffice are good places to start. But what if you want to work on a desktop instead of working online? Internet connectivity is not everywhere just yet. e2spreadsheet is a free cross-platform Adobe Air application which is a fully functional spreadsheet and graphing tool. You can either create a new spreadsheet or import one in CSV format. It is a dead-simple app, to create a new spreadsheet, just enter the date, add effects, and view it in different graphs. Read More

How To Move And Reorder Taskbar Tabs In Windows XP/Vista

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If you are one of those users who tested Windows 7 beta, you will know that one of the most handy feature is that we can reorganize the tabs in the taskbar. Sadly this important feature(that increases productivity) lacks in older version of Windows, i.e XP, Server 2003/2008, and Vista.

Taskix is a free tool that adds the ability to move and reorder the taskbar tabs easily. Simply drag the tab that you want to move and it will reorganize itself. It is a robust program that has a very small memory footprint. And yes, it supports multiple monitors too.

Before

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Desktop Media Adds Automatic Drive Shortcuts To Your Desktop

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Desktop Media is a free tool for Windows that automatically adds a desktop shortcut when any removable media is plugged in. We all know that disabling AutoPlay feature is a great way to prevent the Autorun virus, but this also means that we have to manually go to My Computer every time a new CD/DVD disk or removable media is inserted.

If you are way too lazy, then a desktop shortcut is the best way to quickly and easily access the drive/media. It is a great alternative to the popular Desk Drive, since it has more features and takes far less memory to run.

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Capture And Monitor Desktop Activity With myDesktop Online

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Suppose you are running a program that requires constant monitoring, but you have to leave urgently for a moment, what will you do? Or lets suppose you are away from your computer and would like to know what your husband/wife, kids, or any friend did on your computer?

myDesktop Online is a free tool for Windows that capture images and monitors the activity on your computer desktop while you are away. You can save the captured images either on your local computer or upload them to a server. The images can be saved in any one of the many popular image formats such as jpg, png, bmp, and gif.

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Quick Launch Programs In Windows Using SliderDock

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Want to launch an application quickly without having to find the right icon for the right program in a heavily cluttered desktop? Enter SliderDock. It is a free tool for Windows that lets you launch any programs quickly by rotating between them. Just run the tool and you will see a blue orb button on your desktop. Drag all program shortcuts to this Blue Orb and they will be added instantly. Now move your mouse pointer over to the Blue Orb and drag the mouse wheel up/down to rotate between these program shortcut icons. To open any program, simply double-click it’s icon. That’s it. Read More

Save And Restore The Position Of Desktop Icons In Windows

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If you change the screen resolution a lot, you must have noticed that the icons get mixed up and you have to manually rearrange them all over again. While playing a game at lower resolution or connecting you laptop to an external display, the icons change their position according to the resolution.

Take my example for instance, most of the time my laptop is connected to an external display whose resolution is 1680 x 1050, whenever I disconnect the external display all my icons get mixed up which is very frustrating. I have found two tools that can help solve this problem DesktopOK and DeskSave.

DesktopOK

DesktopOK is a free portable tool for Windows that lets you restore different icon layouts for different resolutions. Since it supports different icon layouts for different resolutions, you can also set different desktop icon layouts for same resolution.

Arrange your desktop icons and run this tool. Click Save and it will save your current desktop icon layout for this resolution.

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Set Different Wallpaper/Background For Each Monitor In Multi-Monitor Setup

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If you have a multi-monitor setup, then you know how hard it is to change wallpapers or background colors for each desktop. Windows will automatically extend the wallpaper in the first monitor to other monitors as well. If you want to keep different wallpapers for each monitor and change them frequently then it is almost impossible to do it from within Windows.

Wallmaster is a free opensource tool which allows you to set different wallpapers and background color for each monitor in a multi-monitor setup. If you have two monitors with different resolutions, it will automatically resize the wallpaper for each one of them. It can be used as a complete replacement for Windows Desktop Background option, even if you don’t have a multi-monitor setup.

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Dexpot – Free Virtual Desktop Manager For Windows

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Do you have tons of work and want to manage them easily? When you open multiple programs, the desktop gets cluttered which effects the workflow. This is where Dexpot comes in, it is a free virtual desktop manager that lets you create up to 20 different virtual desktops. For example, by default there are four virtual desktops, you can use one for browsing, one for presentation, one for chatting, and one for some important office work. You can switch between these desktops easily with a simple hotkey.

Below is an example of four different virtual desktops running on my computer.

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Ginipic – Find Photos In Multiple Image Search Engines From Your Desktop

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Ginipic is a free advanced image search engine for desktop that searches multiple photo sharing sites and search engines and displays the results in a neat, simple-to-use window. Once you run the program it will open as a neat sidebar window. It is able to search images in the following sources: Flickr, Google, Yahoo, SmugMug, deviantART, Live Search, Picasa, Photobucket, Facebook, and Fotolia. By default the option is set to search images in all sources.

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Open Multiple Websites at Once With A Desktop Shortcut

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I visit multiple websites, multiple times daily. Typing the names of these websites over and over again becomes too time consuming and obviously, boring. I figured out a way to create a desktop shortcut for it through which you can open unlimited number of websites in multiple browser tabs.

Basically we have to create a batch file to open multiple websites. If you have read the post in the link above you will learn to make batch file for opening multiple applications, but for the sake of convenience I am going to teach you to make a batch file to open multiple websites at once. The method is almost same, but instead of application target, we will enter website URL.

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Open Multiple Applications With A Single Click Instantly

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I recently learned a small handy trick which allows us to start multiple applications at once. If you are like me who has to open 5-6 programs at once then it will come really handy. Running multiple programs turn by turn is too boring for me, that’s why I use this trick to open multiple programs instantly.

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