One of the most useful tab-management features of modern browsers is opening recently closed tabs using Ctrl+Shift+T hotkey. It certainly saves the time one would’ve spent sifting through browsing history to find and open closed tabs. In contrast to browsers, Windows 7 manages folders and application windows differently; despite storing recently opened programs and items in Start Menu, it doesn’t support bringing them up again using a hotkey. Today, AddictiveTips brings you UndoClose - a free program that remembers all recently closed folders and applications, so that you can restore them in the same sequence in which they were closed using two hotkeys. In short, it enables you to open the last closed folder(s) and application(s) just like the way Firefox, Google Chrome and other browsers let you open the recently closed tab(s).

UndoClose supports two hotkey combinations; Ctrl+Shift+F and Ctrl+Shift+A, to open last closed folder (in Windows Explorer) and application, respectively. The hotkeys can be used multiple times. For example, if you close VLC Player, Notepad and iTunes, press Ctrl+Shift+A hotkey three times to launch VLC Player, Notepad and iTunes again.

UndoClose sits in the system tray after being launched and silently starts monitoring all folders and applications that are closed. It then helps you restore them using the hotkeys.

If the pre-defined hotkeys come in conflict with other global hotkeys, you can change them from Settings. To access Settings, click the system tray icon. You will also find all recently closed folders and applications with their complete source paths. You can open them by double-clicking the items in the list.

You can watch how it all works in the video walkthrough below.

The application is built to actively keep log of all the apps and folders you close, and therefore, it consumes 35 MB of system memory. It’s worth mentioning here that memory usage depends upon the number of apps and folders you close during the session. UndoClose is a portable app that works on Windows 7 only. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS are supported.

Download UndoClose

Changelog:

Version 1.1 – Now works with all Libraries (main folder, default Windows libraries, custom user-made libraries), Computer, Recycle Bin, Control Panel (Category view), and Network.

Version 1.0  - Initial Release

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A Form Filler is an application for configuring multiple automated actions tied to the title of a specific window. It has been designed to automatically execute a selected command each time a pre-defined window appears on your screen. The command options include sending text, special keys and key combinations to an active window. For example, the program can fill passwords (for numerous applications, with the exception of browsers), close annoying windows, and perform other kinds of configurations. A Form Filler uses its own set of commands to execute user defined actions, for example, if you are tired of continuous prompts by an application, then select the prompt name from A Form Filler, type {ENTER} command, and turn on monitoring for the prompt window. This will automatically execute the Enter command to move over a prompt which may require clicking OK, each time the application is launched.

For example, if you would like to avoid the above, annoying iTunes prompt, then open the main interface of the application, hit F2 or go to Actions –> Add. Once done, select a title for the action, followed by the prompt name from the drop down menu, and enter a respective command. Unfortunately, the command list cannot be acquired from the application, and you will have to see the list at the developer’s website to find out what each command does. Once you have specified all parameters, click OK.

Now, head back to the main interface and click On/OFF to enable or disable the action anytime.

You can also add programs to an ignore list from Actions –> Options. Furthermore, you can enable password protection and start A Form Filler with Windows startup from this section.

It is worth mentioning here that A Form Filler is quite a complicated application, and the user requires figuring out a lot of the details on their own. It will be more convenient for users if the developer made the action specific commands easier to handle, such as by providing a drop down menu with labels that can help apply the command combination. You can find out more about the implementation of different actions from the developer’s website. A Form Filler works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download A Form Filler

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We have previously covered screenshot tools like Shotty and Greenshot, but if you are looking for a screenshot tool that lets you do more than just capture screen area, give Screenshot Captor a try. Screenshot Captor is a very extensive screenshot capturing tool that lets you take screenshots, edit them, add special effects, adjust colors, add objects and share with others. It lets you specify pre-capture and post-capture settings, special effect and drawing object options and file naming templates.

The application also allows you to create mailing lists to send captured items to others. It also enables you to capture and edit scanned images, and print them from within the application.

The main interface has File, Edit, Capture, GoTo, MoveTo, SendTo, View, SpecialFX, Object and Tools menus at the top. The folders and images panel is at the left, and image editing toolbar with options such as Save, Print, Add Shadow, Crop Selection, Add Object, Undo etc, appear on the right side. There is also a slider to zoom in and zoom out the images, with a massive range of 2% – 1000%, on the right side. The images appear in the center, and information about the current images appears at the bottom of the main interface.

Screenshot Captor can capture screenshots for Current Screen, Selected Region, Active Window, Multimon Workspace, Selected Object, Fixed Size Region and Repeat Region Capture. After taking the screenshot, a dialog pops up with options to Discard Image, Keep Image and Show, Print Image, Keep Image and Hide, Save Image As, Image to Clipboard, Thumbnail Image, Filename to Clipboard and Send To (mailing lists). Choose the desired function by clicking on its respective button.

The Options dialog box can be accessed from Preferences under Edit. In Options, you can configure the application’s General Settings, Saving and Loading Files, Hotkeys, Image File Format, Interface Options, Pre and Post-Capture Options, Special Effects Options etc.

Screenshot Captor has a host of other options including Edit settings like Crop to Selection, Resize Image and Adjust Image to Current View, SpecialFX allows you to Enhance Selection, Blur Image, Adjust Colors etc. and Objects menu has options to Add Captions to Images, Merge Background Transparency and Send Objects Backward and Forward. Screenshot Captor is a massive tool with a lot more options included. You can check out detailed feature list on the product page. It works on all version of Windows.

Download Screenshot Captor

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FeedRoller RSS Ticker is a customizable desktop RSS ticker for viewing your latest feeds. It displays news items from all added feeds from the top or bottom of the desktop (as selected), with auto hide functionality for an unobtrusive display of feed items. You can control ticker features using hotkeys, and change color to customize its look. The default ticker is a bit large in size; however, you can reduce the ticker size, as well as other features (such as font and size, color, speed, layout, transparency etc.) to suit your needs. Feeds can also be imported or exported using an OPML file.

Once launched, you can access the application’s settings from the system tray for customizing FeedRoller. Other options in the system-tray menu include Do not Disturb (for making the ticker inactive for 15 minutes), Suspend on full screen, Toggle pause, Toggle Pinned, visit Current Item (for opening the new item in your default browser), Quick help and Mange Feeds.

By default, FeedRoller comes with a number of default feeds from Google News, Yahoo News etc. You can add, edit, remove, move (in queue) and import/export feed items from Manage Feeds.

To add a new feed, click Add Feed from Manage Feeds and enter the feed URL. Here, you can also set the maximum item display time, display age (within your feed) and cache life.

To further customize the ticker, head over to Options from the system tray menu. Here, you can set pause and idle time for the ticker, change global padding and margin size, the number of rows to display, animation slide direction (up/down), transparency level for the ticker, font, color, ticker speed, hotkeys combination and so on.

The below screenshot demonstrates how you can change the look of the ticker to make it appear in selected colors and fonts.

For more, you may also check out Snackr, which is another feature-rich RSS Ticker for Windows. FeedRoller RSS Ticker works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

FeedRoller RSS Ticker

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If you are looking for a search tool with advanced search options, VX Search is definitely worth a try. It is an extensive rule-based file searching tool that allows you to set multiple search criteria, such as File Name, Extension, Category, File Attributes, Creation Date etc. To make the search process more organized, every criteria has its own set of rules; for example, File Name includes Contains, Wildcard, Equals, Begins With, Ends With etc. You can search the files locally, on remote locations, define the locations you want to exclude from the search, and the maximum number of search results.

VX Search allows you to set filters for search results to categorize them by Extension, File Size, Last Access Time, File Type etc. It also allows you to configure and use hotkeys for searching files and folders, and lets you view number of files and disk space consumed by a particular category of files in a colorful pie or bar chart and copy it to clipboard.

The main interface consists of Search, Pause, Stop, Charts, Save, Database, Layouts and Help buttons at the top. Search Rules, Search Locations and Search Profiles panes are on the left side, while search results are shown in the right side. The bottom right pane allows you to set filters to view search results.

To start searching, click Search and create a new Search Profile. Choose the type of search from File Name, Extension, Full Path, Category, File Size, File Attributes, Created, Last Modified etc. Multiple profiles can be created by clicking Add (+) button in front of Search Profiles in lower left corner of the interface.

Each type has its own set of rules to choose from. For example, File Name has Contains, Wildcard, RegEx, Equals, Begins With, Ends With, Not Equal, Not Contain, Not Begin and Not End With as the available rules.

VX Search allows you to set multiple search criteria in the same way for a quickly location the file you need, It allows you to choose from Search Specific Folders, Search All Disks, Search Servers or Search Network.

The Options button allows you to configure search options such as Default Report Title, Stop Search After, Scanning Mode and Search Performance. You can also add folders to an Exclude list to exclude them from the search.

Once all settings are done, click Search to start the searching process. Search can be paused, resumed and stopped from their respective buttons available at the top. The search results appear in the main window of the interface. For efficient viewing, search results can be categorized according to filters such as Extension, File Size, last Access Time Modification Time, Creation Time, File Type and User Name.

After selecting the category filter, click Charts button on the top to view a pie chart detailing the Number of Files and Disk Space used in relation to the filter. You can change the chart view between Pie Chart and Bar Chart and Copy Image to Clipboard or directly Print it. The Options button allows you to change the text in Chart Header and Chart Footer.

The Advanced Configuration of VX Search can be accessed from Tools menu at the top. It has General, Shortcuts, Proxy, E-Mail and Database tabs. General includes settings such as Show Main Toolbar, Show Error Messages in System Tray, Abort Operation On Critical Errors etc. Shortcuts lets you edit hotkey shortcuts for different function of the application like Execute Search Command, Pause Search Command, Select Next Search Command etc. Proxy lets you configure the proxy settings.

Note that the Load Report File feature is available in the Pro version of the application while, E-Mail, Database and Actions features are only available in the Ultimate version of VX Search. Pro version costs $10 while Ultimate version costs $50. All other features can be fully accessed in the free version. The application offers some other options as well, which are not covered in this post, so you may want to try it out for a full experience. VX Search works on all version of Windows.

Download VX Search

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CoView is a comic reader for Windows that supports numerous hotkeys to navigate through the comics, zoom in/out, open comics file, flip the pages and much more. It supports a number of comics formats, including CBR, CBZ, RAR, ZIP, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, ICO, DIB and WMF. If you don’t want to flip the pages yourself, you can set the application to automatic mode which will automatically flip pages after a defined time interval. You can choose between a conventional page-flip view or a scroll-down style continuous view. When you close CoView, it remembers your last opened comic and the page you were on, so you can quickly resume reading.

CoView runs only in full screen mode. When you first start the application, right-click inside the viewer or press F1 to view the full list of hotkeys and F2 to open a new comic file. The view can be changed to fit according to height, width, fit to screen, zoom view, two-page view etc. If you want to navigate through the comics with your mouse, you can use the click-and-drag cursor method, use the scroller, or enable a navigation bar by pressing B on your keyboard. CoView also lets you change the background color of the application from the default black to any color of your choice.

Other important hotkeys are:

F2 – Open file

Esc – Close application

F8 – Show zoom window

2 – Fit to 100%

6 – Dynamic Visualization

7 – Continuous mode

a – automatic mode

u – Last opened file

q – Minimize application

Although it is very easy to use, CoView has flaws and limitations, the most annoying one being that you cannot run the application in window mode. We hope that developer will include window-view mode in next release.

Download CoView

[via Ghacks]

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Using Safari as a primary web browser and want to enhance the browsing experience by associating keyboard shortcuts with common tasks? KeyStroke is a Safari extension that adds a slew of keyboard shortcuts for routine browsing tasks, such as, navigate between tabs, zoom in and out, switch to next page, change input field focus, reload page, open new page, wrap text and so on. Apart from these, you can quickly access KeyStroke preferences, save changes made to settings, associate numeric keys with tabs, and define both blacklisted and whitelisted websites. Moreover, when you type in a URL in address bar, these shortcuts get disabled, letting you enter the website link you want to visit.

After the extension is installed, you can access the configuration page by using command-option-k hotkey combination. It lists down all the supported shortcut keys with their associated functions. The Save Preferences button is present at right side of the page. Clicking that button saves the changes made to default shortcuts, without requiring you to restart the browser. The shortcuts in right pane let you change numeric keys association, define skip length, enable/disable Remember zoomed sites option, customize Next and Previous actions, and define Blacklist (where KeyStroke is disabled), Whitelist (website’s keyboard shortcuts are disabled), Greenlist (list of websites where page receives focus instead of text field) and Redlist (where KeyStroke is disabled on frames).

Once you’ve customized the shortcuts, close the Preferences page. It must be noted that some shortcuts might not work on all websites, such as, Top Directory, Scroll left, Scroll down, etc. However, if it doesn’t work on all websites, refresh the websites and then clear the browsing cache. It works on all versions of Safari.

Download KeyStroke

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Grooveshark web app comes with some useful track and playlist navigation controls, but unfortunately you cannot control it from outside the browser window or tab using global shortcut keys. This drawback compels users to manually switch to Grooveshark window or tab each time to use the supported global shortcut keys.

Sharkear is a desktop client of Grooveshark web interface that fully supports global hotkeys, i.e playlist and track navigation, seek back and forward and playback. With Sharkear, just use the global hotkeys to perform the associated function, even when it is minimized. Sharkear doesn’t add anything to the user interface of Grooveshark except a menu bar at top to change default Grooveshark URL and view global hotkey combinations. Apparently, it uses Internet Explorer user agent to access Grooveshark API, therefore you need to make sure that Adobe Flash is installed with Internet Explorer. If it fails to detect Adobe Flash, it will prompt to install Flash plugin to access Grooveshark.

You can view global hotkey combinations from Settings –> Global Hotkeys. If you want to change the predefined hotkey combination, just select the function key field and press the key you want to replace with. For instance, if you need to change Play/Pause hotkey combination, select Home key field and press the required key, let’s say, P on keyboard to replace the default Ctrl+Alt+Home with Ctrl+Alt+P shortcut key.

Other notable aspects of Sharkear are auto-removal of memory cache and artist – song title on window title bar. Although Sharkear doesn’t add many features to Grooveshark, the global hotkey access feature to access various Grooveshark functions makes it quit handy. It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, provided you have Adobe Flash for Internet Explorer installed.

Download Sharkear

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The new Windows 8 operating system was recently launched with a number of new enhancements. Other than the Metro based interface and other changes, it also came with a slew of new keyboard shortcuts. In this post we will show a number of Windows 8 hotkeys which can help you use Windows 8 more conveniently. These include keyboard shortcuts which are applicable on both the Metro interface and Windows desktop.

WIN + Z – This hotkey flips open application options. The below screenshot demonstrates how it displayed the Login option for Tweet@rama application.

Win + Spacebar – Change the language / keyboard layout. This can be useful for toggling between different language layout for your keyboard (e.g. French and English).

Win + Y – Switches to desktop view. Using this hotkey you can temporarily hide all maximized windows to see the desktop.

WIN + Q – Opens Search Apps menu.

WIN + W – Opens search for Settings menu.

WIN + F – Opens search for Files menu.

WIN + O – Disable screen rotation (allows turning off the Gyro reaction to the tablets)

WIN + C – Open Start Menu.

WIN + I – Opens Start Menu Settings.

WIN + K – Opens Start Menu Connections.

WIN + V – Allows switching between notifications.

WIN + Shift + V – Allows Reverse switching between notifications

WIN + Enter – Runs Utilities Narrator, which reads aloud the titles and contents of the open windows.

WIN + Page Up – Moves the Metro tiles to the left.

WIN + Page Down – Moves the Metro tiles to the right.

WIN + Shift + Plus(+) – Open magnifier for maximizing the desktop.

Win + Shift + Minus(-) – Opens magnifier for minimizing the window.

Old hotkeys are also functional in Windows 8 for example, WIN+D activates desktop, WIN+R opens “Run”, WIN+L locks the computer screen, etc.

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HotkeyP is a portable application to create macro commands and assign hotkey combinations in order to perform almost any kind of task, such as, open files, run applications, shut down, log off or restart your PC, change windows opacity, simulate mouse actions and so on. HotkeyP also supports multimedia keys for assigning commands (for keyboard which may have multimedia keys). For example, you can select a game, assign a hotkey combination to the executable followed by a command to simulate a mouse movement to the hotkey, as you might find it more convenient to automate the game action rather than using the mouse. You can edit any command and hotkey combination, assign certain process priority and set to automatically run at Windows startup.

The mapped hotkeys and commands are displayed on the main application window, along with a description and the names of each category to which they are assigned.  To add a hotkey, click Add.

A new window will open where you have to select a directory containing the application, choose a hotkey combination and configure additional options, such as, setting the process priority, window direction when hotkey is executed (maximized or minimized) and opacity. Custom names can be added for each category to help you identify the hotkey/command from the main interface (on the right-hand side corner).

Make sure you also select a command type to be executed. For example, you might want to shutdown the system after executing a hotkey combination which closes a particular application. Likewise, you can set Macro commands to activate a window, simulate mouse actions such as when playing games. For example, if you assign CTRL+M to Firefox, then select command  ”Maximize Window” to maximize it when this hotkey is used.

HotkeyP is an open source application which works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download HotkeyP

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4t Tray Minimizer is a tool to manage active windows by adding additional buttons in the title bar. These buttons include; minimize active windows to system tray, roll up windows, make window transparent and use hotkeys to quickly perform tasks. The functionality of 4t Tray Minimizer is quite similar to the previously reviewed eXtraButtons. During the 4t setup, you are provided the option to enable hotkeys for various functions, these include, minimizing applications to tray, hiding tray icons, and minimizing all windows to system tray. The same wizard also provides you with the choice to enable some or all of the extra buttons which are to be added to the windows.

Once installation is complete, the extra buttons are added to both Explorer and application windows. Clicking the dot shaped button will minimize the current window to the system tray.

Alternatively, all windows can be minimized to the system tray simultaneously using the Shift+CTRL+M hotkey.

The roll up button rolls up the current window, which is useful for temporarily reducing the desktop space that a window may be consuming (instead of minimizing it).

Similarly, the Pin button pins the active window to the desktop, whereas, the transparency button makes the window transparent to help you view underlying content.

To access options, right-click the 4t system tray icon. You can view or disable system tray icons, enable/disable hotkeys, add exclusions for applications where you do not wish to add the extra buttons to, enable ALT+Tab view for minimized icons, auto refresh tooltips and so on. 4t Tray Minimizer has both a free and paid version. The Pro version (costs $19.95) allows you to control the behavior of applications, including how and when they are minimized to system tray, set custom hotkeys, minimize applications to system tray at startup, and hide task bar button for a favorite applications.

4t Tray Minimizer works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download 4t Tray Minimizer

[via AskVG]

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Guake is a drop-down Terminal for Linux operating systems, with multi-tab and hotkey support. It has repositories available for Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and ArchLinux. The initial display is a transparent background, however, you can add colors of your choice to change the look of the text and Terminal background. Guake is not just an elegant Terminal emulator, but it also adds the convenience of using hotkeys and tabs to help perform numerous Terminal tasks.

Unity Launcher auto hides when Guake is functional. If you have disabled auto hide for your Unity launcher, then Guake will overlay on it. The initial transparent look seems quite elegant, however, if you are having problem due to your wallpaper, then you can change background color from Preferences (which can be accessed from the system tray).

The General tab allows disabling the system tray icon, as well as enabling pop-up notifications for Guake. You can also manage the main window height from the slider at the bottom of this tab. To disable the Guake Scroller, head over to the Scrolling tab. To change text and background color, go to the Appearance tab. You can add keyboard shortcuts, from the Keyboard Shortcuts tab and allocate custom hotkeys for preforming actions for toggling visibility, full screen view, new tab, close tab, copy, past and tab renaming.

Guake can be installed on Ubuntu and Debian by using the following Terminal command:

sudo apt-get install guake

You can also grab the Guake installer package from the developer’s website to install it on other Linux versions.

Download Guake

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Many software have the option to keep the current window on top of other active windows. Such a functionality can help ensure that you are able to keep an important window above others. Window On Top is a portable application which allows toggling between the top and back window using a hotkey. This can be handy in adding “always on top” functionality to applications which may not have it by default. Just launch Window On Top and either use the CTRL+F8 hotkey or drag the hand (image) on a target window to bring it “on top”.

As one can always click on a back window to make it active, therefore, dragging the hand image to view the back window does not make sense. Instead, what is more useful is to use the CTRL+F8 hotkey for toggling between the current and back Window. What makes this hotkey better than the ALT+TAB option, is the fact that it only toggles the two immediate windows instead of showing all the open windows. This may be more handy for people who work with fewer active windows, or would like to keep an eye on two immediate active windows. For example, one may wish to monitor an encoding process while working on another task and might want to quickly check the encoding progress periodically.

Window On Top works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download Window On Top (second software on the developers page)

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WinKey is a lightweight tool which helps redefine keyboard shortcuts with the Windows key. You can assign hotkeys for your favorite system folders, applications and even web links. Some hotkeys are assigned by default, for Control Panel, Network Neighborhood, Printers, Registry, and so on. WinKey provides up to  200 key combinations consisting of the Windows key and associated characters.  The available key combinations are used with the Windows keyboard Super key and appear as, e.g. Windows+A, Windows+CTRL+F9 and so on. WinKey requires being functional for the assigned shortkeys to work. However, since it can be easily minimized to system tray, therefore, it is not an obstructive application.

Since most new shortcuts that come with Windows 7 make full use of Windows key (Super key), having a tool like WinKey to add support for more shortcuts makes sense. If you right-click any desktop shortcut, you can set shortcuts like Ctrl+H, Alt+H, or even Ctrl+Alt+H, but you cannot set Win+H. WinKey simply gives the Windows key more importance.

Launch WinKey and click Add button to begin assigning hotkeys to launch applications, folders, web links, or apply actions. Select a file (such as a shortcut or EXE file for portable applications) or folder, a shortcut key from the drop down list and choose a source file or folder in a normal, minimized or maximized window. The Shortkey list contains a number of combinations which can be selected as hotkeys.

Assigned hotkeys can be removed and edited from either the buttons on the main interface or via right-click context menu. WinKey has quite a simplified user interface and does not requires any elaborate settings. However, you will require running it in from system tray to use the assigned keys. It is also worth mentioning here, that WinKey is not compatible with 64-bit operating systems and works only on 32-bit OS.

WinKey works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (32-bit only).

Download WinKey

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Lately, we have been seeing a lot Ubuntu launcher applications but nothing can match DockBarX when it comes to customizability. It is a feature rich Ubuntu dock application which is somewhat similar to  the previously reviewed Cairo Dock. However, unlike Cairo Dock and Docky, it has more advanced customization options which allow completely transforming its look according to user preferences. One interesting aspect of DockBarX  is that it can also be used with Awant Window Navigator as a Gnome Panel applet.

To Install DockBarX, open a Terminal window and enter the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dockbarx dockbarx-themes-extra

Once installed, it can be launched by pressing ALT+F2 and entering dockx in the text box.

You can either use it with Unity or as a standalone dock with the classic Ubuntu menu. In case you use it with unity, all launched items will automatically be opened with DockBarX. It is worth mentioing here, that the Windows Aero style glass look in the below screenshot is not available by default but is rather the result of some tweaking.

To change the look of DockbarX, launch DockBarX Preferences from the Applications menu. This customization option will be automatically installed with DockbarX. From the Appearance tab, you can change the color and theme of the Dock and select an effect type (including Compiz Water, Blinking and Static).

The Window List tab provides dock alignment options and allows settings a time delay for switching between window lists. DockBarX is not centered by default and appears like the gnome panel, you can change that look by aligning it in the center or a specific corner from the available options.

The Group Buttons and Window Items tabs provide the utility to assign mouse actions for performing specfied tasks. For example, you can set the middle mouse button to close all windows. The Plugins tab has two options which can be checked to enable Unity quick list and media buttons.

To further refine the look of the Dock, you can change the dock size, opacity, smoothness and set custom hotkeys from Dock and Advanced tabs.

With the above mentioned options, you can change anything from the transparency to the button size of DockXBar to suite your needs.

Download DockBarX

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Unfortunately, there aren’t many free file(s) attribute changers available for Mac. That’s why many users change the file and folder modification date and time stamps manually. This may become a long winded process to go around with especially when it’s required to change hundreds of folders’  modified and created date/time stamps.

SyncFF is a free tool for Mac to change files and folders modified and created time stamps. Unlike other available tools, it doesn’t require time and date input fields to be filled by users. First it finds the file, in specified folder, having most recent modification time, and then replaces other files’ modification time stamps with most recently modified file’s date and time stamp. This streamlines the date and time stamps across all the files contained in a folder.

The application replaces time stamps recursively. You can also include sub-folders in the process to change their modification / creation time stamp as well. SyncFF also acts as a service. You can invoke SyncFF function as a service after selecting its service from folder’s right click menu. Once you’ve specified the service, you can assign a hotkey combination for its service from Services Preferences to invoke it by just using the hotkey combination.

The application usage is simple. Just drag the folders whose date and time stamps are to be updated with most recent modified file’s time stamp over the main interface. It takes some time which depends upon the number of files contained in the folder.

Once process is finished, it shows time stamp of most recently modified files. By default, it doesn’t include folder and sub-folders, however, you can disable Ignore Folders option from Preferences to include folders and sub-folders as well.

From the File menu, you can view log file in console. The log shows details for each function it performed while changing folder modification and creation time.

To run it as a service, hold Control key and click on folder to select Sync Folders Dates To Last Modified File service, to quickly change the time stamps of all the contained files and folders. SyncFF works on Mac 10.6.6

Get SyncFF from App Store

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Sunflower is an open source two pane file manager for Ubuntu Linux. This small, yet highly customizable file manager comes with a number of handy hotkeys and can be further improved by installing plugins. It represents an alternative toolbar in the form of it’s Tools menu. You can also add or edit bookmarks, empty history in a single click and create a mount list.

After downloading the package, extract the file and run the Sunflower.py file to open the two pane file manager.

You can use a number of hotkeys for more efficient and quick file management. The main window hotkeys include the following:

Main window shortcuts

• Shortcut Description
• CTRL + A Select all files
• (star) (numpad) Invert selection
• + (numpad) Select with pattern
• - (numpad) Unselect with pattern
• ALT + + (numpad) Select items with same extension
• ALT + – (numpad) Unselect items with same extension
• CTRL + F1 Show bookmarks/mounts for left panel
• CTRL + F2 Show bookmarks/mounts for right panel
• CTRL + ALT + P Options window
• CTRL + H Toggle show hidden files
• CTRL + Q Quit application
• F11 Full screen
• F12 Compare directories

Bookmarks can be added and edited from Options menu. Likewise, the simple Home option enables going to the Home directory. You can also run Terminal commands from the Terminal button.. The available Terminal shortcuts are as follows:

Terminal shortcuts

• Shortcut Description
• CTRL + SHIFT + C Copy selected text
• CTRL + SHIFT + V Paste text from clipboard
• CTRL + T Duplicate tab
• CTRL + W Close tab
• CTRL + Tab Next tab
• CTRL + SHIFT + Tab Previous tab
• CTRL + Z Open terminal tab

Sunflower can be quite handy for accessing documents in a two side by side panes,  for easy comparison of the required documents from separate directories. This is much easier than to open two overlapping windows for comparing of files and folders. For example, one may wish to organize pictures in a separate folder in the Home directory, while the images may be scattered around the Downloads directory. In such a case, one can easily manage the pictures by opening Downloads folder in one  pane and the Home folder in the other.

Download Sunflower

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The default taskbar icons of the opened windows are quite convenient because of their compact size. However, sometimes it can be quite handy to view labels of the opened windows to enhance focus and to identify programs easily. This may, particularly, be the case with people who require working with side by side stacked windows of similar labels (e.g. when working with Windows Explorer) or Internet Explorer pinned site which might not have unique labels.

Taskbar Labels is  portable application which allows toggling the taskbar text labels on and off using a simple hotkey. The aim of this app is to help you easily display and hide taskbar text labels for open windows. To view the labels, you will require launch this application each time, therefore, it might be a good idea to create a desktop shortcut for the executable file.

Once the app is launched, the text labels automatically appear. You can turn the labels on or off by hitting the Ctrl+F11 hotkey.

The default hotkey can be changed by right clicking on the system tray icon and selecting a hotkey from Settings.

Taskbar Labels works on Windows 7 only. We tested it successfully on our Windows 7 x64 machine.

Download Taskbar Labels

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Many media players have built-in option to register hotkey combinations, so that you can quickly use their provided functions and features, such as, play/pause media playback, shuffle playlist, sort playlist items, jump to next/previous track, etc, but it becomes quite tiring to specify shortcut keys in each media player for performing more or less same type of actions, such as, play, pause, stop, etc.

MediaKeys offers a one-stop solution by allowing you to register global hotkeys for a range of media applications, including, Windows Media Player, Winamp, iTunes, foobar2000, and MediaMonkey. You can control these media players with same set of registered hotkey combinations. You switch between supported media players from the system tray in order to use specified shortcut keys. Apart from controlling media playback, you can also set global mouse click behavior and keyboard numpad + / – keys to control volume across all the media players.

After launching the application, right-click its system tray icon and select Edit Settings. From Controls window, select media program from the list and click create hotkeys.

Now register hotkeys for play/pause media player playback, skip forward key and back key. Once shortcut keys are defined, click Save on main settings window. In similar way, you can associate shortcut keys for other supported media applications.

After you’ve registered hotkeys for your favorite media player(s), head over to Volume tab to set mouse click-scroll behavior and enable numpad + key for controlling volume. Now, click Save followed by Close.

When you want to play media file, for instance, in Windows Media Player, just bring up MediaKeys editing window again to select Windows Media Player from the list in order to use defined global hotkeys with Windows Media Player. During testing, we found it to be working fine with all supported applications, however, developer needs to improve generic media player feature to control other non-listed media players.

Download MediaKeys

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Typhoeus Hotkeys is a tiny application for hotkey lovers who want to open and control active applications by using nothing but only keyboard. It lets you create hotkey combinations for any program, document, and file which you use most frequently on your system. Unlike other application launchers which supports hotkey combinations, it can register a single letter or number as hotkey rather than lengthy Ctrl + Alt + Shift keys combination.

Once hotkeys are all set up, the application will be minimized to system tray, letting you access associated apps by using the assigned shortcut keys. You can also export registered hotkeys in order to use them on any other system without having to configure them from scratch.

It comes with a miniscule interface. To begin, click Create key and give the shortcut key an appropriate name followed by entering the full path of application, key (Number or Letter), and key activity. Once done, click Save Hotkey. Now start registering as many applications, files, and website URL with hotkeys in similar manner. Once done, select the hotkey and click Activate a Key.

In Activate key window, use the hotkey that you’ve set to verify launching of associated application/file and document.

Now close the main screen. When you want to launch an application or open a file, click the Key icon in system tray and use the combination to open a specific application/file or to visit a specified website.

The system tray menu lets you view all the allocated hotkeys, create backup, and configure application general settings. If you want to register a new hotkey, click View Hotkeys and repeat the procedure of defining a new hotkey combination.

Below you can watch a brief usage demonstration video from the developer.

Before registering a new hotkey combination, make sure that you’re not associating a pre-registered hotkey to avoid conflicts. If you want to remove a hotkey, you can disable it instead of deleting it so that it can be used later. It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Download Typhoeus Hotkeys

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ALT+Tab is a common hotkey combination for previewing active windows on the desktop. Windows and Mac both display their default icons when this hotkey is used on either of the operating systems. If you are a Mac user who recently switched to Windows or would simply like to give a more stylish look to the ALT+Tab preview, then you must try MacSwitch. It is a simple application that replaces the default Windows Alt-Tab style with the Mac OS X style.

Simply install and run MacSwitch to replace the default ALT+Tab Windows style to Mac OS X style. To go back to the default appearance, press ALT+Tab, right-click on the dialog and select Exit. You can add the MacSwitch to the startup folder to auto start it with Windows.

MacSwitch is a stylish way of viewing active windows as compared to the default Windows ALT+Tab appearance. However, one drawback is that Windows displays content of the opened windows which does not appear in the Mac style. For example, if you have opened the D drive in Computer (My Computer), it will be visible in the preview if you are using the default Windows Alt+Tab preview.

Download Mac View

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EasyMon is a system tray application which runs silently in the background allowing you to quickly move applications across multiple displays in a dual-monitor (or multiple-monitors) setup. The application is developed to bring ease in adjusting/moving applications and to increase the overall productivity of the user.

You only need to press one of the defined hotkey for moving the active application across the monitors. By default, Win+cursor keys combination are setup to adjust the application window in respective position. For instance, if you need to move the application on left monitor, press Win+left cursor key to move it accordingly.

Hotkeys Functionality

• [Win] + [ > ] : Moves the active  application window to the right side monitor.
• [Win] + [ < ] : Moves the active application window to the left side monitor
• [Win] + [ ^ ] : Maximizes the active application window.
• [Win] + [ v ] : If the active application window is maximized then it will return to the normal state, if the active application window is in the normal state then it will be minimized.

Furthermore, the default hotkeys setup can be changed from Manage Setting window, which can be accessed from the system tray menu.

You will also find an option to stop EasyMon temporarily.

The application runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Our testing was done on Windows 7 x86 system.

Download EasyMon

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There are many programs & applications on your system which you use all the time and nothing is better if you could assign hotkeys to them. Though there are apps like iKey for this purpose but that really bogs down the system. This is where Apptivate steps in.

Apptivate lets you manually assign keyboard shortcuts for any application on your system for an easy access. Launch it from the menu bar, select an application or script file, choose a key or key combination, and you’re all set!

You can now instantly launch applications with the defined hotkeys. It comes with a clean and unintrusive interface where you can do things pretty quickly as it shows the key combination in front of each selected program so you don’t have to click on it to see. It comes with an option to hide applications when they are active. Clicking the hotkey (which you used to launch them) will hide the applications in the background, clicking it again will make again will make the application visible. Please note that once hidden, the application works in the background and is not closed. This option is not enabled by default and can be done so via the Preferences.

This simple tool is a must-have application launcher for all the Mac users looking for a light-weight & simple alternative to iKey.

Minimum requirement to use this tool is Mac OS X 10.6 or later.

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After exiting from an extended desktop mode under Windows 7, you will be surprised to see all windows that were left opened in second monitor, back in the primary monitor. To leave extended mode hit the keyboard shortcut Win + P and select Disconnect Projector. But this is not all.

Windows 7 includes two new shortcuts; Win + Shift + Left Arrow Key & Win + Shift + Right Arrow Key to move windows between multiple monitors. Thus, making 3rd party apps, such as, MonitorSwitch, useless when it comes to dual-monitor setup.

The above mentioned two hotkeys only work in Extended mode. Lets say your windows got misplaced when you were in a single monitor mode, now these two hotkeys will not work. You could either use the following method which worked in old operating systems as well,

Select the hidden or misplaced windows from the taskbar, hit Alt+Space, press M, and finally press any one of the arrow keys (doesn’t matter which one you press) before moving the mouse.

or use another quicker and memorable method which only works on Windows 7.

Hit Win + P to bring up display options, select Extend and use the Win + Shift + Left Arrow Key hotkey to bring back the off screen windows. Now hit Win + P once again and return back to single monitor mode.

Windows 7 does a great job in treating the off screen windows, so you might not fall in such situations frequently, but when you do, lose no hope.

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If you are a power user, then you should add WinHotkey in your arsenal. It is a great application which allows you to to assign a hotkey to control various Windows features, pre-installed and 3rd party applications, folders, and any sort of file.

By default, it includes many pre-configured system wide keys to launch commonly used applications like the Internet Explorer, Calculator, System Properties etc.

To add a new hotkey, click the New Hotkey option, then specify the Description, Key and the Application to launch(or Folder/Document to open). Please note that the Hot key combination include the Windows key, a letter or number, and can also include any combination of Alt, Control, and Shift. For Example, lets say that I wish to open the “Addictivetips.doc” located in the D drive of my laptop with the Windows + A hotkey, then here is how I can achieve it.

To be more explanatory, I select Windows from the check box, choose A from the drop down list and then Choose Open a Document in the I want WinHotKey to option. At the end, I will browse and select the location of the file to be launched. Similarly If you wish to launch any application by using some particular hotkey, then choose the Launch an Application option in the I want WinHotKey to drop down list.

The following list of tasks can be assigned to a WinHotKey.

• Launch an application
• Open a Document
• Open a Folder
• Automatically type some text
• Control the current Window

Jjust select the hotkey and hit the Edit Hotkey option to edit any particular hotkey. The Remove Hotkey option removes any configured hotkey.

Download WinHotKey

It works perfectly on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2003/2008. Enjoy!

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In this post we have quickly compiled some useful Word 2010 hotkeys. For those who don’t know, we are covering tips on Microsoft Office 2010 for a  few months now, and have covered quite some tips on Word 2010 as well. In order to work faster and improve your productivity, here is a short list of shortcuts available in Word 2010.

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Ubuntu offers one of the best graphical interface for users when compared with other Linux distros. Navigating through your desktop icons, menu and other options has been made easier and much more faster with the use of hotkeys. If you know some hotkeys, you can move through your desktop and system quickly. Below, I have listed some of the commonly used hotkeys in Ubuntu Linux.

Alt + F1 is used to open the Applications Menu. It is very first menu on task bar (also called Panel in Ubuntu).

Alt +Tab is used to navigate through running programs. Hold Ctrl and Alt Keys and keep pressing Tab to move to next program.

Ctrl + F10 is used to open the desktop background menu. All open applications will be minimize and you will be seeing desktop background.

F2 is used to rename the focused object in desktop.

Ctrl +ALt + L is used to lock screen. You will need to enter administrator’s password to unlock it.

Shift + F10 opens the pop up menu for the focused object, i.e. it is alternative to mouse’s right click.

Ctrl + L is used to clear the terminal. If you are working in your terminal and wants the terminal output to be cleared, you can use this key.

Alt + F2 is used to open Run Application box. Here you enter the name of application to run it.

Ctrl + Q is used to close any application or file. If this is unsaved document then it will ask for saving it first.

Alt + F5 is used to minimize the maximized window.

Note that we have missed quite a good number of hotkeys, the reason is that we have only covered the most basic and commonly used keyboard hotkeys. So which one is your favorite shortcut and which ones have we missed? Let us know in the comments. Enjoy!

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