What "little" program could you simply not do without?

Now Hotmail Popper is a handy little free tool. It'll allow you to download your Hotmail or MSN e-mail to a normal POP mail client (such as Eudora). Unlike standard mail accounts which allow users to retrieve their e-mail through a POP mail client, Hotmail can normally only be checked on the web, or via Outlook Express. With Hotmail Popper, you can use your favorite POP mail client to retrieve your e-mail from your Hotmail account. In addition, Hotmail Popper allows you to send e-mails through Hotmail's service, as if it was a normal SMTP (outgoing mail) server.

Mike Lin's "Startup Monitor" has been mentioned. But, since I think I could make a credible argument that it's the most valuable program on the planet, I'll mention it again.

http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

Wow! 17 pages of favorites. Still haven't run across one of my faves; I use Webshots, and my desktop is full of icons, and sometimes I like to clear the desktop temporarily so I can see the wallpaper picture more clearly.

Here's a dead link, describing the program, but apparently the program is not available anymore. If anyone has a link where I can get this thing, please post it. Thanks.

http://download.com.com/3001-2195-9675230.html

Are you referring to DeskHide ?

Chuck:
Try this one. I have used it for 2-3 years and it is a good 'un.
BTW, it runs perfectly well on Win98SE and probably other OSs as well.


What is CoolDesktop?

It's a Windows 95 taskbar utility, it sits in the tray area (where the
volume control is), if you click on it it hides all your desktop icons,
click again and they reappear! Thats it, it just tidies things up and
lets you have an uncluttered view of your wallpaper.

It can also check an internet email account for email, use the setup
option to configure your pop3 account, email server and password.
The tray icons hint will change when email is present.


Installation.
-------------
Double click on CoolDesktop icon, you may want to put a shortcut
in your startup group.

Use.
----
Click the icon to display/hide icons, right click for a menu.

CHUCK,
I HAVE XP HOME AND I DON'T KNOW IF YOU CAN DO THIS.

CLICK ON DESKTOP
SELECT ARRANGE ICONS BY
CLICK SHOW DESKTOP [THIS ACTUALLY DESELECTS DESKTOP] AND IT CLEARS YOUR ICONS OFF YOUR DESK TOP.

NOW,CLICK YOUR TASKBAR
SELECT QUICK LAUNCH
THIS SETS UP A POP UP MENU FROM YOUR TASKBAR WITH ALL YOUR ICONS [TEXT ONLY] IN IT.

http://snurl.com/16vk

you may find something interesting here,as i've just updated it.

Hi Chuck,

I found the latest webshots d/l site and here it is

http://download.com.com/3000-2336-10129345.html

but it doesn't sound like your favorite little program. I could be wrong.

In any case, here is how I found it by using another of my favorite programs.

I used your URL and once I had opened that page, I used the Google Toolbar to search the site for "webshots". This toolbar has been invaluable because so many websites either do not have a search engine or it is not very robust.

Anytime, I can't find something on a website that I think should be there, I enter the data into the search box on the google toolbar on my IE browser.

FYI ... The last time that I checked the google toolbar only worked on IE.

Here is where you can get the google toolbar:

http://www.google.com/ and scroll down the page.

Cheers,

Linda




;) ;)

I thought that I had mentioned this toolbar in this thread, but did not see it on a search, so thought I would tack it on here, since the subject of the last post was the google toolbar, and the fact that it is only applicable for IE (?).

Anyway, long story short, I had used the google toolbar since it's inception, and it still lurks in my IE6 browser. BUT, I have been trying out other browsers and missed the capabilities of the google toolbar just sitting there, so found a new search toolbar that would work with other, ALL, browsers, or independantly of them...

The big advantage to this newer concept is that the icon for the toolbar icon reside ("hides", minimizes) in the sys tray, and can be activated when you need it, left there if necessary (it will fit quite unobtrusively in (over the top of) the top description bar of any browser panel). A pull down menu allows you to switch selected search engines, so you can still use google or switch to another more appropriate one if necessary.

The good thing is that it is freeware, and I have not found any problems with it whatsoever. So, it is now my indespensible little peice of search toolbar freeware.

http://www.searchbarpro.com/

Here's a cool little Program: VNC (Virtual Network Computing)

It is remote control software which allows you to view and interact with one computer (the "server") using a simple program (the "viewer") on another computer anywhere on the Internet. The two computers don't even have to be the same type, so for example you can use VNC to view an office Linux machine on your Windows PC at home. VNC is freely and publicly available and is in widespread active use by millions throughout industry, academia and privately.

You can download a copy of VNC here

Ntldr :D



Okay, I'll get serious for a few seconds. My number one program is Spybot S&D. It works correctly and quickly, saving much aggravation hunting down the "bad boys". :cool:

Keywester,

Back to the Google Toolbar:

Certainly, I like having it sit at the top of my browser but what I really like is the A+++ Google search engine.

Google can find things that the other search engines can't and at one time or another, I have used most of them.

Now I just use Google. The toolbar makes it easy and convenient.

Linda

:D

Agreed Linda, and I still use the google toolbar most of the time when I revert to the IE browser. And even when I switch to a browser other than IE (Opera, Firebird, SlimBrowser), which does not have the google toolbar "built in", then I use the searchbar pro toolbar, but usually have the searchbar pro default set on the google search engine. Altho, in that situation, I have checked out the other available search engines selectable in searchbar pro, and sometimes feel better with altavista results, a little less of a hassle sometimes finding what I want, and of course usually get very different results sometimes to a positive advantage (I have often done comparative searches with both), and altavista appears to be just as fast returning results, on my machine anyway...

And then there are the other specialized search engines to use in specific types of research, but that would be major digression in this thread.

Point is, I would caution on getting too locked into a habit of using google ALL the time, as you might find there are situations where it would be more beneficial for you to specialize your searching. And that is where the searchbar pro toolbar has an advantage, particularly when it can stay hidden out of the way in the sys tray, or even resident on the top descriptor bar of the browser panel...

Happy Searching... :)

I appreciate all the fine contributions here, so I thought I'd throw in a few:
I like having a calculator close at hand, and I'm happy with the free ESBCalc
http://www.esbconsult.com/esbcalc/esbcalc.html

I like Winamp for internet radio
http://classic.winamp.com/

FreeRIP MP3 does a nice job ripping cd music to mp3s
http://www.mgshareware.com/frmmain.html

I wouldn't be without dBpowerAMP Music Converter for converting music to different formats.
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

And MusicMatch Jukebox saved my life when I upgraded to Windows XP and could no longer use EasyCD 4, and the built-in XP burning feature wouldn't work right with my USB burner. I'm glad my new burner came with Nero, which has been wonderfully dependable.

CDex works well for ripping songs from cds to mp3z, avail at www.download.com

it has the feature to rip into wav aswell.