Friday, August 20th, 2010
By Carlos Cisneros
I have been wanting to write a short post on 5 Windows apps I find useful. I pretty much use these apps everyday and have found them to be user-friendly and most importantly they are free!
1. Royal TS – http://www.code4ward.net/main/
Long gone are the days when I used Remote Desktop Connection to access machines on a network. Royal TS is simple to set up, it’s UI is a delight to navigate and I have found that I get more work done and can switch between different sessions very quickly. This app is a must for IT professionals.
2. Pidgin - http://www.pidgin.im/
It’s not called the universal chat client for nothing! I used to switch between Facebook Chat in a tab on my browser and Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger. Instead of having all three open, I found that Pidgin can integrate all these protocols into one buddy list. The great thing is I don’t even need to log into Facebook to chat with my friends, they just show up in one buddy list which you can sort by name. Great stuff!
3. Snipping Tool – Built into Windows Vista and Windows 7
This is a must for bloggers and anyone that needs to take screenshots. The snipping tool can be found in the Windows Vista and Windows 7 start menu in the Accessories folder. Once launched, drag the cursor around the area you want to snip. Save the image and presto! You get a screenshot in a few seconds.
Want to speed up the process? I went a step further my assigning a keyboard shortcut in the Snipping Tool properties window. In the Shortcut key field, hit the combination of keys you want to assign, and hit apply. In my case, now all I need to do to start snipping is hit Ctrl + F12. Love it!
4. CCleaner – http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard
You will be amazed at how much crap your browser and operating system can gather. Run CCleaner and free up some much needed space. It’s fast, it’s efficient and it takes seconds. I use it all the time.
5. Google Chrome – http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/landing_chrome.html?hl=en
I suppose this is not really an app, but need to mention it as I use it everyday! What can I say? I love Google’s browser. It’s lighting fast, it launches instantly, and there are great extensions you can install. It is currently my favorite browser 
Recommended extensions: AdBlock, Facebook Fixer, IE Tab.
