Freewares/Free Softwares - 07 Jul 2011

Dexpot

Dexpot can facilitate an increase in your screen area by many times. It does this by creating 20 virtual desk tops (VDT), each one independent of the other, individual wallpaper resolution, icons, et al. With hotkeys desktops can switched or even put on an automatic slide show.

There are a couple of other VDTs, but Dexpot scores over them by its ease of use. It's easy to configure, expandable with plugins, has 3D transition effects (DirectX 9 required). You can move and copy windows at any time, thanks to the unified interface. Dexpot's extended features include password protection, transparency, window rules, and profiles.

Dexpot is free for non-commercial use unlike many others including AltDesk, which is a shareware.

Dexpot v1.5.11.1648, 64-bit compatible and automatic updates, can be downloaded at http://www.dexpot.de/index.php?id=download

SmartPower

Though most of the laptops have a solution to help power management, SmartPower, could provide a better solution. It helps to keep the power on when network activity is above a certain threshold. This can be useful when a large download is in progress. For specific processes SmartPower can keep the computer turned on, or when they aren't present, the computer simply hibernates or goes to sleep.

The computer can also be kept on keeping the power to a minimum. The wake-up schedule provides options to put the computer into hibernation or shut it down after specific tasks are done. When SmartPower sees that no rules currently apply it initiates hibernation. The computer can be scheduled to wake up for certain things and recommence the whole process all over again.

You can download its 1.1.2 version at http://ignatu.co.uk/downloads/SmartPower_1_1_2.zip  Requirements .NET Framework 3.5, Windows XP or later versions.

Mouse utilities

X-Mouse Button Control and AlwaysMouseWheel are utilities, which are capable of enhancing mouse capabilities. X-Mouse Button Control can assign specific actions for each application, which can be switched on using hotkeys or mouse buttons.

It can be a very useful tool to enhance productivity. X-Mouse Button Control can be downloaded at www.highrez.co.uk/ downloads/XMouseButtonControl.ht. The other utility "AlwaysMouseWheel" can be used over any window even if that window is not in the foreground. The program allows optionally to bring the wheel window to the foreground too.

It requires no installation, can be executed easily from the desktop.

The 20 KB AlwaysMouseWheel can be downloaded at www.softwareok.com/? Download=AlwaysMouseWheel. Please note it doesn't run on VBScroll.

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