To improve your productivity, you may put different shortcut on your computer desktop and you can easily locate the program or files. But you cannot put everythings on your desktop. You may only put those frequently use program or files on your desktop. If you are looking for other programs or files, you may need to search via Start Menu or Windows Explorer. Launchy is a free software which can help you to launch programs or files easily.

Launchy is a free program launcher. It allows you to launch your programs, documents, files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes. You can forget about your start menu, the desktop icons and even your file manager. Launchy create index for your programs and other files. You can simply types in the Launchy, it will lists out the relevant programs or files for you.

It will hide automatically after use. You can hit Alt+Space to bring it forward.

There are other useful features in Launchy
- Search Google, Yahoo, Msn
Type Google or Yahoo then hit Tab, type your query and hit Enter.
It will load your browser accordingly.

- Check the weather
Type in Weather, then hit Tab, then city or zip code and hit Enter.

- Browse your computer
Type in C:, then hit Tab, then a folder or file, and continue

- Built in calculator
For example, type 1+2, it will show 3 immediately

- Index your music, pictures, bookmarks, and folders
Under My Documents\ folder or your custom folders.

Launchy can be found in
http://www.launchy.net/

Graph Paper Printer software enables you to print a variety of blank graph papers.

You will never need to buy graph paper again! Print it out when you need it.

Graph Paper Printer offers different types of blank graph paper printing. It includes music manuscripts, Cartesian paper, Mercator paper, polar paper, dot paper, hexagon patterns, Axonometric paper, Table and others.

It has 20 pre-defined patterns built in the software. You can even customize the paper details, specify line colors, widths and page margins to fit your own needs.

Graph Paper Printer software can be found in
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/graphpaper-printer/graphpp.html

It is wise to keep a digital format of your paper documents for backup purpose. Moreover, the digital copy can be accessed easily. You don’t need to get into your file cabinet and search the document one by one.

Scan2PDF enables you to scan paper documents and save them to PDF format on your computer for digital archiving or backup. The process is simple, just scan the document and you can save the document into PDF format.

Scan2PDF is small and fast. It scans your text, and produces an image file. In addition, you can also load images from your hard drive and combine them with a scanned document, or combine multiple documents/images into a single PDF file.

You may take some times to get familiar with the user interface. But this small freeware is definitely a good tools to scan and keep your documents in PDF.

You can find Scan2PDF in following URL
http://www.koma-code.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=82

In Windows 7, there are sticky notes and you can use it to set notes and reminders.

The stiky notes will stick on your computer desktop. You can set it with different color. You can set as many notes as you want on your desktop.

The operation is simple and straight forward. Just type any text you want on the note and it will save automatically. When you keep typing in the note, your note will increase its height automatically. Of course, you can change its size according to your needs.

To add another note, you can click the “+” icon at the top and a new note will be created. You can change the color via the right-click menu.

It is a easy-to-use and helpful tool. You don’t need to find and install any software, it is already in your Windows 7 machine.

If you cannot find in your Windows 7 machine, simply click “Start” and type “Sticky Notes” in the search box. You will get it.

Nowaday, people work with computer everyday. It is always better if we can keep our schedule in the computer and alert us for the different events. For example, alarm for making online bank payment.

Talking Alarm Clock is a desktop alarm clock freeware which can remind you of important dates and events.

Talking Alarm Clock provides three types of alarm, pop-up dialog, sound notification and Microsoft Agent character animation. It also has an optional spoken announcement of the alarm text, using Microsoft Agent. You can schedule one-time reminders or recurring events (daily, weekly or monthly). You can also limit the alarms to certain Windows users. The program runs in the system tray and offers an easy to use interface that allows you to add new alarms easily.

One distinguished feature of this tool from other alarm tools is it can wake up computer from standby status. This feature is very powerful to be combined with other automation tools.

This freeware can be found in
http://www.cinnamonsoftware.com/alarm_clock.htm

We’ve prepared the 2010 Calendar!

Download Year 2010 Calendar here

If you need to have several desktop workplaces on your windows, Dexpot is the solution.

Dexpot allows you to create multiple, virtual desktops to increase the work area of your screen by up to 20 times. Each virtual desktop is independent from the others and can have its individual wallpaper, resolution, and icons (or no icons at all).

A tray icon is provided and you can easily switch between desktops. You can also set different hotkeys to move between different desktop. Right-click menu is also provided and you can move and copy windows from one desktop to another desktops. More than that, in right-click menu, you can roll up the windows or set the transparency of window. Dexpot also has a rules settings feature which allows to define the application loaded into a specified desktop. User can set up rules to automatically move, copy or close windows and more.

Dexpot is one of the most advanced desktop managers out there, that is easy enough for beginners, but offers some great flexibility for more demanding users as well. It is free for personal use. Further information can be found in
http://www.dexpot.de/

Enhance your productivity by using the Excel Shortcut Keys.

Digital camera is common today. You may have a lot of digital photos and want to share them with others. For example, you may want to share your product photos with your customers. You may want to share your beautiful photos you taken in your trip.

What’s the best way to do this? There are many ways to share your photos with others. Each options has its pros and cons. Let review them one by one.

1. Printing
This is the traditional way to do so. Simply print your digital photos with a printer and quality paper. You can have a high quality output. You may approach photo kiosk to have your photos printed if you don’t have a good printer. You can share the printout with others easily.

However, it is expensive if you want to send every friends/customers a set of photos. The qualiy of printout may go worse when time passed. Of course, this is not a environmentally friendly option too.

2. CD/DVD
Save your photos into a CD or DVD. It is relatively cheap compared to the print out. The size of a CD is about 650Mb-700Mb and the size of a DVD is 4Gb. Let says the photos size is 5Mb each, you can store over 100 photos in a CD and about 1,000 photos in a DVD. It is also cheap to ship a CD/DVD.

3. Email
This option should be taken by most of the people. But keep in mind that the photo size is large, you may bomb your recipient’s mailbox. It is also troublesome if you want to send many photos.

Another workaround is to convert the photos into a single PDF file. You can email the PDF file to others easily. The recipients can review your photos easily by flipping to-and-fro in the PDF. Photo to PDF Converter can merge multiple photos into a single PDF.

4. Upload to Website
There are some website allows you to share the photos with others. Some of them charge a fee for the storage. But some of them also provide free services but with limited storage space. You should check the terms and condition clearly before joining their services.

Tweaker for Outlook Express is a freeware product. It let you customize the appearance and improve usability. You can disabled the splash screen, set a default path for attachments, change the address book location, customize the window title and animated icon, disable Hotmail, change the reply indent character and more. The tweaks are easily applied and can be undone just as easily by using the option to restore the default settings

Tweaker for Outlook Express allows you to:

- turn off the Outlook Express splash screen.

- change the path where message attachments are stores.

- change the path where Address Book is stored.

- change the Outlook Express start page location.

- use smooth message scrolling.

- hide the Accounts Settings dialog from menu

- block executable attachments to protect you from the viruses.

- hide or show the attached images at the bottom of the message.

- change the Windows title for the dialogs of Outlook Express.

- change the small animation logos in Outlook Express and Internet Explorer.

- change the indent character from ” -> ” to other when you reply the message.

- change the database location for messages and news.

This freeware can be downloaded from

http://www.mapilab.com/outlook_express/tweaker/