Nilpo`s Top Windows Add-Ons
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With so many users blatantly refusing to make the switch to Windows Vista, I thought it might be a good time to revisit some of the top add-ons for Windows XP. These add-ons are designed to implement missing features, and increase productivity. Oh, and don’t worry if you are a Vista user. Most of these add-ons will work for you as well!
When I sat down to create this list I had originally intended to do a Top Ten list. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get it down below twelve. So here are a dozen must-have apps that I don’t think any Windows user should be without. And perhaps the best part of all—they are all absolutely free of charge!
Without wasting any more time, the first couple of freebies in this list are Windows shell enhancements. These programs integrate themselves into the Windows shell and present themselves in the form of context menu entries.
RemoveOnReboot Shell Extension
This add-on has been a long-time favorite of mine and never escapes one of these top add-on lists. It allows you to select a file that is in use to be deleted the next time the system reboots. This is handy if you are trying to replace or remove files that are in use by other programs. I personally find this very handy when trying to remove some pesky viruses and spyware that attempt to keep their own processes locked so that the average user cannot remove them. These files are no longer a problem. Simply select RemoveOnReboot from their context menu in My Computer.
Folder Size Shell Extension
If you’ve ever seen the warning that you’re getting low on disk space, you’ll love this next little gem. It adds a new Size tab to the Folder Properties dialog box in My Computer that shows the size of each folder and subfolder on your hard drive.
The view can be customized and the listing can be sorted in a number of ways. By choosing to sort in descending order by size, you can very quickly see what folders on your system are taking up the most space.
RJH Extensions
The next add-on that I have to have on my system is actually an entire group of shell extensions. RJH Extensions adds several different entries to the context menu in My Computer and provides a program to easily manage which entries are shown.
With RJH extensions, a quick mouse click can copy a file’s path to the clipboard, open a Command Prompt window to the current directory, securely shred files, rename files, or easily encrypt or decrypt them. But it doesn’t stop there. You can also create a file list and write it to a file or even print it. This add-on makes some very useful tasks very quick and easy to accomplish.
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