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Who doesn’t love to right-click, especially when browsing the Web? Whether saving images we like to our local drives, copying HTML links to send to friends, or scanning downloaded files for viruses, the right-click has become an essential part of most users’ computing lives.

Yet how many times have you right-clicked on a file in Windows and then painfully scoured a long list to find the only option you need; sometimes it’s the only one you ever use. Wouldn’t life be much simpler to have only the items you want in your right-click menu? Well, for Windows Explorer, it’s mostly possible, and the free utility FileMenu Tools makes it rather simple.

The problem with right-click menus (or “context menus,” for all you semantic sticklers) is that there’s no one place to edit them, even for something as integral as Windows Explorer. Your “Send To” shortcuts are generally editable in your “Documents and Settings” directory, e.g. “C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\SendTo,” but menu items for applications like WinRAR or your favorite FTP program are likely only accessible via your Windows Registry. Editing the Registry can be a hassle–and sometimes downright dangerous–for casual PC users.

FileMenu Tools changes that. Not only can you remove almost all of the right-click menu items that you never use, but the program also offers more than 20 valuable context-menu items that you can choose to include, as well as the ability to create your own. Find and replace for multiple documents and batch-file renaming are only a few of the very cool features that FileMenu Tools can add to your right-click menu. In fact, those new features are worth an article of their own, so for today, I’ll only focus on paring down the Windows Explorer context menu to the items that I want to include.

The FileMenu Tools context-menu options include very cool features.

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When you first start FileMenu Tools, your standard Windows context menu will grow rather than shrink. That’s because FileMenu Tools adds all of its optional items such as “Shred Files,” “Change Time,” and “Copy Content” to your right-click menu, along with a few new dividers.

Have no fear. The first tab of the main FileMenu Tools interface, called Commands of FileMenu Tools, displays all of those new context-menu options with checkboxes next to each. To get rid of them all, simply unselect the checkboxes, and then hit the green checkmark in the upper left corner to apply your changes. As I mentioned, there are some very cool features in those commands, but that’s a subject for another day.

Next, take a look at the “Send To… ” menu tab of FileMenu Tools. These are the commands that are also stored in your Documents and Settings directory. Again, simply uncheck the options that you don’t want in your right-click menu, then click the green checkmark to apply those changes. If you change your mind before applying, the red X will cancel all your changes.

Adding your own item to the Send To… menu is a snap

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It’s also fairly easy to add a new program or location to the “Send To…” submenu. In my example, I’ve added Mozilla Firefox, because I often browse directories as well as open files with it. To add it to my “Send To…” items, I used Edit -> Add Command, selected the “New Command” that was created, and then hit Edit -> Properties to enter in the name (Mozilla Firefox) and the target (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox2\firefox.exe). Voila. Now I can send any directory, folder, or file that I want to my default browser.

The Commands of other applications tab is where you can trim the most.

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The third tab of the main FileMenu Tools interface is likely the most useful. This area lets you remove (or add) commands from applications on your PC, such as compression programs, FTP software, and other utilities. Most programs, such as the aforementioned WinRAR, are good about making it easy to customize context-menu items from their own interface. However, others aren’t so nice, and if you’ve got a lot you want to disable at once, FileMenu Tools makes it much easier than searching around through the “Advanced Options” of individual applications.

The Commands of other applications tab is divided into a variety of areas that you likely use with Windows Explorer, such as “All file types,” “Drives,” “and “Directories.” The most commonly used context menu is for “All file types,” so let’s take a look at that one. In my example, I had 12 different commands for various applications or Windows actions in my default right-click menu, but I really only use two–VirusScan (currently McAfee) and WinRAR. So I unselect the checkboxes for the rest, click the green apply checkmark, and my list is quickly truncated, as you can see from the image below.

Take a look at my context menus before and after FileMenu Tools.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Now, as far as I can tell, FileMenu Tools can’t get rid of all of the default Windows right-click menu items, such as Copy, Rename, or the never-used (in my case) Create Shortcut. To remove some of those options, you will need to roll up your sleeves and get down and dirty in the Windows Registry. Also, reordering right-click menu elements is extremely limited; it’s easy to change the order of FileMenu tools commands or those you create your own, but many existing Windows commands can’t be reordered. For removing unnecessary third-party applications and customizing, however, FileMenu Tools provides a simple, easy, and free way to clear away some of the clutter.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ll take a look soon at all of the functionality you can add to Windows Explorer with FileMenu Tools. Tell me what you think of the app or ask any questions you have about it in the comments.

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It’s high time the J Dilla protege, a Jaylib contributor, got a feature full-length, and Simpson proves a muscular and engaging voice on “Ode to the Ghetto.” Pouring years of Detroit wisdom into every track, he manages, with his powerful baritone, to both intimidate and endear.

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Responding to an urgent e-mail about your compromised bank account is tempting, almost involuntary. That’s exactly what phishers are counting on when they link you to a false site and pump you for personal details. Learn how to skirt their tricks in this Insider Secrets video, and remind yourself of other ways to avoid suspicious Web sites that might not have your best intentions in mind.

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A new Mozilla Foundation effort to improve its Thunderbird open-source e-mail software now has an official name–and its first public goals.

Thunderbird 3.0 is due to ship by the end of the year with a more comprehensive search feature and official integration of the Lightning calendar add-on, said David Ascher, chief executive of the newly named Mozilla Messaging subsidiary. The first alpha release will come sooner, though, for those who want to test the software.

“I’m expecting we’ll have some public releases probably within three months,” Ascher said.

Mozilla is best known for its success with the Firefox browser, which has dented Microsoft Internet Explorer’s dominance and sparked programmers to build a rich selection of extensions. Now the group is trying to apply the formula to e-mail software. Even though many rely on Web-based services for the chore, e-mail software is still widely used, and Thunderbird could open another major beachhead for open-source software in mainstream computing.

Although Mozilla Messaging’s priority is to produce good software, not specifically to dethrone Microsoft’s dominant Outlook software, the new calendar ability makes Thunderbird a more viable competitor, particularly in corporate environments.

Adding a third Mozilla group can be confusing, so let me spell out the distinctions for those of you who haven’t scrutinized every development in the last 10 years since Netscape and its acquirer, AOL, spun off the Mozilla project in 1998. The Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit group, is in charge overall; for-profit subsidiaries Mozilla Corp. and Mozilla Messaging run the Web browser and e-mail projects, respectively.

Mozilla Messaging also has named a three-person board of directors: Ascher; Chris Beard, general manager of Mozilla Labs; and Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, the open-source database company Sun Microsystems has just agreed to acquire for about $1 billion. More are likely to be added later as the organization grows, Ascher said.

The organization has only five or six employees, he said, but others contribute, too, including Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox engineers, Sun’s employees working full-time on Lightning, and Qualcomm programmers moving their Eudora software to a Thunderbird base. “You quickly get to dozens of developers and hundreds of testers,” he said.

Messaging beyond e-mail
Mozilla Messaging isn’t just about e-mail. The new name reflects some of the subsidiary’s ambitions.

Thunderbird already can handle RSS feeds and newsgroups, but ultimately, Ascher wants Mozilla Messaging’s software to work with instant messaging, mobile phone text messaging, and Web sites such as Facebook or Flickr that have their own e-mail systems.

Although many of those sites don’t open up their internal e-mail systems, at least at present, tightly integrating over the Web could sidestep that barrier. “Because we’re built on the same platform as Firefox, we can use Web sites quite easily,” Ascher said.

Ascher hopes the new Thunderbird will begin paving the way for such possibilities, in part by enabling a wide range of experimentation.

“There’s a lot of engineering work that may not show its face in 3.0 but that will make it possible for other people to build extensions that plug into Thunderbird 3,” Ascher said.

Another fruitful avenue for experimentation is spam filtering and antiphishing security, he added. Firefox has a blacklist security feature that attempts to protect people from phishing e-mails that try to trick recipients into entering passwords or other sensitive information into bogus Web sites. “It’s possible to leverage technology in Firefox 3 to detect phishing and incorporate it into Thunderbird,” Ascher said.

For instant messaging software, Ascher is looking at XMPP, the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol used by Jabber and Google Talk. “That kind of technology might make its way into Thunderbird someday,” he said.

Improving search–but not with ads
Nearer-term priorities, though, are improving Thunderbird 2.0’s search, adding calendar abilities, and making Thunderbird easier to use, Ascher said.

“What we’re trying to do with Thunderbird 3 is make a better, more integrated search experience–search that spans e-mail, calendar, address books (and) maybe someday IM conversations,” he said.

Integrating search has proved lucrative: Google paid Mozilla $66.8 million in 2006 for making Google the default home page and search-box option. But adding that sort of search to e-mail isn’t on the Thunderbird to-do list.

“When people search (e-mail), they tend to be searching for information, not for things to buy. It’s not a great environment to be throwing ads in front of people,” Ascher said.

Revenue, in fact, isn’t even on the current worry list.

“I’m deferring the revenue model issues for a while,” Ascher said. The first priority will be to produce good software. “The model used for Firefox was not to generate something that would generate revenue, it was to create the best browser possible. I’m following that recipe again.”

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(Credit: Lavasoft)

Despite a notable backlash from some Ad-Aware SE fans, Ad-Aware 2007 is still a very powerful weapon in the fight against malware. Ad-Aware 2007 is bigger than its previous editions, it tends to use up more system resources, and most unfortunately, all of its premium (paid) features and even applications like Ad-Watch 2007 and the Host File Editor are included with the free version, but are nonoperational. Despite those minor complaints, the new program did add valuable features, including support for multiple browsers, a Web privacy tool, and, more recently, multilingual support (although French is the only available language thus far).

This tutorial is a detailed walkthrough for installing, setting up, and running Ad-Aware 2007. My screenshots are taken from a PC with Windows XP SP2. Ad-Aware 2007 supports Windows 2000, XP, 2003 Server, and Vista, but only the 32-bit versions. Ad-Aware 2007 does not support any 64-bit versions of Windows at this time. The rest of its requirements are minimal: 600MHz processor, 50MB RAM, and 50MB free hard-drive space.

Step 1: Download the Ad-Aware 2007 installer to your computer.

If you’ve ever used Download.com before, you’re already familiar with the process: browse to the Ad-Aware 2007 product page and click the “Download Now” link. Alternatively, you can search for “Ad-Aware 2007″ and then click “Download Now” from the Download.com search results page.

Click the “Save” button in the ensuing dialog to download the installer to a specific location on your hard drive. Depending on your browser settings, Firefox or Internet Explorer will ask you where you want to save the file, or place it directly into a specified directory on your machine. I personally use a directory at the top level of my hard drive called “DL” where I save all applications I download.

Save the Ad-Aware 2007 installer to your local drive.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Step 2: Run the Ad-Aware 2007 installer

There are a variety of ways to run an application in Windows, so I’ll focus on the most commonly used path–using Windows Explorer, navigate to the local directory where you saved the Ad-Aware 2007 installer file (currently named “aaw2007.exe”) and double-click it to start the installer.

Double-click aaw2007.exe to start the installation

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At this point, you’ll be asked to select your language. As mentioned, Ad-Aware 2007 recently added support for French users, so your choices are “English” and “Francais.” I always love a chance to show off my high-school French, but I’ll stick with the English version, since it applies to more of our audience.

Step 3: Follow the steps in the Ad-Aware 2007 installation wizard

Wizard! Proceed through the Ad-Aware 2007 installation by following the steps provided, clicking “Next” to advance through each step. First, Ad-Aware 2007 will remind you that the software is only free for home users. Next, you’ll need to read and accept the end-user license agreement (EULA). I always recommend reading EULAs because they are supposed to be legally binding, but if you’re too lazy and just want to scan it for problem issues such as privacy concerns or third-party apps, the freeware program EULAlyzer can help you out.

Next, select whether you want the settings for Ad-Aware 2007 to be applied for only the current user or for all user accounts on your computer. If you like, you can associate your real name with the program’s settings at this point, but I don’t see much reason to do so.

Now you’ll be asked to choose which type of installation you’d like to perform: Standard or Advanced. Don’t be afraid of the word “Advanced.” Selecting that option simply allows you to customize the post-installation actions of Ad-Aware 2007. You can decide whether or not you want Ad-Aware 2007 to start automatically after you install it, as well as if you’d like it to automatically perform a full or “smart” scan of your computer. I’ll explain more about “smart scans” later. The wizard also lets you choose to start Ad-Watch 2007 after installation, but that real-time protection is only available in the paid version of Ad-Aware 2007.

The Advanced installation offers options for post-installation.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The “Standard” installation simply skips that step of specifying what Ad-Aware 2007 will do after install. By default, the standard install runs the Ad-Aware 2007 application but does not automatically start a scan. The last step of both the standard and advanced installation process lets you decide where the program files for Ad-Aware 2007 will be installed. The default directory is “C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware 2007\” if “C” is the name of your hard drive, though you’re welcome to put it elsewhere. If you specify a directory that doesn’t exist, the Ad-Aware 2007 installer will create it for you.

If you’re going to use the free edition of Ad-Aware 2007, I recommend the default standard installation, because you’ll want to update your malware definitions before running a scan anyway.

Since the installer is the same for the free and paid versions of Ad-Aware 2007, when the installation completes you’ll need to add your license key for a paid version or simply click “Free” to use the free version.

Step 4: Run Ad-Aware 2007 and learn how the interface works

If you followed the standard installation, Ad-Aware 2007 will start automatically after installation. If you chose another option, run the application now by double-clicking on “Ad-Aware2007.exe” in the directory you installed it, or by selecting it from the list of programs in your Windows Start menu. You should now see the basic graphical interface for controlling Ad-Aware 2007.

The program eschews the conventional File, Edit, etc. menus and puts all of its functions in the body of the interface rather than drop-down menus. The left-hand navigation presents the application’s six main sections: Status, Scan, Ad-Watch (paid versions only), Web Update, Tools & Plug-Ins, and Settings.

The Status section loads by default when running Ad-Aware. It displays your general system protection status, the status of your definitions (the files that Ad-Aware uses to identify malware), information about your last system scan and any quarantined or ignored items, and your license status. In the left-hand navigation, two sublinks for the Status section offer scan statistics and log files for any previous scans.

The Status screen provides an overview of your setup.

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The Scan section mostly lets you choose whether you want to run a full scan, which is a thorough examination of your entire system, including all of the files in all local drives. A “smart” scan only evaluates the most critical parts of your system, including processes, the Windows Registry, and other important system folders. The Settings sections lets you customize these scans slightly, such as deciding whether to include cookies and MRU (Most Recently Used) lists. The Quarantine & Ignore subsection of the Scan section displays all items that have been detected and set aside, as well as items that you have chosen to exclude from the Ad-Aware scans. Scheduling scans is only available in paid versions.

Specify which type of scan you want on the Scan screen.

The Ad-Watch real-time protection features are only available in paid versions, so I’ll skip that section. Web Update allows you to update your definitions file to the latest version, which is essential for catching the newest variations of malware. You can also update the definitions from the Status screen, so I’m not exactly sure why this screen exists. The settings submenu of the Web Update section allows you to specify whether Ad-Aware notifies you when the definitions file is outdated, back up the definitions file, or specify a proxy server for updates.

The Tools & Plug-ins section is again mostly only for paid users. One notable free feature is TrackSweep, which will clear your Web tracks–specifically caches, cookies, history, last typed URL, and tab information–from Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera.

TrackSweep is a privacy tool that is included for free users.

The final section, Settings, offers a long list of little tweaks you can make to Ad-Aware 2007, such as automatic removal of especially dangerous items, creating log files, skipping files larger than a certain size, and many other customizations. Unlike the rest of the app, the majority of settings are available to free users, but most won’t need to change them at all.

The free version of Ad-Aware 2007 doesn't allow scheduled scans, but you can automatically set scans to run on startup using the Settings.

Two persistent buttons at the top of the Ad-Aware 2007 interface, an “i” and a question mark, provide links to information about the program and help content, respectively.

Step 5: Update your definitions file

So you’ve learned a bit about the Ad-Aware 2007 interface and you’re ready to scan, yes? No. First, you’ll want to get the most recent definitions file from Lavasoft. These definitions are generally updated weekly, and sometimes more often than that. Return to the Status screen and hit the Update button under Definitions Status. You can likewise update your definitions from Web Update.

The software update process in Ad-Aware 2007 is confusing.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Most likely there will be a new definitions file for you to download. When asked if you want to download it, click yes. Now things get a little confusing. Most likely, Ad-Aware 2007 will next tell you that there are “new software updates” available. Wait a minute–didn’t I just download the most recent release, version 7.0.2.6? Why do I need to update the software again?

Lavasoft likely receives some deserved criticism for this step. It’s quite unclear to the user what these software updates are and why they might be necessary. Selecting yes brings up the Lavasoft Update Manager, with a list of available updates. In my case, there is a GUI (graphical user interface) update, a LangEng update, and a LangFr. Even though I certainly don’t need the French language update, there’s no way to deselect it. Boo. Regardless, I generally update because I want to have the latest release of the software, and I haven’t seen any reason not to. Still, the Update Manager is one of the most confusing facets of Ad-Aware 2007, and Lavasoft would be wise to improve the experience or provide more transparency into what’s new and why it might be necessary. At least now there is a progress bar that shows the status of your update. Your new definitions file will likely finish downloading in the background, while the software update continues.

Ad-Aware 2007, why must you make me download a French language update?

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Step 6: Scan your computer with a Full Scan

After updating your definitions file and perhaps the software itself, you’re finally ready to scan your machine. Click the “Scan” button in the left-hand navigation, select “Full Scan” in the middle of the page, and then click the “Scan” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the interface. And now you wait. For quite a while. A smart scan is generally much faster than the full scan, but for the first run, I would recommend going ahead and running a full scan of your machine.

You can certainly run applications and browse the Web while the scan continues without much interference from Ad-Aware 2007, depending on the amount of RAM in your system. The Ad-Aware service that powers the scan, “aawservice.exe,” takes up a fair chunk of memory, but I haven’t had much problem with it hogging CPU.

While the scan is running, Ad-Aware 2007 will provide information about the process–such as overall progress, number of files already scanned, total infections detected, and the running time of the scan–in a “Performing Scan” screen. If you’re a fan of watching paint dry, you can sit and see Ad-Aware 2007 scour each file on your system. I prefer to take a break from the PC and take a walk or grab a cup of coffee.

Did I mention it would take a while? In fact, that’s only of the most valid complaints about Ad-Aware 2007 vs. Ad-Aware SE (the previous edition). Scans simply take a bit longer. The reason for that is still unclear to me. A button in the lower-right corner lets you stop the scan at any time, but you cannot pause it and restart from the same point. You’ll need to simply start your scan again.

A full scan can take up to an hour, depending on the number of files on your machine.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Once the scan is finally complete, you’ll be presented with a list of all of the problematic items that Ad-Aware 2007 found, broken out by Critical Objects (possible malware) and Privacy Objects (cookies and MRUs). A third tab display a log file of the most recent scan, including all of those objects, plus information about your system and running processes.

Step 7: Remove or quarantine infections

First, take a look at any Critical Objects that Ad-Aware 2007 may have detected. In my test case, it picked up a possible browser hijack attempt that seems to be in my Firefox bookmarks. Although the “tryfreeaol” bookmark is described as a potential false positive in the Lavasoft forums, I certainly didn’t add that bookmark myself, so I’ll remove it.

Tryfreeaol what? I certainly don't need that possible browser hijacker on my machine.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

For all Critical and Privacy Objects, Ad-Aware 2007 uses a rating system called the Threat Analysis Index (TAI) to quantify the danger of any suspected malware. My possible browser hijacker has a TAI rating of 3, which puts it on the lowest end of the “Medium” scale, but again, I have no need for it, so I’ll kill it.

You can either remove items directly by selecting their checkbox and clicking the “Remove” button, or Quarantine them in a special section of your computer where they can do no harm. The benefit of quarantining is that you can bring an item back if you discover that it’s actually legitimate and that you need it. Again, I don’t need to try AOL, if that’s even what that bookmark does, so I’ll remove it.

Under your Privacy Objects, you’ll like see a list of tracking cookies and MRU objects. Tracking cookies are generally placed by advertising companies looking to see what you click on, but they can be much more insidious than that. I personally clear my cookies and cache every time I quit Firefox, but you should review the list of cookies to see if there are any sites listed that you trust. All of mine appear to be advertising cookies, so I’m going to delete them.

Most Recently Used objects are Windows features that make it easier for the system to find recently used files, etc. These generally aren’t malicious, but from other users’ reports, they seem to be particularly vulnerable to infection by spyware, so I usually delete anything that Ad-Aware 2007 detects. If you recognize something that you know you use, simply add it to the Ignore list to keep Ad-Aware 2007 from detecting it on every scan.

Once you’ve removed or quarantined all of the items that you want to get rid of, click Finish to complete the scanning and removal process. You’ll then be presented with a Scan Summary that you can export as a .log file if you’d like to keep the results for future reference. By default, that log file is accessible in the Ad-Aware 2007 interface via Status -> Log Files.

Step 8: Update definitions and run Smart Scans on a regular basis

After you’ve run your initial Full Scan and removed any problems from your machine, you should definitely run Smart Scans on a regular basis. I usually don’t run another Full Scan unless I believe that my computer has been compromised by a bad link or a suspicious file. It’s also important to update the definitions file on a regular basis. Lavasoft generally releases definitions files every Tuesday, but it’s easiest to simply check for new updates before you scan, to ensure you’ve got the latest information about new malware threats.

Although you cannot schedule automated scans using the free version of Ad-Aware 2007, you can choose to run a scan every time Windows starts. If you’re the sort of person who can’t remember to run scans on your own, that’s one cheap method of ensuring that your machine is checked reguarly.That option is in the Auto Scans tab of the Settings. If new problems arise in any future scans, deal with them the same way as we did in Step 8.

Phew! Thanks for staying with me through the long walkthrough. I hope I managed to cover most of the important areas of the software without boring you too much. If you have any questions about Ad-Aware 2007 or personal experiences or tips, be sure to add them to the comments. If you’re concerned about Ad-Aware 2007 using a Windows Service to power its scans, read Lavasoft’s official statement about aawservice.exe, and then we can discuss the subject more in the comments.

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A goddess of contemporary electro, Miss Kittin embodies all that is cold, foreign, and simultaneously sexxxed up. New album “Batbox” sees her lightening up and adding an indie-rock edge. Make no mistake, though: She’s still rocking the beats.

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In the world of math-rock, Pinback plays tutor, bringing high concepts down to digestible levels. Gloomy guitars, shifty rhythms, and murky vocals aren’t ends in themselves but rather an ideal vocabulary for fragile melodies.

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(Credit: Guillaume Simoneau)

This Montreal DJ makes avant-garde, industrial house-tronica cut in the lean lines of a recovering mimimalist. The thunderous warehouse beats are strangely sparse, a trick further enabled by the slippery rhythms of Poirier’s other love: hip-hop.

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While most Notepad replacements expand on features, very few rebuild the concept of a lightweight text editor. Quicknote introduces an entirely unusual interface and features that don’t exist in its cousins, importing the traditional concept of notes–as a mix of text and doodles–but in a decidedly unpolished package.

As you can tell from the screenshots, this freeware program looks very atypical. There’s a small control panel in the right corner to control what can be best described as gross functions that determine overall program behavior. Fortunately, mouse-over labels save users from playing “guess the feature”. The L controls focusless input, N determines the Quicknote list on the left half of the program, B shows and hides the toolbar, M is the main menu that hides Save, Print, Options, accesses tool buttons not available on the toolbar.

Quicknote is a Notepad replacement that offers an unusual interface and a transparent window, among other features.

(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)

Some of these tools, like the Calculator, are accessible elsewhere. Others are unique to Quicknote, such as the function that lets you send a note–which can include text or drawing–to another computer, provided you have the computer’s name or IP address. To receive a note, you need to go to M then Tools and click on Receive text from another computer.

To send a note, you need to highlight the text you’d like to send, and from the context menu access the Copy Text dropdown and select To other computer. After that, you’ll be asked for the other computer’s info. Type that in and you’re on your way to low-fi note sharing, across the room or, one supposes, the world.

The last button in the right corner, the double box icon, minimizes Quicknote to a white bar. The default setting for the bar is in the upper left of your monitor, although that’s configurable from the Menu/Options/Sleep Mode. The line’s called the Wake Up bar because when you mouse over it, the program maxmizes to its previous position.

Quicknote lets users choose a variety of options related to Show/Hide behavior, as well as the transparency. I found it particularly useful to set the app to minimize when the focus program, the program that I was currently using, wasn’t Quicknote. By sticking the Wake Up bar in an easy-to-mouse-to corner, I was able to wake the program with a quick shift of the mouse.

Users can set Quicknote to run on start up, and can control speaker volume using hotkeys while the program is the focus. The actual creation and use of notes is an entirely different workflow from Notepad and replacements, which often function as super-lite versions of larger word processors.

Quicknote's tiny and customizable Wake Up bar requires nothing more than a mouseover to re-open the hidden program window.

(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)

Here, you’re given a Main Note, followed by two category trees–one for Personal notes, and the other for Professional notes. Categories are customizable, and users can create new ones via any note or category’s context menu. No matter the category, the notes all function the same way.

Users can create as many notes under as many categories as they like. Notes can only be sorted through the Category menu, but other than the menus are very similar. You can also drag-and-drop notes around to organize them.

Saving is a crucial feature in Quicknote, and users can choose different locations and different formats to save notes, or go with the default and save them internally as part of the program. Also important is the program’s access to non-crucial but useful add-ons. It comes with a minimalistic drawing tool, where users can create freehand doodles. The only option there is to adjust the size of the pen.

There’s also command line access from within Quicknote, a scheduler with alarms, a screen measuring tools that converts pixels to centimeters, a built-in task manager, all accessible from the upper-left corner’s context menu. The buttons in the upper left are similar to those on the upper-right, in that they’re small, gray and strange-looking, and give the whole program an unprofessional feel. You can use them to change the note being worked on, but that feels redundant since the navigation tree makes notes readily available.

Quicknote does some great things that other note-taking apps don’t, especially the Wake Up bar, the doodling, and the ability to send notes to other computers from within the program. However, the interface will take most users some time to get used to, and some may never feel comfortable with the awkward layout. For the features it offers, though, Quicknote might be the only game in town.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

After taking Candace Clicks to a nice dinner for Valentine’s Day, Power Downloader thought it would be a good idea to go look at the night sky. To get the best view, Candace and Power made their way just outside of town where the lights from the city wouldn’t detract from their view. Though the view was amazing, neither Power nor Candace knew much about which stars they were looking at besides the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and the North Star.

Access to several informative overlays are found on the left side of WinStar's interface

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The next day at the Powerlair, Power Downloader decided to find a program he could send to Candace which would help identify the night sky as a way of remembering their night together. After some searching at Download.com, Power came across an application called WinStars. With this application, Candace could explore the galaxy in 3D, look at well-known constellations, and track any of a number of comets and satellites. Several different overlays would let Candace look at the names of stars, planets, and constellations. She could also retrieve detailed photos from the Internet if she wanted a closer look. For even more realism, WinStars would let her view the sky in Planetarium mode, which frames the stars nicely with an outdoor scene to simulate looking up at the night sky from earth. Included animation controls would put the stars in motion at the click of a button.

After sending off an e-mail to Candace with a nice note, Power Downloader delved further into Winstars’ many features. He quickly realized the program was so packed full of features, Astronomy enthusiasts and students would appreciate all of the expert-level tools. Though Candace might not use Winstars more advanced features, Power hoped she would open the program and be able to relive their Valentine’s trip to see the stars.

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