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Tag Archives: Software

Software Review: inSSIDer

inSSIDer Channels

inSSIDer is a WiFi analysis program that visually displays all of the wireless networks in your area including channel and signal strength. It’s a geek’s dream-come-true software that graphically shows which channels each wireless router is utilizing and that allows you to quickly solve any interference issues. You can also leave it running and check the signal strength history tab to see if and how long your network(s) went down.

It also has the ability to interface with your GPS (onboard or via USB) to map WiFi networks and their signal strengths. Unfortunately I don’t have a GPS to test this feature, but if it’s anything like the rest of the program it is probably pretty awesome.

inSSIDer Signal Strength Graph

Memory usage is a mere 30 Mb so there are zero performance issues. Go ahead and try it out: inSSIDer

In case any of you are wondering about the name of this program, SSID stands for Service Set Identifier. If you still don’t get it, just call it lame geek humor.

Software Review: MetroTwit & MetroTwit Show

Yep, more Metro! :) I think I need to add a Metro category…

MetroTwit

MetroTwit

MetroTwit is an elegant Twitter client that follows the Metro guidlines. It is easily customizable to your color tastes (light/dark + highlight color). Configuration is as simple as it can be seeing how it has to use the Twitter Authentication API. You can add or remove columns to follow specific users or hashtags as well as your main Twitter feed. The buttons all have simple iconography to represent their function, but in case you get confused, hovering over the button displays a textual representation.

If you use Twitter, this is the desktop client I recommend. Download it from the MetroTwit website.

MetroTwit Show

MetroTwit Show

MetroTwit Show is a recent addition to MetroTwit’s offerings. This program also follows the Metro guidlines but rather than showing your Twitter Feed it displays Twitter searches. You can configure many searches and set how long you want each topic to be displayed. It will flip through the most recent tweets about the topic you searched for until the time you set is reached and then it flips over to the next topic. You’ll get the most out of this program in fullscreen mode and the only real applications I can think of would be to display recent tweets about your product at a trade show or tweets about your company in your office. However, if you can think of any other applications for this software, speak up in the comments!

Even if you don’t think you’ll use it, go ahead and download it, the animations are cool if nothing else. ;) Download it from the MetroTwit Show page.

Software Review: HTC Home & Metro Home

HTC Home

HTC Home

As some of you may know, HTC built their own, custom, skin for Windows Mobile 6.5 called HTC Sense. The most prominent feature of this skin was the large clock & weather app on the default home screen. Although Windows Mobile 6.5 was never widely distributed, the HTC Sense skin was widely publicized and praised. Because of it’s popularity, HTC decided to port the clock and weather widget to Windows (desktop). It creates a nice, large clock with current weather and a 5 day forecast. On the downside, it uses a ridiculous amount of memory for such a simple widget, taking up roughly 3/4ths of a MB of ram. While not the end of the world for those of you using powerhouse computers, it could quickly become annoying for those of you with slower computers. Visit their website to download or learn more.

Metro Home

Metro Home

While looking for the download link for the HTC Home widget I discovered that HTC had quietly released a similar widget that copies the Windows Phone 7 Metro design styles. It’s a cool clock and weather app, similar to HTC home, but it’s more alive due to the live tiles. All of the tiles are constantly moving and updating, which could be distracting for some users, but I think most users will not mind. One feature HTC has included in this widget that is not available on Windows Phone 7 (yet) is the ability to choose any color for the tiles. Memory usage is more reasonable with this widget at 1/2 MB of ram (keep in mind this widget is doing a lot more movement than the HTC Home widget, so the standard of “reasonable” is slightly different). Visit their website to download or learn more.

Software Review: WinDirStat

Mini Pacmen

Okay, okay, you can stop laughing now. For a program with such a funky name, it surprisingly useful and has very little system performance impact. The name is actually short for Windows Directory Statistics. Once you download it, run it, and stop laughing at the mini-packmen running around your screen, you will see a fancy graphical reproduction of your hard-drive.

Now, the hard-core geeks in here will protest that the graphical representation is linear rather than radial, but that’s just because the typical computer user thinks linearly instead of radially. You still have to admit, the reflective tiles are really cool!

WinDirStat

Okay, enough talk about the graphics, here is how this thing works. The little pac-men you see running back and forth is the graphical representation of the program checking the file-size of each folder. Once it’s done, you’ll see a list of folders in the root of your hard drive sorted by size. Open the folders and browse around to discover which programs are taking up the most space. Each time you select a folder, you’ll notice that an area in the bottom half of the program gets outlined. This will help you visualize what percentage of your hard drive each program/folder is using and how it relates to other programs/folders. Alternatively, you can just click any of the large blocks and it will navigate to that file in the folders above so you can get more information or delete it.

If you haven’t noticed by this point, there is a color-coded legend in the top right corner, also sorted by size.

Snipping Tool

Snipping Tool

Unbeknownst to most Window 7 users, there is an included handy tool for taking screenshots. This tool makes it quick and easy to capture whatever is happening on your screen without requiring you to remember keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl + Print Screen.

  • Click Start (or press the Windows key on your keyboard)
  • Type “Snipping Tool” into the search box (or go to “All Programs” > “Accessories” > “Snipping Tool”)
  • In the drop-down menu under New, select one of the following options
    • Free-form
    • Rectangular
    • Window
    • Full-screen
  • If you selected one of the first three options, select the area you desire to snip
  • In the simple image editor that shows up, you can either make small changes to the image, save it, or copy it into a more advanced image editor.

Connect to Network Projector

With Window 7 and Windows Vista, you can easily connect to a network projector.

First, you will need a network-ready projector. In other words, you’ll need a projector that has either a Ethernet port or a built-in wireless card. For example, this ViewSonic PJD6381 is Network ready.

Second, setup your projector as specified in the included documentation.

Once your projector is setup, it will display it’s Network Address, and password if applicable. You will need this information in order to connect.

On your Windows 7 or Windows Vista computer, click Start then search for “Connect to Network Projector.” Open the wizard and run through the 3-4 simple steps to connect.

Finally, open your presentation, or whatever other information you desire to share on the Network Projector.

Little Known Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows 7

While talking with my co-workers, I discovered that they were unaware of some useful keyboard shortcuts that are new to Windows 7/Windows Vista.

Windows+Tab

Windows + Tab: While similar to the well known Alt + Tab, Windows + Tab is more useful for fast navigation when you have more than 5-10 windows open. Once you have switched to the Windows + Tab view, you can navigate by pressing tab/shift tab or the scroll-wheel on your mouse to go forwards and backwards. Alternatively, you can simply click on the window you desire to open. (Windows Aero only)

Windows + 1-0: With the new taskbar introduced in Windows 7, it’s more simple than ever to access your most frequently used programs. Press Win + 1 to open the first program pinned on your taskbar, press Win + 2 to open to the second program, and so-on. If there already is an instance of that program open, simply hold the Shift key to open a new window.

Windows+P Dialog

Windows + P: This shortcut will open a simple dialog that lets you control what your second display (usually a projector) shows. Your options are Computer Only, Duplicate (shows the same thing on both screens), Extend, and Projector Only.

Ctrl + Print Screen: This is an old keyboard shortcut, but people are always asking me to remind them what it is. This will copy an image of your entire desktop to the clipboard which you can paste into an image editor or Word Document.

Ctrl + Alt + Print Screen: You learn something new every day! I actually discovered this shortcut while writing this article. This shortcut will take a screenshot of just the active window. This is useful to cut down on cropping(pun) and memory usage.

Docked Zune

While we are on the topic of keyboard shortcuts,most people don’t know that you can easily define your own shortcuts. For example, I regularly want to open

Setting Custom Shortcut

my Zune software to play music, but because I always dock it on my taskbar (see image) it would waste space to pin the icon as well. To create a shortcut, right click the program (anywhere other than the taskbar) and choose Properties. In the middle of the window (under the shortcut tab which should be open by default) you will find a field labeled “Shortcut Key.” Simply click the field and start typing your keyboard shortcut. The Windows key is reserved for system shortcuts, but you should have plenty options between Ctrl + Shift, Ctrl + Alt, and Ctrl + Shift + Alt.