Tech Stuff for You » Software

sShutdown: Skin Your Shutdown Dialog Box

Maharshi — Sat, 09 May 2009 20:40:00 +0000

Let’s assume for some time that you are customization junkie like me. You have customized almost every part of your Windows XP GUI and showing it to your friend(or girlfriend for some of you lucky guys!!). Your pals left awestruck by your beautiful GUI. But, while the time of shutdown, you get that mind numbing Windows XP default blue dialog box with those dull icons. I am sure you want to change this part also.

Sure, you can change that dialog box by editing system files shell32.dll and msgina.dll. But this could end up with your system messed up until you know what you are doing. Also other software like WindowBlinds provides skinnable dialog box, but are not free and you have to rely on the skin that author has created. So, here is the cool free utility that will do this work for you, Shedko sShutdown (Skinned Shutdown).

This utility intercepts a Windows function call of shutdown and applies a selected skin to the shutdown dialog box. You can apply various skins to this dialog. It supports PNG for themes and fully supports transparency. And best of all is you don’t have to patch your system files, its absolutely safe to use.

Upon installing for the first time, start this applictaion from Start Menu or from Desktop. Now select “Run sShutdown at Windows startup”, save and restart your system. After restart you can configure its various options like skin selection etc from tray icon.

Take a look at my screenshot below.

Download Shedko sShutdown from here.

You can download various themes for Shedko sShutdown from here.

If you want to create your own theme, you can grab a Theme editor from here.

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Run Your Applications Securely with Sandboxie

Maharshi — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:59:18 +0000

Google Chrome browser boasts of an innovative security feature called Sandbox by the virtue of which, it was the last browser standing after the first day of Pwn2Own 2009 security contest. So, how about getting this feature in other applications also? Here’s the answer in form of a must have security enhancement for Windows PCs, Sandboxie.

To define in a simple words, Sandbox is an isolated space where applications runs without affecting other data on computer. Google Chrome runs in sandboxed environment. So, if an attacker exploits a browser, there are minimal chances of other data being tampered on HDD. You can run your applications in sandboxed mode using Sandboxie. Here’s a graphic illustration from their official site.

As you can see from the graphic above, Sandboxie runs programs in an isolated space which prevents other applications from being affected. It’s a mere 500 KB download and can run on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista all 32-bit versions. Also 32-bit Windows 7 build 7000 is partially supported by Sandboxie version 3.36. Here is a screenshot of this application.

Download Sandboxie.

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Get Photoshop UI in GIMP with GIMPshop

Maharshi — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:42:29 +0000

GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an open source alternative to commercial application Adobe Photoshop. However people used to with Photoshop UI might find its interface quite confusing. Also it could seem “geeky” to novices. So, here is a lifesaver for both types of users. The GIMPshop. It is made to replicate the look n’ feel of Adobe Photoshop while giving all the advantages GIMP offers.

GIMPshop is also an open source application and can run on Mac OS X, Windows 98+, Linux, and Solaris. It is small in download size and so is its resource consumption. It loads fast after the first run. For some older versions of this application, you may need a plugin called “Deweirdifier” to enable MDI(Multiple Document Interface) in Windows. However, this need is removed from its latest versions as it contains this plugin by default.

This application does not support Photoshop plugins but can support all the GIMP plugins, filters, brushes etc. So, you don’t have to worry about lack of such content. For all these features it provides for free, this is a perfect start for all GIMP wannabes. Should i also say it embraces experts too?

Here’s its screenshot.

Download GIMPshop.

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Vista Explorer in Windows XP with ViSplore

Maharshi — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:27:03 +0000

Windows Vista provides “Breadcrumb” style navigation in Windows Explorer. This small addition makes it more user friendly. Another advantage with Breadcrumbs is its ability to directly jump to a sub folder by its hybrid drop down box. And you can bring all these to Windows XP with ViSplore.

As mentioned above, this little tool emulates Vista-like navigation in Windows XP’s Explorer. You can navigate to any sub folder of a selected folder from a drop down list which populates on clicking the arrow icon. A nice feature is its built in search capability. You can directly move to the folder by typing its name in a search box, similar to live search in Windows Vista.

It uses Vista Glass style designed by WindowsX to bring in the Glass UI to Windows XP, which adds to aesthetics of your Windows XP GUI. Only problem I encountered during its use is, it becomes unstable on maximizing the window. Also you can’t intuitively steer to “My Computer”. Apart from that, this is a cool utility which improves productivity and crafts a fine looking Explorer. Here’s its screenshot.

Download ViSplore.

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Remove Duplicate Images with VisiPics

Maharshi — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:59:47 +0000

If your Hard Disk is cluttered with too many duplicate images, time for a clean up. Are you going to do it manually? No way, here’s a great freeware called VisiPics.

It’s a simple to use application which can do its work perfectly. It runs five image comparison filters to guess the closeness of pair of images. It also finds same pictures with different sizes and same pictures in different formats. It is fast as compared to other commercial counterparts and of small size.

It also lets you choose which images to delete manually. You don’t have to wait for scan to be completed. VisiPics displays the duplicates during the scanning. So you can delete them right away. It runs on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and can support JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PCX, TIFF, TGA and RAW image formats. Here is the screenshot of this application.

Download VisiPics.

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