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5 Nifty Applications To Make Your Life Easier In Windows

via MakeUseOf.com by Damien Oh on 3/16/09

I am not really a Windows person, but when I am on my Windows computer, I always keep a set of small and handy applications on my desktop to automate the repetitive tasks or to make the complicated things much easier to do.

If you are like me, someone who like to be organized and do things the efficient way, here are some applications that I use and recommend:

Windows xKill

How many times have you encountered an incident where the application freezes and when you try to kill it via the Task Manager, it just doesn't respond? It has happened to me very often, especially on my old Pentium III computer.

When such cases occur, I always use Windows xKill to kill the application quickly and easily.

windows-xkill

Windows xKill is s small application ported from the xKill application in Linux. It is only 18KB in size and does not require any installation.

Once you have enabled the tray icon, you simply press the shortcut keys Ctrl + Alt + Backspace to bring up xkill (the cursor will turn into a skull) and then click on the window that you want to close. That's it.

DropCommand

I know that most of you don't use the command prompt in Windows, but when you do, don't you wish that it can be a little bit friendlier, like the Terminal in Linux and Mac?

The DropCommand application allows you to drag and drop files to the command prompt so you don't have to key in the path to the files manually. It was made using AutoHotKeys and provides a friendlier way for you to use the command prompt.

DropCommandScreen

Fences

If you have a messy desktop filled with dozen of shortcut icons cramping up every single corner of the screen, you might want to use Fences to get your desktop organized.

Fences is a free software developed by Stardock, the developer behind the popular RocketDock. This application allows you to define various containers on your desktop to place your icons. You can have a container for Internet related stuff, while another one to contain all your Word documents.

You can create as many containers as you like, and when you have no use for the icons, you can hide them by double clicking on the desktop. Any time you need to access your shortcut, simply double click the desktop to bring the icons back.

stardock-fences

Just Close Some Task

If you have the habit of opening a lot of applications and then forget to close them after you have finished using them, then JustCloseSomeTasks is the best software for you.

What it does is to associate each task with an expiry time and then close that task once the expiry time is reached. After you have used it for some time, the program will learn your behavior and adjust the expiry time accordingly.

justclosesometask

Lacuna Launcher

There are always a series of applications that you use when you are performing certain tasks. Wouldn't it be great if you could load them all up with just a single shortcut?

Lacuna Launcher allows you to set a group of files to be opened with a single shortcut by creating a text file with the paths to all the files you wish to open. You can set an initial delay time for it to wait before opening files, as well as a pause time between opening each files.

There is no limit as to how many lists (each list represent a group of applications) you can create. You can create a list of applications to be opened when you want to browse the Web, or all the documents you need when you typing a report. It may take some work initially, but once you have it configured, it will work like a charm.

Conclusion

The above mentioned applications are some of the small and handy apps that I used daily. Despite their small size, they are very useful and have helped to increase my efficiency and allow me to do things faster in Windows.

If you have any small handy apps that you use and are not mentioned above, do share it with us in the comments.

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