Milly's Tools

www.iMilly.com

 

Just a few freeware (no adware or shareware) tools, without which my PC just wouldn't be my PC.

 

PowerPro  -  about 2.6 MB

"Windows PowerPro lets you take control of how you use Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP. Run commands and configure your system any way you want.

PowerPro gives you a compact and powerful launch bar, menu, and tray icon facility. But this is just the start. With a little experimenting with its configuration, you'll find that you can use PowerPro to change the way you work with your Windows system. The source of its power is the way PowerPro integrates three capabilities:

•  Running commands: Tool bars, tray icons, hot keys, mouse actions, menus, timer, scheduler.
•  Controlling other program's windows: Close, minimize, maximize, roll-up to caption, tray minimize, position.
•  Providing utility functions: Send keystrokes to programs, run commands when windows first open, virtual desktops, clipboard extender, keyboard macros, shutdown, show all folder files in a menu, sounds, wallpaper, and screensaver activation and randomization."

What'll it do? Anything. I'm tempted to stop right there.

 

Want to keep any window on top, or send to tray, or roll-up, or send to the back  - just by right-clicking its title bar, or minimise button, or maximise button, or close button, respectively?  PowerPro can do that invisibly, with negligible system resources. Worth having for that alone.

 

But that's only about 1% of its possibilities. Just about anything that Windows can do (including much that can't normally be accessed) can be executed from just about anywhere you like - hotkeys, extra button bars, title bars, context menus. And much, much more.

 

The Proxomitron  -  about 1.1MB

"Enter The Proxomitron, Re-Writing the web Your way ... at its heart is a powerful text matching engine specially designed to re-write web pages on the fly, as you view them in your browser.  Here's a partial list of what the Proxomitron can do 'out of the box'

* Stop windows that pop-up, pop-under, or pop-over	* Remove status bar scroll-texts
* Remove web-branding and other scripts tacked on by "free" web providers.	* Disguise your browser's identity and version from JavaScripts
* Convert most ads and banner pictures into simple text links	* Un-hide URLs when the mouse is over a link
* Remove slow web counters	* Change or delete cookies
* Stop web pages from "auto-refreshing"	* Change your browser's user-agent and other identifying fields
* Close top or bottom frame banner windows	* Hide where you've been previously from inquisitive web servers
* Make background MIDI songs play only when you choose.	*       ...and much more ... "

Small, light on resources, user-friendly - I wouldn't surf without it.

Information and resources, including downloads of Proxomitron, are available at the terrific and developing website linked above. Power users, or anyone really, might like to consider the Sidki third party config set, which many people use instead of the default config.

N.B. Development has ceased at v4.5, but don't let that put you off ! The program will always be available, and comes with a set of filters which you can simply set-and-forget, if you like. Or you can tweak or make your own, or keep an eye on the active community of users who develop and share new filters and ideas and offer peer-to-peer support. Most people who try Proxomitron never go back to surfing without it, and that simple boon will continue for the foreseeable future. Finally, thanks to Scott R. Lemmon, the generous creator of Proxomitron - I hope you find happiness in whatever you do.

Update: Sadly, it is reported that Scott died on the 1st May 2004, aged just 36.

The summer sun disappears behind the sea
And the shadows grow longer with the passing days
Colors fade as the time goes by
And I’m looking for the reason why
Our beautiful summer had to end (but)

From Another Day, by Shonen Knife

Metapad - about 16 kb. Just a Notepad replacement, but a really good one. As small as Notepad; no file size limit; handy toolbar; clickable links; and much more.

"Metapad is a small, fast (and completely free) text editor with similar features to Microsoft Notepad but with many extra (and rather useful) features. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes (just about) all of Notepad's features and much, much more.

* Persistent window placement	* WYSIWYG printing
* Intelligent Find and Replace	* Snazzy status bar & funky toolbar
* Configurable tab stop setting	* No file size limit! (under Win9x)
* Seamless UNIX text file support	* Hyperlink support
* Block indent and unindent	*       ...and much more ... "
* Recent files list

Ole!  -  about 16 kb. My own little hack which adds items to the Internet Explorer right-click menu with which links, or the current page, can be opened in the system/profile default browser, and/or a named browser (menu items for Firefox and Opera and OffByOne are provided: you choose which you want to install, and others can easily be added).

"Ole! : Open Link Elsewhere

HOW TO USE

Right click a URL (i.e. a hyperlink), or anywhere on the current page, in IE (or parts of Outlook, Outlook Express, and many other programs which use the IE engine) and select either "Open in Default" or "Open Page in Default" (only one of which will appear in the menu).

Or, if you've installed them, "Open in Firefox" or "Open Page in Firefox"; or "Open in Opera" or "Open Page in Opera"; or "Open in OB1" or "Open Page in OB1""

Download : Ole.zip 16kb.

        N.B. to add similar menu items in Firefox or Mozilla see IE View for Windows or Launchy, and in Opera see Adding Open with IE / Mozilla. Or for one standalone tool which opens a page from any browser in any other browser(s), and more, try Optool.
 

Milly