Desktop Tools

TuneUp WinStyler enables you to customize Windows appearance in many ways. You can replace the default logon screen, apply additional visual styles, use custom icons for your Desktop, Control Panel, Start Menu and more. Change the look the desktop easily, taskbar, start menu, application windows and more. The modifications are supported by all programs that support XP visual styles and can be easily changed or reset to default. Additional features include themed icon packages, downloadable styles, and support for other popular style package formats.

XStart is a simple application launcher that sits in the system tray and provides quick access to your favorite programs, links, folders or documents. The program is easy to use, just drag a shortcut into the launchpad and optionally customize the icon and display text. You can create custom categories to further organize your shortcuts, customize the background color and icon size. Not as feature-rich as other launchers, but easy to use.

WindowBlinds allows you to completely change the look and feel of Windows by applying new skins to the standard interface that cannot only customize the looks, but also add functionality. The skins cover every detail of the Windows interface, including taskbar, start button and menu, dialogs and more. They are easily applied or removed, and can also be further customized to suit your needs. The program includes several popular styles and additional skins can be downloaded from the web site.

Push The Freakin Button Pro (PTFB Pro) allows you to automatically click buttons in any Windows dialog that intercepts your workflow. You can use it to automatically get rid of confirmation dialogs, automate processes by clicking a specific button as soon as a program is opened and more. In addition, PTFB Pro also allows you to record action sequences which allow you to expand the options by recording all mouse and keyboard activity in addition to button clicks. The program is easy to use and runs quietly in the system tray - when it sees a window that you have previously targeted, it carries out the button and key presses that you have defined. Additional features include running programs, scripts or sending emails in response to a specific dialog opening, and more.

Screen OCR enables you to copy text from any window, including dialog boxes, protected Web pages, PDF files, error messages and so on. The program offers several capture modes, including a regular screen capture that includes images as well as appending of captured text and RTF format. Screen OCR runs in the system tray and can be triggered by clicking the icon or using a keyboard hotkey.

Desktop Ruler resembles a virtual ruler, that can be used to measure or align pixels, inches or centimeters on your desktop or in documents. It offers several useful features that allow you to restrict movement to vertical or horizontal paths, attach the ruler to the cursor and rotate the ruler. The scale also allows you to measure based on resolution that images will be printed, and also includes a precise measuring tool. In addition, you can change the color and size of the ruler interface, and set transparency.

Clock Tray Skins extends the standard Windows system tray clock capabilities by adding a day, date and seconds display, as well as a choice of different skins. It supports 12 hour and 24 hour formats. The program also includes a time synchronization feature and a calendar display.

Analogue Vista Clock add an attractive clock display to your desktop, using a click-through Vista-style skin with adjustable translucency and real-time rendering. In addition to the time display, you can also choose to set a one-time or daily alarm sound, along with a chime on top of the hour. The alarm can optionally wake up your computer from standby or hibernate mode.

Actual Windows Manager provides you with complete control over your desktop windows. It enables you to roll-up any window, minimize it to a system tray icon, apply transparency and more, via newly added control buttons that are added to each title bar. You can also create specific rules for any application or folder, allowing you to apply custom settings automatically, whenever the window is opened.

Screen Calendar enables you to add a calendar display to your desktop wallpaper that can be semi-transparent and click-thru enables. You can choose from a small display or full size desktop calendar and fully customize the (background image, calendar arrangement, fonts, colors etc.) appearance to your preference. The program can synchronize data with MS Outlook, keep track of daily or recurring appointments, print calendar sheets and more. Screen Calendar supports dual-monitor setups.

Transparent Window Manager helps you to manage your windows settings. You can choose to apply a custom level of transparency to any window, or place any window to top, and even minimize it to a tray icon instead of the task bar. In addition , the program comes with an option to maintain up to 10 virtual desktops that can be switched via keyboard hotkey or a small toolbar on your desktop.

Wallpaper Cycler allows you to easily manage all your wallpapers and create custom desktop layouts that can include calendars, quotes, web cam images and more. You can create custom categories, using your own images and cycle them with a specified delay, at specific times or at random. It can also make your desktop icons transparent, center, tile or stretch your images on the desktop. Additional features include hotkey support, seasonal categories, Explorer integration (to add new wallpapers), duplicate image finder, optional switching sound, manual one-click switching and more.

DesktopX enables you to create a completely customized desktop, using objects and widgets that allow to to add desktop clocks, drive space monitors, picture frames and slideshows, stock tickers, currency converter and many other gadgets that act as futuristic and interactive desktop decoration. You can create multiple desktop sets (e.h one for work, one for fun) and switch between them, and also quickly hide all widgets via keyboard hotkey and instantly return to your regular desktop. You can choose from a variety of included widgets and also create your own widgets or objects with the help of the included development environment.

EarthDesk can turn your desktop into a dynamic world map display that features real-time cloud coverage and moonlight display. The display can replace your current wallpaper, leaving all your desktop icons on top, or display the image over your existing desktop. The map display is nice to look at, but it does not offer any interactive feature like country names nor other location specific information.

ABF Wallpaper Changer (formerly Active Multiwallpaper Changer) is a desktop wallpaper changer that allows you to quickly switch between your favorite wallpapers. You can keep a list of favorites, download wallpapers from the Internet and automatically change the wallpaper every X minutes. The program also includes a desktop calendar with options to add custom events and notes, as well as text notes.

WindowFX allows you to add a number of special effects to Windows, including enhanced drop shadows, transition effects, transparency, fade in animations and more. Most of the features are disabled in this trial version.

Easy Desktop Keeper enables you to save, restore, manage and and lock the desktop layout including files and folders located on the desktop, arrangement of desktop icons, wallpaper and the selected screen saver. The program can automatically restore the desktop to the saved state whenever you start your computer, or you can restore it on demand. In addition, you can also choose to completely look the desktop for a specific user, so that he cannot add or remove items from it.

Stardock RightClick allows you to create a custom right-click menu that will be activated whenever you right-click on your desktop or press a hotkey on the keyboard. You can add shortcuts to programs, websites, folders and various system commands, and also access the content of selected folders directly from the menu. The menu can use the standard Windows look or you can choose from several included menu skins and also apply transparency. No documentation included.

PhotoEchoes is a digital kaleidoscope that generates animated kaleidoscope effects from your images. You can specify the folders to be used for the source, exclude certain files based on name or dimension, and run the kaleidoscope in full-screen mode or set it as your screensaver. The program also allows you to save any of the generated images and patterns as JPG file or desktop wallpaper. PhotoEchoes creates some interesting effects that are fun to look at (as screensaver) and also useful to create unique backgrounds or digital art pieces.

Auslogics Visual Styler enables you to customize and style the appearance of your desktop environment by changing icons, wallpapers and backgrounds as well as the screens for logon and boot sequence. The program offers downloadable themes that can quickly change the appearance of your PC, or you can tweak it yourself by customizing only certain aspects of the system. Other features include visual appearance tweaks, wallpaper changer and a restore wizard that allows you to any changes.

Magic Lens Max is a unique desktop magnifier and enhancement filter that enables you to view portions of your screen in an enlarged mode and/or with several applied image filters and color modes. It supports gamma adjustments, image resampling, color channel selections, greyscale, area rotation view and more. All the effects are applied in real-time and follow your mouse cursor and can be activated with keyboard shortcuts. You can also capture the enhanced area and save it as in various image formats. Other features include adjustable lens size and shapes (rectangle, rounded rectangle, oval), and more.

CubeDesktop Pro enables you to manage up to 6 virtual desktops that you can use as independent work environments. You can switch between desktops by simply clicking on the numbered icon in the desktop, or by using the impressive 3D interface that turns your desktop into an interactive cube or desktop carousel. Each virtual desktop can be configured with its own wallpaper and icons, you can transfer windows between desktops, password protect selected desktops, create desktop specific rules and more. The program also includes Window Exposer, which instantly tiles all of your open windows, scales them down and neatly arranges them for visual navigation.

Engage is a replacement for the standard Windows Start Menu, that helps you organize your programs and access them more quickly. The program automatically sorts all your programs, Favorites and documents into categories and also allows you to quickly search for an item by keyword. Engage is designed so that it can be navigated either by mouse or keyboard, using combinations of hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts that allow you to quickly access categories or features. Although the program replaces your default Start Menu, you can always switch between the Engage menu and the Windows menu by pressing Ctrl+ESC on your keyboard. The program also includes web search shortcuts that enable you to quickly launch web searches with just a few keyboard commands.

Spot on the Mouse is a mouse pointer action and keyboard visualization software that is designed to improve visibility of the mouse pointer, especially when used to demonstrate or teach software on a computer screen. Once activated, the program enhances the cursor with a ring shaped or circular color area and additional color indications for right or left click actions. You can customize the colors as well as the area surrounding the mouse, and optionally add a simulated mouse image that clearly indicates mouse button usage (including scroll wheel). In addition to mouse actions, the program can also indicate keyboard commands that include the use of Shift, Alt and other input keys.

Fast Windows Hider is a simple tool that allows you quickly to hide and unhide any window, based on a text string in the window title. Once you have configured the program, you can simply press a customizable keyboard hotkey to hide or show the target windows from sight without closing them. The hidden windows will not appear in the taskbar.

Anti Boss Key enables you to quickly hide all open windows from your desktop with the press of a keyboard hotkey or use of a mouse shortcut. The windows are completely hidden from sight and also from the taskbar and system tray area without actually being closed, so your data is preserved and you can continue where you left off once you restore the windows. The program also allows you to specify windows that should not be close and can automatically bring them to the top of your desktop or launch the application if it is not running. Other features include automatic volume adjustments or muting, hiding of desktop wallpaper and icons, a password protected interface and more.

ManageDesk enables you to organize a busy desktop by creating up virtual desktops that you can quickly switch to from the system tray. Each desktop can have its individual wallpaper and resolution and the taskbar only shows the applications open on the current desktop. You can switch between desktops from the system tray, via keyboard shortcut or middle mouse button. You can also hide windows and the taskbar and access reboot options from the tray icon menu. The program works well and maintains the correct icon layout between desktops, even if the resolution is different. ManageDesk also includes a process viewer, a DLL viewer, memory manager and a sleep timer.

Wallpaper Sequencer is a wallpaper manager that features a semi-transparent wallpaper calendar with various skins. You can use this tool to create collections of your favorite wallpapers and automatically change them on each Windows startup or at specified time intervals. The program supports all popular graphics formats including BMP, JPG, JPEG, PNG, EMF and WMF. Wallpaper Sequencer offers support for Windows XP visual themes and the ability to control wallpapers with hotkeys.

IconX allows you to customize your desktop icons with special effects like mouseover animations, sounds and more. You can make your icons larger when the mouse moves over them, add special effects like echo and pinging circles, as well as sound effects. Your creation can be saved as theme (not during evaluation) or you can use one of the ready to use themes that come included.

Fast Folder Access is a right-click enhancement for Windows Explorer, that allows you to switch to any of your favorite folders with a single click. It also works from the desktop, as well as from common Save and Open dialogs, allowing fast switching to selected folders without the need for any folder navigation. In addition, the program also includes a handy feature, that allows you to preview selected images as a thumbnail inside the right-click menu of Windows Explorer.

Taskbar Hide allows you to control your taskbar and optionally hide/unhide or re-arrange programs. You can also choose to temporarily minimize a program to the system tray. You can also minimize/maximize all windows at once and hide any portion of the taskbar (click, Start button etc.). Additional features include optional password protection, hotkey feature to hide windows and more.