Apr
07
Some useful desktop automation tools
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One of the most frequent applications I use, after Firefox, is the humber Windows Explorer. But can’t it be very frustrating?
One of the most common actions I do (”create new folder”) takes FOR..EV…ER to do, simply because I have to go to right-click, wait for the “New..” submenu to open, whizz up to “New folder”, overshoot and do it all over again.
Now, thanks a free download from baxbex.com, I have a nice “new folder” button on the menu.
And some of their other explorer-based tools are pretty nifty as well. Such as FolderBox which gives you a small frame window at the bottom of the Explorer window, with shortcuts to 5 (10 in the non-free version) of your most-used folders.
[Added later: what this allows me to do is have ONE explorer window open, and easily move between the relevant folders I access, without having to ALT-TAB between 3 or more explorer windows that are open at one time]
The other tool I’m using a lot now is my own File Tagger software. I started writing it myself, as part of a 90-day challenge on a site I’m a member of. When I realised my day job had got in the way, I outsourced the development to get it finished.
That developer is working on an additional set of tools to integrate it MUCH more tightly with Explorer and the main desktop, and those additional tools (even though they’re not complete) are GREAT to finally get working. I’ll be writing more about these in future.
