Recent Posts

37401

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Dim rest of desktop/windows, except for focused window

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 01:20 PM »

ok then, valhala this one is yours.

37402

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Dim rest of desktop/windows, except for focused window

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 12:52 PM »

interesting ideas.

the first idea might look right, but as i have discovered with desktopcoral - the problem is that you would make it impossible to now "select" the windows that are behind the transparent mask.

the second idea is much more intriguring...
leaving aside the wallpaper, you could make all other windows transparent unless they are the active window..
now this actually seems feasible and is interesting.. would also make it easier to make exceptions to the rule, so that you could specify certain apps that shouldn't have their windows made 50% transparent...
clever idea, and seems doable.

37403

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Dim rest of desktop/windows, except for focused window

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 11:51 AM »

it might be possible to write something like this into the big desktop replacement tools like windowblinds.. but short of that i'm not sure how one would code it, UNLESS there is a hidden windows registry entry for inactive window color.  there is a setting for default window color which you can set from desktop properties.. so its not an insane concept that there could be a hidden window color for inactive windows..

37404

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Automatic Copy when highlighted

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 11:36 AM »

there are some really nice clipboard tools, i wonder if any of them have an auto-copy on highlight...
they can make little beeps and save history of copying, and can be reallly useful.
there are some free and commercial ones.

it's an interesteing request.. though it might be hard to get it to really work right without it going crazy copying things all the time.  from my experience, intercepting clipboard chain is not too difficult but can be hard to get working reliably, so this is probably not a "snack" although it might be possible to find an opensource clipboard util and try to add a function that does auto-copying.

37405

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: icon - always on top - online/offline

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 11:31 AM »

i don't have a dialup connection so this is hard for me to test,
but could someone with a dialup try this test util:

its just designed to put a tray icon in system tray which changes appearance based on whether there is a dial up connection or not (red if so, grey if not).

let me know if it properly detects being connected or not.

37406

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: Useful desktop icon for USB flash drive

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 11:14 AM »

this is actually a kind of cool idea..
you could maybe just generalize it to say a utility that monitored certain directories/disks in explorer, and when it finds certain matches, it creates a shortcut for it on desktop, and likewise removed the shortcut when file/disk becomes unavailable.

37407

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Dim rest of desktop/windows, except for focused window

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 11:12 AM »

that would be very cool..

not sure how the hell you'd do it though..

37408

ProcessTamer / Re: GUI Idea

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 10:18 AM »

my plan with the next version is to allow user to customize 3 icons:

low cpu usage, high cpu usage, processes being tamed

then i can provide some defataults but user can use their own.

37409

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Coding for volume setting application

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 10:13 AM »

if no such tool exists that lets you run commands on a fast-user switch, then this would seem an excellent and simple tool.
please people help search for such a tool, and if one cannot be found, we will write.

37410

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: icon - always on top - online/offline

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 07:45 AM »

note:

i'll write a freeware tool that does this even if it already exists as a commercial program, but i'd rather not reinvent it if it already exists as freeware.

37411

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: icon - always on top - online/offline

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 07:36 AM »

i've found some source code for checking online connection status..
yes a ping would work too but it would eat up cpu and network while pinging..  of course periodic pinging could be useful as an alternative if you wanted to keep a connection alive, but that's another matter..

im thinking a utility to do what you want must exist, but if it doesnt i will write it this weekend; hopefully you are someone else can find an existing program first though.

37412

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: something like website-watcher ..

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 06:57 AM »

i've actually thought about doing this..
it would be easy to make a very minimal little tray tool that watched a certain page for changes..
the only question is whether there is really a need for such a program given the other web page change monitoring tools.. i wonder if the free ones listed in our wsw review do this already..

37413

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: Windows shell that's just a desktop

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 06:54 AM »

i'm not sure i fully understand this request, though it sounds intriguing..

37414

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: icon - always on top - online/offline

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 06:53 AM »

i like this idea, seems useful for people who use dialup and dont want to spend much time online..

maybe could run in tray and when connected it would pop up and show how long they've been connected..
seems doable in a short period of time.. though i don't know the windows api code for telling if you are online, might be an existing library/component for this.  might be nice if it had a button for connect/disconnect too.

 i suspect a free utility that already does this may exist?  if anyone can find an existing program to do this let us know.
if not, and no other coder wants to do this, ill look into coding it.


 

37415

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: virtual drive driver

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 06:02 AM »

ah i didn't read closely enough.  that is indeed a nice sounding idea, but surely beyond the scope of a few hours of coding.

i think directory opus has a feature to allow you to make virtual "file collections" that may do what you want.

37416

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Coding for volume setting application

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 05:32 AM »

so there is no tool that lets you specify programs to run when a fast user switch takes place? that would seem very useful tool..

37417

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: Force Maximize and Right Click Run Line

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 05:30 AM »

awesome, frogblast !

i can see this section is having another use as well, helping people find very cool software that already exists.

other nice little utilities on mainsoft site:
http://www.mainsoft.fr/en/downloads.htm

37418

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: A better scratch pad

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 05:05 AM »

it does seem like this functionality is probably already provided by some of the many postit note type apps, or text editors, or hierarchical note apps, and might not be worth recoding.

37419

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: Force Maximize and Right Click Run Line

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 04:24 AM »

there are some good "launch command line here" shell extensions which allow you to open a dos box in the directory that the app lives in, which is usually sufficient for what you are wanting to do.

but it's an interesting idea to have a right-click entry that basically let you type in commandline parameters (maybe with a history drop down box) and then ran the program (either in a dos box or not).  seems doable.

37420

General Software Discussion / Supercharge Your Software - PC World Article of little utils

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 04:16 AM »

Supercharge Your Software
 
Ever wish your favorite program could do a little more? These 65-plus add-ons enhance Windows, Office, browsers, e-mail clients, and other packages with powerful new features.

From the May 2005 issue of PC World magazine

http://www.pcworld.c...d,119982,pg,1,00.asp

37421

Unfinished Requests / Re: Force Maximize and Right Click Run Line

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 04:15 AM »

http://www.southbaypc.com/AutoSizer/

37422

Unfinished Requests / Re: virtual drive driver

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 04:14 AM »

see also: http://www.walkerbro...rssa.com/mountvd.htm

37423

Unfinished Requests / Re: CODING: App to create Self installing DUN connections

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 12:02 AM »

i'm not familiar with DUN - maybe you could give us some links to some pages that describe what you have to do manually, similiar programs that already exist, etc.  more info is needed..

37424

Unfinished Requests / Re: virtual drive driver

« Last post by mouser on April 30, 2005, 12:00 AM »

there's some programs to do this (ExtraDrivePro)..
this might be outside scope of a few hour project though.

37425

Unfinished Requests / Re: A better scratch pad

« Last post by mouser on April 29, 2005, 11:58 PM »

this seems like a good candidate for a program that could be written in a few hours..

maybe you could provide the urls to the ones you already have, as examples of what you are looking for.

so maybe it would run in tray, you click to open it, and it would open a window on screen where you can type and paste text.

you want it to auto save, so you dont have to tell it to save.

and you want big fonts.

right?