Author Topic: Which app stays open on your desktop all day? (Read 60,373 times)

zridling · « **on:** May 05, 2005, 05:48 AM »

In a followup to "Software I Love," I'm wondering which software app stays open on your desktop all day?

I'll confess that besides the browser (NetCaptor) and ExplorerPlus, it's UltraEdit. I'm in and out of it all day so there's no need to ever close it.

tenseiken · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2005, 06:53 AM »

Hmm... I tend to close programs that aren't performing a task in the background when I'm not actively using them. Still, I'd have to say that Firefox and Foobar2000 stay open the most on this machine.

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2005, 12:35 PM »

the only non system tray apps i keep open are mirc and my launch bar Advanced Launcher.
but my system tray is full: thebat, clipmate, find&run robot, filebox extender, macro express, ultramon, processs tamer, virtuawin, browsertrayswitch, pgp, and a couple more.

tenseiken · « **Reply #3 on:** May 05, 2005, 03:29 PM »

Well, if you want me to list my system tray stuff...

Cacheman, M-Audio Revolution toolkit, Outpost Firewall, Gmail Notifier, Minimizer-XP, Feedreader, BRS WebWeaver, Directory Opus, BPFTP Server, CLCL, Ghost It, Process Tamer, DoubleClickQuote, Gaim, Azureus, Samurize, CPUIdle, AntiVir, AllSnap, AudioSliders, SpeedFan, and Netlimiter.

zridling · « **Reply #4 on:** May 06, 2005, 11:00 AM »

Wow, you guys load up! In the tray I've got PGP, AI RoboForm, and OutPost Firewall.

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** May 06, 2005, 11:56 AM »

does ai roboform live in the tray? i am one of those ai roboform lovers also. but its not in my tray. maybe its an option.

there was a time when i used to try to keep my system tray empty, to maximize pc performance.
but then i thought WTF am i paying for this fast cpu for and wasting all my time idleing, i rather have a tray full of fun stuff

Edvard · « **Reply #6 on:** May 11, 2005, 04:24 PM »

PowerPro & Xplorer2 on the desk (and sometimes JS Pager); WinRoll and H+BEDV Antivir in the tray. Add Outlook when I'm at work (wish I could use Thunderbird). When I am using BBLean as shell, I don't need PowerPro Winroll or JS Pager.

jpfx · « **Reply #7 on:** May 28, 2005, 01:14 AM »

home & work: V (fileviewer.com), truelaunchbar, the bat!, nod32
at work: perl (always running something), editplus, agent
at home:avant browser, admuncher, counterspy, newsleecher, ai roboform

I use V where Directory Opus seems to be a favorite here. It's the first install on any PC I use. Fast and light and I imagine it would appeal to anyone who has to code and work with ASCII/EBCDIC text files.
I use the bat because it used to be a great program but nothing beats it's filters even now. Though the new (filter) interface is too abstract for me. I've spent a lot of money upgrading from 1 to 2 to 3 and I really dislike the price gouging (my opinion).
Editplus, my best text editor ever. I can't stand ultraedit; Ugly as sin.
nod32 lives by it's reputation. I also have trend pccillin and mcafee suites on different laptops.

I use beyond compare at work quite often too, along with sqlyog, ems sqlmanager, dreamweaver.

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** May 28, 2005, 01:33 AM »

love the avatar:)

i'm a roboform fan too.. we're going to have to do a review on such tools soon.

zridling · « **Reply #9 on:** May 29, 2005, 08:21 AM »

JP, have you ever met an app that was as customizable as EditPlus? Great program. Just wish it had more power!

wr975 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 01, 2005, 11:47 AM »

Quote

there was a time when i used to try to keep my system tray empty, to maximize pc performance.
but then i thought WTF am i paying for this fast cpu for and wasting all my time idleing, i rather have a tray full of fun stuff

Agree!! :-)

Here's my, quite excessive, list...

Task bar:
Slimbrowser (IE frontend) - Compass (bookmark management, no freeware) - Thunderbird (Email)

Hidden (no symbol)
PowerPro (It can do a lot, but I'm using it as startmenu replacement + task scheduler)

Task Tray:
Rainlendar (desktop calendar/todo/notes) - Wonderful Icon (keyboard shortcuts) - Workrave (RSI prevention) - StrokeIt (mouse gestures) - ArsClip (clipboard memory) - DaemonTools (virtual drives) - Copy Handler (shell enhancement for copying/moving) - ActiveCPU (displays CPU load) - Volume control (Windows standard) - Girder (remote control, not freeware) - AdSubtract (removes ad-banners, not freeware) - TemporalityScreens - Find&Run Robot - Winamp - and most important, since I'm using W2K: Tray Manager (to move task tray symbols in a sub-menu). So, actually, there're just four icons visible.

jpfx · « **Reply #11 on:** June 01, 2005, 06:48 PM »

Quote from: zridling on May 29, 2005, 08:21 AM

JP, have you ever met an app that was as customizable as EditPlus? Great program. Just wish it had more power!

I use it every day at work, mainly for perl coding. I don't use hardly any of the features though, the keystroke macros, column selection and ftp client are very handy. Ultraedit is the de-facto editor at work but I dislike it. Not the least for the PITA installation & registration (v10 era). It just doesn't feel right either. I've not had any problems with editing huge files with editplus so whatever the limit is; I've not reached it. As far as hex editing is concerned, I'd buy winhex. A text editor is not a hex editor to me.

Zaine, very impressed with your site btw, made a couple of purchases as a result.

Scott · « **Reply #12 on:** June 02, 2005, 04:51 AM »

I have a ton of applications in a variety of startup locations. I like to put not-really-necessary stuff in the Startup group. That way, if I don't want to run that stuff, I hold down the Ctrl key as I am being logged in. I won't list all the applications I run from Startup...

From the registry (i.e. the HKLM\...\Run key), I load stuff that I typically have running all the time:

IntelliPoint 3.2 (Because IntelliPoint 4+ just plain sucks)
SpeedFan
NOD32
Toddler Keys (The author is looking for a new maintainer...)
True Launch Bar
NTPTime (Runs as a service.)
Undelete (Runs as a service. I would hate to be without it.)
mst Defrag (Runs as a service. I hate all other defraggers.)

I don't load these from the registry, but they're running quite often, if not all the time:

Miranda IM
Ad Muncher (This belongs on Zaine's site as much as anything.)
Opera
UltraEdit
PowerDesk Pro
TClock Light
Process Tamer
Random Submitter (Really, mouser--I use it! I use it!)

Now, aren't you glad I didn't list everything?

Scott · « **Reply #13 on:** June 02, 2005, 04:54 AM »

Oh crap, I just remembered that Zaine included "on your desktop" in the subject. Oh well; strike all those services! (It was too much formatting hassle for me to delete.)

zridling · « **Reply #14 on:** June 02, 2005, 06:18 AM »

Not at all, Scott, as it's interesting to know what others are running. I'm out of town for the first half of June, but will definitely add Ad Muncher to The Great Software List when I return. It even blocked ads in my RSS reader's browser.

masu · « **Reply #15 on:** January 26, 2006, 09:16 PM »

K9
CLCL
AntiVir
Kerio Firewall
Rainlendar
Speedfan
Babylon

jgpaiva · « **Reply #16 on:** January 26, 2006, 09:33 PM »

Reviving this thread

I have:
Opera (it takes too much time to load, i just keep it open all day)
Find And Run Robot ( my start button )
Type And Run ( my run box )
Winamp ( the best music player there is.. yes, i don't like foobar )
All Snap (great small app, when you use it once, you can't live without it)
Various ahk scripts (i mean.. they do everything, and even more

)
Msn Messenger (still, i prefer the original msnmessenger to any third party app)
Miranda (the best way to got to DC's chat)
Process Tammer (keeping an eye for those strange-acting apps)
Mobile Meter (just to keep my computer's frequency and temperature controlled)
Kaspersky Antivirus (unfortunatelly, necessary

)
PSPad (usually editing some ahk script

)
Directory Opus (like Opera, it's best to leave it running)

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** January 26, 2006, 10:53 PM »

type and run looks really interesting jgpaiva, like there might be features there that F+R could learn from.

f0dder · « **Reply #18 on:** January 26, 2006, 10:56 PM »

notepad++, xplorer^2, visual studio 2003, cmd.exe, mIRC, PuTTY, messenger or miranda, winamp, sysinternals' process explorer, firefox... those would have to be the apps that I run the most, and there's usually at least three of them running at any time.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #19 on:** January 26, 2006, 11:08 PM »

@ mouser:
type and run is an extremelly interesting app. I found it before i found farr, and when i found farr, i thought "well,there goes typeandrun, farr can do everything t&r does, and even more". But surprisingly, they just coexist, to be honest, i love farr, but it simply isn't as practical as t&r, that's why it's the one i use most among those two, because it's more versatile. Maybe it's my computer, but farr isn't nearly as fast finding stuff, because it has to search for it, and creating new aliases is too time consuming (and it also has strange focus problem, sometimes when i load it, it doesn't have the focus, maybe it's because of blackbox

)

@fooder:
cmd.exe? nice..that's leet

check typeandrun i mentioned on my last post. i bet you will find it a bit handier that cmd.exe (at least, i do

)

f0dder · « **Reply #20 on:** January 26, 2006, 11:15 PM »

Quote from: jgpaiva on January 26, 2006, 11:08 PM

@fooder:
cmd.exe? nice..that's leet
check typeandrun i mentioned on my last post. i bet you will find it a bit handier that cmd.exe (at least, i do )

Dunno - I need cmd.exe when building doing development work. Like, I have visual studio open for a project, but use "mk.bat" to build a smaller side-tool, then launch a hexeditor to verify file structure, etc. Things that can be faster doing from a command prompt that a GUI, and are directory sensitive.

I also use xPlorer^2's smartness - ie, I can type "$ del *.bak" in the address line to delete all *.bak files in current folder, and other smart stuff. As for Run stuff, I currently use my own Win+R replacement for blackbox... but I'm considering checking out F&RR and perhaps TypeAndRun.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #21 on:** January 26, 2006, 11:48 PM »

hum..i see, if you use cmd more directed at .bat files,t&r can't help you with that (i think), and the directory-sensitive part sure is a limiter, since you need to have cmd open
I've just checked uberbox, (i also run bblean), and i found it quite useful, but not as much as t&r (imo). Disregarding that it looks ugly

, it's nice that it has the option to send bbroams, which can be usefull, and that is has a low footprint (if it has any..lol). But t&r allows you to do a bit more, you can create aliases with arguments, and the autocomplete function is far more advanced, as it really completes, not only with history paths but also with the ones that exist in your drive. The only problem about t&r is it's high footprint, about 7mb in ram

Anyways, please check it (it has no installation, just decompress and run

) and post your opinion!
You still don't use farr? I think it's very handy, for all those things that normal people (i.e. non-bb users) have in start menu. I used to open explorer to manually open the apps i didn't have in right-click (or middle-click,or x1click,or x2click for that matter), since i got tired of making and updating lots of menus really fast

mrainey · « **Reply #22 on:** January 27, 2006, 02:38 AM »

Directory Opus, Classic Clipboard, Courier, Firefox, UltraEdit

Rover · « **Reply #23 on:** January 27, 2006, 04:01 AM »

List o' always apps:

Thunderbird (just switched from Becky2)
Firefox ( 5 tabs @ startup w/ DC in tab#3)

Total Commander

Virtual Daemon for virtual CDROM (load ISO file w/o burning them)
RocketTime for up to the ms NIST time accuracy.
FreeLaunchBar (vertical, left side)

Frequent run apps:
PuTTY for SSH
ATI TV Player
Groupwise
EditPad Lite
Irfanview
Ultra ISO for create ISO files from CDROM
Autoruns from SysInternals.com for tweaking startup apps
Process Explorer from SysInternals.com for finding and killing BAD apps

Background stuff that you have to have...
Blackberry desktop for syncing
VNC for remote access
Kerio Personal Firewall
Norton Ghost
AVG Antivirus

f0dder · « **Reply #24 on:** January 27, 2006, 06:20 AM »

Well, not just batch files, but stuff that is directory-sensitive, as well as depends on non-global environment variables (set by batch files). So yeah, I do need cmd.exe

My own custom run-box for bblean is actually based on uberbox, but more or less rewritten from scratch - bugs fixed, features added. Still in beta and needs some additional bugfixes and features added, but I use it all the time and it's nice

I plan on adding "real" complete to it, and aliases with args are already supported a lot better than uberbox, plus silly hardcoded limits are removed, etc.

Quote

You still don't use farr?

Not yet *blush*. When I tried it, it had bugs wrt. UNC names that I reported to mouser, and I haven't checked it out since... when I've been at my computer, I've either been hung over or busy coding, so I haven't had time to play around with stuff that much.

Quote

Process Explorer from SysInternals.com for finding and killing BAD apps

I prefer their pskill - faster when you know the app name

Norton Ghost? I prefer Acronis TrueImage these days, Norton/symantec certainly fscked up ghost really well >_<