Author Topic: Must-have apps in the System tray? (Read 159178 times)

tomos · « **Reply #75 on:** April 18, 2007, 11:51 AM »

the only reason I decided to post here in the end was I didnt see any taskbars quite like mine

I mean so high (5 icons high in systray, 4 in quick launch)
With Autohide of course, saves the need for virtual desktops - for me at any rate.

The icons in the SysTray seem to fluctuate
but usually have ones with * running.
Left to right & top to bottom -

Screenshot Captor for the shot
*Agenda at Once
*FRITZ!DSL (Broadband)
Surfulater
DC Forum Post Notifier
*Autohotkey
*Active Virus Shield (AOL - no spam yet, thank god)
*SpyBot - had Spyware Terminater for a while but went back to this trusty
*Backup4all
*FARR

*Directory Opus
*Instant Boss -

*Grid Move - more greets

*Clip Help &Spell - & more

*Process Explorer

*PTRreplicator (Karens Tools) is also usually there to synch stuff to USB stick

Would like to change date thingy (I know what year it is..) but think I have to get another app for that (It seems to take it from the default which i dont want to change)
Also dont like the way the DE is always highlighted but it is handy to remind me why shortcuts sometimes dont work ...

Curt · « **Reply #76 on:** April 18, 2007, 02:15 PM »

... M8 Free Clipboard, but looking at its Web site, it looks pretty limited in comparison with some of the other free clipboard extenders.
-rjbull (April 18, 2007, 06:12 AM)

I have tried a great number of clipboards, and M8 is the one I have kept - for a reason (of course). I do far too many clips, to want to keep them all, so having M8 keeping only the latest 25 is just right for me. I do not want my clipboard to spell, or to frye my eggs - frankly I do not understand what more I should ask for a clipboard manager to do, than M8 Free Clipboard already is doing. Maybe if the author of ~~ArsClip~~ [Edit: can't recall the name right now] would change the hotkey setting - Hide on Esc is of course perfect, but Show on Esc too, is pure idiocy. Other than that ~~ArsClip~~ is a very fine program, but M8 will do the job I need it to do, and it will do it well.

[Edit: confused ArsClip with some other app I cannot remember at the moment]

Nighted · « **Reply #77 on:** April 18, 2007, 02:31 PM »

Don't tell Curt what to like. He is very stubborn!

Curt · « **Reply #78 on:** April 18, 2007, 02:39 PM »

... He is very stubborn!
-Nighted (April 18, 2007, 02:31 PM)

You're right!

Well, other than that, ArsClip is text only. I guess he forgot. Why would normal people want a text only clipboard?

f0dder · « **Reply #79 on:** April 18, 2007, 05:08 PM »

Btw Curt, do check out the app I attached a few posts ago - it does the same as the "intelligent" mode in FreeRAM XP Pro, but is a lot smaller in size and doesn't need to stay running all the time.

Curt · « **Reply #80 on:** April 18, 2007, 05:40 PM »

Thanks, f0dder, for the encouragement to try Trimws, but its command line, so guess if I'm going to? Unless, of course, you have an illustrated thorough tutorial...

lanux128 · « **Reply #81 on:** April 18, 2007, 10:17 PM »

i would like to recommend my personal favourite - CLCL

Original screenshot image by AbteriX

AbteriX has written a good tutorial on its usage and has also compiled some reviews of the program..
• https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2923.0
• https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2866.0

rjbull · « **Reply #82 on:** April 19, 2007, 04:13 AM »

ClipCache is currently 3.1.0 and has never crashed. It's clipmenus pop up immediately.
-Nighted (April 18, 2007, 09:24 AM)

I tried ClipCache 3.1 registered. Both the full version of Outlook and various applications I have to access via Citrix ruthlessly crashed it. I was disappointed after being such a big fan of 1.41 for so long, but it just stopped working for me.

ClipX and ArsClip are 2 completely different applications and can't really be compared. ArsClip does not support graphics at all, so totally useless for me.

I have no use for graphics, but I note this from ArsClip's help:

Non-text items have their own separate queue for items. Once they fall of the list, they're moved to Removed Items. To conserve memory, you have the option to ignore items that are large in size. This is useful if you do graphics editing, since these graphics can be quite large. These items can be configured in (Configure -> Clipboard -> Non-text items).

That looks like it supports graphics, but, it turns out that non-text items aren't enabled by default. You have to go into Configuration and enable them. Latest version of ArsClip is 3.0.2, Mar-15-07.

rjbull · « **Reply #83 on:** April 19, 2007, 06:25 AM »

I have tried a great number of clipboards, and M8 is the one I have kept - for a reason (of course). I do far too many clips, to want to keep them all, so having M8 keeping only the latest 25 is just right for me. I do not want my clipboard to spell, or to frye my eggs - frankly I do not understand what more I should ask for a clipboard manager to do, than M8 Free Clipboard already is doing.
-Curt (April 18, 2007, 02:15 PM)

Curt,

I agree that one doesn't usually want to keep clips forever, and if you really want simplicity, then that's fine. But, taking ClipboardHelp+Spell (CHS), ArsClip and Clipmagic as examples, consider the following benefits:

All have user-configurable clip histories. If you want more, or less, than 25 clips, you can set the number you want, and any over the set number are quietly deleted without user intervention.
All can repair the clipboard chain, that is, if the clipboard stops working, they can attempt to fix it. CHS can be set to check this regularly.
All offer folders of permanent clips. You can keep separate libraries of boilerplate texts for e-mail, forum posts, FAQs, etc.
All can be set to ignore clips from certain programs. If you're paranoid, you can, for example, set them to ignore clips from password keepers like KeePass.
CHS in particular has extra features for text munging: e.g. if you post to Yahoo! Groups online forums, you can clip a post, clean up multiple levels of quote marks and re-format the text.
Clipmagic has strong organisational features. You can set rules to file all your DonationCoder posts in one folder regardless of what browser you were using, all your clips from a news site in another, all your e-mail clips in a third, and then separate all your FireFox clips from your IE ones.

Curt · « **Reply #84 on:** April 19, 2007, 07:27 AM »

Clipmagic has strong organisational features. You can set rules to file all your DonationCoder posts in one folder regardless of what browser you were using, all your clips from a news site in another, all your e-mail clips in a third, and then separate all your FireFox clips from your IE ones.
-rjbull (April 19, 2007, 06:25 AM)

Wow; this I can understand to be a great advantage!
Thanks!

f0dder · « **Reply #85 on:** April 19, 2007, 07:35 AM »

Curt, if you're too lazy to open a cmd.exe console, save the following in a batch file in the same folder as trimws (call it dothefunkytrimmingyeahyeah.bat or whatever

)

[Select]

@echo off
trimws.exe *

Would be pretty easy to cook up a version that does trim-all-processes and doesn't require commandline, and I could fit that in 4k or less

urlwolf · « **Reply #86 on:** April 19, 2007, 07:52 AM »

Anyway, here's a process working set size trimmer I wrote.

It's a command-line tool supporting wildcards, so you can do "trimws *" to trim all processes, or "trimws fir*" to trim (among others) firefox. Not that in the "*" case it'll mention a lot of errors, that's because system services are protected (and I'm not doing anything to circumvent that ).

I wrote this while looking into trillians "low memory usage", and just upgraded it to have wildcard support.

I still don't think using a tool like this blindly is a good idea, but at least this one is free, comes with source code, is tiny, and is a one-shot thing rather than a stupid bloated keep-running app.

-f0dder (April 18, 2007, 06:08 AM)

Thanks F0dder, I did try your trimmer, and it works

The only problem is that VM cannot be de-allocated, which is the big problem for me. I don't want to have to use the pagefile, as it implies disk writing and slows down the system.

I have 1Gb, and as soon as PF usage goes above 1024mb in the process explorer, I *guess* my system has to go down in performance (I didn't check; I try not to go above that).

Actually having foobar, excel, R, and Acrobat open can take you close to the limit! 1Gb is not that much for today's standards!

Are my beliefs correct? (you shalt not go above your physical mem.)?

Curt · « **Reply #87 on:** April 19, 2007, 08:24 AM »

Curt, if you're too lazy to open a cmd.exe console,...
-f0dder (April 19, 2007, 07:35 AM)

You are cute

How to help someone use a computer.

First you have to tell yourself some things:

(...)

Beginners face a language problem: they can't ask questions because they don't know what the words mean, they can't know what the words mean until they can successfully use the system, and they can't successfully use the system because they can't ask questions.

(...) http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/
-Phil Agre

Are we talking about "kør"? - or maybe right click in Explorer > "Command prompt here"? - or Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Kommandoprompt ? What is a batch file? How do you create such one? What is it you have shown here inside these "code" -boxes? Is it any different from normal text? Did you think the words below my avatar was a joke?

I am quite happy with people writing programs that will do the stuff themselves.

f0dder · « **Reply #88 on:** April 19, 2007, 10:12 AM »

Oh, sorry, I actually did think your avatar tagline was a joke - hope I haven't offended you

Right-click "command prompt here" is quite the easiest, but "stat->kør cmd.exe" would work as well (you'd have to "cd path\where\trimws.exe\is\saved" afterwards, though). A batch file is basically just a list of statements that you could enter in cmd.exe.

You create a batch file by saving a (plain ascii, as produced by notepad or other "pure text" editors) text file and giving it .bat instead of .txt extension. The stuff in the code box was for copy-pasting into notepad and saving to a .bat file... all it does is run "trimws *", which means "trim all processes" - the "@echo off" part is just so it doesn't echo the commands being executed to the console.

I can cook up an "autotrim" version for you if you'd like, but it'll be after tonight's work at post.dk is done.

Curt · « **Reply #89 on:** April 19, 2007, 11:47 AM »

.. - hope I haven't offended you
-f0dder (April 19, 2007, 10:12 AM)

On the contrary; I was soo pleased: Have I really managed to hide my ignorance that well?...

I can cook up an "autotrim" version for you if you'd like, but it'll be after tonight's work at post.dk is done.
-f0dder (April 19, 2007, 10:12 AM)

No hurry, please: I've managed to stay without for several years!
- but sure; an autotrim version would be wonderful

All you folks out there:
Do you see why this site is such a good place to be?!!

f0dder · « **Reply #90 on:** April 20, 2007, 08:30 AM »

Here you go

"trimall.exe" automatically trims all processes, has no GUI or status indication or whatever (thus the small size). It still won't trim system processes, and on a multiuser system it will probably only trim other people's processes if you have an administrative user account.

Curt · « **Reply #91 on:** April 20, 2007, 11:42 AM »

Here you go

"trimall.exe" automatically trims all processes, ....
-f0dder (April 20, 2007, 08:30 AM)

I'm amazed! The RAM usage was 88%, so I clicked trimall, and
within a single second the RAM usage was lowered to 62%!!
This is awesome!!!

[Edit: FreRAM XP Pro has left my PC...]

rssapphire · « **Reply #92 on:** April 21, 2007, 02:11 PM »

Here you go
-f0dder (April 20, 2007, 08:30 AM)

Thank you very much for trimws. I like to run Linux in a VMware virtual machine so I can access Linux programs from my Windows desktop via Xming X-server whenever I need to use one. However, the virtual machine has a huge memory footprint that wastes a lot of memory when I'm not using any Linux programs. I had been loading FreeRam XP Pro and manually locating vmware-vmx.exe and having FreeRam reduce its working set memory. That was a lot of manual clicking. Now I just run "trimws vmware* >nul". This will soon be a FARR alias.

Curt · « **Reply #93 on:** April 21, 2007, 04:23 PM »

f0dder and mouser:

trimws / trimall must be given a page if its own, at DC!

This little wonder-program shouldn't die un-noticed.

-

Only; I don't yet understand how to use trimws, and maybe I'm not the only one? Can I encourage f0dder to create some kind of a manual for beginners, please, to be placed on the program's new page?

f0dder · « **Reply #94 on:** April 21, 2007, 05:26 PM »

Hum, perhaps I should make a little package with the process-related tools I've written. Thing is, they're very much in a "usable by f0dder" state right now

- no GUI, and even the console mode interface isn't the most user-friendly available.

I'll give it a little though.

dantheman · « **Reply #95 on:** April 21, 2007, 05:41 PM »

f0dder and mouser:

trimws / trimall must be given a page if its own, at DC!

This little wonder-program shouldn't die un-noticed.

-

Only; I don't yet understand how to use trimws, and maybe I'm not the only one? Can I encourage f0dder to create some kind of a manual for beginners, please, to be placed on the program's new page?
-Curt (April 21, 2007, 04:23 PM)

Hey guys, i'm missing out on something here.
What's the name of this incredible program?
Where can i download it?

Curt · « **Reply #96 on:** April 21, 2007, 05:42 PM »

A little thought only? No, f0dder, you give it a big thought, please!

---

download here (look below the post):

Here you go

"trimall.exe" automatically trims all processes, has no GUI or status indication or whatever (thus the small size). It still won't trim system processes, and on a multiuser system it will probably only trim other people's processes if you have an administrative user account.

-f0dder (April 20, 2007, 08:30 AM)

trimws.zip = a direct link

CleverCat · « **Reply #97 on:** April 22, 2007, 08:42 AM »

Yikes - I thought my sys tray was crowded - but most of you beat me......

My most valuable as a PC freak with a disability (Rheumatoid Arthritis) is my Sticky Keys! but.....

I still can't configure AHK to make sound when they are used as my XP sounds have gone South!

Curt · « **Reply #98 on:** April 22, 2007, 10:09 AM »

... my XP sounds have gone South!
-CleverCat (April 22, 2007, 08:42 AM)

Start by checking the obvious: Control Panel > Sounds & Sound Units ...

dantheman · « **Reply #99 on:** April 22, 2007, 10:25 AM »

...download here (look below the post):
Here you go

"trimall.exe" automatically trims all processes, has no GUI or status indication or whatever (thus the small size). It still won't trim system processes, and on a multiuser system it will probably only trim other people's processes if you have an administrative user account.

-f0dder (April 20, 2007, 08:30 AM)

[ Invalid Attachment ] trimws.zip = a direct link
-Curt (April 21, 2007, 05:42 PM)

Thanks Curt!

I've downloaded it, unzipped it into it's own folded but clicking on trimall or trimws doesn't make anything happen.