Here are some very useful utilities for general use

Revised Jan 2006. Things change rapidly on the web.
If any of these links fail, tell me.

Unwrap/Lan Message/Show Password/Zip/Unzip/Volume Control/Belarc

UnWrap (cleans up E-Mail)
(Related discussions Here and Here)

My favorite is Unwrap This little utility cleans up copy and pasted material. The most useful way I have found for its use is cleaning up E-Mail. E-Mail messages often contain little arrows on the left. This program removes them. Also when you have copied material and the lines don't wrap properly, this can be cleaned up also. Let me demonstrate. This first picture is an e-mail that I copied into Word. You can see the mess.

The second picture (below) shows the Unwrap program. The upper section shows the material before cleaning up. The bottom section shows the material after cleanup.

This last picture shows how the material is copied into Word after cleanup.

Click here to download the program from Windows Utilities.com. Look for Unwrap You can also search the web for download sites or download the program from my site if the web sites are not available. I have version 1.7

LAN Message (Send messages over a network to other computers)

I just discovered a very useful utility for folks running a home or office network and using NT/2000/XP. I have no idea if it would work on 9x/Me. Anyway, this little utility allows you to send a message to any other computer on the network. It displays a pop up message on the other computer. It can work to ask a question of another person without interrupting a conversation. It could be used to flash a reminder on the screen of your own computer or someone else's. Here's a couple of screen shots: The first shot is the program. Second is the message as it shows up on the selected computer.

You can select more than one computer if you want to send the message to multiple recipients. Click Here to download the program. They list the cost at $20 if you want to keep it. That's the advantage of shareware- you get to test it before you decide to keep it. I have an old version here

Display Lost Passwords

Ever forget your password? If you can display it where there are asterisks, I found a program that will display them. In Juno and other programs, all you see is the asterisks. If you forgot the password, you can display it with this program. Click Here to go to the programmers site and download "Showpass". If you cannot find it, I have a copy here that you can download. It may not be the latest version. Their site has other useful programs also. This file will have to be unzipped to use it. See my discussion of Unzipping.

Zip/Unzip (expanding files so they can be used)

Since we are on the subject of Unzipping, here is a Utility that works like WinZip but it is free. You can get it at the Enzip home page here. If you can't find it, Click Here to download EnZip300.

Volume Control (Controls speaker volume with the mouse)

There are lots of programs available that modify and control the sound. Most are just a waste of time, but I found one program that is really useful. First of all, a little background. Windows displays an icon in the Systray that looks like a speaker for adjusting volume. I have always used it rather than adjust the volume on my speakers because my speakers are not within easy reach.

Sometimes the icon is not there and you can tell Windows to display it. Start, Settings, Control Panel, Multimedia, Check the box "Show Speaker in Taskbar". Never has been a problem, but occasionally a clients computer will not show it no matter what you do. Then comes along XP. Apparently My XP E-Machine has a small glitch. I put the icon in place and later it disappears. (No it is not displayed in the hidden icons group either, a new feature of XP). The only way I could get it back is to follow the path to the check box, uncheck it, apply, then recheck and apply. It got to be such a frequent chore, I put a shortcut on the desktop to the volume control.

BTW, you can activate the volume control from the run line also. Click here to see how. But this is not what I wanted to do. So I searched for a program that would replace the stupid Microslop one and got lucky. This little program places a new icon in the tray that allows you to adjust the sound with the MOUSE!!!

To activate it, you hold the mouse over the icon and click the left button to raise the volume and the right button to lower the volume. This is slick. And on top of that, my speaker icon doesn't disappear anymore.

Click Here to download Volume Control.

Belarc

http://www.belarc.com/ is a program that reveals all the details about your hardware.