Archive for the 'Software' Category

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UBitMenu Brings the Microsoft Office 2003 Menu Back to Office 2007

Published on March 15, 2009 in Microsoft, Software, Tech Review and Utilities. 1 Comment

word-2003-2007Windows only: We love Office 2007′s ribbon for its impressive keyboard shortcut integration, but for those of you who miss the Microsoft Office 2003 menu that’s entrenched in your muscle memory, UBitMenu can help.

This plug-in adds a new Menu entry to the Office 2007 ribbon (specifically in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). When clicked, your ribbon displays the classic Office 2003 menu, complete with the buttons and file menus you’re used to from your old Office 2003 install. As Samer from FreewareGenius points out, not every single bit of functionality remains in the UBitMenu toolbar as is available in Office 2003—due mostly to changes in Office—but most of the features you’re used to remain in all their glory.

Even if you’re keen on the Office 2007 ribbon, UBitMenu is a nice tool to ease the transition from 2003 to 2007 while you’re polishing your new Office mojo. UBitMenu is a free download for non-commercial use.

UbitMenu [via FreewareGenius]

Automatically change screen brightness throughout the day

Published on February 23, 2009 in Software. 0 Comments

fluxWindows/Mac/Linux: If you spend your entire day staring into the pit of an eye-burning LCD, free application F.lux may be right up your alley.

This free utility adjusts the glow of your monitor—both the brightness and tint—based on the time of day, dimming your monitor later into the evening and tinting the screen color based on the kind of lighting you employ. To get a better idea of what those changes will look like over the course of the day, F.lux has a preview option that runs through the dimming in a few seconds. The dimming and tinting seems drastic in the preview, but I’m giving this one a test run in real time to see how it really feels.

Obviously this app wouldn’t work well for a designer or someone who relies on accurate screen color (though you could use the Disable for one hour option), but as someone whose lost more than a few battles with insomnia, I do appreciate the idea that coming to the computer at 3am won’t burn my retinas. If you give it a try or have used it in the past, let’s hear how it works for you in the comments.

Via [Lifehacker] : Via [Download Squad] : Via [Flux]

Windows 7 Lives !

Published on January 11, 2009 in Microsoft, Software, Tech Review and Tech World. 0 Comments

sevenMicrosoft finally giving us a serious look  at the ‘What Vista should of been’ operating systems, Sadly named ‘Windows 7′… The Build 7000 Beta is now avaliable online in multiple places, including the most reliable of which, Bit Torrent hehe. After Microsoft bragged their download servers would be able to cope with the demand, were proven wrong about an hour into the launch when all went quiet lol…

All things being said though, I did actually use the official Microsoft download, and got a solid speed of 1.13Mbps off it, so whatever they did to fix the problem definatly worked ;)

In regards to the actual operating system, not much of a chance to really play with it yet, suffice to say iv installed it (Identical installation to windows Vista) and so far im a little impressed… RAM usage is down, within the Microsoft Virtual machine im running it within the standard install runs about 300Mb, which is good compared to Vista’s excessive 450Mb right after installation !

Additionally, were all way to familiar with Windows Vista’s HDD thrashing ability, after boot up constantly thrashing the hell out of any hard disk attempting index or search for new files, or looking for intelegant life (who knows)… Well Windows 7 still does this a little, but seems to calm down and settle into its position of subservance much quicker than vista…

Overall, it cant be said im massivly impressed with the interface, all things being equal i wasnt that displeased with the transparent Aero interface introduced with Vista, but i could understand how some people found it annoying, so far application wise the only thing iv really opened is MS Paint, which im amazed to see now has a Ribbon in it, lol… nearly 2 decades of MS Paint being the simplest way draw horns on your grandparents, and now you might need to find the draw tool first lol….

Expect a more detailed review of this in a few days, after iv had some time to seriously play around with all the features, but for now it seems like Microsoft might of learned a lesson from Vista, but its too early to say really, still time for them to fuck it up !

Stop Unwanted Apps from Creating Startup Entries

Published on January 6, 2009 in Software and Tech Review. 0 Comments

disable-startup2Free application Disable Startup keeps just any old app from adding itself to your list of startup applications, keeping your boot time snappy and RAM happy.

At its core, Disable Startup is a startup manager similar to the built-in Windows System Configuration Utility. It does the trick if you just want to use it for that, but it’s really nothing special strictly as a startup manager. If you’re willing to run Disable Startup in your system tray (which will cost you about 4MB), it’ll closely monitor your startup applications for new additions. The app gives you the option to disable all new startup entries, warn you when new startup apps are added, or allow any new additions. Likewise, Disable Startup can prevent new software installations from changing your IE start page. It may not be worth the added system tray app for some, but if you install a lot of software that ends up sneaking entry after entry into your list of startup apps, this simple utility is perfect. Disable Startup is a free download, Windows only.

Download Here

Transfer Bookmarks / Favourites between Browsers

Published on November 21, 2008 in Internet Tools, Software, Tech World and Utilities. 0 Comments

transmute_center

Okay, we’ve all had that niggling urge to go try the new chrome Internet browser or to give the new version of Opera a try, and upon installing it we’ve discovered its faster, more reliable and tonnes more versatile than your current Browser (Internet Explorer for example, cough)…

So, what’s stopping you… normally id say nothing, nothing at all, but lets face facts with this one, most people have been using the same browser, which they installed 10 versions back and have just got stuck with it, built up a massive collection of their favourite bookmarks and cant for the life of them figure out a way to easily transfer or dare I say it ‘sync’ them to the alternate browser.

Well, here’s an interim solution for the adaptive and eager readers. A free application called Transmute has recently been released which provides the functionality to backup your bookmarks across browsers, supporting nearly every major browser for Windows—Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Safari, and, of course, Internet Explorer and Firefox.

You can set Transmute to export bookmarks to a particular folder, with or without timestamp dates, and have it create its own backup files in case things get messy. That’s about it, but that’s certainly no small feat. Transmute is a free download for Windows systems only, requires .NET 2.0 framework to operate.

Via : Transmute

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Welcome to Fluxbox, im afraid we have no affiliation with the Linux window manager, so if your looking for that, turn around now.

Fluxbox is now the combined effort of a group of former University of Plymouth students, who use this site to document their IT endeavours and general random rants, we invite you to join or world, where everything is in a state of flux !