No matter which browser you prefer, there’s a plethora of ways to customize the way you surf the Web. There are countless plugins, extensions, toolbars and more. Some of these are easy to install while others require a little more effort. We’ve put together a list of some of the best instructional resources for the most popular browsers today, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and even the still wet behind the ears rookie, Google Chrome.
- elyse
In the dog days of summer when there's absolutely nothing new on television (except the Olympics), it's time to start watching the web—and you need the right tool to do just that. The free, cross-platform internet video player Miro can automatically download online video series via RSS feed or BitTorrent, play almost any format you throw at it, and keep track of what you've watched and what's new and queued up for you. More and more independent producers are putting out fabulous video content on the web, but keeping up with it by visiting your favorite video hosting web site or in your regular feed reader can be almost impossible—but setting up Miro is like getting TiVo for web video. Let's take a look at how to subscribe to free internet television with Miro.
- elyse
Joodo is a next-generation p2p application for organizing and sharing your data between your network of friends and family.Joodo is a next-generation p2p app that helps you organize, search, and easily share your information with trusted friends.
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Usniff.com is a fast, easy to use, cool looking and free real-time torrent search engine that crawls 8 different torrent web pages (for now) to give you the best results for your search.
- elyse
Instead of completely replacing Windows Explorer with an alternative file manager, you can pick and choose the extra features you want and add them piecemeal.
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Instead of completely replacing Windows Explorer with an alternative file manager, you can pick and choose the extra features you want and add them piecemeal.
- elyse
Windows only: Free application Snarl is a universal notification system for Windows inspired by the popular Mac OS X notifier Growl. We mentioned Snarl once before, but the young project has improved a lot since then, with extensions supporting Firefox, Pidgin, Outlook, Sunbird, and more. Out of the box Snarl has built-in support for battery warnings, system events, and timer and clock support (like hourly reminders)—along with several attractive themes. It needs support for a wider range of apps if it's ever going to do everything Growl does, but it's got a good start. Snarl is free and open source, Windows only.
- elyse
Windows only: Have you ever wanted to lock down a few files behind passwords, but don't want to jump into a full-featured encryption system with multiple keys, virtual drives and whatnot? Free encryption utility EncryptOnClick is a dead-simple utility that gets the job done. Open the program, choose a file or folder to secure, and type in your password. The files or folder will get an encrypted icon, and you'll be asked for the password to open them—and that's it, at least with the freeware version. The app uses 256-bit AES encryption, so for hiding stuff from the average snooper, it's a tight and light solution. EncryptOnClick is a free download for Windows systems only.
- elyse
Windows only: Free application StExBar adds a toolbar full of useful shortcuts and commands to Windows Explorer. Even better, the add-on binds keyboard shortcuts with virtually every action it adds, so you can create a new folder by hitting Ctrl-Shift-N, open a command prompt in the current folder by pressing Ctrl-M, or copy a full file path with Ctrl-Shift-C. We just highlighted several free tools to power up Windows Explorer, but StExBar is a new offering you might want to add to your list. StExBar is freeware, Windows only.
- elyse
Windows only: Free application StExBar adds a toolbar full of useful shortcuts and commands to Windows Explorer. Even better, the add-on binds keyboard shortcuts with virtually every action it adds, so you can create a new folder by hitting Ctrl-Shift-N, open a command prompt in the current folder by pressing Ctrl-M, or copy a full file path with Ctrl-Shift-C. We just highlighted several free tools to power up Windows Explorer, but StExBar is a new offering you might want to add to your list. StExBar is freeware, Windows only.
- elyse
Windows only: Free application Snarl is a universal notification system for Windows inspired by the popular Mac OS X notifier Growl. We mentioned Snarl once before, but the young project has improved a lot since then, with extensions supporting Firefox, Pidgin, Outlook, Sunbird, and more. Out of the box Snarl has built-in support for battery warnings, system events, and timer and clock support (like hourly reminders)—along with several attractive themes. It needs support for a wider range of apps if it's ever going to do everything Growl does, but it's got a good start. Snarl is free and open source, Windows only.
- elyse
Windows only: Have you ever wanted to lock down a few files behind passwords, but don't want to jump into a full-featured encryption system with multiple keys, virtual drives and whatnot? Free encryption utility EncryptOnClick is a dead-simple utility that gets the job done. Open the program, choose a file or folder to secure, and type in your password. The files or folder will get an encrypted icon, and you'll be asked for the password to open them—and that's it, at least with the freeware version. The app uses 256-bit AES encryption, so for hiding stuff from the average snooper, it's a tight and light solution. EncryptOnClick is a free download for Windows systems only.
- elyse