Dropper: Drop 'n' go

Dropper is a little program that I wrote that shows a little box. When you drop files onto this box, it will open those files with whatever program you have specified. It's a type of "drop box", if you will.

I would like to first and foremost thank Brother Gabriel-Marie, who e-mailed me with suggestions for PEM, one of them being a "drop box" program for use with PEM. So without him, there would be no Dropper.

So the nice thing about Dropper is how customizable it is. You can set the program, of course, but you can also set the icon to whatever you want: PNG, JPG, ICO, even an EXE icon (like the icon of the program you're using. You can also resize it to almost any size you want (although I did put a cap on the smallest being 25x25, just so you don't lose it.) You can also set the transparency, anything from completely solid, to being barely visible. The background (that is, the color behind the icon) is also customizable, even though at the moment, you have the choice of white, black, and the default windows color. Lastly, there's the option of making it Always On Top (which I recommend), and the option of Enabling/Disabling it, meaning you can't drop files onto it.

That's about it. It runs at the Autohotkey usual 3.7mb of RAM, it's only 300kb in size. It's not quite portable, as it needs a few more tweaks to be able to make paths relative, but it's getting there. It's fairly beta, at the moment, and there's many things that I want it to have, but not yet. So here's a FAQ to answer some questions you might have:

Is Dropper portable? No (even though I already discussed it). While Dropper does not require any files outside of itself, the paths you choose are not relative yet, so it won't work across different drives (yet).

Why is my image fuzzy sometimes? There are two reasons I've come across this so far. The first is if you've resized Dropper to be very small, chosen a new image, then resized. If that's the case, just restart Dropper, and it should display a full sized icon/picture. The second case is with EXEs. For some reason, Autohotkey (the language it was written in) is not very good with using icons from EXEs, and it won't use the correct size. I'm working to correct this.

Can I use a transparent background? I thought of this feature and wanted to include it (there's even the menu option), but I ran into many roadblocks along the way. So no, you can't, and until I find away to do away with all the side effects and obstacles you'll never be able to.

Can I use a moving GIF? Again, nice feature to have, but no. This is again due to limitations of Autohotkey. You can choose a moving GIF, but it will only show the first frame. GIFs may not be displayed correctly, period.

Why do some windows underneath Dropper distort when I resize it? Are you teh haxxor? Strange bug I encountered. Just minimize-restore the window. :P

As you can see, there's missing features and some bugs, but it actually functions very well. You can drop multiple files onto it, and it will handle them no problem. Also, feel free to download the source, modify it, and make your own Dropper. Just please, give credit where credit is due.

Check out Dropper Screenshots here

Visit FreewareWire Software Downloads page for Dropper v1.0

FileHippo Update Checker: Check please!

From the amazing site FileHippo.com, FileHippo Update Checker is most likely the smallest update monitor around. FileHippo is the most amazing site to get whatever version of a freeware you're looking for, so it only follows that their update checker is amazing as well.

The nice thing about the program is that it's only around 100kb, so it's very light. You also have the option to either install, or just download the executable. However, FH Update checker is not portable, because it requires the .NET framework. If you don't know what that is, it's basically something made by Microsoft that many programs require to run. It's a fairly large install, as well, being around 100mb, I believe. But the point is, you can't just take FH Update Checker to any computer you want, because some people don't have the .NET framework, and don't want to install it just for a 100kb update checker.

But if you already have .NET, Update Checker is great. Basically, you run it, and it starts collecting data. It's very quick, which is nice. The thing that is different is that it displays the results in your default browser. It will show whatever programs that have available updates, the version that you have installed, and the version that is available. It also lists a link to every update. Straightforward.

There's also a few settings. You can set a custom browser for it to use, you can make it show all programs (not just the ones that have updates), you can make it ignore betas, or you can even make it show the installation path. You can also add custom locations (since it normally only searches the default location), set proxy settings, and add it to system startup.

The only thing that I can see that is an issue is reliablity. For on, it only checks for programs that are on FileHippo. Other update checkers (like SUMo) get literally everything, because they are always adding new entries to their master database, based on what they find people have installed. But with FileHippo, I've heard that it has problems getting everything. Also, I've experience that it will sometimes mess up and suggest an older version. But it's still a really useful tool, and I suggest you check it out, if you don't want to keep wondering if your programs are out of date.

Oh, one more thing, the program is beta. I don't know why, but it apparently is. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Visit FileHippo Update Checker website for download

StartupSaver: Faster than a locomotive!

Ok, I'm going to admit, this is my freeware. I mean, this is literally the first freeware that I've coded and felt comfortable enough to release to the public.

StartupSaver is a program designed to improve your computer's startup time and quality by executing programs at intervals. You basically choose your program, and then set the delay you want after that program, and then the same for the next, and the next, and ect. This way, when starting your computer, it won't start everything up at once, but space it out. Here's a few of the features that I thought handy and tried to incorporate:

-Import: Because if you were to switch over to StartupSaver, it would be a pain to have to get all of your items that are already on startup. So you can import items from the registry, the global registry, the Startup folder, and the global startup folder.

-Export: More of a tool outside the program, exports registry, global registry, startup folder, global startup, or StartupSaver settings (or all of the above) to TXT, REG, or even a folder of LNKs.

-Delay for SS: So you have a chance to back if you want to abort starting all the programs, you can set the delay, and show a window that has a countdown before the program launches. Also, it helps Windows get fully loaded before starting.

-Enable/Disable entries: As of v0.96, SS how has checkmarks for every entry, so if you want to disable a program without having to remove it, you can just uncheck it. The entry will stay in StartupSaver, but it will just be skipped in the lineup when starting. (Props to lanux128 of DonationCoder for suggesting it.)

-Install: Installs your choice of directory, with an option of adding to start menu, and adding to startup. Keep in mind, this is an install inside the program, so don't expect too much. Also, you can uninstall from the directory the program is running.

-Multi executable: there are two executables, StartupSaver.exe, and StartupSaverConfig.exe. StartupSaver.exe is the program itself, Config is the GUI for adding stuff. But if you want, you can delete the Config and just open the INI file and edit settings yourself. Only if you want.

-Portable as an option: If you choose not to install, if is portable. But since the point of the program is to start on startup, it has to create a shorcut in the start menu to do so...but it's still technically portable.

-Open source: For years, I've promised myself that if I ever made a program, it would always be open source. That day is here, and I'm keeping my promise. I'll always make the most recent version of StartupSaver available.

-Tiny: For all three required files, it starts at around 400kb. If you ditch the Config, it gets down to 200kb.

Is it the best program ever? No. But I had alot of fun making it, and I think it might be really useful. If you want take a look. If you leave a comment, please include the version number(ie. v0.96)...since this is StartupSaver's home, and it's probably going to be here a while. But if you do download, beware.....

-Beta: To be honest, StartupSaver is basically where I want it. But I'm not sure how buggy it is, since I've only used it on my EEE 901, with the same registry, the same screen resolution, and so forth. So in order for it to achieve "v1.0 stable" status, I need feedback! I need people telling me what I need to fix, or if it's ok! Until I actually get somebody to download it, and then post some comments (it only takes a couple seconds, yall), poor StartupSaver will stay beneath 1.0.

*I apologize for any strange messages that may pop up.....I'm still really bad at testing my programs, and really bad at taking out things that I put in to test. Let me know if that happens.

See more StartupSaver screenshots here

Visit FreewareWire Software Downloads page for StartupSaver v0.96

LAN Messenger: A great IM client...for LAN!

LAN Messenger is a very simple program that essentially acts as an IM client on a LAN connection. That means that it cannot connect to the internet, but there's already a ton of great IM clients for the internet, and this is the first LAN IM program I've seen, and it's good. So a few good things about it:

-T&P: Tiny and Portable. Weighing in at 460kb, LAN Messenger is very light, meaning you can take it wherever you want. Also, it has it's own INI file (which is actually only five lines), which means that it really is portable!

-Plenty of features: Here's the main features:
-Name: You can give yourself your own name, and edit it at any time.
-Avatar: You can pick from the 10 icons that it comes with (which actually aren't that bad) or even pick your own.
-Status: You can set your own status by typing it in or select just "Available" or "Busy,"
-Private and public chat: Private is one on one, public is basically a group chat that everyone can see.
-Buzzing: Like in some IM clients, you can "buzz" another person.
-Ignore: You can choose to ignore someone (which assume is by IP, since names can be changed).
-Save: You can save chats to TXT files.
-Minimize to tray: Self explanatory.

That's all of the features. It's actually very feature filled, for just talking over a network. My favorite part about it is.....

-Looks nice: The most shocking thing that I found to this program would be the looks. The icons, the interface, and everything is so simple, but nice looking!


There are a few catches though:

-Both people must have the program: Should go without saying, but everyone who wants to chat needs the program. Both people need a phone to talk, and it's no different here. Not a problem at all if both people have a flash drive, and you plan ahead of time.

-Beta: Though I can't see why, the author has decided to put v1.2 as a beta. To me, it seems stable enough, and has more than enough features, but it is beta, so just know that.

The author of LAN Messenger (Madhavan) took it down from his website... Yay! It's back up!
Visit LAN Messenger (Madhavan's) website for download

PS - click HERE for a screenshot of LAN Messenger, since it was requested.