WinRoll: They see me rolling...

WinRoll is a very function filled utility to manage windows in a very easy way. It is probably my favorite (what I like to call) window management tool I've yet to come across. It runs in your tray silently until you call upon one of its functions:

-Always on top/Send to buttom: You can make any window always on top by just middle clicking (or Shift+Right clicking) it's close button. Likewise, if you right click the close button, it will send that window to the back.

-Transparency: Change the transparency of windows but just Middle Clicking (or Shift+Right Clicking) on the title bar. But unlike programs like Glass2k, you can only choose a universal transparency percentage, not a different transparency for every window.

-Rrrrrroll!: I'm fairely sure that this is unique to WinRoll, but you can make windows "roll up" into their title bar. At first, you might be thinking, "Ok, when would I need that?", but imagine having 20+ windows open. Instead of having to keep going back to the taskbar to minimize/unminimize, you can just roll, go to the next window, roll, go to the next, etc. Not to mention the fact that it quickly hides a window that has been placed Always on top without having to minimize it.

-Minimize to tray: A very nice feature. Middle Click/Shift+Right Click a minimize button and you can have it minimize to the tray. But one of the VERY nice features that other Min2Tray programs might not have is the ability to minimize either (a) as it's own icon, or (b) in the WinRoll menu. The menu means that you can right click the WinRoll icon, and it will show a list of all the minimized windows. Really nice feature, if your tray is already cluttered, but you want to minimize something there.

-Apply to all: A very handy feature is that all three features I mentioned above can be applied to all open windows at once. Just press Alt+[Whatever mouse button applies to that function]. You can even use this for regular tasks, like closing or minimizing.

-On/Off: If you ever want to stop using WinRoll, you don't have to quit. Just double click the tray icon (or uncheck the "Enable" option in the tray menu) and WinRoll will essentially "Turn Off" meaning that it will unminimize all windows in the tray, turn off all transparencies, and turn off all always-on-tops. Then you can just turn it back on and start using it again. Keep in mind, though, that when WinRoll is turned back on, it will not restore all previous transparencies, always-on-tops, etc. It just makes sense: what if you kept WinRoll off for hours and the same programs weren't still open?

-Fast and LITE: WinRoll was written in assembly language, which makes it very fast, and very light. All that is needed is a DLL and the program itself, which combine to form only 24kb! In addition, it runs at 300kb of RAM. If that's not lite, I don't know what is.

The only -let me stress, only- flaw I find with WinRoll is that it does not work with all windows, like iTunes, for example. Because iTunes doesn't have a "title bar", it's unaffected. That's what makes programs that use hotkeys like AlwaysOnTopMaker nice.

Other than that, it's amazing. It's open source, which is very good, and it is portable.

Visit WinRoll website for download

Zorro: And suddenly, everything went black.

Zorro is a program to "completely blank the screen except for a rectangular area selected by the user." Basically, the program is just a see-through window (by see through, I mean it is just the border, and you can see the window underneath it) that you may move and resize, and when you press "Activate" or Esc, it blacks out everything on the screen except the selection. Simple stuff. But to go the extra mile, here's a few other nice things the developers put in:

-Choose-your-color: If you don't like black, you can choose any color you want.

-Blank Selection: Though the terminology may be confusing, it basically inverts what I said above, making everything in the box blacked out, and everything outside, visible. Kinda like a censor bar.

-Plenty of options.....FADE!:Always on top, activate on start, disable screensaver, hide taskbar or cursor, and a few more are some nice options to add to the mix. Plus, it has a really nice fade, which....fades....It looks nice, ok?

-Multiple Monitors?: I'll admit, I don't have multiple monitors set up, (for crying outloud, my personal PC is a 901 ASUS EEE,) so I haven't been able to try, but the website says that as of December 2008, Zorro has multi monitor support, which I just assume means that you can...use it on....multiple monitors?

-Hotkey: Win+_, for convenience.

-Portable version: (Ok, I've only looked at the portable version....) It has an INI file and a TXT, so it is portable. Plus, this means it saves your preferences. But there is a regular installer, which I have not looked at....but I'm lazy, so.....sue me....but don't.

You can imagine that the uses for this program are......out there....somewhere.....The website claims that Zorro is "especially useful for watching videos on your computer without being distracted by other programs." When I first saw it, I thought "When will I ever use that?" but for 94kb, it's tiny as heck, even if it does nothing. Plus, there's bound to be some uses out there. Maybe you want to be able to hide everything on the screen with the press of a quickey: start Zorro, make the window the size of the screen, set the quickey, minimize it to tray (another feature I didn't mention), and use it in the blink of an eye. Just one use.

Visit Zorro (gabrieleponti) website for download

AltEdge: I like to live on the edge!

AltEdge is very simple One Hour program from DonatioCoder that utilizes the Alt+Tab function with the mouse. When you run it, a tray icon appears, and then the only thing that it does is when your mouse touches the left side of the screen, it shows the Alt+Tab menu. It's kind of annoying, it cycles through the programs through time intervals, so you have to be able to stop it on the program you want...it would be nice to just have it where you can use the mouse up and down to select a program. Anyway, when it lands on the program you want, move your mouse away from the edge, and you're switched to that window. It's a nifty little program if you want to only use your mouse. It's tiny at 208kb, portable, open source (AHK available), and a neat idea. Check it out, if you want.

Visit AltEdge(DonationCoder) website for download

Glass2k: To make your windows look like glass.

Glass2k is a very small, handy utility to handle the transparency of windows. It is so flipping tiny, all that is needed is one executable that is 55kb. It is portable as well.

Basically you run it and it sits in your tray, then you can change the transparency by either right clicking any window and clicking a percentage, or using hotkeys (like Control+Shift+0/1/2/3/etc.) In addition to handling transparency, it can also making windows always on top, like AlwaysOnTopMaker. Just right click on a program and press down the "On top" button."

That's about all. There are options, like editing how the right click on a title bar works, edit the keyboard shortcuts, make Glass2k run on startup, beep on glass change, or finally to remember the transparency of every window.

And last but not least, it also can control the transparency of the taskbar! Just go to settings and there is a bar you can drag to your liking, or you can just click on the taskbar then use the shortkeys.

Visit Glass2k website for download

AlwaysOnTopMaker: Maker Of Always On Top

AlwaysOnTopMaker is a very, very simple program that is only 6k in size, and does only three things: (1) makes a window always on top when you press Control + Alt + T, (2) Control + Alt + Q exits the program, and (3) displays the message "Already Running..." if you try to run it after it's...already running. That's really all there is to say. It's an incredibly useful tiny little app.

One more thing though, this app works on programs that don't have a standard titlebar, such as iTunes. Programs like Winroll or Glass2k work like this program, but they require a normal titlebar, whereas AlwaysOnTopMaker works on everything.

Visit AlwaysOnTopMaker (FAD Software) website for Download

VoluMouse: Control with a scroll

VoluMouse is a tiny little utility that let's you adjust variable commands that are all dependant on one thing: the scroll wheel. As you can tell by its name, it is mainly about adjusting the volume, which is extremely handy. Like for example, on my main computer, I actually have two sets of speakers: one in the flatscreen monitor, and one regular pair of desktop speakers. My flatscreen speakers just suck, but that's another story. Anyway, I have it set perfectly where the balance is between monitor and desk speakers, and I hate messing that up, plus if I want to turn them both down, I have to click the icon in the taskbar, and all that. OR I can hold down Shift and Control and scroll up and down.

So that's my use for it. Basically you can set alot (up to five, I think) rules that can apply to all different sorts of volumes: Master volume, Front, Back, Wave, Line in, Recording level, etc. It can be set to different conditions such as when Alt is held down, when Shift is held down, when iTunes is in focus, when the cursor is over the taskbar, etc. You can also adjust how many steps it moves with each scroll. I don't exactly understand the intervals, but just mess with it until you find one you're comfortable with. You can even set it negative, meaning that scrolling up turns the volume down, and vice versa.

It can also be used to adjust screen brightness and window transparency. Like I said, it does more than just volume. You can even download a plugin (which I just figured out about) that can eject your CD drive! It hasn't worked the best for me, but I just figured out about it. I think messing with the "Steps" setting will make it work more reliably.

It also gives the option of using hotkeys instead of the scrollwheel, for those who want that instead. Really, this app saved me because I used to have a keyboard that had an eject CD button on it, and volume controls, but it stopped working. Now I can do it from my mouse, and it runs from my taskbar, is highly configurable, and runs under five megs.

I can't live without it ever since I discovered it.

Visit VoluMouse (Nirsoft) website for Download