Best of Breed - The Best Freeware for Windows

This is a different kind of post than I normally write, so heads up, there is no freeware to download on this post. What I have brought to you in this post is important information about a web site that will help you shut down the unnecessary services running on your operating system (NT).  I wrote this a couple of years ago, it all still applies, I did have to change the url, but looking back on it now I think I wrote too much.  I probably should have pointed you to BlackViper’s web site and not tried to explain things from my perspective. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m trying to give you only 1 product per category to maintain my ‘best of breed’ commitment to you but sometimes it makes sense to ease up on the rules a little so you get the benefit of a realistic solution. In a previous post I had recommended Zotero for storing information that you find on the Internet and I stand by that decision but when you only have a phone number that you want to keep or a url or something small like that, it doesn’t make sense to pull up an interface to store it. That is the niche’ that Clippings fills and it does so in the best way possible. When you have s short amount of text you want to keep you highlight it and drag it to an icon on your statusbar (toolbar on the bottom of your Firefox browser) and drop it there. Clippings will bring up a quick window that asks you if you want to store it under a heading. You decide yes or no by typing the heading, hit OK and you’re done. To retrieve the information just double click on the icon and you can either search for the text or look at all your headings. It’s truly a snap with Clippings. By the way, I just emptied out thousands of bits of text, so that is why the picture shows that I only have 7 entries in there. I use Clippings all the time and it does make sense to empty out once in a while.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1347

I’ve tested a great number of solutions for grabbing streaming video on the Internet and downloading it to your PC and the one that works the best is UnPlug. There are all kinds of solutions posted on the Firefox page but over time UnPlug has delivered the best solution. It is compatible with just about every form of video on the Internet and the developer keeps the code up with the new releases of Firefox.

When you see a video you want you just click on the fish and it opens a new tab and lists all the videos found on that page. Then you choose the one you want and you’re done. Works like a charm almost every time, which is a good deal more often than most of the other extensions in this category do.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2254

Like most people, I’ve struggled with Internet passwords since the Internet was created, and I still do, but now most of the time I’ve found a solution that works for me. Passwordmaker provides a good interface to store the passwords in and it automatically records the url. It will generate a password for you but, to be honest, I have not gotten to the point where I use the automatically generated password yet. I still use one standard password for as much as possible and then write it down in the interface. Therefore, I’m not using all the capabilities of the product but I may soon be confident enough in the system to do it. I’m just not there yet. However, this works as a great spot to store my passwords for now and I have room to grow and more things I could use it for as I move over to a more secure system. By the way, in the picture you can see that it asks for a ‘master password’ and it’s optional and I don’t use it. Just in case you were worried about having to type a password to get your password…

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/469

ps - I’ve tried nearly every solution they have out there for this. I spent a significant amount of time on Roboform (and some of the others) but never really got them to work well. So learn from my mistakes and use this for now. If you want to security of generated passwords it is in this product for you and I’ll update you if anything better comes along.

pps - One other piece of code, that I use as a safety net, is Password Exporter and you can install that at the link below. It exports all your passwords to a file on your PC and you should go through that manual exercise once in a while. You can also just look at your passwords through it’s interface.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2848

I forgot how essential this extension was until one day I disabled it while trying to clean up my extension list and I found that I couldn’t drag and drop files onto upload boxes any longer.  This extension works so transparently that I didn’t even realize I used it!  Therefore, in gmail I can drag a file over the ‘attachment’ text and it automatically uploads  the file.  It works on any site with an upload box.  It should be a part of the product but for whatever reason it’s not and it is a vital bit of functionality that will save every Firefox user time.  So install it and forget about it, just don’t forget to drag and drop.  :) 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2190

If I could only recommend one Firefox extension to you this would be it. InformEnter puts a small button beside each text input field. If you left click on the button it brings up a small text window that contains the information that you have stored. Things like your address and phone number or screen name or your different passwords are all selectable fields in menu. So you just click on your phone number and it puts that information into the web pages text box.

After you install the extension there will be a small button with an “enter” arrow on it. Right click on that and then type your data into the menu it provides.

I’ve used this extension since Firefox came out. It’s a great time saver and really helps you interact dynamically with the web. It’s one of the extensions that has really saved me a lot of time. If you download, install, and configure InformEnter it will be one of the extensions that you use and appreciate the most.

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=673

This is a no brainer. Just install this because eventually you might need it. It expends no resources and it doesn’t take up space in your browser. The information it provides at your fingertips could be crucially important to you.

I’ve had a couple of problems with Firefox booting up and the interface looks all broken up. Like it’s at the wrong resolution and there are problems with the frames and menus. It’s not a functional browser and I have not been able to fix it. So then I have to create a new “profile” in Firefox. Well you’ll want to move your old bookmarks and extensions file over from your old “profile”. Even if this has never happened to you, and it might not because I am a power user of Firefox, it’s great to know where your bookmark, theme and extension files are stored. Even with this drawback to the browser environment I still think very highly of Firefox and the user community. Eventually these issues will resolve and having this information limits the potential damage it could cause you.

After you download the extension there is a menu option under your “tools” file that says “open profile folder” and when you select that it brings up the file in the file Explorer. Sometimes it can become really important to have this information at your fingertips.

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=545

PDF Download takes the sting out of clicking on a PDF document to view. It allows you to view the PDF document in HTML so it loads immediately. It’s a vast improvement over waiting for a PDF reader to load every time you click on a link to a PDF document. Another of life’s little hassles eliminated!

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=Popular&numpg=10&id=636

Maybe I’ll get some hits Due to Al’s inspirational message NoScript is probably the most important security extension for Firefox. It works well and delivers the information in the least intrusive way possible. When a page loads it stops all the scripts and you see an icon on your statusbar with a cross through it and then you know you need to OK the scripts. notifies you with a banner across the bottom of your browser. If you want the scripts to run then you just click on the icon and select the site to run either temporarily or permanently. I notice it mostly when ads are trying to run. It is important to stop these ads from executing scripts on your PC. It’s a pain in the butt but it’s the easiest way to take care of all the garbage that you may run into out there. Everyone should use it. You can install it from the link below.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722?application=firefox&category=Popular&numpg=10&id=722

Save Image in Folder is a real time saver for everyone that wants to save images they see on the web on their personal computers. You might say, “I can do that now by just right clicking on the image and selecting where to save it”. Yes you can but this extension saves you at least one time consuming step. Here once you right click on your picture you see an item “save image in folder” and when you mouse over that selection it lists the folders that you have input into the system and you just select the folder you want to save it in and you are done. You can set it so that if it hits a picture with the same name it renames it… You never have to open a save window. It is so much easier and such a time saver. This is a great example of how Firefox beats the crap out of other browsers… You have got to get this extension!

Once you install the extension, open up the options from the extension window and define the folders where you want to save images, and you are ready to roll.

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=614