Trix is a lightweight and no-install program that acts much like other hotkey managers. It makes certain task easier and faster. Trix assigns, and lets the user choose, combination of hotkeys for some typical and often-used PC tasks. Combinations of Ctrl, Shift, Win and other letters or keys are assigned to and are configurable for the following tasks:

• Export copied text to (default) email client, Word, Excel or Notepad. The copied text is automatically inserted into the applications.

• Open Files, folders, websites or the terminal. In this case it is probably easier to do it the old fashioned way especially since trying to open multiple items at the same time is seemingly not possible.

• Unzip and zip chosen or highlighted files.

• Show brief computer specs, quote of the day, a timestamp with the current date and more, or stats on any highlighted text such as the number of characters. All these are shown in tooltip style.

• Access power management tools such as hibernation, rebooting, or locking the computer.

• Generate passwords. Encrypt and decrypt copied text. In the latter Trix will prompt for a passkey and allow the encryption level to be chosen and then asks what to do with the encrypted text (copy encrypted text to the clipboard for example).

• Speak the highlighted text.

• Control system volume.

• Convert units of measurement. This works on a highlighted number.

• Calculate highlighted expression. Here if “44+44″ is highlighted the tooltip will show “44+44=88″

• Generate Lorem Ipsum text.

• Translate highlighted text, either based on saved settings (one of the last items in Trix’s settings window) or by choosing languages on the fly.

• Extract email, IP, links or file and folder paths from any copied text.

• Transform text. Reverse case for example but perhaps most importantly strip formatting.

• Adjust the focused window to fill the screen or maximize the focused window.

• Open the system color picker.

• Launch any one of web searches, from google to iconfinder and more.

The somewhat confusing nature of Trix is that some of the text tools seem to require a text highlight while in others the text needs to be copied. This along with the fact that to be really productive one must learn the assigned hotkeys makes Trix, or any other hotkey manager for that matter, useful for some and not for others.

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux

TrueCrypt is a feature rich, powerful and reliable software to secure any number of files, folders or even entire drives. It achieves this by creating a ‘virtual encrypted disk’. It is possible to hide most any thing in one ‘file’ that is only accessible with TrueCrypt and via password and/or keyfiles. It is also possible to encrypt an entire partition or a USB key or flash drive. TrueCrypt supports three main methods of encryption, AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish, and depending on the data being encrypted one may not even need the most powerful but nevertheless it is also possible to generate strong password using TrueCrypt.

Starting up the program and hiding, securing or encrypting requires a few steps. The user starts by pressing the ‘Create Volume’ button which leads to the launch of the ‘TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard’. Once there one chooses to either encrypt by creating a virtual disk within a file, a non-system partition such as a USB key or a system partition which basically allows for the encryption of the operating system as a whole. In one of the more typical uses, the ‘disk within a file’, the next step is to choose between a ‘normal’  encrypted disk or a hidden volume which basically hides the encrypted data inside another area so as to make it possible to deny any data is encrypted at all, what is called plausible deniability. Then the user chooses a location for the so-called file, the type of encryption, the size of the container or file, a password (and keyfiles if preferred) and finally between FAT or NTFS for the format of the volume.

When the program is launched the user will see something like the image below where the encrypted file becomes accessible as a drive.

For increased security check ‘never save history’ and keep ‘cache passwords and keyfiles in memory’ unchecked (see image above).

Many command line options that can ease the use of and for example automate mounting of encrypted drives plus many other explanations including a very easy to follow tutorial are all available at www.truecrypt.org/docs. TrueCrypt is currently at version 6.1a and supported by a good community and a detailed site.

TeamViewer establishes connections to any PC all around the world within just a few seconds. You can remote control your partner’s PC as if you were sitting right in front of it.

TeamViewer makes it very easy to connect to a remote computer for remote control, file sharing or just making presentations. It is even possible to control unattended computers if the software is used as a service. It easily bypasses routers without the need for port-forwarding or other unnecessary and perhaps complex tweaks.

After installing and running the full version the window seen here opens which is ready to give access to the host computer or to connect to a remote computer once the ID and password of the said computer is received.  A host or client computer may also download and run without installation a ‘quick support’ version making it very handy for quick help or just help to the less experienced computer user.

Security should be very important here because pretty broad access is given to computers using TeamViewer. Here encryption is based on RSA private/public key exchange and AES (256 Bit) session encoding. Plus the password is re-generated for each time the program is used adding another layer of protection.

TeamViewer is free for private/non-commercial use is only 1.8MB for the full version.