Tag: control panel

  • Commands In Demand Delivers Lots

    Commands In Demand Delivers Lots

    Commands in Demand provides a collection of tools and shortcuts to make it a centralized all purpose utility.

    Commands in Demand

    Of note is that every time the program starts there is an error that it is “unable to add hot key Ctrl+Alt+S” (see image), in its help file this hot key combination is described as:

    …always reads the Clipboard contents (from any of its section you are working with, and even if its window is not visible), by pressing the Ctrl+Alt+S keys’ combination from your keyboard

    Going down the program’s sections Commands in Demand includes the following:

    It can kill unrepsonsive or other tasks, remove idle processes, copy text from any system error message, restart Windows Explorer, open task manager and kill a print job.

    Next is a section to manage Windows Explorer with buttons to open subfolders, go one level up or deeper, minimize or restore windows, keep the active window on top, resize the active window, add transparency to it and more.

    A Clipboard section that can read clipboard items, save them to a text file among others.

    A multi-page Desktop section to show or hide desktop icons, use a screen magnifier, an on screen keyboard, capture active or other areas of the screen and gain access to Windows 7’s GodMode control panel.

    The Devices section has shortcuts to Device Manager, open and close optical drives and safely remove USB.

    Files and Folder has a text file joiner, hash checksum calculator, a list alphabetizer tool ( that can import text files or work with manually entered  text) and a few more shortcuts.

    Graphics has a color picker, EXIF viewer and image convertor.

    Icons can extract icons from files, hide and show desktop icons and refresh them too.

    Internet has the shortcut to a translator, HOST file editor and additionally a shortcut to Google and Neave flash maps and another to search using any of 12 search engines.

    Memory and CPU has live CPU and memory usage meters and an ‘Instant memory cleaner’ button.

    Miscellaneous features a calendar that can calculate days between dates and a few ‘stress killing’ games.

    Network has the shortcut to the Network Connections window and a tool to create Network and TCP/IP statistics reports.

    System is another multipage section with shortcuts to the command prompt (normal and colored console), system folders plus an operating system ID report with common info like version, processor type, Windows product ID and more.

    SysTray can mute/unmute sound, hide/show clock and a few others.

    Taskbar can add transparency to the task bar and hide/show it.

    Text and Editing has the join files and online translation shortcuts and two potentially useful tools to separately convert Unicode and ASCII texts between upper and lower case.

    Windows Applications is simply a collection of shortcuts to things like Regedit, Task Scheduler, Character Map and others.

    The Shutdown Panel has the reboot, standby, logoff , hibernate, shutdown and monitor off buttons.

    Commands in Demand

    The Tools of Mine section is basically a launcher where the user can add any shortcut and run it (see image above).

    Commands in Demand (Version: 12.2 tested) is freeware, one zip file that doesn’t require installation and should run on Windows XP and newer.

  • SysPad Is A Simple Folder And Notepad Utility

    SysPad Is A Simple Folder And Notepad Utility

    SysPad is a utility from CodePlex, it is described simply as

    A Notepad-like program and folder management program

    Syspad is only 570KB but sometimes consumes a bit more than expected memory, approaching 40MB, but nevertheless provides easy access to two useful functions for the efficient user. Installation adds an icon to the tray bar. Thereafter a right click launches a tabbed notepad and a left click launches a favorites folder manager.

    SysPad

    The notepad (called TrayPad) is simple, allows for the typical background and font control. Notes can be saved in .txt format. There is an option to export and open the note using the famous and highly rated Notepad ++ – with syntax highlighting preset from within SysPad –  but in my test I was unable to launch Notepad++ after doing the required to set the path to the program within Syspad’s settings (Edit—>Settings).

    The file manager (called FolderPad) has preset icons to common folders and locations including My Computer, My Documents, Desktop, Control Panel, Program Files, Add/Remove Programs, Network Properties, plus the Printers and Font folders. Right clicking in the white area presents a dialog to add one’s own favorite folders either via browsing or manually typing a location. A tag or title can be added to server as a description as well.

    SysPad while certainly not unique or feature rich is useful and is another download that works well to add some level of efficiency for any computer user. Interestingly since both right and left clicks are used to launch the note and folder utilities there is no way to shut down and completely exit the program via the computer’s tray area. The only way seems to be to have the notes or TrayPad portion open and use File—>Exit Syspad.