Number 277 - June 2006

The Latest Microsoft Power Toys For Windows
by Bettie Cummings Cook, Southwestern Indiana PC Users Group As seen in May 2006 issue of User Fiendly, LACS
Periodically, Microsoft updates its Power Toys. These can be downloaded free from the "Powertoys" link found on the MS Website, www.microsoft.com.    One can also read a fuller explanation of the Toys at the web site. Be aware if you have any earlier versions of these, they must be removed before installing the new version. Color Control Panel Applet for XP    Although Color Control is built into Windows XP, until now it has lacked a Central Control Panel. This applet adds a Color tool to the Windows Control Panel, making it easier to manage Windows color settings. SyncToy    Copies, Moves, and synchronizes folders with a few clicks that used to done by extensive manually manipulation. RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer    Organize and work with digital RAW files in Windows Explorer (as you do with JPEG images). The tool provides thumbnails, previews, printing, and metadata display for RAW images. Upon reading the data regarding this Toy, one encounters a number of helpful links for the amateur photographer. ClearType Tuner    My personal favorite installs an icon in Control Panel that lets one adjust the screen font for a look that is easiest on your eye. HTML Slide Show Wizard    Creates an HTML slide show ready for your web site. Alt-Tab Replacement    See the icon of the application window you are switching to, and see a preview of the page. This is good if you tend to open multiple windows.	Tweak UI or Tweak UI for ItaniumTM-based systems.    An old standby everyone should have. Accesses system settings not easily located otherwise. This version 2.10 requires SP1. Image Resizer    Resize an image file with a right click. No instructions for this one. Right click on any image and Resize Image appears in the list of commands. Four sizes are offered for selection. CD Slide Show Generator    View Images burned to a CD as a slide show. The toy works on windows 9x machines too. Taskbar Magnifier    Magnify part of the screen from the taskbar. No instructions for this one. The Taskbar Magnifier command appears on the menu under Toolbars when you right click on the Taskbar. The viewer appears in the limited Taskbar space. Your reviewer could think of no good use for this one. Webcam Timershot    Lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer. Then save them to a location of your choosing. Power Calculator    With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions. There are PowerToys suitable for other versions of Windows not mentioned here. Some of these features were options in earlier versions of Windows but not designated as "Power Toys." The beauty of these small pieces of software is that they are designed by Microsoft and work with their products without problems.    Bettie Cummings Cook is a member of the Southwestern Indiana PC Users Group, http://swipcug.apcug.org. and is Editor of their newsletter, The P-See Urgent. She may be reached at, bccook@evansville.net.
Number 277 - June 2006