From a few other threads I've picked up a few useful programs.
Therefore I thought a 'share your stuff' thread may produce a few more!

My current favorite utilities :
MWSNAP from mirek, http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html
This is a little screen grabber for windows that allows you to stick cursers on it where you want, very useful for when writting operation manuals. Free!

Openoffice, MS office clone http://www.openoffice.org/ free,libra,gratis....

http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=605
Pdl's Com port setting util, very useful where an old DOS or W9x program wants to see a 'real' serial port.

Grisoft AVG - free, I must stick this on a few PC's a week once I've rid them of Norton or Mcwhatsit
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

So what gems do you all have to share????

http://www.7-zip.org/ Free ZIPer that also covers other formats (RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM,..0

http://www.irfanview.com/ free picture viewer/converter/resizer and more, does batch processing (crop bunch of screenshots for manuals)

http://www.cutepdf.com/ free PDF printer driver, no ads, watermarks or nag screens, free for personal and business use

http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ free PDF tool kit (split or merge PDFs etc.)

http://curveexpert.webhop.net/ Curve Expert (fits curve using number of functions)

http://nch.com.au/wavepad/index.html Audio Editor

http://biphome.spray.se/mason40/index.html Split File

http://www.progecad.com/ AutoCAD Clone

http://dict.leo.org/ Online English German Translation

http://www.google.com/ Google

http://mail.google.com/ Google Mail

http://earth.google.com/ online Globe with maps, directions and more

http://moon.google.com/ just don't zoom in too close

http://free.grisoft.com/ Anti Virus

http://www.hijackthis.de/ Hijack This

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ Ad Aware

Two tools I use A LOT, weekly at least:

• LL-Solver is a useful tool for converting between 16-bit binary, decimal, and hex. This tool was designed as a direct result of working with Omron PLCs, however it is also useful with other PLCs that use 16-bit or 8-bit data. Can be set to use 0 to 65535 or -32768 to +32767, enter in either binary, hex or decimal, pressing = fills in the other values. Freeware.

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• Scale tool: Input the Raw and Engineering ranges, and Scale Tool will scale Raw to Engineering OR Engineering to Raw... plus more. Freeware.

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I included both in a ZIP available for download at the download section.

• Angry IP Scanner: perfect tool for scanning networks for IPs. Freeware.
• Mail Checker is a Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP utility that lets you check your e-mail server automatically at regular intervals. When mail arrives, it shows a systray notification and can play a sound or start your e-mail program.
  It supports only POP3 mail servers. Mail Checker can stay on at all time, since it leaves a small footprint (500kB) in memory. Simple, small, I like it. Freeware.

That's it for now.

Convert: (enuff said)

http://joshmadison.net/software/convert/

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NetScan: (works great for getting MAC ID's for Cognex Vision Cameras)

http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/manual/

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Super Mon Serial 5.5: Best tool to DEBUG RS-232 comms or ASCII comms between two devices.

http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=575











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Some more goodies

• WhoAmI provides quick verification of Internet Connectivity Diagnostics on your system, such as your operating system version (OS), TCP/IP status, Local IP, External IP, Gateway, DNS and Web Access. WhoAmI is a 'no install' program, just download WhoAmI.exe and run to see your results. No installation is required. Freeware.

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• DAEMON Tools is a virtual cd/dvd-rom emulator. It is able to emulate nearly all known copy protections on the market today. It installs as an ordinary DVD/CD ROM player and can load DVD/CD images through the systray. Freeware.
• Desktop restore. I use this tool cause my laptop runs of a different resolution than my LCD at the office. When I got on a job I always had to re-arrange icons, vice versa when I got back at the office. This tools lets you save icon arrangements for a specific resolution and lets you restore a layout. Freeware.

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• Syncback. I use this tool to synchronise my portable 40GB USB disk with our server at the office. Extensive configurations possible, synchronise, backup, restore - too much to list here. In a few clicks I have got a mirror of the office server files so I am never emptyhanded on a job and can provide support and have access to all projects wherever I go. Freeware.

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• EncryptOnClick is a program that lets you securely encrypt and decrypt files. Use it sometimes to encrpyt files on customer PCs.

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Syncback is AWESOME, I use it to sync my PLC programs to my network server. Also if two guys is working on the same project, both of you will have the latest and greatest revision. Normal in my case, I might be working on the PLC, robot and vision, while another guy is working on the HMI. However both of us have each other's programs in case one of us is gone on our laptop using syncback....it's sweet...

Here is another.

Startup Control Panel

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

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By the way...this is an AWESOME thread.



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I use synchronize it for syncronizing my file between home,USB stick and work. I would use a regular version control system to do what chakorules uses syncback for. For that I would use QVCS for smaller software projects.
http://www.grigsoft.com/winsin.htm
One of the other guys at work likes compare it too. I have it, I just don't use it that much.

Scilab is a great engineering tool. It does have a learning curve but all math packages do.
www.scilab.org

Finally, LINUX. Linux works very well and has saved us a lot of money.

The startup control panel looks interesting.

http://www.skype.com/ VoIP phone

I thought this was an AWESOME COMPANY....until eBAY bought it....

Now they are setting the bait...."Free Calls until 2007". Do you know what is going to happen in 2007? It's ain't going to be FREE anymore since eBay owns it...mark my word.

it is free now and that is still usefull, we can revisit this topic in 6 months...
[url="http://wordweb.info/free/"]
[/url]http://wordweb.info/free/ nice English thesaurus and dictionary

Some websites offering CAD downloads:

http://www.ab.com/e-tools/index.shtml
http://www.meau.com/eprise/main/sites/publ...ematics/default
http://www.omron.ca/
http://www.hammondmfg.com/index.htm
http://www.hoffmanonline.com/
http://www.ralstonmetal.com/
http://www.enclosureinfo.com/cad_search.cfm?sitename=corp
http://www.web2cad.com/ (lots of brands)

I stumbled upon a various collection of nice tools that all have something in common; they can be launched as stand alone executables which don't need to be installed, so ideal to carry around on your USB pen.
All are free for personal use.

Enjoy

A43 File Management Utility
A43 File Management Utility is a standalone file manager with built-in zip compression, RAR file extraction and text editing. You can easily create or open zip files by simply dragging them onto an icon, or create self-extracting exe files in the same manner. In addition A43 allows you to keep a list of favorite folders, change file dates, search for files and edit files via the built-in editor. The program does not require an installation.
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Country Codes
Country Codes is a small database of country codes and additional information for more than 250 countries. It displays their location (continent), ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2-3 codes and ISO number as well as IDDD (International Direct Distance Dialing) country code and flag, FIPS PUB 10-4 and TLD (Top Level Domain) code and the current time in the country. The program provides checkboxes, that allow you to copy all or just selected information to the clipboard. In addition, it provides IP to country conversion, and a handy link for each country that launches your browser with detailed information from the Internet. You can also view the location of a selected country on a world map.
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cPicture LE
cPicture LE is a software to view and work with your digital photos. It offers support for thumbnail browsing, EXIF display, histogram view, as well as various features to resize, rotate, crop and more. You can also remove red-eye effects, create a HTML gallery or picture index, and batch process images to perform selected operations on multiple photos at once. The program supports all popular images formats, and even view/convert various RAW formats as well (including Canon CR2), which is not often found in free image viewers. The interface is easy to use and provides access to the features with non-technical commands (I want to ...) and a modern look. cPicture LE offers several other handy features like mouseover image zooms, lossless rotation, image slideshow, command line options, color profile support and more. The program comes as standalone executable, and does not require installation - it can be run from a USB drive.
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Drive Manager
Drive Manager is a small and useful tool that makes it easy to retrieve drive information for all your drives at a glance. It runs as a standalone EXE file and displays Label, Type, Size, Used, Available, Format, Serial number and Percentage free for each local and removable drive. The information is refreshed every 20 seconds - double-clicking opens the drive in Windows Explorer. Drive Manager also allows you to create a substitute drive letter for a local folder, and to hide drives from Windows Explorer.
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FollowMeIP Lite
FollowMeIP Lite is a plain and simple tool that displays your external IP address, even if you are behind a router or firewall. No install needed, just run the file and it will display the IP address. It can also be minimized to the system tray.
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FTP Wanderer
FTP Wanderer is multi-threaded FTP browser, that allows you to browse and upload and download files from and to FTP sites. It features drag and drop upload/download, folder transfers, simultaneous connections, CERN proxy support, remote folder bookmarks, and resume support. The program is easy to use with an Explorer-style interface. FTP Wanderer is primarily designed for fast FTP browsing of file sites, and not for web site management. Standalone program, no install needed.
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HTTP File Server (HFS)
HTTP File Server (HFS) is an easy to use drag and drop file server for personal file sharing. It runs as a standalone executable and does not require any installation. The program is very easy to use, just drag a file into it to share it with the world. You can customize the port it is running on, specify the IP address and monitor connections from the tray icon. HFS presents the shared files on a simple HTML page, that includes the file name and size. With some HTML knowledge, you can completely customize the HTML template to meet your preference. HFS can also integrate into Windows Explorer, allowing you to easily share files from the right-click menu.
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Omziff
Omziff is a standalone encryption and security utility, that allows you to encrypt/decrypt a file, using several well known encryption algorithms, including Blowfish, Cast128, Gost, IDEA, Misty1, Rijndael, and Twofish. The program also includes a password generator, a file shredder, file splitter and several other small tools. Omziff is a standalone executable and can also be used from an USB drive or similar portable media.
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Qm - The Quick Mailer
Qm is a tiny program for sending quick e-mail messages without having to load your main email client program. It features MIME attachment support, multiple authentication methods, SMTP logging and more.
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Quick `n Easy FTP Server Lite
Quick `n Easy FTP Server Lite is a standalone, multi threaded FTP server that offers advanced features and security. The interface is simple and intuitive, with organized sections for managing users, configuration and security settings. It supports all basic FTP commands as well as virtual directories, IP blocking, server statistics and remote administration. The server can be easily set up by inexperienced users, but also offers advanced administration options. Amazingly small, at less than 400kb.
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SmartSniff
SmartSniff is a TCP/IP packet capture program that allows you to inspect network traffic that passes through your network adapter. The two pane interface displays the captured packet and detailed information in ASCII or Hex view below. Additional features include color coding of local and remote traffic, export to HTML and more. SmartSniff can use in Windows 2000/XP Raw Sockets or WinPcap for other versions of Windows. A basic, but very small and standalone protocol analyzer.
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StartupList
StartupList creates a list off all items that are in any way related to your computer startup and are executed without any user interactions. It is not limited to the common Startup folders, but includes dozens of registry locations, as well as scheduled jobs, pending file operations and more. It also displays common Hijack points like browser default pages, Hosts file entries, Winsock layers, stopped and disabled services and much more. StartupList requires some technical knowledge and is not intended for the complete novice. It does not allow you to delete or disable any items, but provides links to the registry keys via RegEdit.
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TreePad Lite
TreePad is an intuitive and powerful personal database program, PIM and personal data search engine. It allows you to store all your notes, emails, texts, hyperlinks, etc. into a single file. With the look and feel of the familiar Windows explorer, editing, storing, browsing, searching and retrieving your data can not be easier! TreePad can be run directly from a USB stick, including data. To find any article you previously created or imported, you can browse the tree, in the same way as you browse directories/folders in the Windows explorer. Alternatively, you can use the very fast internal search engine to instantly find any item you need!
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WhoisThisDomain
WhoisThisDomain enables you to view owner and registration information for any domain name. It supports generic domains as well as country code domains, and you can look up multiple domain names at once by pasting the domain names or URLs into the input window. The results can be saved to text files or exported as HTML report. Standalone program, no install needed.
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WinAudit
WinAudit allows you to perform a detailed audit of the hardware and software configuration of your computer. The resulting audit report contains details on installed software, license information, peripherals, memory usage, processor model, network settings, startup programs and more. It can be viewed from within the application, or optionally exported to text, nicely formatted web page, XML and spreadsheet formats, or sent by email. WinAudit also supports ODBC connections and can export audit data to an existing database. Very small, standalone program that works well.
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YamiPod
YamiPod allows you to manage the content of your iPod without the need to have iTunes installed. You can copy mp3 and AAC files to/from your iPod, import and export playlists, search for songs, remove duplicates, create and edit notes and much more. The program runs completely standalone and can be copied directly to your iPod and run from there. Other features include a built-in music player, lyrics support, iPod information display (owner, serial used space etc.), adding and editing of notes and more.
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ok this is not really productivity tool of some sort but it sure brightens my day
and puts smile on my face every now and then:
http://www.heise.de/ct/schlagseite/

unfortunately text is only in German.

one of my favorites is http://www.heise.de/ct/schlagseite/06/15/gross.jpg
and reads something like this:

"Dear colleagues, please pay closer attention. As you have seen, cast is completely removed
but the arm still remains in same position. You may wonder why. The answer to this mystery is
in the Registry. Only after we manually delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Arm Cast\Arm Rigid
cast removal will be complete."


....or the pop up windows hassle known by everyone who wandered off to uncharted places in internet:
http://www.heise.de/ct/schlagseite/06/12/gross.jpg

reads something like :

"Yess!!! I admit! I have apparitions/appearances! I see windows...,
and every time I point finger and press in, image of another naked girl shows up..."

"These windows are sent by devil...!"

Two utilities I can't do without for the right click menu are FastEdit and MDFolder.

FastEdit will open any file (regardless of extension) in Notepad.

MDFolder is a quick way to right click and create a new folder, just right click, pick New Folder, then type in the name.

As for sync utils to keep my home laptop, work laptop, and external hard drive backups all the same, I use the Microsoft SyncToy power toy. Does a good job for what I need. Used to use SynchronX.

Both of the above mentioned functions I find very useful. The 'Open in Notepad' option can be acheived by creating a shortcut in your 'Send To' menu.

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The 'New Folder' option is already a right click function of Windows. How is MDFolder different?

The MDFolder allows you to just right click on a folder and create a new subdirectory and it asks for the name. Microsoft requires you click IN the folder, pick New, then rename it.

Excellent thread, thanks for the links!

one of good links for travelers / frequent fliers ; http://www.seatguru.com/

I always check SeatGuru before I reserve my flights. Want to make sure I'm in United's Economy Plus or Business class and not in a seat that doesn't lean back because of the emergency exit or other such nonsense.

I noticed Open Office in the list but I also have PortableOpenOffice runs from a usb stick and dosen't need to be installed I find it incredibly useful actually had it given to me by another programmer but if you search for "PortableOpenOffice" you should be able to find it..

Good thread

Google Mail - http://www.gmail.com
I automatically forward all of the e-mail to/from my "regular" email address to a gmail accout. This serves as an off site backup, and in a pinch I can send/receive email using my gmail account. You can sign up with a cell phone number.

GMail Drive Shell extension - http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm
This program creates a virtual drive using a gmail account. Good for off site backups of critical files.

Software995 - http://www.software995.com
A nice set of tools including ftp, pdf, zip, and photo utilities. Free with ads, or inexpensively priced to remove ads.

File Protect for DOS - http://www.f-prot.com/products/home_use/dos/
Anti-virus protection for DOS computers.

Net Stumbler - http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/
Packet sniffer for wireless networks. I find it useful to use its signal strength graphics to adjust the location of wireless equipment for the best coverage.

http://mc-group.ca/download.htm NEC and CEC calculators

Two more

CCleaner is a perfect freeware tool to keep you computer clean. I use it for well over a year now, and it updates regularly. Works with all browsers, and besides the standard clean feauture you can also remove entries in the Remove/add programs section which are uninstalled but are still listed.
Also comes with a registry clean/repair option, but very safe and not so "agressive". Have run it many times and never had a single application problem.
There are many cleaners around, but this one has one feature that works great; it lets you store cookies that you want to be skipped in the cleaning process. So all cookies related to login websites I keep, like MrPLC.com so I never have to log in at my sites.

At installation just remember to uncheck the Yahoo search toolbar install.

Look @ LAN is a very extensive freeware network scanner. You can store profiles, and it stores scan results.
I use it when I come on site at a clients network which is supposed to be exclusive for our devices.
After a scan the program tells you which devices are offline, which have changed in any way and which are new. http://www.lookatlan.com/

I find the panel schedules in excel very useful. Theres other goodies as well...

www.dcengineers.com/downloads.html

Imageshack Toolbar.

The only toolbar I allow my browser to have besides Google.

I knew there must have been some tool for all you guys that post so many non clickable smilies.

I've been doing way too much typing.

Images are saved forever, at least they say. So for regular used images yo ujust have to re-use the links.

http://www.hyperionics.com/index.asp?Page=hc/changelog.asp



HyperCam captures the action from your Windows screen and saves it as a standard, easily edited, AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) movie file.

www.carlprothman.net

On this site, in the site navigation section go to Technology then Connection Strings. This provides a good list of connection strings to all sorts of data sources.

All of the computer programs I write are in VB.NET and this site has connection strings to get data from just about anywhere.

The following was originally posted by Chakorules, I copied it over to the useful stuff category.




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http://maps.live.com/Default.aspx?FORM=ECHN&enc=0

To know about your traveling routes, directions distance & many more Informations

I prefer google maps: http://maps.google.com/

For you web page designers, here is a JSP library developed by a friend of mine that will embed Google Maps in your web pages. (I know we have at least a few web guys here)

http://www.jars.com/WWWtools/other/resource.php/32259

that was an excellent thread.

An elequent way of quick switching between IP address's

IP Switcher

for anyone using ACAD to work on electrical drawings for example, DDNUMB (Autonumb) is one of
the indispensable little things.

http://cad.digitalmedianet.com/articles/vi...cle.jsp?id=7017

It's a small Lisp program that once loaded allows quick renumbering of wire or line numbers etc..
I've configured my ACAD to load it (and few others) every time it starts...

I don't know if everyone knows about this little gem of a program.

Free Download:
http://winmerge.org/

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But if your doing TEXT base programming, and trying to figure out who changed what, this program does this trick. Or just basic text comparsion between two files.

Tools for making XP look and funtion the way it should..

AQUA DOCK



If you want to add more icons of high resolution to the program's Icon File, you should go to deviantart.com where there are thousands of free high resolution icons for your downloading pleasure. I not only added icons for the old cheap low resolution icons, but I also found lots of really cool icons for most applications.
You can remove the separators by holding the control key down while dragging it off the dock. The only separator you cannot remove is the last one. The dock seems to require one separator, the one you saw already on there where you installed the program.

DESKTOP SIDEBAR
http://www.desktopsidebar.com/

The Desktop Tool That Lets You Have It All

Breaking News... Critical Appointments... Personal Photo Gallery... Convenient Toolbars... Favorite Cartoon... Instant Web Searches... Task Tracking... Music Library... Notes to File... Weather in Tokyo... You can have it all and more at your fingertips with Desktop Sidebar!

Desktop Sidebar provides you with instant access to the information you most desire by grabbing data from your PC and the internet. The result is a dynamic visual display you configure and control.

How can you make this possible? Choose from among a wide selection of information conduits (e.g. MS Outlook, toolbars, newsfeeds), called "panels". Fully customizable, Desktop Sidebar allows you to dock these panels to the edge of the screen, or arrange them anywhere on your desktop as you wish. All panels are configurable with a number of specific options. With hundreds of skins available in our Extension Exchange Page and an easy to use Skin Editor, you can freely change the appearance of Desktop Sidebar to suit your tastes.

Pre-installed Panels include:

• Newsroom
• Calendar
• Tasks
• Inbox
• Notes
• Performance

• Mail Checker
• Clock
• Messenger, Miranda IM and ICQ
• Media Player
• WinAmp
• Volume Control

• Toolbar
• Weather
• Search Bar
• Stock
• Slideshow

Image Zoom is my favorite FireFox Add on.

Anybody got any other Add Ons that they Like?

That's a good one, grabbed it. I have recently switched to FF on my new laptop and am getting more and more enthusiastic.
Most add-ons I have installed are suggested by fellow member JRoss here.
I modified Userchrome.css as described on the widefox page to have the tabs open at a sidebar situated on the right to take full advantage of my 1680*1050 on 15.4".

My fav add on with IE is still my fav with FF; the Imageshack toolbar to quickly upload images for hosting purposes.

Ethereal, is the best "free" network monitor and analyzer.
http://www.ethereal.com/

One tip: use an old fashion HUB between your laptop and the ethernet devices you want to sniff

as opposed to a crossover cable? why?

Not opposed to crossover cable, but opposed to a switch.
If you want to "sniff" packets between two ethernet devices and tap in with your laptop through a switch, you will not see any traffic. Why ? Because the switch will only forward the traffic to the port that the destination IP is connected to. So the port your laptop is connected to will not receive any of this traffic.

A HUB will forward traffic on all ports, regardless of what is connected to it.

To make it more clear:

Got it! that is a very effective animation of the concept

Hub, or a "managed" switch, where you control a port that gets sent all packets.



Hub, or a "managed" switch, where you control a port that gets sent all packets.

A Resistor color code utility:
http://www.programurl.com/resistor-values.htm

Several other links from the same place that might have something useful:
http://www.programurl.com/software/values.htm

All of our PLCs are network connected. We don't have many, if any, serial connections to sqat.

This is some of the open source software I use in my day to day dealings.

Wireshark -- Network protocol analyzer.

Comes in hand for seeing what is really hapening.

MySQL -- SQL server.

It's a database server. I prefer it to Microsoft SQL server, now that I hate Microsoft. This thing supports everything that MSSQL does.

Netcat -- "TCP/IP swiss army knife"

You can do almost anything you want to a port with this thing, and more. Careful though, most virus protection software detects it as an unwanted program/virus. I can assure you, ITS NOT.

VMWare -- Virtualization App

Allows you to install Windows on a virtual machine inside of Linux, or Linux in a virtual machine inside of Windows (Why would you want to??). Where I work, most servers don't physically exist, they run emulated on a massive server with a ton of memory and processors.

A nice collection of pdf tools can be found at: http://pdfill.com/

I use the merge function to make a single pdf out of multiple pdf's.

They also have an editor for $20.

Say Sleepy do you have a website of the developer of this tool ? It doesn't seem to run on .net framework 2 and I don't want to downgrade to 1.1...
I am still searching for a (free) simple, fast, and working tool to swich (preset) IPs on network adapters from DHCP to static.
I used to run this VBA script Chako once posted but it doesn't work as good as it should.

Any other suggestions for such a tool grealtly appreciated