Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock in Madagascar for the last few years, you undoubtedly already know about the All-Star open-source applications for Windows. I’m talking about applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP, OpenOffice, and VLC.

However, there are hundreds of lesser-known but highly-useful
open-source applications available for Windows. A few of my favorites
are below.

These applications range from moderately popular to downright obscure, but all
of them are open-source and FREE. All of them are worth the install
time if you have never tried them. As a side bonus, many of them are
cross-platform as well.

Here they are, in random order:

1. ZScreen

ZScreen is an open-source screen capture program that quietly
resides in your system tray until needed. It can take screenshots of a
selected region, the active window, or the entire screen. It can even
send screen captures via FTP and copy the URL to your clipboard, all
with just a single keystroke. Oh yeah, it can also interface with image
editing software, such as Photoshop or Paint.net.

If you frequently take screenshots, ZScreen is light years faster than pressing Print Scrn and pasting into MS Paint.

2. PDFCreator

PDFCreator allows you to create PDFs from any program that can
print. Once it’s installed, simply “print” to the virtual printer that
it creates, and the resulting document can be read on any computer with
Adobe Reader (or comparable software).

There are several similar programs, but if you dig open-source software, PDFCreator trumps many of the others.

3. KeePass

KeePass is one of those applications that you don’t realize how
badly you need until you start using it. It securely stores and manages
the login information that you use for e-mail, websites, banks, etc.
Unless you always use the exact same login information (a terrible
idea!), you need KeePass. It’s even available in a portable version.

I use KeePass to manage hundreds of usernames and passwords. I’d go crazy without it.

4. HandBrake

HandBrake is a DVD to MPEG-4 converter that allows you to stick a
DVD in your drive and have the video converted to a digital file for
convenient viewing. It’s great for minimizing wear-and-tear on DVDs,
plus it’s handy if you travel a lot and want to watch movies on your
laptop.

For best results, use it in conjunction with DVD43.

5. Notepad++

Let’s face it – Windows Notepad is a pretty wimpy text editor, and
there are many better alternatives. Notepad++ kicks the original
Notepad in the junk pretty hard. Best of all, it interfaces nicely with
Filezilla. Here are the features:

Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
User Defined Syntax Highlighting
Auto-completion
Multi-Document
Multi-View
Regular Expression Search/Replace supported
Full Drag ‘N’ Drop supported
Dynamic position of Views
File Status Auto-detection
Zoom in and zoom out
Multi-Language environment supported
Bookmark
Brace and Indent guideline Highlighting
Macro recording and playback

6. Peazip

PeaZip is my current compression/zip utility of choice. It can open
almost any archive type imaginable (including ACE – be sure to grab the
separate plug-in). Peazip can split/join files, offers 256-bit
encryption, and integrates nicely into the right-click contextual menu. It even manages to look good in the process.

Hey, there’s also portable version AND a Linux version available. Nice.

7. BonkEnc

BonkEnc is a fantastic CD ripper, encoder, and audio converter. It’s
tiny, lightweight, and is my application of choice for ripping and
encoding CDs. BonkEnc can produce MP3, MP4/M4A, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Bonk
and FLAC files, and also features CDDB/freedb lookup.

Along similar lines, if you’re looking for a batch audio/video transcoder, take a look at MediaCoder.

8. Launchy

I admit: I’ve been spoiled by Quicksilver on Mac OS X. My favorite
similar program for Windows is Launchy, an open-source keystroke
launcher.

To launch a program, press Alt + Spacebar, and then type a few letters in the program name and press Enter. Boom! You can also browse folders the same way. Once you get used to it, it’s a huge time saver.

9. Cabos

Cabos is a Gnutella file-sharing program originally based on
Limewire and Acquisition. Unlike some other file-shaing programs,
there’s no spyware, adware, or any other crap to junk up your computer.

10. GnuCash

If you recoil in horror at the bloat of financial programs such as
Microsoft Money and Quicken, GnuCash may suit your needs. It’s a
slimmer version of those programs, and it has all the features I need
for managing my meager amount of money.

The interface is easy enough to understand. It actually looks a lot
like a digital checkbook ledger. Don’t be fooled, though – GnuCash can
handle the needs of much more demanding users.

11. RSSOwl

RSSOwl is a cross-platform RSS reader. It allows you to easily track
updated content on multiple sites. I really like the tabbed interface.

I find RSSOwl especially useful on a laptop, but on my
always-connected desktop I prefer a web-based RSS reader, such as
Google Reader.

12. VirtualDub

VirtualDub is a free video capture and processing utility. Wait,
it’s more than that. VirtualDub lets you capture video and then
manipulate it with a multitude of plug-ins and filters. It isn’t a
full-fledged non-linear editor, but it packs a powerful punch for a
free program.

If you work with video on Windows a lot, you probably already know
about VirtualDub. If you’re just getting into video editing, you should
grab VirtualDub immediately. Heck, it doesn’t even require installation.

13. Eraser

If you are paranoid about someone else recovering your sensitive
deleted data, you owe it to yourself to check out Eraser. When you
delete a file, your operating system really just removes the reference
to the file from the file system table. The actual data is still
present and can be recovered with an undelete utility.

Eraser securely shreds your sensitive data by overwriting several
times with multiple, carefully-selected patterns. In other words: once
you erase it, it’s gone!

14. Paint.NET

Paint.NET is to MS Paint what NotePad++ is to Windows Notepad. It’s
a dandy little photo editor that supports layers, unlimited undo, and a
host of other features. By all rights, it should come with Windows by
default.

Paint.NET isn’t meant to fill the shoes of bigger applications like
Photoshop or The GIMP, but I use it almost every day for basic photo
manipulation.

15. InfraRecorder

Need CD/DVD burning software for Windows? It doesn’t get much better than InfraRecorder (by the same author of TUGZip).

InfraRecorder can burn audio/data discs. It can handle multi-session
discs, creation and burning of disc images (ISO and BIN/CUE), and can
even save audio/data track information to separate files. Oh yeah, it
also has a portable version.

16. AutoHotkey

It’s hard to know where to begin with this one. What can you do with AutoHotkey? Almost anything!

For starters, by using custom keystrokes and mouse-clicks, you can
automate practically any repetitive task. Define any shortcut for
Windows. Remap keys and buttons any way you please. Control your mouse
cursor with your keyboard. By writing your own scripts, the potential
is limitless.

17. GanttProject

If you need to do any project management, GanttProject will help you
get everything organized. As the name implies, it uses Gantt charts and
resource load charts to help break a project into a tree of tasks,
complete with dependencies.

GanttProject even allows you to exchange data with Microsoft Project, though you may find that you have no reason to do so.

18. MP3Gain

MP3Gain is a simple and elegant application that serves one main
purpose – to automatically adjust MP3 files so they all play at the
same volume. It does it without decoding and re-encoding, so the quality remains the same. No more fiddling with the volume between different songs.

19. Filezilla

Way back in the day, I used WS_FTP. Now I exclusively use Filezilla
for my file transfer needs. It supports SFTP, allows for bandwidth
speed limits, and easily saves server settings.

Best of all, it seamlessly combines with text editors (such as Notepad++) for quick-and-dirty file editing on the remote server!

20. Battle for Wesnoth

After all this downloading, it’s time to take a break and have some
fun. Battle for Wesnoth is a single/multiplayer turn-based strategy
game with a fantasy theme. You can build an army from different kinds
of units, such as trolls, elves, dwarves, and orcs. There are a number
of standard campaigns included, plus a growing number of user-authored
campaigns available on the campaign server.

The music is well done. As a composer, I appreciate games that incorporate an orchestral soundtrack.

21. Alien Arena

If fantasy isn’t your thing, maybe you will like Alien Arena, a
deathmatch-type game along the lines of Quake III and Unreal
Tournament. The action is fast and furious, and for me mostly consists
of running around and dying. I tend to suck at first-person deathmatch games anyway, but the game is quite engrossing.

The 2008 version just came out earlier this year, so join the servers and start fragging.

Protect Your Privacy When Downloading

Earlier this week, a Lifehacker reader caught downloading copyrighted material using BitTorrent
told us about the scary warning letter she received from her ISP about
a big media company who filed a complaint. Fact is, whether you’re
downloading copyrighted material or not, no one likes to have their
activities online monitored. Let’s take a look at ways you can protect
your downloading and file sharing privacy, and prevent the big media
companies and other anti-P2P organizations from spying on your file
sharing habits.

NOTE: It would be irresponsible to assure you that all of the
methods highlighted below are foolproof. However, each method can do a
lot to increase your privacy and security when you’re downloading.

How You Get Caught Sharing Files with BitTorrent

When
you download a file using BitTorrent, you’re connecting to several
peers who are distributing chunks of the file you’re downloading. In
order to send data back and forth, you and your peers exchange IP
addresses. (IP addresses are like mailing addresses for sending data
over the vastness of the internet). When you’re downloading copyrighted
material, sometimes disingenuous organizations will join in the
download and log your information, like your home IP address. Once they
have your address, they can find out who your ISP is and contact them
to complain about copyright-infringing activity.

There are a few methods you can employ to protect yourself from
this sort of tracking when you’re sharing files with BitTorrent, thus
setting up a layer of protection between you and those who might track
you and report you. Below I’ll cover a couple: PeerGuardian2 and
proxies—particularly a new proxy service called BTGuard.

Keep Anti-P2P Trackers Away from Your BitTorrent Downloads with PeerGuardian2

IP-blocking application PeerGuardian2 (PG2) uses a constantly updated blacklist of IP addresses known to track your activity. I mentioned PG2 in my intermediate guide to BitTorrent, but it bears refreshing. Here’s how it works:

The
first time you run PeerGuardian2 after you install it, you’ll have to
go through a setup wizard to tell PeerGuardian what kind of blacklists
to download and block. By default, PG2 already has Anti-P2P
organizations checked. For our purposes, that’s really all you need,
but PG2 is capable of blocking more IPs if you have other privacy
concerns beyond P2P that you want to address.

On
the next window of the PG2 setup wizard, you need to set your automatic
update preferences. Since your privacy is only as good as your
blacklists, you want to ensure that you’ve always got the latest and
greatest lists available, so I’d recommend choosing to check automatic
updates every day.

Now you’re done setting up PG2. On the last window of the setup
wizard, you’ll notice a disclaimer similar to the disclaimer I made
above. Remember, PG2 is not and cannot be 100% effective, but it will
provide a good deal more protection than downloading without.

When
you click finish on the wizard, PG2 will run its first check for
updates, downloading the blacklist for Anti-P2P organizations. With PG2
running, you’ll never connect to the IP addresses on the Anti-P2P
blacklist, meaning that those organization can’t log your IP and your
participation in a copyrighted download.

Obscure Yourself from Anti-P2P Trackers with a Proxy

When it comes to privacy on the internet, no solution is better than a
good proxy—whether we’re talking about no-hassle proxy solutions like previously mentioned Vidalia (which makes setting up a proxy through the Tor project a breeze) or techier solutions, like rolling your own SSH proxy.

If we’re talking about file sharing, a proxy protects you by routing
all of your traffic through another server when it leaves your computer
and before it comes back to you. That means that when you’re
downloading data using a peer-to-peer protocol like BitTorrent, your
peers can only see the proxy IP address, not your home IP address—so
even if they are tracking your activity, they’re not actually tracking your address at all.

There are a number of proxy servers out there, including the well
known The Onion Router network (Tor). The catch is, Tor is a proxy
project that’s already choked for servers and speed, and using Tor to
download via BitTorrent is considered poor form. However, there are
other proxy servers out there, including one made specifically for
BitTorrent routing called BTGuard.

Located in Canada, BTGuard is a subscription service (about
$7/month) that promises anonymous BitTorrent connections, unlimited
speeds, and that it can bypass your ISP’s bandwidth throttling (if your
ISP throttles BitTorrent).

The main catch when sending your BitTorrent traffic through proxies
is that you’ll most likely see a speed drop, and sometimes it’s a very
significant drop. According to the TorrentFreak weblog,
though, BitTorrent transfers with BTGuard are almost equal to a direct
connection—meaning you get all the protection of a proxy without any of
the nasty slowdown.

To set up a proxy in the popular BitTorrent client, uTorrent, just go
to the uTorrent preferences, click on Connection in the sidebar, and
then find the Proxy Server section. From there, choose your proxy
server type (Socks4/5, HTTP or HTTPS), enter in the address and port of
your proxy server, and include any login information if your proxy uses
it. (If you’re using BTGuard, for example, you’ll be given a username
and password when you sign up.) Finally, be sure to tick the checkbox
labeled “Use proxy server for peer-to-peer connections”, which is the
whole reason you’re setting it up to begin with.

---

Anecdotes of folks who’ve been caught downloading copyrighted material
are always a little scary. Despite the legal issues involved, don’t
forget that BitTorrent is only a protocol, and you choose how to use
it. BitTorrent isn’t synonymous with copyright infringement—there are
plenty of legal uses and legal downloads going on with BitTorrent
applications every day.

Whether or not you’re using your BitTorrent client to download
copyrighted materials, no one likes being spied on. If you’re really
serious about protecting your privacy, a proxy solution is probably the
best. There are several drawbacks to proxies, most notably speed
issues, but also difficulty in finding reliable free proxies or the
cost of a service like BTGuard.

PeerGuardian2 is freeware, easy to use, and will never slow down
your downloads. However, it’s much more susceptible to holes than
proxies, since an IP-blocker is only as good as its blacklist, and
those lists have to change and update regularly to keep up with the
Anti-P2P addresses.

If you practice safe(r) BitTorrenting using one of these methods or
an entirely different approach, share your experience in the comments.
Alternately, if you throw caution to the wind, downloading copyrighted
material with impunity, we’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

For those of you who are still new to BitTorrent, check out our beginner and intermediate guides.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who encourages safe downloading. His special feature Hack Attack appears regularly on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

The Best of Lifehacker in Upgrade Your Life

The second edition of the Lifehacker book, Upgrade Your Life,
is a compilation of the best 116 hacks and downloads from Lifehacker’s
archives. This dead tree version of the web site transforms dozens of
blog posts into comprehensive, edited tutorials, which will be familiar
to longtime readers. While an official electronic version of Upgrade Your Life
isn’t available, today I’ve pulled together links to all the past posts
that informed each book chapter to give you a one-stop preview of
what’s inside that cover. Consider this post the unedited web version
of the book. After the jump, get a ginormous roundup of all the posts
that created Upgrade Your Life by chapter. And shhhh, don’t tell my book publisher I’m giving this all away.

Upgrade Your Life Table of Contents

---

Chapter 1: Control Your Email

Hack 1: Empty Your Inbox (and Keep It Empty)
“When you can consistently reduce the contents of your inbox to zero
messages, you’ve reached the ultimate level of email control.”
Related posts:

• Empty your inbox with the Trusted Trio
• A guide to email triage

Hack 2: Decrease Your Email Response Time
“Responding to your email in a timely, professional manner is one of the best things you can do for your career.”
Related posts:

• Respond to your email, make it to the top

Hack 3: Craft Effective Messages
“The clearer your email messages are, the more likely you are to get
the result you want in a more timely fashion-whether it’s a response, a
completed task, or an informed recipient.”

Hack 4: Highlight Messages Sent Directly to You
“When faced with an inbox full of new, unread email, it’s nearly
impossible to determine which messages need to be dealt with right
away, and which can be put off until later.”
Related posts:

• Outlook tip: Color code messages addressed only to you
• Highlight messages addressed to you in Thunderbird

Hack 5: Use Disposable Email Addresses
“If you hate the idea of giving your email address to any web site
that asks for it, and you want to protect your email address from junk
mail and spam, use a disposable email address instead.”
Related posts:

• Mailinator – public, spam-free email inbox
• Generate unlimited email addresses with Gmail
• Get a Temporary E-mail Address

Hack 6: Master Message Search
“In the physical world you can’t throw years worth of letters,
cards, and memos into a drawer and then pick out the one Tom sent you
about that fabulous rental he got in Key West back in 2003 in seconds.
However, that is absolutely possible with an email folder containing
thousands of messages.”
Related posts:

• Gmail Tip: Search by built-in label
• Gmail search operators work in filters, too
• Email filers versus pilers

Hack 7: Future-Proof Your Email Address
“You’ve probably got as many email addresses as you do pairs of
socks, but you don’t want to change them as often. In fact, switching
your primary email address can be a big inconvenience that leads to
missed messages and lost relationships.”
Related posts:

• Future-proof your email address

Hack 8: Consolidate Multiple Email Addresses with Gmail (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Gmail is not only an email host, it’s an email client that can
fetch mail from any number of external services and consolidate it all
right there in your Gmail inbox.”

Hack 9: Script Repetitive Responses
“To knock down repetitive email quickly, build up a set of scripted
email responses that you can drop into emails quickly, personalize if
necessary, and send off without spending the time composing the same
information every time.”
Related posts:

• Knock down repetitive e-mail with Thunderbird’s QuickText
• Knock down repetitive email with AutoHotKey

Hack 10: Filter Low-Priority Messages (‘Bacn’)
“Your spam filter shuttles junk mail out of sight, but what about
messages from cc-happy co-workers, Aunt Eunice’s forwarded emails,
Facebook friend notifications, Google Alerts, and mailing list messages
that clutter your inbox with low-priority noise?”
Related posts:

• Essential email filters

---

Chapter 2: Organize Your Data

Hack 11: Organize Your Documents Folder
“If you frequently find yourself letting files clutter your
computer’s desktop, or if you spend time arranging files in a deep,
complicated hierarchy of folders, it’s time for a revamp.”
Related posts:

• Organizing “My Documents”

Hack 12: Instantly Retrieve Files Stored on Your Hard Drive
“Every minute you spend on your computer, you’re collecting more and
more data, documents, and information to do your job and get on with
your life. Instant retrieval of the bit or byte that you need right
this very second is an essential requirement in the digital age.”
Related posts:

• Master Google Desktop search
• Ten reasons to use Google Desktop

Hack 13: Overhaul Your Filing Cabinet
“One of the main clutter culprits in most offices is the To File
pile. Often this heap spontaneously appears right on top of or next to
the filing cabinet, which is pretty silly. Instead of adding stuff to
the pile, why wouldn’t you just file it? The reason is generally an
unworkable, messy, overflowing file cabinet.”
Related posts:

• Extreme makeover, filing cabinet edition

Hack 14: Instantly Recall Any Number of Different Passwords
“Remembering a unique password for the dozens of logins you have may
sound impossible, but it’s not. You don’t need to remember 100
passwords if you have one rule set for generating them.”
Related posts:

• Choose (and remember) great passwords

Hack 15: Securely Track Your Passwords
“Sometimes you just have to write down a password to remember it.
Don’t do it where others can read it, like on a Post-It note or in an
easy-to-read text file or Word document. You can keep a secure and
searchable database of those hard-to-remember passwords using free,
open source software.”
Related posts:

• Securely track your passwords

Hack 16: Tag Your Bookmarks
“The web gets bigger every day, and so does your bookmark list.
Stores your bookmarks online and associate keywords (called tags) to
each for easy retrieval.”

Hack 17: Organize Your Digital Photos (New in 2nd Edition!)
“After even just a few months of taking photos, it’s easy to wind up
with a hard drive cluttered with a bunch of folders filled with images
named things like IMG_8394.jpg. Pictures don’t mean anything unless
someone sees them, and no one will see the photos buried on your
computer if you can’t find the best ones.”

Hack 18: Create Saved Search Folders (New in 2nd Edition!)
“As you begin to file your documents less and depend on searches
more, it only makes sense to combine the folder paradigm and search
capabilities with saved search folders.”
Related posts:

• Tag files and save searches in Windows Vista
• Organize Your Email in Search Folders
• Saved email searches in Thunderbird
• Windows Vista Tip: Save your searches in virtual folders

Hack 19: Create a Password-Protected Disk on Your PC
“Everyone has some files the person would like to protect from intruders or others who have access to one’s computer.”
Related posts:

• Encrypt your data

Hack 20: Create a Password-Protected Disk on Your Mac (New in 2nd Edition!)
“If you have files and folders you’d like to keep private and secure
on your Mac, you can use Mac OS X’s built-in Disk Utility to encrypt a
disk image.”
Related posts:

• How to create a Mac encrypted disk image

Hack 21: Design Your Own Planner
“There are lots of good reasons to ditch your expensive, electronic
PDA for a paper-based planner system: cost, portability, and
maintenance, to name a few. Paper-based planners never run out of
battery juice or memory; they never crash or refuse to work the way you
expect.”
b>Related posts:

• Create and customize your own planner with D*I*Y Planner
• Top 10 free and cheap productivity tools

---

Chapter 3: Trick Yourself into Getting Done

Hack 22: Make Your To-Do List Doable
“Your to-do list can be a tool that guides you through your work, or
it can be a big fat pillar of undone time bombs taunting you and your
unproductive inadequacy. It all depends on how you write it.”
Related posts:

• Make your todo’s doable

Hack 23: Set Up a Morning Dash
“There is one way to ensure that you’ll knock at least one thing off
your list: Dedicate the first hour of your day to your most important
task-before you check your email, paper inbox, or go to any meetings.”
Related posts:

• Control your workday

Hack 24: Map Your Time
“The busy person’s perennial question is, “Where did the day go?”
It’s easy to get tossed from one thing to the next like a piece of
driftwood caught in the tide of your crazy life.”
Related posts:

• Map your time

Hack 25: Quick-Log Your Work Day
“When you start keeping a daily work log, you might be surprised to find out what your workday really consists of.”
Related posts:

• Quick-log your work day

Hack 26: Dash Through Tasks with a Timer
“Trick yourself into getting going by making a commitment to work on
the task for just a handful of minutes-minutes that will end at the
beep of a timer in a small, quantifiable amount of time.”
Related posts:

• Beat procrastination with a dash

Hack 27: Form New Habits with Jerry Seinfeld’s Chain (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Once upon a time, Jerry Seinfeld gave a young comic advice.”
Related posts:

• Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret
• Follow Seinfeld’s Advice at Don’t Break the Chain

Hack 28: Control Your Workday
“Getting out of the office on time is tough when there’s always
another task, project, or drive-by boss request to knock out before you
leave. It’s easy to lose a day checking email, going to meetings, and
putting out fires only to find that at 5 or 6 or 7 p.m., you haven’t
gotten started on something critical.”
Related posts:

• Control your workday

Hack 29: Turn Tasks into Gameplay
“Ever wish you could knock down the items on your to-do list with
the same gusto you fit blocks together in Tetris or collect gold coins
in Super Mario Bros?”
Related posts:

• Turn To Do’s into game play

---

Chapter 4: Clear Your Mind

Hack 30: Send Reminders to Your Future Self
“Every day you’ve got a lot on your mind and a lot to do. As a
result, it can be nearly impossible to remember mundane recurring
tasks—like when it’s time to change the oil or go to the dentist—or
even important yearly events, like friends’ and family birthdays.”
Related posts:

• Tickle yourself with Yahoo! Calendar
• Ask the Readers: Short term reminders?
• Email your future self with FutureMail

Hack 31: Build Your Personal Wikipedia
“The collaboratively edited Wikipedia is a vast, searchable
repository of information, constantly written and re-written by its
readers. Don’t you wish you or your group could have your own editable
encyclopedia of brain dumps and documentation like Wikipedia? You can.”
Related posts:

• Set up your personal Wikipedia
• How to contribute to Wikipedia

Hack 32: Develop Your (Digital) Photographic Memory
“A ubiquitous capture device can change the way you remember (and forget) things for good. With a photo-sharing service like Flickr, you can capture and file away your digital photographic memory in the internet cloud from wherever you are.”
Related posts:

• Develop your (digital) photographic memory
• Flickr Advanced User Guide

Hack 33: Take Great Notes
“Taking effective notes is a critical skill that moves your
projects, your career, and your education forward. This hack covers
three practical note-taking methods, as well as how to make your own
custom notepaper.”
Related posts:

• Take great notes
• Take study-worthy lecture notes
• Make your own personalized notepaper
• Make your own PDF notepaper

Hack 34: Organize Your Life with Remember the Milk (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Now it’s more important than ever to consolidate your lists into
one, always-accessible place. There are dozens of robust, free online
organizers out there, but one of the most stable and mature in the
bunch is a web application called Remember the Milk.”
Related posts:

• Get Organized with Remember the Milk

Hack 35: Organize Your Life in Text Files
“No matter how many new-fangled personal organizer applications
become available, new computer users and veterans alike still turn to
the old standby for tracking to-do’s: a file called todo.txt.”
Related posts:

• Todo.txt in action
• Reader-written todo.txt manager

---

Chapter 5: Firewall Your Attention

Hack 36: Limit Visits to Time-Wasting Web Sites
“It’s too easy to scamper down the rabbit hole of the web when you’ve got pressing tasks to work on.”
Related posts:

• Ban time-wasting web sites
• Invisibility Cloak update
• Netvibes distraction stopper Greasemonkey script

Hack 37: Permanently Block Time-Wasting Web Sites
“Is there a web site that’s utterly toxic to your mental state or
ability to work? The preceding hack describes how to block time-wasting
web sites during certain times of the day and week. Alternatively, you
can block sites at all times, until you explicitly release the
restriction.”
Related posts:

• Ban time-wasting web sites

Hack 38: Reduce Email Interruptions
“Unread email is just another shot of the information drug your
hungry mind craves. It cries out to you, ‘Open me! Open me!’ However,
when you need to focus, do yourself a favor: actively control when you
check your email.”
Related posts:

• Choose where your attention shifts next

Hack 39: Split Your Work Among Multiple Desktops
“The more space you have to lay out your materials, the easier it is to get a job done.”
Related posts:

• Download of the Day: Virtual Desktop Manager (Windows)
• Download of the Day: VirtueDesktops (Mac)

Hack 40: Build a No-fly Zone
“Many modern office spaces have open layouts to ‘promote interaction
between departments’—which means they’re set up to distract you all day
long.”
Related posts:

• Firewall your attention at the office

Hack 41: Clear Your Desktop
“It’s amazing how fast your computer’s desktop can fill up with
shortcuts and files and turn into a virtual candy store of colorful
icons beckoning your mouse pointer: ‘Click me! Click me!’”
Related posts:

• Clear your dashboard
• Keep your desk clean and tidy
• Give your desktop a clean start
• A clutter free desktop

Hack 42: Make Your House a Usable Home
“Your home should be a tool that helps you get things done, a space
that’s a pleasure to be in and a launch pad for daily tasks as well as
your life goals.”
Related posts:

• The Usable Home
• The usable home redux

Hack 43: Sentence Stuff to Death Row
“Prune your information channels down to the ones most worth your
time to keep up a solid attention firewall. One technique for doing so
is sentencing certain information streams to a virtual death row.”
Related posts:

• Sentence software to death row

Hack 44: Drown Out Sound with Pink Noise
“If your co-worker’s conversation down the hall is distracting you,
or your downstairs neighbor’s television is blaring up through your
floor, block out the sound with a soft static noise.”
Related posts:

• Download of the Day: Noise (Mac)
• Download of the Day: ChatterBlocker (Windows)

---

Chapter 6: Streamline Common Jobs

Hack 45: Search the Web in Three Keystrokes
“There are dozens of ways to do a web search from your desktop, but the most common method takes the longest.”
Related posts:

• Guide to the Firefox search bar
• Mouse-less Firefox
• Make your own Firefox site search plug-in

Hack 46: Command Your Windows PC from the Keyboard (New in 2nd Edition!)
“The graphical user interface revolutionized personal computing
because it made using a computer so much more visual. However, using
the mouse is one of the most inefficient ways to drive a computer.”

Hack 47: Command Your Mac from the Keyboard (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Skip time-wasting point-and-click mouse movement on your Mac using free software called Quicksilver, which is a keyboard interface to an astonishing variety of computing actions.”
Related posts:

• Hack Attack: A beginner’s guide to Quicksilver
• Screenshot Tour: A look under the hood of Quicksilver
• Hack Attack: Advanced Quicksilver guide – slashes, appends, and proxies, oh my!
• Get to Know Quicksilver from Its Maker
• Nine Time-Saving Quicksilver Triggers
• Top 10 Quicksilver Plug-ins

Hack 48: Reduce Repetitive Typing with Texter for Windows (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Define short abbreviations for phrases you use often, or
misspellings you’re prone to, and automatically expand those
abbreviations to their full, intended form. This hack explains how to
do that using the free Windows application, Texter.”
Related posts:

• Lifehacker Code: Texter (Windows)

Hack 49: Reduce Repetitive Typing with TextExpander for Mac (New in 2nd Edition!)
“In the same vein as Hack 48, Mac users can save thousands of
keystrokes daily using the text substitution application TextExpander.”Related posts:

• TextExpander Gets Even Better

Hack 50: Text Message Efficiently
“To the uninitiated, texting can seem inconvenient, but text messages have numerous advantages over voice calls.”
Related posts:

• Power Texting Tips

Hack 51: Batch Resize Photos
“Everyone likes to email digital photos, but no one likes to receive
pictures that are so huge they take forever to download and require you
to scroll left and right and up and down to see the entire image.”
Related posts:

• Ask Lifehacker: batch resize photos
• Ask Lifehacker: batch resize photos, part II
• Rename your digital photos in bulk

Hack 52: Send and Receive Money on Your Cell Phone
“Popular online payment service PayPal is a quick and easy way to
email money to friends and co-workers — to cover your share of the
dinner bill or to pitch in on a shared gift or to make a payment for
work done.”
Related posts:

• Send and receive money with your cell phone

Hack 53: Bypass Free Site Registration with BugMeNot
“An active web surfer can easily accumulate dozens of logins for
various sites across the web. But what about when you don’t want to go
through the whole rigmarole of registering for a web site—you simply
want inside?”
Related posts:

• BugMeNot: bypass web site registration
• Download of the Day: BugMeNot

Hack 54: Speed Up Web Pages on a Slow Internet Connection
“When you’re surfing the Web on a slow connection, it can seem like
grass grows faster than the download progress meter on your web browser
turns.”
Related posts:

• How to survive a slow Internet connection

Hack 55: Securely Save Web Site Passwords
“One of the most convenient features in Firefox is its capability to
save the passwords you use to log on to web sites—like your web mail
and online banking—so you don’t have to type them in every time.”
Related posts:

• Secure your saved passwords in Firefox

Hack 56: Become a Scheduling Black Belt with Google Calendar
“This hack covers more advanced uses for GCal, such as adding and
getting events from anywhere, subscribing to multiple calendars,
sharing calendars, booking inanimate objects such as a conference room,
and inviting multiple people to events.”
Related posts:

• Black belt scheduling with Google Calendar

Hack 57: Scan Text to PDF with Your Camera Phone (New in 2nd Edition!)
“You’re looking at a whiteboard full of notes or a paper document
you want to copy quickly. Instead of manually transcribing the text,
you can “scan” the information using a digital camera, including the
one built in to your cell phone. Web application Qipit turns digital photos that contain text into PDF files for you automatically.”
Related posts:

• Turn Your Digital Camera into a Scanner with Qipit
• Fax from Your Cameraphone with Qipit

Hack 58: Poll Groups of People with Doodle (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Anyone who’s had to schedule a meeting or get-together for a large
group of people knows how difficult finding a date that works for
everyone can be. Whether it’s a family reunion or board meeting, when
more than five people are involved, everyone’s schedule gets in the
way.”
Related posts:

• Schedule meetings in a flash with Doodle

---

Chapter 7: Automate Repetitive Tasks

Hack 59: Automatically Back Up Your Files to an External Hard Drive (PC)
“Backing up your data could possibly be the dullest — yet most
indispensable — thing you do on your computer. But who remembers to do
it? You don’t have to.”
Related posts:

• Automatically back up your hard drive

Hack 60: Automatically Back Up Your Files to an External Hard Drive (Mac) (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Mac users who thumb through Hack 59, which details how to back up
your PC’s files on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, have a right to
a smug laugh. The most recent version of Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard, ships
with a comprehensive backup application called Time Machine that
requires only two steps to set up.”
Related posts:

• The Simplicity of Time Machine Compels You

Hack 61: Automatically Back Up Your Files Online (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Hurricane Katrina victims can tell you that no matter how
diligently you back up your computer to a local hard drive—as detailed
in Hacks 59 and 60—you will still lose your photos, documents, and
other important files if you don’t keep a copy off-site, preferably out
of state. “
Related posts:

• Download of the Day: Mozy (Windows/Mac)

Hack 62: Automatically Empty Your Digital Junk Drawer (PC)
“You don’t want to clean up after yourself every time you work with
a set of files you don’t need to keep, and you don’t have to.”
Related posts:

• Hard drive janitor
• Belvedere Automates Your Self-Cleaning PC

Hack 63: Automatically Clean Up Your Mac (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Just as in the physical world, it’s easy to let digital clutter
accumulate on your Mac. Chances are, your Downloads folder contains
no-longer relevant files, or your Desktop is covered in documents,
images, and songs you finished with last week.”
Related posts:

• Set Up a Self-Cleaning Mac with Hazel

Hack 64: Automatically Reboot and Launch Applications
“A PC that’s on continuously 24 hours a day—especially when it’s
hard at work at night, running automated tasks outlined in this
chapter—can benefit from a regular reboot to clear out memory and end
any hanging software processes.”
Related posts:

• Using Windows Scheduled Tasks

Hack 65: Make Google Search Results Automatically Come to You (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Keeping up with any news published online about a certain topic
used to mean searching the web for it every so often, or checking
various online news sites. But not any more. Google now offers free
email alerts when certain search terms appear on web pages, as they are
published.”
Related posts:

• Total information awareness with Google Alerts

Hack 66: Automatically Download Music, Movies, and More
“Your web browser does a good job of fetching web documents and
displaying them, but there are times when you need an extra-strength
program to get those tougher download jobs done.”
Related posts:

• Mastering Wget

Hack 67: Automatically Email Yourself File Backups
“When my sister-in-law asked me how she could back up her master’s
thesis without any special equipment or software, I had to think for a
minute. ‘Email it to yourself,’ I finally told her.”
Related posts:

• Automatically email yourself file backups

Hack 68: Automatically Update a Spreadsheet
“A spreadsheet is a great way to track progress on any type of
undertaking that involves numbers—like how much weight you’ve lost, how
many widgets you made, how many miles you ran, or how many cigarettes
you smoked. But who remembers to update his spreadsheet by hand?”
Related posts:

• Script: Log your weight over time with Excel

---

Chapter 8: Get Your Data To Go

Hack 69: Manage Your Documents in a Web-Based Office Suite (New in 2nd Edition!)
“A profound shift in modern computing is afoot: a move from desktop
software to the web. Mature web browsers, always-on broadband Internet
connections, and an increase in mobile users has spurred a new breed of
web sites that aren’t just static pages—they’re hosted software
applications (web applications, or webapps) that you access from your
browser.”

Hack 70: Replace Your Laptop with a Portable Drive (New in 2nd Edition!)
“You’re headed to your in-laws for the holiday week and you don’t
want to drag your laptop with you. Instead, take along a small hard
drive that you can plug into their PC and get your own custom Windows
desktop, applications, and files.”
Related posts:

• Geek to Live: Build your “PC on a stick” with MojoPac

Hack 71: Carry Your Life on a Flash Drive
“Instead of lugging around your laptop, or emailing yourself files,
store your favorite software applications and important data on a thumb
(flash) drive about the size of a car key.”
Related posts:

• Carry your life on a thumb drive (or iPod)
• Build your “PC on a stick” with MojoPac
• Quicklaunch your USB workspace
• Vacation Tips: Ditch your laptop for a thumb drive

Hack 72: Access Web Apps and Search via Text Message
“You’re out and about town and you need to call a local cab, find
out movie times at theaters nearby, or check the weather forecast. You
don’t need a laptop or even a tricked-out PDA to search the Web: you
can do it directly from any phone that can send text messages.”
Related posts:

• 4INFO SMS flight status tracker
• Google SMS
• Power Texting Tips
• Google SMS translation and currency conversion

Hack 73: Create a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with Hamachi (New in 2nd Edition!)
“You can do things between computers on your local network that you
can’t from out on the Internet, such as listen to a shared iTunes
library or access files in shared folders. But using the free, virtual
private network application Hamachi, you can access your computer from anywhere on the Internet as if you were home on your local network.”
Related posts:

• Create your own virtual private network with Hamachi

Hack 74: Run a Home Web Server
“Web servers are usually loud, scary, headless machines in cold windowless rooms, but you can run one under your desk at home.”
Related posts:

• How to set up a personal home web server
• How to access a home server behind a router/firewall
• Ask Lifehacker: Multiple subdomains (virtual hosts)?

Hack 75: Remotely Control Your Home Computer
“Ever been at a friend’s house and wanted to show off a photo you
left saved on your home computer? Want to check from the office that
your daughter’s doing homework and not instant messaging with friends
at home? Need to grab a file on your home hard drive when you’re miles
away? With a relatively old protocol called VNC (Virtual Network
Computing) and some free software, you can remotely control your home
computer from anywhere.”
Related posts:

• How to control your home computer from anywhere

Hack 76: Give Your Home Computer a Web Address
“Accessing your home computer from the Internet is a lot easier if a
memorable, permanent web address such as yourname.com points to it.”
Related posts:

• How to assign a domain name to your home web server

Hack 77: Optimize Your Laptop
“More folks than ever are hitting the pavement with a notebook
computer under one arm, but any road warrior can tell you that life
with a lappie isn’t always easy. This hack provides some hints and tips
for extending the life of your laptop and easing the pain of the
never-ending outlet and hotspot hunt.”
Related posts:

• Laptop tips

Hack 78: Back Up Data to Your iPod
“Your iPod isn’t just a music player—it’s a giant external hard
drive that can store any kind of digital data in addition to music.”
Related posts:

• Turn your iPod into a backup drive

Hack 79: Turn Your Cell Phone into a Modem
“You’re stuck with the laptop in the land of no internet, but you
have unlimited minutes or a great data plan on your cell phone. What to
do? Plug that phone into your laptop, of course, and get surfing!”
Related posts:

• Use your cell phone as a modem

Hack 80: Use GMail as an Internet Hard Drive
“An easy way to make files available from any internet-connected
computer is to simply email them to yourself (at GMail or any other
web-based email service.) But a free software application makes keeping
your files up in the GMail ‘cloud’ and accessible from any web browser
even easier.”
Related posts:

• Gmail Drive shell extension
• Download of the Day: gDisk

---

Chapter 9: Master the Web

Hack 81: Google Like a Pro
“Google’s single, one-line input box conceals a host of functionality that can narrow your results to exactly what you need.”
Related posts:

• Google School
• Top 20 Search Engine Helpers

Hack 82: Subscribe to Web Sites with RSS
“Like a magazine subscription that automatically brings each new
issue to your door, you can subscribe to web site feeds that push
information to your door.”
Related posts:

• RSS for newbies
• 35 (more) things you can do with RSS
• Intro to RSS
• Create email subscriptions with Bloglines

Hack 83: Add Engines to Your Browser’s Search Box (New in 2nd Edition!)
“In Hack 45, you learned how to search the Web in three keystrokes
using this search box. By default, Firefox now comes with Google,
Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, Answers.com, and Creative Commons installed. But
you can add several more useful engines for quick results without
visiting individual pages first to run your search.”
Related posts:

• Useful search plugins for Firefox and IE7

Hack 84: Quick Search from the URL Bar
“Another keyboard-driven method for searching the web is what
Firefox calls Quick Searches—customizable, keyword-based searches from
the Firefox address bar.”
Related posts:

• Fifteen Firefox Quick Searches
• Firefox and the art of keyword bookmarking

Hack 85: Extend Your Web Browser
“The best feature of popular open-source web browser Firefox is its
openness: the browser was built so that anyone can write a
feature-adding extension for it.”
Related posts:

• Hack Attack: Firefox extension packs
• 15 Firefox extensions with download links
• Firefox extensions

Hack 86: Supercharge Your Firefox Downloads with DownThemAll! (New in 2nd Edition!)
“When it comes to heavy-duty download jobs, Firefox’s default
Downloads manager just doesn’t cut the mustard. If you need closer
control of multiple, large downloads, you need the DownThemAll! Firefox
extension.”
Related posts:

• Supercharge your Firefox downloads with DownThemAll

Hack 87: Get Ten Must-Have Bookmarklets
“Bookmarklets can enhance web pages, add special functionality, and
make your browsing experience a lot more efficient by offering
one-click access to useful tools.”
Related posts:

• Ten Must-Have Bookmarklets

Hack 88: Find Reusable Media Online (New in 2nd Edition!)
“You’re designing a new brochure, PowerPoint presentation, web site,
or flyer and you need the right image to use with it fast. Put your
hands in the air and step away from the cheesy clip art, now.”
Related posts:

• Six ways to find reusable media

Hack 89: Get Your Data on a Map
“This hack points you to several of the best mashups that can help
you adjust your commute home from work for traffic, decide where to
live, help you find a nearby used car for sale, and figure out how far
your jog across the bridge this morning really was.”
Related posts:

• Google Maps
• Top ten (non-Google) map innovations

Hack 90: Set Multiple Sites as Your Homepage
“You can set several web pages as your homepage in tabbed browsers
(like Firefox and Internet Explorer 7) and also bookmark and open sets
of tabs.”
Related posts:

• How to set up multiple homepages in Firefox

Hack 91: Access Unavailable Web Sites via Google
“Web sites go offline. They move, occasionally suffer from temporary
unavailability or errors, or become slow to respond because of
technical difficulties or a period of high user demand. In those cases,
when you need the information right away, you need a mirror of that web
site’s content.”
Related posts:

• Google School: View Google’s copy of a web page

Hack 92: Take Your Browser Configuration with You
“Now that you’ve tricked out your copy of Firefox with extensions,
bookmarklets, sets of bookmarks, and Quick Searches, the last thing you
want to do is have to set it all up again at another computer. If you
get a new computer, or want to transport your settings at home to the
office, a handy utility called MozBackup can help.”
Related posts:

• Ask Lifehacker: Moving Firefox to a new computer

Hack 93: Find Out About a Web Site
“When you find information on the web at a site you’ve never seen
before, it’s difficult to assess how trustworthy that source is.
Although ultimately the decision is yours, there are several services
that provide information about other web sites that can help you
decide.”

Hack 94: Have a Say in What Google Says About You
“Someone out there’s trying to find information about you right now,
whether it’s a potential employer, date, or a long lost friend. What
happens when she Googles you?”
Related posts:

• Have a say in what Google says about you

Hack 95: Capture Web Clippings with Google Notebook
“Collecting bookmarks just isn’t enough when you’re doing serious
web research. Web pages disappear, or the information you need is just
one paragraph halfway down the page, or you want to annotate a page
with your own notes for later reference.”
Related posts:

• Clip and collect the web with Google Notebook

Hack 96: Clear your Web Browsing Tracks
“Your web browser saves a lot of information about where you go and what you do online while you’re surfing the web.”

---

Chapter 10: Hone Your Computer Survival Skills

Hack 97: Rescue Your PC from Malware
“The scourge of personal computing in recent years has been malware:
malicious software that installs itself without the user’s consent and
undermines the computer’s operation for nefarious purposes, from
identity theft to aggressive advertising to common vandalism.”
Related posts:

• How to fix Mom and Dad’s computer
• Ask Lifehacker: HELP! My computer’s full of spyware!

Hack 98: Clean Up Your Startup
“When it comes to computer slowdowns that get worse over time, one
of the biggest culprits is software installations that plant themselves
in your PC’s login sequence and start up automatically with your
computer.”
Related posts:

• Manage your Mac and PC’s startup
• Download of the Day: AutoRuns
• Download of the Day: CCleaner 1.34.407 (Windows)
• Streamline your Windows startup

Hack 99: Undo System Configuration Changes
“You installed unstable software or made a configuration change to
your PC that broke things left and right. Don’t worry – all is not
lost.”
Related posts:

• Roll back Windows with System Restore

Hack 100: Truly Delete Data from Your Hard Drive
“The only sure way to securely and permanently delete sensitive
files—like a customer database, secret company documents, or personal
photos you don’t want the guy who buys your hard drive on Ebay to
see—is to overwrite them several times with new data.”
Related posts:

• Download of the Day: Eraser
• Permanently delete data from your hard drive

Hack 101: Compare and Merge Files and Folders with WinMerge (New in 2nd Edition!)
“When several people work on the same set of files — making changes
and copies — multiple versions can blossom out of control. Figuring out
what’s been updated on which version and merging it all back together
can be a gargantuan task, but it doesn’t have to be.”
Related posts:

• Compare and merge files and folders with WinMerge

Hack 102: Firewall Your PC
“A home PC connected directly to the internet—especially with an
always-on broadband connection like cable or DSL—is a prime target for
malicious software attacks.”
Related posts:

• How to portscan your computer for security holes
• Download of the Day: ZoneAlarm

Hack 103: Firewall Your Mac (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Surprisingly, your new Mac doesn’t ship with its firewall turned on
by default. That’s not a problem if your Mac accesses the Internet
through another device that has a firewall on, such as a wireless
router. But if you connect your Mac to the Internet at public wireless
hotspots, or plug it directly into your broadband Internet connection,
you should enable the firewall to avoid unwanted connections from other
computers.”
Related posts:

• Enable Leopard’s Off-By-Default Firewall

Hack 104: Speed Up Windows Vista with a Thumb Drive (New in 2nd Edition!)
“The best way to make a computer run faster is to add more system
memory, or RAM. But not all computers have expansion slots available
for additional memory, and installing internal memory sticks can be an
intimidating undertaking for those who’ve never opened their computer
and faced its silicon innards. That’s why Microsoft introduced a new
feature into Windows Vista called ReadyBoost, which lets you add memory
to your PC with a regular USB flash drive.”
Related posts:

• Speed up Windows Vista with a flash drive

Hack 105: Free Up Hard Drive Space
“Hard drive space is cheap and plentiful, but you don’t have to run
out to buy a whole new drive the minute you start pushing your current
disk’s space limits.”
Related posts:

• Visualize your hard drive usage
• Download of the Day: CCleaner 1.34.407 (Windows)

Hack 106: Resurrect Deleted Files
“When you delete files from your computer’s hard drive, the data is
not actually erased. In reality, the space it occupies is marked as
available for your operating system to overwrite with new data.”
Related posts:

• Download of the Day: Undelete Plus (Windows)
• Undelete files with File Scavenger

Hack 107: Hot Image Your PC for Instant Restoration (New in 2nd Edition!)
“Over time and with heavy usage, your PC can become slow and
unstable, bogged down with programs you don’t use and victim of system
changes that make it behave in ways you never intended. If you’ve ever
encountered the “blue screen of death” — that is, had your Windows PC
crash entirely — you may know what a tedious job rebuilding your
computer can be. Reinstalling the operating system and applications and
restoring your documents can take time you don’t have.”
Related posts:

• Hot Image Your PC’s Hard Drive with DriveImage XML

Hack 108: Recover Files from an Unbootable PC
“Few moments in computing are as heartbreaking as when you turn on
your trusty PC only to receive that bone-chilling message: Boot sector
corrupt. Config.sys missing. Disk cannot be read.”
Related posts:

• Rescue files with a boot CD

---

Turns out there’s so much content in the book, our publishing system
can’t handle it all in one post! Stay tuned for the contents of the
all-new, Chapter 11 on managing multiple computers in a future post. Update: Here’s chapter 11.