Top Tools for your PC

Choosing the right tools to use on your PC can dramtically improve your workflow and overall effectiveness. And the best set of tools is probably cheaper than the most common set!

Here are the tools I use on a daily basis on my PC, and where to get them

Email & Communication

The Bat! - No, I dont use MS Outlook, or even Outlook Express (which is free!). I have a good number of email accounts running on my PC, and The Bat! gives me great control over each account. I use the powerful filters to sort mail into folders under each account, use email templates so that replies from each account look the way I want them too. It integrates with my Anti Virus and spam filtering sotware perfectly. It also gives me easy to use and powerful backup tools. It doesn't use the Windows address book to manage contacts so viruses that abuse it simply don't work. And last but by no means least, as I keep it running all the time, the fact that it takes up a tiny amount of memory to keep it running is very important indeed.

K9 - This free bayesian spam filter sits in between the Internet and my email application and filters all the email as it comes in checking to see if it is apam. After training it for a couple of months it now correctly identifies 95% of spam and my email application sends it into a spam bin.

When working with The Bat! I use filters to move any mail from anyone in my address book to a safe folder before deleting any suspected spam, that way very little 'real' email ever gets accidentally deleted.

Skype is a free Voice over IP utility that allows you to call other skype contacts and VoIP phones for free. You can calso call landlines worldwide at vastly reduced rates. The quality of sound in excellent. Truly a revolutionary piece of software.

Web Browser

Opera - Since switching my default browser to Opera I have never looked back. OK it is still necessary to use Internet Explorer occasionally as not all web pages are built properly and therefore may not work in Opera (Internet Explorer is more forgiving to badly written pages) but the benefits of Opera far outweigh any problems. The main improvement is tabbed browsing. This allows you to have as many web pages you want open at any one time (without your taskbar getting clogged up). Other advantages include a built in google search box, a sidebar for bookmarks and other useful tools, OperaMail if you want it (I don't) and the 'Magic Wand' for remembering passwords for different sites. This last feature is very handy. It is also more standards complient than IE and so properly written web pages can actually look better. The advantages go on and on. Try it, it's free!

Anti Virus

AVG Anti Virus - Easily better than Norton, and free. It also integrates with Outlook, The Bat, Eudora and all major email software. It is a lot less obtrusive than Norton too, and just as configurable. Regular virus definitions are automatically updated.

Web Design

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX - If you aren't a code purist (and therefore like to do everything in Notepad), then Dreamweaver is hands down the best web development tool there is. The best features are "find and replace", dreamweaver templates and library items. The application development tools are handy too if, like me, you dont know ASP and other languages fluently enough to code by hand.

Adobe Photoshop - The industry standard and by far the best graphics tool there is. It is also improved by using several plugins, BoxTop ProJpeg is the one I use most often, and is the best tool that I have found for compressing Jpeg images without loss of quality. Yes even better than fireworks.

FTP

FlashFXP is a great FTP program. It is very easy to use, and has the usual array of features as well as the ability to you the enhanced FXP protocol to transfer files from one remote host to another without using your own machine as a buffer.

Productivity

Ultramon is a utility for multi-monitor systems, designed to increase productivity and unlock the full potential of multiple monitors.

All content © 2004-2007 Rob Hilken. All rights reserved