Ben’s Tech Blog

There are some awesome utilities that you can download from the Microsoft website. Although there doesn’t seem to be a single download file for all of the utilities, they all fall under the “PowerToys” name. I haven’t downloaded all of them yet, but I’ve played with a few.

Alt+Tab Replacement

This download replaces the standard Alt+Tab dialog with a new one that includes a preview of the application at that you have selected. My only complaint is that it won’t show a preview for applications that are minimized. Despite that limitation, it’s a great enhancement and I’m really happy with it. It has proved to be particularly useful when you have a whole bunch of web pages open and find yourself constantly switching between them.

Open Command Window Here

I’ve used a registry hack to achieve this in the past, but it’s easier to just install this utility instead. This feature adds a menu item to the context menu (right mouse click) of a file system folder. In other words, if you right click on a folder you can select “Open Command Window Here” and it will open a command prompt with the currently selected folder as the current directory.

Virtual Desktop Manager

This utility allows you to use 4 different “virtual desktops”. A virtual desktop in the context of the Virtual Desktop Manager utility is simply a lay-out of program windows. When you install the utility it creates a new toolbar that you can add to the Windows taskbar.

The toolbar allows you to switch between the virtual desktops. The Green button displays all 4 desktops at once to make it easier to select the window layout that you’re after.

There’s a whole bunch of other PowerToys that you can download, including the latest version of TweakUI.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.