brianReisman.ToBlog(); : Windows Utilities

Product Reviews coming soon…

brian.reisman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:16:24 GMT

I’ve been out of the mix lately with an avalanche of health issues… the latest of which is a pinched sciatic nerve. Never the less I will be putting up some reviews of some of the coolest applications, tools, and visual studio add-ins and here is a partial list of what is to come:

UpatePatrol

Altova MissionKit 2010

JetBRAINS Resharper 4.5 & 5.0

PreEmptive Solutions dotFuscator

DevExpress DXperience v2009

and more…

Technorati Tags: software reviews,visual studio

crossposted from brianreisman.com

WebGuide - Streaming TV, Remote Scheduling and Media Sharing for Windows Vista and Media Center

brian.reisman — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:36:00 GMT

I’ve been looking for a solution for a long time to be able to watch DirecTV when I'm not at home. I’ve tried many things and all with different pros and cons. Having just discovered a free way to host a small little web server from home and still be able to change the channel and stream to any internet connected device; namely my phone and my work pc. It’s still rough around the edges mind you but a wonderful start.

I’d previously purchased the Hava Titanium HD device, which is a competitor to the Slingbox HD. The Hava has a bunch of really awesome features but its blocker, at least for me, is the inability to connect directly to home Hava device without going through their peer to peer server. Among it’s most notable features:

I’m hopeful that Hava, released by Monsoon Software will update and modify their software even more to enhance its usefulness.

Cross-Posted from brianreisman.com

WebGuide - Streaming TV, Remote Scheduling and Media Sharing for Windows Vista and Media Center

QuizoApps: QTTabBar

brian.reisman — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:08:03 GMT

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a tool junky. That being said I've decided that I'm going to try to list the new or updated tools that I use often. The first tool is freeware, which is my favorite price, and is called QTTabBar and it adds useful tabs and other options to the explorer shell. Please note that the Shell team strongly advises against using managed shell extensions but I personally have had good success with this cool utility.

Check it out.

QuizoApps: QTTabBar

del.icio.us Tags: windows,shell,extension,utility,tool,tabs,.net

Direct Access: for the productive slacker in all of us.

brian.reisman — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:46:31 GMT

This gem of a utility from Nagarsoft is one of the few tools out there that can be used by any type of worker... I'm coder and we have several command line driven scripts for automation and build and Direct Access has been nothing short of wonderful. At its surface it is similar to other macro-ish programs, but this one is less intrusive and seems to work with the greatest number of other products. It isn't free, currently weighing in at $39.95*. I dragged cmd.exe onto the Direct Access widget and assign the abbreviation "cmd"... Now just type it and and voilà. Now this is a remedial example... but its quicker than start-search or start run... Check out their web site to see the video tutorials and screen shots...

*They do offer a 15% competitive discount if you are considering switching from a "competing product".

UltraMon: Updating to Windows Vista requires more than just drivers to be updated.

brian.reisman — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 07:50:01 GMT

I am a tool junky. I use tools, like shell extensions in Windows and addins in Visual Studio so extensively that I depend on them as much as I depend on Windows itself. It's been a long time now since I adopted the multiple monitor as a minimum requirement and as a result need a utility that makes the additional monitor(s) transparent to my Windows experience. I think that most people would agree that UltraMon (TM) by Realtime Soft. has become, arguably, the most common utility for enhancing Windows to provide better support for multiple monitors. Specifically it adds the option to add a taskbar to each monitor containing only the applications that are displayed on the that monitor, it supports plugins, custom scripts, title bar buttons, and the list truly does go on.

I, like many of you, get very, we'll say... passionate when software that I've come to rely on is slow to update to be compatible with the latest versions of Windows. I mean let's be honest, how long has the beta, release candidate, etc been available? Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that difficulties that go into getting an application to be compatible with an operating system as complex and especially as secure as Windows Vista.

Christian Studer, the author of UltraMon, almost immediately released an update that fixed an initial compatibility problem with Vista and his flagship utility, which I found impressive... But then the most incredible thing happened... he, in the support forums for UltraMon, basically promised that the beta of a Vista supported version of UltraMon (Version 3.0) would be available before the end of March 2007... and here it is April 1st 2007 and guess what... I've already downloaded and installed the beta. It is obvious that this is only an initial release as there is much activity in the beta issues forum, but I couldn't be happier in his product, his support of it and his customers and in his transparency... All I can say is that I am now a lifelong customer of Realtime Soft. and will continue to praise Christian and UltraMon... Great Work!

So for the "review" part of this rant, it's simple... if you use multiple monitors on Windows you must buy this program. You can try it out for free by installing the trial or purchase the full version for the bargain price of $39.95...