Productivity - Desktop Accessories (69)

TheAeroClock is a simple but at the same time beautiful desktop clock with alpha transparency. Basic functions include transparency, size, setting and selection of the clock texture or appearance are available.

ZoomIt provides three useful tools for almost any presentation including a screen zoom, annotation tool, and break timer. The zoom option helps focus on a specific point or part of the screen while the annotation tool can help emphasize or edit what's shown (press Ctrl+S to save a screenshot).

The program includes customisable hotkeys, zoom levels, two different kinds of zoom (a "live" zoom as well as a passive read-only view), and a variety of different annotation features.

ZoomIt Portable is a version of Zoomit that saves settings to the local folder.

DesktopSnowOK adds a little winter magic feeling (up to 2000 snow flakes) on your Desktop. Can also add flowers, stars or leaves.

AutoHideMouseCursor automatically hides the mouse cursor with an adjustable timer. The program is useful for reducing distractions for users while reading, during presentations, or for personal preference.

7+ Taskbar Tweaker allows you to configure various aspects of the Windows taskbar including mouse configuration, thumbnail handling, pinned items and button combining.

Volume² is an utility designed as a replacement for the standard Volume Control. It lets you easily change the sound volume just by rotating the mouse wheel, using keyboard hot keys or moving the mouse pointer to an edge of the screen.

It also includes an audio mixer with advanced volume controls support, a scheduler, an on-screen display, command line support and the ability to store and recall different unlimited presets via one mouse click or system-wide hot keys.

Rainmeter is a customizable desktop widget program with the ability to display tools such as memory usage, battery power, RSS feeds and weather forecasts. The program includes many functional skins, able to record your notes and to-do lists, launch your favorite applications and control your media player all in a clean, unobtrusive interface.

Installer includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

XP/Vista users: download 3.3.3 Release version of Rainmeter.

Listary is an enhancement that allows you to quickly search almost any listing in Windows by simply typing your search terms. The program will pop up a small, semi-transparent window in Explorer windows (including open/save dialogs), Task Manager, Registry Editor and even directly on your desktop. The program works with almost any application with a system-generated list.

Although some programs will automatically jump to the first letter you type (a find-as-you-type feature of Windows Explorer), you must type quickly for more than one letter and cannot see your output. Listary brings a long-time feature of Linux to Windows, letting you enter whole words and type slower with automatic changes. Additionally, it allows wildcards and has the ability to edit your input with immediate results.

Advanced features include hotkeys, autocomplete, blacklists, favorites, a customizable window. Note that the program contains many "pro"-only features, but the program is very functional in its basic version.

Note: The latest version is no longer portable. This entry has been updated to reflect the last known portable version of the program.

Date Reminder alerts you to both recurring and nonrecurring events, like birthdays, bills to pay, appointments etc. The reminders are listed in chronological order. Reminders can be marked "done", i.e. "dealt with". Past events will remain in the list until they are marked "done". An advance notice marker can be set a number of days before an event.

Stick A Note is an unique note-taking program in that it connects to an individual application window. Notes move with the window and disappear when window is not in focused or when the program hotkey is toggled (Win+N by default). Includes available color and hotkey customization, and all notes are saved to the application folder as text files.

Useful for keeping notes on individual applications such as usability or beta testing, or for keeping notes on infrequent/difficult programs to serve as reminders for use.

Note: Some software changes the window title with program behavior, which will make Stick A Note think it's working with a separate program (for example, this happens whenever you type anything into the search box of "Everything"). Stick A Note's associated note will no longer be visible (though still saved to disk) until the window returns to it's previous state.

RBTray allows you to minimize application windows to the system tray by:

• Right-Clicking its minimize button
• Shift-Right-Clicking on its title bar
• Using the Windows-Alt-Down hotkey

TTclock is a simple, compact alarm clock, countdown timer and stopwatch that can be minimized to the system tray. It has two display modes: pure clock and control panel.

Iconize resides in the system tray, allowing you to hide any application also in the system tray as an icon via its right-click menu. In the event that Explorer crashes and the taskbar is closed (and the system tray with it), Iconizer will rebuild all your icons when Explorer restarts. In addition, the program includes application minimize, maximize, restore, or close all at once.

NOTE: Official and many mirror sites are offline, so a local mirror is provided for download. Thanks to nolajovol for providing a copy of the last 2.0.0.5 version.

Digital Clock is a feature-rich yet easy to customize desktop clock. It supports skins, customizable clock color, texture instead of color, zoom, signals (alarms, hourly chimes), tray control, customizable time format, start-up with system, auto-update and more. Additional features can be enabled via plug-ins.

Digital Clock is a cross-platform program available for Linux, Mac OS and Windows.

Stickypaper is a sticky note application that has much more functionality than most of its kind. t enables you to create normal sticky notes as well as pictures, real-time notes with RSS, and just about anything else with its fully scriptable system. Note that the documentation is in Japanese, but the program itself is in English.

Japanese help page and script library.

Free Virtual Keyboard simulates a full keyboard. It can be operated both by mouse and touch screen, which allows people with mobility impairments to type data by using a pointing device.

Includes several colors and keyboard types to choose from (right-click the toolbar) as well as adjustable transparency for privacy.

Adware note: this program is listed as adware as it contains an advertisement for a "pro" version of the program listed in the settings. Not setting following the FreeVK.ini extract instruction below will also launch the a web page to the program website.

On-screen Ruler is a semi-transparent on-screen ruler to help you lay out GUIs and Web pages or measure anything on your screen. It supports units in centimeters, inches or pixels. In addition to using the mouse, you can keyboard shortcuts to move the ruler around the screen.

Overlap Wallpaper displays a photo on the desktop wallpaper so that one can have for example the photo of a loved one on different wallpaper image. The overlapped photo can be sized, positioned on desktop as required, and made semi-transparent.

PNG image photos with transparent colors are supported. Photos can be reloaded after a set time, allowing for example the use of another program to overwrite previous image file and auto-display it.

sTray is a tiny, tray-based utility with quick access to shutdown, restart, switch user, log off, lock, sleep, hibernate functions etc. This is especially useful for remote desktop users as these commands are missing from Microsoft's Remote Desktop (RDP) tool.

Hourglass is easy-to-use, customizable, and feature-rich countdown timer. It offers smart input, supports pause and resume and can run multiple timers simultaneously. All used timers are saved automatically for easy re-use. The interface includes optional timer title, themes (with the ability to create your own), colour customization.

You can minimize to tray and control from the tray, have the window stay-on-top, go full screen, pop-up, close or shutdown computer when expired, add sound notifications, keep computer awake, loop timer, loop sound, open saved timers on startup and more.

T-Clock enhances the clock on the Windows taskbar. You can customize the display, define actions to perform on mouse clicks/drops, set multiple alarms, show calendar, manage windows etc.

T-Clock Redux is an enhanced fork of Stoic Joker's T-Clock 2010 which is a successor of TClock, originally written by Kazubon in the early 90's.

Binal is a highly customizable binary clock desktop widget. Select color scheme, display position and 12/24 hour modes.

Written in AutoHotKey.

FileMenu Tools customizes the context menu of Explorer, adding built-in utilities for file and folder operations. Users can add customized commands that run external applications, copy/move to a specific folder or delete specific file types; customize the "Send to..." submenu; and enable/disable the commands which are added by other applications to the context menu.

The built-in utilities allow the user to run a given program with arguments, copy/move to a folder, copy path, UNC path, Internet path, name or content to clipboard, view or change attributes, split/join a file, register/unregister a DLL, find and replace, advanced rename, synchronize two folders, delete locked files, create symbolic link, calculate and verify SHA/MD5 checksums, shred files, change folders icon, and many more.

Supports 32 or 64-bit automatically. Note that this program has gone shareware so we are linking to the last freeware version (thanks billon) and Userfriendly).

AveDesk is a program that will give you the ability to have icons on your desktop that update themselves. Each icon is in fact a "desklet," or a plug-in that can provide a variety of functions. A desklet can be just a regular shortcut, a mail checker, a calendar, a clock, etc. depending on the desklets programmer.

Features a wealth of customization options for displaying desklets.

Active Text Notes works like a monitoring program for a given program, displaying the output text file (e.g. directory listing of a network folder, auto backup log file text, latest text info from a url, etc.) on the desktop.

Lucidity sets an image as your wallpaper and then creates a neat translucent effect on your entire desktop.

Tell When Done watches a process running in another Window and notifies you when that process is complete. Since many tools are written without an alarm to signal completion, this program frees you to focus on other work.

MiniBin provides a recycle bin for the system tray area that can be customized with user-defined themes. Microbin is a lightweight fork of this program.

kLED displays a tray icon for num/caps/scroll lock status. Configurable on-screen display as well. Four icon themes included.

XNote Timer is a simple countdown timer and stopwatch software. The program can use two modes: a count-up method to measure time intervals and count-down mode to work as an alarm. The alarm can launch any application or play audio files from a variety of formats (mp3, wav, midi, etc). The interface is a large, re-sizable view, ideal for either public presentations or a small icon.

Global hotkeys are available to start/stop/reset.

Note: The program can no longer be found on the original website, so I am redirecting the download link to CNet.

World Clock is a multi-time zone map-based clock that can show you the time around the world. World Clock has an easy to use interface letting you select up to 8 different time zones to display. You can select using the map directly or look up city and country names on each continent. An optional solar terminator and flags over selected countries are also available.

World Clock Portable is a version of the software packaged in the PortableApps.com format.

MicroBin is the most minimal (10 KB) free recycle bin for your Microsoft Windows system tray area. MicroBin is a fork of MiniBin, but without all the extras.

binaryclokk displays the local time/date in a binary format. Options include always-on-top, transparency, color, and fade-out.

WinRoll allows you to make a window "roll up" into its title bar by right-clicking on the title bar. You can also send a window to the back, make it stay on top, minimize, maximize or close all visible windows as well as minimize to the tray area. In Windows 2000 and above, you can even make a window translucent.

Win-X-Move solves the issue of trying to target the pesky titlebar to move a window, or the even more elusive corners to resize it. The program allows you to move any window by dragging it from anywhere while pressing the ALT key, and resize a window by right-mouse-button-dragging it from anywhere while pressing the ALT key.

7 Sticky Notes is a feature-rich note taking program with included editor, highly customizable look, pictures, alarms, attachments, synchronization options, and ability to snap to borders of other notes or align to a grid. Also includes security features, backup, search, statistics, and more.

Functional in 64-bit.

Easy Timer is a simple and minimalistic clock/alarm timer with over 35 alarm sounds. It supports extensive interface customization and displaying a custom text message with the alarm. By default, the timer's progress shows over top of the regular clock in red.

Underline is a simple and intuitive Reading Bar/Line Reader/Highlighter.

Languages: French and Italian

Note: Website is in Italian (translation available).

Feewhee (Feel the Wheel) is a utility to enhance your mouse wheel with additional functions. With a single turn, you may resize windows or change the transparency.

Park Cursor Aside moves the mouse cursor aside to a defined screen / active window position whenever you type on keyboard. This way your view of the input field is not blocked by the mouse cursor.

Right click on tray icon and select Settings, to define the parking position and other values.

Desktop Slider removes the limits of the desktop or workspace so that it behaves like one large scrolling window hovering above a much larger desktop. You can move this camera by moving the mouse while holding keyboard or mouse buttons.

GridMove tries to make windows management easier by defining a visual grid on your desktop, to which you can easily snap windows. This program comes bundled with some predefined grid templates that can be easily swapped, but also includes ways to create custom grids and share them with others.

Additional features include tools for resizing, displaying windows in cascade or mosaic views, and making a window remain on top, and more.

Created using AutoHotkey.

Qlock is a world clock program with support for alarms, notes and time synchronization. You can create clocks for different countries/cities and view them all on the desktop.Note that options marked with a [Pro] icon are payware-only features. You can try them out a number of times before a reminder window pops up and asks you to upgrade. This includes features like the integrated RSS/Atom feed reader and daily foreign exchange rates.

Note: v1.86 appears to be last portable version.

Cherbox (formerly BBox) unites several different components including a program launcher, file organizer, as well as bookmark management and password manager tool. The window allows you to organize elements into drag-and-drop categories and hierarchical grouping to reduce clutter.

Note: The program has an internal password generator and can be password-protected.

Desktop Media automatically adds drive icons to your desktop. It includes USB drives, fixed drives, CD/DVD drives (When disk is inserted), network drives, and even RAM disk drives.

Vector Clock provides a fully scalable desktop clock and alarm that can be placed anywhere on your screen, rotated with total freedom, resized to any scale and set in 3D perspective view without losing any quality. The program offers a variety of beautiful faces and colors, from classic to modern.

ControlPad turns the numeric keypad on your keyboard into a Windows command execution system. You may configure any alphanumeric code to: Execute any program, open any document, open any web address or send any series of keystrokes to the operating system.

Written in AutoHotkey.

MiniReminder is a small and simple program to remind yourself of important yearly events, like birthdays, anniversaries, renewals, etc. You can add short comments, customize the colors, and choose the font type and size. It can start automatically and hide in the system tray until the day a reminder is due.

SecondShell provides keyboard and mouse based controls to resize and reposition application windows. It is particularly useful for laptops and netbooks, where precision cursor control is difficult. It also provides the ability to launch files, folders and applications via hotkey.

Written in AutoHotkey.

NOTE: Website down, linking to Softpedia.

Countdown show you how far away you are from a user-defined event. It can be configured to tick away on your desktop in a transparent overlay or in the system tray.

College Alarm Clock is developed as a personal alarm clock for your PC. It features a 7-day format so that you can wake up earlier/later on different days of the week. Save/Load your weekly schedule to your hard drive. It will play any media file stored on your PC or LAN, though you must have some player installed for each media file you wish to play (for example, Winamp for mp3s or CDs, Real Player for .RMs).

Toppy is simple utility that allows you to easily control which windows stay on top simply by using keyboard hot keys. After you have run Toppy, pressing WinKey + ArrowUp will set the active window to stay on top, and pressing WinKey + ArrowDown will set the window back to normal.

Unlike some similar programs, this one seems to work on 'child windows'.

Note: website is offline, linking to archive.org (thanks Baas).

Minimize To Tray lets you minimize running applications to the system tray, which helps to increase free space in the taskbar. To minimize any application to the system tray, simply right-click the minimize button or left-click on it while pressing [Shift]. You can also use Minimize To Tray to quickly hide all running applications except those listed in the Filter settings using a predefined hotkey.

Taskbaric is a small program with a simple purpose: to iconize Windows taskbar buttons. Similar to the functionality of Windows 7, but for XP and Vista.

Folderico allows you to change the default icon of any folder. It performs this feat by creating a desktop.ini file in the chosen folder that points to the desired icon (also automatically created) so that Windows Explorer will render the folder icon differently. Folderico does not need to be running for the new folder icon to be displayed, and the changes are sticky even when the hard disk or memory stick is plugged into another machine.

Ghost-It! is a program that runs in the system tray, and lets you turn windows into "ghost" windows. Ghost windows are translucent and will always appear on top of other windows, even when it loses the input focus.

DM2 adds several convenient features to the standard Windows environment. It is able to minimize windows to floating icons or to the system tray. It also allows you to set one or more window to be always on top, as well as making them semi-transparent. You are also able to define your favorite files/folders and make them appear in Windows' default Open/Save dialog boxes.

Push the Freakin' Button (PTFB) is a button pressing utility. When you wish to automatically dismiss a dialog box, you can configure PTFB to "push" a particular button by using drag-and-drop, and it will function as instructed when the dialog box pops up the next time.

Note: This is the last freeware version of what is now a payware product.

FolderIcons helps you customize the icons of your file system's folders. It works by simply adding a desktop.ini file in a folder, then changes the folder's attributes. However, FolderIcons makes this process very easy. You can undo your changes, or recursively assign the same icon to a whole folder tree.

CursorUS is a small application that eliminates the boundaries of your screen in the same way that many games do: they "wrap" the mouse over. In other words, move your mouse past the left side of your screen and it'll appear on the right side. Takes plenty getting used to but can be pretty handy. It is very customizable as well.

PMeter is an easy-to-use desktop ruler with three available presets. You can flip, rotate or turn the ruler depending on your needs, or attach a desktop magnifier to the ruler for better precision.

fungusAltTab is an Alt+Tab replacement. It sports a small memory footprint, mouse support, arrow keys support and more. A must for any user that uses the Alt+Tab shortcut.

Note: Since the application website is no longer available, I have added direct download for those of you who wants to check it out. Thanks to thibeaz for sharing his copy.

Citrus Alarm Clock is a software alarm clock that supports features like multiple alarms, fade-in alarm for relaxed awakening, mute audio overnight until alarm time etc. It plays any audio file using the default media player for that audio file type.

Note: This software has gone payware so we are linking to a site that's hosting the last free version.

Sveglia is a simple alarm clock that sits in the system tray and can be configured to activate an alarm, run a program, shutdown or restart the PC at a user-specified time.

ThroughClock displays a transparent analog clock on your desktop, whose appearance can be customized in many ways. There is also an alarm system which can alert you to everyday tasks, or schedule the execution of certain applications, or shutdown Windows at a particular time.

Windows Enabler allows the user to enable disabled windows and controls such as buttons, checkboxes, menu items etc. It appears as an icon in the system tray and can be turned on and off simply by clicking on it. Use with care! Doing so may cause programs to behave in entirely unexpected manner.

PersonalReminder is a very small but handy reminder tool that remains in the system tray. It handles daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly and one-time reminders. When a reminder is due, you can choose to either play a sound, or display the reminder.

Power Menu adds "Always On Top", "Minimize To Tray", "Priority" and "Transparency" submenus to all top level system menus. It works really well, and replaces a bunch of different utilities that offer these functions separately. You should, however, be aware that when Windows Explorer crashes, Power Menu does not rebuild the system tray icons.