Media Player Classic Homecinema

Media Player Classic Homecinema is a very lightweight, clean, fast and powerfull mediaplayer. It has the interface of the old Windows Mediaplayer. Hence the name �Classic�. Don�t let the simple interface fool you, this mediaplayer is very powerfull and fast. It supports various video playback modes, easy adjustment of video dimensions (using the NumPad), automatic volume leveling (ideal for watching movies), creating bookmarks in movies, displaying subtitles (.srt, .sub, etc�), playing DVD�s, change aspect ratio, anti-tearing and tons of other options. The most amazing thing is that it starts up very fast (less than 2 seconds) and is very lightweight. With only 6.2 Mb as a standalone player, you can even bring it with you on your portable USB data carrier.

Since the original author of Media Player Classic stopped updating the program, someone else took the initiative to create an updated version with some new features and enhancements and added the name �Homecinema� to it.

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Cam Wizard

Cam Wizard is a very easy to use CCTV Webcam security application. It can monitor the webcam and if there is movement detected, it can do a lot of things for you such as recording a video (with sound) of the webcam, take snapshots, upload the video�s / images to an FTP server, keep a history of video activity and automatically delete old files, pop-up when there is movement, etc. You can even monitor up to 4 camera�s at once.

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Inno Setup

Inno Setup is a free compiler to create setup installers. I use it for my self made software. It comes with a built in wizard that guides you trough the process of creating a basic installer. You can save the generated script for later use when you need to publish a new installer for an updated version of your application.

Download �Inno Setup�

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Hiren's Boot CD

Hiren's BootCD is the most fundamental tool for any ICT person. You can use this CD directly from within Windows, but it's true power is seen when you boot from the CD, so you can operate on the computer without the operating system's (and viruses, trojans and rootkit's) interference. You can clean viruses, partition or clone your disks, test your system and a lot more.

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ZoomIt

One feature that any version of Windows is missing is the desktop zoom function. I guess because OSX has this feature standard in it's OS, Windows did not include it as it could be seen as 'stealing OSX's idea'. All this nonsense about 'who stole ideas from who' only results Windows and MAC in an inability to grow in functionality and user friendlyness. Take for example the ALT+TAB functionality in Windows to switch from window to window. Sure the Vista 3D ALT+TAB idea looks cool, but it is not as practical as the OSX version of window switching. Windows cannot use that idea since OSX allready uses it. And so there are also things that Windows does better than MAC, but MAC cannot use that because Windows allready did.

I think when they both stop being so childish about 'you stole my idea!', we will finally have big improvements in MAC and Windows.

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Shark007 Codec Pack

Vista- or XP Codec Pack is a package of video codecs put together specially selected to work with Vista or XP. It includes the most popular video codecs such as Divx, Xvid, H264, Matroska, etc...

Download �Windows 7 Codec Pack� (for Windows 7 64 bit)

Download 'Vista Codec Pack' (for Windows Vista systems)

Download 'XP Codec Pack' (for Windows XP systems)

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Winamp

Winamp is an excellent mp3 (and video) player that supports plugins, skins, any audio format you can think of, podcasts, internet radio and tv and a lot more. Personally I don't really use all of the features of Winamp so I could go for a less bloated mp3 player. However, winamp has a few good audio enhancement plugins that makes your mp3's sound fuller and richer. One such plugin is called "Enhancer". I highly recommend this plugin. There are even skins available for this plugin.

Personally I only use Winamp to play audio files and not video's, as there is a better program out there to play video files (look in the Multimedia section of this blog).

I use a self made program called "RandoMP3 Audition" to play random albums in Winamp and cleanup my audio collection. I can choose to delete the entire folder that is currently playing, or just the current song, with just the click of a button. Thus only leaving songs I really like, and getting rid of the stuff that I would not like to have on my portable MP3 player aniway.

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Ultramon

No it's not a creature from Pokemon or Digimon, but a very useful tool to extend your Windows taskbar to your extended monitors. It is actually amazing that even the latest Windows Vista does not make full use of your extended monitors by also extending the taskbar. With Ultramon, you can make your taskbar extend to the secondary display and even have the window taskbar buttons appear on that monitor. It can be very confusing to have the taskbar buttons of a window that is on the secondary monitor, appear on the primary monitor.

Ultramon can also move any window to the secondary display, or maximize the window over multiple monitors in an instant with just the click of a button.

It also supports multiple monitor wallpapers, so you can have one single wallpaper span multiple monitors, or even have one screensaver per monitor and a lot more!

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