Windows only: Free plug-in IconViewer adds a new tab to Windows Explorer’s properties screen that views, copies, and saves the icons hidden inside Windows applications and libraries. More »
Microsoft Windows – Icon – Desktop Customization – Windows Explorer – Utilities
Linux: If a lack of third-party plug-in support (i.e. Flash) kept you from trying out Chrome on your Linux system, then avoid no longer. The “early developer version” now supports many plug-ins, and they seem to work pretty well.
You’ll need to add --enable-plugins to your Chrome shortcut’s command line operation to get the “buggy” plug-in support, but it seems worth the hassle, as YouTube and Hulu videos are playing relatively stable and smooth. Google’s updated their alpha-level Chrome builds to include the newest start page tweaks as well, and it’s generally a browser worth checking out, even if a few standard settings and convenience items are still missing.
Grab an Ubuntu-ready package from the link below, or build the latest Chromium on any Linux system.
Windows: There are a lot of great add-ons for Microsoft’s premier productivity product, but there’s no central spot to turn them on or off. TopAlt EnableDisable controls Microsoft Office add-ons with simple check-boxes.
In a way, that’s all there is to it. Install the program, load it up, and you’ll see all the Office programs you’ve installed with plug-ins active on separate tabs. My freshly-installed Office copy doesn’t have a lot going on in the screenshot, but most any well-used copy will have Access, Excel, Outlook, and Word options to dig through.
EnableDisable shows you what’s being loaded into your programs at startup or on-demand, and offers a description if one’s embedded in the add-on. It catches both third-party plug-ins and Microsoft’s own functionality extenders. The Get More Add-ins link takes you, not surprisingly, to TopAlt.com‘s products, but the program itself does what it promises in a seemingly safe way. TopAlt EnableDisable is a free download for Windows systems only.
Windows only: If you’re in need of a light-weight PDF previewer for messages in Outlook 2007, you can now plug FoxitPDF, the speedy and free PDF viewer, directly into it.
Tim Heuer, software developer behind the Method of Failed blog, found that loading up Adobe Acrobat to do a quick preview of a PDF in his email was entirely overkill. To speed up his email workflow, he put together a plugin for Outlook 2007 that loads PDF files with FoxitPDF.
The following animation shows the quick preview in action:
The plugin works in both Windows Vista and Windows XP. One minor caution—more of an Outlook issue than a plug-in problem—if you double click on the document you're previewing instead of single clicking it, you'll skip right past the preview and launch the file with whatever application is your system default. If Foxit isn't your default PDF viewer, it will launch Acrobat and defeat the whole purpose of the quick preview. FoxitPDF Preview Handler is freeware, Windows only. Thanks Caleb!
