Newsletter Archives

• Treasure Hunt — 10 hidden gems on OlderGeeks.com

  Posted on January 13, 2025 at 02:45 CST by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.02 • 2025-01-13

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  This week we’re looking at ten very useful and free programs that just kind of got buried in the thousands of other programs on our website.

  This is not a “Top Ten” list — the selections are not ranked. But most have their place and serve a purpose, so I hope you’ll find something useful here.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.02.0, 2025-01-13).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Freeware Spotlight ChrisPC DNS Switch, Cstitch, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, GrandOrgue, Hosts File Editor, Lum Screen Recorder, MiTeC DirList, Newsletters, Piggy Banks, SyncDroid, WaGi’s IP-Blacklister, Writemonkey

• Microsoft PowerToys aren’t just for power users

  Posted on July 29, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  Microsoft keeps adding useful tools to the free PowerToys set and improving what’s already there.

  Back in the Windows 95 days, system tweaking and cleaning utilities were so common — and so likely to change system settings that stopped Windows features from working properly — that the Windows shell and kernel teams came out with their own tools, known as PowerToys.

  These were refreshed for Windows XP. A few other Microsoft teams joined in. Engineers on the OneNote development team created multiple power toys, including one that eventually became the Onetastic add-on.

  There were so many changes in Windows Vista and Windows 7 that many PowerToys stopped working. Microsoft didn’t update them. And some just turned into Windows features. It wasn’t until 2019 that PowerToys returned for Windows 10, and with a slightly different approach.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.31.0, 2024-07-29).

  Windows 11 Always On Top, Awake, Color picker, Command Not Found, Crop and Lock, FancyZones, File Locksmith, Hosts File Editor, Image Resizer, Mouse Crosshairs, Mouse without Borders, Newsletters, PowerToys, PowerToys Run, Screen Ruler, Shortcut Guide