Channel 9 - Entries tagged with tool

Add a Custom Toolbar Button for IE8’s “In Private” Mode

Sarah Perez — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:06:00 GMT

On the WinVistaClub forums, a member posted a handy tip for creating a custom IE8 Toolbar button and context menu items that allow you to open pages and links in Internet Explorer 8’s new “In Private” mode. “In Private” mode is a new feature in IE8 that lets you control whether or not IE saves your browsing history, cookies, and other data. When you surf in this mode, IE8 won’t store cookies, won’t record history, won’t save form data, won’t save your passwords, won’t remember the addresses you typed in, won’t save visited links, and deletes all the temporary Internet files after closing the window. In other words, In Private allows you to surf anonymously and undetected. This is an especially useful feature for those times when you’re using a public or shared computer like a kiosk computer or internet cafe PC.

To add the custom button to your menu bar, download the contents of this zip file. The file contains 4 files: InP.ico, Private.htm, PrivateLink.htm and Registry.reg. You’ll want to unzip the contents to a new folder you create called “Tools” and located at C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Tools.

After extracting the files, double-click on the Registry.reg file. Then open IE and customize your toolbar to add the new In Private button.

If you want to customize this even further or install the button manually, you can view the detailed instructions here (PDF link).

Add-In Cleanup For Windows Home Server

Sarah Perez — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:17:00 GMT

If you have a Windows Home Server then you’ve probably been having fun trying out the numerous add-ins that have been made available for WHS users. These add-ins let you do all kinds of things from running Outlook to syncing your TV shows from Media Center to listening to the radio and so much more. But what if you’ve been having a little too much fun and have overloaded your server with add-ins? Or, even worse, what if you installed an add-in that wasn’t quite ready for prime time and now it won’t uninstall? Well now there’s an add-in for that!

The Add-In Cleanup Tool helps you clean and uninstall up whichever add-ins you need to get rid of. It will even remove them from the registry, too, after first doing a backup. The tool is installed via Remote Desktop by connecting to your WHS and putting the file ‘addincleanup.exe’ into the C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server folder. You can then choose to add the shortcut to your desktop, if desired. The tool is a free download available from here (zip file). (via We Got Served)

Windows Speech Recognition Macros Tool Beta

Sarah Perez — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:22:00 GMT

The Microsoft Speech team just announced the introduction of a new Windows Speech Recognition Macros tool (WSRMacros) which lets you create macros that are triggered by spoken commands. Macros can record a series of actions on your computer, which can be as simple as entering in your mailing address, or as complex as to allow you to interact with various applications via speech.

The tool is currently in "pre-beta" (hey, isn't that alpha?), and they want to hear your feedback about it at listen@microsoft.com. You can learn more about how to create a macro by reading the instructions in these release notes and you can follow all the news from the team on their blog.

Who wants to bet that someone is recording a macro right now that involves them saying "Computer, Show Map On Screen," or "Computer, Tea, Earl Grey. Hot." ...Oh right, that's me.

MapCruncher: A Virtual Earth Mashup Tool

Sarah Perez — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:12:00 GMT

MapCruncher is a Microsoft Research project which uses the Virtual Earth API to import entire supplemental maps into Virtual Earth. By supplemental maps, they mean any drawn-to-scale maps you can find, be they bicycle maps, transit maps, national park maps, university maps, or antique city maps, just to show a few examples. But not only that, you can use MapCruncher to add your very own, Do-It-Yourself Aerial Photography to Virtual Earth, too. Their Gallery has even more examples of this.

The process of importing your own maps they call "crunching," hence the name "MapCruncher." To use MapCruncher, you just import your map then find 5-10 corresponding landmarks on your map and VE. MapCruncher will then register your map to global coordinate system and generate a set of image tiles based on your map and mash them up with VE's road and aerial imagery.

MapCruncher support both vector formats (PDF, WMF, EMF) and raster formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP). To view a mashup, you'll need IE6, IE7, or Firefox version 1.5 or higher.

To download MapCruncher click here unless you need it for a commercial application, in which case you will need to visit this page instead.