Grupenet

People who use Windows daily know that launching applications isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Instead of filling up half of your taskbar with Quick Launch icons, why not try something else? In this article I’m going to focus on a couple of my favorite freeware application launchers, which include Launchy and RocketDock.

Launchy

Launchy is my personal favorite application launcher out of the bunch. The basic idea behind Launchy is to use your keyboard to access your applications instead of your mouse. Using Launchy is as easy as typing the first few letters of the application you’d like to launch and pressing Enter. Launchy is not just limited to applications either. It is capable of finding files and even performing search queries on Google for you.

RocketDock

RocketDock is an application launcher which is very reminiscent of the dock in Mac OS X. Instead of using keyboard access, RocketDock allows you to launch applications in just a single click and in a visually appealing manner at that. Surprisingly, you can also choose to minimize your programs to RocketDock, eliminating the need to manage your open applications using the Windows taskbar.

There are many other application launchers available for Windows besides the two I’ve mentioned. A couple others I’d recommend are Enso Launcher($19.95) and ObjectDock(free).

Are you already using an application launcher? If so, which one are you using and why?

Yesterday Apple released a Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows. After installing it, I am greeted with a browser that displays absolutely no text.

I quickly find that I am not the only one with this problem. The problem happens if you have a large amount of fonts installed on Windows. After hours of digging through comments on blogs of people having the same problem with no solution, I decided to try my hand at fixing it myself. Eventually I found a way to fix the issue, so here’s how to do it.

First, navigate to the following directory. You should see a file named Fonts.plist, though it may not exist in every case.

• C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\Safari (Windows XP)
• C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\Safari (Windows Vista)

Download this Fonts.plist and replace your old one with the one you just downloaded. Now, open the Properties for the Fonts.plist file and set it to “Read-only”.

If some fonts still don’t show up correctly, open your Fonts.plist in Wordpad (uncheck Read-only in the properties first) and edit the locations of the fonts to match the location of the fonts on your computer. Make sure to set the file to “Read-only” when you’re finished editing, otherwise Safari will overwrite it the next time you launch it.

If you followed this tutorial closely and edited everything correctly, Safari should look something like this.

If you’re still having problems with fonts showing, navigate to C:\Program Files\Safari\Safari.resources and make sure there are two fonts files named Lucida Grande.ttf and Lucida Grande Bold.ttf. If they do not exist, download this ZIP of the fonts and place them in the Safari.resources directory.

Update (06/14/2007):
If you have updated Safari to version 3.0.1 you may need to replace your Fonts.plist file again and set it to read-only.

Update (06/22/2007):
Apple has just released Safari version 3.0.2 which fixes the font issues. Please make sure the read-only option on your Fonts.plist file is unset. Go download the new version!

The Windows Sidebar is a greatly welcomed feature of Windows Vista. But how do you stick all your gadgets (more commonly known as widgets) on your desktop and do away with that sidebar? Apple’s Mac OS X operating system also has a widget application named Dashboard and will only display widgets on the desktop. If you’re a Mac addict but stuck using Vista at work, this trick may help you feel more at home with the Windows Sidebar.

First you’ll need to drag all the gadgets off of the sidebar and onto your desktop. You can do this by hovering your cursor over a gadget and using the dotted area to the right of the gadget to drag it.

Once you have all your gadgets on your desktop, right click the plus (+) at the top of your sidebar and select “Close Sidebar”. That’s all there is to it. To unhide the sidebar, just right-click the Windows Sidebar icon in your system tray and select “Open”.

Don’t get me wrong, VLC is a great media player, especially since it includes so many different video codecs and is cross-platform. Unfortunately, getting the video playback to work on your brand-spankin’-new Windows Vista machine may take some configuring on your part. This little tip will get you back on the road, playing your videos in no time. But before you move on, make sure your installation of VLC is up to date. You can do this by choosing “Check for Updates” under the Help menu.

Open the VLC preferences from under the Settings menu. You should now be in the main VLC preferences. Make sure the “Advanced Options” in the bottom-left corner is checked. From there, expand the “Video” item in the left menu and select “Output modules”.

Now you can select whichever video output module you desire, though “Windows GDI video output” will be your best bet. If you’re the adventurous type, you can try each output module to see if any work better for your computer. You will need to restart VLC each time you change the video output module.