Sunrise  
Skip Navigation Links  For Secure Customer Area Access,   Login
Skip Navigation Links
Previous Next
volume 5 number 12 december 2000 TipSheet

Welcome to the December issue of MicroMetric's TipSheet.

This monthly newsletter is targeted at addressing the needs of our customers.

This month we'll cover a few free or low-cost Utility Programs that those of us at MicroMetric have discovered, and use on a daily basis.

Tip 344   TARDIS - TIME UTILITY Category:   Utilities

Tardis 2000 is a nicely done utility that corrects your PC's clock by using a networked time server. Simple and effective for home users, it also has the options needed to synchronize users across a LAN. You might use it to synchronize the PC clock when you start a SLIP/PPP connection to an Internet provider. Or, you can have it running all the time in a LAN environment, correcting the clock as often as you like. It automatically keeps track of clock drift. Options let you specify the maximum and minimum connection times, start Tardis minimized, hide it if minimized, reject unsynchronized NTP, and more. In addition, Tardis provides time servers to allow PCs to synchronize their clocks even where no other time server is present. It also provides logging support and supports the Kallisto GPS card and other NMEA-compliant cards. Free demo version, $20 to register.

Tip 345   FREE RESOURCES - COMPUTER MONITOR UTILITY Category:   Utilities

Keep an eye on system resources with FreeRsrc. This small information utility places an icon in the system tray that clearly displays the available system resources, so you can see the results of "leaking memory" or the effects of running too many applications a one time. Left-click on the icon to invoke a small dialog that graphically displays System, GDI, and User details. FreeRsrc offers only limited functionality, but it works exactly as advertized, it's easy to use, and better yet -- free.

Tip 346   ICON BOOK - ICON MANAGEMENT UTILITY Category:   Utilities

IconBook uses an intuitive, Explorer-like interface to let you organize and work with icons on your system. Scan .ani, .cur, .dll, .exe, and .icl files for icons and add them to IconBook's database. Display and change any of your system's shortcut, system, cursors, and file type icons. If you have IE4 or Windows 98 or higher, you can change your folder icons. Import .bmp, .jpg, .gif, and .wmf images or paste them from the Clipboard. Change the icon of any program shortcut just by dragging it and dropping it onto an IconBook icon. Other nice features let you use filters to review large quantities of icons; save every cursor, icon, and animated icon you see; play animated icons; and magnify an icon up to 10 times its original size. Over 20,000 icons are available, and can be cataloged. A free demo is available, $15 to register.

Tip 347   LINKMENU - MENU UTILITY Category:   Utilities

Linkmenu is a Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT4 file/program management utility. It lets you access everything on your desktop and Start Menu easily and quickly. It also lets you create your own custom menus of programs, files, folders and Web sites.

In Linkmenu, the menus are identified by icons. For example, the "Audio" icon can be assigned from the included Icon library for a button that has a menu of multimedia programs and files.

All MS Office 97 components, for example, can be grouped under the Office icon, that can be found in the file "msoffice.exe" under the Office directory. Grouping related programs, web sites and files under icons, lets you identify the groups visually and pickup the item you are looking for quickly.

Single programs - or even documents, each with a unique icon, can be included for those that are referenced more frequently.

Linkmenu is free, very professionally done, and a pleasure to use. It's a great way to organize your programs, and quickly locate and run any of them.


Copyright 2000, MicroMetric, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Permission to copy in total, with this statement and copyright, is hereby granted.

Previous Next