The little "Windows 7" Tavern

Simply the best freeware - f.lux, Copy Handler and Overdisk

2010-09-01T21:48:00.000+02:00

Welcome back, traveler!

This tavern had nothing new on the menu for a long time. It's just: Windows 7 is just this good. You don't need all the hacks and tricks you did need with other operating systems. It just works and does it's job very well.

But still: some things can be enhanced. So let me serve you three really hot and steaming tools that are not known that well. Two are pretty new cuisine, one is a real traditional one.

f.lux

"f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you're in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again. Just tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live. Then forget about it. F.lux will do the rest, automatically." it's what the website tells us. And it's exactly what this great little application does.

You might say: that's what the ambient sensor of my laptop does already! But that's not true: the ambient sensor just changes the brightness of your monitor. f.lux changes your picture from a bright blueish daylight version to a warm yellow night version. It's really great for your eyes and it's much easier to git to sleep after some work on your PC with these warm and relaxing colors. You can change the lighting (I use 6500k at day and 3400k at night) with a smooth transition of 60 minutes. Just don't forget to disable it when you look movies on your attached projector or work with color sensitive applications like paint.net. f.lux even knows when it get's dark; just tell it your location. This application is really a must have for everyone that cares about his eyes and good sleep.

Copy Handler

Picture from the authors website

You know, a friend comes by and you want to share some of your newest holiday movies. So you select them and copy them to his USB stick. Then he sees other things he would like to have copied too. No you can just wait until your first copy has finished or you copy the next files at the same time. Which results in an incredible performance dropdown. Instead of taking twice as long it takes now four times as long since Windows 7 (on no other OS i know) can not handle parallel copying on the same device in a convenient matter. And let's not talk about fragmentation if you copy several files parallel on a USB hard disk. It's just hell. And then there my be these situations where you copy a large batch of files just to be interrupted by whatever and you have to start again from the beginning since you have no idea where the interrupted copy process just stopped.

This is, where Copy Handler steps in. With a right click you can choose to let this application handle all of these cases. It just fills a queue and copies file after file. It's pretty intelligent, so small files are copied the traditional way automatically and you can always pause or stop a batch copy just to start again at the last file. It can be configured in many ways and you really will love this little application under GNU license.

Overdisk

Picture from the authors webseite

Overdisk is now around for many years and it still at version 0.11 beta. And still, after all these years of no development it's just my favorite visualization of where all the space has gone on my harddisk. Overdisk visualizes your folders in a very intuitive way. The first look at it feels strange. But when you discover, that the largest ring just shows you with one look which folder contains most data, you get the power behind it. Goo deeper (which means: go to the outer rings) and discover the subfolders with most bytes in it.

It's fast, very easy to use, runs on XP 32bit to Windows Server 2008 R2 64 bit, can check local and network drives, has only 503kb and is pretty stable for 0.11 beta. If you are searching which application just ate all of your harddisk space: try this one.

Inside Windows 7 - Something slows down my system! - The secret of the task scheduler

2010-05-05T23:23:00.000+02:00

Maybe you have experiences this: you work on your PC, then leave it alone for some minutes and when you come back its not reacting as good as before for some minutes. This happend to me some time ago and I started to search why some processes are running I have no idea about. Let me enlighten you with my findings.

The task scheduler
The task scheduler is a fine tool that allows you start all kind of tasks (like a backup) on a regular basis. But in Windows 7 it's also used to start several applications in the background. This is a good thing so the user can forget about it, but there are some drawbacks too that can make your system quite slow for a short time. Let me explain them to you. Let us descend into the cave of the Task Scheduler Monster!

Open the task scheduler. Just type "task" in the Windows 7 search box and select "Task Scheduler". You can find it too in All Programs > Accessories > System Tools. Now open Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows. Whoa! Tons on entries. Don't get frightened, jut follow your guide, which would be me.

The good, the bad and the ugly
Good news is, that most of the entries here are fine. Really. Most of them do not start just in the background with no reason but are triggered by events. But there are some others we have to take a look about. You can right click and disable them if you want.

Maintenance > WinSAT

This one does not enlighten me why it has to run every week. It's the same tool that calculates your rating (Windows experience Index) that can be found when you right-click "Computer" > "Properties" and go to "System". This tool should will start when you PC is idle and should stop if it's not idle anymore. For me it feels like swimming through peanut butter until my PC reacts normal again.
Disable! This did solve most of my problems with "What the heck is slowing my system down this time?" problems.

Defrag

While defragmentation of your hard disk is a necessary thing to do, I highly doubt it works this way. The internal Windows defrag tool was never comparable to third party products and it just does not work if it runs for some minutes in the background and then gets stopped because the PC is not idle any more.
Disable if you have a third party defrag tool.

Diagnosis

This one is a very useful tools since it checks your PC for problems and report them to you. The problem with this tool is, that it starts after 10 minutes of idle time but does not stop after it has started unless it's finished. So you may find your PC in a less responsible state for some minutes.
Do not disable it, but be aware that it tries to start on Sunday 1am and if your PC is not online at this time it will start as soon as possible afterwards. Which will be monday morning.

System restore

It's the same like Diagnoses. It's useful but once it starts it will not stop just because you want to work.
Do not disable it unless you know what a system restore point is and how you set them manually.

Now there is another thing that can slow down your PC: the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program". First, check if you have enabled it. Type "Customer" in your search box and select "No, i do not want to participate...". Fine. But there are some scheduled tasks linking to this program and I encourage you to disable them even when they tell you they will only run if you have enabled this program.

Application experience

Disable all connected to the MS customer Experience Improvement Program (you can see this i the description of the task). At the moment it's all of them but maybe some are added in the future so please be responsible and read the description and disable only the right ones.

Autochk

see Application experience

Customer Experience ....

see Application experience

And now for something completely different. There is on task that is disabled by default but should be enabled in my opinion. The task checks your hard disks for errors using the SMART technology. In short your hard disk collects some statistics on their own. This task will read them and tell you if your hard disk is going to be defect in the near future. I have no idea why MS does not enable this important task as default.

diskDiagnostic -> Microsoft-WindowsDiskDiagnosticResolver

Enable!

Ok, let's leave this strange cave of the Task Scheduler monster now and enjoy the sunlight of a smooth running system again. No no, your guide does not take tips, thx alot. He is giving them ;)

Polishing Chrome - extensions for the masses

2010-03-07T13:06:00.001+01:00

I worked a long time with Firefox and was happy. But with Windows 7 there were some problems. Biggest problem was the really annoying mouse hang ups only occurring when working with Firefox in Windows 7, especially when Flash content was displayed. No solution or workaround found. If you have one I will publish it, promised.

So I took a long look into this and out came a new browser I work now for some weeks with no problems at all. Please welcome the shining Chrome 4 from Google. If you had your experiences with Chrome 1 please simply forget them. Chrome 4 is rock solid, no crashes at all, it's way faster then Firefox and working with it feels more smooth. Hard to explain, try it yourself.

But as with Firefox, extensions add some important value and so please choose some from this fine selection:

The essentials - never surf without them

IE Tab

There always have been and always will be web sites that only display right in IE. No problem with this plugin: just switch to the IE Engine inside of Chrome for specific websites. Even better integration in Chrome than in Firefox.

AdBlock

This little extension is the most important helper for me. Imagine all these nice websites with no more advertisements, no annoying pop ups, no "Click here and Win!" bogus. Install this little gem and subscribe to one or more of the filter lists and you are done. Advanced users can build there filter sets too. And inexperienced users simply click on the AdBlock button, then on a still displaying Ad and are presented with a slider that helps them to remove this Ad in the most elegant way I have seen so far.

Xmarks

Sync your bookmarks between your home and work and even across all browsers. You can even sync only some of your bookmarks in different environments; so no problems with "these" bookmarks at your work ;)

FastestChrome
Wow. This makes surfing a lot more fun. Best thing is, it automatically loads "next" pages when you reach the end, displaying an endless page of results without clicking once. It can further show results from other search engines and turns text URLs into links. By the way, I have disabled the bubble, because I prefer to use...

Google Dictionary
Just double click a word an get an instant translation and explanation of how the word is used. Perfect combined with...

Bubble Translate
Can translate sentences and whole pages in many languages.

Polish Chrome some more
Binnen-I be gone (german only)

Wem die dt. Rechtschreibung und der Lesefluss wichtiger sind als das "politisch korrekte" Binnen-I, der muss sich nicht länger mit Wörtern wie "Benutzeroberfläche" ärgern. Und ist damit genauso polit. (un)korrekt wie die Wikipedia.

Themes

Google offers some very nice themes for Chrome.

Essentials Extensions for...

Gmail

Better Gmail (unofficial)

This one combines some of the best extensions for Gmail. It's constantly updated so see for yourself what it does. Gmail user will never regret to have this one installed!

Google Mail Checker plus

Checks your mail in your Gmail or Google Apps account and displays the number of unread mails directly in your browsers bar.

Facebook

Facebook Purity

Chance is that you will love or hate me for this tip. It's a Greasemonkey script, but chrome 4 allows direct installation of Greasemonkey scripts, so no need to install Greasemonkey first.
What it does is simple: it get rids of all that quizzes, presents, game notices and other stuff that averts the use of Facebook in an dignified way. I could not use Facebook without it.

Facebook Photo Zoom

Just hover you mouse over a picture in Facebook and see it instantly in its full size.

Patch Day! or How to install all security patches at once

2010-01-13T23:03:00.002+01:00

Just installed Windows 7 and have a slow connection but a colleague has a better one? Or you have to update several installations at once?

Winfuture has compiled a nice pack of all security relevant patches until now. It's available for 64 and 32bit and about 20MB. Yes, all security updates are included in these small packages, they use a great compression method! The website is in german but the download should be easy for everyone.

Have fun and always remember Steven Demetre Georgiou, who now calls himself Yusuf Islam but was long known as Cat Stevens:
"Oh, baby, baby it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just without a patch..."

Inside Windows 7 - the extended control panel aka God Mode

2010-01-12T14:07:00.003+01:00

Windows 7 (and Vista too) has a hidden feature that allows to show you an extended control panel.
Here you will find a detailed list of most things you can imagine (and many things you never heard of) to do with your operating system.

Just create a new folder (right-click and select on “New Folder”). Rename the new folder to this:
Extended Control Panel.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}.

The icon of the folder than changes to a stylish blue icon. You can rename this now as you like, you will not loose the Extended Control Panel any more. Open it and see all it's beauty ;)

Simply the best freeware - free flash games

2009-11-16T01:09:00.001+01:00

It's time to relax and enjoy some of the gems incredible people out there left for us for free. I hope you like this little collection and please feel invited to post your favorites too.

Sprout

Sprout is a wonderful game. You are a sprout that can take any form of plant it meets on its journey. And it has to take other forms, like growing as a coconut tree, to overcome the obstacles on it's journey from the little island in the sea to the big forest deep inside the continent. This game has very unique puzzles and the graphics are flash animated hand drawn pictures. If you only give one game a try, try this one, you will like it.

Auditorium

This is a very unique game. It's hard to describe: it's all about sound and directing the flow of a sound wave. It has beautiful graphics and music and is very logical but you can and have to be creative to. You alter the flow of the sound wave with special elements that bend or split the soundwave. It's a great game and surely a piece of art too.

Little Wheel

Once there was a city full of living robots. But then they had this accident with the main reactor and all power was lost. 10.000 years later our hero, a little robot, is getting to life after getting struck by lightning. You command the robot on his little journey to power on the reactor again. To be honest, this is more like an interactive little movie but it has great graphics and a good sense of humor.

Spacetacular Voyage

Sometimes the really simple things in life are great. This game is simple. Simple black/white graphics, simple gameplay and a simple challenge. But it is unique in it's own way and you just don't want to stop. You command you spaceship through falling shapes. Like an icebreaker you move the shapes away with you ship but they try to push you down too and hitting the floor makes you loose the game. Sounds simple, get's really hard later on. Challenge yourself with this one.

Upgrade Complete

Now this is a fun game :) You have to buy and upgrade anything: menu buttons, sound and graphics. You start with some stone age graphics and steer you spaceship through hordes of alien invaders. With the earned money you start to upgrade: menu buttons, better graphics, better sound, save button, logo picture and so on. This game is like playing from 1980 until now and see the evolution of gaming. Great fun!

Learn to fly

A penguin and a challenge: fly 6000 feet. Now, since penguins are not known as best flying birds ever you get some help: a ramp and later on a kite and rockets. Since you are an ambitious penguin you will try to achieve all that achievements: fly for some time, reach more height and so on. This game is really fun and you can not stop until you finally reach that 6000 feet. Go, penguin, go :)

Desktop Tower Defense

This game is my favorite of all tower defense games. Place your cannons, missiles and blasts wherever you want and watch the little critters trying to get through. You will get hooked on this very fast, building labyrinths of cannons to slow the creeps down and watch them going down one after one ;)

Monsters' Den & Book of Dread

Monsters Den and it's sequel, the "Book of Dread" are classic party-based dungeon crawl tactical RPGs. Create your party of four heroes, select from classes like warrior and cleric and get all these dungeon floors rid of evil cultists, monster spiders and skeletons. There is plenty of treasure there and you can equip and skill your party members as you wish as they level up. It has great graphics, nice music and you can get real tactical too if you want to. Great dungeon crawl, really.

There sure are many many great other games out there. I just wanted to show you some games I really really enjoyed. Have a good time with these little gems :)

And if you are searching for new games: try Kongregate. You can play there for free but if you like a game you can donate to the author and -in some cases- get better items or other things that make your favorite games even better.

Simply the best freeware - Foxit Reader & PDFCreator

2009-10-18T20:45:00.022+02:00

Foxit Reader
When it comes to view a PDF most people do not consider what they choose to view it: it's always Adobe Reader. That's what we know, that's what is installed in most companies.
Problem wit the Adobe Reader is, that it's not only big to download and even bigger on your harddisk, but it will slow down your PC at startup, starts a little "helper" application any time you log on and when you view or even search inside a document it's really not the fastest piece of software.

So time to switch to Foxit Reader: 5MB downloadsize, no applications at log on, minimal memory consumption, lightning fast scrolling in documents and a search that is almost realtime!

Let's compare them

	download size	size on disk	memory usage small PDF*	memory usage big PDF**
Foxit Reader	5MB	11MB	17MB	50MB
Adobe Reader	27MB	232MB	37MB	104MB

*PDF 73kb, 4 pages, text only, scrolling from start to end
** PDF 70MB, 224 pages, pictures and text, scrolling from start to end

The only negative thing to say about it is the annoying installer that tries to install a toolbar, reset your search engine and create some links to Ebay. Hey guys from Foxit, that's too much!!

So install in "custom" mode and just deselect any of these options!

PDFCreator
Now you have the tool to view PDFs without clogging your system you want to create PDFs to share your documents. There comes PDFCreator, a little tool that just installs a virtual printer.

Create your PDFs from any application that can print! It's really as simple as that: choose to print whatever you want as PDF (Documents, Mails, Webpages, Spreadsheets...), select the printer called "PDFCreator" and let it create the PDF for you! If you want to you can edit the author and title of the PDF too.

And for experts there are many settings hidden in the options: from choosing the quality of embedded pictures to create pictures instead of PDFs.

Simply the best freeware - Paint.net

2009-10-13T20:23:00.010+02:00

Paint.net is for sure one of the best free painting and image manipulation applications, in my opinion it's the best one. Is use it at my work for fast edit of screenshots and creating graphical tutorials and at home for enhancing my photos.

Technically its perfect since it is fast, very small, consumes not much memory and supports Windows XP to Windows 7, even in 64bit.

On the user side its perfect since it has a relative simply GUI compared to its huge amount of functions, it supports layers, plugins, has many included and free to download special effects, a text editor and a unlimited history for going back if you made some mistakes. And it has many tutorials to show you how to use all of this!

For the pro users it has a magic wand, a clone stamp, a recolor tool, one of the best real time gradient tools I have seen and supports graphics tablets. Perhaps you want to try to work with really huge images? Compare its consumption of memory and hard disk space it to the market leaders! Impressive, isn't it?

By the way, not only the development is pretty active, also it's community releases new plugins, tutorials and good tips and tricks as good as every day.

So if you seek an application to paint or manipulate your images give it a try. Most of it's functions are state of the art or even raising the quality bar compared to even the most expensive software on the market. And it's not over boarded with functions you will never use or even understand what they do ;)

Taming the Firefox - run, Firefox, run!

2009-10-11T21:47:00.007+02:00

At the moment some other browser are challenging Firefox 3.5 directly with their great speed: Chrome 4, Safari 4, Opera 10 and even IE 8 are quite fast. As it is true that Safari 4 has the fastest Javascript Engine on board all of the fast browser have a trick: they show you the website before it is completely rendered. This can cause some problems, but most are cosmetic (like moving text after pictures have loaded). The second problem is that before Vista SP2 Microsoft decided that no one needs more than 10 "half-open connections". Don't bother what it is, fact is that this limit is gone in Windows 7. So let us tweak Firefox to be as fast as possible:

Type about:config where you normally put in the website you want to visit.
A pop up will inform you that you can do harm to your browser. That's true so just change what I tell you!
After the pop up you will see a strange list. Just ignore it.
The following settings will allow your browser to open more then one connection for a website. This will speed up your browser noticeably on sites with many pictures:

Type the following in the "Filter" field: pipelining

double click network.http.pipelining so it's set to "true" (original false)
double click network.http.proxy.pipelining so it's set to "true" (original false)
double click network.http.pipelining,maxrequests and set it to 32 (original 4).

The following setting will allow your browser to show your a website even when not all elements are loaded. This will speed up your browser enormously on bigger sites:

right-click anywhere in the filter list (under the Filter field) and select new->string

name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay
set it to 0 (zero)

Restart your browser and rejoice :)

If there are any problems just set all the entries to their original value and delete nglayout.initialpaint.delay

Taming the Firefox - extensions for the masses

2009-10-11T21:03:00.009+02:00

Firefox is a great browser and was my favorite one until Chrome 4. But mostly I like the many free extensions that you can get. Bad news is that there is a huge collection of very different quality, some even crashing your Firefox over time. Good news is my list of my proven and tested extensions:

The essentials - never surf without them
IE Tab
There always have been and always will be web sites that only display right in IE. No problem with this plugin: just switch to the IE Engine inside of Firefox for specific websites.

AdBlock Plus
This little extension is the most important helper for me. Imagine all these nice websites with no more advertisments, no annoying pop ups, no "Click here and Win!" bogus. Install this little gem and subscribe to one or more of the filter lists and you are done. Advanced users can build there filter sets too.

DownThemAll!
Install it, set the download path and see your downloads coming in great speed (because it opens several connections for a download). Can resume, get files from Rapidshare and even rip whole sites. Best Firefox-integrated download manager I know. For best results use it in combination with...

SkipScreen
The infamous extension that the big web hosting companies would like to see banned. Downloads files from Rapidshare, Megaupload and many others without the dozens of clicks you need to get to the actual file and without waiting for the countdown.

Xmarks
Sync your bookmarks between your home and work and even across all browsers. You can even sync only some of your bookmarks in different environments; so no problems with "these" bookmarks at your work ;)

Beautify your Fox
Binnen-I be gone (german only)
Wem die dt. Rechtschreibung und der Lesefluss wichtiger sind als das "politisch korrekte" Binnen-I, der muss sich nicht länger mit Wörtern wie "Benutzeroberfläche" ärgern. Und ist damit genauso polit. (un)korrekt wie die Wikipedia.

ColorfulTabs
Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface. Nice.

Essentials Extensions for...

Gmail

Better Gmail 2
This one combines some of the best extensions for Gmail. It's constantly updated so see for yourself what it does. Gmail user will never regret to have this one installed!

Google redesigned
Add a new look and feel to Gmail, Google Calendar and Goggle Reader. It's not essential and it slows the interface down noticeably. But if you used it for some time you will miss it.

Facebook
Facebook Purity
Chance is that you will love or hate me for this tip. It's not an extension but a Greasemonkey script, so you have to install Greasemonkey first. What it does is simple: it get rids of all that quizzes, presents, game notices and other stuff that averts the use of Facebook in an dignified way. I could not use Facebook without it.

Inside Windows 7 - going to the libraries

2009-10-11T15:54:00.002+02:00

Libraries - change their location and/or add some new
Windows 7 brings you some libraries. They are called Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos. But what if you want to store the files inside in a different place, like another hard disk on your system? Or what if you have more than one location for your pictures? Windows 7 has a built in solution, no need to "powertoy" any more.

Open your libraries (you can do that with Start->Documents->Libraries (on the left).
Just right click any of them and select Properties.
Now you see the Library Location. At the bottom you can add any location (include a folder) and even set it as "save location".
You can also remove locations you do not need.

Download - change it's location
But what about your download location? It's a wise thing to download stuff on another partition or hard drive then where Windows is installed. This is because of file fragmentation; just believe me. For whatever reason you want to change the location of your downloads, that's how it is done:

Start->your Username. There is no other view to change this.
Right Click "Download" -> Properties
Select the "Location" Tab
Select "Move" and select the new folder where all downloads should be saved from now on. All your previous downloads will be moved there too, so nothing is lost.

Inside Windows 7 - enhance your taskbar

2009-10-11T15:32:00.006+02:00

Windows 7 comes with the all new and shiny "superbar". Not this is a nice improvement to the old taskbar but still it's not like everyone likes to concept how it handles attached applications and folder.

I like the clear difference between open windows on the main bar and my quick launch on the left side and the attached icons on the superbar are taking to much space (even when you use small icons, see below).

Getting back the Quick Launch toolbar
Fortunately the good old quick launch toolbar is just hidden:

First, unlock your taskbar

right click anywhere on it and deselect "Lock the taskbar".

Now right click again and go to Toolbar->New Toolbar
In the "Folder" field just copy this: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Now you will see your quick launch on the right side. Drag and drop some icon in it (like your firefox) and then move the whole thing to the left (if you want it to be there). Then lock the taskbar again if you want: I always have it unlocked.

Enhance your taskbar further
So there it is, the all new and shiny taskbar. But when you start to work a little more you will see that there is not much space on it. So try a little reducing and enlarging!

Reduce the size of the icons
The big icons in the new taskbar look nice but the really take up much space. Just reduce the size of them! Right click your taskbar, select Properties and then select "Use small icons".

Enlarge your taskbar and move it to the right space
If you monitor allows it make your taskbar bigger! Just unlock it and drag the top edge of the taskbar further to the top. Two rows are excellent for working on my old 21" CRT:

If you have a wide screen LCD then try to move the taskbar to the left or right. Just unlock it and drag it to the left or right edge of your screen.

Inside Windows 7 - some little shortcuts for your journey

2009-10-11T14:33:00.006+02:00

Windows 7 is a nice fellow when it comes to handling. But sometimes you just click around in several menus to do a simple task. Let me show you what might help you: Windows 7 shortcuts.

Files and Folders - shift+right click
Before you right click a file or folder just press the shift key. Now you will have several more options, like:

open in command line
open with a different program (very helpful, eg when a video won't play in your standard player)

Open as administrator - ctrl+shift+double click
This opens any application as administrator.

Where's my desktop? - windows+space
Ever wanted to see your desktop and maybe active gadgets on it without minimizing all your open windows? Press windows+space and take a peek.

Too much open windows - windows+pos1
Simple as that: press windows+pos1 and minimize all open windows except the active one.

Switch through open windows - windows+T
And see a preview of your applications one at a time.

Taskbar - windows+1...9
With the new superbar you can start applications there really fast. Press windows+1 through windows+9 for the first 9 applications and folders down there.

Presentation Mode - windows+P
The fast way to switch to your beamer or TV.

From one screen to another - windows+shift+arrow
Working with more than one monitor? Just move your windows with this shortcut.

These are only some selected shortcurs that I think are most helpful in daily work. Feel free to comment your favorites.

Welcome to the Tavern

2009-10-11T13:34:00.004+02:00

Welcome to my little Tavern, visitor. Take a seat and take a drink and maybe take an advice from me; just choose one or two from the menu card. Aey, stranger, advices are free here, you are right, but hopefully they are not for nothing.

So what are you seeking? Advices for Windows 7? I started my journey into 7 and 64bit just some days ago, but I have learned some tricks to survive in the aero jungle, believe me. Yes yes, I know about them companions too and will name some applications to you that will take you through every storm there might come. Oh, and you want to tame a Firefox! A tricky beast it can be, but if you tame it, it will purr like a cat.

So stranger, I hope you will find what you seek here in my little Tavern. It's all about Windows 7 and my favorite applications and since I am an old role playing guy (long time D&D and now Savage Worlds) I want to provide this comfy feeling of an old tavern, a crackling fire in the fireplace and a convivial innkeeper.