CopyPath - Another usefult Windows shell extension

Another small and free Windows shell extension I've came across and found to be useful is named CopyPath. As it's name says it is quite obvious what it does (should do!?) - it simplifies copying of you current browsing folder path by adding this option to Windows shell menu (the one you get when you press right mouse button while using Windows Explorer). Nothing revolutionary, but definitely very useful and if statistically analyzed it will save you 50% (without it you normally need 3 mouse clicks to carry out this action while with this extension installed only 2 clicks are needed) of all the clicks needed to carry out this simple action. This extension is so simple that you will need to install it manually (don't worry installation is quite simple and instructions are provided) and before you do that you need to choose which version you need - x32, x64 or Unicode version. Anyway this little utility can be downloaded here.

How to open command prompt from folder you're currently browsing (in Windows OS)

If for any reason you ever had to instantly open command prompt from folder you're currently browsing using Windows Explorer (ie. for testing of new great batch script you've just created), you know this procedure required you to:
1st) open command prompt (procedure is dependent regarding Windows OS version you're using) and 2nd) to copy and paste path to desired folder in a very "intuitive" way to just opened (legacy) MS-DOS command prompt, because it will (of course) always open in predefined folder which in most cases is far away from the folder you need to be in.

If all this sounds familiar to you, I have some good news - the time has come to finally relax and to let a very simple and cool Windows shell extension take it from now on. This cool utility is called ContextConsole Shell Extension and will enable you to open command prompt from any folder you're currently browsing. Definitely a must have extension!

Why doesn't my super-turbo-mega-ultra expensive notebook/laptop have a HDD activity indicator?

So, you've finally bought a new notebook/laptop? And of course, before you've actually bought it, you quadchecked all of it's features googl'd out every single review and user comment, right? And you've just unpacked it and stared using it, maybe even connected on external display? But, you just feel like something is missing ... and you finally noticed - your laptop doesn't have a HDD indicator LED! Or even better if it does have one, but manufacturer (I will deliberately not mention which one it is - all of you who have it will know, all other take a guess!) decided to place it on such a "wonderful" place that you at least will need a mirror to see what it's showing.
For all of you reading this and still not quite getting it, ore even better all of you with HDD activity indicator built in your laptops, just keep reading on or just switch to some more interesting topic as this one will not become more interesting that it actually is! The rest of you will know where I'm heading to ...

I really spent a lot of time searching for solution to this problem and even Google didn't help me out too much. I came across HddLed Indicator, DiskLED, FloatLED, HardDriveIndicator, Hard Disk Indicator, FloatLED and least but not the last O&O DriveLed. Some of those are free, some are outdated, some are fully commercial products. BUT, the point is I've tried them all and none of the was flawless! So, how can it be you might ask? The thing is some of them reside in tray, some on screen and finally some of them can turn on/off some of your keyboard LED's which are rarely or never used like Scroll Lock (do you know what it's used for, huh?). All other methods except the last one turned out useless for me, so I headed for turning on/off my keyboard LED's. But, as there always is a BUT, program which could do this trick (I would tell you it's name, but to be honest I forgot which one it actually was) happened to invoke my laptpos's OSD each time it turned LED's on and off, which you can guess turned out to be even more irritating, even the idea was quite great.

Well, since I really (from various reasons) wanted to see if something is really going on on my HDD, even I don't have a HDD activity indicator on my laptop and I use on docking station, I took another expedition and finally found it! Even better I found it in a place where I never expected to find it! Excited to hear more? Well my solution actually can in a form of AutoHotkey script! I knew what Auto HotKey was, and it indeed is a great piece of free software but I just didn't even think about it could/will solve all of my problems with HDD activity indicator! OK, so here is how to get it (to get it to work you don't need to install AutoHotKey except if you don't need it for other purposes):

1. Go to http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/post-366484.html#366484; you will see a post with source code for DriveLeds v1.2,
2. Select all of the code and paste it into new plain text file (you can use Notepad, even I highly recommend you to use Notepad++),
3. Save it as let's say DriveLeds.ahk (the first part of name is arbitrary, but make sure extension should be .ahk!) on your HDD, wherever you like,
4. Go to http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/post-463050.html#463050 and download utility which will enable you to compile script from previous step into .exe file as it will be the easiest way to use this great little utility,
5. Make an .exe file ie. DriveLeds.exe and voila! You have a great little tool you can use to monitor your HDD activity! You can even choose if you want to compile x32 or x64 version of it.

I wanted to post compiled version of DriveLeds .ahk script here, but I just wouldn't do it without author's permission, and to be honest wanted to make you at least a little challenge before solving one of your's most unimportant problems!
All I can add is thank you r0lZ from AutoHotKey Forum, for making this script!

Windows 7 Network Activity Indicator - Can You Animate It Please?

So, you're a Windows 7 user which knows it's way through Windows 7, right? But as Windows 7 might be by now most advanced Microsoft's operating system, it is just (to keep it low profile) funny how few (more or less) important things feel like unfinished in Windows 7. And I'm talking about things which have been implemented much earlier in previous versions like XP! By now you must be asking what I'm blabbering about, right? OK ...

Have you ever wanted to seen network (no matter which one) activity in Windows 7? You did? Hmm, but hey there is just no way to make Windows 7 give you some old good animated network activity indicator, right? Shame on Windows 7! But, fortunately a good olg chap by name of Igor Tolmachev (no I don't know him personally nor impersonally) made a great little tool by the name of Network Activity Indicator For Windows 7. Hope this one will help you out as it helped me! Great work Igor! Hopefully Microsoft will and should learn something out of this for next generations of it's operating systems.

reCAPTCHA solving methods - Update

There has been some time since I've last time updated my blog, but hey it was summer time, right? OK, this will be just a quick update of my previous post about how to automatize reCAPTCHA solving.

My first update is related to another reCAPTCHA solving service, along with existing one Captcha Trader that showed up by the name of Captcha Brotherhood. It's system differs a bit from Captcha Trader's one as you cannot buy any credits nor cash them out, rather you can just earn and spend them on your downloading purposes. BUT, unlike Captcha Trader's practice, you CAN loose credits for each mistyped reCAPTCHA as well as for each reCAPTCHA you don't type in on time. Be aware what you're up to, so you don't end up typing in wrong captchas all the time for nothing. Another thing is that Captcha Brotherhood comes with let me say "a bit weird" desktop utility and JDownloader integration.
Also be aware that Captcha Trader is much more supported reCAPTCHA solving method by other downloaders other than JDownloader like CandiSoft Loader! or Mipony. There is a big chance you'll want them all installed on your system, because even JDownloader is by far the most developed one, it still has several (not to say constant) issues with certain file hosting services, which other two tools don't have. On the other hand Mipony is unable to make a reconnection at this point, while CandiSoft Loader! has this option, but honestly I haven't tested it out yet.

But let me get back to my original thoughts and reCAPTCHAs. In between two quite cute little utilities showed up on scene, which can help you solve captchas more efficiently. They are respectively Captcha Notifier and jCatGUI (yeah I know, great name, right? ;-) The later one supports only Captcha Trader, while first one supports both Captcha Trader and Captcha Brotherhood systems. The fun part with Captcha Notifier is that it allows you to run several instances of it, so you can simultaneously solve reCAPTCHAs for both systems. But, be aware it will just remember login credentials for last used service (of course if you set it to remember it). If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, try it and you'll soon figure it out. Anyway the point of both of these utilities is to provide you a pleasant way to solve reCAPTCHAs and earn credits. Anyway, don't miss them out.

And if you still don't have your free reCAPCHA solving account get it here NOW and for FREE!