Windows software of the day [March 21, 2012]

Windows has hundreds of thousands of programs. Because of this great volume and lack of a central store, software discovery (aka finding new and useful programs) is extremely difficult. With our Windows Software of the Day initiative, dotTech aims to change that. Everyday we post three programs, allowing our readers to discover new software, daily. Enjoy! [Subscribe to our Windows section to never miss an article: RSS Feed | E-mail]

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Software for March 21, 2012

WinText

Corrupted files can suck. What happens if you accidentally somehow corrupt your only draft of your essay worth 50% of your grade!? You realize that you should use Google Docs. You grab a program that extracts readable text from just about any kind of document — a program like WinText.

Try WinText both on a non-corrupted and a corrupted Word DOC file and you will see it is able to extract the text beautifully. And it’s not just Word documents it works on: anything that contains unicode characters can and will have text extracted from it by WinText.

Price: Free!

Version discovered: v1.1

Supported OS: Windows (unknown)

Download size: 766KB

Malware scan: VirusTotal scan results 0/43

WinText homepage

Wireless Network Watcher

If you need to quickly know how many computers/devices are on your wireless network, NirSoft’s Wireless Network Watcher may be for you. It records the number of times a machine has been seen on the network, the machine’s name, its MAC address, and a bunch more useful information.

Need to see if your phone is on the network? There’s Murata Manufacturing, right there! Your tablet? Palm, Inc is right where you expect it. Wait, where’s my server? I’ll be right back.

Price: Free!

Version discovered: v1.4.0

Supported OS: Windows 2000/Server 2003 & 2008/XP/Vista/7

Download size:

Malware scan: VirusTotal scan results 0/43

Wireless Network Watcher homepage

Sizer

Some times, you need a window to be a certain size. Be it 1024×768 to make sure documents look good on small monitors or 800×600 to make sure they fit in small places like an article or documentation, it can be a hassle to resize windows to just the right size. Sizer makes resizing window easy by adding a sub-menu to the right-click context menu (the one that pops when you right-click on the minimize/maximize/close buttons) that allows you to set windows to certain predefined resolutions automatically, even moving them or using your own custom resolutions with custom shortcuts.

Note that the current stable release, v3.3, does not work on 64-bit Windows. However, developer builds that support 64-bit Windows have been released.

Price: Free!

Version discovered: v3.4 dev 462

Supported OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7

Download size: 28.7KB

Malware scan: VirusTotal scan results 0/43

Sizer homepage

dotTechies: We have tested all the software listed above. However, Windows Software of the Day articles are not intended as “reviews” but rather as “heads-up” to help you discover new programs. Always use your best judgement when downloading programs, such as trying trial/free versions before purchasing shareware programs, if applicable.

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