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Today’s Software
- TabExplorer: add tabs to Windows Explorer
- LojiklSweep: back up pretty much anything
- Instagram Downloader: download photos from any public Instagram account
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About Windows Software of the Day
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 dotTech to never miss an article: RSS Feed | E-mail]
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Software for August 13, 2012
TabExplorer
Using Windows Explorer is like using Internet Explorer 6: there’s no tabs, and for no good reason. (It doesn’t help that it’s slow as pitch, either.) Unfortunately, 3rd party file browsers are almost as annoying as Windows Explorer, as they do nothing to integrate cleanly with your system (not that there’s much they could do, as Explorer is pretty deeply ingrained into Windows). Instead, TabExplorer takes a different approach: if you can’t make an Explorer replacement with tabs, why not make Explorer have tabs?
TabExplorer is very, very simple. It adds a row of tabs above the Aero glass bar of every Explorer window, and you can open new tabs using the button on the right, or switch between tabs by clicking on their titles or using the tab switcher on the left side. It’s a nice implementation of tabs, as you can drag and drop them out of and into windows much like you can in Firefox or Chrome. You can also set tabs to be all gray, or randomized colors.
Overall, TabExplorer is probably the best tabbed Explorer program I’ve found. It’s well-integrated with Windows, and while it has its own share of issues, they’re much smaller issues than any other tab programs I’ve ever tried.
Price: Free!
Version discovered: v1.2.2
Supported OS: Windows 2000+
Download size: 4.2MB
VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/42
Portability: Requires installation
[via Freeware Genius]
LojiklSweep
Are you looking for the most versatile backup program ever known to mankind? Do you regularly dream of backing up not just files, but user profiles, favorites, fonts, registry settings, and more–all from within the same program? LojiklSweep is the free backup program you’ve been looking for… so long as you can spell it.
After registering for a free year-long license, you can freely use LojiklSweep. Backups are organized into Projects, and within each project, you can add files, registry settings, and more. You can set up Tasks for these projects: where and when do you want to run them? You can backup to networked drives, online storage (CloudMe, DropBox, Box.Net, FTP or WebDAV), local storage, or a CD/DVD image (which you would then need to burn yourself). You can optionally encrypt and compress the data, but that’s not necessary.
In short, LojiklSweep is a great little backup program with an incredible amount of malleability. You can use it to backup almost everything on a schedule of almost anything, and it’s entirely free.
Price: Free!
Version discovered: unknown
Supported OS: Windows XP+
Download size: 3.9MB
VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/42
Portability: Requires installation
[via AddictiveTips]
Instagram Downloader
Instagram is a weird place full of fake-old photos by people with smartphones that want to intentionally impede the evolution of phone camera technology. If you’re one of these people and want to download your or someone else’s photos off of the service, Instagram Downloader is a free program that’ll do the trick with ease.
To use Instagram Downloader, just click on the center and type in a username. You can of course download your own public photos, or download anyone else’s public photos. To get downloading, you must just select the photos you want and click Download Selected Photos–or just download them all with the Download All button. Alternatively, if you don’t want to download them, the Export the List button will export a list of all the loaded photo URLs.
All in all, Instagram Downloader is great at downloading Instagram photos. You can download some, all, or just the URLs of anyone’s public photos. It’s a free 3.8MB download, and is available on the developer’s website.
Price: Free!
Version discovered: v1.2.1
Supported OS: Windows 2000+
Download size: 3.8MB
VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/42
Portability: Requires installation
[via Freeware Genius]
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.
