Mrs. Mecomber’s Scrapbook

This is the first installment in a series of helpful desktop utilities you can find for free. There is a ton of high-quality, good performing free software programs out there. But finding them is not so easy. This is why I am here.

1. Desktop Calendar
I’ve used this free program for many years now (almost 6 years!) and I have been very happy with it. If you click on the link to the homepage, and then choose the “Screenshots” tab, you’ll get an idea of what it looks like.

I’ve tried dozens– yes, dozens– of desktop calendars, both free and trial use. Nothing I’ve found really compares to the Desktop Calendar. It’s simple. It’s customizable. It’s retractable. It’s movable to different places around your desktop. It has automatic reminders when you boot up that day (or you can disable this feature). It can remember events on a yearly basis, too.

The only complaint I really have is that I can’t enlarge the boxes to fill my entire desktop or decrease the font type. Sometimes I have to squeeze in more type than the box can show (although you can type in as much as you want, it will show up in a balloon if you point your cursor at the date). This is only a tiny inconvenience, though. I am very pleased with this calendar program. Mind you, it has no big bells and whistles, no address books, no alarm clocks, no phone books, no kitchen sink. It’s a calendar, plain and simple. It boots up very quickly and doesn’t crash. It’s free– can’t be beat!

2. Accuweather Desktop
I used this faithfully for a year or so. I got rid of it when I wasn’t spending much time on the computer. I am downloading it again to keep track of the wild winter weather storms we seem to be having every other day. It’s a nice program, especially useful for folks who live in areas prone to sudden and severe weather. I liked it better than the Weatherbug, which had spyware in it.

3. Rainlendar
This is another terrific calendar program. It’s extremely small and skinnable (which means you can “dress” it up with different “clothes.” I like it because it has a great “to do” list as part of the set. It’s a tiny calendar, much smaller than the Desktop Calendar I wrote about in #1.

The only complaint I have with it is that the configuration settings can be a little confusing. There are a lot of choices and settings and it can be puzzling. You have to experiment with it to get the feel for it. But it’s a good, solid little calendar. And it’s free!

4. VoluMouse
I have a laptop. If I want to adjust the volume, I either have to use double-keyboard commands (with both hands) or find the toggles on the side of the laptop (not very convenient). Yuo can only guess what happens when I leave the laptop volume up and the next day I try to play a YouTube video without the kids hearing it. :S

I found VoluMouse through word of mouse… er, uh.. mouth that is. It is a little program you install that enables you to control your volume with your mouse’s scroll button. I really like it. I suppose it would be helpful for desktop computers, too, that don’t have volume buttons on the keyboard. It’s customizable, and it’s another free program!

5. ProducKey
Here’s a program that is in my “I’ll get to this soon” list. I know I need to get this program and get my product key BEFORE something happens, just like I need to backup all my data every day and wash behind my ears, right? This free program makes it all so easy for that– heaven forbid– day the computer should die or you lose your Windows key.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of helpful Desktop Utilities!