Skillbrains - simpler is better

Does SpeedUpMyPC helps?

skillbrains — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:07:49 +0000

This week i’ve installed the SpeedUpMyPC. It has found tons of tweaks and junk files and optimized it. But i can’t say that my PC is working faster now. Maybe it was fast enough before? Who can share experience about this application?

Anti-frustration software

skillbrains — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 05:59:00 +0000

I’m not a software geek or a fan of very complex-functionality software providing you a way to solve significant volume of different tasks. I’m an ordinary person who needs a PC for daily life and work and want it and its software to be useful, simple and solve your tasks effectively. Sometimes you even don’t have a time to try the software and evaluate most of its features. But sometimes you get really frustrated when you perform very simple operations like take a screenshot, read or correct a pdf, watching video, managing photos, sending e-mails and many other things. I’m even not talking about the PC performance as the task of speeding it up is a very deep forest for me and I’m sure that for many Windows users. And thank you very much to proactive development teams who implement really useful solutions that makes people happy dealing with daily operations! I’m going to share my experience of using “anti-frustration” software with you and many users who wish their life to be nice and happy!

I’ll take a quick overview of applications from different areas starting from very simple.

Lightshot screen shooting tool.

www.lightshot.skillbrains.com

Well, I’m a sales person employed in area of custom software development and I think I’m good in graphics creation and I successfully use my skill for customer presentations and explanations. And yes, you always want to explain the idea using screenshots of examples, mockups or sketches because it is simple and obvious. Last year I’ve downloaded the interesting tool Lightshot and after I experienced it in work I realized that it is brilliant! It takes screenshots just on fly, you hit the Prt Sc, select the area you need and if you want to save it just press Ctrl+S, if you want to upload and get a short link, just press the upload button. But the most important here I think is that the LightShot has a very, very intuitive interface, just look where its main buttons are placed and when do they appear! I’m still using it and I didn’t find (and I don’t want to search for) the alternatives because it is nice and superfast. And it allows me to share snapshots with my friends on Facebook or post it to Twitter when you have a free SECOND for it J
Launchy

www.launchy.net

Since the number of software applications on my PC increased a lot it became a problem for me to find and launch the application when you need it. When searching it in the windows start menu it is boring and complicated, when you place shortcuts on the desktop – all your desktop becomes a shortcuts field, Windows Vista quick launch bar helped but there are no place for window buttons. I’ve seen my colleague is using a launch menu and when I asked he said that it calls Launchy. I downloaded and tried it. Well, it was what I need for the moment. With Launchy I could quickly launch needed applications just by pressing Alt+Space and typing first letters of an app name! After I used Google Desktop quick search (it comes with the Google desktop www.desktop.google.com) because it allowed me to launch search request on Google directly from the desktop just on fingertips. Here how it has been looking before and It was bundled with the Google Toolbar:

I’ve tried it now and it seems that it works slower (indexation) and the previous version was looking much better. Now I successfully use the Windows 7 launch bar and completely satisfied with it as it simply stores all my app icons and doesn’t require additional place for windows opened J

But I’d like to give my respect to small Launchy application that is still popular among huge number of users and helped me a lot with organizing my PC experience.
Picasa

http://picasa.google.com/

Nowadays almost everybody has tons of photos and pictures on PC, and for sure, me too. Until the moment I’ve tried Picasa I used just to keep photos on my hard drive and viewed it very rarely when I have time for it. How was I wondered when I first installed the Picasa and it sorts my photos by its folders by date, quantity and people and it was really quick! Then I saw that Picasa is recognizing faces of my friends from my photos! Woow, that was really awesome to see how much people do I have pictures of and. I started to view my photos and remember nice life moments. Ok, that’s all lyrics. The thing is that the application is really quick and it organized all my photos and pictures very well so now I can easily and quickly search and access the photo I want. It just returned all my “photocrap” to a light cloud from where I can pick what I need in any time.

Also, Picasa has a very nice photo viewer that is significantly faster and nicer that all other viewers I have experienced before.

Thanks to Picasa developers!
Nitro PDF reader

http://www.nitroreader.com/

That application I simply like because of 2 functions:
1. I can open and read PDFs when I need
2. I can convert docx/pptx files to pdf by simply dragging the document icon to the NitroPDF icon.
  
  Yes, it is a powerful instrument to create/edit pdf files and I also like collaborative tools like leaving comments/highlight/add notes features and it is really helpful when you want to send some explanations of the document to your colleague that sits on another side of a planet J
Soluto

http://www.soluto.com/

I didn’t switch off my computer because it used to take much time to load it. Well, I’m joking, but it is true about that it takes really much time to load all software from windows boot before you start using your PC normally. You just don’t know how to remove it from the autoboot and when you are trying to search in control panel or on the web how to do it, things become very complicated and you just skip this task for later.

When I installed the Soluto I was amazed about the simplicity of the interface it has and how it is shown to you what do you have in your boot in a very simple way! You spend totally no time to understand the application, it explains complicated stuff very simple! It even gives you explanations about what kind of applications you have in your boot and what are they about.

When you want to remove the application from your boot it gives you valuable advice what to do and why – that’s simply perfect. For example what to do with Skype:

Well I recommend everybody to use Soluto if they are tired of digging in the windows boot and search what to remove to speed up your PC when loading.

Thank you,
Yours sincerely,
Dmitry Chernov
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=646181675

Review from Softonic. Simple screen capturing tool with browser add-ons.

skillbrains — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:57:00 +0000

Sometimes simpler is better. This is probably the motto that inspired the developers of LightShot, a really simple yet handy screen capturing tool.

LightShot replaces the standard PrtScr functionality in Windows and lets you take snapshots of your sceen, though only in two ways: full screen or user selected area. Once the screenshot is taken, LightShot displays a small bar at the bottom of the image with several options.

You can either save the image on your local drive, copy it to the clipboard or cancel the capture, plus two other interesting options: save the image online on a free file storage service – perfect for sharing with friends – or edit it in a surprisingly feature rich online image editor.

The online editor in LightShot enables you to work on the image in many ways, like cropping, transforming, adding new layers or even spicing it up with filters and special effects. When done, you can simply save the image to your hard drive in JPG, BMP or PNG.

LightShot is a nice replacement for the standard PrtScr functionality in Windows. It features an impressive online editor, but lacks more capturing options.
Languages:
English

Notes:
LightShot is not only available as a standalone app, but also as an add-on for Firefox or for Internet Explorer. You’ll find links to these add-on versions on the download page.

OS requirements for LightShot:
OS: WinXP/Vista/7

Original review and download here

Kullanışlı mı Kullanışlı, Ekran Görüntüsü Alma Aracı: LightShot. Review from Bildirgec.org on Turkish

skillbrains — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:52:00 +0000

Ekran görüntüsü (screenshot) almak için kullanabileceğimiz birçok aracı, ücretli veya ücretsiz olarak kullanmak mümkündür. Çalışma prensipleri ve özellikleri genellikle birbirlerine benzerlik gösteren bu araçlardan biri olan LightShot, ücretsiz olması ve barındırdığı bazı özellikler ile diğerlerinden ayrılmakta.Windows için geliştirilmiş versiyonunun yanında, Firefox ve Internet Explorer tarayıcıları için de eklentileri bulunan LightShot’ın özellikleri:

Ekran görüntülerinizi LightShot aracılığı ile, kolayca imageshack.us’a yükleyebilirsiniz. Örnek: burada
LightShot, görüntülerinizi diğer arkadaşlarınız ile paylaşabilmeniz için, bir sayfa ve bu sayfaya ait bir link vermekte. Örnek: http://prntscr.com/29os
Görüntülerinizi kendi bilgisayarınızda saklayabilirsiniz.
Görüntüleriniz üzerinde herhan bir düzenleme işlemi gerçekleştirmek isterseniz, LightShot’ın web tabanlı editöründen yararlanabilirsiniz.
Alınmasını istediğiniz ekran görüntünüsünün alanını, yeniden belirleyebilirsiniz.

Herhangi bir şekilde, Sosyal Medya’ya içerik üreten (blog, mikro-blog, sosyal ağlar vb.) web kullanıcıları için oldukça kullanışlı bir araç görünümünde olan LightShot’ı, hemen deneyebilir ve görüşlerinizi paylaşabilirsiniz.

Bonus++++++:
+Facebook Albümlerini Kolayca İndirin
+Google Labs’tan Dinleten Uygulama!
+GMail Labs’tan Yeni Özellik: Yanlış Kişi Mi?
+Google ile zamanda turlayın!
+Bing’in Yeni Özelliği: Bing and Ping
+En Büyük Kim: Google’mu, Yahoo’mu, Bing’mi

Original review here

Review from Eburhan.com. On Turkish

skillbrains — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:42:00 +0000

Blog yazısı hazırlarken, arkadaşlarımıza yardımcı olurken v.s. ekran görüntüsü almak sıklıkla yaptığımız bir iştir. Bu iş için onlarca ücretli/ücretsiz yazılım mevcut olsa da LightShot gibi pratik yazılımlar aradan sıyrılabiliyorlar. Klavyemizdeki Print Screen tuşuna kendini adapte eden bu yazılım, hem Mozilla Firefox ve Internet Explorer eklentisi olarak hem de stand-alone dediğimiz tek başına bilgisayara yüklenebilen bir yazılım olarak çalışabiliyor.

LightShot ne kadar pratik?

LightShot bilgisayarınızın sağ-alt köşesinde (system tray) çalışıyorken Print Screen tuşuna basın. Hemen ekran kararacak ve sizden görüntüsü alınacak olan alanı yani bölgeyi mouse ile seçmenizi bekleyecek.Seçim yaptıktan sonra, seçilen alanın altında siyah butonları göreceksiniz. Bu butonları kullanarak;

Pixlr Editor yardımıyla ekran görüntünüzü online (çevrimiçi) olarak düzenleyebilirsiniz
ekran görüntüsünü ImageShack servisine otomatik olarak yükletebilir, paylaşım linkini doğrudan alabilirsiniz (en sevdiğim ve pratik bulduğum yanı burası)
seçimi genişletip bütün ekranın görüntüsünü alabilirsiniz
alınan ekran görüntüsünü direkt windows panosuna kopyalatabilirsiniz
sabit diskinizdeki bir yere ekran görüntüsünü PNG, JPEG, BMP olarak kaydedebilirsiniz
ekran görüntüsü alma işlemini sonlandırabilirsiniz

LightShot sizin için ekran görüntüsünü ImageShack servisine upload ediyor ve geriye link veriyor
Sonuç

MWSnap isimli bir yazılımı ekran görüntüsü almak için uzun zamandır tercih ediyordum. Fakat bu yazılımla aldığım ekran görüntülerini internette paylaşmak istediğim zaman, herhangi bir imaj yükleme servisine kendim upload etmek zorunda kalıyordum. LightShot ise bu noktada gerçekten çok kolaylık sağlıyor. Daha önce denemediyseniz en azından bir kere denemenizi tavsiye ediyorum

Original review here

Simple & Functional Screenshot Tool: LightShot. Review from WebresourcesDepot

skillbrains — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:18:00 +0000

LightShot is a simple & free tool which makes taking screenshots very easy.

With the click of a keyboard shortcut, a cropping interface appears where it is possible to:

set the area of the screenshot
make it fullscreen
copy to clipboard
upload to the net & get a link
edit it on a web-based service

Most of the similar tools instantly take a screenshot of the area you selected before clicking any approve button. LightShot makes it kindly, waits for you to arrange the area, shows you the size of it & a click is required which is better to prevent wrong screenshots.

The tool can work in every computer as it comes as a Windows desktop application, a Firefox add-on & an Internet Explorer add-on.

Original review here

LightShot – Capture screenshot and upload online. Review from Instantfundas.com

skillbrains — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:57:00 +0000

LightShot is screen capture tool for Windows that works very much like the Snipping tool in Windows Vista and 7, with the added advantage of automatically uploading it online for sharing or editing.

LightShot replaces the default PrtScr key of the keyboard to launch the shooting tool. This is similar to the Snipping tool of Windows as already mentioned. Click and drag the mouse cursor to select the region you want to take a screenshot of. The dimension of the selected region is displayed at the top of the selection, which is very helpful for bloggers who require screenshots to be within a specific dimension. This reminds me of Greenshot, which had this same feature.

Once the region is selected an array of buttons appear at the bottom which gives access to various options like copy to keyboard, save as an image file to hard disk, upload to Imageshacks and edit online on Pixlr.

LightShot also supports a handful of shortcuts. The best thing is the program uses the same default shortcut Windows uses for such operation like Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+S to save and so on.

LightShot is very basic and I don’t suppose it can be compared with other screen capture programs with inbuilt image editors and all kinds of advanced screen capturing options. It does support online image editing, but I prefer a desktop image editor. But LightShot is a very good replacement for the Snipping Tool – works exactly the same along with a bunch of added features.

Original review here

Review from Geekissimo. LightShot, scattare degli screenshot e caricarli direttamente online.

skillbrains — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:34:00 +0000

La condivisione è alla portata di qualsiasi computer connesso alla rete (affermazione leggermente imprecisa). Chiunque può scambiare informazioni sottoforma di testo, immagini, e video, anche se nell’ultimo caso, le cose si complicano leggermente.

Ultimamente, c’è da dire, le video conferenze sono più guardabili rispetto a quelle che si facevano solamente un paio d’anni fa. Ciò è anche dovuto all’aumento della velocità dell’ADSL. Sempre in campo video, la condivisione che da ancora problemi è quella del desktop. Personalmente, non sono ancora riuscito ad intrattenere una condivisione normale con qualche amico. Troppo lenta, e troppo macchinosa, di certo non è un buon sistema per scambiare informazioni con un utente della rete.

Capità però di dover far vedere ad un nostro amico ciò che noi stiamo osservando al computer. In questi casi, una semplice condivisione di screenshot potrebbe rivelarsi la strada più semplice e veloce da seguire. Esistono una miriade di programmi che consentono di scattare foto del monitor e salvarle. Non dovremo far’altro che inviare poi l’immagine grazie ad un qualsiasi software IM.
Ma oggi voglio presentarvi un programma che vi permetterà di saltare qualche passaggio. Infatti, non dovrete salvare l’immagine sul computer, ma otterrete un link da poter condividere con chiunque. Il software freeware si chiama Light Shot ed è disponibile in 3 versioni (per firefox, per explorer, e per il desktop). Io ho usato quella Standalone.
Dopo averlo scaricato ed installato, vedrete una piccola icona a forma di piuma accanto all’orologio. per avviare il programma dovrete cliccare il tasto “Stamp” (sulla tastiera). Ora scegliete la sezione che vi interessa condividere e cliccate il tasto con la freccia verso l’alto. In questo modo otterrete un link diretto all’immagine.
Gli altri strumenti li lascio a voi

Original post

Stáhnout LightShot 1.3.0. From Stahuj.cz

skillbrains — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:01:00 +0000

Volně šiřitelná aplikace LightShot je nástroj pro pořizování snímků vybraných částí obrazovky. Program poskytuje přehledné a snadno ovladatelné uživatelské rozhraní. Vytvořený snímek je možné nejen kopírovat do schránky nebo uložit do souboru, ale snímek je možné uložit také na server a tím získat jeho URL adresu. Díle je možné snímek opravit v online editoru nebo snadno sdílet na některé ze sociálních sítí Twitter, Facebook, nebo Digg. LightShot.

Hlavní vlastnosti:

Pořizování snímků vybraných částí obrazovky
Kopírování snímků do schránky nebo ukládání do souborů PNG, JPG, GIF
Upload snímků na server a získání krátké URL adresy
Sdílení snímků prostřednictvím Twitter, Facebook, nebo Digg. LightShot
Ovládání pomocí klávesových zkratek
A další

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LightShot, The Fastest Way To Do A Customizable Screenshot. Review from TechSkipper.com

skillbrains — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:31:00 +0000

Review from Tech Skipper – the Technology Navigator
Today I came across this simple tool of taking snaps of the selected portion of the desktop. After the installation was over, I tried to use it and guess what? I didn’t know how to move on with it. I found a purple leaf icon on my taskbar and I knew that’s certainly ‘LightShot’ as that was the newly added one. So, I right click the icon but it showed no more than “About” and “Exit” options. I tried “About” but showed no information how to operate it.

By chance, I tried “Print Screen” button and my desktop screen became dark and my cursor showed a little text information, below it, saying: ‘Click and Drag’. I selected the portion of my desktop to be copied and it gave me the store options as mentioned in detail below:

Edit:
It will take you to Light Shot website where you can play with the image using Photoshop all from your browser. A cool option for Photoshop lovers.

Upload:
It uploads the image to the Light Shot website and gives you back a quick URL for accessing it directly through web.
Full Screen:
It selects the entire screen
Copy:
It copies a selected image which you can paste it in paint or anywhere else where you like
Save:
It gives you options to save it as .png or .jpeg or .bmp on the drive.
Close:
It cancels the snap taking process.

The software also comes as a Firefox/IE addon which means it will integrate with your browser and will appear as a purple leaf on the right side of the address bar. You can click the leaf icon to select the portion of the website and do the above mentioned operations on the selected image.

In summary, it is an easiest tool which we have right now for copying selected screen unless you don’t know that it all starts with a ‘Print Screen’ button.

Download LightShot

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