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This section contains some of the small utility-programs that I wrote in the past. They were all conceived to make life with Windows easier for me. Maybe they can do the same for you. Try them, they're free.

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FWUtils

In 1994, after a couple of years as a Macintosh-programmer, I had my first encounter with Windows (3.11). Not a pleasant experience, mainly because of the rediculous separation between the 'Program Manager' and the 'File Manager'. After I grasped the concept, I realized that the 'Program Manager' was actually a rather bulky sort of Application Launcher, and nothing more. I knew I could do better, so I wrote the combo FWMenu (an Application Launcher) and FWSwitch (an Application Switcher) which both take 4 pixels of screen real-estate.
When Windows 95 finally showed up, it featured the 'Startmenu/Taskbar', doing exactly what FWUtils did, only a year later. And, IMHO, the Taskbar is still bulky. So I added the option to hide both the taskbar and the desktop-icons (I like a clean screen) to the FWUtils, and I'm still using them today, with Windows 98. Now here they are, for you to try:

Download FWUtils.zip (filesize 30Kb)

Features:

• menu to start your favourite programs
• menu to switch / close programs
• only 4 pixels each
• clean desktop
• drop-edit any file
• small and fast

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DDPad

We all know NotePad sucks. Still, we all need a small text-only editor for changing configs and inifiles, or viewing readmes. So everybody with a bit of programming-knowledge writes his own personal editor. I've tried lots of those Notepad-replacements, but none of them really satisfied me. Some were just too big to begin with (like over 400Kb: that's about as large as WordPerfect 4.1 back in '87). And most of them use the MDI-interface (frame window with multiple documents) which I think is overkill. So I wrote my own 'Pad'. Instead of throwing in lots of functions, I concentrated on just fixing the bugs and annoyances in the original NotePad. Now here it is, for you to try:

Download DDPad.zip version 1.18 (filesize 16Kb)

Features:

• the 'new' command starts a new instance
• no irritating '*.txt' filefilter
• wordwrap / no wrap remembered per filetype
• full filename shown in titlebar
• windows menu switches between instances
• Small and fast

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Copyright � 1999 Feddo Wouters