Alarm Clock by Tarry91 Manages Multiple Timers

Windows only: Alarm Clock by Tarry91 is a compact (if lengthily named) portable alarm manager and timer. Packed with features, it can help you with everything from tea brewing to early rising.

Alarms and timers can be extremely useful, in more ways than one might expect. We've encouraged you to use a timer for everything from getting stuff done to avoiding repetitive stress injuries and brewing perfect tea. Alarm Clock by Tarry91 supports an unlimited number of events, and allows for every-x-minutes, daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly alarms to be set. Various actions can be set up to occur upon the alarm event, including MP3 or video playback, opening a specified file, and system shutdown, hibernation, or logging off the current user. The application resides in the system tray and has a quick event menu, accessible by right clicking on the tray icon, to add countdowns in commonly used blocks of time like fifteen and thirty minutes.

Alarm Clock by Tarry91 is freeware, Windows only.

http://lifehacker.com/5153602/alarm-clock-by-tarry91-manages-multiple-timers
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VideoCacheView Finds Flash Videos in Your Browser Cache

Browser cache locating utility VideoCacheView searches through your browser cache for already-watched videos--so you can copy them to your videos folder.

Using the utility is simple--just launch the application and wait while it searches through the cache for each of your browsers (even Chrome!), and then either play the file or save it for later. Using the play function requires a media player that can play Flash files like the previously mentioned Gom Player--or you can convert the file to a more compatible format using any number of tools.

VideoCacheView is a free download from NirSoft, works on Windows only. While there are any number of ways to download a YouTube video (like Lifehacker's own Better YouTube extension), this utility could come in handy for saving videos from other sites.

http://lifehacker.com/5153265/videocacheview-finds-flash-videos-in-your-browser-cache
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WinBubble Customizes Vista Icons and Context Menus With Ease

Windows Vista only: System tweaking application WinBubble is one of those gems with a killer feature you wouldn't expect--you can add items to context menus and customize certain system icons.

WinBubble is very similar to most tweaking applications--including previously mentioned Ultimate Windows Tweaker--but the best features can be found on the Icons and Miscellaneous tabs, where you can customize certain system icons and add your own custom menu entries to the system context menus. Ever wanted to quickly add a new tool to the desktop context menu? No problem! This feature alone makes this no-installation-required software a great addition to your flash drive toolkit, and worth a look for anybody looking to customize their desktop.

WinBubble is a free download for Windows Vista. For more desktop customizing goodness, check out any one of our featured desktops. Thanks, austin316gb!

http://lifehacker.com/5152407/winbubble-customizes-vista-icons-and-context-menus-with-ease
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Moonlight 1.0 Gives Linux Users Silverlight 1.0 Compatability

Linux users running into the web's brick walls of "This site requires Microsoft Silverlight," rejoice. The Moonlight team has brought Silverlight compatibility to Firefox browsers on Linux systems.

Moonlight installs like any other Firefox extension. Once it's installed, you should be ready to use any site or webapp that requires Silverlight 1.0; 2.0 access is, hopefully, coming up soon. You should also be able to work inside Silverlight apps with traditionally Windows-based media codecs, another compatibility bonus.

http://lifehacker.com/5152266/moonlight-10-gives-linux-users-silverlight-10-compatability
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Wallpaper Juggler Downloads, Rotates High-Quality Wallpaper

Windows only: Desktop wallpaper switching application Wallpaper Juggler not only chooses between random images--it also downloads beautiful desktop wallpaper for you.

Using the application--which lives in your system tray--is simple, requiring first a quick trip to the preferences panel to add your local wallpaper folders, after which you can switch between wallpaper images using the Juggle Now option on the system tray menu, or use the automatic option to rotate to a new wallpaper on a set interval. The best feature of the application, though, is found in the Download Wallpapers option, which will automatically download high quality images from the previously mentioned InterfaceLIFT and WallpaperStock web sites--and it will even grab the images that correctly fit your display resolution, making this a great tool worth a look for anybody looking to customize their desktop.

Wallpaper Juggler is free and open source, requires no installation. For more high-quality images for your wallpaper needs, check out the best places to find multi-monitor wallpaper.

http://lifehacker.com/5151890/wallpaper-juggler-downloads-rotates-high+quality-wallpaper
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MediaPlayerConnectivity Opens Media Directly in VLC (and Other Players Too)

Firefox only (Windows): Firefox extension MediaPlayerConnectivity opens media files in an external application of your choice--saving you from the extra step of downloading and opening in your preferred media player.

Once installed, the extension will take you through a wizard that finds your installed media players and sets each file type to your preferred player. The options panel is chock full of configuration settings to customize playback choices, from adding launcher items to your context menu to automatically replacing the inline player with an icon to launch your external player--very useful so you can restart Firefox without affecting media playback.

MediaPlayerConnectivity is a free download for Firefox, but the current versions only work for Windows users--readers using Mac OS X can still download the older versions, but will probably need the Nightly Tester Tools to make them compatible. Update: Looks like it works in Ubuntu as well.

http://lifehacker.com/5149992/mediaplayerconnectivity-opens-media-directly-in-vlc-and-other-players-too
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Ultimate Windows Tweaker Updates, Adds 20 New Tweaks

Windows Vista only: Similar-to-TweakUI application Ultimate Windows Tweaker adds more tweaks, bugfixes, and better 64-bit support to an already ridiculously useful tool for making configuration changes the easy way.

We've featured this application here before, but the initial release had some stability problems (especially for 64-bit users). The latest version fixes those issues and adds a bunch of new tweaks to make your tweaking tasks just a little bit easier, including more personalization, UAC, performance, and network tweaks. The already-tech-savvy might notice that most of these tweaks are available through registry hacks or complicated dialogs, but this application is designed to put every setting into one easily accessible location--and since the utility doesn't require installation it makes for a handy addition to your flash drive toolkit.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a free download for Windows Vista users only. Most Lifehacker readers using XP are probably already using Microsoft's TweakUI utility to customize their system.

http://lifehacker.com/5149831/ultimate-windows-tweaker-updates-adds-20-new-tweaks
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Get HP's Dark-Themed Mini Look on Your Ubuntu Desktop

HP has an Ubuntu-based netbook, the Mini 1000 Mi Edition, that brings a whole new look to Linux laptops. Luckily, regular ol' Ubuntu users can put some of the Mini's black-and-blue looks on their desktop.

Unless you're rocking a netbook compiled for LPIA (Low Power on Intel Architecture), you can't get the slick looks of HP's custom launcher or other hardware-specific tools. But since everything's based on Ubuntu 8.04, any updated Ubuntu user can grab the basic theme, colors, and backgrounds from HP's remix.

As described by an Ubuntu Forums poster, those keen on a dark theme can head to the universe section of the Hardy-HPMini site, and grab three pre-compiled packages: glassy-bleu-browser-skin_0.5_all.deb, glassy-bleu-theme_21_all.deb, and gnome-backgrounds-hp_0.4_all.deb (or the updated versions of those packages). Download, double-click to run the package manager on them, and open the Appearance tool to change your theme and background. Your next launch of Firefox will bring up a new theme installed, which you can select to mesh with your new black and blue theme.

http://lifehacker.com/5147379/get-hps-dark+themed-mini-look-on-your-ubuntu-desktop
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Screen2Exe Saves Screencasts to Executable Files

Windows only: Screen capture utility Screen2exe records video of your desktop and outputs an executable file that runs anywhere, free of codec requirements--useful for carrying on a flash drive.

If this idea sounds familiar, you're probably remembering previously mentioned MakeInstantPlayer, an app that converts any video file to an EXE--it doesn't actually help you make any screencasts, though. Creating videos is a simple, wizard-driven process that walks you through a number of steps: First, you draw a rectangle around the section on the desktop that you want to focus on; next you record your video; finally, you hit the F10 key to stop the recording. Sounds simple enough, right?

Once you've created your video, you'll be taken to the Edit screen, where you can first optimize the video by removing unnecessary frames, and then use standard annotation tools to add images or text to your video.

Once you've perfected your video, you can choose the output quality (best is much better) and give it a title and filename. You'll want to use the Save Now button to save--not the Finish button.

At this point you have an executable file which can be dropped onto a flash drive and played wherever you want.

While Screen2Exe doesn't have all the features of a commercial suite or the easy upload and embedding of previously mentioned Jing, it could come in handy if you want to share a screen demo or record a few helpful training videos for mom. Screen2exe is a free download, Windows only.

http://lifehacker.com/5147040/screen2exe-saves-screencasts-to-executable-files
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Create CoverSearch Fills in the Gaps in Your Cover Art Collection

Windows only: Create CoverSearch searches Amazon, Yahoo, and other sources for cover art to automagically fill the visual gaps in your collection.

Point Create CoverSearch to your music directory and it will return all sub-directories that have no cover art. For each folder, the app displays available cover art in a variety of sizes for you to select from. Create CoverSearch performs exactly as advertised, but will work best for those with consistently organized music collections. You need to give the application a regular expression to use for searching--the default is \$artist\$album\, meaning it expects all your music to be organized like \Black Sabbath\Paranoid\. You can select from two other preset expressions, or input your own variation such as \$artist - $album\, or any combination of the variables $artist, $album, and [$ignore].

So if your music collection is all over the map, Create CoverSearch might be a bit of a fussy pain, lacking any kind of fuzzy search to crawl your loosely-named tunes. But there is at least one work-around--use only the $artist tag and cherry-pick the album covers you want from the discography it returns. For those with uniform naming conventions, the application will speed up album art plugging considerably. Create CoverSearch is freeware, Windows only.

http://lifehacker.com/5147765/create-coversearch-fills-in-the-gaps-in-your-cover-art-collection
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