New Beta of Brightness Display

Download Beta

Hopefully this will improve reliability. Let me know in comments.

Easily Open the Containing Folder of Any File in a New Window

Another SendTo enhancement. Download and extract the .exe file your SendTo folder. The source .ahk file and icon are included, in case you want to edit the script and recompile it.


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Create a Sendto Item to Securely Delete Files

This handy little application is a complied AutoHotkey script that uses SDelete from SysInternals. The cute icon is by RainDropMemory.

Select file(s) and/or folder(s), right-click, and select Send To → Secure Delete

To install: Simply decompress the zip archive's contents to any folder and drop a shortcut to Secure Delete.exe in your SendTo folder (go to Start Menu → Run... → shell:sendto). Right-click the shortcut, click Advanced, and check Run as Administrator. Source ahk file is included.

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Display Brightness Level in Taskbar

I wanted a little notification for the current display brightness level. I couldn't find one, but the creator of the Display Brightness Vista Gadget made a console version of his app. I'm not much of a programmer, but I was able to use AutoHotkey to make the current display brightness level appear in the notification area of the taskbar. I'm providing it for download here free. You can't change the brightness level with this utility as you can the gadget... maybe that will be in a revision someday; it only displays the current level in the icon and as a tooltip. Just unzip to any location and run Brightness.exe. The icon in the notification area will change with the current display brightness. It should work on Windows Vista or Windows 7, 32/64-bit. If you have any issue, let me know in the comments. Thanks.

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Toolbars for Powerpoint 2007 Macros Are Unnecessary

Microsoft Office Powerpoint does not have persistent macros like in Word, so creating an add-in is required. However, you can create all macros in a PPTM (Macro-Enabled Powerpoint Presentation), and have an add-in (PPAM) where the AutoOpen () section merely opens the macro-containing file without a visible window. The macros can then be added to the Quick Access Toolbar in Powerpoint 2007.

Example:
Create a new Powerpoint Presentation and in VBA editor, add a module with the code below. Sign it with your personal digital signature and save it to a PPTM file and then save as a PPAM file.

Sub Auto_Open()

Application.Presentations.Open _
FileName:="pathtopowerpointfilewithdesiredmacros.pptm", ReadOnly:=msoFalse, Untitled:=msoFalse, WithWindow:=msoFalse

End Sub

in reference to: http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00031.htm (view on Google Sidewiki)

Missing Thumbnails for Microsoft Office Files?

Missing thumbnails for certain files in Windows Explorer (Vista, Win7) can be puzzling. If you have this difficulty with some Microsoft Office files, it just may be that the thumbnail was not saved with the file. In Microsoft Word 2007, this should be easy: the Save Thumbnail option should appear in the Save As dialog. In Microsoft Powerpoint 2007, things are more cumbersome: go to the Office Orb - Prepare - Properties, and then click on Document Properties in the main window to select Advanced Properties from the drop-down menu. In the Summary tab of Advanced Properties, check the box for Save Preview Picture. Not exactly straightforward, is it? To make it easier the next time, you can add Advanced Document Properties to the Quick Access Toolbar.