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How many file formats are there out there for compressed archive files? Probably a zillion or so. There may be almost that many tools out there to create or unpack those archive files. Not all unarchivers are created equal, however. What do you do when you run across some obscure file format that isn't supported by your favorite tool? Maybe it's time to give The Unarchiver a try.

The Unarchiver supports all the standard archive formats: .zip, .sit, .tar, .gzip, and all that. It also can deal with some of the more exotic formats, including even some obscure old Amiga formats.

In order to keep this tool as Mac-friendly as possible, the UI is designed to look and feel like the Finder, so you already know how to use it.

The Unarchiver is an OS X application, and requires 10.3.9 or later.

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Is peer-to-peer file sharing not for you? It's too complicated to set up, and how about all those security issues. Does FTP scare you? What do all those arcane command line arguments mean anyway? You've got a file that needs to get from Point A to Point B. How do you do it?

Enter PipeBytes, a slick file-exchange service that only requires two users–the sender and the receiver–with a web browser each. Rather than sitting on somebody's server out there on the Internet, your file is actually copied directly from your machine to the target system.

To use the service, the users at each end simply go to the PipeBytes website.
The sender clicks on the Send File button, browses to and selects the file to be sent, optionally adds a text message, and clicks on the Start Upload button. The service returns a Pickup Code and a Pickup URL. The recipient then either clicks the Pickup File button on the PipeBytes website, or enters the Pickup URL into their browser, sees your message and a description of the file (filename, size, and MIME type), and clicks on the Start Download button.

Only at this point is the file actually uploaded from the senders machine. It never sits on a server anywhere, since it's immediately transmitted from the source to the destination machine. That means it's more secure, because it never sits anywhere waiting to be broken into. Encrypt your file, and you're using what has to be one of the safer file transfer methods out there.

PipeBytes is an online service, so it will work with just about any system out there that supports a web browser.

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It's all about saving time. There is so much to do, and so little time to get it all done, that anything that can give you even a slight advantage will probably be worth adding to your routine. There are all kinds of tools out there that can help give you a leg up, but so often the learning curve can be pretty steep. Sure, in the long run you may save time, but only at the cost of today's productivity. What you need is something that will help you out, but not stress you out.

SlickRun is a command line shortcut tool with a difference. Rather than being a hotkey program, where you have to remember complicated keystroke sequences like [Control] + [Alt] + [Shift] + G, you can set it so that just typing "Google" at the prompt will start your default web browser and open your favorite search engine.

SlickRun is a Windows app and runs under Win2k or later. It requires the Delphi runtime library, which will be automatically downloaded at install time if needed.

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One of the best things that Linux and other UNIX-like systems have to offer is the notion of the "virtual desktop." Basically, you can save a desktop configuration, or "workspace", for each type of work that you do. If you work on web pages, you can create a desktop that has your browser, your HTML or text editor, and your FTP client on it, with each tool sitting in just the right location. When it comes time to pay the bills, you can have a desktop that has your accounting package and favorite spreadsheet tool sitting there,m without messing up the other set of tools. You get the idea–rather than just saving one desktop configuration, you can save several of them, helping you to get up to speed more quickly and work more efficiently.

VirtuaWin allows your 32-bit Windows system to mimic this behavior. It allows you to create up to nine separate workspaces, so you literally can have a different setup for each day of the week (it that makes sense), as well as two on Sunday. Pick your favorite apps that you generally use together, and give 'em their own workspace. You can still run them independently, but if you save ten minutes each time your go to edit a web page, that's that much time you have now to actually get work done.

VirtuaWin runs on Windows systems, from Win95 up through the latest and greatest.

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Sometimes you just need a command prompt. Whether it's some old MS-DOS program you're running, or some utility that requires three different command line arguments, there's just no substitute for getting in there and typing that command at the prompt. If you're going to do this anywhere other than the system's default location, however, it can take quite a bit of effort to change directories that many times to drill that deeply into your system. With "cd" this and "cd" that, along with a couple or typos, and you're talking real time and aggravation. Isn't there any easier way to get this done?

It's a pretty simple concept. Just install PromptExplore, and it's added to the context menu (right click menu) for Windows Explorer. Now whenever you need a DOS box, just browse to the directory you want to be in, right click on the directory icon, and then click MS-DOS Prompt (for 98/ME) or Command Prompt (for NT/2k), and you get a window with a command prompt, already in the directory you just chose. This simple act can save you a lot of time when you need that prompt six levels down in the directory structure on your hard drive.

Prompt Explore is a Windows app and runs under just about anything from Win98 or NT on up.

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Notepad is one of the most essential tools a Windows user can have. It's also one of the weakest and most obnoxious. Is it any wonder there are so man Notepad replacements out there?

NoteTab Light is one such replacement. Like Notepad, it's a quick and dirty text editor. Sometimes you just need a plain old ASCII text document, with none of the formatting bells and whistles of a word processing doc. When editing HTML for web pages, for example, the last thing you need is to have to fight with embedded formatting stuff in your file. NoteTab Light allows you to open multiple files at one time, with a tabbed interface, so cut and paste actions between them is simple, something Notepad can't even dream of doing. In addition, you can automatically strip HTML markup out of your pages, making your editing easier. It supports large file sizes, so you aren't limited there. It has a cliptext feature, allowing you to easily add regularly-used text to your documents. It even supports macros, so you can take the tedium out of repetitive actions.

NoteTab Light will run under any 32-bit version of Windows, from the lowly Win95 up to the latest Vista release.

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You spend all that time getting your application windows set to just the right size and location so that you can work more efficiently. When you come back tomorrow, you get to do it all over again. How about not having to reinvent the wheel each day? How about a tool like AutoSizer?

AutoSizer is a simple tool that does its job well. It sits in your system tray until you open it. Choose an active application and decide whether you want to maximize, minimize, or restore its window size. You can also choose to center the application window, or even to resize it to your specifications, giving specific width and height settings. You can also choose where to place it on the screen by specifying coordinates for the top left corner of the window.

AutoSizer is a Windows app and requires Win98 or later.

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How big a geek are you? Do you live half of your life in Terminal? Do you eat log files for breakfast? Do you know by heart all the command line arguments for top? You may want to get familiar with GeekTool.

GeekTool allows you to superimpose text and images over your screen in a transparent window. This means that you can run your favorite system utilities in the background and get a heads-up display of their output. Rather than having to Command + Tab your way through all your open windows back to Terminal, you can see this data all the time. Since it's transparent, you can keep working, while satisfying your need to know what's going on. Along with the output from system utilities, you can display other content on your screen, including log files, reminders, and to do lists.

GeekTool is written for Macintosh systems and requires at least ver. 10.3 of OS X.

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Who can live without email? We all use it multiple times a day. If you're looking for something beyond what you're currently using, you may want to give i.Scribe a spin.

i.Scribe is a lightweight email client that combines email functionality with an integrated contact database, as well as a calendar. It doesn't require an installer (one is included for user convenience), so it can be dropped wherever you want it to live, including USB drives, making it super easy to bring along with you.

It starts up fast, requiring only a second or two to get up to speed. It may be one of the safer email clients out there, since it supports HTML email but not embedded scripts, so you won't have to dread opening emails like in Outlook. It features a Bayesean spam filter, so it will learn what you consider spam and react accordingly, getting smarter and more efficient over time.

i.Scribe supports only a single account (they have a paid version that supports multiple accounts), so it may not be the most flexible tool you own, but you can't beat the price.

i.Scribe is available as a free download. It runs under Windows (most features run under 98/ME, more under 2k/XP), Linux, and a beta-level version for Mac OS X.

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How many apps do you typically run at one time? We're forever Alt + Tab-ing from one program to the next. It gets the job done, but it's not so exciting.

WinFlip adds an interesting dimension to task switching. Rather than just using Alt + Tab to move through your open windows, it displays all your currently open application windows in a 3-D stack on your desktop. To change to a different window, you can use your mouse or keyboard to choose the desired application window. You can configure the look to use large or small images for your windows, and its relatively small footprint means that you won't bog your system down for just the aesthetics.

WinFlip is a Windows app that runs under XP.

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