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(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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I want to like Windows Vista. I really do! Not that I’m a Microsoft fanboy. In fact, I pride myself in the fact that after using personal computers since 1980 and email almost daily for about 20 years, this Monday when our IT staff migrates my corporate email account to Exchange, I will be using a Microsoft email client for the first time. The real reason I want to like the latest Windows release is that I’ve grown attached to too many small but extremely useful software programs that I can’t bear the thought of using a computer without them.

I’m not talking about big office-type applications, I’m talking about little programs like StrokeIt, SideSlide, Launchy, Total Commander, Sandboxie, CLCL and my favorite text editor or two. I understand that as you’re reading this you might find it hard to believe that these programs can be essential but the fact is, giving them up would be a big productivity hit for me and I won’t want to use a PC without them.

A few months back I did a fresh install of Microsoft Vista Ultimate on my primary home PC. I did experience some of the annoyances that made many hate this new Windows OS, but I’ve learned, mostly from searching the Web and reading PC Magazine, tricks to fix those annoyances and to a degree, I managed to make Vista not get in the way. However, for the past two weeks I kept getting random BSOD’s with a bad_pool_caller error and finally yesterday, Vista won’t boot. Using System Restore was no help. I kept going back from one point to an earlier one without success and when I finally restored to the earliest available point from 4 days earlier, the PC won’t start!

This really pisses me off especially considering the following:

• I have very few Windows applications installed as 90% of the software I use is portable. No Registry entries, no files in the Windows or System directories.
• I use a virtual machine to test software. Installing and uninstalling software on my PC is not something I do frequently.
• Windows Update, as well as a 3rd party firewall and AV software are installed and regularly updated.
• I am an IT professional. I know what I’m doing.

So on this Independence Day I sat watching the Yankees-Red Sox game and reinstalled Vista on my PC. Sad that I can’t get myself independence from Windows!

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Not sure why but the software outliners category is really lacking especially if you have a taste for the freeware and portable variety. Every once in awhile I long for the days of Ecco Pro and I start a new search that always turns up no good freeware outliners.

I like to use software outliners because they help me think through new projects and get me started laying out things in detail. I try to use outlining in Microsoft Word but it just doesn’t do it for me. Excel works better as an outliner for me but I’m still left hoping that one day, I’ll come across an outliner that is as good as Ecco Pro was or I remember it being.

If you are in the hunt for an outliner, here’s something you can try to see if it works to your liking. With the following procedure you can use Notepad++, a portable freeware text editor as an outliner.

Notepad++ is a fantastic text editor with syntax highlighting, auto completion, file and ftp management, macros and code folding. It is the code folding feature when used with language set to Python that makes Notepad++ usable as a text outliner. (Indenting and un-indenting lines in Python start and end code blocks.)

To use Notepad++ as an outliner, start typing your hierarchical outline text using at least one space to indent lines, see screenshot. Then set Language to Python to activate code folding.

Don’t forget that Notepad++ is portable. Simply download the zipped version and extract to a location of your choice.

If you have a favorite text outliner, leave me a comment.