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.

MojoPac from RingCube Technologies is nice virtualization tool that is more portable than VMWare server and workstation. Both VMWare products are better fit for test and development environments giving you control over networking the virtualized desktop(s) and snapshot rollbacks. MojoPac turns your portable drive or USB key into a personal Windows desktop that does not require another Windows license and is much more compact.

RingCube Technologies recently announced the availability of MojoPac Freedom, a free version of MojoPac. Now users can carry their applications, Windows configuration settings and data files on a portable USB device that can be used from any PC.

I have recently put MojoPac Freedom to the test and was able to install several applications that ran flawlessly from different PCs. I did however have trouble installing the .net framework and applications that rely on it. Some users reported similar issues in the MojoPac Forums but I did not find a solution that worked for me. Nevertheless, MojoPac Freedom will probably remain on my portable drive for some time to come as it is a handy virtualization tool. Try it!

My preference is to use one that automatically synchronizes items with my mobile device. This way I can view and organize my list while commuting to work on the train and prepare for my day.

Corporate email systems do a good job of To Do List management and synchronization with mobile devices. For Gmail users, there are label tricks and add-on scripts to use Gmail as a To Do List manager and Gmail can be accessed from your desktop as well as your mobile device.

But what if you need more out of your To Do List manager? What if you need something that is more robust but not as complex as Microsoft Project or other project management software? Fortunately, good options are available and free.

ToDoList is a Windows desktop application that gives you full control over your task management. You have all the basic options associated with a To Do item plus plain or rich text notes, item dependencies, linking items, resource assignment, time tracking, cost tracking, file attachments, custom fields such as Status and Version, multiple import and export options, view filtering, reporting and more….

Sounds complex? It really isn’t thanks to the wonderful user interface that uses multiple panes to display each To Do item’s properties. Everything is right there on the screen without the need to dig into menus and buttons to find the properties you need to set.

People who use Excel or other spreadsheets to maintain project plans are better served using ToDoList. ToDoList is easier to update and manage and it is easy to create reports or export projects to a variety of formats including text, CSV, HTML and more to share with others.

As a bonus, if you miss having a Text Outliner, I remember, quite fondly, years of using Ecco Pro as a Thought Manager / Mind Mapping software, ToDoList can do the trick:

1. Create a New Tasklist
2. Click View / Select Columns… and uncheck everything. (Make sure to click Affects active tasklist only)
3. Click View / Maximize Tasklists

ToDoList is a portable freeware application. You can take it and your lists on a USB drive.

The FileZilla free FTP client is available for all the major operating systems.  To make the latest Windows release portable, follow these steps:

1. Visit the FileZilla Client Download page and download the .zip package
2. Unzip the package to your desired location.  z:\filezilla for example
3. Copy z:\filezilla\docs\fzdefaults.xml.example to z:\filezilla\
4. Rename z:\filezilla\fzdefaults.xml.example to fzdefaults.xml
5. Edit z:\filezilla\fzdefaults.xml and change the following line under settings:

<Setting name="Config Location">$SOMEDIR/filezilla/</Setting>

Change to:

<Setting name="Config Location">.</Setting>

6. Save the file then launch FileZilla

If you were running an older 2.x version of the FileZilla client, you can import your FTP sites by selecting Edit/Import.

Having an up-to-date Anti-virus, Anti-spyware and Firewall software installed and properly configured on a Windows PC is a basic security necessity. I won’t recommend connecting your Windows PC to a local network or the Internet without at least a Firewall and an active Anti-virus scanner.

Even with all this security software installed, you’ll notice that your PC is slowing down over time. Does this mean your security software is leaking?

One of the most common causes of PC slowdowns is the number of drivers, Windows services, Explorer and Internet Explorer Add-ons, and especially applications. Many software applications and utilities when installed, register themselves to automatically run when your PC starts up. While this is a necessity for some software like Anti-virus and Firewall, it is not the case for other software.

Your security software protects your PC from viruses and malware, but it does not warn you about these programs. Some current firewalls now alert you when a program is trying to register itself to run at startup and give you the option to deny it but if you don’t have this functionality, you can get it with StartupMonitor.

Like a Firewall, StartupMonitor runs silently in the background and pops up a warning when a program tries to register itself to load at startup giving you the option to allow or deny it. Along with your other security software, StartupMonitor should be one of the first programs loaded on your new PC.

The developer of StartupMonitor, Mike Lin, offers it for free and also offers a complimentary utility named Startup Control Panel that later gives you control over items that startup with Windows.

Startup Control Panel is a Portable Software. It consists of a single executable that does not require installation.

For a more comprehensive utility that lists everything that is starting automatically on your PC, get Sysinternal’s AutoRuns. This too is a Portable Software utility that only requires unzipping to run.

Remember how easy it was to manage applications in DOS?  Every software application was located in its own directory (folder).  Want to move an app to another folder or a drive?  No problem, just do it.  The only additional thing you had to do is update the batch file that called it or your DOS menu program. You could even put your favorite apps on a floppy for portability and use them on any PC.

With the introduction of Microsoft Windows in the fall of 1985, all that changed.  For software applications there was now Windows and System directories, DLL Hell, and later the Windows Registry.  “Progress” did not stop there.  There are now more software components and stacks like JVM and the .NET Framework installed on your Windows PC that are relied upon when running software applications. It’s even more complicated because there are multiple versions of these stacks that need to exist on the PC to support the various software applications.

This makes managing software application a much tougher task.  Moving applications to another folder or drive now requires uninstall followed by reinstall followed by cross your fingers and hope it works.   If you’re lucky enough and the software still works, chances are your settings are gone.

Setting up a new PC requires, once again, installation and configuration of your favorite software.  And forgetting about licensing issues for a moment, if you use multiple PCs you need to install and configure your favorite software on each of them.

Well, there is a better way.

By now most people are familiar with the term Portable Applications.  Portable applications and especially GPL and freeware ones bring back the ease of managing applications.  Once again you can put your favorite software on a floppy or a new range of portable devices to use in any PC.

Whenever possible, I try to use freeware portable applications over non-portable and commercial ones.  Even if I lose some functionality by going with a freeware portable app, it is still a huge productivity boost for me since I don’t have to maintain apps and their configurations on multiple machines.

Commercial software applications don’t want to be portable mainly because the vendors want a license for every installation.  I’m not arguing this basic need and I think it is totally reasonable and fair.  But guess what, this limits the usefulness of the software. 

Some will argue that if portable apps are more useful than non-portable ones then Web-based applications are even more useful than portable applications.  To an extent, I do agree. For example, Eudora and Thunderbird are fantastic freeware pop3 mail clients.  At some point in the past I used them for my personal email. I even used a portable version of Thunderbird.  But before long I realized that webmail is even more convenient. It’s always the same from any PC and requires no installation, local storage or file maintenance.  These reasons are enough for me to overlook webmail feature limitations and security risks.  Of course you can have the best of both worlds and use a pop3 client and webmail at the same time.

Bottom line is that for each application, I have to take into account features I need, security, usability and convenience. This determines whether the chosen app is web-based, portable or standard.  For me, most apps fall into the portable freeware ones.