PowerToys add fun and functionality to the Windows experience. What are they? PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released.

Color Control Panel Applet
Professional-level photographers and designers know that getting consistent, accurate color from file to screen to print and beyond is a requirement for great results. This new tool helps you manage Windows color settings in one place. Download or learn more.

SyncToy
With new sources of files coming from every direction (such as digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops), SyncToy can help you copy, move, and synchronize different directories. Download or learn more.

RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer
Are you a serious photographer? Now you can organize and work with digital RAW files in Windows Explorer (much as you can with JPEG images). This tool provides thumbnails, previews, printing, and metadata display for RAW images. Download or learn more.

ClearType Tuner
This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen and installs in the Control Panel for easy access.

HTML Slide Show Wizard
This wizard helps you create an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready to place on your Web site.

Open Command Window Here
This PowerToy adds an "Open Command Window Here" context menu option on file system folders, giving you a quick way to open a command window (cmd.exe) pointing at the selected folder.

Alt-Tab Replacement
With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps immensely when multiple sessions of an application are open.

Tweak UI
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

Version 2.10 requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2003.

Power Calculator
With this PowerToy, you can graph and evaluate functions and perform many different types of conversions.

Image Resizer
This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.

CD Slide Show Generator
With this PowerToy, you can view images burned to a CD as a slide show. The Generator works downlevel on Windows 9x machines as well.

Virtual Desktop Manager
Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy.

Taskbar Magnifier
Use this PowerToy to magnify part of the screen from the taskbar.

Webcam Timershot
This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.

Since Windows XP has reached its end-of-life, Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP is no longer available for download.

A gentleman called me the other day and asked me about surge protectors. A typical surge protector power strip is built using Metal Oxide Varistors (MOV's). The cheapest kind may use just one varistor, from hot (live, active) to neutral. A better protector would contain at least three varistors, one across each of the three pairs of conductors (hot-neutral, hot-ground, neutral-ground).

While a MOV is designed to conduct significant power for very short durations (~8/20 microseconds), such as caused by lightning strikes, it typically does not have the capacity to conduct sustained energy. Under normal utility voltage conditions, this is not a problem. However, certain types of faults on the utility power grid can result in sustained over-voltage conditions. Examples include a loss of a neutral conductor or shorted lines on the high voltage system. Application of sustained over-voltage to a MOV can cause high dissipation, potentially resulting in the MOV device catching fire. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has documented many cases of catastrophic fires that have been caused by MOV devices in surge suppressors and has issued bulletins on the issue.

I have found a company that makes surge protectors that does not use MOV's. They are Brick Wall, a division of Price Wheeler Corporation. I have purchased several of their products over the years and have never had a failure.

As many of you know, I'm not your 'pocket-protector' type of geek. For years I have been asked, "Is that a holster you're wearing?"

Actually, it's an e-Holster Modular Shoulder Holster Case System.

I found that I could carry everything I usually would stuff into my pockets without getting the 'clown pants' look (over-stuffed pockets). This is my current configuration, as these are modular components.

Windows File Explorer keyboard shortcuts

Windows accessibility keyboard shortcuts

Press	To
Right SHIFT for eight seconds	Switch FilterKeys on and off.
Left ALT + left SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN	Switch High Contrast on and off.
Left ALT + left SHIFT + NUM LOCK	Switch MouseKeys on and off.
SHIFT five times	Switch StickyKeys on and off.
NUM LOCK for five seconds	Switch ToggleKeys on and off.
+ U	Open Utility Manager.