Microsoft Windows XP Power Toolkit

For many years, the programmers who work on Microsoft’s operating systems have been providing an additional suite of utilities called PowerToys for users who want to add power and handy functions to their systems. (The name PowerToys arises from the fact that many of the utilities are both powerful and fun to use.) This chapter covers the Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP, including the following:

• PowerToy Calculator  A graphing scientific calculator with support for decimal, binary, and hexadecimal output and unit conversions for length, mass, time, velocity, and temperature.

• CD Slide Show Generator  A program that enables you to view images that are stored on a CD as a slide show. This program also enables you to burn a slide show to a Compact Disc–Recordable (CD-R) or Compact Disc–Rewritable (CD-RW) format.

• Open Command Window Here  A feature that adds the Open Command Window Here shortcut menu command to file system menus.

• Alt-Tab Replacement  An enhanced version of the Alt-Tab task switcher that displays a thumbnail preview of each window in the task list.

• Taskbar Magnifier  A taskbar tool similar to the standard Magnifier accessory but with a smaller viewing area.

• Virtual Desktop Manager  A tool that enables you to set up as many as four virtual desktops with different applications running on each desktop.

• Tweak UI  A utility for setting many Windows XP options, such as mouse hover sensitivity and automated Windows logon, that are not otherwise available from the standard Windows XP user interface.

In addition, the chapter briefly mentions the Image Resizer, the Slide Show Wizard, and the Webcam Timershot, which are described in detail in Chapter 14, “Microsoft Windows XP Media Tools.”