Category: Software announcements

Earlier this year, we covered how you can get back the Startup sound played during logon in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. It requires you to complete several steps manually which can be quite tedious for some users. A number of our readers had issues following all the steps correctly.

So to make things simple, I decided to create Startup Sound Enabler for Windows 8. This app will allow you to assign a startup sound with just one click! It does the job of creating the script with the sound you pick and setting it up in Task Scheduler automatically.

Cursor Commander is a freeware application created for simple applying and sharing of cursors. Using this app, you will be able to change all Windows cursors with one click. The application is a useful alternative to Mouse settings in the Control Panel: it allows you to see all cursors at once without scrolling and change ALL OF them with a SINGLE click. You are able to save your customized cursors to a cursors theme.
You will be able to share your cursors with other users as they can be exported to a single *.cursorpack file with one click.

How to use Cursor Commander

• In the right pane of the application window, you will see the list of installed cursor themes supported by Cursor Commander. Select a theme there to see its cursors.
  
• Right click the theme to show the context menu. Using that context menu, you will be able to save those cursors for sharing, open them in File Explorer or delete them.
  
• In the left pane, you will see cursors which are included in the selected cursors theme. Click "Use these cursors" to apply them.
  
• Click the specific cursor icon to change it, e.g. replace it with some cursor from an external file on your hdd or even from another installed cursor theme.
  
  After you make changes, click the blue diskette icon to save your changes as a theme.
  

IE Search Customizer is a simple freeware which allows you to define custom searches in the Internet Explorer browser. With the help of this little app you will be able to create short and extremely useful aliases for the address bar of IE.

The application works as described in our "Add custom searches to Internet Explorer's address bar to save your time" article.

As you might be knowing, the Windows Experience Index (WEI) was removed from Windows 8.1. Microsoft left the WEI engine in the OS, but the UI was deleted from This PC/Computer properties. Recently, our good friends at IntoWindows reviewed the ChrisPC WEI tool. I looked at this tool but was disappointed that it didn't show the actual tests and assessments being done accurately. So I decided to code a better alternative myself with a nice looking, familiar UI. With WPF, it was a quite simple task.
So, here is my new freeware portable app, Winaero WEI Tool:


Latest version is 1.0.0.2, see the change log below.
It brings back the genuine Windows Experience Index and features the following abilities:

Specially for touchpad users: if app "does not work" for you, please refer to this article: How to disable Metro edge swipes and touch charms bar gestures for trackpads (touchpads) in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8

Even if you recently switched to Windows 8.1, you probably noticed new features which allow you to disable top left corner, top right corner and skip Start screen to boot directly to Desktop. Those options are accessible inside properties of the taskbar:

However, there is still no way to rid of Charms Bar completely. For example, the bottom right corner can't be disabled using OS settings. So I decided to fix it and made this simple app: Winaero Charms Bar Killer

This app can kill the top left corner, the top right corner and the bottom right corner in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8. This can be handy for Windows 8 users too since they do not have options to disable those active corners.

Lock Screen Customizer is a new software by Winaero. It allows you to tweak and extend
the options of the Lock Screen in Windows 8. It has nice UI with live preview of the changes you made:

Windows 8.1 users, a new version 1.0.0.1 for you is ready. Check it out below!

It allows you to change the following options of the Lock Screen:

Winaero ColorSync is very tiny application (441 kb) which is native and portable.

It will allow you:
- to use the Start screen background color as a color for the window border
- to use the window border as a color for the Start screen background.
This can be done automatically or manually
Get the solid and stylish UI in your Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.

Latest version is 2.0, it got lots of improvements, see the change log below!

After release of Windows 8.1 I found its Start button useless. Seriously, there are no issues for me if that button is not shown on the taskbar. Sure, I miss the old good Start menu. Menu! Just one button can't restore the classic UX. So I decide to restore the behavior of Windows 8, with blackjack and hookers.

StartIsGone

StartIsGone is my latest application which allows you to remove the Start Button in Windows 8.1 and get the extra space on the taskbar.
Latest version is 2.1.0.0, see the change log.
It is freeware, portable application which does not require .NET Framework or installation.
It is just icon in your tray with few options in the context menu.

Start Screen Color Tuner for Windows 8.1 is the application which i have created to solve the following issue:
Windows 8.1 has changed the color settings for the logon screen, so old tweaks and apps don't work any more. Instead of the color index, it stores now some coded color value. I decided to create the app with attractive and simple UI to change the color of logon screen with one click.

As a bonus, it allows you to play with the Start Screen color and Accent color on the fly from the same window.
Latest version 1.1, see the change log below

Microsoft has disabled the programmatic access to Start Screen items pinning in Windows 8.1 and above. This is impossible to fix.

Pin to 8, formerly known as Start Screen Pinner - the universal pinner software for Windows 8. It can pin anything to the Start Screen or Taskbar in Windows 8. Finally it got the possibility to pin anything to Taskbar!


Latest version is 2.2.0.0, the change log is available below.
With our Pin to 8 you will able: