New and improved RKLauncher

Well due to my lack of post the past week, and all the encouraging comments, I've managed to convince myself that i should do a double post. Well, for people who have not heard of RK Launcher, its a docklet program for windows users. Basically it allows you to put shortcuts into a little panel at the side of your screen, which i think looks reallie cool! This updated version comes with KKmenue, which is like a built in explorer, ical docklet, and also ishut docklet.


Anyone who uses RK Launcher should update to this version, its jam packed with many new features.
Note: you might get an error message when you try to install the program, just click ok and reinstall the program, after 2 or 3 times the program should be fully installed.

For Windows only. Get it here.
Related articles can be found here.
Icons
Customizing RK Launcher part 1, part 2
Desktop docklet, RK Launcher

Screen:

UberIcon: Pointless Eye Candy is Fun!

Just like the title says, UberIcon is an eye candy application for your desktop. UberIcon controls the animation of your desktop shortcut when double clicked. You can download plugins which cause the icon to shatter into small little squares, fly around the screen like a trapped bee or even watch it peel off to the side!


For windows only. Get it here.
Plugins for different animation here.

Icons: Fasticons icon pack!

I've always wanted to have a cute looking desktop, something which appeals to the child side of everyone. Well after some searching about here is a cute theme package for you! All the colorful icons and wallpaper!


Screens















Dino Toys icons





Creatures 1 & 2 icons


Animal Toy icons

Launchy, keystroke launcher for windows

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

Launchy is very similar to the program in our previous article, but i feel that Launchy is more up to date when compared to SlickRun. In addition it also has an auto indexing function which, meaning you don't have to create and "magicword" to launch programs. Furthermore it has many skins for you to choose from.

I have been using Launchy for a week now, and because i also have RKLauncher, most of the time I find myself only needing one of the two program. Both programs fulfill a largely similar role, Launchy uses the keyboard while RKLauncher uses your mouse. In terms of memories usage Launchy uses about 3 times more than RKLauncher (wif minimal settings on). Everyone should give this program a few days trail, you never know it might just be the program you've been looking for.

For Windows only. Get it here.

Related Articles:
RKLauncher

Screens:

SlickRun, start programs by typing their name

With this little program, you will never need another shortcut on your desktop. SlickRun gives you instant access to any program or website. The program allows you to assign "magic words" to programs, for example C:\\games\crazytaxi\crazytaxi.exe could be assigned "taxi", and when typed into the launcher starts the program.
The program allows you to decide the alias for each program, getting used to SlickRun is quick. SlickRun also allows you to navigate to websites, just type in the address of the desired website and SlickRun would load the page in your web browser.

A similar program is Launchy, but I will keep its review to another time.
For Windows only, get it here.

SongBird, Web Music Player

I believe Songbird and other web music players are the next generation of media players. The key feature of Songbird is that it allows users to search for music and play music directly from the net. You can browse the web on it, and Songbird automatically searches the current page your on and shows all the mp3 on it. If you like the music, it is a simple click and drag to add it to you library.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, well so does a video.


Additional features:

• fully changeable feathers(skin)
• open source
• cross platform, Windows, Mac, Linux
• many add-ons
  

If you like a song which you have listened, buy it, stop piracy.

Lyrics plugin for Winamp

Listen to music all day long? Want to sing along with the music but don't know the lyrics? EvilLyrics automatically finds the lyrics for the song thats currently being played on you media player and displays it in another window.
In addition to finding lyrics, EvilLyrics also has a karaoke function, when enabled it would highlight the sentence which the song is currently singing. Other additional functions include the ability to search for guitar cords, album art and certain Chinese songs.

There are other lyrics plugin for Winamp, iTunes and Windows Media Player which i will be reviewing in the coming days.

For Winamp only. Get it here.

Mouse Gestures, web surf without clicking any icon

I am a lazy person by nature, so lazy that I feel that it is a waste of energy to keep clicking the back button on my web browser. With this program it allows me to do just that, all i have to do is to hold down my right mouse button and drag it a little to the left to go back, or hold and drag right to go forward. Not only that, it also has gestures to scroll to the next tab, go to my hompage, and if there isn't one, I can assign it one myself.


Mouse Gestures in action:





Back




Forward




Close Tab/Window







New Tab



For Firefox, get it here.
For IE, get it here (beta version, different developer)

Rainlendar2: Calendar, To-do list all on your desktop

Rainlendar 2 the most useful program i have used in a while. It keeps me up to date with what I have to do today, tomorrow, this week, and even next month.
All your events are shown on a events list, allowing you to know whats coming in a quick glance. There are options to classify events into different categories, some event category even come with the very own little icon on the calendar. Reminders can be added to events which you can specify when to be reminded of.


There are two version for this program available for download, the lite and the pro. The difference between the two is that the pro has outlook syn support, while the lite version does not. For those of us who do not need outlook syn support, using either version has no difference. For people who need outlook syn support, but who are not willing to pay the 15 pounds to go pro, you can d/l the older version of rainlendar.

For Windows and Linux. Get Rainlendar 2 or Rainlendar 1.

Screens(multi calendar, single calendar mode):



Rainlendar on my desktop:

New cBox Feature!~

Well I've been sprucing up the site quite a bit recently, and was wondering how you guys find the site, are the articles well written enough? Too brief? Or should i feature something else?
Also with Kelly's Suggestion, I've added a chat box to the site!~ I hope this will provide an avenue so that you can give me some feedback on the blog.

Have a comment to make about an article or the blog, make a shout out on the chat box. Have a website which you think is great, share it with us on the chatbox!

Get cbox for you blog or site here.

Customizing RK Launcher!~ Pt. 2

Now that you have themed it to you liking, its time to change the icons in RK Launcher! First up getting the icons. Here are a few recommendations:

Gant, Gant 2, Gant 3 by mattahan










Crystal Clear









3D Cartoon Icons Pack by deleket












This 3 sets should be more than enough for you to work with, but don't let me stop you from getting more. deviantART is a good source of icons or you could always search the web.

So how do you go about changing the icons?

1. Unzip the icons to a folder, i use C:\Program Files\RK Launcher\icons as this would make it easier for me to locate the icons later on
2. Right click on the icon you want to change and select, Dock Icon Properties (note there is another Properties menu but we don't want to select that)
3. Next click on Change Icon and another menu should pop up
4. Select the icon you want, or click on Browse if you've saved the icons in a different folder
5. Enjoy your new icon~

With that you should be able to pimp RK Launcher too your liking.

Read more:
Desktop Docklet
Customizing RK Launcher!~ Pt. 1

Got a nice icon set to share, tell us about it in the comments.