Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Recently, I showed you how to write a simple VBScript that takes input by text converts it into speech.this script proved to be quite popular and attracted over 180,000 visitors.

Windows Guides reader Harry was inspired by this post and kindly made a tool for all Windows Guides readers. This tool performs the same functions as the original script provided but also gives you a nice graphical user interface to work with when you want your computer to speak back to you. Having your computer speech you can be a lot of fun and now this tool is available to all readers to play around with. In some parts of the world, it still April Fools’ Day– maybe you can think of some fun things you can do with this nifty little program.

You can download this tool for free below:

	Package	Release	Date	Download
	text-to-speech.exe	1.0.1	April 1, 2009	Download (72 KB)
	text-to-speech.zip	1.0.1	April 1, 2009	Download (24 KB)

Thank you Harry.

File transfers can be tediously slow in Windows and in this guide, we’ll take a look at two file transfer alternatives for Windows. The first program is Teracopy and the second is FastCopy. Each program is designed to significantly cut down the time it takes to copy files between devices and even on the same drive.

TeraCopy

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Desktops allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual desktops. Read email on one, browse the web on the second, and do work in your productivity software on the third, without the clutter of the windows you’re not using. After you configure hotkeys for switching desktops, you can create and switch desktops either by clicking on the tray icon to open a desktop preview and switching window, or by using the hotkeys.

Download Microsoft Desktops

I recently misplaced my Microsoft Office product key and I needed to move it from one system to another. I couldn’t remember how to find the product key (I know they changed where they put it these days), so I did a Google search. In the process of looking, I found this very useful tool, which crawls your system for product keys. It works and I want to share it with you.

Download LicenseCrawler

Black Coffee is an application designed to aid system administrators and advanced users in modifying user and local administrator windows settings. These settings range from Internet Explorer to Disabling Windows Shutdown. Black Coffee can only change settings if you’re on an administrator account; limited users will be unable to change settings, although they can view the settings.

Black Coffee runs on Windows 2000 onwards (XP/Vista.)

Download Black Coffee

At college we have software that doesn’t let you log off Windows until you remove your removable media. This is a really good idea; I am prone to leaving my stuff behind and I hate the feeling of losing something.

This functionality may be useful for you to have at home on your computer–especially if you are using your flash drive on your personal computer and you then run off to work/school etc.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to put a reminder on your computer to help you remember your flash drive before you log off.

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