As we wander into the new year, its clear that 2007 has seen a really amazing host of new apps all around. I’ve been able to review only a fraction of freeware that’s out there, but I tried to review what I believe to be the best about right now (or then rather).

I couldn’t call it a top 10, or top 20 either, as they are all so good it really is impossible to say one is better than another. Also the fact that they all do different things, and are equally good at what they were designed for.

This “best of” list, should give you a good overview of the best apps from 2007. If you are new to AppAholic (as a fair number of people are), or even if you consider yourself to be a long term supporter, this list will give you links to reviews that you will have missed, as early as the first few posts ever. I’ve split the list into three sections; every day, security, and really useful. Without Further a do, here goes. What better way to start, than with the app that controls them all (or run them anyway).

Launchy - Makes The Start Menu Obsolete

My personal revolution for my past year is Launchy! Its supreme indexing skills and auto learn ability, plus tripling up as a bookmark loader and calculator, really makes it the hottest free kid on the block. The ease of use and simplicity behind it just makes it without a doubt a big change in my computing life. If I know the name of an app, I can launch it as quick as I can type. Press alt+space and then type the name of the app to launch, then press enter, and your done. If you want to read the full review and find the download link, click on the name of the app above. This will be the same for all apps in this post. If you for some very strange reason still want your start menu after trying Launchy, then I suggest you continue to read this article for an alternate Start Menu Tidy app.

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That’s right. All the content from the old website is now here! Update your bookmarks, but no need to change your RSS feed subscriptions! Now that is rather handy!

This wordpress.com hosted blog will no longer be updated, while the new www.appaholic.co.uk website will continue to be updated!

Enjoy checking out the new features! Soon I will post a recap over the last year of AppAholic along with an introduction to some of the new features of AppAholic version 2.

Hey everyone. A lot of work recently has been spent sorting all the first major update for this site! You can check out the current progress right now on www.appaholic.co.uk

That’s the first thing, the domain name. all set up and ready, wordpress installed, all plugins fully functional. Just waiting for the exchange over, which will mean downtime of a few days starting Christmas week.

This also means that there probably won’t be any updates on here until after the change over is complete for the new year. The best way to stay tuned and make sure the moving process is as easy as possible for you is to SUBSCRIBE TO THE RSS FEED. The feed URL will not be changing which makes everyone’s life a little bit easier.

Continue reading for information on the new features the site will include

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Version Tested : 2.0
Compatibility : Browser - Windows, Mac & Linux compatible

Description : Create fake damaged files of any size for free. Just in case you need to get that little bit of extra time to hand in some work or for work or anything at all. Quite a few file extensions to choose from, and a damaged file guaranteed. Blame it on the system rather than your time management.

Not having any use for such a tool, I can be quite sure many others will. Generally I keep mostly up to date with work and coursework, however, many do not. Many systems have upload space for teachers or professors to collect work. What better way to buy that bit of extra time than to upload a fake damaged file, that completely looks genuine, but is completely useless?

It currently boasts 23 file extensions, and always boats any size file you need! File types including .doc, .zip, .ppt, .xls, .psd, and even .mp3. Although this really won’t help you if you use it regularly, if you usually get everything done on time and feel you must squeeze a little more time, then this is the only safe way to do it.

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Version Tested : 1.0.37.0 (Public Beta 3)
Compatibility : Windows XP, Vista

Description : The ideal minimize replacement for you desktop widget freaks among us. Minimizes windows to a desktop thumbnail rather than to the taskbar. Handy, neat, stylish, and not too resource heavy.

If your into looking through loads of blogs all the time, you may have noticed recently a similar app called ThumbWin which effectively does the same thing as this app. There are a few differences, which I shall explain at the end of this post. Personally, this one wins for me. For starters, its not a translation, its all in English as standard.

miniMize has quite a bit of flexibility, more so than its rival. You can select from which corner of the screen you wish for your thumbnails to appear with the auto place feature. Naturally, you can still move them around by dragging. It will remember where it was placed for next time just for convenience. The auto place simply makes sure that when you minimize a window, the thumbnail is where you want it.

If your looking for hot key options, then your not left out either. Hot keys can be chosen for cycling thumbnail levels, minimizing all windows and show / hide thumbnails. If you want to keep to keyboard sometimes, you need not fear.

What if you don’t want this window or that window to be minimized to a thumbnail?

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It may or may not have come to you attention that recently there has been a lack of posts on AppAholic. Not to worry though, AppAholic is still very much alive. Thank you very much for sticking with us during this period of transition! You will be rewarded with the even better service of AppAholic 2.0

Most of my time has been taken up with work on AppAholic 2.0 (and a hefty bit of college work to do with databases). Also because of work work on weekends, I have limited time, and often end up very busy.

In the mean time, I will still be writing the usual posts. However, to help pass this period of lesser activity, I advise you look at some of the older posts! They are all really good Apps if I’m entirely honest. Well worth checking out!

Here is a few to get you started…

CCleaner (CrapCleaner) - Clean CRAP off your Computer that you don’t need.
Tidy Start Menu - Sort out your Start Menu into a much more manageable size.
Launchy - Run any App or open any website or file simply by typing it’s name.
StartUp Delayer - Make you PC boot faster by delaying non essential Apps.
Smart Shutdown LX - One click fast shut down, because we all know windows doesn’t work!

Of course, they are all completely FREE!
(Special note to subscribers, please continue reading this article!)

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Version Tested : 3.51
Compatibility : 98, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista

Description : Designed as THE replacement to windows notepad with more functionally that notepad, but not as much as Notepad++, as to keep it fast and ever so simple. A true replacement rather than addition.

Metapad is different to the likes of Notepad++ because it was designed with the idea of fully replacing notepad rather than as an addition. Granted, there has been no development on it since 2002, but it is by no means a dead project, it’s just because there is no need to update it. The website is still looked after, as there was an addition of “How to replace notepad with Metapad in VISTA” in the FAQ

The features of Metapad improve on windows notepad in quite a number of ways. The addition of the tool bar is really useful. Along with the standards, it has buttons for a user defined external viewer, find, replace (yes, separately for ease), word wrap, user defined primary and secondary front, always ontop toggle and settings.

A further feature is it’s inbuilt ability to recognize web links, and to be able to click on them from within Metapad itself.

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Version Tested : 1.9
Compatibility : Win All

Description : Like drop shadow on Mac OS, this app creates drop shadow for all windows and menus. Customizable with regards to colour, and the ability to make menus transparent too. Exclusion of windows also very easy to configure with simple drag and drop feature.

My friends, again, I bring you another stylish app, this time from the world of mac rather than that of XP or Linux. If you have ever used a mac, have you noticed the drop shadow? Well I can’t say I have, but once I found this and took a look at a mac, I could sure see the drop shadow.

Now, Windows users can steal effects and styles from the mac, bringing them ever closer to the style of a mac, but running on windows. Not only do we have a mac skin using StyleXP (which you can still get a free key for!), but we now have the drop shadow, and the dock too! Its like a happy family reunion, except in the wrong house.

It has a very customizable shadow, and even gives you a live preview of what the effect looks like, which is rather handy. Also you can change the colour, bright pink, green, orange, it really doesn’t mind, or you could go for, say black?

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Version Tested : 2.02.02
Compatibility : 98, 2000, XP, Vista

Description : 3D desktop enable you machine with Madotate, making almost every window the ability to be flipped, zoomed, moved, swiveled in almost anyway you want. Light weight on your resources too, unlike most apps of its kind. Adding the third dimension to your screen!

If the screen shot hasn’t already got your attention, then I don’t know what will. There are many 3D desktop apps out there, all doing this and that and some other flashy thing, but really, in all honesty, Madotate manages to beat them all.

Originally it was in Japanese, but several people translated it at various stages into English. Madotate adds an extra button just to the left of the minimize button on the active window. Clicking this will make it zoom into 3D mode.

Once in 3D mode, a window can be moved around with the left mouse. if you push a window towards an edge of a screen, then it will act like its hit a wall, and create a new hinge to that side, as you can see in the screen shot. the angle of this can be changed in the settings. If you hold right mouse down on the window in 3D mode

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This morning, I was woken up to the door bell rung by a person from City Link with a nice hard disk sized package. Now comes the task of installing it, shouldn’t take too long.

The question that then arose to me is if I should format a partition for Linux or not bother at all? This worry comes to me after I had an emergency call yesterday with regards to a GRUB error. All sound too familiar? I thought so too, except there was a bit of a twist as the story developed. Master Boot Record problems yet again.

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