Quite often you need to copy and paste commands from browser or from other application into windows command line window. Unfortunately Ctrl+V shortcut does not work by default. In order to paste command you have to open windows menu and select “Edit -> Paste” using mouse or by pressing Alt+Space. Alt+E, Alt+P. To use standard Ctrl+V shortcut you can use open-source AutoHotkey utility.

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Quite often you would like to have a nicely formatted XML file with each element indented. There are lots of tools for this, but one of the easiest (and cheapest ) ways to do it is to use open source text editor Notepad++.

Download and install Notepad ++ .

Open file with unformatted XML

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Select from Menu “Plugins -> XML Tools -> Pretty print (XML only – with line breaks) or press Ctrl+Alt-Shift+B

Now XML is formatted into indented format for easy reading and editing:

Product information:

Notepad++

I’m having an account on large number of sites where registration is required to access their content or to access their features. Memorizing login details for all of them is impossible, using same login/password combination is not the best solution.

Lastpass allows you to keep all login details on their servers and access them from any computer connected to Internet with plugin for Firefox browser. Considering that the passwords are stored on remote server, I would not use it for critical services such as online banking or your e-mail address account, but for the sites you visit regularly it would help you by logging you automatically or pre-populating login and password fields for you.

Lastpass also provides automatic form filling for common fields such as your name, address, e-mail, phone number. Multiple profiles allow you to define one with actual details and other with some dummy data for places you don’t want to leave you actual details.

In addition to Firefox, LastPass has plugins for Internet Explorer and Safari browser and option to create secure password storage on your USB flash drive.

Website: https://lastpass.com/

If you using screenshot grabber application like SnagIt, you may consider an open source alternative Greenshot. This Windows application allows you to capture a full screen, an application window or any selectred region. Simple editor allowing you to add annotations is also included.

Project website: http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/

Many web sites require you to register with your username and password. How do you keep track of all these registrations? Unless you have exceptional memory you have an option of either user same username and password on each of the sites or keep login details in text document or your email inbox. Both of them are not a secure.

My suggestion is to use one of these two utilities to keep your usernames and passwords.

Password Safe

http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
OS: Windows, Winekeepass
Cost: Free (GPL)

I’ve been using this utility for more than 2 years. It works fine. The only downside is that there is no version for Linux (but it works with Wine) or Pocket PC.

Extract from project website: Password Safe allows you to manage your old passwords and to easily and quickly generate, store, organize, retrieve, and use complex new passwords, using password policies that you control. Once stored, your user names and passwords are just a few clicks away.

Using Password Safe you can organize your passwords using your own customizable references—for example, by user ID, category, web site, or location. You can choose to store all your passwords in a single encrypted master password list (an encrypted password database), or use multiple databases to further organize your passwords (work and home, for example). And with its intuitive interface you will be up and running in minutes.

KeePass Password Safe

http://keepass.info/
OS: Windows
Cost: Free (GPL)

I recently switched to KeePass since where is a KeePassX for Linux. The file format is compatible with KeePass for Windows. Number of third party plugins available, including plugin to import from Password Safe listed above. Pocket PC version is also available.

Extract from project website: KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).

WinMerge is an excellent open source tool for comparing two versions on text file. Unfortunately, it runs only on MS Windows platform. As a Linux user, I was looking for similar tools which could be run in Linux natively. The following two application can to a job of WinMerge. If you running Ubuntu Linux, they could easily installed using package manager.

Kdiff3

http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/

Allows you to compare file and directories. Has nice and intuitive interface.

Meld

http://meld.sourceforge.net/

Another tool offering similar functionality. It also has intergration with CVS source control.

Are you looking for a blog, message board or text editor application? Software comparisons category at Wikipedia has a large number of pages comparing different software by their price, OS, features, etc. For example, it lists more than 50 text editors.