Salling Clicker - Windows Mobile

Salling Clicker is a remote control software. It lets you control popular applications from a mobile phone or handheld computer through a user interface similar to a portable media player.
You can choose to have the computer take action when you make or receive a phone call or get close to your pc. For instance, Salling Clicker can automatically mute the system volume while you're on the phone or automatically lock the pc while your gone.

• Control PowerPoint, iTunes, Windows Media Player, and more with your mobile device.
• Works with all major Bluetooth stacks (no configuration required).
• Amazingly easy-to-use WiFi connectivity for long-range control.
• Works with over 300 devices.
• Easily extend support for other applications using JavaScript or VBScript

Scripts

Salling Clicker is installed with a set of default scripts (JavaScript for Windows) to support many different applications (PowerPoint, iTunes, MediaPlayer, etc.). On the forums of Salling Clicker many other custom scripts can be found, created and shared by the community.
I've created a set of personal scripts, some are base on the official scripts, some are based on the scripts found in the forums and some are completely new. I just list all the scripts I use:

• De Slimste Mens: as explain in this separate blog post, I've created a complete interface to control the Flemish game "De Slimste Mens".
• myT Mouse Keyboard: full control for mouse and keyboard. Specially made for Windows Mobile devices with hardware keyboard (tested on Samsung Omnia B7310 and HTC Wizard (Qtek9100)). Use the screen to move mouse, use 'Menu' button to get context menu (mouse right click), use 'Help' button for extra options. To get a good overview of all options, I’ve put some screenshot online.
  Use hardware keyboard to send all keys. The used keys will be displayed on the main screen for easy action tracking.
  The extra option are:
  • switching of Shift/Ctrl/Alt/Win keys
  • sending special characters
  • sending function keys (eg F1-F12, pause, insert, delete, etc)
  • sending media keys (play next song, webbrowser control, etc)
  • sending long text: text input on device
  • open a file on pc: navigate to folder and open a file, recent file history, easy access to favorite locations (eg start menu, 'my documents', etc)
  • Zoom screen using freeware ZoomIt application, all ZoomIt options supported (pen, break, etc)
  • Show a screenshot of the pc on the main screen.
  • Exchange data from pc clipboard to device and/or put text into the pc clipboard
• PowerPoint: distribuated by Salling Clicker
• MediaPlayer: distribuated by Salling Clicker
• MediaPortal: from forum
• MediaCenter: from forum
• iTunes: distribuated by Salling Clicker
• BSPlayer: from forum
• VLC: from forum
• WinDVD: from forum
• MSN Online status: from forum
• uTorrent: from forum
• ShutdownControls: shutodown/hibernate/standby/screen on-off/lock
• Device Info: distiribuated by Salling Clicker
• Disconnect: distiribuated by Salling Clicker
• System volume: control pc volume
• MuteWhileOnPhone: distribuated by Salling Clicker
• CallNotifier: distribuated by Salling Clicker
• LockComputer: distribuated by Salling Clicker
• MonitorAway: distribuated by Salling Clicker
• Show Message: show message on pc

Dropbox - daily usage

Dropbox is a free online service to easily synchronize and backup your data. It can be very useful and it has some very nice features, but it has some limitations too.

Dropbox features:

• 2GB free online storage, easy registration.
• Easy sync to different computers / Macs.
• Files are always reachable using the Dropbox website.
• Dropbox keeps 30 days version and deleted files history.
• A public folder with direct static file url's makes it possible to host your site on Dropbox server.
• Sharing of folders between Dropbox accounts is possible.

Dropbox limitation:

• No filtering on files / folders is possible.
• For each account, one folder is synchronized. You need to use Junctions (hardlink NTFS shortcuts (easy Junction explorer extention)) if you want to include external folders in the sync.
• No default support for multiple account synchronization. You need to use the portable Dropbox (see information below) if you want to synchronize multiple accounts from the same computer at the same time.
• No option to make Dropbox always request for account password on startup (would be useful for the portable version).

Personal usage scenario's:

• Synchronization of my AI Roboform data so I have all my login's everywhere. I combine this with the Roboform2go on my USB stick and Dropbox portable to make sure everything is kept in sync.
• Hosting of files for websites. Instead of having to upload them to different free hosts with ads, I can now use the Dropbox space for easy hosting. Even complete websites are usable when hosted within the 'public' folder of a Dropbox account.
• Combination of FreeOTFE portable to make sure my USB stick portable Dropbox account is kept save. I place all Dropbox files within a FreeOTFE secured file, since else when losing USB stick, anyone could have access to my Dropbox account by just starting up the portable Dropbox application.
• Some other tips and tricks for Dropbox usage from LifeHacker. The 'start torrent from anywhere' trick is nice!
• Since I use my personal SVN I wanted to make a combination of the automatic Dropbox synchronization coupled to the full control SVN synchronization for development projects. By using the Junctions I could link the SVN folders into Dropbox. Now I have an auto sync of files and folders, but I can manually sync with SVN to have an extra backup and history tracking with full control. The downside of this is that all hidden '.svn' folders are kept in sync too within Dropbox and this can take a lot of your Dropbox space. With the selective sync option in Dropbox, you can disable the syncronisation of the .svn folders to save space. But be carefull, when deselecting .svn folders in the Dropbox configuration, it will remove those folders from your local system. So it’s best to first create some dummy empty .svn folders, next disable the sync of these folders and then copy the real .svn folder at the correct location.

Dropbox Portable installation:

DropboxPortableAHK is now available. This makes the use of Dropbox Portable much easier. All download/configuration is now automated and very userfriendly. Just download from the developer website: http://nionsoftware.com/dbpahk/overview

Update 09/01/2011: New version of the Dropbox Portable framework (5.3.4). But this new framework requires a relink! The new version has easier update (just copy official Dropbox setup file in the update folder). Cleanup of blog and added extra info on installation.

Update 20/01/2011: added info from comments to change path in config.db

Update 03/04/2011: link to new DropboPortableAHK version, no more manual tweaks required.

Windows File Association fixes

On Windows it can happen that some (system) files can not be opened anymore with their default build in application. Such can happen for example after a failed installation of some software application. To easily fix the default file associations, one could use the registry files provided on the site of Doug Knox (for Windows XP).

He provides registry files to fix following file types:

• Batch File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for BAT files)
• You may need to remove registry settings underneath this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.bat
• CAB File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for CAB files)
• CHM File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for CHM files)
• COM File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for COM files)
• CPL File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for CPL files)
• Directory Extension Fix (Restores defaults to HKCR\Directory)
• Drive Association Fix (Restores default settings for hard drives)
• EML File Association Fix (Restores defaults for EML files)
• EXE File Association Fix (Restore default association for EXE files)
• Folder Association Fix (Restore default associations for File Folders)
• GIF File Association Fix (Restore default associations for GIF Files)
• HLP File Association Fix (Restore default associations for HLP files)
• HTA File Association Fix (Restore default associations for HTA Files
• HTM/HTML Associations (Restore the default associations for htm/html files)
• ICO File Association Fix (Restore the default association for ico files)
• INF File Association Fix (Restore the default association for INF files)
• Internet Explorer Desktop Icon Fix (Restore the default behavior for the Desktop IE icon)
• JPE/JPG/JPEG Association Fix (Restore the default associations for jpe/jpg/jpeg files)
• LNK (Shortcut) File Association Fix (Restores Default Shortcut Behavior)
• MPG/MPEG File Association Fix (Restores default associations for MPG/MPEG files)
• MSC File Association Fix (Restore default associations for MSC files)
• MSI File Association Fix (Restore default associations for MSI files)
• MSP File Association Fix (Restore default associations for MSP files)
• REG File Association Fix (Restore default associations for REG files)
• SCF File Association Fix (Restore default associations for SCF files)
• SCR File Association Fix (Restore default associations for SCR files)
• TXT File Association Fix (Restore default associations for TXT files)
• TIF/TIFF File Association Fix (Restores default associations for TIF/TIFF files)
• URL File Association Fix (Restores default associations for URL - Internet shortcuts)
• VBS File Association Fix (Restores default associations for VBS files)
• ZIP Folder Association Fix (Restores default associations for ZIP Folders - REG File)

If your EXE file associations are corrupted, it can be difficult to open REGEDIT, or to even import REG files.  To work around this, press CTRL-ALT-DEL and open Task Manager.  Once there, click File, then hold down the CTRL key and click New Task (Run).  This will open a Command Prompt window.  Enter REGEDIT.EXE and press Enter.

My "Windows Explorer extensions" selection

While Using Windows XP (Pro), I installed a lot of extra extensions, to tweak it and make it work as I prefer. Below, one can find a selection of my preferred Windows Explorer tweaks:

• Copy Path: provides extra options to copy the path of a selected file
• QTTabBar: provides a tabbed interface within Windows Explorer
• FindTarget: adds a context menu option when right clicking on a shortcut file and allows you to open the folder were the real file resides (batch file .bat)
• Pretty Print: adds a context menu option when right clicking on an .xml file and allows you to easily PrettyPrint the file (apply correct indentations, see previous post in this blog)
• ResHack: adds a context menu option when right clicking on a .exe file and allows you to easily open the file with ResHacker. This little tool can be used to change/extract resource used by the executable file.
• Grep this folder, Tail this file: extra context menu options to easily grep within all files in a folder (and subfolders), and context menu option to easily tail the selected file (see previous post in this blog)
• Unlocker: application that can detect when a file is locked, and allows you to release the lock so one can delete/move/rename/overwrite/... the file or release your external disk/stick.
• New folder button: extra button in the explorer toolbar (and F12) to easily create a new folder within the current folder (press shift + enter to open the folder immediately after creating)
  NOT needed for Windows 7: press Ctrl+Shift+N
• Open command window here: extra context menu option when right clicking on a file or a folder to easily open a command (cmd) windows at the current folder. (batch file .bat)
• Aero cursor: better looking mouse cursor, the same as used in Windows Vista
• Junctions: junctions / symbolic links / hard links context menu. Most programs see junctions as standard folders, while these are links to folders at other locations.

Download all required files for all these extensions at once here.

Update 27/03/2009: Easy-setup exe files create for aero cursor and copy path. Small registry mistake solved in ‘Open command window here’ script. Updated package with all files.

Update 12/03/2010: Updated to Dropbox links.

Update 12/05/2012: New copy path tool, Junctions added.