le blog » Windows

AVG8 “invalid update control CFT file” error

norm — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:04:39 +0000

AVG on my XP machine at work kept complaining of an “invalid update control CTF file” the last few days, and thanks to a search that led me to this post on the AVG forums,Â you just need to nuke the *.ctg files in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\avg8\update\download & AVG 8 will update once again!

Unlocker for Windows

norm — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:29:01 +0000

Every once in a while I try to rename or delete a file in Windows XP and I get some type of error telling me it’s in use by another program. I found this nifty program called Unlocker which tells you which process is holding onto that file or folder, and gives you the option of killing it.

Launchy for Windows

norm — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 21:32:11 +0000

I like the spotlight feature on Mac OS X, and I ran across something similar for Windows called Launchy. You can launch websites and even do calculations in the Launchy window. Nice!

Doing the taskbar shuffle

norm — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:35:50 +0000

I’m a bit neurotic when launching apps on my Windows XP machine. I want to have apps in my taskbar in a particular order. Outlook first, some editor (Dreamweaver, Zend Studio, etc.) second, ssh terminals next, and browsers last. I guess it gives me a sense of organization. I won’t get into a frenzy if it’s not in that order, but I generally spend the time launching apps in that particular order, which brings me to a neat little utility that my co-worker was using: Taskbar Shuffle. It basically allows you to rearrange your taskbar items much like you can rearrange tabs in Firefox.

This blurb from the developer’s site pretty much sums it up:

“No need to get all nervous when an application crashes or if you need to reboot; you can reorder your programs exactly as they were anytime by just dragging and dropping them directly within your Windows taskbar!”