folders

While the various programs and services on a computer are meant to offer you convenience, there are times when you may need to do repetitive tasks using the various tools and programs on the system. In these cases, the use of scripting tools can be exceptionally useful. Unlike programming, scripting is when you take a set of current tools and utilities and automate their interactions with commands. For instance, with Javascript you can tell a browser to change the way it renders HTML content, or with Automator you can tell the Finder to organize files in a certain way.

Recently … Read more

We are constantly installing and uninstalling software, and as we're sure you can imagine, that leaves us with a whole lot of empty folders and other junk on our computer. For that reason, we were quite excited about trying FMS Empty Folder Remover. This utility promises to scan your machine for empty folders and then delete them, tidying up your hard drive after multiple installations and uninstallations.

The program's interface is bare bones and not entirely intuitive. We clicked the Open Folder button since it seemed like the most logical starting place, and an Explorer window opened that … Read more

WinZip for Mac brings one of the oldest names in Windows compression utilities to the Mac, and we think they did it right. Featuring a clean Mac-like interface, WinZip for Mac lets you compress and secure your files for both sharing with others while keeping them away from prying eyes. Using a simple drag-and-drop interface, you can quickly add files to an archive, then compress them in the standard .ZIP format or create .ZIPX files--a format WinZip says is its smallest compression format to date. Both worked great on our test machines and the ability to password protect even just … Read more

All kinds of sensitive information can end up stored on your computer, from trade secrets to medical information, financial records to love letters. There are plenty of utilities out there that are designed to keep private files private, protecting users from identity theft, fraud, and embarrassment. Ogni Free Folder Locker & Hider is one such program. Although it seems to work--sort of--it didn't seem as easy to use or as secure as similar programs we've encountered.

When we first opened Ogni Free Folder Locker & Hider, the program prompted us to choose whether we wanted to use regular … Read more

GoToApp gives you a more organized, tab-based alternative to the default Android app drawer. You can create any number of tabs, and rearrange your apps among them as you see fit.

When you first run GoToApp, it does a bit of housekeeping for you by creating Main, Game, Tools, and Others tabs and dividing your existing apps among them. Of course, it doesn't categorize every app perfectly, but it's really simple to move things around and create new tabs as necessary. You can also create child folders within tabs to further organize your apps. And you can choose … Read more

One of the more than 250 new features in Lion is an enhancement to the Finder that supposedly allows you to combine the contents of folders. In Snow Leopard and prior versions of the Mac OS X, if you placed a folder into a directory alongside another folder of the same name, then the system required you to either cancel the operation and change the folder name or replace the existing folder. Now Lion should offer an option to combine the contents of similarly named folders; however, depending on the way you perform this task the process may not always … Read more

Windows 7 provides users with several libraries that consolidate different types of files, such as music or video, into one easily accessible location. But what if you want to add your own folders to these libraries or remove them? Follow these four steps to find out how!

Step 1: Launch Computer from the Start menu.

Step 2: In the pane to the left, expand the Libraries folder by clicking the small triangle next to it if the list is not already visible.

Step 3: Right-click on the Library you want to modify and select "Properties" from the menu … Read more

Folder Size is a free Windows utility that scans your drives or folders and displays detailed information about the size of their contents so you can see where the disk space went. It displays the sizes of files and folders as well as their percentage of total disk size.

Folder Size uses a layout common to many such utilities, mostly because it's the most efficient design: toolbar, left-hand tree view, and main window. Folder Size displayed all our disk drives with their total size, space used, and free space listed below the tree view. We clicked on our C … Read more

FileToFolder is an interesting bit of freeware that basically does one thing: it "folderizes" files, by which we mean it creates an individual folder for any file you apply it to. It keeps you from having to move up and down the directory, creating folders and moving files. It integrates with context menus in Windows, but you can also use its regular interface to process batches of files. FileToFolder requires Microsoft's .NET Framework 4.0, which you can download for free from Microsoft's support site if your copy of Windows lacks it.

This program's simple … Read more