What Does it Do – The Essentials?

PortableApps Menu is a a small utility that sits in the system tray and provides access to a suite of programs contained in the associated folders. It also provides access to a set of folders associated with the portable applications folder to make documents, music, pictures and videos available on you USB Flash drive or removable hard drive. (Or just use them in a folder on your PC – see Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications) PortableApps Menu is part of the PortableApps.com Suite available here at PortableApps.com.

The suite comes in 3 versions:

Basic – PortableApps Menu, PortableApps Backup utility and custom folders, icons and AutoRun

Standard – Firefox Portable Edition, OpenOffice.org, Portable, Mozilla Songbird Portable, Gain Portable, Sudoku Portable and Thunderbird Portable Edition

Lite – As standard edition but replaces OpenOffice with Abiword

No doubt the above applications will be subject to the My Free Review treatment in the coming weeks.

Summary:

• Gives simple access to a suite of portable programs
• Provides a set of portable document and multimedia folders
• Can be set to run automatically at Startup

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware (more…)

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What Does it Do – The Essentials?

Shutter is one of those tools that must have started life with the intention of being a fairly straightforward replacement for the Windows “Shut Down” dialog.

Of course I am speculating here but when you look at what the program now offers it shows all the signs of the developer (den4b) deciding “oh! that would be useful, I’ll add it in”.

Shutter allows the user to program Actions based on Events or to carry out the action immediately by pressing the “Now” button. The program can be set to run at startup and will reside in the system tray for access by left clicking with the mouse or a menu appears on right clicking.

The System tray Right Click Dialog Box

Summary:

• A useful piece of software that I use frequently (although I also use Brutus Shutdown Tools) .
• Very useful as part of a “Portable Suite” of programs to keep on a removable drive/USB stick/Portable Programs PC Partition.
• Easy to use at a basic level but also has many advanced Events and Actions

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware
• Portable

  
  

• Small Memory requirement
• Run from startup option
• Very Flexible

Cons: What’s Not So Good?

• Too many options?
• Over Complicated?

I have questioned both these Cons comments as it may be that the complexity of options and functions are a real benefit to some users.

Why Would You Want It?

1. Provides an alternative way to shutdown your system
2. Provides many more shutdown options
3. Provides events to trigger shutdown
4. Also provides actions that do not shutdown the computer

More About What it Does in Detail:

Events:

Allows for a series of different events to have happened to trigger a shutdown “Action” which in fact may not be a normal shutdown process

Actions:

Provides a series of shutdown actions and further actions that may be useful

Options:

The screenshots below are all self explanatory (click on the picture to open full size)

General Tab

On Action Tab

On Action Extra Tab

Web Interface Tab

What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?

What is the My Free Review Experience?

I have used this program for several months on one of my laptops and it is part of my “Portable Applications” suite which I have installed on all my PCs and laptops as well as on a removable drive and USB stick. It gets used at least once and sometimes more each day but only to shutdown or restart the laptop. Usually this is done using the now button but occasionally it has been useful to set the timer to allow running tasks to complete before the shutdown.Used in this way I have found it to be simple and efficient to use and have not experienced problems with crashes or hangs when using it. All in all it appears to be a useful part of my program toolbox.

What Could Make it be Better?

• As den4b is currently working on the next version let’s wait and see this before commenting

den4b Quotes on his website about progress on Shutter V3:

January 30 2008

……….On the other hand, considerable time was spent for re-designing and re-working Shutter. Bits and pieces are coming together now, and hopefully I’ll have a release candidate soon ready for testing. If anyone wants to have a pre-release look at it – you can contact me for more details. The underneath structure has pretty much stabilised now, but looks and feels of things do require some user attention.

What Other Posts are Relevant?

Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

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Technorati Tags: Freeware, My Free Review, Portable Freeware, Portable Freeware Applications, Programs, Reviews, shutdown tools, software, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP

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Technorati Tags: Free Reviews, Freeware, My Free Review, Open Source, Portable Freeware, Portable Applications, Portable software, Portable Programs, Reviews, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP, file handling

I decided to start this blog back just before Christmas (2007), when it was cold, wet and miserable in the UK December winter. It is now January 2008 and I am sitting in my hotel room in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) overlooking the pool area which is surrounded by palms. Beyond the pool is a beautiful golden sandy beach with an inviting blue and turquoise sea stretching away to the horizon. The temperature is about 22 Centigrade (72F). I have a glass of local white wine by my side and life seems perfect. If only the rest of my blogging career could be carried out in such pleasant surroundings! I really do consider myself very fortunate to be able to take holidays like this, life has not always been so pleasant and I think I may have paid with my share of hard times on the way. Of course that is a very subjective judgement, for the really underprivileged or someone in a third world country who is poor, starving and lacking even basic healthcare my whole life would seem like total luxury. (more…)

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