NotePad++ is a lightweight, open source, notepad replacement ideal for bloggers and novice web designers looking for a decent Notepad replacement.

There are two features that I really love about this program. First off you get tabbed document control. You can open several documents in one window and can even split the documents into tabbed view to compare multiple documents at once.

NotePad++ also offers a color coding scheme which makes browsing blocks of code much easier. Once a document is saved NotePad++ can apply a color scheme based on that documents type. These color schemes recognize code blocks and sort them appropriately. What's nice about this is that you can instantly see when a code block hasn't been closed properly. You can also, at a glance, speed through blocks of code to see where things begin and end. Check out their screenshots for a better understanding of this.

For bloggers looking to get into template design this is a great program because it recognizes certain levels of context that can make learning html, css and even PHP much easier.

If you’re using an older computer, especially a laptop with a track pad, you probably have “lost” your cursor once or twice. Don’t you hate that? When you go to move the mouse and you can’t for the life of you find where the cursor is. You end up swinging your finger wildly across the trackpad hoping that at some point the mouse will show up again? I’ve even had this happen once or twice with my desktop.

Well, here’s a quick tip that will make finding your cursor 100x easier the next time it “dissapears.”

If you’re using the standard XP setup click: “My Computer > Control Panel > Printers and Other Hardware > Mouse.” For those of you with the “Classic View” enabled it would just be “My Computer > Control Panel > Mouse.”

Once in the Mouse settings window look for the Pointer Options tab. Under Visibility select “Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key” and then click “Apply.”

Now whenever that pesky cursur is missing just hit the CTRL key to have windows graphically zero you in on its location.

This post was originally a Technoobogy post of mine on another site. I’ve since closed down that blog and wanted to share some of it’s highlights here.

Visual Task Tips is a shell extension for Windows XP that works a lot like the Alt-Tab Replacement powertoy. The difference basically rests in the Windows taskbar.

While Alt-Tab Replacement only works while your "Alt-Tabbing" through your current processes, Visual Task Tips pops up when you mouse over any item in your taskbar. Both programs show you thumbnails of the program that's running which is nice. This is fantastic if you’re used to keeping several programs running at once (especially if its multiple browsers, spreadsheets, images or documents.)

This post was originally a Technoobogy post of mine on another site. I've since closed down that blog and wanted to share some of it's highlights here.

For those not yet switching to Windows Vista I thought I'd share a program I found awhile back called Alt-Tab Replacement from, of all places, Microsoft. Awhile back Microsoft started posting "powertoys" which could be used in Windows XP (and in some cases previous Windows versions) and that are free to download.

What's nice about a lot of these programs is that they have a mostly offer features that you really wish were included in Windows. Alt-Tab Replacement is a perfect example of this.

When you press Alt+Tab in a Windows environment it gives you the chance to quickly swap between running programs with just the keyboard. If you’re a multi-tasker (like me) then you might have several things running at the same time. In standard Windows XP you only get to see a small icon for that program - with Alt-Tab Replacement you get to see a thumbnail of the program’s current state.

As you can see, the right portion of the window offers up the standard small icons while the left portion gives you a look at what's currently going on in the selected program.

This post was originally a Technoobogy post of mine on another site. I've since closed down that blog and wanted to share some of it's highlights here.

Quicktime, iTunes, Skype, Windows Messenger, these are all programs that are hard to keep off your start menu. Sometimes they just don't want to go away and next thing you know it takes 20minutes for your computer to boot. Occasionally you may even run into issues where two or three programs are running that you may not be able to identify.

I've found the best way to handle programs on my computer is WinPatrol. Basically WinPatrol has two uses.

The most basic functionality of WinPatrol is a system monitor. Whenever you install a program (or even if a program attempts to install itself) WinPatrol pops up a warning window to see if it's something you want. As you can imagine, this is great for stopping AdWare before it gets a foothold. It's also great for stopping commercial software from loading at boot.

Digging around through WinPatrol also unveils some extra functionality. Using the StartUp Programs and Services tabs you can check out what's running and even track down information about it. WinPatrol offers a robust and deep library of information on just about any program you find running on your PC.

I've been using WinPatrol for ages now, if you're looking to secure your PC it's a great place to start.