How to Easily Change Window Border Width & Padding In Windows 8

Content before chrome – that’s one of the two principles of Microsoft’s ‘Metro’ design language. Yet when you look at the Desktop in Windows 8, there are still plenty of places where chrome can be further reduced for better looking content.  Heavily padded windows borders are a good example of that. We have previously discussed how you can change window border size in one of our earlier posts on thebest Windows 8 tweaks, hacks and tips but that method involves heading deep down into the dreaded Windows Registry and manually changing values stored in oddly-named variables – something certain people feel is a little too risky, even though it isn’t if you follow the instructions properly. If the idea of editing your computer’s registry makes you uncomfortable, fret not! We have found a useful little app called ‘Tiny Windows Borders’ that lets you change the dimensions of your windows borders with sliders. Now that sounds much safer, doesn’t it?

Tiny Windows Borders is a portable app that doesn’t require any installation. All you have to do is download it from the link provided at the end of this post, extract the contents of the zip file using your favorite tool, and launch the extracted TinyWindowsBorders.exe file. You will be presented with this interface:

All you need to do now is simply play around with the two sliders for Border Width and Border Padding until you find a setting for both that works for you, and then click ‘Apply’.

I personally reduced Border Padding all the way down to 1 unit. It looks perfect to me, but then it’s a personal choice.

Download Tiny Windows Borders

Read More

Scroll Inside Inactive Windows With Mouse Wheel

People with large monitors or a multi-monitor setup normally have a lot of windows open on their desktop. In order to view information from different sources, we need to switch between different windows and scroll up and down through the information visible on them. If you are a Mac user, you can scroll the inactive windows without first bringing them into focus. Windows on the other hand, does not have this feature. If you want to scroll up, down, left or right, you have to first select the window and bring it to the front. This causes your currently focused window to get out of focus, which you might not want. That’s where Mouse Hunter comes to the rescue. It is a third-party tool that simply allows you to scroll the content of even those windows that are not in focus. Instead of clicking a window to bring it to focus, you just have to move your mouse pointer over it and viola! Moreover, it lets you scroll the windows horizontally using the same scroll button. Keep reading to find out more about Mouse Hunter.

Once installed, the app runs quietly in the system tray. Upon first start, the Settings window pops up, allowing you to specify the default application behavior. The options are divided into two sections: Main and Smart Mouse Wheel. The Main section deals with options like choosing to Start Mouse Hunter with Windows, Show Information Balloon on Start, Start Mouse Hunter as Disabled, and Write Log File. The log file can help with debugging or reporting any issues and clicking the Open button in front of the Write log file option, you can view its contents without having to navigate to the application folder.

The Smart Mouse Wheel section contains options to set the button behavior. The ‘No scroll is middle button’ option can be confusing at first glance, but it basically means that once enabled, a window cannot be scrolled if the middle mouse button is pressed. The next two options allow you to easily enable horizontal scrolling by using the scroll wheel in combination with the SHIFT or CONTROL keys, while the last two options let you do the same using the left or right click buttons of your mouse in combination with the scroll wheel. Once you have configured the options the way you want, click OK to save the settings and you are good to go!

Mouse Hunter works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Mouse Hunter

Read More

Cinelab - A Simple Video Editor For Windows 8

Almost every major modern computer platform offers some kind of video editing feature. If you have been following us for a while,  you must have come across our coverage of dozens of video editing tools for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac OS X. Today, we are bringing you video editing application for Windows 8 called Cinelab. While not exceptionally feature-laden, the app allows you to edit and merge your video clips into a single seamless file. The output file is processed and converted to MP4 format, and then saved to the directory of your choice. The interface looks clean, simple and easy to use, and is fully optimized for Windows 8 PCs and Windows RT tablets.

To download Cinelab, open Store app from the Start Screen and highlight the Search Charm. Type ‘Cinelab’ in search and press enter. From the search results, select the app and then click or tap Install.

Upon launching Cinelab, you will be presented with its dark UI. At first, the app displays only a single tile with a small ‘Add Clip‘ button to its right. Clicking or tapping this button allows adding additional video clips in form of tiles. The interface also contains three more buttons at the bottom named Rewind, Play and Review. The Play button starts playback of the selected video as a Live tile, while the Rewind button starts the video from the beginning.

You can tweak some application-specific settings by clicking Settings in Charms Bar, followed by Export Options. You can make video and audio quality adjustments, specify average video bit rate in kbps, and toggle Audio Export.

Editing a clip is fairly easy. The selected clip shows a mini slider using which you can crop your desired video section. You can drag a video clip left or right in order to adjust the sequence of the final clip. You can also right-click anywhere on the screen to bring up additional navigation controls at the bottom. This includes Clone (to duplicate the selected tile), Select All, Clear Selection, Remove, Undo, Make Movie, New, Load and Save. The Save button enables you to store your project, so you may pick up the editing from where you left off. Clicking ‘Make Movie’ begins the conversion process.

Cinelab is available for free at Windows Store. However, the free version only allows merging up to 7 clips. To add more clips, you need to purchase an in-app Pro license. Testing was carried out on Windows 8 Pro, 64-bit.

Download Cinelab-Download

Read More

How to Bring Back Windows 7 Explorer Toolbar In Windows 8

The latest installment of Windows from Microsoft comes with a lot of new features. The user opinion is divided, with some welcoming the new direction Windows is heading towards, while others complaining about deviating this much from what they have been using. To learn about the changes in the OS, check out our detailed review of all the new features introduced in Windows 8. Ever since the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 came out, people started getting an idea of the magnitude of changes they will have to face, such as the replacement of Start Menu with the Start Screen, and Explorer toolbar with the Ribbon UI. Developers are still coming up with tools that let users get back the feel of the previous versions by reintroducing the Windows 7 UI elements that are no longer present in Windows 8. Previously, we have covered several tools that bring back the Start Menu, and today we have a tool called Ribbon Disabler that disables the Ribbon UI and brings back the old Explorer toolbar.

Even though, the Ribbon UI contains a lot more options than the Explorer toolbar, the simplicity of the latter makes it a preferred choice for some users. When using the Ribbon UI, all file and folder-related options are divided into different tabs. Selecting a file, folder, drive or any other element brings up its relevant options in the top bar. However, the sheer amount of available options can sometimes prove to be confusing.

That’s where Ribbon Disabler comes in by allowing you to disable the Ribbon UI and replace it with the Explorer toolbar, all in just a single click. To do this, simply launch the tool. click the Disable Ribbon Explorer button, log off and log back on.

When you log back in, you will see the Ribbon UI replaced by the Explorer toolbar, complete with all the options found in the default Explorer toolbar from Windows 7.

Read More