PowerPro A Power Users Delight Jan 28, 2001 This is a review of favorite and most valued share ware program. About 3 years ago I downloaded, tried out and paid for a shareware program called Stiletto. A year and a half ago Stiletto evolved into Windows PowerPro. Upgrades and new features have been added to PowerPro frequently over that year and a half and I expect that Bruce Switzer will continue to develop the program. ProPro is now a freebie - give it a try you'll love it (July 02,2001). The following is a summary of some of the programs features: . "Any number of small-footprint button bars to launch your favorite programs. (Up to 3 programs per button.) . Create a drop-down menu from which many selected programs can be launched and associate it with one button. . Text label, icon, clock, megs free on hard-drives, memory free, size of swap file, date, timer, gdi/user resource, (and many more) may be displayed on any button face. . Customizing of color schemes for the tool bar & each button. . Tool tip (balloon) help to display the commands for any button. . Up to 95 user-configurable command menus with submenus. . Hot key, tap key, and mouse action activation of commands. . Built-in commands for screen saver, windows exit/restart, . Alarms, regular chimes, and scheduled activation/termination of commands. . Wallpaper display and switcher/randomizer. . Save and restore desktop icon positions. . Screen saver switcher/randomizer. . Randomization and testing of system and application sounds. . Send a sequence of keys to a running program or to a program that you start with PowerPro." (1) In order to give you a better idea of the possiblities I'll describe my PowerPro setup. My PowerPro sits in the taskbar and occupies about a quarter of its width. Its set to always be visible and appears as a blue gradient with white lettering. The bar consists of six buttons. The first button shows me the megs left on my drive E. I can use my mouse to right click, left click and centre click on this button so as to open Windows Explorer, open PowerPro configuration settings, or exit PowerPro. The second button shows me the memory being used and features a drop down menu that allows me to open my choice of 16 internet programs. The third button shows me my free gui/user resources and has a drop down menu that allows me to select from any of 12 Web building programs. The fourth button shows me the day/month/date and has another drop down menu that allows me to open any of 17 miscellaneous programs. The fifth button shows me the % of swap file in use and right/centre/left mouse clicks allow me to open CD Create program, Neato CD labeller program and CDR-W Eraser program. My sixth and final button shows me that megs free on my drive D. Right/centre/left clicks of the mouse allow me to open MS Money, MS Scheduler and MS Works. I also use PowerPro to rotate some 120 of my favorite wallpapers. A different one ever 12 hours. PowerPro also associates several sound files with various applications opening and closing on my computer. PowerPro is also used to program macro commands such as my email address, website address, bank account number into the function keys. One click of the respective macro key and the info is pasted to wherever I need it. I also use the program to sound a chime every hour, open and close programs at different times. Several other settings such as force all newly opened windows onto the screen, force cursor to certain buttons automatically. Even with all this I am probably only using half of the programs features. I just used TaskInfo2000 to monitor PowerPro CPU useage for the last minute and the useage varied between .35% and .75%; a small price to pay for it usefulness. This is almost certainly the most flexible utility you can add to windows. It is a power users delight' so much more than just a button bar program launcher; in my opinion it is the best shareware program I have ever purchased. You can download and test the program or read more about it at:POWERPRO _____________________________________________________________ (1) Summarized from the Windows PowerPro help file.