My Favorite Utilities That Make UMPCs better

pdaThose of us who get a new UMPC get to spend some fun time finding utilities that can make the user experience more productive. Most UMPCs, like the Viliv S5 I am using, run a flavor of Windows and, frankly, it’s not optimized for very small screens and especially touchscreens. Some simple utilities can go a long way to extending the usefulness of a UMPC, and I’ve settled on a few to share for those in a similar position. Read on and see if you find any of these utilities useful.

One of the first things you need to do with any PC is install anti-virus software for protection. I always use AVG Free for my systems as it offers good protection with minimal system overhead. It’s a big download but well worth it in my view.

Grab and Drag preferences

Grab and Drag preferences

It’s no big secret that I use Firefox on Windows on all my computers. It’s a great browser that gets even better when you add extensions that fit your particular needs. On a UMPC with a touch screen, one of those extensions is one of the very first things I install. Grab and Drag turns the Firefox window into one that can be moved by dragging the page with the finger. It’s the easiest way by far to handle big web pages on the small screen, as nothing could be easier than dragging the page around. Grab and Drag is fully configurable, but I find the default configuration works fine for me.

uBoard

uBoard

I have already mentioned the onscreen keyboard that I have adopted on the S5, uBoard. I have configured the S5 to execute uBoard instead of the Viliv keyboard, and I’m very happy with that. The program is not readily available for download anymore, at least not in its original form. Reader dts pointed out that the uBoard keyboard is still distributed as part of a free package for car PCs, and when I met him at the meetup last week, he confirmed that the uBoard I am running on the S5 is the same program as the one in this package. You can thus download the package and peel uBoard out of it for use on your own UMPC. The keyboard rocks, as it provides a full QWERTY keyboard including all the F keys.

BatteryBar

BatteryBar

A free utility I use on all Windows PCs is also beneficial for UMPCs. BatteryBar shows a battery icon in the taskbar that will indicate either percentage of battery remaining or estimated time remaining. You simply click on the icon to switch between those two indicators. Where BatteryBar really shines is when you hover the cursor over the icon you get a window with detailed information about the battery. It’s a simple way to see at a glance how your battery is faring over time. There’s a paid version with additional capabilities, but I use the free version.

SoftLEDs

SoftLEDs

Many UMPCs (and some notebooks) lack a simple LED indicator that shows what the hard disk is doing at any given time. These are particularly useful on UMPCs as they are so quiet that it’s often hard to tell when the system is doing something in the background. SoftLEDs is a utility that monitors HDD activity and indicates read/write actions in a simple LED in the system area of the taskbar. It keeps you informed when the system is doing something, and it takes no overhead. I use the free version, which only tracks a single drive, but there’s a paid version for multiple drive systems.

MiniScroller

MiniScroller

While full onscreen keyboards like uBoard are pretty good for text entry of short items, sometimes all you need is the ability to manipulate the currently displayed screen. A small keypad with keys like Page Up/ Down can be very useful to interact with some windows. My old faithful utility MiniScroller comes through in this area. MiniScroller sits on the screen on top of all windows (don’t worry, it’s translucent) and provides a keypad with arrow keys, Page Up/ Down, and other useful keys. I find it particularly useful to use on long documents as it’s so easy to scroll through them just by tapping keys on the screen. It doesn’t take up much room and can be used only when needed. You’ll need a stylus to use it, as the keys are pretty small, but I usually have one with me.

Image courtesy micropctalk

Image courtesy micropctalk

When covering UMPCs, it’s important to not forget the original UMPC. This device had software called the Origami Experience that provided a user interface optimized for smaller screens and touch input. The Origami Experience really came into its own with version 2.0, but unfortunately that version left quite a few UMPC owners out in the cold. Origami Experience 2.0 was released by Microsoft only for UMPCs running Vista, which meant many UMPCs running XP were not able to use it. The Microsoft version would only display at 800×480, meaning that modern UMPCs running at higher resolutions could not run it to full advantage anyway. A user decided to build her own OE clone for XP, and that program gets accolades from those who use it on their own UMPCs. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but I do intend to do so, as it looks pretty darn useful.

These are my main UMPC utilities, and I hope you find something useful in this list. I believe if you try them out you’ll find at least one that makes a big difference in your productivity on your little UMPC. If you use a utility not listed here, please share it with us in the comments.

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