New Laptop Setup

Setting up a new laptop today, and thought it might be helpful to others if I documented a couple of tools and customizations I always to, because I can;t get my work done without them. Not in order:

1. Install Lookout V 1.2:  lightning-fast search for your e-mail, files, and desktop integrated with Microsoft Outlook.
Just enter your search and press enter. Results are instant. Lookout will find your search terms hiding nearly anywhere in your Outlook mailbox - subjects, bodies, phone numbers, addresses, etc.

2. Install IE2OneNote powertoy: This PowerToy adds a Send to OneNote button to the Standard Buttons toolbar in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later. Click this button to copy all or selected parts of a Web page to a new page in OneNote.

3. Install Outlook2OneNote powertoy: This PowerToy adds a Send selected item to OneNote button to the Standard toolbar in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. Click this button to copy one or more selected e-mail messages from Outlook to new pages in OneNote.

4. Run the ClearType tuner (requires Active X install): ClearType is a form of sub-pixel font rendering that draws text using a pixel's red-green-blue (RGB) components separately instead of using the entire pixel. When the pixel is used in this way, horizontal resolution theoretically increases 300 percent.

5. Install M2RingtoneSplicer: Nifty sound file editor for cutting out commercials from Windows Media files recorded on my MCE, but "converted" with this tool to commercial-free audio files I listen to on my way in to work.

6. Install Windows Media Encoder 9 Series: Windows Media Encoder 9 Series is a powerful tool for content producers who want to take advantage of the many innovations in Windows Media 9 Series, including high-quality multichannel sound, high-definition video quality, new support for mixed-mode voice and music content, and more.