Better still, stash a portable copy in Dropbox, synced to that same profile, and you've always got a chat client ready to go on any Windows system. Sync your Pidgin profile with Dropbox (a download also included in this pack), and you don't have to mess with settings anywhere or go hunting for chat logs. Set up Pidgin with your AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, or other chat accounts. Pidgin: Pidgin isn't as flashy as its newer, more social-media-focused counterparts like Trillian or Digsby, but in this case, simplicity is a virtue.(Previous coverage: Ultimate online/offline message hub, ultimate Gmail IMAP client)
And with Google's support for offline Gears on the wane, Thunderbird's smart download-then-work-offline feature is great for air travel and other non-connected situations. Why keep a desktop client connected to a webmail service? Because IMAP clients tend to still let you access Gmail, even when it's "down". But Thunderbird is free, and its latest version is easy to set up as a kind of backup tool for Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and most non-Exchange email services. Thunderbird: With so many people using web-based email services these days, we could easily leave out a desktop email client.(Previous coverage: Fix the web's biggest annoyances, The power user's guide to Chrome , Should I use Firefox or Chrome?) And don't worry, Firefox lovers-you can still grab Firefox as well in the Extended download. The majority of Lifehacker editors are using Chrome as their primary browser for work and personal browsing these days, and we see it as the best web tool we can recommend. In short, for those without special, only-available-for-Firefox needs, Chrome gets the job done. At this point, the browser has incorporated most of the features one needs from a browser, has added some nifty new stuff, like built-in browser preferences and bookmark syncing, and has an extension library that's covering a lot of ground. Firefox is still a smart alternative to Internet Explorer, but these days (as hard as it is for some of us to say it), the fastest, simplest, and most search-savvy browser around is Google's own Chrome browser.
It opens those PDFs quickly, seems to support the majority of PDF features, including tables of contents, and offers smart navigation shortcuts for those who want to learn. SumatraPDF downloads PDFs and opens them, rather than try to offer a browser plug-in experience. SumatraPDF:What does SumatraPDF do that Adobe Reader doesn't do? Makes reading PDF documents very, very simple, and fast.Like its television namesake, Belvedere handles your messy files and folders without a stiff upper lip and unspoken understanding of what needs doing. It takes care of the file actions you'd normally do (or forget to do) manually-remove image files from the desktop when they're a certain age, delete leftovers in the downloads folder after a certain point, compress and back up files matching certain conditions, and so on. Belvedere: Belvedere, another Adam Pash production, emulates the automated cleaning and sorting powers of the Hazel application for Macs.
If you've got a bug complaint or code to add for Texter, you can contribute through GitHub. It can work with text from the clipboard, insert times and dates, and make semi-personalized email responses and signatures a snap. It saves time and mental cycles by filling in long passages and tricky code when you type in a few key characters, and it is, in fact, how most of the Lifehacker editors track and write the HTML and text snippets that get reused everywhere.