FilerFrog: add a slew of useful functions to your context menu

FilerFrog: add a slew of useful functions to your context menu: "

FilerFrog is a free program that can install a wide array of useful tools into the Windows context menu, in the vein of such useful context-menu based apps as Lammer Context Menu and Freewaregenius favorite FileMenu Tools. It works with both 32bit and 64bit versions of Windows

This program offers a wide range of commands, including many of the usual file management operations, but it also offers an interesting list of image manipulation functions (resizing, publishing lists of images to PDF), and a unique “desktop sorting” tool designed to organize the desktop.

FilerFrog enables you to pick and choose exactly which functions you want and to remove others. This is especially useful if you find a handful of functions useful and want them easily accessible but do not want to clutter your context menu with a host of other commands which you do not care for or see yourself using.

First off, a quick presentation of the various functions, then a list of my favorites:

The desktop sorting function: sorts your desktop icons by type, and draws rectangles on the desktop wallpaper to provide a visual organizational tool (see screenshot to the right). You will either like this or not, but one good thing about it is that no matter how much your desktop changes you could always get it re-organized at the press of a button. (Note: the rectangle colors and gradients are user customizable).

The file management functions: publish a list of selected files to HTML (in a variety of ways), encrypt/decrypt files, split and join files, and a mass renaming tool (which, I must say, is not as sophisticated as the mass renaming functions in the other context menu tools mentioned in the first paragraph above).

Also offers file organization functions which to me are the more interesting of the bunch, including: extract files to/from folder, move files up one folder, delete empty folders, and “touch”, which reverts the “date created/modified” for selected files and folders to the current time.

The image manipulation functions: add a logo to an image or images, resize images by percent, or a custom resize by pixel. Also quickly convert to JPG (but, interestingly, no option to convert JPGs or other images to other image types). I especially like that it lets me quickly change the percent of compression for JPGs without changing anything else.

Other image functions: converting batches of images into PDF “albums”. I found this to be somewhat strange and hard to control, but if you want it it’s there I suppose. If you want to convert images to PDF’s in general I would recommend you use JPG to PDF.

My favorite FilerFrog functions: see these in the screenshot to the right. I put the desktop sort function in there because of its originality alone, even though I don’t anticipate ever using it

The verdict: this is the kind of all-in-one toolbox that I like. Its not as powerful as the infinitesimally customizable FileMenu Tools, which includes a handful of the file management commands that FilerFrog offers but not the image manipulation or the desktop sorting functions.

In a nutshell: FilerFrog provides a very nice range of potentially very useful tools, and I highly recommend it.

Version Tested: 2.1.0

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7. 32 bit and 64 bit supported

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.56 megs); download the appropriate version 32 bit or 64 bit.

Note that this software just recently became freeware, and some of the pages on the site still contain out of date text that makes it seem that this is for-pay software (it isn’t anymore).

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