OCC Desktop Utilities
is a shareware program written in LabVIEW but available as a
stand-alone executable program. It is free to download and try,
with a modest registration fee if you decide to continue to use
it. Registration instructions are included in the program.
This program started as a place to store temporary
notes, similar to an electronic yellow sticky pad. I then started
adding additional utilities that Windows did not provide (or which were
not conveniently provided by Windows.) The program now has five
main sections. The Notes tab is the location for storing text
notes. The Passwords tab allows you to store usernames,
passwords, and even web addresses in a moderately-safe encrypted
format. The Files tab includes several file handling utilities,
such as recycling, deleting, wiping (deleting a file and completely
erasing the file contents), encrypting, and converting text files
between Mac and PC formats. These file utilities can operate on a
single file, a directory of files, or a list of files. The Time
tab includes a clock display, a count-down timer, an elapsed-time
timer, an alarm, and a periodic alert, as well as a tool for
automatically synchronizing the computer time to NIST time. The
fifth tab is for setting preferences and configuration settings.
Finally, additional buttons are available for quickly executing system
functions (such as shut-down, reboot, log-off, screen-saver, etc) or
for launching your favorite applications or documents.
The brief
manual
that is included with OCC Desktop Utilities can be viewed here to gain
additional insight into the features of the program.
There are a few caveats regarding this
program. It is a Windows-only program (e.g. it is not
cross-platform compatible for Macs or Unix systems). It requires
the installation of the
LabVIEW
Run-Time Engine v6.1. And finally, it
is a 2nd beta version. It appears to be quite stable, but the
user accepts all related risks as to potential loss of data or other
problems. The only possible known bug at this point is that the
computer date may occasionally get set incorrectly when the program is
configured to automatically update the time. However, I think
this but has been removed. If anyone continues to observe it,
please let me know.
Two versions are available for download. One
contains the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine as part of the installation.
This version is over 7 MB in size. The second does not contain
the Run-Time Engine and is almost 4MB in size. This smaller
version is useful if you wish to download the Run-Time Engine
separately or if you already have the LabVIEW 6.1 Run-Time Engine
installed on your computer. Both are zipped files and require an
unzip utility before they can be installed.
OCC Desktop
Utilities 2.0 beta 3 with Run-Time Engine included (7.3 MB)
OCC Desktop
Utilities 2.0 beta 3 without Run-Time Engine (3.75 MB)