Here are 4 of my desktop productivity favorites that I use all the time:

Xobni – http://www.xobni.com/
Google Desktop – http://desktop.google.com/
Rocket Dock – http://www.rocketdock.com/
Enso – http://www.humanized.com/

Xobni is inbox spelled backwards, or I think their pitch is “looking at the inbox in a different way”. This integrates with Microsoft Outlook. If you haven’t tried it or heard about it, it is worth a look, especially if you work in a profession that requires you to be in touch with a lot of people. Even if you aren’t, it will help you know things like, “what are all my conversations with this person?” “Where are all my attachments from this person?” “What time of day seems to be the time that they respond most to my emails?” “Is this person on linkedin, and did they upload a picture because I’d love to know what they look like?”. Yes, all the above can be answered and more, even what they look like if they did upload to linkedin.

Google Desktop is great because it is Google Search for your desktop, but also your inbox. I’ve found this less necessary over time, to be honest, since I have xobni for my inbox and at home I use Vista, so the search is actually quite good, but with that said, there is a whole endless library of widgets and searching to be explored for those still in XP land or just really hate your vista search and widgets.

Rocket Dock is nothing special for Mac Fan Boys. It basically brings the joy of the mac-like dock to the windows world. I think it works for linux too, not sure. A good idea is a good idea. Its extremely easy to drag and drop from the toolbar, and it is awesome eye candy as well. You’d be surprised how much time you save with this dock.

Enso is basically like having a command line to everything on your desktop anytime you want to call it up. This may be a little too nerdy for some. If you like command lines, you will love this. Imagine holding down the caps lock key (much less wierd than it sounds) and typing “google Dave Thomas” and there you have it, a browser window pops up with the google results for Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s. BUUUUUT what if you were reading about something or someone, and you wanted to know, LIKE RIGHT NOW, more about this person or thing. You could use your mouse to select the text and then use capslock and type “google” and let go, and it will google that selected text. There is much more it can do, like instead of digging for the menu location of say excel or word, just type, “open word” and it will give you the option to select or just open it right then and there. Trust me, there is much more than you would want me to even bother telling you about. If you are a nerd, or are a brave non-nerd, you will like this.

Hit me up in the comments and tell me what you think!

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