Handy upgrades to windows utilities

Disclaimer: This information is most relevant for Windows XP. Vista and Windows 7 might have better offerings. Might.

Image Viewer:
Windows comes with an image viewer that is less than ideal. There are no short-cut keys, rotating images leads to permanent changes to the file and not just a virtual presentation of the rotation.
The solution:

Irfanview -
Although, not just a mere image viewer, it's very sleek and versatile when it comes to just viewing images. Images can be quickly viewed full screen (Enter) and navigated using arrow keys with a plethora of viewing options when not in full screen. It is also a lightweight image editor with limited functionality and effects. Simple batch processing and thumbnail feature add to the round up of features on offer. A must have item for any windows user.

Audio:
I segregated Audio and Video into two different players even though either could be used to play video and audio. However, each has its strengths in one area, so I have them both.
As usual windows comes with Windows Media player for both audio and video files. Needless to say I've hardly used Windows Media player in the last few years so won't even be able to mention it's features or lack thereof. So i'll just mention the programs themselves which supersede it.

Winamp(Audio) -
Winamp is my goto player for MP3's. It's sleek, I usually keep the skin on the original, no frills side, takes very little desk space and has my whole music library loaded at once. Navigation is easy with the bottom row keys (Z-V) controlling Previous Track to Next with everything in between. This is a full featured player with myriads of plugins and features which I doubt I've even breached the surface of. My most common use is the equalizer, with its built-in presets, and the playlist which allows me to search and queue files to be played with by using the 'jump to file' (J) menu. My only gripe is not being able to save playlists from the queues I've created, then it would be the IDEAL player. Add to the fact that with some arcane knowledge, well not really arcane, it is possible to use winamp to tame your iPod. Huzzah! That I'm not aware of how to and will not delve into at present.

VLC (Video)
Not sure what it stands for, Video Lan Ceeeeee. Anyway, short, sweet and simple player that plays almost any video file you throw it, and audio as well. All this without having to find and install numerous codecs to view Divx, Xvid or anything else out there.

Finally got an Ipod

After several bouts with logic, practicality and reasonability, I finally bit the bullet and bought an Ipod. It's an used one so all the more justifiable in these times when it's so hard to feed and water my seed, plus see dishonor. The body is a bit dinged and chipped and the scroll wheel seems to be a bit unresponsive. Oh well.

Now certain inhibitions that I've had with Ipods and Apple's proprietary software weren't completely alleviated after having gone through over 5 days or so of trying to tag and organize music. Any changes made in Winamp and in Windows Explorer were disregarded. I have gone through several revisions of tagging and dropping in album covers, most have taken, some are still frustratingly ignored. That's about all I can stand; the final run through of most songs in iTunes happened last night, as soon as I've backed up my music I will start to go back to Winamp, my music player since yore. This neat little video should see me along swimmingly.

In the meanwhile, I've ordered the music as much as I can and created play lists, now all that remains is a long bus ride or trek and to vibe to the grooves.