20+ Power Tools

CPPT comes with powerful full-fledged applications at your fingertips for the modern-day information professional. Most of the Power Tools are built to paste the current clipboard into the app on startup!

In image below, Power Tool sub-menu is exposed. 

 


1. Launch Latest Exiftool for copied files

Downloads and run latest exiftool on any number of files you have copied or moved.
(https://exiftool.org/). It's most comprehensive tool to get metadata from media files. Just copy/move a file or files as you normally do, the choose PowerTools->Launch Latest Exiftool for copied files. 

ExifTool is a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application for reading, writing and editing meta information in a wide variety of files.
 ExifTool supports many different metadata formats including EXIFGPSIPTCXMPJFIFGeoTIFFICC ProfilePhotoshop IRBFlashPixAFCP and ID3Lyrics3, as well as the maker notes of many digital cameras by CanonCasioDJIFLIRFujiFilmGEGoProHPJVC/VictorKodakLeafMinolta/Konica-MinoltaMotorolaNikonNintendoOlympus/EpsonPanasonic/LeicaPentax/AsahiPhase OneReconyxRicohSamsungSanyoSigma/Foveon and Sony.


























Example. Here's output for a MP3 music file. 

ExifTool Version Number         : 12.13
File Name                       : 01 Genesis.mp3
Directory                       : C:/Users/Markis/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Justice/Justice
File Size                       : 5.4 MiB
File Modification Date/Time     : 2014:05:05 21:42:06-04:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2014:03:08 21:43:55-05:00
File Creation Date/Time         : 2014:03:08 21:43:55-05:00
File Permissions                : rw-rw-rw-
File Type                       : MP3
File Type Extension             : mp3
MIME Type                       : audio/mpeg
MPEG Audio Version              : 1
Audio Layer                     : 3
Audio Bitrate                   : 192 kbps
Sample Rate                     : 44100
Channel Mode                    : Stereo
MS Stereo                       : Off
Intensity Stereo                : Off
Copyright Flag                  : False
Original Media                  : False
Emphasis                        : None
ID3 Size                        : 2331
Title                           : Genesis
Album                           : Justice
Track                           : 1
Year                            : 2007
Genre                           : Electronica
Encoded By                      : iTunes 11.1.5.5
Comment                         :  
Peak Value                      : 32673
Average Level                   : 11387
Publisher                       : Ed Banger/Vice
WM Unique File Identifier       : (Binary data 114 bytes, use -b option to extract)
Band                            : Justice
Composer                        : Justice
Artist                          : Justice
Date/Time Original              : 2007
Duration                        : 0:03:55 (approx)



2. Visual HTML Editor


Visual HTML Editor with programming language syntax highlighting, full Unicode text, spell checker and pixel ruler! A basic replicant of MS Office FrontPage Editor. It loads with the current clip of clipboard on startup.


































3 . Excelerator


Excelerator - Excel Formula Fast Fixer App that parses Excel formula language for errors and mismatched quotes. A unique app to CPPT. This does not load the current clip on the clipboard into the app, so you first can play around with sample Excel formula.



4. SQL Formatter


SQL Formatter App that indents and formats aka 'beautifies' SQL statements. Another original app for CPPT. It also loads the current clip on the clipboard on startup. 

Note: Click Beautify SQL in upper menu to perform action.

SQL Formatter can format incomplete SQL. Below SELECT and from are missing.

Source: 
SELECT schemas.name AS SchemaName, tables.name AS TableName, columns.name AS ColumnName, types.name AS DataTypeName, columns.max_length, columns.precision, columns.scale, columns.is_nullable FROM sys.tables INNER JOIN sys.columns ON tables.object_id = columns.object_id INNER JOIN sys.types ON types.user_type_id = columns.user_type_id INNER JOIN sys.schemas ON schemas.schema_id = tables.schema_id WHERE tables.is_ms_shipped = 0;

Formatted with SELECT and FROM removed, it formats properly!

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/*
Plain SQL Formatter -- Friday, April 30, 2021 10:39:45 AM
Length:     408
Elapsed:    2ms 176µs 200ns
*/

schemas.name AS SchemaName, tables.name AS TableName, columns.name AS ColumnName, types.name AS DataTypeName, columns.max_length, columns.precision, columns.scale, columns.is_nullable 
	INNER JOIN sys.columns ON tables.object_id = columns.object_id 
	INNER JOIN sys.types ON types.user_type_id = columns.user_type_id 
	INNER JOIN sys.schemas ON schemas.schema_id = tables.schema_id 
WHERE tables.is_ms_shipped = 0;


















5. PT Notepad with Regex Support


PlainText Notepad with Regex Support is simple and fast text editor with regular expression (regex) search and replace and syntax highlighting for 40 programming languages. It another original to CPPT, and found nowhere else. It loads with the current clip on the clipboard.














6. Hex Editor

Free Hex Editor is a tool that can open any file in their raw format, examining the bytes (hexadecimal values) that make up the file.  The tool is written in C/C++ make it super fast to open large files. It has been customized to load the last clip on the clipboard on startup.
You can edit inspect system files, disks, disk images, memory, and log files; patch errors, and examine disk structures. Be cautious with this tool! Changes are irreversible




























Update Frhed Version 1.7.3.+  available in version 4.2 of CPPT

Great for web developers 


Added super fast Base64 encoding and decoding feature with MIME image support. 


Image files with extensions (.BMP, .GIF, .ICO, .JPEG, .JPG, .PNG, .SVG., .TIF, .TIFF, .WEBP) will included the proper Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) type for those supported images. 

data:image/png;base64, iVBORw0KGgoAAAA ...

So supported  images will be Base64 encoded with following prefix in the file export. Take for example a Base64 encoded .PNG will look like; 


Other of image types examples are image/jpeg, image/png, and image/svg+xml.

Note: MIME is type of Internet standard originally developed to allow the exchange of different types of data files through e-mail messages, and used to set "Content-Type:" as well.  Some refer to this as a 'media type' or MIME type is a standard that indicates the nature and format of a document, file, or assortment of bytes. It is defined and standardized in IETF's RFC 6838.



7. Mouse Keyboard Tester 

Mouse Keyboard Tester tests for stuck keys and malfunctioning mouse. A unique feature is that it measure the distance between to points onscreen in pixels. So you graphics designers can use this as a on-screen ruler. The "Delta" column measure distance between mouse clicks, as indicated by red arrow. This is an original app and included in CPPT.



8. Character Map

Character Map allows you to get any Unicode character from most languages around the world. This is a shortcut to this built-in app that comes with Windows. 























9. UNiCode Interpolator 

Unicode Interpolator  allows you to interrogate characters in the lower Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) plane less than 0xFFFF and upper BMP plane from 0xFFFF to 0x10FFFF. Note display of characters is limited to the font chosen. You can choose fonts to display your Unicode plane. You can download additional well supported families/typefaces, Noto / Source Han Sans (same typeface, two names) by Google, Adobe and partners has the largest character coverage currently, and is still being actively developed. There are over 77,000 characters in the Noto font set. You can thank Microsoft OS for an open system to add fonts.

Unicode Interpolator is 1st tool to search, find and copy and HTML5 Named Entity Encodes, the most popular being   or Non-Breaking Space. You can search by name "Non-Break Space" as well in the extended search. 

Search for Webdings, Wingdings, Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3 character code groupings. 


Update Unicode data from official sources:  http://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/ and https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/named-characters.html#named-character-references

This replaced Task Manager on the Powertools sub-menu. 





10. Notepad 2, with regex and language awareness

Notepad2 is a free and open-source text editor for Microsoft Windows, released under a BSD software license. It was written by Florian Balmer using the Scintilla editor component, and it was first publicly released in April 2004. It is written in C, and is super fast to start-up.  Has been customize to load clipboard on start.






Open source code available here  https://github.com/XhmikosR/notepad2-mod

11. 
Windows File Manager (WinFile.exe) 

Windows File Manager (WinFile.exe) was last seen in WinXP.  Windows File Manager (WinFile) was superseded by Windows Explorer in Windows ME, 7 and 10. Especially useful, is the ability work on with Windows long paths (> 260 length - explained here) , especially on Windows 7 and versions of before 
Windows 10 1909 Release.






























WinFile is open source project sponsored by Microsoft and builds available for Windows 7,10 here - https://github.com/Microsoft/winfile

 

New to v5.0 ---------

12. Pixel Ruler 


Pixel Ruler can be size veritcal or horizontally to measure anything on your screen.

Pixel Ruler shortcuts:

Space and Double click :: Will toggle direction of Ruler either vertically or horizontally
Arrow keys :: move Ruler (+ Shift for small step)
Ctrl + Arrow keys :: resize Ruler (+ Shift for small step)
Ctrl + S :: open resize form




13. Screen Color Picker

Sample a color anywhere on your screen, outputs HTML, RGB, RGBH, HSL, HSLA color formats. Translates between them as well. Choose from HTML named colors like "AliceBlue". 

























14. Unit Conversion Calculator

100+ quantities with 1200+ units to covert between metric and British/American Imperial system. Integrated and improved from (https://github.com/angularsen/UnitsNet).





15. SysInternals Process Explorer

Downloads and runs the latest Sysinternals Process Explorer. Never miss running the most update-to-date version. 

Initially this will download  from https://live.sysinternals.com/procexp.exe but you must have internet connection. Thereafter, if the internet is down or interrupted it will run the previous downloaded version renamed prev_procexp.exe located in directory C:\Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Temp. So note, if you run DiskCleanup you'll erase this copy.





16. SysInternals Autoruns

Downloads and runs the latest Sysinternals AutoRuns. Never miss running the most update-to-date version. 

Initially this will download from 
https://live.sysinternals.com/autoruns.exe but you must have internet connection. Thereafter, if the internet is down or interrupted it will run the previous downloaded version renamed prev_autoruns.exe located in directory C:\Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Temp. So note, if you run DiskCleanup you'll erase this copy.




17. IP Subnet Calculator

IP Subnet Calculator handles conversions between IPv4 and IPv6, and calculates sub-nets for each.















18. Clipboard Viewer

For Windows 8,10, launches a clipboard viewer build from ReactOS project. For Windows 7, launches native viewer.




19. Snipping Tool

Launches built-in Windows app, Snipping Tool in non-freeze mode, especially Windows 7. Never before undocumented command line switch SnippingTool, I first discovered for this tool. 










20. ASCII Art Tool

Takes a word(s) and outputs ASCII art in 77 formats.










20. Pongr Game

Well every tool needs a game & Easter egg.

New to v5.1 ---------

21. Launch Emacs

The Emacs Web Browser (Eww) is a very basic and fast text/image browser.
Flash and Javascript are not supported which gets rid of ads. Videos not supported.

Copy your favourite URL and select Launch Emacs with the URL.



Prerequisite 


22. Launch Netspresso Lite

A .NET CSharp specific regular expression editor, tester and code generator. C# implementation is not compliant to PERL standard for regular expressions. This tool highlights those differences and  notably builds a substitutions tree for Regex.Replace. I built this since no other tool provides this functionality. and  not provisioned by .NET. See my blog post (https://bit.ly/38c9C7F) on the .NET limitation of this and my workaround.

Features: 

  1. Match highlighted and easy to traverse node tree
  2. Replacement highlighted and easy to traverse node tree
  3. Control characters are shown in node trees
  4. Zero matches indicated as 'empty'
  5. Generate -> View All matches
  6. Generate -> View All replacements
  7. Generate code for C# matches with groups, a match, split and Regex.Replace.