By Jonathan Plutchok

Welcome back to the Tool Bar & Grill, where you can find a valuable new Windows utility or Web site twice a month.

George Prints His File Lists

George is a good ole boy. I think of George as a redneck – except he’s a Yankee, Jewish, well-read, cultured, and basically decent at heart. OK, so maybe he’s just a redneck wannabe, like me, with our shared love of country music. But if you cross George, like a redneck, he can be merciless.

I don’t worry about that anymore. I’m on George’s good side, ever since I solved a problem for him with Karen’s Directory Printer. This sophisticated tool does just what it says, and much more. You can print any information about any folder or the files in it (including subfolders and network drives), or save it to a file. You can filter the list, sort by name, extension, size, or date, and add some limited formatting.

I use Karen’s Directory Printer for many purposes, including printing the contents of my country & western MP3 discs for the CD liners. A number of similar utilities are available, but Karen’s is one of the slickest and most versatile I’ve seen.

You can get Karen’s Directory Printer for free at http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp (Karen Kenworthy is a computer writer). While you’re at Karen’s site, scan the long list of other clever little utilities on offer. They all are offered for free, but donations are accepted by credit card or PayPal.

Got Time On Your Hands?

Another essential on all my computers is TClockEx, a free utility that enhances the Windows taskbar clock. Would you rather squint at the time…

…or really see the time, day, and date big and bold, in the format you choose:

With TClockEx, you can customize the time display to your heart’s content. You can specify the time and date elements to display, and set the font, size, color, and background (my scheme above is one example).

A configurable tool tip shows the full date. You can copy the date and time to the clipboard. TClockEx also can show memory usage in a bar across the bottom.

One click pops up a handy monthly calendar, whose appearance you also can change (click actions are configurable, too). The right-click menu offers some handy shortcuts for arranging open windows, tool bars, and Windows notifications.

You can find TClockEx at the author’s site, http://www.rcis.co.za/dale/tclockex, or at PC World and many other download sites. Note: To donate securely by credit card or PayPal, open the credit card button on the author’s site in a new window (Shift-click in Internet Explorer) or new tab (Ctrl-click in Firefox or Opera). If you just click, the donations page is not secure.

That's it for now. Please post comments and suggestions below, or write to . And check back here on October 25 for another review of useful tools.