Windows 7: Free utility Taskbar Items Pinner adds pre-defined or user-defined folders, files, and even web pages to the Windows 7 taskbar.

Adding one of the pre-defined folders (like, say, your Recycle Bin) is easy enough: Just run the app and tick the checkbox next to the folder. Adding other folders, files, or webapps requires a little more work, but is still pretty simple. Browse to the path of the item you want to pin, add an app icon (as FreewareGenius points out, you actually have to choose your icon for everything you pin, which is a little annoying), and click the big Add Item button.

We’ve detailed a software-free method to pin any item to the Windows taskbar that requires a little more work, but this is a nice alternative.

Taskbar Items Pinner is a free download for Windows 7 only.

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Windows only: You’ve probably tested your internet connection speed (I’ve always preferred Speakeasy’s Speed Test) and have a pretty good idea of your broadband speed, but free Windows app LAN Speed Test measures the speed of data transfers on your home network.

If you’re sharing files or streaming videos over your local network, your network speed is a pretty important factor to keep an eye on, and if you feel like your network’s not up to snuff, a quick test may help you figure out if you need to replace or upgrade your router. LAN Speed Test tests how quickly data can travel between computers over your network. It takes a little figuring out to use, but how-to blog MakeUseOf has instructions to get you started. MakeUseOf demonstrates how to use the completely free 1.1 version, but the application also has a newer version that has limitations unless you pay.

LAN Speed Test is a free download for Windows only

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Windows 7 only: System tweaking utility Alt+Tab Tuner customizes everything about the Windows 7 Alt-Tab dialog, from setting the transparency to increasing the size of the thumbnails.To customize the settings, all you have to do is unzip and launch the utility, drag the sliders to suit your preferences, and click the Apply button. You can even use the utility to switch back to the old XP-style Alt+Tab dialog if you were so inclined. Alt+Tab Tuner is a free download for Windows 7 only.

If you aren’t happy with the built-in Alt+Tab system, and even tweaking it won’t help, make sure to check out the awesome VistaSwitcher alternative, which even includes the Alt+` key combination to switch between specific application windows.

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Windows 7 only: If you’re not into Windows desktop gadgets, there is another way to easily monitor your computer’s CPU and RAM: Taskbar Meters puts simple, attractive resource monitors right on your Windows 7 Taskbar.

Taskbar Meters contains two programs that you can pin to your taskbar—one that monitors CPU, one that monitors RAM. Each has a colored bar that shows how much of that resource you are using, complete with color coding. In the program’s preferences, you can decide how often to update the meter and what percentage of usage constitutes “yellow” and “red” colors on the taskbar. Each icon also has a jumplist that lets you easily open up Task Manager or Resource Monitor to get a more detailed report.

Taskbar Meters is a free download, Windows 7 only.

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Windows only: AVG 9 Free—one of the most popular free antivirus apps on the market—is now available for download.

A couple weeks back, the popular antivirus maker AVG released AVG 9 with performance improvements and other updates, but on launch only the commercial version of AVG 9 was available. The fact of the matter is that most AVG users are probably using AVG Free, the freeware version of the app, so if that’s the case for you, good news: AVG 9 Free is now ready for download.

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Microsoft offered up a Technical Preview of its web-based Office offerings yesterday, but the invites are long since gone. The good news is that anyone who can get a Windows Live sign-in will eventually have access to stripped-down office apps.

ReadWriteWeb notes that a limited preview is being offered to “partners” at the moment, with greater beta availability coming this fall. In the preview, Word documents are read-only, but can be shared and commented on, while PowerPoint and Excel’s web versions allow for some basic online editing by anyone the creator gives access to.

Windows Live blogger Brian Hall notes that the apps will have more functionality in their final releases, and utilize the free Windows Live SkyDrive as a storage and sharing framework for the documents.
Eventually, Office Web Apps will be available to anyone using Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, and other Live services.

Want a shot at earlier availability? Sign up for a beta preview at the Office 2010 site.

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Windows: If you don’t want to spend time micro-designing an icon and you’ve already got a source image, SimplyIcon makes creating your buttons and icons a drag-and-drop matter.

Download the SimplyIcon package, extract the executable and DLL file to a folder, run the program, and you’re presented with a simple dialogue box and the instructions to drag and drop an image onto it. Once you drag and drop the image, SimplyIcon creates a variety of icon files in various sizes—up to 128×128 if you source image is large enough.

You won’t find any image editing tools or tweaks on SimplyIcon, it accepts whatever image you drag into it and cranks out an icon file. If that’s good enough for you, it’s definitely a download you’ll want to keep stashed in your home folder.

SimplyIcon is free, Windows only, and requires .Net 2.0 Framework or higher. Have a favorite icon creation tool of your own? Share it in the comments.

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