Direct downloads for cnet/download.com (no webinstaller)

Despite the ads in the search results, download.com used to be one of my favorite software download sites. Cnet Installer has changed that. Instead of the actual software, you’re getting a link to a webinstaller from cnet, which has to be run to start the real download. Firstly, this is unnecessary and a waste of time. Since webinstallers tend to collect and send info about your system and installed software, it’s also a potential security/privacy breach. But the most annoying aspect is cnet installer trying to pollute your system with crappy toolbars every time you use it.

Fortunately, there are some decent alternative dowmload sites, like Softpedia or Freewarefiles. But if you prefer download.com or need something which is only available there, there’s a solution. Userscript “CNET Download.com – NoBadware: Direct Download Links” does what it says, and injects links to the full installer on cnet pages.

The interesting difference:

This userscript works in Chrome/Iron and Firefox with Greasemonkey, but doesn’t seem to like Opera. And there’s one drawback: Some software authors host their downloads at cnet and only link from their own site. When you follow such a link, you get a page with “Welcome xy user…” on cent, and on those pages the userscript fails. But when you come from google or search on cnet directly, everything works fine.

Download Userscript: CNET Download.com – NoBadware: Direct Download Links

Artikel auf deutsch

Kingsoft Office: Change language (spell check)

Kingsoft Office 2012 is a nice freeware alternative for Microsoft Office with one great advantage: tabs. But there’s also a major drawback, Kingsoft Office doesn’t come with non-English dictionaries for its spell check. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible to change that – you can import a dictionary in your own language. I already wrote a post about how this task can done for German, this article is about all other languages.

Preparation:

At first you need a dictionary in your language, which has to be in .dic-format. Chances are, you already have one or more on your hard drive. Firefox, Open Office and many other applications use dictionaries in this format. Scan your hard drive with windows search or with an instant search tool like Everything for .dic-files. Usable dictionaries come named like it_it.dic (for Italian) or vi_VN.dic (Vietnamese). If you found one, copy it to a folder of your choice.

If you weren’t lucky finding a proper .dic-file, you can try finding a dictionary in your language on this site. The downloads under “Spell-check dictionaries” are .cab-archives, which can be extracted with WinRar, 7-Zip or any other unpacker. An alternative download source for dictionaries can be found here. The files linked are mostly archives, from which you only need to extract the .dic-file. .oxt-files need to be renamed to .zip to extract them.

If this approach also fails, just try to google for a .dic-dictionary in your language.

Import the dictionary in Kingsoft Office: 

If you managed to find a proper dictionary file, open it in Kingsoft Office as shown in the video and set it as default:

After importing, you need to open a document in your language to find out, if the dictionary works like expected. If not, you can disable or delete it from the same dialog window where you imported. After that you can try other .dic-files.

Update: After a commentator pointed out, that the german dictionary from here and from Open Office did not work as good as expected, I added the superior dictionaries from the freeware text editor PSPad as link. If you’re a programmer, take a look at PSPad too.

Artikel auf deutsch

Fix: Middleclick in Firefox suddenly stops working

I’m used to open tabs in firefox by clicking on links with the middle mouse button. Yesterday this method stopped working. My first thought was, the latest Firefox update or a tab-related addon had to be responsible. But that wasn’t the case. After some cursing I stumbled upon the reason in the reviews of lately updated addons. As commenter bucky points out, Greasemonkey 0.9.10 and Tab Mix Plus are conflicting. The developers of Greasemonkey are already providing a bugfix release, which is not yet reviewed by Mozilla, so updating via the addon manager won`t work. If you got mentioned problem and want your middleclick to work again, grab Greasmonkey 0.9.11.

Artikel auf deutsch