Lightening for Windows

Lightening is a free, multifunctional program that is designed to save you time performing common tasks while you work with your computer.

After installation, a helpful tour introduces users to each feature and its basic usage. The neat, multipaneled main interface houses a number of useful features, including a Clipboard manager, frequently-used document list, a screen-capture tool, and a reminder tool. The program is very comprehensible even for novices, and you can quickly hide and unhide its skinnable interface by using hot keys.

The Clipboard tool extends the Windows Clipboard functionality by saving up to seven clip items. From the Execute panel, you can quickly execute programs by typing just the first few letters of the name of the program on the text box. The Temporal Files feature allows you to add your commonly-used documents in a list, and we were impressed with the quick file launch by simply clicking the name of a document in the list. The program also can capture screenshots of an active window or the whole screen by using hot keys, but images can be saved in Bitmap format only. There is a simple but handy reminder feature that lets you create to-do lists, but the tool lacks an alarm for each task.

Overall, this freeware is easy to use and offers a number of useful tools that can help simplify your common computer tasks.