AppShelf tracks software licenses
Today's Best Tech Deals
Picked by Macworld's Editors
Top Deals On Great Products
Picked by Techconnect's Editors
-
Kedisoft AppShelf 1.5.2
GemFest 2009
- GemFest 2009 begins
- AirRadar surveys your wireless signals
- Application Wizard makes program...
- AppShelf tracks software licenses
- Add an OS 9-like app menu to OS X with...
[Editor’s note: The following review is part of Macworld’s GemFest 2009 series. Every day until the end of June 2009, the Macworld staff will use the Mac Gems blog to briefly cover a favorite free or low-cost program. Visit the Mac Gems homepage for a list of past Mac Gems.]
I’m a technology writer and avid Mac user, so third-party software is an essential part of my work. To verify this, you need look no further than my e-mail inbox, which is littered with licensing and registration information for hundreds of applications that I’ve accumulated over the years. I’d made a practice of hoarding them up in a separate mailbox, which made them easier to track. However, that was far from the ideal solution. AppShelf is just what I’ve been looking for.
When you launch AppShelf for the first time, it mandates that you create a master password, which it then asks for upon every subsequent launch. If you frequently let other people use your Mac and are concerned about the theft of your application licenses, this is an important addition for you. It would, however, have made more sense to allow the option to disable the master password.
The interface consists of a list of applications in alphabetical order on the left and the details for the selected application on the right. It’s worth noting, however, that AppShelf doesn’t automatically scan your application folder and add your installed applications to its list; they have to be added manually. A toolbar at the top houses a couple of buttons to add or remove entries and another to launch the selected application. There’s also a helpful search field that makes it easier for those with exceptionally large collections to get to a particular application.
The registration details screen stores information such as the application name; software developer’s Web site; the purchased version, date, and price; and the registered name, e-mail, and serial key. As mentioned earlier, you can also attach license files for those applications that require them simply by selecting the Attachments tab and dragging them in.
The only thing that AppShelf doesn’t offer is a way to sync its data between multiple Macs via MobileMe or any other method. Even with that little caveat, though, AppShelf remains a simple and intuitive application that does the job it sets out to do with aplomb. If you need to track licenses and registration information for a large number of applications, AppShelf is a great way to do so.
Want to stay up-to-date with the latest Gems? Sign up for the Mac Gems newsletter for a weekly e-mail summary of Gems reviews sent directly to your inbox.
[Aayush Arya is a journalism student from India and regular contributor to Macworld. His online haunts include his blog, Penned Thoughts, and his Twitter feed .]
GemFest 2009
GemFest 2009 features great free and low-cost software for your Mac.
Increasingly, the airwaves around us are a jungle of competing wireless signals. Koingo Software’s...
Application Wizard--which operates as an OS X System Preferences pane--displays four colored...
If you need to track licenses and registration information for a large number of applications,...
If you who miss the OS 8/9-style application menu, two programs, ASM and multiXFinder, aim to fill...
If you’d prefer a simpler way to work with disk images, Click Archive is one such solution.
This program aim taps into iPhoto's Faces feature so you can attach images to Address Book entries.
GlimmerBlocker is an ad blocker that is safe to install because it doesn’t hack Safari.
If you find yourself inundated with a huge assortment of documents that are difficult to track, a...
FileBrowse is a beautiful, well-made media browser program, though how useful you find it will...
Zipeg is a free utility that’s useful to keep around as a complement to OS X’s built-in archiving...
If you juggle work all day and find yourself switching from one set of apps to another, you can...
Wx is a meteorological program that is for anyone who’s serious about the weather.
If you regularly receive winmail.dat files from business associates, Letter Opener is well worth...
Riverfold Software's Clipstart is to video clips what iTunes is to music, or iPhoto is to digital...
Do you find the standard OS X Address Book too limiting? If so, BdContacts might be just the...
Typically, while using your Mac’s iSight camera with one program, you can’t use it with another....
Have you ever wondered what a non-Apple software installer actually installs? Or what files a...
If you work extensively at cooking or event planning, or you’re just intensely organized and...
Digital Sentry is an aptly named program that monitors your computer for any of a number of events.
This simple program aims to fix the problem of lost or forgotten warranties by providing you with...
Full-featured accounting programs like QuickBooks can seem overwhelming and complicated. For...
Monitor is a small and lightweight freeware application that seeks to put these regularly visited...
Precipitate is a System Preference pane that lets Spotlight search your Google Docs, Google...
Tweetube is a complementary app to the third-party service of the same name that allows you share a...
Yum 3.0.7 is a solid, no-frills recipe manager, but its lack of some key features may have you...
If you want to use the same custom location several times in iMovie '09, you can use...
If you tend to put all your events, appointments, and client meetings in iCal, TimeTable can help...
DeskCover is a free program that adds a customizable background behind the icons on your desktop.
Instead of logging in and out of different user accounts on your Mac, rooSwitch lets you switch...
Whether you’ve deleted photos, reformatted your media card, or had a card go bad, Klix recovers...
Photo Wrangler makes it easy to quickly scan through a folder of photos and sort them into separate...
Rife as Mac OS X already is with slide-show capabilities, PhotoPresenter builds onto those and puts...
For image editing, Sumo Paint offers many Photoshop standbys. And best of all, this Web-based...
With ViewIt, you can simply drop your camera’s photos onto the ViewIt window, view and mark what’s...
You’ve probably heard about the Faces feature in iPhoto ‘09 that makes it quick and easy to find...
As great as video sharing Web sites like YouTube are, they often don’t allow you to directly...
Shape Collage turns a collection of photos into a collage of practically any shape, whether you’re...
Aquafadas’s PulpMotion produces professional multimedia presentations that are anything but...
When you want to create iTunes playlists based on tempo or need to find the BPM of your songs,...
VideoDrive aims to make video conversions easy.
Cooliris is a super-handy browser plug-in that lets you scope out images and video content in a...
SousChef is a recipe organizer with an iTunes-RSS feed sensibility that can help you get your meal...
If you have an even moderately large media library and like the idea of having everything neatly...
As a grand finale to GemFest 2009, here’s a list of some of our all-time favorite Mac Gems.