dotSpot

If you don’t really enjoy installing Windows too often, you’re probably keeping it clean and tidy. However, this can become a complicated and time-consuming activity, especially when having to do with multimedia files. On the other hand, applications like dotSpot want to make it easy to create a clean collection.

The application is good to go from the moment download is finished, because it can fully function without being installed. However, it does require .NET Framework for this to be possible, so you need to make sure it is a part of Windows. Other than that, the target PC remains intact, since registries are not a dependency.

Your workspace is similar to that of file explorer, with a side panel providing quick access to custom locations, while the center area is where thumbnails of files are found. There are multiple view types, with the possibility to bring up a description pane, which lets you view EXIF and general info, and rate files.

Pictures and videos are the elements you get to work with, but management is done through folders, so you can’t pick items individually from the whole computer. There is, on the other hand, an option to browse through any connected external devices to easily extract pictures and clips.

A bit of editing is involved as well, but this is only as far as images are concerned. Apart from sepia or black and white filters, there aren’t any other effects you can apply, other than a set of sliders for basic color and lighting manipulation.

The application comes with a couple of extra tools to make things easier. For instance, you can have a backup of the library created at the press of a button, or two folders configured for a simple synchronization process, skipping you some time and effort from manually copying files.

All things considered, we come to the conclusion that dotSpot is a lightweight, but practical application that can be used to create an organized database of multimedia files. However, it feels a little rough around the edges, with no options to move items to custom categories, and editing options are rather shallow. In spite of all this, its simplicity makes it worth a try.