Monthly Disk August 2010

Freeware

Anti Virus

Immunet Protect - Ver: 2.0

As reviewed by CNet :-

"Common Windows security wisdom says it's a bad idea to run multiple antivirus apps simultaneously. Generally that's true, but Immunet 2.0 intends to play nice with your existing protection and bolster it with help from the cloud and the crowd.

Immunet's latest update introduces new scanning tools, detection engines, and support in a bid to persuade users that the program is the spackle they need to plug the holes in their security wall.

Installation and setup
The installation of Immunet 2.0 asks for registration, which you can skip to avoid sending your data up to the cloud without adversely affecting your security. However, the cloud-based defences work better as more people contribute their data. This is a common defence tool from security vendors.

Immunet opts you in to the Ask toolbar and default search engine switch, so users who don't want them should go through the install process carefully. Otherwise, the installation process is straightforward and simple.

Interface
The interface is a blue wall behind three columns that provide access to Community, Computer, and Product settings. On the far left side of the interface, Immunet quietly informs you of your other installed antivirus program, while on the far right there are two bars keeping track of CPU and memory usage

The new Immunet interface puts a lot of information at hand, but navigating within it could be smoother. (Note that the screenshot is from an release candidate and the yellow 'RC2' won't appear on the version you can download.)

Annoyingly, much of the interface uses text that comes in varying shades of blue, which can make it harder to read than it should be. We also found that switching screens within Immunet, as well as tooltips, were slow to respond to clicks and mouse-overs.

Features and support
Similar to PC Tools' ThreatFire, which didn't originally address virus-related threats but does now, Immunet seeks to present a lightweight method to enhance already-installed protection.

On features alone, there's no doubt that Immunet 2.0 is a better product than its predecessor. The free version offers a new cloud-based detection engine called ETHOS, a heuristics engine that offers on-demand scanning, in-product updates, a visual representation of the Immunet community, a silent gaming mode, and a stream from the Immunet security blog.

Immunet also offers a bit of exploration of the program's community network, with an interactive visual representation of the friends that you're connected to. (Note that the screenshot is from an release candidate and the yellow 'RC2' won't appear on the version you can download.)

There's also an unusual amount of attention paid to user-support issues for a free program, with free 24-7 telephone support. The service includes installation problems, assistance with potential virus issues, and sluggish computer performance that may not be virus-related. E-mail support has been dropped from this version in favour of online forums.

The new scanning tools come in the three standard flavours: the quick Flash scan, Full, and Custom. The Flash scan, which checks out only processes and the Registry, took just more than one minute to finish, while the full takes much longer because it checks your entire computer. Immunet doesn't lock you into a running scan, so you can hide it and use other parts of the program. However, Immunet restricts rootkit scans to its paid upgrade, sacrificing some of your security.

Immunet's new scans give the program much more appeal than before, but they do limit rootkit scans to the paid version. (Note that the screenshot is from an release candidate and the yellow 'RC2' won't appear on the version you can download.)

The History window, under the Computer column, provides a reasonably in-depth accounting of what Immunet's been up to. This includes an option to view by all file events, which essentially acts as an Internet traffic log. We're fans of exposing as much data as possible about security behaviour to users, but this could be improved by allowed users to access the folder location where the activity took place.

Performance
During a day of anecdotal testing, we noticed no unusual system slow-downs while running Immunet concurrently with Avast. Third-party security performance benchmarks are not yet available, but it's highly unusual when running multiple security programs not to see even slight anecdotal sluggishness. This suggests that at least on the performance front, Immunet does do all that it claims.

Conclusion
At this point, there's no one feature in Immunet that's impressive enough to make it stand out against the competitive security field. What it does offer though is an extra dose of peace of mind for those users who feel, for whatever reason, that their current security just isn't enough."

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7

Norman Malware Cleaner - 2010

Norman Malware Cleaner is a Norman program utility that may be used to detect and remove specific malicious software (malware).

By downloading and running the program below it will clean an infected system completely :-

• Kill running processes that are infected
  
• Remove infections from disk (including ActiveX components and browser helper objects)
  
• Reveal and remove rootkits
  
• Restore correct registry values
  
• Remove references created by malware in hosts file
  
• Remove windows firewall rules for malicious programs
  

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7

Zillya! Antivirus - Ver: 1.1.2781.0

Zillya! Antivirus is a fast and reliable antivirus program. Security specialists created Zillya! Antivirus to let users get high quality, simple and reliable product.

Zillya! Antivirus detects and eliminates all kinds of viruses, worms, trojans and rootkits along with other malware that might make computer fail, cause system errors, reduce performance and might even destroy or expose to 3rd parties users' data.

Zillya! Antivirus has a separate module that detects and removes spyware and adware applications. This way Zillya! Antivirus reliably protects users from programs that are installed in a stealth way to collect personal information and / or display aggressive advertising.

Guardian is a real time monitoring system that detects viruses and other malicious programs that are trying to infect computer. Guardian is monitoring running processes and blocks and deletes 'on the fly' newly detected threats. Zillya! Antivirus scans and cleans e-mail attachments to make sure no malware is spread with e-mail. Zillya! Antivirus provides users with free customer support. Give Zillya! Antivirus a try to fully assess its capabilities!

Here are some key features of "Zillya! Antivirus" :-

Protection from spyware and adware:
Zillya! Antivirus has separate program modules that are responsible for detection and removal of spywares and adwares. Zillya! Antivirus protects you from programs that are secretly trying to penetrate into your computer in order to gather confidential information and /or show aggressive advertising.

Real-time protection:
Patrol - is a system of checking in real time, is used to detect viruses and other malicious programs that try to penetrate into your computer. It monitors running processes, effectively blocks and removes threats in passing, prevents the infection. Patrol is making real time scan of full changes which were made by user or system. If any infected item detected, it is showing alert and asking what to do with it.

Scan modes and scan scheduler:
Zillya! Antivirus has three modes of scanning (quick, full and custom) and the possibility to schedule the scans. Each mode of scanning is performed with certain parameters in accordance with the purpose of the regime. Quick scan — express check of most sensitive areas of the system. Full scan - makes full system scan. Custom scan - you create your own plan of scan, you. Can choose what to scan - hard drive, removable media, CD. After scan, Antivirus proposes to do certain actions with detected infected items: fix, quarantine, delete, ignore.

Mail scan:
Zillya! Antivirus scans mail for the virus presence. This is helping to prevent viruses attached to e-mails came to customer's PC. This function is making incoming and outgoing mail scans.

Office documents scan:
Zillya! Antivirus scans all types of Microsoft Office documents for the malicious software.

Downloaded information scan:
Zillya! Antivirus scans all files downloaded from Internet by Internet Explorer. This feature is protecting customer's PC from harmful software coming from the net.

Advanced Tools:
Zillya! Antivirus is provided with additional modules: Startup Manager and Task Manager. Startup Manager helps you to see a list of applications that run at the system's startup. And Task manager helps to see the applications and processes that are running in the system. These options extend the program functionality and help the user better control all the processes in the system.

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 256Mb RAM for Windows XP,
512Mb for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Audio

aTunes - Ver: 2.0.1

aTunes is a full-featured audio player and organiser. aTunes supports mp3, ogg, wma, wav, flac and mp4 files and allows users to edit tags, organise music and rip audio cds easily.

• Supported formats: mp3, ogg, wma, wav, flac, mp4, ra, rm
  
• Online radio supported.
  
• Player engine: mplayer.
  
• Volume control, mute function.
  
• Karaoke function.
  
• Equaliser.
  
• Shuffle and repeat options.
  
• OSD (On-screen display).
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Free MP3 Joiner - Ver: 3.5

Free MP3 Joiner is designed to merge multiple MP3 files into one larger MP3 file within seconds. It gets selected audio files joined efficiently, without recompressing or quality loss.

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ 7

Kat CD Ripper - Ver: 3.5

Kat CD Ripper is an all-in-one music device designed to extract Digital Audio tracks from an Audio CD into either WAV files or directly to compressed files like MP3 or OGG preserving the original quality of the sound.

This application meets the preferences of both advanced users and beginners due to an attractive user friendly interface and an increased ripping speed which requires only a few minutes for a complete CD extraction.

NOTE : This program will install the Download Energy Toolbar unless you opt out.

Minimum requirements: Windows all

MP3 Quality Modifier - ver: 1.3

The main purpose is to change the bitrate of your mp3 music collection in a really simple but intuitive way so that the file size can be dramatically reduced while the audio quality stays the same.

With this advantage it's possible to put more music on your mp3-player or just to save some disk space.

Even advanced tasks are possible: Downsampling, changing the used channels and so on. With the included presents it's simpler than ever before to manage all the provided settings.

Helpful for the concluding quality comparison is the generated summary that comes after a process because it truly points out the made change by illustrating the file size modification.

Features :-

• Change mp3 quality with just a few clicks.
  
• Really easy and intuitive interface.
  
• Retain common id3 tags (like title, artist etc.), original file date.
  
• Advanced options: detailed variable bitrate mode, sample frequency and so on.
  
• Concluding quality comparison: compare created files with original.
  
• Portable: extremely small, just one executable, no installation..
  

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ 2008/ 7

Spectrum Lab

Spectrum Analyzer with Waterfall Display and real-time audio processing Spectrum Lab started as a simple FFT program running under DOS a long time ago, but it is now a specialized audio analyzer, hum filter, frequency converter, data logger etc.

Spectrum Lab will help you analyse the spectrum of an audio signal via the PC's soundcard. The program also enables you to observe how the spectrum changes over the time by means of a "waterfall" display. It is intended mainly to be used for amateur radio experiments.

Here are some key features of "Spectrum Lab" :-

• Input can be taken from the soundcard, but the "audio utility" interface makes it possible to create an interface to any A/D converter you like (for example a PIC with serial interface). A plugin for Winamp allows to analyse audio streams from the internet (see download section).
  
• Besides the soundcard and the interfaces supported by the "audio utilities", SpecLab directly supports SDR-IQ and SDR-14 (by RFSpace, Inc), and PERSEUS (by Microtelecom s.r.l.).
  
• Demodulated output is usually sent to the soundcard, but can be sent anywhere else (including an MP3- or OggVorbis encoded stream using Winamp/Oddcast and a special Audio-I/O DLL, which acts as an input plugin for Winamp).
  
• Selectable and adjustable waterfall color palette allows you to change the contrast of the waterfall display during and after receiving spectrum lines ("contrast" & "brightness" - sliders)
  
• Frequency range can be adjusted while running, the old part of the waterfall display will automatically be re-drawn without stopping the audio processing.
  
• Special waterfall mode for "Radio Direction Finder" with colour-coded azimuth display, based on DF6NM's Wideband Direction Finder with Colour Encoded Spectrogram Display. Now with up to three "notches" (adjustable nulls in the synthesized antenna pattern) to suppress noise from certain directions.
  
• Special "multi-strip" waterfall mode for long term observation of relatively narrow bands
  
• Reassigned spectrogram for higher time- and frequency resolution, if certain conditions are fulfilled (since 2009-06)
  
• Support for image-cancelling direct conversion receivers ( quadrature input via stereo soundcard )
  
• Very sharp, FFT-based audio filters which can also be used to shift and invert frequencies, with auto notch, denoiser, etc. New (2007-02): Write your own plugin for the FFT filter !
  
• Waterfall display may run from top to bottom, or from right to left (good for HELL modes)
  
• Calculation of peak levels, peak frequencies, noise levels, effective values, SINAD, etc
  
• File logging and file analysis with WAVE files ( now with 'Triggered Audio Recorder' + pre-trigger option )
  
• Periodic or scheduled actions, for example to capture the screen as BMP or JPEG file
  
• Audio sample rates from 8000 to 192000 samples per second.
  
• 192 kS/second only tested with a few cards, using ASIO drivers and / or standard multimedia driver. With extra hardware (like software-defined receivers with high-speed USB interfaces), even higher sampling rates (and thus bandwidths) are possible.
  
• 16-bit ADC resolution giving about 90dB of input range (plus additional FFT gain!)
  
• 24-bit resolution possible with certain cards (tested with Audigy 2 ZS; 2004-05)
  
• Frequency resolution in the sub-milliHertz range (exceeding the stability of the soundcard's clock generator).
  
• FFT output is buffered in an array with adjustable size for long-term observations (with "scroll-back-in-time" while analysis continues). Furthermore, the FFT output can be recorded (exported) in various formats.
  
• Signal generators with selectable waveform, frequency, and optional modulation, plus noise generator
  
• Hum filter to remove 50 Hz (or 60 Hz) plus harmonics, based on Paul Nicholson's algorithm for a multi-stage comb filter with automatic tracking. If you are interested in improving your Natural Radio reception, read Paul's Notes on Domestic VLF Reception.
  
• Frequency converter to shift low "IF"-frequencies (e.g. 17.2 kHz) to audible tones (650 Hz, etc) in real-time. Can be used in a 'soft-VLF-RX'. Other demodulators in DSP-blackbox.
  
• Decoder for some time-code transmitters: MSF(60kHz), HBG(75kHz), DCF77 (77.5kHz) can now be used to set your PC clock to a high accuracy. All you need is your longwave receiver and the soundcard.
  
• Modulator and decoder for some 'experimental' digital communication modes like PSK31, BPSK, QPSK, FSK, multi-tone HELL, MSK (minimum shift keying since 2004-12), transmission and reception of letters with a small 'terminal' window.
  
• A DLL interface is available to use Spectrum Lab for new digital transmission modes (but not in use yet).
  
• Fast waterfall with up to 200 waterfall lines per second, making it possible to decode even fast Morse code by eye (though it wasn't intended for that, it's fun to watch)
  
• versatile export function (text-file based, for post-processing with Excel etc.). Brian, CT1DRP has used the export functions to create spectrograms and signal graphs of the 136kHz band.
  
• Built-in HTTP server so you can write a (simple) user interface for SpecLab in HTML (intended to be used in a LAN, not as a fully-fledged web server).
  
• Communication with other applications through a simple message-based system, which is also used by SpecLab to communicate with the RDF calculator (range-and-bearing calculator + map plotter, link may work on the main site only).
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Backup

Directory Compare - Ver: 3.34

Keep copies of your important directories in a backup hard disk any other storage system as well as in a compressed .zip file.

The Directory Compare application was designed to help you keep copies of your important directories (documents, programs under development and so on) in a backup hard disk or any other storage system (like 100Mb diskettes), as well as in a compressed .zip file. The backup may be made automatically (in unattended mode) or by using a friendly user interface.

Directory Compare is a kind or GUI version of cpy: it has far less options but its visual interface makes easier selective copies. For instance, modern compilers generate an incredible amount of auxiliary data, which speeds up compilation, but takes a lot of storage space. (For instance, the source files of Directory Compare are less than 100 Kb, but the auxiliary files generated by the compiler occupy 7,500 Kb!).

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ 7

Dmailer Backup - Ver: 3.1

PC World Editorial Review of Dmailer Backup :-

"Dmailer Backup is a bit unusual for a backup program in that it won't back up to an internal drive, only to external storage.

If you think about it, you shouldn't really be backing up to an internal drive anyway, as it's subject to the same physical dangers - shock and electrical, mostly - as the rest of your system. The program also includes 2GB of free online storage which, unlike with popular freebies Mozy Home and Fabrik Ultimate Backup Home, you can access via a Web browser. You may of course increase your online storage capacity to the tune of $35 per year for 30GB or $70 per year for unlimited data.

Dmailer Backup installs software both to the USB-connected external drive you define as the backup drive, and your PC. Obviously, the external drive must be present for the backups to transpire. Unfortunately, the program crashed once or twice when the external drive was removed and the manager software wouldn't launch until the drive was reinserted. This is understandable as the software is installed on the drive, but especially with the newer online component, it's both unintuitive and inconvenient. Dmailer-the-company claimed the crashes were due to conflicts with other backup software, however, I had no other backup software present on the test bed. The company also says it's working on a version that will launch when the external drive isn't present.

Other than the few non-replicable crashes and the decision not to launch the program when a external backup device isn't present, I found Dmailer Backup extremely competent. I like the fact that it uses the same data set you define for local backup as the starting point for your online backup and the way the program automatically selects common data files. Dmailer Backup also lets you filter by date, and by size. I find the date filter particularly useful as I've taken to backing up online only those files that I haven't backed up locally to an image.

Dmailer is well worth a look. It's far friendlier than Mozy or Fabrik, and it offers 2GB of free online storage that you can access from any Internet connection. The pay plans are competitive as well, so if you need to upgrade, there's little to complain about."

Minimum requirement: windows XP/ Vista/ 7

Desktop

Really Slick Screensavers - Ver: 0.2

From Major Geeks :-

"A collection of 3d accelerated screensavers. Majorgeeks usually does not list screensaver, but this author has been a friend of ours going back to websites before Majorgeeks.com, at least 12 years.

As he has updated all his screensavers, this download has all of his screensavers included :-

• Cyclone
  
• Euphoria
  
• Field Lines
  
• FLocks
  
• Flux
  
• Helios
  
• Hyperspace
  
• Lattice
  
• Microcosm
  
• Plasma
  
• Skyrocket
  
• Solar Winds"
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

SliderDock - Ver: 1.16

Review by PC World -

"SliderDock, a simple and good-looking program launcher, allows for creating one or more rings of shortcuts. You can pack plenty of icons into a given ring, and then use the mouse wheel to rotate the one you want to the front.

After SliderDock's quick installation, you'll be looking at a small circle, called the IconSeeker, on your desktop. To get started, drag and drop files or shortcuts onto the IconSeeker. Your first icon will sit in the middle of the IconSeeker, while additional ones will begin to form up a ring around it. The rear-most icons shrink in size to create a nice perspective effect.

Rotating the ring pulls a different icon into the IconSeeker, where it can be launched with a double-click or a configurable hotkey. Alternatively, you can right-click an icon in the ring and choose a SliderDock menu option to run it without having to rotate it first.

You can pack all your shortcuts into one giant ring, or instead create additional rings. For example, you might create one ring that contains only documents, and another for programs. A click of the middle mouse on the IconSeeker switches you to the next ring, as does a configurable hotkey (the up or down arrows by SliderDock default).

The simple but efficient SliderDock allows for changing the size of the rings and the icons, as well as icons used for the IconSeeker and shortcut backgrounds. You can also set your preference of hotkeys for about anything it does, and of course have it automatically hide until you call it forth. Some online tutorials will guide you through its features.

While SliderDock doesn't have advanced features such as automatically populating a ring with the current contents of your Desktop or a particular folder, it's a good-looking and easy-to-use option for quickly getting to your most-used programs and files. For another free launcher with a similar approach, see CircleDock.

NOTE : To uninstall this program cleanly, make sure to close it down before running the uninstallation process in Windows. It will not prompt you to do so."

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7

Vector Flower Patterns Theme - Ver: 1.0

This pleasant Windows theme provides five high-quality floral wallpapers and turns your window borders a nice rose colour. That's pretty much it... the theme uses Windows default sounds and doesn't affect icons or fonts.

Installation is simple; just download the theme pack file and double-click it to launch the Windows Personalization dialog box. You can customize the theme by selecting how long each wallpaper will appear in a slideshow, or choosing just one to use.

If you want to dress up your desktop with some original artwork rather than canned Microsoft themes, give Vector Flower Patterns a try.

Minimum requirements: Windows 7

ZScreen - Ver: 3.28.3.1

ZScreen application was designed to be a screen capture program that will allow you to capture region, window, full-screen screenshots.

It can upload screenshots, pictures, text & files and put the URL in your clipboard in a single keystroke.

Here are some key features of "ZScreen" :-

• Multiple-monitor support:
  Support for uploading screenshots/images to common Image Hosting Services Balloon tips, sounds, and ability to show cursor in screenshots Upload images from the File System via Clipboard upload or Drag n Drop Auto-update
  
• Watermarks
  
• Image Uploaders:
  ImageShack TinyPic Flickr ImageBam ImageBin TwitPic TwitSnaps YFrog Deki Wiki Custom Uploader Clipboard File
  
• Text Uploaders:
  Pastebin.com Paste2 Slexy 2.0 Pastebin.ca
  
• File Uploaders:
  FTP Server RapidShare SendSpace FileBin
  
• Text Services:
  Language Translator Directory Indexer
  

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ 7/ NET Framework 3

Digital Imaging

Fotografix - Ver: 1.5

An image editor that can be used for image enhancement and graphic design. Enhance photos, compose rich artwork, automate frequent tasks and more.

• Painting tools including Brush, Clone and Gradient; support for custom brushes
  
• Selection tools including rectangular/elliptical selection and magic wand
  
• Transformation tools including scale, rotate and flip
  
• Support for a large number of file formats, including Photoshop and GIMP files
  
• Layers and channels, including adjustment layers and masks
  
• Editable text layers
  
• Easy-to-use scripting language
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

ImageConvert - Ver: 1.9

Reviewed by: CNET staff on September 21, 2009

"ImageConvert is a lightweight and intuitive way to resize images and save them in different file formats. The program doesn't have a lot of features, but it's extremely easy to use and is good at what it does.

The program's interface is very simple, with all of its features displayed on one screen. The only time users have to open anything else is when they select the directory that contains their images. Once that's done, the program shows a list of file names, and users can convert all the images at once or work with them one at a time. From there, users can flip images vertically or horizontally, select color, black and white, or grayscale, and rotate images 90 degrees to the left or right. Select the dimensions if you want to resize your image, and then just click on the button for the appropriate file format; ImageConvert offers PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, ICON, TIFF, and WMF. The program converts the image and you're done.

Although the program's features are minimal, it's just right for users who need to do quick conversions or resizes without fiddling with a bunch of options. The program has no Help file, but we have trouble imagining what anyone could possibly need Help with. Everything about the program is obvious and easy.

ImageConvert is free. It installs politely and uninstalls cleanly. We recommend this program to all users who need a fast and simple way to resize and convert their digital images."

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista

VSO Image Resizer - Ver: 4.0.0.30

The VSO free image resize software organises your photos by shrinking their resolution or moving them within your hard drive.

VSO Image resizer is the perfect tool for those who store their digital pictures and images on their PC and who want to resize, compress, convert, create copies, import or organise photos.

With this free resize image software, you can create e-mail friendly versions of your images, load them faster, move them easily from folder to folder, change their format, edit large numbers of image files/batch image resize and thus save space on your hard drive.

VSO Image resizer is integrated into the Windows explorer shell, right click on your pictures and start working on your pictures.

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Zoner Photo Studio Free - Ver: 12.0.1.8

Zoner Photo Studio Free is a handy photo manager that also includes a few editing tools to give your images that special final touch.

The interface in Zoner Photo Studio Free is divided into three main tabs: Manager, Viewer and Editor – all of them pretty self-explanatory. The Manager area works like Windows Explorer, with a tree-like structure of your image folders that helps you browse the contents with comfort. The Viewer is the perfect tool to view your photos in full screen, making use of the automatic slideshow function if you want to.

Last but not least, the Editor in Zoner Photo Studio Free includes a nice selection of editing, fixing and optimising tools, from basic ones such as like resizing, flipping or adjusting levels, to more advances ones, like a collection of artistic filters and effects.

Zoner Photo Studio Free is fairly easy to use and has a complete configuration menu that enables you customise just about any detail in the program. Having such an array of tools and options in Zoner Photo Studio Free may be overwhelming a first, but it’s really worth the effort.

With Zoner Photo Studio Free you can manage, view and edit your photos, all from a single application with a nicely-designed interface and lots of configuration options.

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7

Disk Tools

Acronis Drive Monitor - Ver: 1.0.0.187

Acronis® Drive Monitor™ is a free, downloadable software application developed by Acronis to monitor server, workstation and PC hard disk drives.

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 7

Auslogics Disk Defrag - Ver: 3.1.7.140

Get the best performance out of your expensive hardware investments, improve your PC's performance and stability.

Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startup and shutdown and sometimes to system failures.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimisations of today's modern hard disks. Get the maximum performance out of your expensive hardware investments. And it's absolutely FREE.

Hard disks are by far the slowest component in your computer. CPU and memory work much faster than hard disks because they do not have moving parts. Therefore fragmented disks often become a bottleneck of the system performance.

Besides causing slowdowns, fragmentation makes the hard drive disk heads move frequently when reading files which leads to freeze-ups and system crashes. It is important to keep your disks defragmented and optimised as much as possible.

Here are some key features of "Auslogics Disk Defrag" :-

• Improve computer performance and stability
  
• Increase your productivity - no more waiting for files to open
  
• Defragment disks in only a few minutes
  
• Useful disk fragmentation map and detailed fragmentation report
  

NOTE : Unless you opt out, the program will install it's own toolbar and will change your home page.

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 2008/ 7

S.M.A.R.T. Vision - Ver: 4.0

This program monitors S.M.A.R.T. values of your hard drive and will issue an alarm in case of a dangerous disk state.

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Email

G-Lock SpamCombat - Ver: 3.0 Build 1000

Spam emails have become an ever increasing problem, and nowadays it is practically impossible to use email without receiving spam in large amounts. G-Lock SpamCombat is your powerful solution for clearing your Inbox from spam, virus, and junk emails.

G-Lock SpamCombat is email filtering software that lets you eliminate all unwanted messages at the server level without receiving them with your email client.

One of the particularities of G-Lock SpamCombat is the capability to determine an email's "country-of-origin" and use this information to block messages from any specified country.

The connecting mail server's IP address is used by G-Lock SpamCombat to determine an email's country of origin. About a dozen countries are notorious for sending spam. China, Korea and Russia are among the top spam producing countries.

With the "Country-Of-Origin" filtering capability of G-Lock SpamCombat you can block all email originating from these countries with one mouse click. You can select yourself which countries to block and instantly reduce spam volumes.

Minimum requirements: Windows all

TrulyMail Client - Ver: 2.6.0

TrulyMail Client is an application that offers users the basic options of an email client.

Here are some key features of "TrulyMail Client" :-

• There is no spam in TrulyMail - only those people you know and trust ever get the chance to send you messages so you no longer have to worry about 'unsolicited emails' or spam.
  
• You know then sender of the message is the real sender - no more fake emails from PayPal or your bank trying to trick you into giving them your sensitive information.
  
• You know when your messages are delivered - TrulyMail is like your postman. When you send a message, he knows (and tells you) when it was delivered. Best of all, you can simply check the original message to see who has received your message and who has not.
  
• Your messages are completely private - TrulyMail messages are encrypted (assuming you have that feature on your account) so you know than only the intended recipient can read your message.
  

NOTE : You can buy some additional functionality, like encryption. Free accounts get all the benefits of TrulyMail without encryption.

Minimum requirements: Windows all/ .NET Framework 3.5

Entertainment

CopyTrans Manager - Ver: 0.906

Manage iPod and iPhone without iTunes: add, edit, organise and play your songs, videos and playlists.

Add songs to iPod and iPhone without iTunes: drag and drop songs and videos to iPod and iPhone; synchronise iPod instantly; apply changes immediately or at any desired moment.

Manage and create playlists on iPhone and iPod Touch. Create new playlists on any iPod, rename existing playlists, drag and organise songs into playlists. Play songs directly from iPod on any computer. Installable directly on iPod (except iPhone and iPod Touch). Compatible with all iPod models: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPod Touch 2G, iPod Touch, iPod Nano 1-5G, iPod Video, iPod Classic, iPod Shuffle 1-3G.

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 2008/ 7

Games

Mahjongg II - Ver: 1.1

Mahjongg games may not be all the rage, but that doesn't mean you can't play them. In fact, that might result in a bumper crop of free mahjongg games - and this simple, straightforward version of the game is a good example.

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista

Stained Glass - Ver: 1.1.0

Create a stained glass with matching colours.

In this game you need to put the tiles together to construct a stained glass. There's only one rule: when two tiles touch each other, the colours of the touching sides of the tiles must be the same.

There are a total of 3 stages, with increased number of tiles for each new level. Use the mouse to drag and put the tiles.

Minimum requirements: Windows all/ Flash Player

Home/Office

AceMoney Lite - Ver: 4.1.1

Reviewed by: CNET staff on June 08, 2009

"With AceMoney Lite, one can easily organize and track spending, build budgets, track investment performance, set up payment reminders and recurring bill payments, create reports and pie charts, and so much more, for free.

The program has an eye-friendly interface that is also fairly intuitive to use. To begin, just open the application, click on the account button for your one account, and provide all of the particulars as prompted. Once your account is set, you can manage your budget and set up categories from a
very long list of possibilities, which is helpful for reporting how you are saving or spending money. (You can also name your own category, which seems to work best if you just edit the name of an existing category you don't plan to ever need instead of trying to figure out how to set a completely
new category.) In some cases, you will automatically be taken to Yahoo Finance for information, where the information may or may not automatically repopulate your field in AceMoney Lite. You will need to consult the many Help menus to determine what is automatic and not, and how to make it so in the easiest way possible.

Although AceMoney Lite enjoys all of the features of the nonlite AceMoney, its disadvantage is that it is truly "lite" in that you can only manage one account. But for that one account, AceMoney Lite rivals well known (and often pricey) financial management programs in function and style, and is fairly easy to use, conserves your computer's resources, and steers well clear of pesky adware."

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Buddi - Ver: 3.2.2.10

Below is the author's description:-

"This utility will help you keep track of your personal expenses. Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting software that is aimed at those who have little or no financial background.

In making this software, I have attempted to make things as simple as possible, while still retaining enough functions to satisfy most home users.

Here are some key features of "Buddi" :-

Accounts:

• Accounts are the sources where you can transfer money to or from. They can include things such as a cheque account, a savings account, credit cards, or even your wallet!
  
• There are two main kinds of accounts: Credit and Debit (an accountant might call these liability and asset). Credit accounts, such as a credit card, are accounts which you owe money to; Debit accounts on the other hand, are accounts in which you have money.
  
• As long as the balances for the different accounts are positive, credit accounts are red, and debit accounts are black. (Note that if you owe money on a debit account, it will turn red; likewise, if you pay off all the money on a credit account, it will turn black.)
  

• Budget categories are where money comes from, or goes to. When you first start the program, there are a number of preset categories; these can be modified to better suit your needs.
  
• With each of these categories, you can enter the amount which you think you will spend (or, in the case of income categories, receive). This will be used in reports and graphs to show you how well you kept to your budget. As well, it can help in your monthly planning to ensure that you don't spend more money than you receive. The Budgeted Net Income / Month, shown at the bottom of My Budget screen, shows the difference between the budgeted income and expenses.
  
• There are two types of categories: Income and Expense. Income categories would include such things as your salary, interest earned, gifts received, etc. Expense categories are anything that you spend money on, such as groceries, fuel, etc.
  

• The transactions screen is where you will likely spend most of your time while using Buddi. In it, you define money transfers, either between accounts (for instance, withdrawing $20 from your savings account) or to budget categories (for instance, spending $100 on groceries, or getting your pay cheque for the month).
  

• Buddi includes a strong reporting system, which helps users monitor (and hopefully tame) their spending habits. The reports are pretty much self explanatory: you get to select a report and timeframe, and the results will pop up in a new window. As with all other windows, you can choose to print these for your own records.
  Some of the graphs and reports include:
  
• Textual breakdown of income and expenses, compared with the budget estimates
  
• Pie charts of expenses and income, over a given time period
  
• Breakdown of net worth, and changes in net worth over time
  

• As of version 1.8.0, Buddi will automatically keep a rolling backup of the most recently used data files. You can change the number of files to keep in the Preferences.
  
• To restore a previous backup, you can select 'Restore from Backup File' from the File menu. This will overwrite your existing file with the contents of the selected backup file. It is recommended that you make a copy of your data file beforehand.
  
• Buddi also supports having more than one data file. You can create new files, or load existing ones, from the File menu. Buddi automatically remembers the last one you had open at startup.
  

• The theory behind this is that you can create a Prepaid Liability account, which acts a virtual account - each month you can 'pay' yourself a certain amount, which is put into the liability account. This can accumulate over a number of months; when you spend that money, it is transferred out of the liability account and does not show up in your budget categories (since it has already been budgeted for each month when you paid yourself in the first place).
  

• Scheduled Transactions allow you to define repeating transactions which Buddi automatically inserts at the correct times. Some of the uses of this include bill payments, automatic savings, etc.
  
• To define scheduled transactions, use the Edit menu in the main Buddi window, and select "Edit Scheduled Transactions"."
  

Minimum requirement: Windows all/ Java 5.0

Google Earth - Ver: 5.1.7894.7252

Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean.

You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places, and share with others.

Google Earth features :-

• Historical imagery from around the globe
  
• Ocean floor and surface data from marine experts
  
• Simplified touring with audio and voice recording
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

MetarWeather - Ver: 1.64

MetarWeather will decode METAR weather reports from around the world, and display them in a very simple weather report table.

You can save the weather report into text, HTML or XML files.

MetarWeather can decode METAR reports from a text file, or download the latest reports directly from the Internet.

METAR ("Aviation Routine Weather Report") is an international standard for reporting the weather conditions in thousands of airports about the world.

The METAR weather reports are usually issued once per hour, but when there are significant changes in weather, the METAR reports are issued more frequently.

Each METAR report contains essential information about the current weather conditions: Temperature, Dew Point, Barometric Pressure, Wind Speed and Direction, Visibility, Clouds Cover, Current Weather (Rain, Thunderstorms, Hail, Snow and so on...), and more...

This utility is a standalone executable. You don't have to install anything, just run the executable file (mweather.exe) and start using it.

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Microsoft Small Basic - Ver: 0.9

Microsoft Small Basic is a project that is aimed at making computer programming accessible to beginners.

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7

PreviSat - Ver: 2.2.0.10

PreviSat is a satellite tracking program designed for observation purposes.

Minimum requirements: Windows NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista

Internet

Free YouTube Downloader Converter - Ver: 1.8

Free YouTube Downloader Converter allows you to download videos from YouTube. You also can convert YouTube videos to AVI, 3GP, MP4, MOV, WMV and other formats.

With Free YouTube Downloader Converter downloading + converting one-step solution, you can easily download YouTube FLV videos and convert them to play on your iPod, PSP, iPhone, Mobile phone, etc. Free YouTube Downloader Converter contains no spyware or adware. It's clearly free and absolutely safe to install and run.

Key Features :-

• One step to download YouTube videos and convert to other popular video formats.
  
• Just download and save the FLV videos on your local computer.
  
• Intelligent naming of downloaded Videos, no more cryptic FLV names.
  
• Allows you to access YouTube videos for which you need to be 18+ years of age.
  
• FLV Converter, convert FLV files on local disk to other videos formats.
  
• Converts video for Ipod, Iphone, PSP, Cell Phone, Windows Media, XVid and MP3 etc.
  
• Uses the FFmpeg engine to convert the videos.
  
• Free YouTube Video Download with a user-friendly and easy-to-use download interface.
  

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ 7

GINternet Explorer - Ver: 7.0.4.0

GINternet Explorer will enable you to easily and safely browse the Internet and also listen to your favourite music from a single interface!

Here are some key features of "GINternet Explorer" :-

• Has its own music player, so you can play, pause and even stop the song!
  
• Create your own playlists, and view all your music in its own library!
  
• Easy access to favourites, help, and other support!
  
• AutoComplete
  
• Integrated programs like Paint or AIM
  
• Has its own list of hyperlinks, click on them will take you instantly to the link!
  
• Popup Blocker.
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Lunascape - Ver: 6.1.5

"Lunascape is the world's first and only triple engine browser. It has been downloaded over 15 million times and it's available globally in 11 languages. Try it yourself the new kind of speed and versatility.

Lunascape is now compatible with the expanding array of Firefox add-ons in addition to the already supported Internet Explorer add-ons and Lunascape plug-ins, achieving the greatest degree of extensibility and flexibility among Web browsers. Transferring your add-ons from Firefox is very easy.

Lunascape6 achieves the utmost extensibility without compromising one of the fastest speeds in the market. You can browse lightning fast while enjoying ample add-ons. We've also made special effort in ensuring fast launch even with many add-ons.

A new interface mode, ORION, is added to version 6 as a default. This sleek minimalist interface has all the basic functions and will get you going in no time. You can still customize many aspects of interface to your liking.

Our unique Triple Engine keeps evolving. To better support web designers and developers, we have implemented “split tab display”. You can view a web page in 3 rendering engines side-by-side to easily check the browser compatibility."

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 7

MP3 Torpedo - Ver: 5.6.5

Reviewed by: CNET staff on March 08, 2010

"Sometimes we wonder how many peer-to-peer file-sharing programs the world really needs. There are a lot of them, and most of them are more or less the same.

MP3 Torpedo is yet another entry into the P2P field, and while it works just fine, we can't say that there's anything about it that makes it stand out. In fact, it's virtually identical to several other P2P clients we've reviewed recently.

The program's interface is plain and intuitive, and it will look familiar to anyone who's used any other mainstream file-sharing programs. MP3 Torpedo connects users to the popular Gnutella file-sharing network, which has plenty of users and media of all types. We found it very easy to search for and download a variety of different files with MP3 Torpedo, and we liked that the program offers a built-in audio player for previewing audio tracks. MP3 Torpedo doesn't have a ton of features, but it does have the standard P2P basics, including options for managing download speed and system performance. The program has no Help file, so P2P newbies are out of luck if they have questions, although everything is really pretty easy to figure out.

MP3 Torpedo is free. It installs a desktop icon without asking but uninstalls cleanly. We recommend this program to all users."

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Songbird - Ver: 1.7.3

Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web. Songbird is committed to playing the music you want, from the sites you want, on the devices you want, challenging the conventions of discovery, purchase, consumption and organisation of music on the Internet.

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista

Security

WebCruiser Web Vulnerability Scanner - Ver: 2.3.2

WebCruiser - Web Vulnerability Scanner, a compact but powerful Web security scanning tool that will aid you in auditing your site.

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Utilities

AutoRuns - Ver: 10.0

The AutoRuns utility has the most comprehensive display of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor. It shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them.

These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

Autoruns' Hide Signed Microsoft Entries option helps you to zoom in on third-party auto-starting images that have been added to your system and it has support for looking at the auto-starting images configured for other accounts configured on a system. Also included in the download package is a command-line equivalent that can output in CSV format, Autorunsc. You'll probably be surprised at how many executables are launched automatically!

Minimum requirements: Windows all

ClickOff - Ver: 1.83

ClickOff is developed to be the swiss knife for window handling, not just a simple popup blocker. Get ClickOff and take it for a test drive in order to fully assess its capabilities!

Here are some key features of "ClickOff" :-

• Automatically clicks button on error messages that come up all the time.
  
• Intuitive user interface.
  
• Closes browser popup's
  
• Minimises or maximises windows
  
• Delay times can be set to allow user intervention
  
• Single buttons can be disabled temporarily
  
• False clicks are avoided by taking the message text into the process of detecting.
  
• To close windows that contain certain words, wildcards can be used
  
• The scanning speed can be set
  
• Can be disabled for a short period or permanently without having to be exited.
  
• Has very low system resource needs, takes about 1 sec. to load and doesn't slow down the system while running.
  
• Has language file support
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

ClipboardFusion - Ver: 2.0.2

The ClipboardFusion application was designed to be a handy little tool that sits in your system tray and monitors your clipboard. When it finds any text on the clipboard it will “scrub” (or “clean”) that text, to remove all formatting.

This is great for copying and pasting text into emails, documents or anywhere else. You can also (optionally) remove all HTML tags from the clipboard text, which is excellent for copying and pasting things from the web, without getting all the extra markup. Anyone that uses notepad to scrub their text will love this application.

You can have ClipboardFusion automatically scrub text as it detects it, or you can manually scrub it by right-clicking on the system tray icon. When ClipboardFusion is scrubbing text the system tray icon will change, just to let you know it’s hard at work. ClipboardFusion can also display a handy popup that helps you preview the contents of the clipboard.

It can show previews of images along with HTML colour codes and colour hex values. Very helpful for all the web designers out there. With the image preview, you also have the option to save that image to your computer in a variety of formats - all without needing an extra image editing program.

Here are some key features of "ClipboardFusion" :-

• Remove Clipboard Text Formatting:
  ClipboardFusion scrubs text copied to the clipboard so that it can be pasted into different applications without formatting. It can be done automatically or with a customisable HotKey.
  
• Replace Clipboard Text:
  ClipboardFusion can replace clipboard text with pre-defined strings. Maybe you want to replace all '&' symbols with their HTML equivalent.

• Manipulate Clipboard Text with Powerful Macros:
  Create your own macros using C# in the integrated editor to perform completely customized transformations on your text. The power of the macros is only limited by your imagination.
  

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 2008/ 7/ .NET 2.0

Comodo Time Machine - Ver: 2.6.138262.166

Comodo Time Machine (CTM) is a powerful system rollback utility that allows users to quickly restore their computers to an earlier point in time.

CTM 'snapshots' are a complete record of your entire system (including the registry, critical operating system files and user created documents).

In addition, this application comes with an user-friendly interface that will provide easy access to all the functions of Comodo Time Machine. Additionally, it also features a sub-console that can be accessed before Windows starts and a Quick Operation console containing shortcuts to important and commonly executed tasks.

Here are some key features of "Comodo Time Machine" :-

• Easy to use - even beginners can quickly create system snapshots with a few mouse clicks.
  
• Provides instant and comprehensive system recovery after virus or spyware infections.
  
• Instantly reclaim your machine after devastating system crashes.
  
• Rollback the changes to ALL your documents - not just changes to system files and the registry.
  
• Boot-up console allows you to rollback even when your system will not boot to Windows.
  
• Test new software and network configurations in the knowledge that you can quickly switch back if problems develop.
  
• Completely remove unwanted software installations without the need to uninstall or clean the registry.
  
• Flexible restore options allow you to mount and browse snapshots to recover individual files or folders.
  
• Right click on any file or folder to synchronize it with a snapshot version.
  
• Schedule regular system snapshots to ensure highly relevant restore points.
  
• Network administrators have another way to quickly fix user or software problems.
  
• Libraries, Internet cafes and other publicly shared networks can schedule a total system restore at the end of each session.
  

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 7/ Intel Pentium III Processor or higher/ 128 MB RAM/ 4 GB Disk Space

Core Temp - Ver: 0.99.6.1

Core Temp is a compact, no fuss, small footprint program to monitor CPU temperature.

The uniqueness of it is that it shows the temperature of each individual core in a each processor in your system! You can see in real time how the CPU temperature varies when you load your CPU.

Intel and AMD recently published detailed, public information about the "DTS" (Digital Thermal Sensor), which provides much higher accuracy and more relevant temperature reading than the standard thermal diode sensors do.

This feature is supported on all Intel Core and Core 2 series of processors as well as the whole AMD's AMD64 line of CPUs.

Core Temp will also offer you a logging feature that allows a user to easily record the temperature of his processor cores over any period of time and features easy exporting to spreadsheet based programs.

Minimum requirements: Windows all

EventGhost - Ver: 0.3.7.r1462

EventGhost is an advanced, easy to use and extensible automation tool for MS Windows.

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista

Fresh Diagnose - Ver: 8.40

Fresh Diagnose is an utility designed to analyse and benchmark your computer system. It can analyse and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard information, and many more!

Key features of Fresh Diagnose :-

System Information:
Scanning your system and give you a complete report about your computer's hardware and software, for examples: mainboard information, video system information, PCI/AGP buses information, peripheral (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) information, network information.

System Benchmarks:
Testing your system performance, such as CPU, hard disk, CD/DVD ROM, and compare it with other systems.

Use this free software to learn more about your computer and its components, detect/diagnose any problems in your computer, and increase your computer's performance!

Minimum requirements: Windows all

MemInfo - Ver: 2.2

MemInfo Displays the current memory (RAM or Page File) usage of Windows in the system tray. With a small gauge graphic and the value updated in real time, MemInfo gives a fast feedback to current memory usage in Windows.

Highly customisable. Choose when MemInfo should warn you about high memory usage, show physical memory or Windows page file, show free or used memory, choose the font that looks better.

Built in memory Defragmenter to allow speed up your computer by maximizing the available free memory

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Memory Improve Master Free Version - Ver: 6.1.2.281

Memory Improve Master Free Version is an easy-to-use software which allows users to optimise their computer's memory. Sometimes computer systems becomes slow because of large and heavy sized applications are running simultaneously, it takes more memory space and makes the system works slowly.

Memory Improve Master Free Version improves computer's performance by freeing memory. The software helps you, when :-

• Your Computer runs slowly
  
• You Want to Optimise Memory
  
• Computer crashes too frequently
  
• No available memory sources in your system disk space.
  

• Graphical view of current system performance and resource usages
  
• Run in background and optimizer memory periodically.
  
• Learn user's habit automatically by intelligent learning module.
  
• Free up memory immediately.
  
• Free memory with hotkey.
  
• Compress memory to reclaim more available space.
  
• Optimise performance of computer automatically.
  
• Tune up and speed up the system performance.
  
• Manage processes running on your computer.
  
• Wizard, Autorun, Hotkey, and so on...
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

NovaBench - Ver: 3.0.1

Test the main components of your computer quickly with NovaBench. Testing generally takes only 1-2 minutes, and produces detailed information and an overall system score.

• Floating Point Test - Tests CPU's floating point arithmetic speed
  
• Integer Test - Tests CPU's integer arithmetic speed
  
• MD5 Hashing Speed - General CPU test
  
• 3D Graphics Test - Tests GPU with a heavily shader dependent 3D scene
  
• RAM Speed - Tests RAM read and write speed
  
• Disk Write Speed - Test write speed of primary or selected storage device
  

Compare:

Compare your computer's score and system component results to others.
Make informed upgrade decisions, and easily detect performance bottlenecks.

All results submitted to NovaBench.com are verified for authenticity.

Share:

Build a profile of your NovaBench results, and link it easily on social networks.

You can also create an image for your forum signature, blog, or website.

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 2008/ 7

Oracle VM VirtualBox - Ver: 3.2.4 r62467

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualiser for hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, Oracle VM VirtualBox is now the only professional-quality virtualisation solution that is also Open Source Software.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a package of strong x86 virtualisation software for enterprise as well as home use.

NOTE : The binaries from the download section are all released under the Oracle VM VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL).

Here are some key features of "Oracle VM VirtualBox" :-

• Modularity. Oracle VM VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely. Oracle VM VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you don't have to hack the source to write a new interface for Oracle VM VirtualBox.
  
• Virtual machine descriptions in XML. The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers.
  
• Guest Additions for Windows and Linux. Oracle VM VirtualBox has special software that can be installed inside Windows and Linux virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features provided by these Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window).
  
• Virtual USB Controllers. Oracle VM VirtualBox implements a virtual USB controller and allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices to your virtual machines without having to install device specific drivers on the host.
  
• Remote Desktop Protocol. Unlike any other virtualisation software, Oracle VM VirtualBox fully supports the standard Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). A virtual machine can act as an RDP server, allowing you to "run" the virtual machine remotely on some thin client that merely displays the RDP data.
  
• USB over RDP. With this unique feature, a virtual machine that acts as an RDP server can still access arbitrary USB devices that are connected on the RDP client. This way, a powerful server machine can virtualise a lot of thin clients that merely need to display RDP data and have USB devices plugged in.
  
• Shared folders. Like many other virtualisation solutions, for easy data exchange between hosts and guests, Oracle VM VirtualBox allows for declaring certain host directories as "shared folders", which can then be accessed from within virtual machines.

Minimum requirements: Windows Windows XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 7

QRM Plus Manager - Ver: 1.0

QRM Plus Manager is a very easy to use tool designed to enable you to create restore points, carry out system restore operations and selectively delete system restore points in your Windows computer.

You can also add these options to your right-click context menu.

QRM Plus Manager now gives Windows users additional options for System Restore :-

• Create a Restore Point by clicking the Create button
  
• Enables a user to randomly remove Restore Points. Just select a Restore Point from the list and click the Delete button.
  
• Enables a user to Restore their computer. Simply select a Restore Point from the list and click the Restore Button. This will Restart your computer and launch the Restore process.
  

Minimum requirements: Windows Vista/ 7

RAMMap - Ver: 1.0

Have you ever wondered exactly how Windows is assigning physical memory, how much file data is cached in RAM, or how much RAM is used by the kernel and device drivers?

RAMMap makes answering those questions easy. RAMMap is an advanced physical memory usage analysis utility for Windows Vista and higher. It presents usage information in different ways on its several different tabs :-

• Use Counts: usage summary by type and paging list
  
• Processes: process working set sizes
  
• Priority Summary: prioritised standby list sizes
  
• Physical Pages: per-page use for all physical memory
  
• Physical Ranges: physical memory addresses
  
• File Summary: file data in RAM by file
  
• File Details: individual physical pages by file
  
• Use RAMMap to gain understanding of the way Windows manages memory, to analyse application memory usage, or to answer specific questions about how RAM is being allocated.
  
• RAMMap’s refresh feature enables you to update the display and it includes support for saving and loading memory snapshots.
  

Minimum requirements: Windows Vista and Up/ 2008 and up

ScanDefrag - Ver: 5.7

ScanDefrag is a small utility program that configures and runs Microsoft's or Norton's disk utilities as part of the next Window's startup process. This can result in less restarts and cleaner runs.

Some features include :-

• Screen saver is automatically disabled. (It will be re-enabled after selected maintenance programs are completed.)
  
• Maintenance is performed in a system state more conclusive to disk utilities.
  
• Items are run consecutively without idle periods.
  
• Optional computer shutdown or restart when complete.
  
• Choice of Norton Disk Doctor, Microsoft Scandisk, or Chkdsk.
  
• Choice of Norton Speed Disk, Microsoft's Defragmenter, or Kessel's Defragmenter (JKDefrag or MyDefrag).
  
• Option to run Sysinternal's PageDefrag if Windows 2000 or higher (32-bit only).
  
• Option to change or disable the shutdown/restart intervals.
  
• Option to automatically logon to system to run maintenance programs. Logon information will be restored to original state after ScanDefrag restarts. (2000, XP, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, or 7 only)
  
• Option to create a System Restore Point before running maintenance programs (XP, Vista, 7 only)
  
• Built-in Task Scheduler.
  
• Command line switches for automated maintenance.
  
• Viewable log file created with each run.
  
• Ability to Add/Remove user defined processes in the "Restrictive Mode" configuration. (98, ME only)
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Soluto - Ver: 1.0.2 Beta

Soluto is a great application that allows you to analyse your boot time, view which applications are slowing it down and improve it as you like. Soluto’s goal is to bring an end to the frustrations PC users encounter.

Soluto's PC Genome is a knowledge base of PC frustration data built automatically through the usage of Soluto software. It's objective and statistical information, gathered and analysed by Soluto, is also editable by the community.

NOTE : Beta or prerelease software is not intended for inexperienced users, as the software may contain bugs or may potentially damage your system. We strongly recommend that users exercise caution and save all mission-critical data before installing or using this software.

Minimum requirements: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ .NET Framework 3.0

System Monitor II - Ver: 8.5

The System Monitor sidebar gadget will display all core CPU usage (Single Core, Dual Core, Triple Core, Quad Core or Eight Core) and RAM (both physical, page file and full, includes virtual) usage.

Minimum requirements: Windows Vista/ 7

Tidy Start Menu - Ver: 3.441

If you feel tired of searching for programs in the long "Start Menu" list, then this program is for you. Tidy Start Menu allows to arrange all shortcuts in the Start Menu.

As a result, the start menu will look neat, and you easily and quickly can find any program you want.

For example, you can create a special "Games" category, and when opening the Start Menu you thus will see a "Games" section, (instead of a list of the games) in which you will find the game you need.

Here are some key features of "Tidy Start Menu :-

• Creation of your own categories
  
• Deletion of empty links/folders
  
• Free subscription to all new versions of the program
  
• Priority support
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Watch 4 Folder - Ver: 2.0

The Watch 4 Folder application was developed to be a simple, small and portable tool to monitor folders and files activities. You can set a monitoring process with just 4 simple quick steps and then minimize the tool to the system tray.

It can monitor 15 different types of events, execute a program or batch file, or show a popup message in case of an event. it is possible to write to a text log file and to watch a live log running.

There are four steps To start a monitoring process :-

1. Select from the top shell list view the folder or the device you want to monitor, if you want to monitor sub folders also, check the "Watch sub folders" checkbox.

2. Select the monitoring events you want to monitor, the available monitoring events are :-

• File create
  
• File Delete
  
• File Change
  
• File Rename
  
• Association Change
  
• Free Space change
  
• Folder Create
  
• Folder Delete
  
• Folder Rename
  
• Folder Change
  
• Media Insert
  
• Media Remove
  

A single event can create several Monitoring events, for example selecting File Change event and File Rename event will create two events in case of file rename, because the file was renamed but also changed. So it is better to select specific events or general event but not both.

3. Select the actions on event, this is an optional step, here you can select the actions to take in case of an event, the available actions are :-

• Execute a program or batch file when event occurs, you should browse and select or enter the full path to the executable or batch file.
  
• Write to a log file will automatically write a line to the log file when event occurs, you have to browse and create or enter the full path and file name for the log file, if the file doesn't exists it will be created, if the file exists the new lines will append to the end of the existing file, the log file is in a text format (.txt).
  
• Popup a message will pop up a message to the desktop when event occurs.
  

4. The last step is to click Start Monitoring, at this point you can watch the live log running at the bottom of the application or you can click on the "Tray" button to minimize the monitor to the system tray.

A click on the Watch 4 Folder icon on the system tray will restore the application to the desktop. If you didn't select to write to a log file and you still want to save the log, just select all the text from the Live Watch window, copy and paste to where you want.

Licence: Free
Minimum requirements: Windows all

WinOMeter - Ver: 1.5

WinOMeter is a small freeware utility that measures your Windows computer’s activity. It counts the keyboard/ mouse presses & computes trajectory that you have arrived by your mouse. It also measures the computer up-time.

You can easily set it up to be automatically loaded on startup if you would like to have captured all your activity.

Every day is saved into history, so you can make statistics of your activity.

You can also export your whole history to a CSV file (comma separated values) which may be used later in e.g. MS Excel. You can do it using the right click menu or directly from the command line; e.g. winometer.exe /exporthistory history.csv.

Minimum requirements: Windows all

X-Setup Pro [GIVEAWAY] - Ver: 9.2.100

A complex and very useful tweaking utility.

In order to activate X-Setup Pro, please use the following registration key: XSA092-11TA9R-8K12YT

X-Setup Pro is the ultimate in system configuration or tweaking as some people would say.

X-Setup Pro covers all types of options and has many useful features - for more information please read the rest of this section or browse to the authors homepage link.
X-Setup Pro is a nice tool that is not yet another Windows Hacker; it is the ultimate tool for black belt system tuning and tweaking.

From simple boot options up to server settings and hardware settings, internet settings or Office options, X-Setup Pro allows you to change more than 1500 (!!) settings with some simple button clicks. This makes X-Setup Pro the most complete hacker/tweaker ever available!

Because these settings change often and fast, X-Setup Pro uses plug-ins - they are very small (2-4 kB) so updating them is easy too. X-Setup Pro can even download updated or new plug-ins directly from the X-Setup Pro web site. Best of all, you can always view the source for any plug-in! And with the also available information inside X-Setup Pro SDK you can even create your own plug-ins or wizards and use them in X-Setup.

Although it offers lots of features, X-Setup Pro is extremely easy to use. It has an Explorer-like look and the famous back and next buttons you already know from your Internet browser. Plus, X-Setup Pro offers wizards that assist you when changing the configuration - there has never been an easier way to hack your Windows!

For network administrator X-Setup Pro can be a huge help. Simply turn recording on, change the settings you want and it generates a *.REG file on the fly that can be deployed to thousands of computers without installing X-Setup Pro. You may also chain-install X-Setup Pro.

A quote from one of the more than 850,000 users of X-Setup Pro: "X-Setup Pro is to all other tweakers like a truckload of bricks is like to a pebble..."

Here are some key features of "X-Setup Pro [GIVEAWAY]" :-

• Covers and works on all available Windows 32-bit platforms: Windows 95, Windows 98 (SE), Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server
  
• X-Setup Pro is the most complete "hacker" ever available: more than 850 hidden functions can be controlled with some simple button clicks (e.g. Windows, Internet Explorer, Instant Messaging, Office, Explorer appearance, Server options, Network settings, Security...)
  
• By using an Explorer-like layout and the famous back and next buttons (you already know from your Internet browser) navigation is very simple.
  
• It's extremely easy to use: With wizards you can change your system in a step-by-step process - that's as easy as A-B-C
  
• With Record Mode activated, nearly all changes from a plug-in or wizard are recorded to a REG file. This file can then be easily applied to thousands of machines without needing to install X-Setup Pro on them.
  
• If you often change the same settings, you can easily define Favourites for as many plug-ins as you wish. With Favourites, you simply pick the item from the Favourites menu and X-Setup Pro will directly active it.
  
• With Version History, it's easy to determine the changes between the different versions of X-Setup. It will exactly tell you which plug-ins have changed and with a click, you will jump directly to that plug-in.
  
• Clutter free: X-Setup Pro is ready for your wishes in about five seconds and needs only at about 5 MB RAM. Also, it does not install any automatically launched "helper" apps like many other programs. If you exit X-Setup Pro, it is gone and there's nothing running in the background that would bog down your system.
  
• With the Search function you can easily search all plug-ins for the setting you are looking for. If you think you found what you are searching for, just click on it and X-Setup will directly activate that plug-in for you.
  
• Because you can do a lot, but not everything with X-Setup Pro, it includes a configurable Programs menu. X-Setup Pro brings a lot of useful programs links with it, but you can also define your own.
  
• X-Setup Pro can also write a very detailed log file that includes every change it has made to your configuration and you can choose where to store this file.
  
• Because the settings X-Setup Pro controls change often and fast, it's entirely driven by plug-ins. They are very small and don't have a user interface, instead they use the user interface of X-Setup Pro. Using this technique, X-Setup Pro is infinitely extensible and expandable and you can even integrate your own plug-ins or wizards.
  
• X-Setup Pro includes Automatic Updates that allows you to download the newest plug-ins directly from our server to your X-Setup Pro installation with some simple clicks - you don't need to download and unzip any files to stay updated.
  
• You can view the source code of ANY plug-in directly from X-Setup Pro, before the the plug-in is allowed to change anything. This way, you can always see what the plug-in will do.
  
• It is wherever you need it: either in Start -> Programs or Settings -> Control Panel
  
• Contains an detailed explanation how to install it on a network share - entire setup only takes five seconds in this case.
  

Minimum requirements: Windows all

Video

AHD Subtitles Maker - Ver: 2.4.25.0

AHD Subtitles Maker is a useful application that was designed in order to help you create and edit subtitles for your movies.

Here are some key features of "AHD Subtitles Maker" :-

• Create the most common text-based subtitle formats in minutes.
  
• Use the time format (Second, Millisecond) to guarantee the most accuracy.
  
• Use multilingual projects by storing subtitles data in language tracks, see Add languages, subtitles Convert between formats by importing them to your project, then export them to your desired format.
  
• Use your system's media codecs to be playable for any media kind (Audio and Video) available.
  
• Extract ID3 (Synchronised Lyric) and export to desired Format.
  

avi.NET - Ver: 3.1.5.0

From the producer :-

"avi.NET will allow you to load in both MPEG-1 (VCD) and MPEG-2 (SVCD/DVD/HDTV) movie files and convert them to an AVI. Whether it be a DivX AVI, or XviD AVI, the resulting video file will be 100% standalone player compatible. It should play in your home dvd avi player just fine. avi.NET is FREE and all external programs and/or filters are included in package.

Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 2008/ 7