Free Utilities Evaluation and Reviews

CraigsList Reader - Freeware Assistant to CraigsList Searches

2008-07-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

CraigsList is one of the top visited websites in the world. It is the most effective for the big metropolitan areas in the United States, but its significance is going up in other geographical areas as well. While it is free for most of the available services for ads readers and ads submitters, it is occasionally a challenging task to gather necessary information. The freeware - CraigList Reader - will be your valuable assistant with all your CraigsList related activities.

The main features of this nice application are:

Enhanced search capabilities:

Your search will be based on multiple locations and multiple categories. There are no limitation for a single category and location. Fast searches are performed by using concurrent connections. You can also only search for titles or for the jobs that have image. Just keep in mind that for many small and mid-sized organizations, CraigsList is the only announcement board for its available openings.

Automatic notifications:

If you want CraigsList Reader to be looking out for new postings as soon as they appear on craigslist.com then just setup notifications. Once you add the notification, you will never have to perform searches on your own. It will check the site at given time interval, and will notify you (on the screen and /or through your email) as soon as it finds a new post which fits your criteria.

Items count:

When you search for a keyword, you can easily see how many items are found based on your search.

Search cancellation:

When you search for a keyword, the "Cancel Search" button gets active. You can click this button anytime to cancel the search.

Search categories:

You can now search through all the categories and sub-categories. A section "Categories" is provided in the left menu so that you can easily select multiple categories and sub-categories.

Local searches:

You can search through the entire world, or just some Country, State or City. A section "Locations" is provided in the left menu so that you can easily select multiple locations.

Advanced search settings:

In the left menu, a separate section "Options" is provided for you to manage your search settings. You can set the maximum thread count value and also you have the option to "Save settings when exit" or "Save Search result when exit".

Results sorting:

You can easily sort items by location, category or heading.

Developers Web Site: http://www.motiont.com/craigslistreader.aspx

Direct Downloading Link: http://linkslash.com/CraigsListReader

UnderCoverXP - Printing Professional CD and DVD Labels

2008-07-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

I like nice professional look on CDs and DVDs, I have burnt myself. With the small and features-rich freeware UnderCoverXP you can also organize your collection with covers that just look like originals.

UnderCoverXP is a free program specifically designed for easy printing covers and labels in various formats and for several supports: front and back covers for CD or DVD, CD booklets, round labels for discs, etc. The program also allows you to add other formats through a graphical format editor. Software is very user friendly: choose the picture you want to use as cover and customize the program’s configuration as you wish.

It supports JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP formats and can automatically scale all labels to the correct sizes.

UnderCoverXP Screen

UnderCoverXP is written in C++ using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and doesn’t need a .NET framework or any other external libraries.

Software is available in 25 languages: English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Polish, Macedonian, Russian, Greek, Turkish, Romanian, Hungarian, Brazilian, Czech, Latvian, Chinese, Japanese, Catalan and Arabic translations are included in the setup.

Direct link for UnderCoverXP downloading: http://linkslash.com/undercoverxp

The best online collection of ready to use CD and DVD covers: http://www.cdcovers.cc/covers

Imagicon - change icons to spice your Windows look

2008-07-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

If you want to change look of your Windows, the small freeware program will assist you in replacing standard generic icons with those you will prepare personally from favorite clipart or your pics.

Imagicon is a graphics utility designed to convert multiple image files from BMP, JPG or PNG image formats into any of the following image formats (24-bit): Windows or OS/2 Bitmap (BMP), Independent JPEG Group (JPG), Portable Network Graphics (PNG) and Windows Icon (ICO). Options are available to transform images (Scale, flip, etc.) and enable alpha transparency of icons. The interface window of Imagicon can be personalized with custom designs. The user can select to save icons with the following dimensions in pixels: 16 x 16, 32 x 32, 48 x 48, 64 x 64 and 128 x 128. Imagicon also features the ability to drag ’n’ drop multiple images in the program window for faster processing.

Full instructions are included with the software, explaining each of the possible settings and the function that they perform. Program is user friendly and instructions are easy to follow.

Imagicon Screen

For those, who prefer to use portable versions of the software, might be useful the instructions on how to make this installation version portable:

Download the installer and install to the default folder C:/Program Files/Devious Codeworks/Imagicon.
Then copy all files (except Uninstall.exe) to a folder of your choice.
Uninstall the program.
Launch the program by double-clicking on Imagicon.exe. Your portable version is ready and can be moved to any other location.

Authors: Devious Codeworks

Direct Downloading Link: http://linkslash.com/Imagecon

Freeware PDF Creator - PrimoPDF

2008-07-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

There are many occasions in the office when it is necessary to provide document that will be viewed by recipient “as is” with no relation to the viewer software settings. Regular Word document does not work, since it might depend on the software version, fonts installed, etc. Besides, recipient might edit the document you sent, and even see the history of changes, that is completely unadvisable in the touchy corporate environment.

So, you are looking for a quick, easy, and definitely, free way to convert Word files to PDFs for screen viewing, printing, ebooks, and even pre-press use? PrimoPDF will provide a suitable solution, for free, and with some nice extras such as security options. PrimoPDF resides in your printer list as a virtual printer driver, and when you "print" a document to it, the main PrimoPDF window comes up. The options are simply laid out: You can create a PDF for screen viewing, print, ebook, or pre-press (which embeds your fonts). You can include document properties like author name and keywords. You can encrypt your PDF using 40-bit and 128-bit encryption - useful if you are publishing ebook you would like to protect from free distribution or an internal document you only want certain people to see. Then select the destination, where you want to save your new PDF to, and click OK.

After PrimoPDF creates the PDF file, it can be opened by any PDF reader software, and it goes to your default PDF viewer unless you set the options to do otherwise.

The security features are indeed a strongest trait of the program. You can choose whether users can print, copy text and graphics from the PDF, add comments, and make changes to the PDF. Since virtual printer should be integrated in the system structure, the portable version of this program does not exist.

Review the video presentation for the PrimoPDF use:

Freeware PDF Format Creator - PrimoPDF

More information you can obtain on the developer’s site: www.primopdf.com/

Latest software version can be downloaded from the direct link: http://linkslash.com/primoPDF

Unlock files and folders with Unlocker

2008-07-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when you want to delete unneeded file or folder, you get some annoying messages from your Windows Operating System. I am sure you are already familiar with this error message:

But related error messages might be quite different. For example:

Cannot delete file: Access is denied.
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

In some cases, the reasons, Windows do not allow you to perform this legitimate operations, are making sense, and can be considered as a safety precaution. But, in other cases, user has already closed all windows, and the file and folder is not practically employed in the drives and software scheme. However, for some reason, Windows does not releasing the file for the future operations. You try again and again…

Unlocker is freeware software that will solve the problem. This is the list of actions, among others, performed by this utility:

Close handle.
Kill process.
Unload DLL.
Delete index.dat.
Delete Rename / Move command.
Reset invalid names operations.

Why this software use is important for computer well-being? If you cannot delete locked file or folder, you leave it as is. Later, you forget about it, and eventually your Hard Drive becomes a cemetery of unneeded blocks of data, clogging the drive and capturing valuable space.

The software is free for personal use and can be downloaded from the direct link: http://www.ziddu.com/download/1644793/unlocker1.8.7.exe.html.

Freeware world - Freeware reviews Blog Carnival- July 11, 2008 - 4th Ed.

2008-07-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Fourth, July 11, 2008 edition of "Freeware world - Freeware reviews" Blog Carnival. I want to thank all the authors contributing to the issue. Some articles were excluded from the review, since their topic of discussion did not match the main target of the carnival. I am sorry, that not all submissions were accepted, as some of the excluded articles carried a significant value.

WM Media presents How to Build a Website If You Don?t Know HTML posted at Buy And Sell Websites, saying, "Even if you don’t know HTML, you can still build a very nice website."

Brian Terry presents 259+ Great Resources for Great Web Design posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Jimson Lee presents Free or Cheap Help Desk Support Software posted at CRM Help Desk Software.com, saying, "A quick review of the 2 best free Open Source Help Desk Support Ticket software."

Mark Graybill presents Trying Out LiveCDs posted at An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards, saying, "Brief looks at some LiveCD distros for teaching a programming class,"

Matthew Boyd presents Positivity! Warning Forever posted at Kwanzoo, saying, "A review of the freeware shooter Warning Forever."

SomeAudioGuy presents The Ramblings of Some Audio Guy: Traverso Free Audio Recording/Editing Software - Simplicity = Virtue? posted at The Ramblings of Some Audio Guy, saying, "This is a review I wrote for the free multi-track audio editor Traverso."

Raymond presents Best Locations To Blog With Free WiFi Internet Access posted at Money Blue Book.

MBB presents Best Locations To Find Free Wireless Internet Access (WiFi Hotspots) posted at Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of freeware world - freeware reviews using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Recovering Corrupted MS Word Files

2008-07-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

One of the worst nightmares of the modern computer user is the situation, when the backup files cannot be opened. Some common error messages which can prevent user from proper opening a Microsoft Word document include:

"The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions. Check the file permissions for the document or drive. Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document."
"Word cannot open the document."
"Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges."
When you attempt to open a Microsoft Word 97 document into Microsoft Word version 6.x or 7.x, the document contains garbage characters.

Repair My Word is a data recovery program designed, as you might see according to the name, particularly for Microsoft Word documents recovery. It can restore text from damaged or corrupt Word files (.doc files) that cannot be opened through the normal procedure. The recovered text can then be saved as an error free Microsoft Word document. Note that the text file restoration approach determines saving it in rich-text format, therefore, the original document formatting will be removed. Graphics, tables, numbering/bullets and text formatting is lost during the recovery process. But, you do not need to recreate the text again, which can cause a lot of complications.

Repair My Word can be used successfully for the following software versions: Microsoft Word 6.0, Word 95, 97, 2000, XP, and 2003 for Windows. It is completely portable, and a single executable file can run from any small USB stick. Operation is extremely simple: open the corrupt file, preview, and save it again with easy recognizable name a repaired file.

Did I forget to mention that the utility is unconditional freeware?

Screenshot:

Developer Web Site: http://www.repairmyword.com/

Direct Downloading Link: http://download.getdata.com/WordRepair.exe

VDownloader - Online Video Download Manager and Converter

2008-07-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

On the hot market of the online clips finders and download managers, VDownloader from Spain provides a simple and competitive solution. In fact, the site offers to pieces of the portable freeware, available for downloading. One is a regular download manager - actually called VDownloader - offers search and video files capturing and conversion on the fly from the most popular sites as Youtube, Google Video, DailyMotion, MySpace, Veoh, GoFish, Porkolt, Metacafe, Break.com, 123 Video, Bolt VSocial, Lulu TV, Guba, HideBehind, and Dale al Play.

The second - VxDownloader - represents adult version of the download manager, covering the following free porn video sites as PornoTube, Yuvutu, YouPorn, Shufuni, XVideoHost, Pornkolt, PacoPorn, Pornhub.

Each utility is able to:

Save videos in many formats, including AVI, MPG, iPOD, PSP, 3GP, VCD, SVCD, DVD, FLV and MP3 (audio only).
Search and find videos in many sites with just one click. Its integrated search engine can search for videos in several sites at the same time.
Browse videos. Its web browser allows you to visit video sites and download videos directly from the browser.
Supports batch downloading and clipboard monitoring.
Does not require installation and can be run from the portable USB Drive. Each download manager occupies just 3.5 MB of disk space.

Review screenshots:

Direct downloading links: VDownloader and VxDownloader

Screamer Brings Free Internet Radio to your PC

2008-06-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

In comparison with traditional FM radio anymore, Internet steaming radio provides huge advantages, because of the much higher variety of the programs, not clogged with radio advertising. With wide spreading of the broadband Internet around the World, the quality and the interruption-free streaming got an additional boost. However, locate the set of the favorite radio stations can be quite a hassle. There are several developers that brought the users freeware convenient solution, making use of the Internet Radio simple and effective.

One of the best programs of this type is one, developed by David Zidar. It is Screamer Radio. The main features of this utility:

It is very user friendly, with simple, easily operational interface, with preset, but expandable, list of stations.
The utility is ads-free and spyware-free.
It has a huge built-in database of the Internet stations.
You can record the favorite tracks on your Hard Drive in the MP3 format.
It is compatible for almost every sound card on the modern market.
The freeware is portable, and does not require installation. It can be carried between your computers on a tiny USB external drive.
Supported Stream Types:

Shoutcast and Icecast MP3 Streaming
Icecast OGG Vorbis Streaming
WMA Streaming
AAC Streaming

The software is light on using the computer resources.

Program screen:

Developer Web Site: http://www.screamer-radio.com/

Direct Download: http://www.ziddu.com/download.php?uid=b6qel5WuZ6ufluKnZqqhkZSsY6qamZ2m6

Tell MS Word instructions in your own words

2008-06-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

There are not many Windows users, who never used Microsoft Word. In most cases, the text generation task is easy and straightforward. However, if the task is more complicated, and unusual formatting is needed, you have to spend quite some time, studying Help or trying different options. Something does not work as you want to - you get desperate and annoyed with the software.

Software Theories Inc. decided to enhance the text editor by adding quite unusual capabilities. In order to perform any operations with the test, you can simply type in your own words, what you want. The command recognition database will identify your need and perform adequate operation. Rather than requiring from user of learning and memorizing Word’s intricate menus and dialogs, Natural Word attempts to understand the user, and translates his/her requests into actions Word can comprehend.

Natural Word not only tries to make Word easier to use, but also more efficient. It tries to infer the most popular or obvious action based on the current context, allowing you to be as terse as you want. For instance, rather than typing “make the text color blue, try simply - “blue” after you highlighted the word or sentence. If you want the text background to be changed, try “blue background”, and for the page background color to be changed, try “blue page background”. To justify text into the middle of the page try “middle” or “center”. If you want to change the text font size, simply type “24”, and if you want to insert table with 3 rows and 2 columns, try “3 by 2 table”.

As you see, the consumer approach to the software is completely different, and if in some cases, it is easier to choose Word’s built-in capabilities, while in other cases the new MS Word plug-in will significantly shorten the learning curve and time for text formatting.

Natural Word is absolutely free for home use. So try it, and you might fall in love with it!

Check the program screenshot:

To familiarize yourself with the software features, you can see the video demonstration HERE.

And download the file HERE.

Total Text Container - More than PIM

2008-06-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, Total Text Container can be classified as personal information manager, but, in fact, it gives a huge spec of opportunities, that go beyond the classic definition. It is an amazing and ambitious portable freeware of just 3 MB that can do almost anything. The utility description is as follows: "It is able to store information, documentation, notes, passwords, images, bookmarks, contacts, calendar events & tasks, import/export Google iCal files". Among other features powerful multi-layer encryption, portability (no need to install the software), handling XML database, and much more in this AIO (all in one) powerful user friendly application.

Software has a simplistic intuitive interface, with minimum learning curve even for unexperienced user. Over the past month, it became for me a one of the most utilized programs in my office software portable toolbox.

Developer Web Site: http://mtirnanic.googlepages.com/

Link for downloading: http://www.ziddu.com/download.php?uid=bKygm5apZ6qblpSttayZlJyiZ7CWlpmp7

Several selected screens for your review:

Repairing Registry with Glarysoft Freeware Registry Repair

2008-06-22T23:56:00.000-07:00

You noticed that your computer started recently to run slowly. You might suffer from occasional Windows crashes, computer freezes, and unclear system error messages. May be, its time to check, repair and optimize your system registry. We are presenting the special cleaner tool allowing fixing registry and improving your PCs performance. Even you carefully use your PC, its normal operation, programs reinstallation and removal leave the traces in your registry, and the presented freeware will get rid of all unwanted entries. With a few easy steps, with no special computer knowledge, you are able to find problems, caused by invalid entries, references and links in the Windows registry. Your are provided with a list of the errors found, and you can then choose to selectively repair each item or automatically repair them all at the same time. Registry Repair is one of the safest, fastest, and efficient Registry cleaning tools available on the market today.

Whenever you clean the Registry, a corresponding Undo file is generated for any changes made which can be used to recreate the entries deleted in case you suspect that the changes are unwanted. It might happen, if the setup of one of the programs you use was not compiled professionally, and some registry entries cannot be linked to the installation, and might be removed by automatic procedure. You can always restore any changes by clicking “Restore previous repairs” to get back to the original registry state. For added security, Registry Cleaner also uses an “ignore list” containing entries should be ignored while scanning.

Get more information about the software from the authors Web Site: http://www.glarysoft.com/rr.html

You can download it from http://www.glarysoft.com/download/rrsetup.exe or http://www.ziddu.com/download.php?uid=abGalZatabKem5qqaviblJStX6qfkZaoZg%3D%3D2

Revo Uninstaller - Secure and Effective Applications Removal

2008-06-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

I like trying different software (definitely, freeware) utilities. Most of them, I will never use again, and just few become the part of my software tool-box. So, unneeded software should be uninstalled without leaving any traces on the computer. Unfortunately, it does not work like that. Program developers care a lot about clean and proper program installation, but they care much less, on how the software will be removed from your computer. Sometimes, it does not work at all, giving you notification that the un-installation file is missing. Sometimes, it does not produce any error messages, but still leaves behind abandoned drivers, orphan application files, empty data directories, else. For example, standard un-installer, built in the Windows Operation Systems, cannot entirely remove all traces of AOL software, no matter what.

Definitely, it is good to use portable software, whenever possible, and I would consider non-portable programs just in the exceptional cases, when portable versions do not exist, and there is no competitive freeware product, offering portability.

In this post, I want to present a free portable solution for clean programs removal from your computer. Revo Uninstaller is able to completely uninstall unwanted programs from your PC even if you cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet. Revo Uninstaller is also much faster and more powerful alternative to the Windows un-installer. With its advanced algorithm, it can analyze through a deep scan application’s data before and after application removal to make sure, no traces left. Even if you have a broken installation, Revo Uninstaller scans for an application’s data on your hard disk drives and in the Windows registry and shows all found files, folders and registry keys so you can delete them. This doesn’t just recover space on your HDD - it speeds up your computer as well.

On top of the main un-installer utility, Revo gives you another bonus - 8 handy and powerful tools to clean up your system: Auto Start Manager, Windows Tools Manager, Junk Files Cleaner, Browsers History Cleaner, Office History Cleaner, Windows History Cleaner, Unrecoverable Delete Tool, Evidence Remover.

A portable software version of the problem can be downloaded from the authors Web Site: http://www.revouninstaller.com/revouninstaller.zip

AVS4FREE presents free multimedia utilities

2008-06-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

Online Media Technologies Ltd. launches a new online portal which features the collection of freeware for home video and audio management. All free solutions presented on avs4free.com are the innovative programs of Online Media Technologies Ltd. which concentrates on the development of high-quality software. AVS4FREE applications have no time or feature limits and are absolutely free.
Having about thirty video and audio software in its product line Online Media Technologies Ltd. releases AVS4FREE.com, a separate online portal with only multimedia freeware. AVS4FREE.com doesn't require any user registration to download and use the software for free.
Alexey Myasnikov, Marketing Director, says: “There is a common opinion to consider freeware as something unworthy a company-vendor no longer needs and for this reason gives away. This is not the case with us. On www.avs4free.com we post quality time-proven software comparable with commercial software. AVS4FREE tools are not open-source based applications, but our own developments. We have big plans concerning new freeware we are going to publish on AVS4FREE.com regularly.”
At present AVS4FREE.com lists four freeware: AVS Disc Creator Free, AVS DVD Player Free, AVS TV Box Free, AVS Audio CD Grabber Free.
* AVS Disc Creator 3.2 Free: the program helps to burn DVD/CD/Blu-Ray data discs, Audio CDs and DVD-video files. Designed with computer novice in mind AVS Disc Creator 3.2 makes burning routine an easy task even for PC beginners.
* AVS DVD Player 2.4 Free: an award-winning software plays back DVDs, video and audio files. AVS DVD Player supports a wide range of video formats for playback such as MPEG4 (including DivX, XviD, etc.), MPEG1, MPEG2, AVI, RM, QT, WMV (including WMV-HD), H.263, H.264 and mobile video formats (3GP, 3GP2, MP4).
* AVS TV Box 1.5 Free: watching TV and satellite channels on PC is no longer a problem. The freeware supports TV tuners, DVB and satellite cards. AVS TV Box 1.5 also can take video from digital video and web cameras.
* AVS Audio Grabber 4.1 Free: the tool allows you to rip Audio-CDs to a computer hard drive in the most popular compressed audio formats.
All 4 programs run under Windows Vista/2000/XP/2003.
For more user's convenience www.avs4free.com includes a special section of tags organized in accordance with the available features of AVS4FREE software. Tags describe common operations which can be performed with AVS Disc Creator Free, AVS DVD Player Free, AVS TV Box Free , AVS Audio Grabber Free and help visitors find the solution to their task easily and quickly.

Press release from: Online Media Technologies Ltd.

28 free portable computer games

2008-06-10T00:50:00.000-07:00

Even if you consider yourself as a serious and busy computer user, sometimes, it is quite useful to take a break and to clean a head. And what can be better to do so, than getting in computer game? So, do you know, what is better than a free computer game? Free portable computer games are better than just free computer games. In my previous publications, I have already voiced my positive attitude towards portable computer software. Its standard advantages are applicable to the computer games as well:

The program installation is not required. Copy the executable file or the entire program folder to your Hard Drive, and you are good to go.
There is no danger, that the new program produces a software conflict with the programs, which are already installed on your computer, fighting for example for the same driver or requesting a newer version, while the existing software is satisfied with the current version.
Program can be saved on the external mobile drive and transferred everywhere, allowing to use it on any computer, including on those, where the installation of the unsanctioned programs is undesirable (in your office, library, or the Internet cafe).
All user files might be located in the application sub-folder, inside the program directory. If you could not finish your game at home - you can save it on USB stick and continue at work from the same point, you were interrupted (I hope, you will not consider this recommendation for the practical course of actions).
You fed up with the game - just erase entire folder, and you are done with it. No negative consequences to your computer will be observed: no left-over orphan drivers or altered computer configuration.

As usual, I prepared the list of free portable programs with the brief description, rating, and link for downloading at RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-26491-portable-computer-games--freeware-reviews.aspx

At the moment, there are 28 computer programs included in the listing, but I have modest long-term plans to bring amount of the listed titles to 100. So that, come back once a while to check for new entries.

CallGraph.in - Free Skype Calls Recorder

2008-06-07T00:25:00.000-07:00

For those, who cannot imagine their life anymore without Skype, Call Graph is "a must" application. It is a good, easy to use, and free small computer program designed for recording and organizing Skype phone calls. With this piece of software, saving the calls for possible future use is simple and intuitive, and requires zero learning curve even from unexperienced users.

Authors describe the application: “Call Graph is an application which records your Skype calls in an mp3 file and indexes them for search later on”.

With Call Graph you can:

Automatically record Skype calls in a mp3 or wav file format. The recording can be stopped or restarted at any point during the call by double clicking on the Call Graph Taskbar Icon.
Manage your calls and view timeline of your records.
Tag your records with names, subject, or any other keywords. Call Graph automatically tags the calls with the display name of the contact. These tags can be changed/removed/added from the search dialog
Search with tags to locate needed call records. All call graphs are tagged by default with the display name of the contact. This makes it very easy to locate records from a particular contact.
Record Skype to Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut calls.
And Skype Conference Calls and Skype Casts

Download the free recorder through the following link: http://www.callgraph.in/download.php?f=CallGraphSetup.exe

CallGraph.in - Free Skype Calls Recorder

ClickHeat WebSite Visual Analyzer

2008-06-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

Every Webmaster is interested in getting more visitors, unless the Web Site is completely private and serves for individual or limited group use, where visitors are invited with special invitations.

You create a nice content and supply the appropriate interface to maximize the site exposure and attractiveness to the readers. However, how precisely you know of where are the killer points? Definitely, you can guess and arrange the site design to increase visibility of the area that has the highest probability to invoke interest. But how good your guess is? ClickHeat free open source plugin from LabsMedia might give you some useful answers. ClickHeat is a visual heatmap of clicks on a HTML page, showing hot and cold click zones. So, you can see exactly, what are the popular and what are unpopular zones on the page. Software can be installed as a browser Javascript plugin, or on the server (all popular types are supported). Server installation requires PHP and the GD image library support, but these options are present on most hosts anyway, so that should not be a problem.

ClickHeat Web Site Visual Analyzer

If you want feel how the software works, you can check on-site demonstration, using the test account: login - demo, password - demo: http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/index.html

Review also the video presentation:

ClickHeat WebSite Visual Analyzer

Download the plugin from Souceforge: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=181196

WinPenPack - free portable software collection

2008-05-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

I love portable software. It means computer Windows programs that does not require installation or un-installation, and are executed on host PC without leaving tracks of their execution neither in the system folders of the Operating system, nor in the registry. They can be run from slave HDD, network, CD or DVD, or USB, as the most mobile storage carrier. In this post, I want to introduce one of the leading Italian Web Sites, providing an excellent source for the free portable applications to its users. Programs are subdivided in categories and executable through a practical menu, analogue to Windows Quick Launch, the winPenPack Launcher. WinPenPack suites are available in the following editions: Flash Essential, Flash 1Gb, Flash School, Flash Web and Flash Game.

Besides WinPenPack application, Web Site presents a respectable collection of the X-Softwares, are created and developed by winPenPack Team. Each X-Software is composed by a launcher, X-Launcher, that allow to modify program startup options for originally non portable programs to make them portable, through an .ini configuration file. X-Softwares, X-Launchers and .ini files created for portabilize programs are exclusive work of winPenPack development Team, and constitute integrant part of winPenPack.

Highly recommended for all computer freaks!!!

Access the Web Site software downloading section through the link: http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php

Virtual Telescope from Microsoft at your Home

2008-05-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

How often do look up on the sky? No, not for the weather verification, to check if the rain should be expected, but just because. What was the last time you looked at the stars? Probably, long ago, in your childhood...

Get ready, gray-haired romantics and all inquisitive users of the Internet and computers. You will be delighted with the new utility developed by Microscope. Worldwide Telescope (WWT) is the virtual telescope, offering surprisingly real pictures of space based on the collection of images collected by different world-wide observatories and also by space telescope Hubble. The project development took long 16 years of the critical scientific research. In the memory of Jim Gray, the authors of the Microsoft Research project announced that the utility is absolutely free for all users.

WWT users are able to "travel" throughout the galaxy, closely viewing the planets of our solar system from different perspectives and observing its structures in the X-ray spectrum. Or, if you prefer to inspect your Mother Earth, you can take on its surface by the eyes of astronauts, or study the panorama of another city, seen from space.

At present, the software is supported exclusively by Windows XP and Windows Vista Operating Systems. Mac users might use it with loading multi-system load utility BootCamp.

Earlier, at the end of August 2007, a similar service was launched by Google. With Google Sky, add-on to the famous Good Earth, you are able to examine the images of the celestial sphere. However, to be fair, the Microsoft creation - WWT- appears to be of better designed and carries higher informative value. It is definitely recommended for everybody who is not yet gave up the beauty of Universe under the load of the day-to-day life routine!!!

Home page of project and link for the software downloading:

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Project was presented for the first time by astrophysicist and science populariser Roy Gould in March 2008. Review his video presentation of the project:

Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope

You can review the collection of the pictures, used for the project presentation at various conferences. Click on the photo to increase. You will see some of your old acquaintances: Jupiter (photo 4 and 5), Mars (photo 6 and 7), Saturn (photo 9).

Bill Gates Recommended: Get More from Outlook with Free Plugin Xobni

2008-05-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

Do you think Bill Gates is a visionary man? I do.

Bill Gates, speaking February 2008 at the Microsoft Office Developer Conference in San Jose, California, called Xobni "the next generation of social networking." So, what is Xobni? The application, called Xobni (name is strange, but if you spell inbox backwards, you will get what they mean), is an Outlook plug-in that not only indexes your inbox for advanced searching but also turns Outlook into a kind of social networking utility that can identify links between e-mail recipients.

Xobni digs into e-mails in Outlook and creates some kind of database, pulling key pieces of information out of messages in the folders, such as names, phone numbers, and addresses and organizes them into additional sidebar, bringing valuable collective information at your service. For example, click on one of the e-mails and the Xobni sidebar opens an information-rich profile for your contact. You will see conversation statistics (such as how often you communicate with this person and when), phone numbers, other people in the contact’s network (those who have been cc’d on earlier messages), previous and current e-mail threads, appointments, and a list of all attachments that person has sent you.

At the moment, the plug-in is available exclusively for Outlook, but more e-mail platforms’s solutions on its way. From beginning of May, company entered into a Beta stage, when anybody can download and use the utility for free, and no invitation needed.

I personally did it, and I am really excited so far by the extended mail client capabilities. Highly recommended!

More information and link for downloading: http://www.xobni.com/

Video Presentation:

Bill Gates Recommended: Get More from Outlook with

Additional Reading:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117050

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/technology/05xobni.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006890.html

Listing of 20 Best Parental Control Freeware Utilities

2008-05-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

The Internet is a wonderful educational tool for kids, but it also iincreasingly introduces new dangers and content that can negatively affect them. As a parent you obviously want to protect your children from viewing pornography and adult websites. And disconnecting Internet from your home PC is, probably, not the best way to deal with the problem.

The prepared rating list covers the top 20 freeware utilities to prevent inappropriate content to be delivered to your kids with brief description, access links, and rating.

http://www.rateitall.com/t-26340-parental-control-software--freeware-reviews.aspx

Free software to prevent your kids exposure

Freeware world - Freeware reviews Blog Carnival- May 9, 2008 - 3rd Ed.

2008-05-09T00:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Third, May 9, 2008 edition of "Freeware world - Freeware reviews" Blog Carnival. I want to thank all the authors contributing to the issue. Some articles were excluded from the review, since their topic of discussion did not match the main target of the carnival. I am sorry, that not all submissions were accepted, as some of the excluded articles carried a significant value.

Stephen Dean presents EarthClassMail.com posted at Stephen Dean’s Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

Michael Law presents How to Make a Better To-Do List posted at Michael Emilio.

General Freeware

Raymond presents File Sharing and Downloading Music - Fun and Free But Beware of The RIAA posted at Money Blue Book.

cryton presents Free Virus Scan Will Save Your Computer if You’ve Got Adware Malware or Spyware Pt2 posted at Welcome Back Rosenthal, saying, "Tools to help an infected computer. Accumulate now, so when it happens you’ll be prepared"

Tip Diva presents Tip Diva Top Ten Tips - Learning Computer Software posted at Tip Diva, saying, "Learning new software can be a daunting task, but you can master the program in no time. All it takes is a little patience and some tip following."

Kelly Ifrah presents The Best Mozilla Firefox BackUp Tool posted at OnTheNetDollars.com.

Yanik Chauvin presents Adobe PhotoShop Express Review Yanik’s Photo Blog posted at Yanik’s Photo Blog.

Jimson Lee presents vtiger CRM: Enterprise-ready Open Source CRM software posted at CRM Help Desk Software.com, saying, "vtiger CRM is an enterprise-ready Open Source CRM software mainly for small and medium businesses. vtiger CRM is built over proven, fast, and reliable LAMP/WAMP (Linux/Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) technologies and other open source projects."

Heather Johnson presents 10 Ways to better use Google Analytics : Green & White posted at Green & White.

Kevin Fleming presents How To Watch Network TV Shows Online posted at Satellite TV Guru.

Find and Download Clip with ClipFinder

2008-05-07T00:10:00.000-07:00

It seems that video naturally came as the next big thing on the Internet, slowly replacing MP3 madness. Video adds one more dimension to the people perception, sometimes making easier to show than describe.

So, how and where do you find videos on the Internet? Youtube has definitely the biggest collection, capturing a significant share of the video market. However, there are many other video sites with original content that might be worth trying as well. But, seraching each and every one would be a pain.

ClipFinder from the popular German software manufacturer Ashampoo is offering a convenient solution. It is a freeware video search program that crawls some of the popular video sites, looking for content that matches your query. It supports YouTube, MySpace, MetaCafe, iFilm, VideU, MyVideo, ClipFish, Google Video, sevenload, Dailymotion, and several other video sites. The results are presented as video thumbnails that can be viewed with the built-in player with no need of visiting the hosting websites. Among additional features are possibility to bookmark and download chosen videos and advanced search through the videos databases of all the involved portals.

Link to the authors’s description and downloading: http://www2.ashampoo.com/webcache/html/1/product_2_0055__.htm

Note, to use this freeware for period of more than 10 days you need to register for free on the authors’s Web Site.

A brief video presentation:

Find and Download Clip with ClipFinder

For those, who hate clogging your computer with additional software, I can offer an alternative solution - use multi-site video search online services, searching several video hosts from a single page. The rating list, hosted at RateItAll, provides a brief description, web links, and rating. You can leave your feedback with particular services as well.

Access the list through the link:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-26312-searching-multiple-video-sharing-sites-in-one-place.aspx

Enhance Automatic Translation with Freeware Translate.Net

2008-05-04T01:18:00.000-07:00

If you ever tried to use online machine translation service from the language you understand, you know how funny and inaccurate the translation is performed. However, in many cases, when you need to get a main idea of the foreign language site, it will be good enough, definitely, much better than no translation at all. However, the question is naturally raised if the automatic translation can be improved, bringing more accurate results. Translate.Net, a free Windows translation aggregator is a desktop application offering the results from different language translation engines and dictionaries, letting you compare obtained results.

There are 17 services, 35 languages, and 1352 translations directions supported by the software with GUI localized to French, Chinese, Ukrainian and Russian. The program remembers your recent translation directions and allows saving your previous choice for the next session.

Translate.Net

Note, that the software requires permanent Internet connection for processing of queries and retrieving translating results.

More information and source for downloading: http://translateclient.googlepages.com/index.en.html

Repair, clean, and optimize your Windows with 2 clicks

2008-04-30T00:32:00.000-07:00

If you use your computer and do not perform regular maintenance, eventually it will show the warning signs: slow operations, occasional crashes, freezing windows, etc. If you use your computer not just for email and Internet, but try new software and games, this process might lead to the serious system clogging. Computer guru have the detailed maintenance plans how to keep their systems on the top of performance results. One of my friends reinstalls Operating System once every 6 months to keep it clean and fresh.

Regular user, as I am, is too busy to spend time on the computer preventive maintenance up to the point, when the performance troubling signs cannot be ignored any more. At this point we are falling to the panic mode and starting all the available magic tricks to restore the lost power.

There are so many software titles available, including freeware and open source, that it is hard to choose one for the service operations. In this publication, I want to present a descent solution for resolving all computer troubles. Advanced WindowsCare Personal is a comprehensive PC care utility that can be characterized by a “one-click approach” to the tasks of protecting, repairing, and general optimizing of your computer. Software will perform the following operations with your PC:

* Removing Spyware and Adware modules, running on your PC.

* Preventing potential Security Threats, altering appropriate settings.

* Privacy Protection.

* Fixing Registry Errors, and optimizing registry.

* Cleaning temporary files and orphans.

* Cleaning startup options, removing unnecessary applications from initializing.

* Repairing Windows operating system.

* Speeding up operating system and optimizing RAM use.

I would not say, that the program is the most effective on the market, but it is definitely one of the most easiest, if not the easiest, to control and operate. If you run into trouble, the Restoration option can return your system to its original configuration.

Software is absolutely free and designed for Windows Vista, XP and 2000.

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

A very brief half-minute video tutorial will show you the software operation:

Advanced WindowsCare Personal in 30 seconds