Program: Audacity V1.3.14
Released here

Audacity is a free, open source audio editor that supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is good at what is does, which is perform basic audio editing and format transfers in an intuitive way that many beginners have no trouble understanding.

I find myself constantly using Audacity for the same chores, and chances are, if you are making a podcast, you will too. First, I use it to record audio from a microphone or from some other source, like a tape deck or turntable. Then, if I recorded vocals, I edit the mistakes out, remove unwanted noise and pops between phrases, and create a composite of the best takes.

Sometimes I apply a few simple audio effects, like a compressor, to even out any peaks in the sound. The effects seem adequate, but they are only average to me. The biggest weak point here is that effects can only be applied destructively, which means you permanently change the audio when you effect it. You can not go back latter and turn a compressor off or tweek an EQ again the way you can in more advanced packages.



I can use Audacity to bring music beds in, create intros, and use sound effects, and then convert my finished project to MP3 format. Sometimes, I also import audio files that are giving me trouble, and view their waveforms to see if there are any visual clues as to what the problem might be.
The Tech Specs

Audacity can record and edit 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit (floating point) samples, and up to 96 KHz. sample rate. What this means is that although some of it's tools are simplistic, Audacity's audio quality is no slouch; it performs up to professional standards.

There are unlimited Undo (and Redo), and the only limit to the number of tracks you can edit and mix are the limits of your computer's processor and RAM. The program comes with several installed effects, including one that can help remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises. You can also load and use VST plug-ins with the add-on VST Enabler, which gives you access to the very big world world of free VST plug-ins online (although these will still be applied destructively).
What Audacity is Not

Audacity is not made for complex music production. I wouldn't use Audacity for using loops or multi-tracking if I had a choice. One big reason why is because the different tracks in the work pane are not truly synced together. Each time you overdub a previous track with another recording, the track you record will be slightly out of time and behind the preexisting track.

This is not really a big deal for most podcasting jobs, where you can slide elements around, and it's not that important to have them perfectly in sync. However, for multi-track music, this is a big problem. Audacity's manual suggests making a sharp percussive sound (like the clack from a director's board) on the first track, and hitting that sound again in time on the succeeding recordings, and then lining everything up visually. If you you hit the sync sound late on your take, you're out of luck. This is pretty privative, so I hope an enterprising, open source code guru tackles this problem in the next release.
Bottom Line Time

Although it is not the end-all be-all of audio editors, Audacity has a simple tool set that works well, and many people decide to stay with it because it works for them. For those ready to take a step up to a more powerful audio editor, Adobe's Audition offers tremendous power and flexibility, which has earned it the top spot among radio stations everywhere.

But many podcasters don't need Audition's firepower. For them, Audacity fills a niche for quality, free software from a trustworthy source, and I'm sure it enables many people to start podcasting who otherwise wouldn't or couldn't. And that's definitely a good thing.

source

 

Program: Cognitive Openocr v0.1.0
Released here

Cuneiform OCR software recognizes up to 23 languages

Cognitive OpenOCR (CuneiForm) is an open source Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software that can automatically recognize texts in scanned or printed documents in not one or two but twenty-three international languages. These include English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, mixed Russian-English, Spanish, Swedish, Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

Cuneiform can recognize any printing and typing styles with the exception of decorative and manuscripts. The software has special algorithms for text recognition from dotted matrix printer, fax and photocopies of bad typing. It auto recognizes blocks of text, tables and images and preserves the layout of the page perfectly.



Cuneiform has a high recognition rate. Its performance is comparable to that of high-quality commercial software such as ABBYY FineReader. In fact, in my test I wasn’t able to figure out who did the better job - ABBYY FineReader or Cuneiform.

Cuneiform does everything pretty much automatically. A wizard guides you through all stages of scanning and recognition and helps you reach the goal quickly. Just keep feeding the software scanned copies of text or direct it to get the images from the scanner and it will do the rest. The software also grants you the ability to define regions for scanning, regions to ignore, define tables, columns and so on, you wish to.

After it is done recognizing the text, a curious thing happens – it opens Microsoft Word right inside the program’s window for you to carry out editing and proofreading. If your computer does not have MS Word installed, the document will open on their inbuilt text editor which is by no means inferior to standard word processors.



Features:

1. Support of 20 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Mixed Russian-English, Ukrainian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Serbian, Croatian, Polish and others. Every language is supplied with a dictionary which lets do a context check of recognized characters and improve the recognition results.
2. Using built-in text editor, you can easily work with images, tables, columns, various fonts, headers and footers, if manual interaction is needed. Built-in wizards guide you through all stages of scanning and recognition and help to reach the final recognition goal quickly and with high quality and accuracy.
3. Recognition of tables of different structure even with cells not separated by lines.
4. Improved automatic and semiautomatic searching of text, tables and images, which makes the work with documents of complex structure highly flexible, it has also powerful means of manual fragmentation.
5. Ensures scanning from remote scanner in a local network. There can be only one scanner in office, but it can be used by any user in the organization.

source

Program: Dexpot 1.6 Beta Build 1805
Released here

Version tested: 1.4.0 build 427

Dexpot will allow you to set up and customize virtual desktops within Windows such that each can behave as a seperate workspace with its own icons and runnning apps. It offers powerful tools to customize and manage these virtual desktops in a nice intuitive graphical user interface.

Let’s say that you use your computer for work, and that you also use it, say, to edit personal videos, as well as to do a little bit of freelance web design on the side. With Dexpot you can keep all of your work icons, applications, files, and links on one desktop, all of your video editing icons/apps on another desktop, and all of the web design stuff on yet another virtual desktop.

You can also be running your web design app(s) so they’re only visible in the design desktop, your work applications in the work desktop, and so on.

Here’s what you need to know about this program:

It creates up to 20 virtual desktops; you can navigate these through the system tray icon or using a number of cool looking gizmos that you can choose from.
Dextop offers high customizability: each desktop can have its own name, icons/files/shortcuts, wallpaper, screen resolutions, running apps, transparency of windows, etc. You can also set rules for each desktop, e.g. to open a certain app when you enter a certain desktop for the first time or every single time, etc.
These desktops are overlaid ‘virtually’ on top of your ‘real’ desktop. So, for example, although you only see the icons that belong to desktop#2 when you’re inside it, all of these are actually in your standard windows desktop folder.

I have installed and tested 2 other virtual desktop programs, Virtual Desktop Toolbox and VirtuaWin. Both were very good, (the former in particular was very powerful); still, Dextop is my clear favorite. The strength of this program lies in (a) the great sleek overall design, and (b) a very nice user interface which makes it really easy to customize and navigate.

However, I do have a wishlist:

Icon management across different desktops could be more streamlined. As it is managing icons is a bit of a hassle, at least initially (you have to select the ‘Desktop Windows’ item on the menu then click the ‘icons’ tab to shuffle icons across desktops). Moreover, even after allocating the icons to the correct desktop(s), a few seemed to revert back inexplicably, but would work when I re-distributed them. It would be far more intuitive if the author had a right-click menu item that simply moved or copied the icon(s) to the desired desktop. See the comments section for a little trick that I use to distribute files/icons. Also ‘snap to grid’ for desktop icons doesn’t auto-refresh very well.
The program should actively ask you if you want to save your profile upon exiting, and if you want this as default. This would have saved me from re-doing a lot of work when I exited the program only to find that my profile wasn’t saved when I re-opened it.

Once introduced to this app I was surprised and impressed; all I could think of was: why did Windows not ship with this functionality built in to begin with?. It is safe to say that this program is one of my ‘must-have’ titles and has made working on my computer a much better experience. I cannot recommend it more highly.

source

Program: Everything search engine v1.2.1.371
Released here

“Everything”: small, lightning fast desktop search for NTFS drives



“Everything” is a free, lightning fast file and folder name search program that offers right-click context menu integration. It works with NTFS filesystem hard drives only because it does not scan your hard drive but rather uses the Master File Table of the NTFS volume to build its database.

If your hard drive(s) is NTFS formatted and if you are looking for a super-fast program for searching file and folder names that beats the pants off of Windows’ default search function, this program may be it. It may be, in fact, the fastest desktop search program (for files and folder names) that I have ever seen.

I will admit that before I encountered this program I thought that desktop search programs were of two types: the kind that scans your hard drive on demand on the one hand, and “indexing” search programs on the other that scan your hard drive, store the result in a database, and then use various methods to keep that database updated with subsequent changes. And although “Everything” is in fact similar to the aforementioned “indexing” desktop search programs (it does indeed build an index), there is a difference in that it doesn’t do this by actual, time consuming scanning of the hard drive.

The way “Everything” works is by accessing the NTFS USN Change Journal maintained by the NTFS drivers, which logs all changes made on the NTFS drive. It uses the raw Master File Table for building its database, which is very fast (1,000,000 files will take about 1 minute), but it only works with NTFS drives. More info on this program:

Updating the database: aside from the initial indexing (which is superfast) you do not need to worry about this. You never need to reindex manually, and the program does not need to be running in memory at all times. All files are monitored, including system files.
Search results: right click “Search Everything ..” on a folder or drive and you get a “flattened” list of results that include all files and folders inside recursively (hence the name “Everything”). You can then type into the search box to filter the result or click on a column header to sort them.



Context menu integration: is one of my favorite features; right click on a folder or drive and search on the spot. Also a great way to view a “flattened” folder with all files and subfolders displayed in one big list.
Filtering: can use boolean operators, wildcards, and (optionally) “regular expressions”. This means that the user has significant power/flexibility in terms of what they can search for. It will be worth your while to go here to get to grips with the search syntax, as it really is quite powerful.
Connecting to ETP/HTTP/FTP servers: an added option that seems a little out of place in a desktop search app. I have not explored this personally, but I will quote an email exchange with the author of this software: “the servers are there for remote access and searching. While the ETP/FTP/HTTP are probably not for general use… I use the ETP server on my fileserver, and connect to that from my TV computer. This allows me to quickly find TV-Series, music etc… from my TV computer that are on my fileserver. There is no remote indexing yet, only local NTFS volumes are indexed.”
Drive PropertiesNTFS: only files/folders that are on NTFS volumes will be indexed by “Everything”. To find out if you have an NTFS formatted drive/partition right click “properties” on the drive icon and go to the “general” tab (see image to the right). To convert your FAT32 formatted drive to NTFS see this Microsoft Help article or search Google.



Resource consumption: is supposed to be very low. To quote the program site “a fresh install of Windows XP SP2 (about 20,000 files) will use about 3-5mb of ram and less than 1mb of disk space. 1,000,000 files will use about 45mb of ram and 5mb of disk space”. A quick check of memory consumption on my machine showed “Everything” taking up approx. 11 megs, which is very little considering what this program does.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

Filtering by files/folder/all: one thing I would like to see is a quick, radio-button style filter for viewing “files”, “folders” or “all”.

The verdict: needless to say I love this program (almost enough to consider it as yet another reason to have NTFS formatted drives rather than FAT32). If you (like me) are lucky enough to have NTFS formatted drives then you should definitely install it; the speed and flexibility that it provides is simply terrific. I love the context menu integration, I love the powerful search syntax (even as it is somewhat cumbersome at first), and I love the fact that I never need to re-index or worry about the file list being out of date. Highly recommended.

source

Program: Dropbox v1.2.51
Released here

I have been using Dropbox for over two years now to sync files between my laptop and my main desktop and I have to say that the beauty of Dropbox is how simple it is. Install it on the computers you want to sync files with and simply drag and drop the files and folders you want to sync between computers. Simplicity is a good thing, why make something complicated if it does not have to be.

After you download and install Dropbox on your computer you can create an account. To sync files between another computer simply download and install the appropriate version of Dropbox for that computer. For example I sync files between my Ubuntu Linux laptop and my Windows desktop. Once you have created your account with Dropbox, simply login to the same account on all the computers you want to sync. After the software is installed you will have a new folder on your computer called Dropbox. All the folders and files that are copied to that folder are synced to all the other computers. Those files are also available over the Internet using the Dropbox web interface.

Dropbox also makes it easy to allow public access to some of your files. Inside of your Dropbox folder there is a subfolder called Public. Any folder or file inside of the Public folder is exactly that, public and accessible to the world. Have a large document you need to send to a client or coworker. You can add it to the Public folder, copy the publicly accessible link and have them download the document. You could even host a simple website hosted entirely in your Drobox Public folder. For example I created a simple HTML file to show this review.

You can also share folders and files with people that are not inside of the public folder. You can create a shared folder and invite others users to collaborate with you on its contents. This makes Dropbox perfect for businesses allowing employees to work on the same documents from where ever they are.

Dropbox does have specific applications available that you can use to access your files from your smartphone. Sync and upload functionality varies depending on the platform. The mobile web interface is accessible from many mobile devices. Mobile access makes it very easy to upload via the web the latest photo you have taken on your phone that you want to keep safe or any other document that you want to make sure you do not lose.

If you find you email files to yourself on a regular basis, carry a USB drive around, like to share photos with your friends and family and want to have access to your most important files from anywhere then Dropbox is a fantastic service and one you should check out. It will make the syncing of files between your computers so easy you will not know how you lived without Dropbox.

Pros:

• Free 2GB.
  
• Web interface to upload and access files.
  
• Multi Platform Support – Mac, Windows, Linux Compatible
  
• Allows sharing of files.
  
• Easy to use
  
• Offers a mobile application for most mobile platforms.

Cons:

• Mobile applications limited in functionality.
  
• In April 2011, Dropbox modified its privacy policy. “We may disclose to parties outside Dropbox files stored in your Dropbox and information about you that we collect when we have a good faith believe that disclose is reasonably necessary.” For a zero knowledge service try SpiderOak.

source

Program: HTTrack v3.44-5
Released here

I remember that when I was really young, at the beginning of my discovering the Internet, I wanted to download the entire World Wide Web to my computer. Laugh all you want, but back then the Internet connection was really poor.

Today this is possible. You can download anything you want from the Internet, including websites. The software that I chose to do it with is called WinHTTrack, and it is excellent in mirroring web sites.

WinHTTrack is a free and open source website copier and offline browser by Xavier Roche licensed under the GNU General Public License. In not so many words, the software is free to use and develop.

The software can be used for copying websites for offline browsing or backup purposes. The interface does not contain complicated elements designed to transform your work into a living hell. On the contrary, it is very easy to use. The only thing is it has so many rich features that you're going to need some time to decide what you want to do.

The application window is as simple as can be. The menu bar is up there where it should be and it is composed from the File, Preferences, Mirror, Log and Window menus.



The File menu 'hides' options like New Project, opening a previous project, saving, deleting and the Browsing sites option. This last feature is designed to open the sites that you have completely downloaded to your computer.

In the Preferences menu the user can set default options, save and load them. Thus you can make different website download settings and then load them according to your download wishes. In this section you can also set your language preference. It covers 28 different languages.

The 'Mirror' menu allows pausing the transfer and modifying the options. In 'Log', the user can view the error log and the file transfers. These two menus are active only when you begin the file transfer.

Let's see how the software works. HTTrack downloads to a local directory one or more sites from the Internet and builds recursively all directories, saving HTML, image and other files to your computer. The wizard like interface helps you step by step to accomplish your goal. At the beginning of a new project the user has to give a name to the task and specify a category and a path for saving the project.

Next you have to define a mirroring mode. You have seven options, among which we count 'download website(s)', 'download website(s) + questions', 'get separate files' and 'continue interrupted download'. As updating a website is the key to its lifespan, HTTrack is also equipped with the option of updating an existing download.

If your connection is interrupted by some external factor you can resume the download activity. In the URL box there should be the web address(es) of the sites you want to browse later.

You do not have to enter all the addresses at once. Start a project and if you remember another site that you want to save on your disk stop the current operation and restart the project. The software will continue the interrupted task and will begin downloading the newly added site.

In the 'Set options' menu of the application the user can make the settings for downloading the websites. You can use proxy for FTP transfers by entering manually the name and port. Use filters (scan rules) to exclude/include subdirectories or to skip certain file formats.

The software allows defining limits for how deep the engine should seek. By default, the depth is infinite, but due to the fact that you have specified a certain site, it will not mirror the entire web. You can limit the amount of bytes that can be downloaded for a site or set a maximum transfer rate.

The user can define the number of simultaneous connections initiated by the engine or set a number of retries if the server is not responding. The application can automatically test the validity of the external links on a website. You can accept cookies generated by the remote server or not. If you do not accept cookies, some "session-generated" pages will not be retrieved.

A piece of advice: if you are not sure what to do in 'Experts only' tab, leave it as it is. Here the advanced user can enable or disable the 'use a cache for updates' option (for later updating of the site). For primary filters, the options are HTML and/or Non-HTML. The 'Travel mode' sets the default spidering direction.

'Activate debug mode' enables some extra debug information, like headers debugging and some interface information (for debugging purpose only).

After making all the settings, you have to choose whether you want your machine turned off or not after finishing the download or, if you want to postpone the action, you can define the time you want the download to begin.

All these being said, click 'Next' and HTTrack will begin its activity immediately or scheduled.


The Good

The software has lots of features that can help you in your task. The wizard like interface is supported by a help menu designed to open the page for the window you are in.
The fact that it is free makes it really attractive. You do not have to worry about absolutely nothing. I really liked that in the documentation file there is a section on 'How NOT to use it'.

The Bad

When trying to end a task, the software obeyed my orders only the second time. The 'Set options' menu is pretty tricky and it is not for just everybody.

The Truth

I was impressed by the stability and range of options the software comes equipped with. I began using it when my ISP called and announced that I will have no Internet connection for the next three days. I was in real need of information from one particular website. So I downloaded it.
I recommend paying full attention to the recommendations in the Help menu so that you don't get into trouble.

My advice for this software is: Use it, don't abuse it!

source

Program: Hotspot Shield v2.24
Released here

The bottom line:

The Internet connection protector Hotspot Shield encrypts your traffic to protect you from all kinds of spying while your computer communicates with the rest of the world. It's a must-have utility for anybody who uses public Wi-Fi networks.

Review:

The Internet connection protector Hotspot Shield encrypts your traffic to protect you from all kinds of spying while your computer communicates with the rest of the world. It's a must-have utility for anybody who uses public Wi-Fi networks, but it's also an excellent tool for ensuring on any network connection that you can access sites and data according to your tastes, and nobody else's. Hotspot Shield's Virtual Private Network services are used by more than 10 million at the time this review was written, according to the software publisher AnchorFree, making it the largest VPN in the world.

The browser-independent Hotspot Shield establishes an encrypted connection to the Hotspot Shield servers, and turns all HTTP traffic to the safer HTTPS. By re-routing Web traffic and providing you with a new IP address hosted by AnchorFree, the company is able to ensure that your data isn't plucked out of the open by man-in-the-middle attacks or wireless network spoofing.

In our tests, we noticed that sometimes the program would actually resolve pages faster than when connected without it. This occurs, most likely, because of the geographic location of the company's servers. During a day of hands-on testing on the notoriously pokey CNET public Wi-Fi network, we noticed that Hotspot Shield Elite was remarkably fast. There were no connection lags despite the rerouting, and the program admirably handled high-definition streaming videos from sites such as Vimeo, YouTube, and CNET TV. We'd recommend the program for improving the Wi-Fi speeds alone, nevermind the additional security benefits.

The free version of Hotspot Shield does come at a small cost. The installation opts you in to two toolbars, one from Hotspot Shield and one from Conduit, which redirects your default search and home page. Also, whenever you activate Hotspot Shield, it will open a new tab to AnchorFree.com and begin autoplaying a video. That's seriously annoying, even in a free product that offers such a valuable service. Still, the toolbars and redirects are optional.

Once installed, it appears as a red system tray icon that turns to green when activated. Right-click to toggle it on or off. Choosing the Properties option opens a new browser tab that tells you that you're connected. Hit the Details link to learn more about your connection, including the VPN IP address, amount of data sent in and out, and how long you've been connected. The data transfer rate makes for a useful, quick-and-dirty gauge for people with data caps.

Hotspot Shield now offers an Elite service, which runs ad-free. Elite costs $0.50 per 24 hour session, with a minimum $10 deposit, or $5 per month, or $45 per year. Payment options include credit card, PayPal, prepaid cash cards or mobile phone payments via premium SMS. Aside from Hotspot Shield Elite's preferential bandwidth priority and lack of ads, there are no built-in additional features in Elite. However, at the time this review was written, AnchorFree had arranged a deal with Skype so that new Elite users get two hours of Skype talk time free when signing up.

The company has created multiple ways to circumvent download blockers in countries with strict censorship, too. If you can't access a Web page with the download, you can send an e-mail to win@anchorfree.com for the Windows version or mac@anchorfree.com for the Mac version, and the small installer file will be sent directly to you.

source

Program: FreeFileSync v5.0
Released here

FreeFileSync: powerful folder comparison and synchronization tool



FreeFileSync is a free/open source folder and file synchronization program that features a beautiful, two pane user interface and a host of powerful options. It can do the following: compare files by their content or by file size and date, synchronize files and subfolders, process multiple pairs of folders at once, load/save folder comparison sessions, create batch jobs that can be run from the command line, and can can handle cloned files (i.e. symbolic links or junctures). It also offers UniCode and Network support. There is also a portable (no-install) version.

Do you need a directory comparison and synchronization program with a lot of features and options? If so then you’ve just found one of the best free programs in its class. Before I continue I will point out that for this review I will use a mock question-and-answer format where I pretend I am being interviewed by someone else

Q: You’ve said that this is one of the best directory comparison apps. Why do you like it so much?
A: I like that it supports so many advanced options. But there are three real reasons:

• The interface: this program’s Graphical User Interface is just tremendous. It looks good and delivers a great user experience in the way the items are compared are presented visually, and each entry has a little button that can be used for individual on-the-fly syncing.
  
• Supports multiple folder comparisons simultaneously: which means you can perform all your folder comparisons and synchronizations at once and be done with it. You can also save your sessions (which the program calls "configurations"), to quickly re-do the comparisons at a future point in time.
  
• Can create automated "batch files" for folder syncing: these can be run from the command line, and will allow you to specify folder(s) to compare, rules for syncing, file extension filters, and other details (see image to the right).

Q: How does this program determine which files are different and which files are the same?
A: It lets the user decide whether it should compare the actual content of the files or whether to simply compare the size and date of files.

Q: Does it support 2-way synchronization?
A: Yes. It supports "Mirror syncs" (right folder will exactly match the left, no matter what’s in it), "Update syncs" (new/updated files will be copied to the right folder), and "Two-way syncs" (both sides will be changed to reflect the new or updated files that are found on either side). Deletions ca an be performed via the Recycle Bin, which gives the user recourse to go and salvage them if need be, and copy errors can be ignored if necessary as well.



There is a also a so called custom sync option where users can create their own syncing rules, but it does not seem to be active as of the version I tested.

Q: Is it possible to only compare certain file extensions, or specify extensions that should NOT be compared?
A: Yes. You can do either one of the above, i.e. specify what to include or specify what to exclude (see image to the right for an example where I am excluding ZIP, RAR and JPG files from processing). You can also use the context menu for some quick, on-the fly file extension filtering. It is also very easy to hide or show filtered items from the main display interface.



Q: You mentioned other "advanced options" that this program supports. Can you list some of these?
A: Supports filesizes larger that 4GB, no limitations on number of files, "delete before copy" to avoid disc space shortages with large sync operations, handling of cloned files (i.e. symbolic links or junctures), UniCode and Network support.

Q: So what’s the verdict? Any last remarks.
A: Excellent Program. I was looking for a program that can compare two folders (and subfolders) when I found this and it was so much more that I expected. I highly recommend it.

I also would like to mention that there is a portable version available. Simply download the zipped version and extract it where you want it, even on a USB drive.

Version Tested: 2.1 build July 3 2009 Unicode

source

Program: ToDo Reminder v1.1.7.1
Released here

Keeping on top of daily tasks can be stressful for many. The ToDo Reminder is a program designed to help you keep track of daily duties and prioritize tasks. Its simple approach might not appeal to all, but it can help users stay organized without much effort.

Users hoping for a sleek look may be disappointed by this freeware's plain interface. However, simplicity is an asset for ToDo Reminder. Where other reminder and prioritization software attempts to do too much--potentially confusing the user--there is almost no mistaking the simple job of this download. By creating tasks, users can set reminders and organize them by priority. The task list is simple and effective for tracking any to-do items. An added feature is the ability to create and organize tasks by category. This will certainly be helpful for users who need to manage multiple aspects of their lives with a single program. Besides the simple display, which some users may not like, our only other concern is the lack of direction for setting the timer to alert users of upcoming time-sensitive tasks. Despite the program's overall simplicity, more user guidance in this area would be beneficial.

Still, this is a fine download that will keep users organized. Compared with many similar programs we have tested, ToDo Reminder is a better choice because it keeps things simple.

source

Program: PeStudio v3.54
Released here

PeStudio from Winitor is a free tool that analyzes applications and other files before you run them. It can uncover a wide range of security-related details, such as whether the file in question exports anonymous functions or imports obsolete functions, whether it's compatible with 64-bit operating systems, and much more. It handles a wide range of formats, including EXE, DLL, CPL, OCX, and other program and system files. It doesn't change anything; it simply extracts and displays a wide range of information that will be of great interest to programmers, admins, security providers, and power users.

We extracted the zipped program and saved it to a desktop folder. Since PeStudio is portable freeware, it needs no installation: you can park the executable file anywhere you like, even portable devices and USB drives. The program opened with a simple tabbed, ruled interface that looked more like a properties dialog than a GUI, but PeStudio displays a lot of information in 10 tabs labeled Evidences, File Header, Optional Header, Directories, Sections, Libraries, Imports, Exports, Resources, Manifest, and .NET. Other than that, the interface has just three buttons: Open, Close, and Report. We clicked Open, browsed to an executable file, and selected it. After a brief moment, PeStudio began to populate the first tab, Evidences, with a list view of issues. Checked boxes indicated which of the wide range of potential issues PeStudio detected in the file. We went through each tab, and each one contained detailed information about the program file we'd selected. Clicking Report let us save any tab as an XML file. There are no options or Help file, since neither is needed, and no ads or links to other software; just a simple but useful tool that extracts a wide range of security-related details.

Casual users probably won't get as much out of PeStudio as more-advanced users with knowledge of programming, but it's freely available to anyone who can make use of it, and that's what counts.

source

Program: FreeRIP v3.63
Released here

Review 1

Like a finely tuned laser, FreeRip 3 does one task: extract songs from your CDs. Fortunately, the app accomplishes its goals accurately, if not with flair, and makes for an easy-to-use audio-track ripper.

The latest version of the program features some long overdue enhancements. Chief among them is the inclusion of the WMA format, and it's hard to believe it wasn't included before. FreeRip also supports WAV, MP3, Vorbis, and FLAC. Other features include multitrack ripping and an option to use the program as an audio-file converter. The options menu is extensive and will appeal to any advanced user, since it makes most manners of customization a cinch.

The interface is well done, with big icons and a friendly main window split into two sections. The left pane lists the tracks, and the right gives you specific info on each song and has a tab to switch to CD-wide info. The toolbar has icons for all the major functions of the app as well as links to the publisher's community pages. In the end, FreeRip doesn't do anything its competitors don't, but it functions well, is uncomplicated and quick, and has no price tag. - source

Review 2

Pros

1. It is VERY easy to install without the things that some people are complaining about!!
2. It installs quickly and easily.
3. The interface is easy to figure out. User(and newbie)friendly.
4. Converted my music tracks to Mp3s very quickly.
5. Does not contain any viruses or malware.

Cons

None that I have found so far.

Summary

I am blown away by all the comments about this program installing a toolbar and changing the browser (which can trigger your antivirus/malware software). The second window in the installation process gives you the option of NOT doing that!!! Jeeze people...pay attention!!!
I needed a program that would take tracks off my CDs and convert them to Mp3s so that I could put them on my Kindle Fire. The FreeRip software is PERFECT for that! It was so easy to download(without adding the toolbar and changing my browser). After opening the FreeRip software, it literally took 2 clicks and the files were converted. So easy!! It was so fast too! I am beyond thrilled with this program and would highly recommend it! - source

Program: Recuva v1.42.544
Released here

Chances are that if you've accidentally erased a file, or something malicious like a worm or virus has done it for you, Recuva will find it. It's a great little undelete program, possibly the best on the market... if you can really say donationware's on the market. Also, Recuva is the only free/donationware sector-based recovery software that I've found.

Recuva's sector-based recovry worked for me on a number of occasions, but it doesn't support SCSI--and once or twice in previous versions failed to find files. This version seems effective, so if your hard drive's health is stable, it's worth a try in that role as well--and could save you quite a bit of cash. Unless I'm absolutely sure a hard drive isn't degrading during further use, I use tried and true R-Studio Data Recovery.

Recuva has a nice-looking, simple interface as well as a wizard that will walk you through the recovery/undelete process. There are options for what type of files to search for as well as whether to enable the deep scan (sector scan) that will find files on damaged or reformatted disks.

If you just want a good un-delete program with a small disk footprint at no charge, then Recuva is what you're looking for. It's also worth a shot at recovering overwritten or damaged data on an otherwise healthy hard drive. It works on both FAT and NTFS file systems so you can undelete files on virtually any Windows PC ever made, and the interface is the very model of restrained style and efficiency.

Note: This program is donationware. It is free to try, but the author accepts and encourages donations towards further development.

source

Program: IZArc v4.1.6
Released here

Powerful archiving utility

IZArc is a full featured archiving tool that you can use to open and create compressed files in many different formats. It offers many advanced features, including repairing of broken archives, searching within archives, password protecting, emailing of archives and much more. The program provides an Explorer style interface with integrated file browser, favorites, customizable toolbar and color coded file listings. IZArc can also be used to create self-extracting or disk-spanning archives and more.

Additional features include Windows Explorer integration, anti-virus integration and just about anything else you d would expect to find in a professional archive utility - but this one is free.

IZArc support most popular archive formats, including 7-ZIP, ACE,ARC, ARJ,BH, BZ2, CAB, DEB, GZ,HA, JAR, LHA, LZH,PAK, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR,TGZ, TZ, ZIP and ZOO. The program is easy to use, even for beginners, yet powerful enough to provide advanced users with all the tools you need.

The setup also includes IZArc2Go, which can be installed directly to your USB drive.

source

Program: Doszip Commander v2.23
Released here

Do you remember the days when 128 MB of RAM were considered to be topnotch technology? When DOS was the main operating system and floppy disks were as close as you could get to portable information?

Doszip Commander is a file manager that is complex and convenient, but also has a classic "oldie" flavor. It is designed to run under DOS and is in many ways very similar to "Norton Commander".

Doszip Commander has all the classic functions of a file manager, allowing you to browse through your files and folders from different partitions; copy, move, rename or create files and directories; view, sort, edit and even compress or extract files (using .zip archive).

Doszip Commander will also enable you to view the hidden files on your computer, giving you full access even to system files. Furthermore, the software comes with two different search types, a quick search where you will input the name of the file you want (fully or partially) and the program will quickly bring you to the file with the most similar name (this will only works if you are already browsing the directory where the file is located), or an advanced search that will allow you to do a more complex search for a certain file or a certain file type through folders or entire partitions that you will have to select.

The interface of Doszip Commander is very much in the style of the classic Norton Commander; this means that it is basically self explanatory. Every option has a hotkey that triggers it, helping you to save time when performing the various commands of the software.

Doszip Commander is a portable software that doesn't require an install. All you need to do is extract the archive and you may immediately start using the application.

Doszip Commander is a perfect software for the nostalgic. It comes without a price tag so if you miss the "good old days" just give it a try.

source

Program: Image Analyzer v1.34
Released here

There are photo-editing programs for all types of users, from the neophyte who simply needs to crop and resize to the hardcore photo geek who gets her kicks messing with editing algorithms. Image Analyzer is definitely for the photo geek; although it has many of the basic editing tools that would be expected of any such program, what makes it unique is an array of features that might flummox even more advanced users.

The program's interface is plain, with a set of menus and a toolbar across the top of the screen. The typical photo-editing tools are here; you can perform color corrections, sharpen and blur, crop and resize, apply various filters, and so on. Image Analyzer also has tools for cloning, warping, and spot healing, which we don't always see in basic image editing programs. What really sets Image Analyzer apart from the competition--for better or worse--is its more obscure features. Do you know what a discrete cosine transform is? A Lapp filter? Statistical image enhancement? If not, you'd better be prepared to experiment, because Image Analyzer isn't going to offer any guidance. The program comes with both built-in and online Help files, but they are vague and incomplete, entirely omitting many of the more unusual features. From what we could tell Image Analyzer seemed to work just fine, but the lack of documentation about these higher-level features is a significant drawback, making the program less desirable.

Image Analyzer installs politely but leaves a folder behind upon removal. We recommend this program to advanced users and intrepid beginners.

source