Windows Software Buzz

Free Picture Enlarger to Enlarge Small Photo

2009-08-08T00:39:00.005+07:00

There are times when we find a low resolution image that we want to enlarge, but enlarging the image resulting in an ugly blurry picture. I found a software that can enlarge your picture but unfortunately it isn't free, so I don't post it here since I want this blog only contains free software. Luckily, recently I found a free software that can enlarge your picture in a just a few clicks.

It's called SmillaEnlarger. What you need to do to get your small image bigger is to load it into the application, fine tune it with the provided tools, preview, and then, when you've already satisfied with the preview you get, hit the Calculate button to enlarge the picture. Don't forget to specify where you want to save it.

via enlarge image

Lost Nero Product Key?

2009-08-01T06:48:00.007+07:00

Nobody wants to lose their product keys, especially after they've just bought an expensive software like Nero. Without product key in your hand, you cannot reinstall the application.

That's why Nero created a tool specifically to find lost Nero product key, called Nero Serial Finder. The only requirement to be able to use it is that the Nero must still be installed within your computer. Just launch it and the tool will find and display the key to you in a matter of a very few seconds.

Download Nero Serial Finder

via Nero Serial Number Finder

Open RAR Files With Free RAR Openers

2008-10-24T01:57:00.002+07:00

Opening rar files is easy and free. All you need is a software that is designed to do so. Perform the installation once you find and download it, and the program will usually associate itself with all of the rar files inside your system. Some will perform automatic association, but most will require you to do it manually which is as easy as ticking a check box. Once it is associated, you can open any rar file just by double-clicking on it or using the right-click menu in Windows explorer.

Keep in mind that you don't need to purchase any software to open rar files. You don't even have to use a shareware that keeps popping-up a message regularly reminding you to upgrade to the pro version to do it. It is completely free of charge and free of annoying marketing message!

However, before finding out which program you should use, let's find out about what rar is actually. You can skip this boring part, though:)

Rar is just one of the many compressed archives. Just like a zip archive, it can contain one or several files. The reason many people choose this compression format instead of others like zip is it has better compression rate even though the compression and extraction process could take a little bit longer. Furthermore, it supports what is called as redundancy, which makes rar files more resistant to corruption and, in case they still get damaged, they can be recovered. However, how much you can recover a corrupt rar file depends on how bad the damage is.

Other things that many people prefer to use this format is its support on strong password protection and file splitting ability. This splitting feature is pretty useful if you have a giant size file to be uploaded to file sharing sites or sent to your friends online. Instead of uploading or sending a huge size file, which makes it longer either to upload or download it, the file is splitted into several volumes that each has smaller size.

If you often download files from file sharing sites like MegaUpload or Rapidshare, you should have found files that are compressed in rar format and many of the files are splitted into several volumes. The name of the volumes usually in the sequential order like part01.rar, part02.rar, part03.rar.

Top Free Software to Open Rar Archives

Here you come. Below is the list of top free software that able to open and extract rar files beside supporting a large number of other archives such as zip, 7-z, ace, cab, iso, rpm, tar, jar, and so on.

Among any other, 7-zip is probably the most recommended freeware. I've seen a lot of compliments on the features it has. If you compare it with a commercial rar opener, you will likely to find some features that the commercial one doesn't have. Moreover, its 7-z format can be used as a rar alternative since it also has good compression rate. 7-zip works under Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista.

Izarc is a free extractor and archiver armed with loads of features as well like archiver repair tool, archive splitter, converter, encryptor, decryptor, customizable right-click menu, virus scanning, etc.

Tugzip is another one you should try. Lots of features such as ability to perform automatic backup, make a self-extracting archive, virus scanning, and so on.

Universal Extractor is a pure, fast extractor. What makes it awesome is the huge number of compressed formats it supports. I recommend you to take a look at the list of the supported archive formats.

ExtractNow is the one that will make you able to extract multiple rar files from different folders at once.

Now the question is which one you should choose. The answer depends on your preferences, though. If you want to know which one is best for your need, then try these free programs one by one. I myself use Izarc on my computer. How about you? Which one you choose or you think is the best one? Or perhaps you know other similar free applications that are well worth mentioning?

Disable Caps Lock or Change It to Other Key

2008-10-23T00:32:00.001+07:00

If you often accidentally press the caps lock during typing like me here, you can completely disable it using Caps Lock Changer. Alternatively, still with the same application, you can make it useful by changing it to other key like underscore, tab, enter, esc, delete, backspace, home, insert, and many other keys. After you apply the changes, it will sit in your tray and run in the background.

Caps Lock Changer is free, works under Windows XP / Vista / 2003 / 2K, and can be downloaded here.

Repair Corrupt or Partially Damaged ZIP Archives

2008-10-23T00:24:00.001+07:00

While it is a good way to reduce the size of your files, sometimes you may find the zip file you've downloaded can't be opened because of some error such as CRC errors. Depending on how bad the damage is, you may be able to recover some of your damaged archives using Object Fix Zip. Like the maker says:

"This software is designed for testing, fixing and processing of corrupt or unusable ZIP archive files that are partially damaged or not completely downloaded"

To save time, it allows you to recover multiple damaged zip files at once. The original archives won't be modified if you choose to save the result of the recovery attempt as new archives.

It is free, can be operated under Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, NT, Me, 98, 95, and can be downloaded from here.

Cannot Open PSD & PDD Files Normally? Use Advanced PSD Repair

2008-10-21T23:16:00.000+07:00

Some errors on your your PSD and PDD file make your Adobe Photoshop can't open them normally as it used to be. They are corrupted, damaged, broken, whatever you name it. What this program does is trying to use some algorithm to detect the causes and perform a restoration attempt if any fix can be applied. Some of the files may not get recovered 100% but some others may do.

This application claims to support the recovery of:

the image and the separate layers
pixels, color depth, dimension, the paletter of the layers and image
uncompressed and RLE compressed images
PSD image with depth of 1, 8, 16, 32 bits per channel
PSD and PDD files on corrupted medias, such as floppy disks, Zip disks, CDROMs, etc
multiple Photoshop image files
PSD image with color mode of bitmap, grayscale, indexed, RGB, CMYK, mutlichannel, duotone, lab

You can also perform the recovery process of a PSD file through the right click menu in Windows Explorer if you don't want to do the drag and drop operation every time you want to scan a damaged one. Command line parameters are supported as well. You can read here to find out how this application does the restoration.

Despite of the name, Advanced PSD Repair is free.

Replace Standard Tray Clock With Numerous Clock Skins In Vista / XP

2008-10-21T20:44:00.003+07:00

Getting bored with the standard clock appearance in your tray area? Clock Tray Skins Lite has quite many skins that you can choose from for a different or unique display. The options also let you to decide which items to be displayed or hidden so you can have a clock display formatted according to your preferences.

Show or hide the date, day of the week, seconds, or use 12 hour format, it is all up to you. Use transparent background as well if you like it. The skins can be selected from its main window. Every time you click a skin, the clock display will change instantly without pressing any activation button. Clock Tray Skins Lite is totally free, but if you like it you might want to take a look at what its advanced version offers. Windows XP and Vista are supported.

Change Multiple Drives Background in Windows Explorer At Once - XP, Vista

2008-10-21T19:32:00.004+07:00

Adding an image for the drives is a breeze even for a novice user using the so-called Drives Background Image. An average computer user, not a geek one, who simply uses it for typing or other kind of general computer tasks would love it for its easy to use nature. Select the image, the drive, set it, and you're done.

What makes it different from other instant drive background changer software is its ability to replace the backgrounds of either a single drive or multiple drives simultaneously. In other words, you can use this to change each drive's background to make each stands out from the rest, or to replace the whole drives' backgrounds at once in no time. Removing the changes to get back to the default is easy as well. Fast, simple, straightforward, free, and supports Windows Vista / XP.

Newest Adobe Flash Player Update for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, MacOSX, Linux (IE, AOL, Firefox, Safari, Opera, SeaMonkey)

2008-10-21T06:49:00.001+07:00

Keeping up with the updated version of an application will give many advantages such as more features, fix error, better display, etc. Whatever it is, there should be an improvement. Now, do you want the latest version of Adobe Flash Player? Then go to this page as it is where the newest ones can be downloaded for free. 3D effects, enhanced sound APIs, and better visual performance are some of the enhancements you can get from Flash Player 10. You can also find the uninstaller for several versions at the page.

Fix Internet Explorer Error - Vista, XP, Me, 98

2008-10-21T05:40:00.002+07:00

Since Internet Explorer 7 shows up, this browser is getting better. However, no matter how good the features of an application are, error happens sometimes. While most of the features Repair IE has are actually designed to change many settings in the browser, its ability to reset Internet Explorer functions back to default can be the only help you need if the browser suddenly gets error or crash or other problems.

Unfortunately, the developer doesn't clearly state which version is supported. It is only said that it works for Windows 98, Me, XP and Vista. Does it work for Internet Explorer 7 and the older version? Many people still have Internet Explorer 5 and 6.

If the errors unable to be removed by this free application, then you should find another way which is perhaps a complicated one. For a simple fix, replace it with a better browser like Firefox or Google Chrome.

Typewriter Sound For Computer Keyboard

2008-10-20T23:21:00.001+07:00

I love it! Clickey is a super tiny, free, simple, portable, and recommended software if you want to have typewriter sound every time you press your computer keyboard button or if you want to make sure that the button you click on an on-screen keyboard is pressed. You get up to 26 different sounds ranging from classic typewriter sound, beeps, boops, etc.

Double-click ClickKey.exe, set the volume for the sound, and you are ready. Changing the volume won't affect the global volume, so you can change it to any level without worrying if your Winamp sound gets affected. If you simply want to add the classic typewriter sound, then there will be no tweak you have to perform, but if you want to utilize all of this program features, then you should read the detailed guide on the developer's homepage.

The advanced features include associating its program with your own shortcut key to launch or disable it at a press of a key, adding your own sound for the computer keyboard strokes, making it automatically run every time Windows is started, and so on.

Download YouTube Videos Without Installing Software

2008-10-18T23:09:00.002+07:00

Youtube is probably the largest video sharing site at this moment due to the many videos that have been uploaded to the site. This motivates a large number of software developers to build a specific software to download Youtube videos easily. While many of them are just the same features packed within different skins, a few shows up with unique capabilities in their efforts to win the competition.

So, it seems that everywhere we could find another new Youtube video downloaders. The great news is most of them are free. I haven't found a portable Youtube video downloader, but I'm sure it exists somewhere. While a portable version could be a solution for you who hesitate to install more software on your computer, you can choose to use an online downloader instead. Some people prefer this way because they don't have to download anything. Simply open the site, copy the url of the videos, and start the download. While there are many online video downloaders, I regularly use keepvid. How about you?

Transparency for Windows, Menus, Start Menu, System Tray ( XP / Vista) With AeroDesktop

2008-09-20T23:41:00.004+07:00

AeroDesktop is a free program that enables you to add transparency to menus, windows, start menu, and system tray on Windows XP and Vista. Very easy to use. You can easily set how much transparency you want for each object. You can also turn off the transparency for one object while turning it on for other objects. The other option lets you to automatically start the program with Windows. Download AeroDesktop from the developer's site.

Extract Multiple Rar At Once

2008-09-14T03:00:00.005+07:00

ExtractNow is a free program letting you to extract multiple rar files at once easily. Within a single press of a click, you can extract numerous rar files into your specified folder regardless of where the files are located, even if these archives are located in different folders. Moreover, you can optionally choose to integrate it with your Windows explorer so the archives can be extracted from the right-click menu while in Windows explorer as long as the archives are located in the same folder (if they are in different locations, you should drag and drop them into the main program window to be able to extract them at once).

Other features:

Beside rar, the archive formats supported are zip, iso, bin, img, ima, imz, 7z, ace, jar, gz, lzh, lha, tar, sit
Easy to use
If the extraction has been completed, the files can be deleted
Optionally display the program into the tray when it is minimized
Optionally make it always on top

Visit the homepage to download Extractnow.

Source: How To Open RAR Files For Free

Where to Find Free Software?

2008-09-13T00:40:00.002+07:00

I've been posting about free software here since this blog was first created a year ago and there have been quite a lot of software sites under my monitoring. I read some of them daily through feed and visit some others daily if there is no feed available. Today, I'll let you know where I get these software.

Here you are the sources to find free software:

My top 4 free software sites:

Softpedia.com

SnapFiles.com

FileForum.betanews.com

All4you.dk

Other software sites I read daily:

Don't forget that you can get free software update in this blog, too :)

There are more in my list but it only fits to a collector. If you need only to find or get software, the 4 top software sites above are sufficient already.

Add Password To USB Flash Drive's Content/Data

2008-09-10T19:43:00.004+07:00

What is done by this free program called Rohos Mini Drive is actually creating a separate, hidden and encrypted partition on your USB flash drive. After installing this program into your system, you just need to direct it to the drive and it will create the partition.

The partition will not be displayed when you insert your flash drive. The only way to access this partition is by double-clicking the Rohos mini.exe in your flash drive which is created automatically in the process of partition creation, and insert your password. After typing the correct password, you can work with the non-encrypted and encrypted partition at once.

Interestingly, instead of using your keyboard to type the password, optionally you can use its built-in virtual keyboard to prevent any keylogger software taking a record on your password typing. Type your password and save your sensitive data into the partition. The data will be encrypted on-the-fly using the AES 256 bit algorithm. As to the partition, you can enlarge the size up to 1GB if you feel need to.

Other features:

Autorun Folder. Saved program’s/file’s shortcut will automatically start/open up upon disk connection.
It doesn’t require Administrator Privileges to open password protected USB drive partition on the guest computer.

Requirements:

- Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista
- USB 1.1/2.0 port
- USB flash drive or U3 Smart flash drive with 1 Mb or more free space

Download Rohos Mini Drive or go to the download page.

Activate Windows Vista Flip 3D Faster

2008-09-09T23:15:00.002+07:00

With Vista Flip 3D Activator, activating the Vista Flip 3D is as easy as moving your cursor to a corner of the screen or simply pressing the middle button of your mouse. You can choose any corner you want like what you can see in the screenshot.

However, you need to install .NET Framework 3.5 to get it works. This program is free and can be downloaded from the developer's homepage.

One-Click Font Install For TrueType, OpenType and PostScript Fonts

2008-09-06T02:59:00.002+07:00

If you think the usual Windows procedure in installing fonts isn't efficient or even annoying, with ClickFont you can install fonts directly from the right-click menu. Easier and faster. Even if the fonts are located within a folder, you still can install it simply from the menu.

ClickFont is a GPL licensed software. That means it is completely free to download and use the application. It works with Windows NT / 2000 / XP and can be downloaded here.

Portable Google Chrome

2008-09-05T02:44:00.000+07:00

Google Chrome browser has attracted so many attentions and there are various opinions about it. For you who likes it, Carsten has done a great job by creating the portable version of this browser so you can carry it anywhere in your USB drive.

The portable version has been successfully tested on Windows SP3 and Windows Vista SP1 without any error occurred. There is no installation required. Just download and unzip it into a folder inside your USB drive to run it directly from the drive. Go to Carsten's site to download this portable Google Chrome.

Test Your CPU Speed

2008-09-05T01:02:00.002+07:00

Have you ever curious about how fast your central processing unit (CPU) is? CPU Speed Professional is a free software dedicated to measure the speed of your Intel or AMD CPU. Just click the 'Test My Speed' button to start it. You can view the detail information of your system as well.

Beside its cool interface, another interesting feature is that it lets you to submit the result of the test to the CPU speed online worldwide ranking site to compare the speed with others. Click here to see the current ranking.

Download CPU Speed Professional

Picasa 3 Has Just Been Launched!

2008-09-04T21:55:00.000+07:00

Picasa 3 has just been launched with quite a lot improvements that enables you to view your images with its new image viewer, automatically save screen captures and webcam captures into the program, creating movies from your multimedia files, adding text or watermark to your images easily, print every photo caption, control your Picasa Web Albums settings through the corresponding folder or album in the program, and many others. Click here to get the details.

One of its new features that attract me the most is its image viewer. I just can't tell you how amazing it is. It has a sleek, innovative appearance that I have never seen in other free image viewers when I made a review of the top nine free image viewers. It displays my photos better than those viewers as well.

Free Download Command & Conquer Red Alert - Not A Trial Version!

2008-09-04T06:06:00.004+07:00

The addictive Command & Conquer Red Alert can now be downloaded for free legally. Electronic Arts says that it is to celebrate the 13th anniversary of the Red Alert series, but seeing from how this game is put inside the promotional page of the new Red Alert 3 I believe that it is simply a promotion strategy using the old game as the teaser. However, who cares about it? The most important thing is, for you who loves free stuff, you can download the original Command & Conquer Red Alert for free.

From what I read, you don't need to buy Red Alert 3 to get this game for free. Just go to the page and download it from the links provided. There are two available versions:

Command & Conquer Red Alert Soviet - download size: 500MB
Command & Conquer Red Alert Allied - download size: 500MB

Both works only with Windows XP / 98 / Me / 95.

Thanks Ludwig.

How to Remove USB Safely When Windows Says No

2008-09-02T23:45:00.002+07:00

When it comes for us to remove our USB by clicking the icon on the tray, Windows often gets confused. We have closed all our portable programs launched from our USB and all open files, but Windows thinks there is still something running so that it cannot allow us to remove our USB. There are two ways to solve this problem.

First option is to make sure that your USB has been set up to optimize for quick removal. To do this simply double-click the USB icon. Once the Safely Remove Hardware window appears, find an option "Display device components" and check it. Right-click the USB device and choose "Properties". Find tab "Policies" and make sure the option optimize for quick removal is checked.

By enabling this quick removal, you can remove your USB directly without having to get through the safe removal procedure.

The second one is by using a free program like EjectUSB. You can use EjectUSB to eject your USB if WIndows refuses to do so. It will also remove all the flushing caches, closing windows, and cleaning up Registry entries and Recent Document shortcuts that point to your USB.

Save Money On Amazon Products With PriceDrop

2008-09-02T21:58:00.003+07:00

One of the ways in saving your money for shopping at Amazon is to wait until the price falls down. With PriceDrop, you don't have to check the products regularly by visiting Amazon. It will alert you everytime a product's price drops through a pop-up notification window in your Firefox browser.

After you install this extension, it enables you to track prices of any product you choose from amazon. It can help you to get a refund from Amazon as well. All of your tracked poducts can be managed directly in Firefox window.

USB Drives Have No Drive Letter In Explorer? Fix It Easily

2008-08-31T05:20:00.000+07:00

You insert an USB drive and it is detected, but then you see there is no drive letter assigned to the drive. In other words, you cannot see the drive in your Windows Explorer and, hence, it cannot be accessed. To fix it without downloading any software is to use the Windows built-in tool called Disk Management. To access this tool right-click My Computer -> Manage -> Disk management.

If you aren't familiar with this tool, you can read this post: How to Change Windows XP Drive Letter. It should be very easy to do it as it is just a matter of a few clicks.

Alternatively, you can download USBDLM (USB Drive Letter Manager). This free program can do more than just fixing the letter. It works with Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 and Vista.

Zoom or Enlarge Text In Firefox Without Add-On

2008-08-30T02:28:00.001+07:00

Sometimes you may find web pages with too small text to be read. In Firefox, enlarging or zooming small text is easy. There is no need to install any add-on to be able to do it. So, how?

There are two ways. First, press Ctrl and + at once to enlarge. Or, scroll down your mouse while holding Ctrl. That's all.

Lock - Protect Email For Gmail, Outlook, Thunderbird, AOL, and Many Others

2008-08-30T01:55:00.000+07:00

Lock and protect your important email with encryption. It isn't difficult. No matter what email programs you use, Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, Comcast, or others, eCipher allows you to send and read encrypted messages. In fact, this free program is more than just locker or encrypter. It has more features for your email security.

There are some additional security options you can choose like preventing messages to be forwarded, copied, saved, and printed.

Features:

Easy to use—requires no training
Quick and easy to install; so simple, you won't need an IT administrator
Sends secure email through many email programs (Microsoft® Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! Mail Plus, etc.)*
Ensures security, validity, and integrity of email messages and attachments
Recipients with any valid email address can receive your secure messages
Ensures that only authorized recipients can open your secure email
Supports Contact Cards and vCards (.csv and.vcf)
RSA-2048 bit asymmetric encryption
AES 256 bit encryption
Encrypts attachments of any file type (Pro version only)
eCipher’s security remains for the life cycle of the email message—no matter how it is transmitted or where it is stored

This free program requires Windows® Vista*, XP Service pack 1 or 2, or Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 with Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Visit the site to download it.

Hide Firefox Bookmark Names - Show Icons Only

2008-08-30T00:46:00.000+07:00

How many bookmarks do you have in your Firefox? If there are too many of them in the bar, Smart Bookmarks Bar will remove the clutter by hiding the names and show only the icons. The result: you have more space so you can add more. The name of the bookmarks will be displayed on mouse over. You can disable this rollover effect if you don't want it.

The options within the configuration panel:

show bookmark names on mouse over
hide bookmark folder names
hide bookmark name with favicon
bookmark spacing: minimal, smaller, small, normal
auto hide bookmark bar

Download this extension from here.

Font CSS Style Viewer/Finder For Firefox

2008-08-29T23:08:00.004+07:00

Sometimes we may find good typography at other blogs or sites and we want to know how the owner designs those fonts. The traditional way (in Firefox) is to highlight the text, right-click it and select the command View selection source to view the source code in a separated window. Unfortunately, you still have to find the elements class or ID for the selected text. Impractical. Solution? Use Font Finder extension for Firefox.

Simply highlight any text element, right-click, and choose font finder. An alert box will appear with all of the styling information you could require including font-size, font-family, color (in both hex and RGB), line-height, letter-spacing, and much much more....

Click here to download Font Finder extension for Firefox, or here to visit the developer's page.

Font CSS Style Viewer/Finder For Firefox

Split - Merge PDF Files Without Adobe Acrobat With PDFMerge - Vista Compatible

2008-08-29T22:27:00.001+07:00

Who says that to combine/merge and split multiple PDF files you need to use Adobe Acrobat? It is a great program indeed, but Adobe Acrobat is just too way too expensive to be used only for combining and splitting PDF documents. Using a free program like PDFMerge will be more than enough.

PDFMerge is a free program made specifically to create a single PDF document from multiple sources easily and equipped with features such as the following:

Allows the split and merge process to be driven from a list file
Allows the creation of bookmark trees by specifying bookmarks to be added (bookmarks are also called outlines)
Allows the import of bookmarks from the merged documents.
Supports merging of large documents quickly
Allows population of document title fields

PDFMerge is free and works under Windows 2000 / XP / Vista. Download this program here.

Over 150 Free Windows and Office Program

2008-08-29T04:47:00.002+07:00

Wow, I have just found this great post that lists more than 150 Windows and Office software that can be downloaded and used for free! I have never thought that Microsoft has so many free programs to use. The software are ranging from ebook reader, system tweaking, USB backup and restore, webcam timershot to take and save pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam, and many others.

From now on, instead of going to Microsoft official site to find a program, you can just go to this post. I bet that there are many of the programs listed you will like. There are truly a lot of interesting programs for you to take advantage of. Click here to read the post.

Download, Save, Convert YouTube & Google Video Files to AVI, MPEG, FLV - Vista Compatible

2008-08-29T04:33:00.001+07:00

The design may look not promising, but the performance of this free program is rated excellent by Softpedia, one of the largest software download site. You can download any video from YouTube or Google Video and then save it to your computer as AVI, MPEG, or FLV. To use it you only need to paste the url of the video into the space provided, specifying which folders you want the file to be saved, choose the file format, and press the start button.

Save2pc light is free to download and use, and works under Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista.

Outlook Express Accidentally Deleted Email - Free Recovery

2008-08-29T03:52:00.005+07:00

Smart Email Recovery is a free program designed specifically to recover accidentally deleted email and corrupted email in Outlook Express easily. It makes anyone possible to retrieve the emails within minutes in an automatic operation. If you are worried about the safety of your email database, then this application is the right one to use since it won't touch the database. What it does is locating and extracting all the information that can be recovered from DBX files in read-only mode and import them into Outlook Express or other email clients.

Even if your email database is severely damaged, you can still count on this freeware to recover the messages. Interested? Then click here to download the program. Scroll down to the most bottom to find it.

It works on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.

Remove Past Notifications Area Easily - Windows Vista, XP

2008-08-29T02:57:00.000+07:00

While it can be manually tweaked, some of you may reluctant to deal with the registry to remove past notification area in Windows. This PastIconsFlusher, which works only for Windows Vista and XP, enables you to do the removal quickly and easily. It will delete two registry keys and restart Windows explorer. PastIconsFlusher is a free program that can be downloaded without paying anything here.

Change Desktop Icon Text Color - Windows

2008-08-29T02:17:00.002+07:00

This free software allows you to change the color of desktop icon text for both the foreground and background. Moreover, it can also be used to change the icon size and layout styles: small, large, or tile. This is a very simple software that provides simple features but very practical and useful if you intend to do a bit customization to your desktop icon. Most of us want to look different, right? - Windows only

Download: D-Color XP 1.2

How to Open/View PDF Files?

2008-08-24T04:50:00.000+07:00

Many people still don't know how to open/view pdf files which is I'm sure that it is a too simple question to be asked for most of you.

Opening or viewing pdf files, just like other file formats, is only a matter of finding a program supporting this format. There are many pdf openers/viewers you can find on the web, but only some of them worth your attention and here only two that I'm going to show you.

The first is Adobe Reader. There are lots of complaints about how slow it loads, but this program is the only program that will display all pdf files correctly no matter how they are formatted. If you complain the same things about this pdf opener/viewer, you can read this post : Adobe Reader Too Slow? Make It Faster

The second is Sumatra PDF Portable. This free pdf opener/viewer has gained many compliments because of its speed in loading pdf documents. I like this program too and recommend it to you who want a fast pdf opener/viewer with small size.

Freeware to Download Free Videos (XP,Vista Compatible)

2008-08-24T02:56:00.002+07:00

Claim to be the only free video download program that able to breaks the limitation of anti-leeching technology from video websites like YouTube, FreeVideoZilla is worth to try.

Here is how it works. When you play the video files at the site while FreeVideoZilla is running, this program will cache the video. If you like the video and intend to download it, right click the name of the video file displayed in FreeVideoZilla's window and click the download command.

Download FreeVideoZilla

Search & Download Free PDF Ebooks

2008-08-24T02:44:00.001+07:00

This free pdf search engine, PDFgeni, allows anyone to search only for free PDF ebook and download it instantly. If you don't know how to search PDF files in Google, or you just hate having to type a handful of codes in Google search engine, then this pdf search engine should be enough to make you happy in searching various pdf ebooks.

Just type the name of the PDF ebook or the category of the PDF you are looking for and you will see dozens of ebooks all in PDF format. You can directly see the PDF file inside your browser or download it to be read offline. Visit pdfgeni to search and download free pdf ebooks.

Download Naruto Strikes Back Theme For Wordpress

2008-08-24T02:03:00.002+07:00

Naruto Strikes Back theme is surely excellent for anyone who loves Naruto character and intends to blog about him. Unfortunately, I didn't get much explanation about this theme like if it is widget ready or not at the author's site.

Download Naruto Strikes Back theme for wordpress here. The theme is compressed using rar format, so you need a rar unzipper.

Unzip RAR For Free

2008-08-24T01:30:00.004+07:00

Rar is another kind of compressed files. Though Winrar, the program used to create rar files, isn't free, you can find huge rar files on the web. It is because a rar format offers a very efficient method in compressing files. You could download Winrar to test how good it is in compressing your files if you plan to create a rar file. But if you only need to unzip it, there is no need to buy it as there are many free programs that can do the unzipping.

Peazip is one of these programs. Besides unzipping rar files, it can open a lot of other kind of compressed formats like ACE, ARJ, CAB, DEB, ISO, LHA, RAR, RPM, and still many others. Besides the large number of compressed formats it supports, you will love the good looking of this free program.

Peazip is completely a free program to be downloaded and used, supporting Windows and Linux. If you like it and you want to put it in your usb, there is a portable version that you can freely download either. Download Peazip through this page.

open zip files

Free Portable Defragmenter - Defrag Files From USB

2008-08-20T05:03:00.003+07:00

This top defragmenter has previously been reviewed here in How to Defrag Specific Files and Folders, Not An Entire Disk together with other defragmenters. The most obvious advantage of this freeware is the ability to defrag a specific file instead of the entire disk or drive.

Another benefit you can get from this free defragmenter application is you can make it portable. How to do it? Simple. Just extract the installer and move the folder to your USB. That's it. Run the exe and you can defrag files right from your USB.

Download this free portable defragmenter now.

Download Free F-Secure Rescue Bootable CD

2008-08-20T04:26:00.001+07:00

Free F-Secure Rescue Bootable CD is a program you can use to remove virus and other kind of malware without having to boot your computer. While how it works is basically just the same as other existing rescue disks, F-Secure rescue CD offers better ways in scanning MPR rootkit infections.

Free F-Secure Rescue Bootable CD virus definition can be updated manually using a USB drive or automatically if your computer has an internet connection.

To learn how to install it, you can read the rescue CD Guide in pdf format.

Download F-Secure Rescue CD 3.00 ISO Zip by clicking this link.

Text In Bubble - Create Speech Bubble Easily

2008-08-20T02:56:00.001+07:00

There is nothing to be learned much about creating text in bubble or speech bubble since you can do it pretty easy. Wigflip is a free online service that makes anyone, even persons having no design experience at all, able to create it in only several clicks.

You just have to type your words into the box and choose if you like spike left or right with transparent PNG or GIF with a customizable background color, then click the submit button.

You can save the bubble speech image or upload it directly to imageshack.

Lost Taskbar In Windows?

2008-08-20T00:50:00.000+07:00

Your taskbar could be lost because one of several reasons. If it is lost because of a crash, then you should read this one: Repair Disappeared Taskbar & Windows Explorer in Windows XP. But if it is lost because of an accidental tweaking or someone else changes some setting without your permission, then you should keep reading this post.

Okay, let's get to the point.

Place your mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen where the taskbar originally exists. If you are able to see it, right-click it and choose the "properties" option. In "taskbar and start menu properties" window, make sure that the option "auto hide the taskbar" is unchecked and "keep the taskbar on top of other windows" is checked off.

If you can't see anything in your screen, not your taskbar nor other windows, it means there has been an error hits your system. Read this to fix it: Repair Disappeared Taskbar & Windows Explorer in Windows XP

Email Picture - How To Save Them?

2008-08-19T09:11:00.000+07:00

There have been question about how to save pictures in email. Well, the easiest way that will be working on gmail, yahoo! mail, or whatever, is to capture them using a screen capture. Since I'm using gmail, there is no need for me to use this tool as I can simply right-click and choose the option "save image as". If you want to know the best free screen captures, you can take a look at my sidebar, or you can directly click this link : best free screen captures.

Create Strong Password Yet Memorable & Get User Name Ideas

2008-08-19T08:19:00.000+07:00

Tired of looking at looking your keyboard to decide which characters to be used for creating your password and user name everytime you need to register something? Password Suggest is an online service with which you can create a strong password and unique user name easily. So, how does it work?

Simply enter your words that can be easily remembered into the space provided. Once you hit the button, you'll get several passwords created based on the words. There are several user name ideas generated as well.

Title: Create Strong Password Yet Memorable & Get User Name Ideas

Search Movies At MegaUpload & RapidShare (WMV, MPG, AVI....)

2008-08-19T06:26:00.003+07:00

How to search movies at megaupload and rapidshare at once without having to type a bunch of codes in Google search? Don't use Google search.

Searching horror, romantic, or whatever kind of movies you want can simply be done with the help of MegaDownload. Just type the title of the movies and hit the search button. The results will be displayed within seconds.

In the search result you will be able to see:

the title and the extension like avi, wmv, mpg or in compressed format like rar
the size
and you will also be able to show similar files or search furthermore for the related file in the web

If you click the download button, you will be brought to the individual page where you can see some other tiny details like the description of the movie, but I prefer to not see this page if possible.

To start downloading the movie in Rapidshare or Megaupload you have to click the download button again in the individual page. From there you will be taken to the related Rapidshare or Megaupload download page where you can choose to use a free or premium account to download. You don't have to install anything for downloading. Interested? Then try it.

Best Free Professional Blogger Templates

2008-05-29T06:01:00.005+07:00

I intend to list the best free professional blogger templates or themes in this page. Bookmark this page if necessary as I will update it regularly.

Refresh Blogger Template

Go to this page to download it.

What's next? You can bookmark this page or subscribe to my feed to keep up to date with the following series of updates. Or, perhaps you have some favorite templates to be suggested here?

Shorten Multiple URLs At Once

2008-05-29T05:14:00.002+07:00

A long url is hard to read. An url shortener is the only perfect solution for this kind of problem, and there are hundreds or even perhaps more than thousands shorteners out there. Most of them offer quite the same features without additional benefits. Need something different?

The unique things from ZipMyUrl are the abilities to shorten or zip multiple urls at once, to add tags to the customized urls, password protect the urls, and, if you sign up, the urls will be able to be published directly to twitter or delicious. Additionally, if you compress more than one urls you will be able to give possibility to the url's user to pick which url to be loaded.

Open, Check, Read Multiple Emails In One Place

2008-05-28T21:53:00.002+07:00

Open, check, write, read your multiple emails in one place. No need to open each of your email account in different tabs. This online service, Zenbe, is the one that gives you this deluxe comfort for free. It lets you to see everything quickly, from calendar, task lists, address book, and more. You can even share your emails with your friends even though they don't use this service. Cool, isn't it? Its flexibility in receiving modules from other services makes you able to even see your facebook friends, scan RSS feeds, and more. Everything can be done without leaving your email.

Cashback For Searching Products Online?

2008-05-28T01:07:00.003+07:00

Too bad this program is only for American, so there is no way for me to give it a try. If you are interested, click the image to see how it works or read the FAQ here for more information.

Create A Live TV Show of Your Very Own

2008-05-03T09:00:00.000+07:00

Broadcasting is a great way to show your community's agendas and activities, or whatever you want to be noticed, to the public. Thanks to the rapidly growing internet that now you don't have to ask for a specific radio's or even television's program to publicize what are being done by your community. With BlogTV.com, you can create a live show of your very own.

There are just so many things offered by this internet tv. Ability to manage who can speak and who is not in your live chat room, to show off your show in your blogs and community sites, twitter your live video, send emails to all of your friends when you start broadcasting are just a few sweet things you can get from this service.

Don't have any experience of being a broadcaster? Go ahead to the video tips and tricks page. The team gives you tips not just on how to become a good, professional broadcaster, but also how to make your show gets a lot of visits, how to get good pictures and sounds, and so on. So, what are you waiting for? Visit the site and create your own live video.

How to Get Free Domain .com With Your Desired Domain Name & Free Hosting - Totally Free!

2008-05-01T12:13:00.000+07:00

Get free domain .com with any name you like and host it at no cost whatsoever! No registration fee, no bandwidth cost, not even maintenance cost, all are completely free! It sounds impossible, isn't it? It is just hard to believe when you heard it for the first time, but it is true. This is exactly what is being ofered by HyperWebEnable.

Ever want to have a blog under your own domain name for free? Then you definitely must join this service. There isn't any hidden cost here.

Or, ever want to build your own social networking site? create your own classified site like Craigslist?

Other unbelievable features you get are 1GB free web space, unlimited email IDs, dynamic pages powered by PHP and MySQL (unlimited database), unlimited bandwidth, a large number of templates, and possibility to have multiple websites.

All for free? Wow! Not to mention that you also get free scripts to create a blog, forum, wiki, content management, and you can even ask a specific script to be installed within your site.

According to its FAQ, every service it offers is completely free and it states furthermore that you will never ever spend even a dime forever in using any of its services.

There are a lot of flexibilities here as well. You can display your own ads to earn some money, instal any kind of your own script or widget, and if you already have your own domain name you can host it here for free. By the way, you can also convert your blogspot blog to your own domain name at no cost. Nice touch.

So, if everything is available for free, how HyperWebEnable covers all the costs? It places two banner ads and one text ad in your sites/blogs. The banners are placed at the top and bottom of the newest post or content you create, while the text ad is positioned at the bottom of the blog's page. You still have other strategical rooms for ads like header and sidebar. Another interesting feature here is the possibility for you to earn money by referring the service to your friends. $1 for each referral that uses their free services and you will be paid when you have reached $10 in your account.

Error, Corrupt, Broken ZIP File? Recover It With Object Fix Zip

2008-05-01T11:21:00.002+07:00

If you find any problem or error with any of your zip files that makes you unable to unzip it such as corrupt or not fully downloaded, CRC error, or partially damaged, try to repair it with Object Fix Zip.

Object Fix Zip is a freeware built specifically to handle all of these zip errors so you still have chance to recover the zipped files. The repair process is pretty simple as everything is processed in a wizard-style operation. All operations are completed in four steps only.

There are three actions you can select in the process: check for any data corruption and create a report, create a new zip archive while fixing/repairing the damaged, and extract the contents to a selected folder.

It is also possible to check the integrity or repair the corrupted of multiple zipped documents whether it is password protected or not. Object Fix Zip supports Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista and any zip files created by any PkZIP and WinZIP compatible archiver software.

Mount CD & DVD ISO Image and ZIP File As Folder

2008-04-30T15:13:00.002+07:00

The great thing from mounting an ISO image and zip file is that you don't have to install a separate ISO reader or editor and zip file launcher to read or write. You can directly access an ISO as a read-only folder without first burning it. You can open zip files and execute any application inside without extraction and thus loads faster. This efficient access is exactly what is being offered by Pismo File Mount Audit Package, a freeware that is being developed by Pismo Technic Inc.

Besides the feature above, Pismo also enables you to create a private folder for your secret files or documents, protecting them from being accessed by any other unauthorized user in an compressed and encrypted container.

For commands execution convenience, it integrates most of the available commands into the shell so you can execute them immediately through the right-click menu and drag-drop actions. All commands are also accessible by command line.

Pismo File Mount Audit Package is free for both personal and business use. It supports Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, and Windows Server 2008 for both 32 and 64 bit.

Open, Read, Edit CSV Files - Free Portable CSV Viewer & Editor

2008-04-26T15:48:00.002+07:00

Add, delete, move, insert, and edit each item of CSV contents as though they were in a database table with CSVed. A small, free portable application built specifically for manipulating CSV document, separated with any separator. There are just a lot of things you can do with this excellent software.

You can use its built-in search feature, check and repair errors, append and merge files, remove duplicates, save your CSV in other file formats (HTML, RTF, TXT, Microsoft Word and Excel), export CSV to clipboard or XML with selectable charset, and more.

CSVed is an excellent freeware available for Windows users. Besides the portable version, the developer also provides the installer.

Video Tutorial Collection For Almost Everything

2008-04-24T11:23:00.002+07:00

MonkeySee is a unique site where you can show off your expertise or tell people how to do things in form of an interactive video of your own creation, and where you can search for a how-to video. The category it includes is virtually unlimited from parenting, personal finance, food and drink, mechanical, beauty and fashion, games, education and career, sports, and more. If your video doesn't fit any specific category, you can upload it to the "others" category.

Landing on the site's front page you can find many interesting tutorial videos as the featured and recommended ones are displayed first on the road. How to fry chicken, how to learn basic ballet, forward flip skateboard trick are some of the recommended videos when I was visiting the site.

As a visitor, you aren't required to register to view the videos. But of course there are some benefits you are missing when you're not a registered viewer such as the ability to bookmark your favorite videos and critique a disputable video.

If you're interested to upload a how-to video, find out the detail of supported video file formats in its technical standards for expert videos page. Besides being able to utilize this service as one of your effective personal or professional promotional tool, you have opportunity to earn big money by joining its Filmmaker program. However, a high skill and loads of experiences in producing videos is a must here. The amount you can make is ranging from $200 - $500 for the simplest videos and up to $2000 for more advanced videos. Interesting, isn't it?

Personally I love the minimalist sense of the design. Every aspect is well-placed so that you can find what you need easily. It doesn't cluttered with excessive ads.

Moreover, since registered users can flag a questionable video for the facts being presented within, and the video is then reviewed by the MonkeySee's reviewers, the quality standard of each how-to video is virtually preserved from time to time. So I think it is reasonable to search for a step-by-step tutorial video in this site first before using the search engines.

DOCX in Mac - DOCX File Opener, Reader, & Converter For Mac User

2008-04-17T11:50:00.001+07:00

Docx is the new extension introduced by Microsoft in its Microsoft Word 2007 product. As in Windows, the previous versions of Microsoft Office in Mac cannot open docx file unless a specific reader is installed.

For Mac user, Microsoft has specifically provided a tool, which is still in beta release, to convert docx file format to another compatible format. It's called Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac. The download link can be found here

Beside docx, this converter is able to convert other Open XML formats such as PowerPoint Presentation (pptx), Powerpoint Template (potx), Powerpoint Show (ppsx), and Word Macro-Enabled Document (docm).

However, you may sometime find that the conversion doesn't give a good result as this tool is still in beta release. Another thing to note is that it only supports Mac OS X 10.4.8 (Tiger) or a later version of Mac OS and the conversion result can only be opened with Office 2004 11.3.4 or later, or Office v. X 10.1.9 or later.

If you don't have Microsoft Office installed, you can try the converter widget of the docx-converter.

Open & Read docx Without Any Microsoft Word Installed

2008-04-17T11:43:00.000+07:00

Docx is the newest microsoft word file extension that isn't able to be opened without the presence of an additional tool. What if one of your colleagues send you an important file in docx format? Should you buy the Microsoft Word 2007 just to view and read it? Fortunately, you shouldn't, and you don't have to own any Microsoft Word version.

It is possible since the launching of Word 2007 Viewer by Microsoft. Word Viewer is a free helper for you to open and read docx even if you don't have any Microsoft Word installed in your computer. Note that you should also download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack to be able to use it.

You should, however, know that it does have limitations. The docx file you open and read with it may lose some of its original formats due to the absence of some of the Microsoft Word 2007 features in Word Viewer. The docx document can't be edited, and you can't create a new one with it as well.

If the file is really crucial and include some formattings supported only by Microsoft Word 2007 and demand to be edited, I suggest you to buy it. Even if you convert it to other formats, there are still some document formattings that may not be supported.

The download link of Word 2007 Viewer can be found here.

MP3 File Splitting: Split Large MP3 File Into Individual Tracks Easily

2008-04-12T12:05:00.003+07:00

How to split mp3 into multiple tracks? How to split mp3 every X time without having to define each split point manually? Is it possible to do so? Yes, it is. In fact, it is very easy that anyone can do it straight away. To do this we need DirectMp3Cut. This is one of the free MP3 cutters that has been widely used especially in MP3 cutting. This program provides a tool that makes splitting a large mp3 into multiple parts can be done without hassle. The download link of DirectMP3Cut is here.

Open your mp3 song.
Click the "Special" menu and select "Auto Cue".
Set the splits by specifying a cue every X minute or second.
Click the "File" menu and select "Save split" to save all the individual tracks.
Modify the files name the way you want with the available options, and press Ok when it is done.

Best Free Photo Editors - Top Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro

2008-04-12T11:17:00.007+07:00

Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro have been widely used for photo and image editing so far. The features they offer are undeniable qualities of functionalities needed by most photographers or home users (who like to take pictures). But the price everyone has to pay to have them isn't something everyone can afford.

So, here you are. The free photo editors which I think the best ones for the no-cost replacement or to be used as a companion if you already have either of them (Photoshop and other similar commercial programs). They are excellent for both novice and experienced photographers.

PhotoFiltre

Photofiltre is by far the most often photo editor I use because of its wide variety of tools yet pretty easy to use, small memory consumption, and fast loading. Why open Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro or even GIMP to perform simple advanced photo retouching tasks while it enables you to do so without longer waiting for the loading and going through all the learning curve?

It indeed lacks of layer functionality, but it packages all the usual image editing functions you can find in any commercial photo editor such as cropping, resizing, selection, brush, red eye removal, image adjustment tools, etc.

Clone stamp for copying or erasing portions of an image, magic wand to select areas of similar color, automatic cropper, image converter to icon, transparency mask, and photo masque are also available.

A lot of effects for image manipulations are offered as well, plus the free additional plugins you can get at the maker's homepage. Batch processing for some image processing tasks is also supported.

Combine this with your favorite free image viewer and you will have an excellent pair of digital photo tools. Or put it into your open-with list so you can open any image within the program, ready to be edited, directly from Windows explorer.

GIMP & GIMPshop

GIMP is absolutely the most well-known free alternative to Photoshop that works under Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Sun OpenSolaris, and FreeBSD. You'll have everything you need here to produce a great digital art outcome. Versatile digital photo retouching tools, layer editing support, digital image processing features, and plugins to extend the capabilities.

Some people, however, don't feel comfortable with the user interface. This inspired the creation of GIMPshop, a GIMP duplicate resembling Adobe Photoshop's interface.

GIMPshop includes all of the advantages of GIMP except the Photoshop plugins support. The interface replication itself is intended to make Photoshop users easier to adapt with it. Additionally, the interface similarity makes you possible to practice many Photoshop tutorials using GIMPshop with a little or even no adaptation effort at all.

Photoscape

Photoscape is a superb photo editor for every quick fix you may ever want to do. It is a combination of an image explorer, photo editing suite, and extra graphic-related tools such as screen capturer and advanced printing options.

Remove red eye, add balloon speech to photos, join multiple photos, create an animated gif from a sequence of pictures, edit several photos at once, convert RAW to JPG, enhance photo quality by adjusting it automatically or manually, add frames and masks, and many more to have.

As it doesn't support layer and third party plugins integration, Photoscape may not be the perfect tool for a precise photo editing especially for an expert with advanced needs, but it is definitely fantastic for normal usages or quick fixes for particularly average users.

By the way, although it doesn't offer open plugin architecture, it offers an interesting set of built-in plugins.

Photobie

Photobie is another free photo editors with a large number of editing functions assembled into one sweet package. It is a delight to use since the size is relativley smaller than Photoscape yet include various quick-editing utilities, advanced layer options and management, and supports thousands of free Photoshop .8bf filter plug-ins.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET offers a wide array of photo tools. Think of it as a simpler version of GIMP and GIMPshop. Though it doesn't feature options as many as them both, its plugins availability can be freely downloaded to expand its capabilities and to maximize its performance. The growing supporter community guarantees the increasing number of new plugins as well.

Paint.NET's user interface is a combination of beauty and simplicity, making it easy and comfortable to learn and use. You will be able to use all of its features without too much adaptation effort.

It includes a number of special effects such as sharpening, embossing, distortion, 3D rotate/zoom to add perspective and tilting, and more. Other tools include shape drawer, gradient creator, magic wand selection, and clone stamp. The unlimited action history makes you possible to redo any action you have mistakenly performed. Layer editing is surely supported here.

Pixia

Fast loading, unlimited layer creation, and the possibility to use customized brushes are just one of its special abilities. Originally Pixia was a Japanese graphic painting and retouch application, but due to its popularity it is then expanded for non-Japanese users. It is now available in Hungarian, English, French, Chinese, German, Polish, Spanish, Korean, and Italian editions.

However, I found this program is the most difficult app to learn due to its not so user-friendly user interface. Make sure you download the help file, if not you will be likely end up circling around endlessly when trying to perform some editing tasks. Visit also the community page for more tutorials.

You may be wondering why I consider a difficult-to-use program like this is deserved to be mentioned here. Well, if you're curious that much, download it, read the manual, learn it, and you'll find the answer.

Open and Read RAR Content Without Winrar Archiver

2008-04-09T11:01:00.001+07:00

There is another way to open and read rar content other than converting it to zip. You don't even to wait for any file archiver loading the package as usual as this program can open rar directly. It is not a specific rar opener though, it is actually a total windows explorer replacement named Free Commander that is free and much much more powerful. One of its many abilities is to open and extract rar.

There is no specific way to open rar. Just click it twice as you open a folder and it will be instantly opened within the program's window. If you want to extract its content, press Alt + F6 and then choose to which folder it should be extracted.

Free Digital Camera Enhancer: Easily Fix Too Dark or Too Bright Photo

2008-04-07T14:23:00.002+07:00

If you need a program to easily fix your underexposed or overexposed photo, give this program a try. The simplicity of Free Digital Camera Enhancer makes it great for improving your photo quality.

Once you load your photo, it automatically perform some adjustment based on the default sliders position. But of course you can change them freely until you get the most optimal setting. Fix the brightness, soften photo to reduce too much noise, and balancing color and details.

It supports bmp, jpg, pcx, png, tga, tif, wmf, pax. Licensed as freeeware by MediaChance and works under Windows. Unfortunately you have to buy the pro version if you intend to fix multiple photos at once. Yes, it is a freeware to market the shareware version.

Related Post:

Extract ZIP, RAR, ACE, ISO Or Any Compressed Formats With Universal Extractor

2008-04-07T14:06:00.002+07:00

Do you have any archive format isn't supported by your current archive extractor? Try Universal Extractor, which is free and works under Windows platform. It can extract from a simple zip or rar to installation packages like Inno Setup and Windows installer (.msi). It supports a wide range of archive types.

Like the creator says, it isn't intended to be a general archiving program. So don't expect for any bell and whistles an archiver usually has. It just lets you to add the extraction commands to the right-click menu during its installation process. It is simply an extractor, but it does its job very well. Try to take a look at the list of the supported archive formats at the publisher's site.

Move Or Minimize Firefox, Thunderbird, Mozilla Suite, and NVU to The Tray With Minimizetotray

2008-04-05T11:35:00.002+07:00

Always minimize Firefox, Mozilla Suite, Thunderbird, and NVU to the tray area instead to the taskbar every time you click the minimize or close button. Restore the position by clicking or optionally double-clicking the icons at the tray. Some commands can be accessed through the right-click of the icon of each application.

The quicker way to send these apps to the tray is by pressing Ctrl + Shift + M, but there is no way to restore the display using hotkey. The new feature it promises for the next version include options to place Firefox icon to the tray with its accessible menus though no browser window is open, or the possibility for the Thunderbird to be launched directly into the tray when you receive a new message in your inbox.

Minimizetotray

Related post:

Reduce JPEG Photo and Image Size By Compressing With JPEG Express

2008-04-05T00:51:00.000+07:00

JPEG Express is a very handy tool when it comes the time to compress your JPEG and convert BMP pictures to JPEG to get the possible slimmest size while maintaining enough quality degree. The original and the modified are displayed side by side to easily watch the effect of each of the image adjustment.

The quality is adjusted by means of a slider. You are able to see instantly how the photo will be look like and how much its file size will be as you move the slider.

The strange thing: the preview screen can't be enlarged though the window itself can be maximized. However, by default the preview screen has relatively had reasonable size to effectively view and compare the photos.

Beside able to compare both images in detail part, they can be compared in full-screen to see how the difference takes place in the entirety. The other options let you to move the preview's focues to the center of the photos, and if you want to take a look of how the adjustment affect each photo you can double-click each to view it in full-screen single mode.

JPEG Express -- freeware, for Windows 95 / 98 / XP / NT / Vista

Convert RTF to PDF, Excel (XLS), JPG, HTML, PNG, BMP, or SVG

2008-04-05T00:16:00.000+07:00

RTF Convertor is a free program letting you to convert multiple or single .rtf to .pdf, .xls, .jpg, .bmp, .png, .svg, .html, lotus, and QuattroPro. It throws in some interesting options such as ability to assign a unique hotkey for each different conversion task, perform basic editing to the rtf document in single mode, splitted panel in single mode for conversion to html, flexible print preview, and possibility to customize the conversion result for all extensions.

Its flexible hotkey association makes you able to convert rtf to any of the supported formats easier. You can, for example, assign Alt + 1 to convert rtf to pdf, or Ctrl + M to convert to xls. Another option is to set a default format so when the convert button is pressed the program automatically converts the document to the pre-defined format.

If you, for instance, decide to convert it to pdf, and you activate the option "Show Advanced Setup Dialog on Export" previously, you can do some adjustments: make every link in the pdf active, which pages to be converted, which items to be rendered (text, image, shape), embed some information, compress the size, lock with up to 128bit password, set user permissions (to copy, modify, print, etc.), and so on.

However, don't activate the option if you plan to convert multiple files. The Advanced Setup dialog will pop up after each file processing. So if you have five documents, the dialog window will be displayed five times. This, however, can be solved by first converting one file and make the desired adjustment in the dialog. After that turn the option off and start to convert several files at once. The previous adjustment setting will be applied to all. Just remember not to close the application before you finish converting as it can't remember the configuration on exit.

RTF Convertor works under Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / XP / 2003.

Convert Multiple PNG to JPG Images At Once

2008-04-03T08:13:00.002+07:00

Batch PNG to JPG is a free program letting you convert png to jpg images as many as you want. You simply add any file you want, or just pick the container folder to get all the png images contained within converted into jpg at one click.

You can remove any file from the conversion list, or clear the list completely to replace with the new one in case you change your mind of which images should be converted. The quality controller in form of a slider letting you to freely choose which is matter most to you: the quality or the size of the images.

It also allows you to preview the images first to make sure that they're the right ones to be converted. Unfortunately, the drawback here is that you can't preview all of them at once. There is no option to change the list display to thumbnail mode. So it may be better to check them first in Windows explorer or in your image viewers before adding them into the list.

Batch PNG to JPG is a freeware for Windows and the download link can be found here.

Free Portable Font Viewer to Preview Installed/Uninstalled Fonts

2008-04-01T13:24:00.000+07:00

Impressive. I like it instantly after a few seconds running it, and like it even more now after for some time using it.

The functions within are organized in such a way that makes you able to preview and compare installed and uninstalled fonts the way you want right away, perform some categorizations, add notes, read the fonts information, and display your separately located font collections in multiple panels yet still in one main window.

While you can view all the font variations at once, the ability to view only the selected fonts is great when you need to compare some fonts. You can select the fonts by simply highlighting them using Ctrl/Shift + mouse-click, or based on the type of the fonts.

The size of the fonts displayed can be adjusted by the slider. You can also add sample text as many as you like and delete the no longer necessary. In the fonts preview panel, you can quickly switch between them using drop-down list and create new text in real-time. The text's fonts and background's color themselves can optionally be changed as well.

The possibility to categorize any font you like into different unique groups is very helpful especially when you have different design-related projects requiring different perfect fonts for each.

The Font Thing -- free, Windows 95 / 98 / XP

Convert PDF to JPG, BMP, PNG For iPhone With Ebook to Images

2008-04-01T13:19:00.003+07:00

The idea of this freeware Ebook to Images is to convert ebook in any common format (pdf, txt, html, htm, doc, lit) into images (JPG, BMP, PNG) so it can be read on portable devices such as iPhone, Sony PSP, Creative Zen, or other MP3 Players that don't support ebook reading but can view images.

Load your pdf, adjust the screen resolution, modify the font, add page number, enable anti-aliasing, use your own bakcground if you want to, change the orientation, rotate, and do the convert whenever everything has been already set up.

Converting pdf into images will reasonably result larger size than the actual pdf due to the number of the images produced. In this case it may be better to convert it into jpg rather than into other formats since it allows you to adjust the quality of the output, thereby reducing the size.

Ebook to Images is compatible with Windows, but requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

Photo and Image Rotator For Lossless Rotation

2008-03-28T12:56:00.002+07:00

Some of the best free image viewers I posted previously have actually provided this mechanism. But JPEG Lossless Rotator is excellent for rotating many JPEG images and photos at once quickly without any quality loss. Simple, faster, and, gratefully no installation required (if you choose the portable version).

Rotate images in Windows explorer with its optionally integrated shell, or rotate the contents of a whole photo folder including its entire subfolders through its main window. Automatically rotate photos based on EXIF information, or manually to the left, right, and 180 degrees at a press of a key. Be careful though, the output overwrites the original and there is no undo operation. Copy your original images so you won't lose them.

Images and photos can be rotated losslessly as long as their width and height (number of pixels) are divisible by 16. For example, photos with size 1600x1200, 1280x960, 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480, 320x240.

A message will pop out whenever a photo cannot be rotated fully losslessly, asking your confirmation for letting the program perform some slightly cropping to the photo to be able rotating it losslessly.

JPEG Lossless Rotator -- free, for Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista.

Best Free Image Viewers - The Top Nine

2008-03-26T11:02:00.010+07:00

Do google search with keyword free image viewer and you will see thousands of results. Okay, what a great number of discoveries. But do all of them will be able to satisfy your requirement of a good image viewer? Which one suits your need best? Not every one needs a rich-features image viewer and not every one is satisfied with the so-called minimalist program.

This post is intended to help you find what is best for your need whether it is simply looking through your images or browsing and viewing with some additional benefits. Some of the free image viewers I'm mentioning here have already been so popular among users, but some are quite new in the field. One thing for sure is that each of them does have its own uniqueness which really deserves to get more publicities.

MyViewPad

It is is a free image viewer that doesn't have many features but supports a large number of image formats, including those which aren't usually supported by most image viewers. Though you can only view one photo at a time, you can see all of its information directly on the right side of the screen. All but the histogram information. This info along with some simple image editing tools such as color correction can be accessed only by right-clicking the image displayed.

MyViewPad is great particularly to know all the information an image has in one place.

Picasa

There are a lot of things I love from Picasa. It can be configured to watch changes on any specified folders, add favorite images into a single album without creating new folder in explorer, ability to backup images, adding keyword, integrated search functions, hiding images and lock them with password, export images as a HTML page with no effort...

When you click an image, it will be displayed in a single view where you can perform some basic editings like cropping, red eye removal, control lightning and color temperature, adding effects, and many more. These tools are perfect for a novice in photo editing to enhance an image quality without learning curve and also for professionals who want to perform quick fixes. I especially like how the effect options are displayed. In the the "Effects"section you can view at a quick glance of how the image will look like with each effect applied.

Picasa is excellent as both a free image viewer and manager. I often able to find duplicate images that I can't find using other image viewers. It can open JPEG, TIF, TIFF, RAW, BMP, GIF, PSD, PNG, Movies (avi, mpg, asf, wmv) and Quicktime Movies (mov). Windows and Linux versions are available.

XnView

What I love most from this one is its ability to open and view multiple images in separated tabs. This is the feature that I've never found on any other free image viewers. It is also unbelievably support more than 400 image formats!. Now that is another thing I'm pretty sure you hardly find in other similar programs even on the commercial ones. Additionally, XnView can also display video formats, many digital camera formats and more exotic formats such as Amiga IFF and Calamus.

You have various options for image viewing pleasure. In the explorer style, there are a number of layout style to change the position of each panel and many thumbnail size you can choose from. Or display an image in a single view where you can do some adjustments while providing you more flexible way to browse images such as ability to lock the zoom size.

Other options include slideshow, full screen, grouping images into categories, and display them based on your specified rating and color label. You can >integrate XnView with explorer's right-click as well.

Other things you can do are batch conversion, lossless rotation, creating panorama and simple mosaic, watermark, create web gallery and image maps, making slideshow, etc. It also has various kind of image filters, and some plugins to extend its default functionalities. There is a portable version so no installation required. It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac.

FastPictureViewer

Here you come the new player, the slimmest image viewer, yet bringing in some unique features. It is a very minimalist program since it doesn't have any of the common functions that are generally found in similar programs like editing, enhancing or grouping. It is an image viewer intended for people who want to look through a collection of photos as fast as possible while having ability to add rating on the fly. Rating? Yes, it supports Adobe XMP and Windows Vista metadata creation and update so you can label and rank each picture directly from inside the program.

Speed-browse the entire folder and its nested-subfolders without having to go to each folder by mouse wheel, adjust the zoom size then zoom images quickly with a single mouse click, rate or label and copy images at a press of a key to your designated folder. Other features that helps to gain even more speed is that it allows you to enable parallel image loading (for computers with multiple processors) and GPU hardware acceleration for high-end graphic cards.

Currently the free version of it (Home Basic Edition) only supports JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg, .jpe, .jfif, .exif) and Microsoft HD Photo (.hdp, .wdp). It works under Windows 2000 / XP / Vista.

PhotoMesa

When you open Picasa, it will thumbnail all images in the entire scanned folders in one screen. You can indeed quickly scan through all of the images simply by mouse-wheel or arrow, but if you have a very large number of folders with hundreds or more of images you may get confuse when comparing two or more folders as the place is too crowded. This is where PhotoMesa comes to the rescue.

Unlike Picasa's default setting above, and unlike other image viewers that let you to browse and view only images contained within one folder, PhotoMesa can display photos from selected folders on-the-fly. While you are browsing through a folder, it is possible to add images from other folders into the current screen. So here you will get a more focused screen than Picasa's, and a more flexible view than other similar programs.

Another unique thing is its zoomable view. It works differently with the conventional way where all images are displayed in resizable thumbnail mode. In this special view, there is a red rectangle following your cursor movement inside the thumbnail panel. Hover mouse over an image, left-click it, and the image will be zoomed with less images displayed on screen. Left-click it again until it fills up the entire panel screen, or right-click it to go back to the default view. It works just like a satellite-eye view. Moreover, a small preview of an image will be displayed on mouse-over.

However, it also has the scroll view mode in case you want to view images in the conventional way. Other features include grouping and filtering, sorting images (by date, aspect ratio, title, etc.), mark images as favorites, hide certain images from display, search function, tagging, insert metadata information, and more. It supports Windows but requires Microsoft .NET framework 1.0 or 2.0.

FastStone MaxView

There are two reasons why FastStone MaxView is perfect to replace the standard Windows image viewer: the same fast loading time and has undoubtedly much more features. Configurable magnifier, customized background color, view associated images directly in full-screen, exit application with Esc key, read EXIF information, smooth view, more flexible browsing, customizable image display behavior, and can view more image types. Another nice fact is that it is possible to access all of its functions just by moving mouse to the edge of screens and right-clicking the image.

FastStone Image Viewer

Another free image viewer from FastStone. It has all the functions of FastStone MaxView plus some additional features. I have actually had already reviewed it (Read: FastStone Image Viewer Review) some time ago. But here you are some of the many features you can have from it:

image tagging, dual monitor, shell integration
formats supported: jpg, jpe, jpeg, pcx, cr2 (Canon), mrw (Minolta), bmp, wmf, nef (Nikon), pef (Pentax), gif, tga, orf (Olympus), srf (Sony), tif, tiff, psd (adobe photoshop), raf (Fuji), arw (Sony), png, crw (Canon), dng (Adobe).
some basic image editing tools and effects
tagging capability
eleven resampling algorithms in resizing images

The unique feature it has is that it can compare up to four selected images at once.

IrfanView

Another perfect program to replace the standard Windows image viewer. It has several advantages over FastStone MaxView: nearly all, if not all, of the functions can be accessed using hotkeys, less memory required, and has more features. There is also a large number of plugins available. IrfanView is one of the free image viewers on the web that manage to get a lot of attentions. It definitely defeats other free image viewers mentioned above in terms of memory usage.

ForceVision

This image viewer doesn't have decent features like the previous ones. What makes it worth mentioning here is that it has the minimalist yet slickest user interface, support quite a large number of image types (though not as many as MyViewPad or even XnView), zoom lock, very-easy-to-use and quite good batch conversion tool. And what makes it stands apart from the others is the number of image transition effects it has.

I don't know why, but I guess it is just because of the effect of the pleasant user interface and the transition effects so that I always find it more comfortable in viewing images using this program rather than when using its competitors above.

Which one do I use?

I use XnView to view multiple images in tabs, Picasa to manage the entire of my collection, FastStone Image Viewer to compare the result of editings to same images directly in one screen, IrfanView as my default image viewer, MyViewPad to view images along with their information, and sometimes ForceVision whenever I want to have a feeling of more comfortable in browsing my personal photos. FastPictureViewer? It's great for rating images on-the-run but expires every 90 days.

With these free programs at hand, why pay for a commercial image viewer offering same or even less features and benefits?

Control Photo Noise - Reduce or Eliminate Photo Noise

2008-03-26T10:14:00.001+07:00

How to reduce or eliminate photo noise easily? There are a large number of photo editors that are bundled with the feature to control the noise of a photo, but Noiseware promises a different thing. As a program designed specifically to handle photo noise, it is easy to use and accompanied with sophisticated yet fast noise filtering algorithm. It enables you to reduce the grainy look while keeping the detail as much as possible.

Every photo you open within this program will automatically be improved based on the default noise settings, and every tweaking or custom configuration to the image will also be automatically applied to it. You can however turn this automatic behaviour off. Even though the photo is enhanced by using the standard setting, the result looks good for nearly all of the photos I entered. But in case one becomes look too smooth like plastic, there are a set of sliders and filters to gain some real textures back.

Noiseware CE is a freeware that can only perform noise reduction to a single photo at a time. It also pops out a small nag screen each time you start the program. I usually don't like much when a freeware does this annoying thing, but Noiseware CE is too good to be thrown away from my software collection. If you like its performance, you can keep it forever or upgrade to the paid version to get more features.

Noiseware CE can open JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF (24 and 48 bpp) photos, and save the result in JPEG only. It works under Windows XP/Vista.

Create Ebook or Software Box Cover Easily - No Adobe Photoshop Required

2008-03-26T08:00:00.000+07:00

If you want a fast way to make ebook cover or design a software box without using Adobe Photoshop then this utility will be very helpful. It is called 3D Box Shot Maker, a freeware for Windows user that can be freely downloaded at BossEye.

Simply insert two images for the side and front cover and it will automatically create an attractive cover though you haven't configured anything yet. If you aren't satisfied with the default setting, there are several things you can do to tweak it, including the height and width of the box size, the intensity of the shadow and reflection, and other settings. You can also save your configuration as a custom preset to be re-use later on. The output can be saved as BMP, JPG, PNG and GIF.

Convert RAR to ZIP

2008-03-23T09:22:00.004+07:00

What if you find a remarkable program packed in a rar format that you want to notify and send to one of your friends but he doesn't have the program to open rar? There are two simple solutions for this. One, tell your friend the perfect program or send it directly to him by email. Two, convert the rar to a more friendly compressed format such as zip. By converting it to zip, your friend won't have to install a new program since the zip file opener has already been provided by default in Windows.

One of the excellent programs that is able to convert rar to zip is Tugzip, a free program having a nice GUI and lots of other functions accompanying its core function as a file compressor and extractor. In fact, it doesn't only able to convert rar to zip, but also to other formats like 7Z, BH, CAB, JAR, LZH, SQX, TAR, TBZ, TGZ, YZ1. You can convert a single or multiple files at once. Now, how to do it?

Open the Tugzip's main window, select the Tools menu, and click the Archive Converter command. In the converter's window you can add multiple archives and optionally delete the original archives when they are converted. The beautiful fact here is that you can convert various supported archive formats into one format. In other words, you can convert rar, 7z, cab, tar to zip in one go. The conversion speed is relatively fast, depending on how many archives are going to be converted.

Tugzip is a freeware and supports Windows. Note that I'm still using Tugzip v3.4 in experimenting with the conversion tool.

Read also: open rar files with free rar opener

Lock Files With Image

2008-03-23T09:05:00.002+07:00

PixelCryptor lets you to lock (encrypt) your files using any image. You don't have to type any password, just decide which image of yours that is going to be used to encrypt the files. It is like you are using an image as a password. PixelCryptor uses the pixel data of the image for the encryption.

How it Works

Run the app after the installation. You will be presented with four icons representing each of their commands. Select the second icon from the left to start the encryption (encode).
Select the files and folders you want to lock. Just to remind you that the more you add the longer the encryption will be.
Instead of typing any password, here you are using any image of your choice to lock the file. Select any image you want.
Specify the files destination, and click Next to run the encryption. Be sure to pick the right destination as you can't cancel the process once it runs.

The Good Facts

It is a nice idea to have an image to replace the existence of a password as it is easier to remember and, as suggested, harder to break in.
It doesn't encode the files into the image as well. Imagine if you have to encode multiple files large in size into a picture, the result will be an obvius encrypted image as it will also have a large size.

Not So Good Facts

The decryption needs the program. In other words, if you send the file to your friend, he or she must also have it installed.
Need installation and can't be made portable

PixelCryptor works for Windows 2000 or better. However, NET Framework 2.0 is required to be able to run it.

Find Lost Microsoft and Non-Microsoft Software Product Or Installation Key

2008-03-23T08:51:00.002+07:00

Jalapeno Keyfinder supports over 170 software titles. This free program automatically recovers all the product keys of the supported Microsoft and third party software installed in your computer. It displays the name of programs together with the license numbers in a drop-down box immediately after finishing the scanning.

What are the programs or produtcs supported? Acdsee, Nero, Ashampoo, Autocad, Call of Duty, Corel, Cyberlink, Macromedia, IsoBuster, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, Norton, O&O DiskRecovery, Partition Magic, OmniPage, Registry Mechanic, Roxio Easy CD Creator, SnagIt, The Sims, Tune Up Utilities, Ulead Video Studio, Winamp, WinASO Registry Optimizer, Winzip, Xara, ZoneAlarm, etc.

Jalapeno Keyfinder doesn't require installation, tiny in size to download for, and is a freeware licensed program working under Windows platform. If you're curious to know whether it is a legal program to retrieve Microsoft and non Microsoft software, or why one of the serial numbers scanned isn't matched the one on the CD jewel case or the sticker, visit the FAQ page.

Find The Lost Product Key For Windows (Including Vista), Office (2007, 2003, XP), Windows Exchange Server & SQL Server

Open, View, and Edit PSD Files Without Adobe Photoshop

2008-03-20T09:48:00.003+07:00

Unlike the previous freeware which can only open and convert psd to jpg, this free program allows you to open, view, and perform some standard editing to psd files, and you aren't required to have the expensive or load the heavy Adobe Photoshop to do all of these. It even enables you to convert psd to lots of other image formats (BMP, GIF, PNG, RAW, TIFF, PCX, WMF, etc.).

The interface is divided into two simple panels: the preview screen, and the information panel where you can view some information about the image such as EXIF and IPTC. Don't try to find the configuration and editing tools inside the window because they are visible only by right-clicking the image displayed.

Several of things you can do with the configuration option:

how should an image be rendered in the preview
specify timeout for the slideshow view
enable notification of read and image error together with if there is a missing plugin
configuring hotkeys for some of the program's operation

It also lets you apply some limited editing such as brigthness, contrast, sharpen, changing image color depth, rotate, etc. Beside psd files, there are around other 79 image types supported, from the common to the rare ones, which may make you surprised when you take a look at the list. This is the program you probably demand for when you are dealing with an image format that isn't supported by most of other image viewers. It is called MyViewPad and works under Windows.

Cut MP3 Freeware

2008-03-20T09:38:00.000+07:00

mp3DirectCut is a freeware designed specifically for editing MP3 without the need of re-encoding, thereby there isn't any loss of audio quality in the process. Cut, copy, paste, split, volume changing, normalize, fade, record and encode directly from audio input device, remove several parts. It becomes an effficient program to do all of the editings since there is no decompression required.

Beside manage to be fast, mp3DirectCut provides keyboard shortcut and command line support as well to easily perform some of its actions. Cut a long MP3 song, or split it into multiple parts for speed sharing purpose, erase the unnecessary spaces, these and other features it offers make it a great MP3 editor program yet easy to use. Best of all, it's free. Works under Windows.

Extract Audio (MP3) - Video (AVI) Files From Flash Video (FLV) Files

2008-03-18T09:27:00.003+07:00

It is relatively fast. I tried this program on eleven of my FLV files with a total size of 42.9MB , and it extracted both the audios and videos from them within.. I believe it was less than five seconds. Yes, FLV Extract can do the extraction from multiple files, too. You simply select the files, then drag and drop them into the program's window, and wait for the result in the same folder in which the original files are located.

There is no need to do any decompressing or recompressing. The files are extracted automatically in their original formats. The video is saved as AVI and audio as MP3.

FLV Extract is a free program for Windows and doesn't require installation. Just unzip and click the executable file to run it. However, you need NET Framework 2.0 to make it works.

Convert PSD to JPG Files Without Adobe Photoshop

2008-03-18T09:11:00.002+07:00

Having to open the big Adobe Photoshop each time some PSD files needs to simply be converted to JPG feels become more tiresome from day to day until the presence of a free program called Batch PSD to JPG. Like the name says, it can convert many files at once either files originating from the same folder or from different folders. It has ability to flatten PSD multiple layers as well.

For the files to be processed, you can preview each by right-clicking on it. Yes, you can preview only one file at a time. There is still no option letting you to open in thumbnail mode at the current version. Another thing you can do with this program is setting up JPG quality for the image output.

The conversion is relatively fast, depending upon how many files you put within to be processed. It works under Windows.

Generate Wallpaper For Mobile Phone (Samsung, Sony, Blackberry, Nokia, Sagem, etc.)

2008-03-18T08:56:00.001+07:00

One of the Image-Tools services, the Mobile Phones Wallpaper Generator Tool, allows you to generate wallpapers for a wide range of cell phone brands. Upload a picture to be resized, select your mobile phone brand and its series from the drop-down lists, and click the link Generate Wallpaper to complete the process.

The picture uploaded will be resized according to the phone's resolution. As an example, an image for Motorola i730 has width 130 and height 130. After the image is created, you can save it by right-clicking the image and use bluetooth or direct cable to send it to your phone.

The image formats supported are JPG, GIF or PNG file. The cell phones supported are Treo, Toshiba, Siemens, Sharp, Sanyo, Philips, Panasonic, NEC, Kyocera, LG, Danger, Alcatel, Audiovox, Trium, XE, UTStarcom, Samsung, Sony, Blackberry, Nokia, and Sagem. If your phone isn't listed in, you can contact the owner. The service is free.

Resize Multiple Images to Thumbnails And Additionally Creates HTML Thumbnail Gallery (JPG,GIF,PSD,PNG,etc.)

2008-03-18T08:39:00.002+07:00

No matter you want to simply resize your pictures collection into thumbnail size or make a HTML gallery, JoJoThumb can make it done for you in a flash. The most beneficial feature from this program is probably that you can save each of your different configurations into different profiles, besides the fact that it already provides some customizable profiles if you don't want to set everything from the scratch.

There are a lot of image types that it supports: BMP, GIF, EMF, JPG, PCD, PCX, PNG, PSD, TGA, TIF, WMF and RAW-Files from Digital-Cameras (CR2, CRW, DCR, DNG, MRW, NEF, ORF, PEF, RAF, RAW, SRF). The thumbnails created from these will be in JPG format. You can freely change the dimension size and specify the image quality of the result. It is also possible to add time stamp and text.

JoJoThumb is a freeware for Windows ME, 2000, XP or Vista.

Automatic Computer Shutdown, Hibernate, and Reboot

2008-03-16T09:54:00.001+07:00

Do these three things at a scheduled time or after a process stops for both a local or remote computer with PowerOff. Before the action is executed there are multiple things you can do such as running a warning message or certain program. The option "Force application to exit" must be used wisely since it kills all the running processes without saving any changes made in the programs terminated.

Additionaly, you can perform other tasks like automatic logoff, poweroff, standby, lock, wake on LAN, and turn monitor on or off. Optionally it can be executed as a service running in the background anytime you want.

PowerOff is a freeware built with portability in mind. No installation required. It works under Windows 95/98/Me/NT4.0/2000/XP.

Check Who Is Hosting A Site

2008-03-16T09:44:00.001+07:00

The plethora of web hosting providers may cause confusion to find a reliable one when you need to create a new site or dissatisfied with your current provider. It is good to ask for any recommendation in forums or searching in a web hosting directory, but perhaps it is better to find out who is hosting a popular site.

The most efficient way to do this is using the free service of WhoIsHostingThis. The process is simply entering the web address and within seconds you are able to see the detail of the hosting company. However, note that the result isn't 100% accurate due to several reasons. For example, the site you request has moved to another new provider very recently.

Resize, Rotate, Flip, Crop, Overlay Multiple Images (BMP,JPEG,GIF,PNG,etc)

2008-03-16T09:39:00.001+07:00

Image Resizer.NET is one of the programs that provides a very convenient way in performing some customizations to your pictures. Besides all of the actions mentioned in the title of this post, it also allows you to add personalized text and border to the pictures and supports command line for batch processing as well.

Each function has its own options. They're separated into different panels to ease the processing. In Text Options, for example, you can specify which font type and color to use, the fill style of the color itself (linear gradient, solid, hatched), along with where the text should be positioned within the images.

There are two preview screens where the preview of the original and processed images are placed side by side. Too bad that while you can see the changes on an indivual image, there is no way provided to see the changing on all affected pictures at once. Moreover, not all changes are automatically displayed accordingly in the preview. There is a notification inside the preview screen that the processing options have changed. To view the change taking place you should click the command "Refresh Preview Image".

All image processing configurations can be saved into a profile, which is very useful if you do the same task repeatedly. After loading a profile, you can select which process to enable and disabled if you plan to keep some settings while removing others temporarily.

This program can open images in 28 image formats (Adobe Photoshop -psd- , Kodak Photocd, pcx, etc.), and save processed images in 16 image formats (emf, exif, gif, etc.). It is freeware and works under Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP (Service Pack 2) (32bit or 64bit Edition), Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista (32bit or 64bit Edition) with Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 or v3.0 installed within.

Convert Image to Text In Three Steps

2008-03-16T09:15:00.002+07:00

Photo2Text is a free online service letting you to change image into text (TXT) comfortably and quickly. The process involves only uploading a photo, see what your photo looks like, and download it into your computer. The converted photo also automatically gets a personal page where you and your friends are able to see it.

It offers an interesting adjustment function in which the characters used to draw the image can be managed with a slider in such a way to achieve the perfect brightness. Another important thing is that you should change the notepad fonts to courier new or lucida console and uncheck the wordwarp in case you encounter a problem in viewing the full draw.

If you find it useful and it happens that you use Firefox as your browser, it provides a Firefox add-on to integrate its service with Firefox.

Free Video Capture Program - Convert Video to JPEG

2008-03-12T09:03:00.001+07:00

It is definitely the hassle-free program to extract images as JPG from a video file for Windows user. Pick the video, select the destination folder to save the conversion result, choose whether you want to capture images for every X frames (10 - 1000 frames) or every X seconds (1 - 20 seconds) or simply every existing frame, click the Save button and you're done.

This program, Free Video to JPG Converter, also lets you to get images from either all or only selected parts of the video. There is option to take manual captures as well.

So far I like it, though it lacks the ability to specify the quality nor the dimension size of the captured images. Unfortunately, it bundles another additional program in its installation package called Free Studio Manager. I just knew this after I installed it.

Another thing I wish the developer removed it away is the tiny dialog box that pops up every time you start this program, telling you the current version you have and reminding you to check for an update. Again, no option for removing this automatic notification.

What video formats it supports? There isn't any information about it when I browse the program's page. Where is the information? I don't know. I just don't want to crawl to every existing page to look for something that should be easily found.

However, it is indeed very easy to do the conversion task.

Kodak, Cokin, & Hoya Color Photo Filters

2008-03-12T08:28:00.002+07:00

There are more than 100 filters of Kodak, Cokin, and Hoya bundled inside this program. They're all free. The usage is easy, too. Load your photo, select one filter, press the button, and the result is displayed in the preview screen side by side with the original one. It is called Opanda PhotoFilter.

To help you in getting the effect needed, it also allows you to configure the density of the filter before it is applied as well as an option to activate the auto luminosity compensation. The photo in the preview screen can be zoomed, and it can be saved in jpeg, tiff, or bmp format.

Too bad you can only apply a single filter into a photo. I guess it will be more interesting and useful if it has ability to combine the filters selected. Still, this is a very good program that offers simplicity for users to know which the best filter is for a photo. Besides, it is completely free. No registration, and the small ad screen within the program can be hidden easily.

Though it is designed for Windows 98 / Me / 2000 / XP / Vista, the themes are the Mac's looks (Aqua and Panther).

Control Windows Volume Globally By Mouse Wheel Or Hotkey

2008-03-11T10:09:00.001+07:00

Have you ever wanted a much simpler and quicker way to control volume in Windows when you sit in fornt of your desktop? Instead of manually moving the mouse cursor to the volume slider of your multimedia player, why not customizing mouse wheel as a global controller, or using hotkey as another quicker alternative?

These are possible if you use Volumouse, a small-size and free program that doesn't need to be installed. Many interesting functions regarding the volume controlling are offered. You can simply define hotkey to decrease or increase volume. Or, use the mouse wheel under certain actions like when the mouse cursor is over the desktop or taskbar, the ALT key is hold down, the iTunes or GOM is focused, the right mouse button is hold, and many more. Each configuration can be saved as a single file.

When some of the above selected actions occurs, a volume indicator is displayed. The interface can be configured to choose whether it should be in form of vertical or horizontal trackbar, to set transparency level, size, delay, and so on. It sits in the tray area when running, but the icon can be optionally hidden.

Free PDF File Viewer (Small, Open Source, Portable)

2008-03-11T09:57:00.002+07:00

Too bad the popular Adobe Reader has some disadvantages that make many keep searching for the better alternatives. It may be a good PDF viewer for an advanced PDF document, but may be not for a standard one involving only texts and pictures in simple formats. For you who need the alternative, try this Sumatra PDF Portable.

Many has appreciated it as a free handheld PDF viewer that fast, small in size, free to download, and can be used in portable devices (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, CD, pocket pc, or others). The interface is very simple as you can see from the picture. It doesn't have many features, too. What you can get from it are only the standard tools that you need in reading a document (zoom, navigation, search, etc). It is understandable, then, if it is admitted as one of the fastest PDF viewers.

You need to install this software first, then you can add it into your portable devices. It requires Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista.

Pick RGB, HTML, Hex, HSB Color Codes From Screen - Free

2008-03-11T09:47:00.004+07:00

There are a lot of color code pickers out there with advanced options, but this one definitely provides the most instant way to grab color code from screen. While others will let you to view the captured code in the programs's main window, Instant Eye Dropper makes you possible to save the captured code directly inside the clipboard. Does it mean you completely can't view the color being captured? No.

When you left-click and hold the icon's program in the tray, a small color preview screen is displayed. When you drag the cursor, the color and the code shown change accordingly. The code is saved automatically into the clipboard when you release the mouse button.

Changing the code format from HTML to RGB or Hex and so on is as simple as right-clicking the icon and select one from the list. In the option menu, you can decide how the code format should be pasted from the clipboard to your CSS style sheet or any other document or program, pick the pixel resolution needed, along with some other tiny configurations. It needs around 1,5MB for the resources when running.

It works under Windows NT, 2000, 2003, XP.

Fix and Enhance Image Quality In Windows With Image Analyzer

2008-03-11T09:24:00.002+07:00

There are many problems an image can have. Red eye, less sharpness, too blurry, etc. In this case, Image Analyzer doesn't only provide you instant ways to fix all occured problems in your photos, but also able to enhance the quality by supplying filters and additional plugins, which are accompanied with features to make some modifications.

Too many features to be mentioned here. I just can say that it is a great freeware. I use the excellent free Photo Filtre all this time to edit my photos, but this program has several things that Photo Filtre doesn't have. If you happen to use Photo Filtre, Image Analyzer can be a nice addition for performing some image editing tasks.

It supports Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista. There are two versions availabe to download: installer and stand-alone (zip). To have it portable simply select the second version. It contains, however, lesser features than the first.

Change FLV to AVI Video In Windows

2008-03-11T09:10:00.000+07:00

This is a straightforward program to change a Flash video (flv) into an AVI. Select the file you want, determine to which folder you want to save the conversion output, and press the Start button. That's all.

Free FLV to AVI Converter informs how long the conversion should last as soon as you start the operation. Knowing this information ahead right before the conversion occurs should help the user in case it takes a long time to finish while there is no time to wait that long. How fast is the conversion? 4,704KB needs around two minutes forty seconds to get finished.

The developer said that if you can only hear the audio from the converted video, then you should download XViD codec.

Show Folder Size Column In Windows Explorer

2008-03-11T09:03:00.001+07:00

Folder Size is a freeware that displays folder size column in Windows explorer. After installed, right-click the column title bar and select the Folder Size column from the list, and the size of each folder can be viewed immediately. You don't have to restart to make it works.

However, you should think twice before deciding to activate the column for a folder that has many files with huge size. The column is shown without delay, but it keeps counting the size a little bit longer. The counting, luckily, takes place only once (when the column is displayed the first time). After that it stops the calculate unless another new files or folders are added inside.

Another benefit of showing the column is that you can remove the standard Size column. Although the name is Folder Size, it also displays the file size.

Beside the column, the program also provides additional columns such as File Children, Folder Children, and All Children. The first and second shows the number of files within a folder, the second for the children folders, and the last is to let you know the total number of files and folders children inside a folder (see the screenshot).

As an additional information, it consumes more than 3MB for the resource.

Free Windows Clipboard Extender

2008-03-11T08:46:00.001+07:00

Most of you have probably already known that Windows is only able to save one item in its clipboard. What you're copying into the clipboard at present removed the previously copied item. This may not be a problematic condiition for general computer user, but for those who very frequently type or insert same texts into documents the possibility to have an extender or an advanced version of clipboard tool is probably a demand. This is where the free ClipX can play a big help for you.

ClipX can keep up to 1024 clips of texts and images, all of which can be edited or deleted. There are two ways to paste an item: by left-clicking the icon residing in the tray or pressing a customizable hotkey. After the list is shown up, select the needed item to be pasted. Very practical.

There are other helpful features, too. Resizing the width of the clipboard list, ignoring either the text or image clipboard entries, deciding how many entries should be kept (4 - 1024 entries), etc. If you need more, a number of plugins are available for free at the maker's website. The popular one is Stickies, which allows you to make some entries become permanent within its clip storage. It means they never be deleted automatically when the temporary storage reaches your defined limit.

Run Multiple Programs At Once

2008-03-08T09:17:00.002+07:00

The regularity of running several applications to do a certain project (like designing a webpage or writing updates for blog) may sometimes become a somewhat boring task and feels so less inefficient for some people. For whatever reason that could be, if you ever need to have a way of opening multiple programs at once in one single click, try Ultimate Runner.

It lets you to list programs, files, folders, internet and email addresses, and system commands, and save the list into a file that can be optionally associated with Ultimate Runner and run later anytime. It means you are possible to create different lists for various kind of tasks or projects. The order of which item should run first, second, and so on, can be arranged alphabetically or manually edited. It also allows you to set time delay between each of the program executions.

Easy to use, pretty interface, free, and can be set to load at Windows startup. It supports Windows 2000/XP/Vista.

Display Time And Date On Windows Taskbar

2008-03-08T09:04:00.001+07:00

The current time is displayed at the right corner of the taskbar notification area by default, while the current date can be seen by hovering mouse over the clock. What Timekeeper does is simple, actually. It enables you to display both time and date, or either one of them, on the Windows taskbar. What makes it worth to download for, as a program specifically designed for the task, it offers a lot more flexibilities in terms of how the time and date should be displayed.

You can visually adjust the font, color of the font, and add colored or transparent background. There is a set of predefined time and date formats ready to choose like whether the name of the current month should be displayed in its full name or abbreviated. You can even create your own format style from scratch easily (see the screenshot below for my own format).

You can add, remove, and/or move any element of the time and date. Custom texts and characters are also possible to be added. In short, you can do almost anything with the display style. Simple but fully customizable. Excellent. Recommended.

The system required is Windows Vista, XP Home and Professional, 2000, Me, or 98.

Disable/Enable "Open With" Items In Windows Explorer

2008-03-08T08:54:00.002+07:00

The standard "open with" menu that appears when we right-click a file in Windows explorer displays a list of some of the recent applications used to open the file. When the program needed isn't on the list, we open the "open with" main window and select the program manually. The problem with the standard main window is that we can't select which ones should be displayed or hidden. This may make you a little harder and longer in finding the one actually needed if the window displays too much programs within.

OpenWithView enables you to manage the programs listed in the window, whether you want to display or remove. It doesn't need installation, and the disable/enable task is just a matter of a single click. The removal and the restoration of a program's visibility also affects the "open with" section in the right-clik menu, not just inside its main window.

It is free, portable, and supports Windows XP/2003/Vista.

Another similar program having more flexibility is Open Expert. You need to install it, however.

Put Notes With Alarm Clock On Windows Desktop

2008-03-08T08:47:00.002+07:00

It is a program that does much more than just simply placing a simple note on desktop. It lets you to create sticky notes with a customizable alarm reminder, checklists of tasks, and freehand scribble notes. These are combined with the look's personalization, the notes management, and some other configurations like hotkey associations to some of its actions. It's called hott notes.

The interface is quite pleasant by default, but you can customize some of the appearances to be more personalized such as fonts, transparency level, shadow, size, and animation effects. There are several ways to reduce the clutters if there are too many notes on desktop. Notes on desktop can be shaded to show only the title bars, arranged manually to be placed side by side, or hidden for all or selected notes only with a hotkey.

For notes that are no longer needed, you can archive or delete them. Automatic backup and auto save are offered as well to preserve the data. All the existing notes can be managed in the notes management panel, which is called Notebook. It is one of the recommended sticky notes program to be used regularly. Free and support Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.