StartupSaver: Faster than a locomotive!

Ok, I'm going to admit, this is my freeware. I mean, this is literally the first freeware that I've coded and felt comfortable enough to release to the public.

StartupSaver is a program designed to improve your computer's startup time and quality by executing programs at intervals. You basically choose your program, and then set the delay you want after that program, and then the same for the next, and the next, and ect. This way, when starting your computer, it won't start everything up at once, but space it out. Here's a few of the features that I thought handy and tried to incorporate:

-Import: Because if you were to switch over to StartupSaver, it would be a pain to have to get all of your items that are already on startup. So you can import items from the registry, the global registry, the Startup folder, and the global startup folder.

-Export: More of a tool outside the program, exports registry, global registry, startup folder, global startup, or StartupSaver settings (or all of the above) to TXT, REG, or even a folder of LNKs.

-Delay for SS: So you have a chance to back if you want to abort starting all the programs, you can set the delay, and show a window that has a countdown before the program launches. Also, it helps Windows get fully loaded before starting.

-Enable/Disable entries: As of v0.96, SS how has checkmarks for every entry, so if you want to disable a program without having to remove it, you can just uncheck it. The entry will stay in StartupSaver, but it will just be skipped in the lineup when starting. (Props to lanux128 of DonationCoderfor suggesting it.)

-Install: Installs your choice of directory, with an option of adding to start menu, and adding to startup. Keep in mind, this is an install inside the program, so don't expect too much. Also, you can uninstall from the directory the program is running.

-Multi executable: there are two executables, StartupSaver.exe, and StartupSaverConfig.exe. StartupSaver.exe is the program itself, Config is the GUI for adding stuff. But if you want, you can delete the Config and just open the INI file and edit settings yourself. Only if you want.

-Portable as an option: If you choose not to install, if is portable. But since the point of the program is to start on startup, it has to create a shorcut in the start menu to do so...but it's still technically portable.

-Open source: For years, I've promised myself that if I ever made a program, it would always be open source. That day is here, and I'm keeping my promise. I'll always make the most recent version of StartupSaver available.

-Tiny: For all three required files, it starts at around 400kb. If you ditch the Config, it gets down to 200kb.

Is it the best program ever? No. But I had alot of fun making it, and I think it might be really useful. If you want take a look. If you leave a comment, please include the version number(ie. v0.96)...since this is StartupSaver's home, and it's probably going to be here a while. But if you do download, beware.....

-Beta: To be honest, StartupSaver is basically where I want it. But I'm not sure how buggy it is, since I've only used it on my EEE 901, with the same registry, the same screen resolution, and so forth. So in order for it to achieve "v1.0 stable" status, I need feedback! I need people telling me what I need to fix, or if it's ok! Until I actually get somebody to download it, and then post some comments (it only takes a couple seconds, yall), poor StartupSaver will stay beneath 1.0.

*I apologize for any strange messages that may pop up.....I'm still really bad at testing my programs, and really bad at taking out things that I put in to test. Let me know if that happens.

See more StartupSaver screenshots here

Visit FreewareWire Software Downloads page for StartupSaver v0.96

Media Player Classic: They don't make media players like the used to.

While it may look like a Microsoft product, Media Player Classic is not. Though it's designed to look like the old version of Windows Media Player, it is actually open source, and holds alot more than WMP.

The best part of MPC is that it can play nearly every media file (both Video and Audio) right off the bat, and it doesn't even need to be installed. So let's talk about that for a minute.

MPC is fairly small, and standalone. It weighs only around 6mb, which may not be the smallest player, but considering how many built-in codecs it has, I'd say it's very worth it. It is also portable, meaning that you can take it anywhere, to a computer with no codecs, and still be able to play many files.

In terms of functionality, MPC has everything that I currently need to play in terms of audio and video.

-DVD player: Yes, it does have a DVD player. It may not be very flashy in terms of interface, but it is fully functional.

-Favorites: You can mark a file as a favorite so it can be easily accessed, and you can even make it remember the position of the object, so if you quit a movie, you can pick up right where you left off.

-Subtitles: To be honest, I've never used it. I don't even know how. But it's there, and that's what matters.

-"Open Device": Though I haven't used it much, it is a pretty nifty idea. For example, I can open my webcam, and view myself, typing this post.

-Keyboard shortcuts: Maybe not the most original idea, but almost everything has a keyboard shortcut, making it easy to go fullscreen, pause, view information, etc.

To be honest, that's all I can think of, at the moment. There's alot more customization, like you can open things in the same window or a different window for each file, you can change the icon for the main screen when no media is playing, and you can even specify an action to be performed after a media has finished playing (like shutting down or standbying.)

MPC is that it is the smallest, fully functional media player I've seen. When it comes to media player classic, I just want a program to play all my files. I'm not concerned with how it looks, just as long as it works. MPC opens files very, very fast, and I'm happy with that.

But if you guys think that my review was pathetic, let me know. I'm not very knowledgable on codecs and whatnot, so if something just works, I usually don't question it.

Visit Media Player Classic site for download

FastStone Capture: Gotta Cap 'em all!

FastStone Capture is a screen capture utility that really helps you get the most out of your screen. When you run it, FSCapture will sit down in your tray, waiting to be called upon. It also has a little menu bar that can be dragged anywhere across the screen. Rather than just capturing the entire screen, FSCapture has multiple options for making screencapping easy.

• Capture Active Window: Self Explanatory.
• Capture Window/Object: My favorite. You can capture somethinginside a window, such the website inside a web browser without getting thee toolbars. It's very versatile.
• Capture rectangle region: Self explanatory. Except one note, it does provide a small zoom box to help you grab just the right spot, so you don't have to resize it after capping.
• Capture Freehand Region: Pretty much can capture any region you want, even if it's not rectangular.
• Capture Fullscreen: Self explanatory.
• Capture scrolling window: My second favorite. This is probably the most decisive feature that separates FSCapture from other screen cap utils. You can actually select a part of a window that has a scroll window, and FSCapture will scroll the window itself, capture the entire time, and then copy the entire thing to the clipboard. To put it simply, FSCapture puts an entire scrollable window into one screen capture instead of having to piece them together in paint.

So that's it for other stuff. Not only are these handy options, but they also all have keyboard shortcuts that have to to with Print Screen (like Alt+PrtSc, Ctrl+PrtSc, etc.) There are also a ton of useful options, once you've set the method of capture.

-Destination: You can set where the image goes after you take it. For example, when you normally hit Print Screen, the capture goes to your clipboard. With FSCapture, you can send it to:

• FSCapture Editor
• Clipboard
• File
• File (autosave)
• Printer
• E-mail

So let's talk about the FSCapture Editor. It's surprisingly amazing. You can do alot of editing in it (duh), including adding watermarks, changing the edge, sharpen/blur, etc. You can also select a rectangle selection then hit "Save selection as". You can save as JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, and even PDF. The only fault I can find with the Editor is that it seems to delay the screencap by like half a second. But otherwise, it's changed the way I screencap.

This may seem like a large post for just a screencap (and maybe it is), but FSCapture is really more than that. It even has a color picker and screen magnifyer built right in. Not to mention the fact that you can "Open file in editor" so it's also a light image editor. Speaking of light, the entire program is only slightly over 1MB, so I'm gonna go ahead and round that down to "Tiny". Likewise, it's also very light on resources; it runs at less than 1MB of RAM when minimized in the tray.

There's only one hitch, and that's that this entire post is about FSCapture v5.3. Any later and FastStone decided to make it shareware, giving it an experation date on the trial. However, A+ Freeware is benevolent to host it there, so head on over for the download. While you're there you'll probably see that there is FSCapture portable. Yes, that's right, it's portable.

*FSCapture icon by sonnysavage of DeviantArt. To him be the credit.

Visit A+ Freeware for download

DriveSort: Sort it like it's hot.

DriveSort is a very handy small tool to quickly and easily sort the files on your drives. DriveSort is very much like List Large Files, although, to me at least, it seems more intuitive.

Like List Large Files, you can sort by Size, meaning it will pull up the largest files. But it sets itself apart, in that you can also browse for a specific folder, while List Large Files can only do entire drives. But then again, DriveSort automatically returns 100 results, and List Large Files can be configured to return as many as you like.

But enough comparison. DriveSort can also sort a drive by the Date, meaning it will pull up the newest files in order. The creator states that this is good for "when you have just installed a new

application, and want to find out what files have been created by the installation program," and I agree with him. It also helps if maybe you were working on a file, but can't remember where you saved it or what its name was. Pull up DriveSort, and it will find it right away.

Another reason DriveSort is good is how organized it is. The window is very small and neat, with several columns for "Filename", "Size", "Date Created", and "Path". It's very nice that the Filename is separate from the path, and that the size is written in MB rather than bytes. Do make a note, though, that you cannot click a column header to sort the list. The list is automatically sorted by whichever option you chose: Size or Date. It's also very handy that if you right click an entry, you can choose "Open" or "Open folder".

Overall, it's a very handy tool. It's extremely fast at searching, and shows the results in an organized way. It is extremely light, weighing only 32kb, and being standalone. It's also light on resources, running at about 250kb idle before a scan, around 5mb during a scan, and then back down to around 300kb afterwards. It's also portable, which is very handy if you want to try to help a friend figure out where his space is going.

Visit DriveSort (lmadhavan) website for download

Rocketdock: One less thing Mac can boast about.

Rocketdock is a dock program much like the dock on a Mac. If you don't know the concept behind a dock, you can add shortcuts to programs, folders, files, internet shortcuts, and more, and they will all be displayed as icons.

Rocketdock can easily become a staple in your computer experience. Here's some very nice things about it:

-Easibility of add: It's very very easy to add/remove in Rocketdock. In order to add something to the dock, just drag it onto some place on the dock. In order to remove, click and drag something off the dock, and let go, and it will *poof* away. Same goes with reordering.

-Icon customibility: It's very easy to change the icon for any item. You can also set the opacy, the size, the zoom amount, and etc.

-Smooth looks: Rocketdock is really impressive in that it looks good. You can set the theme for the dock, 30 of which already come with the program (and you can add more.) You can also choose the fonts and font colors. Even more impressive still are the animations. You can have the cool "Bubble" animation as you slide across the dock, where it will enlargen the icon you are hovering over. But the cool part is not only how it looks, but also how you can customize. You can (as I said before) set the zoom rate, set the zoom width (how much the dock stretches), and set the zoom duration. Same with autohide. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Well then...

-Position: You can put the dock on any 4 of the sides of your screen, that's a given. But what's really cool is just how much you can shift it. You can adjust the centering, meaning it will be more to the left or right (or up or down, if you have the dock vertical) and you can even set the "Edge offset", which means how far away it will be from the edge of the screen (like if you set 30 pixels, there will be 30 pixels of space between the dock and the edge.) On top of that, it has multi-monitor support, and can be set to "Always on top", "Always on bottom", or "Normal" (it will be treated liek a normal window.)

-Use as taskbar: If you want, you can check "Minimize windows to dock," which will act like a Mac dock. Your minimized windows will be added on to the end of the dock instead of staying in the taskbar. You can also check "Running application indicators" (which are arrows below a program that is running) and "Show running application instance" (which means that if you click on a program in the dock that is already running, it will just bring up the running instance instead of starting a new one.)

-Docklets: In addition to having links to folders or programs and such, you can also have "Docklets" which range in a great number of things, like Clocks, Battery meters, Volume control, and even a Wifi level. Docklets help Rocketdock become an even more useful tool than it already is.


Overall, it's a very nice piece of software that perfectly combines functionality with eyecandy. But wait, there's more!

-SysStats: There is a certain type of Docklet called "SysStats" that I feel I should mention. The very nice thing about SysStats is that it adds a ton of options to Rocketdoc in terms of Docklets. For example, you can have a link to My Computer that shows your available disk space, an Orb showing your CPU and RAM usage, and even one to automatically check your Gmail account. This all sounds well and good, but I've had SERIOUS problems with SysStats in the past. I got to the point where I was about to give up Rocketdock, until I discovered that all the Docklets I was having problems with were SysStats. Now, I'm not saying "DON'T USE SYSSTATS", I'm just saying, beware. I have a simple volume app that I tried to remove from my dock and it froze up Rocketdock when I dragged it off the dock. Some of the scripts worked better than others, like the Disk Space script worked better than the Wifi. But anyway, just remember that SysStats and Rocketdock are separate. (Also, if you don't know how to install SysStats on Rocketdock, please don't ask it here. Does this look like a support forum?)


I first found RocketDock when I wanted to hide all my desktop icons, but still wanted to be able to quickly launch things. It's a very convenient tool, and the best "looker" program that still provides a good amount of functionality. It is moderate in terms of resources; it usually consumes around 20-30mb of RAM for me. It is also Portable, in case you wanted to use it on the go (even though I don't think the paths to the programs would not change for the different computers, so I dunno how'd that work...) I usually sacrifice beauty for speed, but Rocketdock is one of my few exceptions. It might use more resources than a simpler dock, but it looks nice, and is reliable (without SysStats.)

Visit Rocketdock website for download

UNetbootin: Easiest bootable USB ever.

UNetbootin stands for "Universal Netboot Installer," and essentially allows you to easily create a bootable USB with many Linux distributions. For those who've never tried, creating a bootable USB can actually be quite the hassle, so UNetbootin makes it much, much easier.

If you want to absolutely go hands free on a bootable USB, you can select from several common linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, FreeBSD, Fedora, Gentoo, MEPIS, Mandriva, Slax, Frugalware, and many more. When you select one, you can then select the version (such as "8.10 live" or "8.04 install" for Ubuntu), or just pick to go with the Latest version, in which case, UNetbootin will check and download the latest released version. After you choose your distro, version, and select the USB drive, UNetbootin will automatically download the specified ISO, and make it into a bootable USB, meaning that you can walk away from your computer, then come back a few hours later (maybe less, if you chose a distro like Damn Small Linux) and have a fully functioning bootable USB device, no hassle.

Or if you already have your ISO and want to burn it, there's an option for that as well. Just show UNetbootin where your ISO is, select your USB drive, then hit "OK", and it creates a bootable USB from the ISO of your choice. It really is just that easy.

OR if you REALLY know what you're doing, you have the option of selecting the Kernel and the Initrd, and specifying Options.

Lastly comes the drive selection. UNetbootin is defaultly set to only display USB drives, but you can (if you dare) let it "Show all drives", but remember that if you accidentally choose your C:\ drive (or whatever drive your Windows is installed), you could screw up your Master Boot Record, and unless you know how to fix that.....well, just don't do it.


UNetbootin is a very, very handy program for those who want a bootable USB drive without any hassle. The very nicest part about UNetbootin is thatyou don't have to format your USB drive. That means that you can have your apps on the USB, then UNetbootin a Linux distro, and all your apps will be completely uneffected. All it does is just copy the needed Linux files from the ISO, set up a Syslinux boot menu, and edit the MBR on the USB drive. So if you don't like your Linux distribution, just delete the files. (Of course, your MBR would still stay changed, and I'm not smart enough to tell you what to do about that...) Probably the best part about it is that it isportable, and it is fairly small (around 3.5mb).

It's a very, very handy program if you don't have an available CD drive, or if you just prefer USB. There's also specialized versions of UNetbootin such asAuto Super Grub Disk, EasyPeasy, EeePCLinuxOS, xPUD, and FUSBi. EasyPeasy and EeePCLinuxOS are built specifically for the purpose of installing Linux to Netbooks, which makes UNetbootin a Netbook's best friend. (At first, I thought it was actually short for "Universal Netbook Installer" :P)

*My apologies to all smart Linux-people, if I misused a phrase here or there, or got something completely wrong. Feel free to correct me.

Visit UNetbootin website for download

Lightscreen: Praise the Lord, I saw the light!

Lightscreen is a screen capture utility that helps capture and manage your screenshots. It is very comparable to FSCapture, although Lightscreen might have a few less features. For example it has 3 different methods of capture: Screen, Window, and Area (a rectangle). It also has shortkeys that are customizable (and toggle....able) for all three of the above, and for opening the program window and opening the directory.

Speaking of which, Lightscreen's main feature (since it is on the front tab, and defaultly checked on) is that it can auto-save screenshots to a file. You can choose the folder, then set the filename prefix to be anything you want, then set a suffix being either a timestamp or just a number, so that each screencap will be organized and automatically named. Or you can even swap the two, making the custom name last and the date/number first. But anyway, you can then choose either JPG, BMP, or PNG, and the delay (the amount of time before the screencap is taken.

In addition to hotkeys and auto-file saving, Lightscreen also has a ton of other options, such as an optional taskbar icon, the option to hide the Lightscreen window when screen-capping, the option to show a magnification around the mouse when using the "Area" option, the option of either a sound notification or a traytip balloon when a screencap is taken, and even a screenshot quality adjuster. It also has "Advanced" settings like showing a "Save as" dialog for every screencap, including the cursor in screencaps, and the option to "Grab" only one monitor. Oh, did I mention it has multi-monitor support?

Overall, it's a nice little screen capture program. Like I said, it is very comparable to FSCapture, even though FSCapture is lighter, smaller, and more feature filled. Lightscreen is about 5mb in size and runs at 20mb RAM for me at the moment (though I am using portable). Oh, it's also portable, hosted over at PortableApps. It is also open source, if you view the files available on SourceForge. (It being hosted there anyway should tell you that it's open source.)

Visit Lightscreen website for download

Avast! Virus Cleaner: Tiny little worm eater

Avast! Virus Cleaner is a tiny utility to help combat viruses and worms. Please keep in mind that it is not meant to be used as a computer's sole defense against viruses, it is merely a supplement, mainly for if your computer already has a worm.

It's hard to say anything about this, because it's very straightforward. The program is standalone, 400kb in size, 2.5mb RAM on both idle and scanning, and completely portable. Press the "Start Scanning" button and it will start scanning your computer for some 20 different worm types (please check the Avast! website at the bottom of the post for more info), and a box shows the normal virus scan stuff: current operation, current file, number of infections, etc.

To be honest, I really can't say much about it, just because I've never had to use it. My computers in the past have either (a) been protected enough from viruses that it never came to having to use this program, or (b) got so toasted by virus(es) that I had to start with a fresh installation. So I cannot give my testimony about Avast! Virus Cleaner, but I'll do my best to review it, with my limited virus-related knowledge.

First off, I do have to say that A!VC will immediately scan your memory on the start of the scan. That means that if a virus is running, it will either kill it, or at least disable it, so it will stop from spreading. Then it scans your disks, then your startup, then the infected files are dealt with, then your system is clean and happy (or at least it should be).

The last thing I am noticing on the page is that you can "run Avast! Virus Cleaner 'somehow'", meaning that it doesn't have to be run as an EXE. Other filetypes can be run, such as BAT, PIF, COM, and SCR, or even CMD. If a virus disables your ability to run EXEs, you can just rename A!VCT to one of the named filetypes above and try that. It's like outsmarting a computer virus! The only reason I mention this is because I have indeed witnessed a virus taking out all the EXEs on my computer; every time I clicked the start button, more icons would go missing. If I had known about A!VC back then, it probably would have saved me from doing a System Restore.

The thing about A!VC is that it's really something that you need to have on hand. Odds are you might not be thinking about what to do if you get a virus until you actually have one, but A!VC is a handy, small tool to keep as an ace in the hole, so you aren't freaking out about what you should download before your machine is toast.

Remember, I've never used A!VC (well, I've scanned with it, but it's never found anything), so I cannot say for certain if it works, but it is from Alwil Software, so it is at least safe, and for how small it is, it is a very handy tool to have on hand.

*If someone ever wants to run a controlled experiment and download a virus and use A!VC and tell me if it works, be my guest. Please note "controlled"; I'm not telling you to go downloading viruses willy-nilly. I take no responsibility for such foolishness you might commit.

Visit Avast! Virus Cleaner Tool (Alwil) website for download

VirtuaWin: Virtually Awesome

VirtuaWin is a virtual desktop manager that lets you have multiple "desktops", helping to organize your life. For example, you can have one desktop for work and one for play, and instead of having a ton of windows open in one desktop, you can divide them up into two. It also helps you keep focused.

I'm not going to lie, other OSes (Linux, notably) have a strong emphasis on virtual desktops, so much so that they are often built in. But Windows users may not be familiar with the idea, and may therefore be less likely to try it. But I would suggest giving virtual desktops a try, even if they sound odd or perplexing, because they just might very well change how you use a computer.

The first nice thing about VirtuaWin is the layout of the desktops. By that, I mean, you can set it up to be "3 wide, 1 deep", or "2 deep, 4 wide", meaning you will have a "grid" of virtual desktops. I myself prefer to have just a line that I can switch between, left-right style, but if you so desire to have a 3x3 grid of nine desktops, that usabilty is there for you. You can also name your desktops, so you can distinguish what windows go to what (like my earlier example, "Work" and "Play" could be your desktop names).

You can also configure how to handle when windows pop up (like switching to the desktop where the window is, or bringing the window to the desktop you're on), and configure what options you want to be accessible in your tray menu. Speaking of options...

Options! On top of having different windows on different desktops, you can also use nice tray options like "Switch to" a specific window, "Move here" to move a window to the current desktop, and "Always show" which makes a window follow you wherever you go.

VirtuaWin also has the very, very nice tool of hotkeys, meaning that you can navigate through your grid of desktops just by pressing a key. You can set them to be almost whatever you want, and the actions you can use for the hotkey are vast.

VirtuaWin also allows you to use your mouse, like dragging the window to the right of the screen will move it to the next desktop on the grid. And of course there are too many options for me to list for this as well.

If VirtuaWin wasn't amazing enough, you can also download modules, which allow many different enhancements (like having a panoramic wallpaper spread across your virtual desktops, for example.)

VirtuaWin has a lot of options for such a small program. It's only around 200kb in size, runs around 6mb, and is completely portable, in case you wan't to take virtual desktops on the go. It's also open source, if anyone wants to take a peek at how it works.

The only slightly bad thing about VirtuaWin is that it is so configurable, it might scare those who are not used to virtual desktops. It might not be the best choice for someone who has never used a virtual desktop program before, but if you have and you want customibility, then VirtuaWin is for you.

Visit VirtuaWin website for download

Dropbox: Backup + Sync = Sigh of relief

Dropbox is a free program that backs up your data, and syncronizes it across your PCs. You have to sign up for an account, but that's a good thing, trust me (and I'll explain why later on). Since the two main functions are so different, I'll explain one, then the other.

Online backup: Dropbox works by creating a "My Dropbox" folder, inside which everything is watched for changes (new files, changed files, or removed files). When a change is sensed, Dropbox will automatically upload that changed file to your account on the Dropbox website. But also, on the converse, if you go onto your account on the Dropbox website and delete a file from there, it will be deleted on your computer too. So it's a kind of "Web Syncronization", as I call it.

File Syncronization: On top of a FREE 2GB of online backup storage, Dropbox also syncronizes files between whatever computers you have Dropbox set up on for your account. (Didn't I say having an account would be a good thing?) So that means that you can have Dropbox installed on as many computers as you want, as long as they are linked to the same account. If you create a file in Computer A, Dropbox will not only upload that file to your account, but it will also download that file to Computer B. It's basically like having all your files in multiple computers, so much so that you may forget that each computer actually has a different drive.

So those are the major functions. But what makes Dropbox also nice is theweb support. You can log onto your account online and view every file and folder in your My Dropbox folder. Not only that, you can alsodownload any file in your dropbox, anywhere, on any computer,right from the web. Maybe you're at a friend's house, and you want to show them a new game (freeware game, of course) you found, but you forgot your laptop. No problem. Log onto your Dropbox account, download the game, and amaze your friend.

On top of that, you can also share folders, such that you can "invite" people to be able to view a folder, so that you can collaborate with that person. Your fellow colaborators don't even have to have Dropbox installed, or even a Dropbox account. There's also the feature of the Public Folder, which is viewable by EVERYONE who knows the URL, but I don't exactly understand the point, just because Dropbox is not exactly a filehosting site....

The web interface is also nice because you can see "Recent events", which will show you a detailed list of what files you edited, created, deleted, moved, etc. You can also even "View Deleted files", which will show files that you have deleted from your computer, which you can then restore. That's right, let me say that again in bold, just to get my point across:

Dropbox not only backs up your files, it also keeps track of your deleted files.

If that is not a reason to have relief, I really don't know what is.

The last thing I want to mention is the web feature of "Photo galleries". You can create public photo albums by making folders in a special "Photos" folder in the root directory of your "My Dropbox". Each folder becaomes its own "Album" online, which you can then give the link to your friends, who can view your album online, without even having to download the photos (even though they can, if they want.)

The web interface is wonderful, but even without it, dropbox is a great program. Being able to sync your files across computers and have them backed up online is stupendous. (You may be thinking "Yes, but you have to go on the web interface to access your files." Not so. If your computer crashes, install Dropbox on your new working machine, link it to your account, and all your files will be downloaded, web-interfaceless.)

Dropbox also has a few things I'd like to mention:

-"Binary diff": Instead of uploading the entire file every time it changes (which could be very annoying if you're editing something large), Dropbox tries to upload only the "binary difference", or the new data, making it very efficient.

-Upload/Download rate: If you feel Dropbox is stealing your bandwidth, you can set it yourself.

-Tray notifications: If files are edited on one computer, Dropbox will popup a tray icon on all other computers stating "[This File] has been updated to the newest version."

-Speeeeeedy: I had two computers sitting right next to each other, one with Dropbox, the other on the Dropbox website. I uploaded a file, and the Dropbox computer pretty much instantly started downloading the file.

-Cross platform: If Dropbox wasn't amazing enough, it's available on Windows, Mac, AND Linux. And, of course, you can have them all linked to the same account.

There are two things I have to say negatively about Dropbox, the first is having to place files in that folder for them to sync. But there is an easy workaround discussed at My Digital Life and many other places that tells how to get around that.

The second not-so-amazing thing is the resources it requires. Obviously, monitoring up to 2gigs of data is quite the hefty task, and Dropbox shows it. When it runs Idly, it uses aroun 60-70mb of RAM, which is definitely on the heavier side, for a program that runs "in the background". When it's uploading massive amounts of data (I mean gigs worth), it ran at (I believe) 110mb of RAM, consuming most of the CPU as well. So the initial setup might be a little sticky, but once you get it set up and if your comptuer can handle it, you'll love the feeling of knowing your files are safe, and able to be downloaded anywhere, anytime.

If you are thinking of making a Dropbox account, please use this link, because if you do, I get 250MB more space! Although that doesn't help FreewareWire directly, it does help it's founder, and that's a way of saying "Thankyou for showing me this great program!"

Visit Dropbox website for download

FileZilla 3.7.3 (Awesome free FTP client)

FileZilla is an open-source success story. It's an FTP client that's attractive, reliable, regularly updated and a very good example of it's type. If you're looking for a file transfer solution, it should be the first program you check out.

In fact, FileZilla isn't just limited to FTP - it also handles FTPS and SFTP for secure transfers of multiple files on multiple servers. The interface gives you a quick outlook of all your transfers, sites and disks and makes it easy to drag and transfer. The QuickConnect button - which lets you access your favorite server in seconds - is a great feature.
FileZilla is fairly fast, and can resume downloads and handle very big transfers, higher than 4GB. You can set both local and remote filters for things like images, explorer files or CVS and SVN directories or even create your own. FileZilla also includes a tool to compare directories in terms of file size or modification time.
The application can guide you when setting up your network and lets you set speed limits in case you don't want to overload your bandwidth. One thing really missing from FileZilla though is a scheduler to automatically set transfer times.

Download

With the odds stacked high in its favor, FileZilla is a truly excellent open source FTP client.

Recent changes

• Ctrl+Shift+O can be used to toggle between modification time and filesize based directory comparison
• It is now possible to use custom passwords if using "anonymous" as user name
• After un-hiding toolbar, update toolbar button states
• Fix TLS compatibility issues with TLS 1.2 servers
• MSW: Unset hidden attribute on FileZilla's settings files
• Building FileZilla from source now requires wxWidgets 2.8.12 or higher

Review last updated: 27/06/12

Pros 

• Fast and efficient
• Handles large transfers
• Secure
• Remote file search
• Filters

Cons 

• Can't schedule transfers

Adobe Photoshop CS2 9.0.1 (The heavyweight of graphic editors)

Adobe Photoshop CS2 is the standard software for digital image processing, photo editing and multimedia design. It’s used by professionals and amateurs alike, and includes all the tools you need to edit, retouch, optimize and fix images, as well as create all sorts of digital pieces of art.

Just bear in mind that Adobe Photoshop CS2 is an older version of the app. If you want the latest Photoshop, click here.

Though complex at first, Adobe Photoshop CS2 is almost limitless once you get to grips with it. Features like layers, filters, the new tool to manage vanishing points, the red eye corrector and the integrated 

Download

Adobe ImageReady (to produce Web-optimized images) makes any professional project much easier and quicker. Less experienced users will have to switch to simpler photo editors or make use of Adobe Photoshop’s extensive documentation.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 is not really a revolutionary version, but it does include some interesting new characteristics, the most outstanding one being a new interface design that improves the program’s flexibility and enables you to create your own custom working space.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 is the industry’s standard in professional photo editing and retouching.

Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business 14.0.6029.1000

Microsoft no longer offers a trial version of Office 2010. You can download the Office 2013 trial or buy a Microsoft Office 2010 product key from a local retailer and use it with the download offered here.

Microsoft has launched the final version of the long-awaited Microsoft Office 2010.

 

 

 

A solid final version

I tested both the Technical Preview and the Beta version released months ago, and happily I've found a bunch of new features and improvements in the final version. For starters, the Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business pack includes five apps, namely Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and One Note. If you need to test more Office apps, you can try Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus instead.

Leaving changes aside, the truth is that Microsoft Office 2010 has pretty much the same features we already saw in the Technical Preview. The context menu in Word, for example, has been greatly improved and lets you see changes in real time as you browse through the different options. You can now add videos to your PowerPoint presentations, remove redundant messages from conversations in Outlook and insert small color charts inside cells in Excel spreadsheets. There are also tools to translate text, take and use screenshots, and apply special effects to the images you use in your documents. What's more, Microsoft Office 2010 now lets you save your documents on SkyDrive and share them online in just two clicks.

Regarding performance, Microsoft Office 2010 seems to be as fast and light on system resources as the Technical Preview. There's a significant improvement in the time the suite apps take to launch, and how they behave when working on your documents.

Download

A few changes to keep in mind

As regards appearance, all the Microsoft Office 2010 apps have been slightly modified. They still keep the "ribbon" interface – in a much clearer, almost minimalist style – but the Office button has been renamed to "File" and now shows a different pane. Not only does it include direct access to all document-related tasks, but also shows detailed information about the document you're currently working on. 

Smooth and sleek

In all, Microsoft Office 2010 is an excellent productivity suite with great new features that make it easier and more comfortable to use, and also turn it into an even more professional solution for daily work tasks.

 

Easy to use and highly useful

Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business lets you fully test the new, long-awaited version of the world's most popular productivity suite.

 

Microsoft Office 2010 supports the following formats

DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, MDB, ACCDB, PUB, RTF, TXT, HTM, JPG, PNG, TIF, EMF, WMF, XML, WRI, ODT, ODP, ODS, WMV, AVI, PDF

   

Notes

Microsoft no longer offers a trial version of Office 2010. You can download the Office 2013 trial or buy a Microsoft Office 2010 product key from a local retailer and use it with the download offered here.

VLC media player 2.1.2

If you want to play video or music files in just about any format, VLC media player is probably your answer.

 

Features

Version 2 ("Twoflower") brings a new interface, faster decoding, support for more formats and the ability to play HD and BluRay. It still remains however the most stable, flexible and lightweight audio and video player around today. While other media players will play unusual formats after downloading a codec, or simply refuse to play things,

VLC media player handles tons of formats, from MPEG to FLV and RMBV files. Version 2 has seen some important additions too such as support for 10 bit codes plus multi-threaded decoding for H.264, MPEG-4/Xvid and WebM.

Also useful is the fact that you can use VLC media player to preview files you are downloading since it plays incomplete parts of video files. VLC media player is not just for video playback however. It also offers superb integration with video channel streaming services such as Channels.com giving you access to channels such as ESPN, Reuters and National Geographic. Just right-click or CMD-click on the playlist, select Services Discovery and Channels.com.

Channels.com will then appear in your VLC media player playlist. Click on it to reveal the the different categories of channels available. Click on the category you want and a drop down list of all available channels appears in VLC media player. Just click on the channel you want to watch and streaming should begin almost immediately.

 Download

Usability

VLC media player also has great hotkey support and if you take the time to learn the shortcuts so it can be controlled without touching your mouse. If you're watching DVDs or video files through it, this is not an issue. For music, it plays more or less any file and features an equalizer and playlist creation. VLC media player isn't as intuitive as iTunes as a media manager, but it's a much more flexible player in terms of file formats. You can even use VLC to convert your files, and on top of all the formats and physical media it will play, many streaming protocols and TV capture cards are supported.

VLC media player makes it easy to add subtitles to your video files too - just add the SRT file to the folder where your video is kept, and it will automatically play with subtitles.

Finally, the interface in VLC media player has been somewhat improved in version 2 although it remains strictly functional. However, you can download skins to completely change VLC media player's appearance. The preferences menu is comprehensive without being overwhelming, and there is extensive documentation online. 

Conclusion

VLC Media Player is quite simply the best multimedia application for Windows and Mac. It plays just about anything, hassle free - what more could you need?

What's new

Rework and fixes of the Mac OS X interface

Fix Pulseaudio initial synchronization

Fix MKV, SWF, AIFF and subtitles demuxer crashes

Translations updates and new Welsh translation

DVB-S delivery system detection

Fix audio and video track selection through libVLC

Fix system sleep issue on Mac OS X 10.5

VLC media player supports the following formats

MKV, WMV, MPEG, MP4, MOV, AVI, DIVX, XVID, FLV, FLAC, WAV, REAL, VOB plus many more

Windows Live Movie Maker 16.4.3505.912

Windows Live Movie Maker is essentially a simple, easy-to-use video editor that helps you put together photos, videos, music and special effects to create an eye-catching presentation in a few easy steps.

Features

Being part of the Windows Live Essentials suite, Windows Live Movie Maker has to be installed through the Essentials package installer. Also, bear in mind that this version only works in Windows Vista and Windows7.

Usability

Windows Live Movie Maker is dead easy to use. All you have to do is import the photos and videos you want to use, select the background music and add some titles and end credits if you want. The program displays extra buttons on the title bar that gives you access to configuration settings for video, music and text respectively. As regards effects, you also have plenty to choose from: transition effects, animations, zoom and pan, and also visual effects that will spice up your images.

 Download

Quality

When your video is finished, you can save it in different formats and sizes, depending on where you plan to use it on: computer, high-definition TV screen, mobile device, instant messaging client, etc. Windows Live Movie Maker also includes the option to upload it directly to YouTube, Facebook, SkyDrive and Flickr. The only drawback is that Windows Live Movie Maker saves videos to one single format: WMV.

Conclusion

With Windows Live Movie Maker you'll be able to create nice compositions with your favorite photos and videos, and share them with anyone.