Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #459 issued January 11, 2008

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This electronic newsletter is registered – ISSN 1441-6840
Welcome to the CFS Weekly Newsletter.
The programs listed here are completely free for non-commercial use, even though some may be shareware or commercial products. None are time-limited and all are fully functional. If you know any that aren't exactly as specified, please let us know and they will be removed immediately.
If the link below does not work (does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid. Please use the CFS Site Search facility (above) to locate the program.
COMPLETELY FREE SOFTWARE

Return to Sector 9 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Return to Sector 9 is a cool space shooter with a professional look 'n feel. It features 9 game modes, 15 ships to pilot, plenty of weaponry, plenty of aliens, Bosses, special weapons, powerups, windowed & fullscreen modes, original background music, online high scores, and more. This is a sensational space shooter where you unlock features to enhance the game, making it more playable. In this shooter, your ship fires automatically and you control its movement. The arrow keys provide basic movement and the Z and X keys provide rotation. The Spacebar activates the special weapon (if available) which varies from ship to ship. Return to Sector 9 is a sequel to "Ambush in Sector 9" but is far superior to that earlier effort. Mode 2 of this game is, in effect, a remake of Ambush (albeit with improved everything) so there is no reason to get the first episode. Return to Sector 9 offers a level of gameplay rarely seen in free games – and many commercial games could do well to try and emulate this shooter. The background images are excellent, the animated graphics are excellent, the background music is excellent, the sound effects are excellent – in fact, the whole game is excellent! If you enjoy a challenging space shooter then Return to Sector 9 should be near the top of your list. We loved! Access this 10.9MB download from: Win95 General Games

Video to iPod Converter v2.4.3.1 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Video to iPod Converter is a tool that converts videos to MP4. It can input most common video formats (AVI, MPG, MPE, WMV, ASF, MOV, QT, 3GP, 3G2, FLV & SWF), it offers various output presets (suitable for iPod, Sony PSP & mobile phones), it can trim video files (removes start and/or end segments), it is simple to use, and more. This is a neat utility for anyone wishing to convert an existing video to MP4 so it can be shown on iPods and other mobile devices. It supports a huge range of popular video formats (including from YouTube) and it converts them into the MP4 format with three different presets depending on where you want them displayed. Video to iPod Converter can also trim a video file prior to converting it, allowing you to remove a segment at the start of the video and/or a segment at the end of the video (no limit on the size of either segment). We were most impressed with Video to iPod Converter. It converts quickly and without hassle. A "must have" for anyone with a mobile device that displays MP4 video. Access this 6.87MB download from: Win95 Multimedia Programs

BuibuiPhoto v1.34 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
BuibuiPhoto is an image editor & manager. It features batch crop/resize/rename/edit images, it can correct red-eye, creates & publishes photo galleries to the Web or to CD, it offers a choice of 9 photo gallery border styles, an optional portable version (can be run from an USB flash drive), optional Windows Explorer integration (adds to the right-click shell menu), and more. This is an awesome graphics editor and picture manager. It has an excellent photo gallery tool with a choice of 9 borders (including no border) and you can change the background color, the frame color and the text color. The finished Webpage is excellent – one of the best we have ever seen. Thumbnails of the images are displayed on the screen and, if you click on a thumbnail (up to 120x120), the associated image (up to 670x670) appears in the middle of the screen with the thumbnails, partially grayed out, in the background. There is even a link at the bottom the screen to download the original images, all neatly packaged into one ZIP file. Cool! Alas, there was a problem. Clicking on the thumbnails on our first test brought up the correct image for the first 24 thumbnails (out of a total of 40) but, clicking on the 25th thumbnail, brought up the image for thumbnail number 28. Likewise, 26 for 29, 27 for 30, etc, and then it missed thumbnail number 35 and continued on to image number 40 (which was actually thumbnail number 36). Thumbnails 37 to 40 (inclusive) did not present an image when clicked. But wait, there's more. The Webpage created by BuibuiPhoto has an arrow so you can scroll through the images one at a time – and that scroll arrow catches all images, in their correct order! Are you confused? We were. Another test, this time with 22 images, brought forward a similar result – this time only one of the images went missing. A third test (with 97 photographs) worked flawlessly. We hope the author can quickly correct this error so that the main images can always be displayed correctly when the appropriate thumbnail is clicked. Once this error is corrected we can wholeheartedly endorse this as one of the best programs of its type. Until then, it has a cloud of error over it (we should mention that it is quite easy to manually amend the HTML source code to fix the problem). In all other aspects, BuibuiPhoto is an awesome tool! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 2.17MB download (1.80MB for portable version) from: Win98 Graphic Programs

Firefox Mass Extensions Manager v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Firefox Mass Extensions Manager installs and mangers multiple Firefox extensions. It allows you to select & install multiple extensions at once, search extensions, list all available extensions, backup & restore installed extensions, lists all installed extensions, uninstall multiple extensions, displays recommended extensions from every category, view the top 10 extensions from every category, and more. One of the best features of the Firefox Web browser is the ability to install thousands of free extensions. Firefox says that the extensions are "small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox, from a simple toolbar button to a completely new feature". As the name indicates, Firefox Mass Extensions Manager allows you to manage those extensions from your desktop via an additional entry on the Tools menu. It allows you to manage existing extensions, and to quickly find new extensions to add. A tool to manage extensions is a great assistance, specially when there are potentially so many to add. Unfortunately, we found two problems with Firefox Mass Extensions Manager. The first is that if you use the "Update Categories" button to update the "All extensions" tab, you lose all the old information and it just displays the update. We could find no way of reverting back to a display of all extensions short of uninstalling and re-installing this extension (Firefox Mass Extensions Manager is, itself, an extension). We were not amused. Another problem we found was with the backup – carrying out a backup resulted in a 0 length file that contained no information. You could not restore from that file! Those two glitches aside, Firefox Mass Extensions Manager really is a valuable tool and one that Firefox users should grab. Because we could not find a link to the XPI file on the author's site, we have linked directly to the extension from CFS – you will need to "Open" with Firefox for it to be installed. Even with the problems, we will keep this extension on our computer. We liked! Note: this tool requires that Firefox is installed on your computer. Get this 156kB download from: Win95 Internet Related

Jungle Frenzy v2.0 – WinXP/Vista
Jungle Frenzy is a fun, action puzzle, in a similar style to Tetris but without the falling blocks. It features 9 levels, 3 modes of play (Arcade, Lazy & Strategic), timed gameplay, good animated graphics, and more. This is a strange variation on the old Tetris concept. In this game, you have variously weighted balls that must be placed into containers, with each container requiring a different weight. You must match up the weights so the total weight is exactly what is required. While it only requires simple addition, you must fill three containers at the same time with their required weight while keeping within the time constraints – and that isn't always easy! If you overload a container you lose a life. There are small differences between each of the three modes but we found Arcade mode to be the best overall. Jungle Frenzy is a fun game that, if it does nothing else, will help improve your addition skills. We liked. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 5.16MB download from: WinXP General Games

Q10 v1.2.21 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Q10 is a fullscreen text editor. It features a built-in spell checker, live text statistics (updated as you type), customizable look & paragraph format, built-in timer alarm, built-in note taker, auto-correction, quick text, typing sound effects, autosave, inserts time-stamp, and more. This is an unusual text editor that presents, when first opened, as a black screen and a cursor. Along the bottom of the screen is the info bar which displays all the statistics you desire in real-time. It isn't until you press the F1 key to get the Help Card that you find out that Q10 is controlled by shortcuts – Ctrl-C for copy, Ctrl-V for paste, Ctrl-R for replace, etc. There is no menu system, and there are few right-click context menu items. Once you have accepted the lack of menus and toolbars, Q10 proves to be an exceptional text editor that can do everything a "normal" text editor can do except print. Why there is no print function, we do not know but, as it saves its documents in normal ASCII text, documents created with Q10 can be printed through other programs (like WordPad). The spell checker is a little weak and cannot recognize truncated words, like "doesn't" instead of "do not", but these can be added to the dictionary over time. In most other aspects this is an exceptionally powerful text editor that even offers you typing sounds – that typewriter clacking sound so typical of old manual typewriters. We were curious as to what the Ctrl-M key combo does – it doesn't seem to do anything but it does produce an odd sound – almost like the shutter of a camera. Most strange. While not everybody loves fullscreen text editors, they are practical because they offer minimal distractions – great if you are trying to beat a deadline for that 50,000 word thesis. We loved! Note: there is an optional "portable" version (suitable for USB flash drives). Access this 1.01MB download from: Win95 Text Programs

BonCommander v1.0 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
BonCommander is a small Norton Commander-style twin pane file manager. It features fast navigation (using keyboard & hot-keys), has a built-in FTP client, a built-in text file viewer, it is fully portable, it has multi-threading support (performs multiple disk/FTP transfer operations), and more. This is an easy-to-use replacement for the Windows Explorer file manager. It offers an array of shortcut keys to carry out many common file management tasks that are cumbersome in Explorer. Undoubtedly one of the major attractions of BonCommander is that it is small, and portable. You can load it onto a USB flash drive – even from a floppy disk (does anyone know what they are nowadays?). If you are looking for a twin pane file manager, and want something small, fast and portable, then check out BonCommander. It is excellent. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 350kB download from: Win98 Windows Enhancements

Spheres of Chaos – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Spheres of Chaos is a psychedelic space shooter in the same style as Asteroids. It features 5 levels of difficulty (from Very Easy to Silly), variable game speed, highly customizable, lots of powerups, an intense visual & audible experience, and more. This is a game that must be experienced. The player is assaulted with a light and sound display that will rock the senses. While it doesn't have any background music, the continual sound effects, which vary from second to second, creates its own musical mayhem which enhances the visual mayhem on the screen. This is a highly customizable game and you can change virtually every element that you like – increasing or decreasing the audible and visual effects, changing the background, and controlling the "enemy" spheres (asteroids?) as they advance towards you. Hit a sphere and it explodes into a colorful light show, breaking up into smaller spheres which are just as deadly to you. There are lots of powerups too, with everything from extra lives to extra ammunition. Some of these powerups erupt from an exploded sphere, others pass like ships in the night. Spheres of Chaos is not a game you could get quickly bored with – the high level of customization would ensure that there is always a game you haven't played, a visual experience you haven't seen, an audible cacophony you haven't yet heard. However, ultimately it is all about the game, and Spheres of Chaos is an extraordinary game in all aspects. One of the best Asteroid clones we have seen, Spheres of Chaos is a "must have" for anyone who enjoys a great shooter. We loved! Access this 304kB download from: Win95 General Games
COMMENTS
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