Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #548 issued June 4, 2010

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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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Neva v1.00 – WinXP/Vista/Win7
Neva is a futuristic hybrid between an action platformer and an action puzzler. It features 3 levels of difficulty, 5 characters, 6 enemies, superb 2D graphics, challenging gameplay, interactive Helpfile, bilingual (English & Turkish), and more. This is a somewhat unusual concept game where, at the completion a platforming stage (in which you jump, fly, fight and run), you go to the puzzle segment where you must hit the correct key at the correct time. Graphics are excellent, though somewhat unusual (as is the entire game!), and the gameplay experience is addictive. Controls are relatively simple, the arrow keys for movement plus the Z, X, C and V keys for everything else. There is also an Amiga-like HUD. To get the game started, you use the Z key to activate the menus (like hitting the Enter key in most other games). We should also mention that while it has an interactive Helpfile (almost a tutorial), where it looks like you should use the H key it really means the X key (poor choice of font). Don't expect to progress through this game quickly, it takes a while to learn properly and it is worthwhile checking out the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiC77GrJtks, which shows the first 10 minutes of the game. Most of the cutscenes can be skipped by repeatedly pressing the Z key. Impressive from all viewpoints, Neva has a "back to the future" feel about it with futuristic graphics and retro gameplay. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 184MB download from: WinXP General Games

MiniTool Partition Recovery v5.0 – WinXP/Vista/Win7
MiniTool Partition Recovery is a partition recovery tool to recover lost & deleted partitions from IDE, SATA, SCSI & removable disks. It supports all major file formats (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS & NTFS5), has a Wizard interface, can scan selected parts of a disk or the entire disk, performs either quick or full scans, and more. Unfortunately, CFS was unable to review this program. The author says: "The partition recovery function can retrieve the lost partitions quickly & easily. MiniTool Partition Recovery [is] a must-have partition recovery software and free for home users." The author also says that it is free for private, noncommercial, home computer use only – use in organizations or for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 4.95MB download from: WinXP General Programs

Songr v1.8.6 – WinXP/Vista/Win7
Songr is a multi-engine MP3 search tool. It features results from up to 16 MP3 search engines, it grays out low bitrate & preview-only MP3s, has intelligent sorting of results, it downloads or plays the selected title, and more. If you like to grab MP3 songs from the Internet, then Songr is a tool you may find useful. Type in an artist's name, or the name of a song, and it will search all 16 MP3 search engines and give you the results. You can then listen to any selection using your default multimedia player, listen to a preview, or download your selection. It also links to YouTube, and will open YouTube pages in your Web browser, but its claim to be able to download YouTube videos, or extract audio from them, is not correct at the time of this review (we believe that YouTube regularly changes the way it works to prevent this from happening). Songr can also take a small portion of the lyrics of a song and, in most cases, offer you a selection of songs that use those lyrics. We were somewhat disappointed in Songr because during installation it did not ask us where we wanted it installed. This is extremely bad manners as many users, ourselves included, make a point of not installing any programs in the C:\ drive. While we are unsure of the legality of some MP3 tracks available through the search engines used by Songr, we urge caution before simply downloading any track you want without considering its legality. That disclaimer aside, Songr is an easy way to find a selection of great MP3 music tracks. We liked! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 4.22MB download from: WinXP Internet Related

Photo Magician v1.0.1.1 – WinXP/Vista/Win7
Photo Magician is a batch image/photo converter that resizes & converts images to different formats. It supports the conversion to 5 popular image formats (BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG & TIF), it also inputs other formats (DDS, PCX, PSD, TGA, WBMP, WMF & RAW), it resizes images based on either pixel size or percentage, and more. This is a relatively fast batch conversion tool for images. Simple to use, you just aim it at a folder that contains the images you want converted, set the output folder (always best not to overwrite the originals), decide if you want it to also convert images in any sub-folders, and click on the "Process Images" button at the bottom. We were a little disappointed in how Photo Magician handled converting images to the TIF format as we found the resultant image a little grainy, but the rest were well converted. We were most impressed that it could handle RAW images (we converted some using the Canon RAW format but apparently it works on all RAW images) and also the PSD format. Photo Magician is a reasonably good batch converter for your images – specially for your photos. Worth checking out! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 1.48MB download from: WinXP Graphic Programs

Registry Life v1.20 – WinXP/Vista/Win7
Registry Life is a tool that improves System performance by fixing errors, defragmenting, and compressing the Registry. It features an automatic backup of the Registry (with restore option), selectable Registry sections for cleanup, an editable ignore list, and more. This is an excellent Registry scanner that works in two parts – a logical structure scanner that can clean up errors by removing invalid entries, and a physical structure tool that defragments the Registry and then compresses it. This two-part approach is the ideal way of improving System performance as it covers both major areas of Registry problems and the speed in which Windows can access this vital component. Best of all, it saves a snapshot of what it does so that, if you are not happy with the result, you can reverse it. At the completion of the defragmentation stage, it automatically reboots Windows. Did Registry Life find all the errors in our Registry? Probably not, but it certainly found a significant number and, combined with the defragmentation and compression tool, we consider it is a "must have" for all Windows users. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 3.74MB download from: WinXP Windows Enhancements

Splash Lite v1.4.2 – WinXP/Vista/Win7
Splash Lite is a multimedia player that plays High Definition (HD) movies, camcorder clips, digital television (DVB-T) & music. It supports most popular multimedia formats, includes a playlist, offers1080i to 1080p conversion, has an EcoMode (for laptops), and more. The supported video formats are MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, DivX (with DivX codec installed), AVI, M2T, M2TS, MOV, MP4, MPG, MTS, TS and MKV. Supported audio formats are AC-3, MPEG Layer I/II, AAC LC, HE-AAC and LPCM. It also plays VOB DVD video files, but it is not a "real" DVD player as it does not offer interactive menus, continuous play, etc. Splash Lite is a video player with some good, and some not-so-good features. It looks fabulous, and renders video clips in high quality, but it does not play FLV, SWF or, more importantly, WMV videos formats. It also did not play some of our AVI videos, though it did play others. Most strange. On the videos it did play, the picture quality was superb, as was the quality of the MP3 audio. However, it is the lack of support for some popular video formats, and that it would not play some of our AVI files, that caused us most concern. We could not test the TV support but assume it should work OK. You will need a TV capture card to use Splash Lite to watch TV. Overall we had mixed feelings about Splash Lite. Potentially, it is one of the best video players we have seen, but the current version left us wanting more. We are eagerly looking forward to version 2.0! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 9.68MB download from: WinXP Multimedia Programs

Alert Calendar v1.1 – Win98/ME/WinXP/Vista/Win7
Alert Calendar is a calendar with a blinking alert to advise you that an event has been scheduled for that day. It features a choice of once-only or monthly events, it is an easy to read monthly calendar, it can optionally start with Windows, Helpfile, and more. This is a neat little calendar with the provision to add once-only and/or monthly alerts. On the date of the event, the program's tray icon will blink so you know that there was an event scheduled that day. The blinking is extremely annoying after a short period, but it can be turned off from within the main window. However, Alert Calendar would have carried out its function by then, which is what is important. If you use it at an event reminder you will have to have it load automatically with Windows, but if you are just looking for a calendar, then you could place an icon on the desktop to launch the program. Alert Calendar requires no installation so is easy to remove should you decide it was not for you. We found Alert Calendar to be a useful little tool, though were disappointed that there wasn't more control over when an event could be scheduled – there is no provision for weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, annual, etc events – just a once only-event or a repeated monthly event. This limits its value. Whether you are looking for just a desktop calendar, or if you require the alert facility, Alert Calendar could be exactly what you want. Check it out now! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 794kB download from: Win98 Desktop Utilities

2 Ball Pool v1.0 – WinXP/Vista/Win7
2 Ball Pool is an unusual pool-based table game where you score points by hitting the black ball with the blue ball. It features excellent animated graphics, autoplay mode, time-based gameplay, and more. This is a simple little game where the idea is not to sink balls but to see how many times you can hit the black ball with the blue ball, within the specified time, using the white cue ball. It isn't always easy to get a very high score but it is quite challenging and the physics in the game is reasonably good. The autoplay is, at best, pathetic and is, in our opinion, a waste of time. 2 Ball Pool is advertiser supported but it seems to be relatively benign – it does draw ads from the Internet but we could detect no suspicious activity. If your favorite game is pool, and you enjoy variations, give 2 Ball Pool a try. Could be a fun little game for you. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 2.52MB download from: WinXP General Games
UPDATE
HDClone (Free Edition) – a tool for moving contents of entire hard disk drives onto bigger ones – has been updated to version 3.9.2 with a new, larger download size of 10.8MB. The author has advised that changes in this version include: adding 4k alignment for modern drives, extending EXT4 volumes, and fixing compatibility bugs with Vista and Windows 7. Get this latest version from: Win95 General Programs
COMMENTS
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