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The Completely Free E-mail Update #30
Issued Feb 17, 1998
Welcome to the thirtieth edition of the 'Completely Free Software E-mail Update'.
The programs listed are completely free for non-commercial use, even though some may be shareware or commercial products. None are time-limited and all are fully functionable. If you know any that aren't exactly as specified, please let us know and they will be removed immediately.
COMPLETELY FREE PROGRAMS
Ulead GIF Animator LE – W95
If there was ever a 'lite' version of a program which made us want to race out and get the full version it is Ulead's GIF Animator LE (Lite Edition). It really is such a terrific GIF animator that we became hungry for the full version!. Animate GIF files using the built-in transitions wizard, create animated text GIFs straight from the program without having to create images in a paint program and import them, or just import your own images and stitch them together into an animation with this fabulous program. GIF Animator LE gives an amazing amount of power into the user's hands with one very important feature – it is surprisingly simple to use. Individual images in an animation (cels) can have transparent backgrounds and/or be interlaced right there on the cutting room floor, you can easily alter the delay of individual cels, change their order, alter the local color palette, have up to 200 levels of undo, etc. Of course, some of the best features, like the ability to turn AVI files into GIF animations, etc, are not available in the lite version. You also have to put up with the odd nag to get the full version, but even those nag screens do not detract sufficiently from this great animator to lessen its usability. If you run a website and only download one program in 1998 it should be Ulead's GIF Animator LE! Go grab this 1.73MB download from: W95 Internet Related
NVR BorderMania – W95
You can create Web buttons, borders, etc with this fabulous set of Adobe Photoshop, JASC Paint Shop Pro and Corel Photo-Paint plug-in filters. Actually, they are suitable for other 'paint' programs which support these type of plug-in filters, and that includes Micrografx Webtricity (using Picture Publisher 7) which we also use. Create 14 different and sensational buttons and image borders which cover most of the popular styles, including ellipse (oval), framed, etc. All the plug-in filters have adjustments for border thickness, etc so you can really create a masterpiece with them. Not really just an Internet Related download (though its main use is with the Internet), you can get this 100kB download from: W95 Internet Related
QuicPics Screen Saver – W95
Ever wanted to turn those cute holiday snaps of Auntie Dottie getting dumped in the surf (the beauty of a motorized camera!) into a snazzy screen saver? If so, QuicPics Screen Saver is for you. Place the SCR file from the download in the Windows\System directory and then access the screen saver from the normal Display icon in the Control Panel and be offered quite a range of options. The screen saver will use all the pictures (BMP, JPG and GIF only) in a selected directory, and it will optionally recurse any sub-directories as well. The pictures will either loop or be displayed randomly and you can also get the background color to change randomly with each piccy. The display time of the images can be set, and you can even have a counter in the bottom left hand corner of the screen telling you how much longer that image will display for. Neat, sheikh and petite... Access this tiny 51kB download from: W95 Windows Extras
Net Lightening – W95
OK, OK, we know, 'lightening' doesn't have that extra 'e' in it but this is what the author has called it. Net Lightening is a conglomerate of Win95 Registry fixes which sort out things such as the MaxMTU setting, but which also looks at NDI cache, RWIN and TTL. Don't know what they all mean? You're not on your own! However the author has indicated which figures he thinks you should go for (NDI is '8' – but you have to search through the Help file to find it). When you switch on the program the current settings are highlighted so you have to amend it yourself (all but the NDI section has a 'recommended' setting marked). The Help file is sufficient, though the spelling is on par with the program's name, and you can cautiously work your way through it. Net Lightening will also allow you to set up quick links to common sites by just typing a special name or code you have selected for it. Because it changes Registry settings, it is recommended that you use the built-in Registry backup facility so you can undo any changes the program makes. As far as we're concerned, this is an essential download as we are always looking for ways to improve Win95, and these tweaks seem to work. Access this 1.66MB download from: W95 Internet Related
Ball Master – W95
Ball Master is a great strategy game where you have to match up a preset number of balls of the same color (default is five) in a straight line so they will disappear. Every time you move a colored ball there are more balls added to the grid (default three) and the idea is to see how many balls you can remove before the grid is filled with balls. Easy? Of course, except that the more balls on the screen the harder it becomes to line up balls of the same color. We started playing this game and all work stopped. It may never resume! If there's no e-mail update next week then blame Ball Master. Go get this fun time waster, with its 1.08MB download, from: W95 General Games
Free Memory Tool – W95
If you aren't running more than 64MB of RAM on your computer you will find that Windows grabs all your physical memory and leaves any programs you use to get the slower virtual memory (using the swapfile on your hard disk). Free Memory Tool allows you to clear a portion of that physical memory (RAM) by taking it back from Windows. Now you can reclaim some of your 'lost' RAM and use it to speed up your programs, making Windows use the swapfile for itself. Use it just prior to loading a large program (like Netscape) or Windows will grab it back. There is no substitute for bulk RAM but this is the best alternative we've seen. Access this 155kB download from: W95 Windows Extras
Start Point – W95
Start Point is a database of over 300 websites with an easy-to-use interface which is particularly suitable for people new to the Internet. The author states that it was beta-tested only by users over 50 years of age which is probably supposed to indicate that it is technologically simple to use (which is a bit of an insult to those over 50 who are technologically adept!). Still Start Point is a good way to start learning how to use the Internet with a simple click-and-go philosophy to surfing. Presented in 30 categories – from Art to TV – you can select exactly where you want to go through the dropdown dialog boxes, double click on a site, and away you go. We felt some of the choices were a little lacking. For example, under the subject 'Searches' there were only three search engines listed – AltaVista, Excite and Yahoo. Not a great selection. There is provision for entering your own favorites so you can also create a database of where you like to go, but this just duplicates what the major browsers already offer. If Start Point is for you (or you have a friend who's just getting on to the Net), then access this 287kB download from: W95 Internet Related
Space King – W95
This is an economic intergalactic strategy game where the object is to become a financial wheeler and dealer in outer space. You will have the chance to battle the likes of Lenny the Loan Shark in a card game and do all sorts of other cool stuff while enjoying the program's music and sound effects. Yawn. We suggest you reduce your screen to 640x480 pixels with 256 colors otherwise you won't even be able to read the information on the screen (whoever thought of the dark red text on a black background?). Still, the animations and graphics are good and if you are too spaced out to be a real Wall Street flyer then grab this game. Access this 1.75MB download from: W95 General Games
TempFree – W95
The Temp directory is used by Windows and many other programs as a temporary storage of files – but many programs don't clean up their mess after they've finished with this directory. This is specially the case when you don't allow Win95 to boot down properly and just turn the computer off when you've finished. TempFree is one of those handy little utilities which you run occasionally – even once per day – which will clean that Temp directory for you. If you are wondering if you need TempFree, go to C:\Windows\Temp with Explorer and see how many files are there. We have seen Temp directories with well over 50MB of temporary files clogging up the hard drive. Not all can be deleted because some are in use by Windows, but the rest can be safely deleted. Let TempFree take the hard work out of cleaning your Win95 system. Access this 160kB download from: W95 Desktop Utilities
UPDATES
Our favorite zipping and unzipping tool, PowerZip, has just been upgraded to version 3.5. If you are looking for an archiving tool then PowerZip is the best we've seen. Launch a file directly from the zipped file, use ARJ, unzip directly into a special temporary directory, etc. This version has introduced some subtle but valuable extras.The main one is that you don't have to highlight all the files in an archive to unzip them. Another is that the download is now smaller (now only 1.29MB from about 1.8MB). PowerZip is a fabulous tool and is our preferred unzipper (and we do a lot of unzipping!). It just got better. Access it from: W95 General Programs
Linkman, the excellent URL bookmark manager has been upgraded to version 2.51 to sort out a couple of annoying bugs in the previous version. If you don't already have 2.51, or you haven't yet tried that great bookmark manager, get it from: W95 Internet Related
We have also been advised that Time Stamp is now up to version 1.30e. This excellent program helps you keep track of time for billing and other purposes. Access it from: W95 Desktop Utilities
SwapMon, which monitors the actual memory used by Win95, has been upgraded to version 1.40. SwapMon pointed out to us that we use up to 73MB of RAM on our test computer (which explains why we spend all day waiting for our hard drive to finish working so we can start!!!). Access this fabulous utility from: W95 Desktop Utilities
COMMENTS
We have been advised that we made a mistake in last week's e-mail update when we said that IE4's bookmarks were only available in alphabetical order. This was the case up to version 4.x but can now be ordered any way you like. We apologize to Microsoft, and to any reader of this e-mail update who was mislead by our comments.
We have been advised that FooBar, the Win95 utility set and button bar launcher featured on last week's e-mail update, is nearing the end of its beta testing and will then be released as a shareware program. When that happens we must remove it from the CFS site so we suggest that if you didn't go grab yourself a FooBar last week, do so now before it's gone. Even as a beta it's a terrific program. Access this 0.99MB download from: W95 Desktop Utilities
We'd like to thank the regular visitors to the CFS site who have told us their favorite freeware. If you have a favorite program which isn't listed on the CFS pages we invite you to share that information with everyone through this site and this newsletter.
If you enjoy the Completely Free Software site please don't feel shy about letting others know.
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