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The Completely Free E-mail Update #33
Issued Mar 10, 1998
Welcome to the thirty-third edition of the 'Completely Free Software E-mail Update'. Over the past week we've added many new programs, including the ones listed below.
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 SOFTWARE
Arasan – W95 (W31 version also available)
Arasan is a superb chess game which has a Winboard-compliant component so it can be played over the Internet and connected to other compatible chess programs. A plain looking board-view hides the power of a very professional chess program which the author rates between 'Expert' and 'Master' level (roughly 2000-2200 ELO) on a Pentium system. However, it can be 'toned down' in the options dialog box so that the human opponent has a better chance of winning. The program also features incremental (Fischer-style) time controls. By the way, 'Arasan' means 'King' in Tamil, a South Indian language (a derivation of the Sanskrit 'Raja'). Aren't we the fount of knowledge (specially if we read the Helpfile, which we do occasionally...)! There is also a 16-bit Win 3.1 version of this program available with a similar look and feel to the W95 version but with a slightly lower ELO rating. The W31 version has a download of 288kB and the W95 version 3.21MB. Access both versions from: W95 General Games
Bonjour – W95
In its simplest definition, Bonjour is an alternative 'shell' to the normal Win95 desktop which offers not just multiple desktops in a database, but also allows you to completely change the concept of your desktop. Icons need not be 32x32 anymore and images can be placed, one upon the other. Bonjour has been likened to a HTML page – what IE4 Active desktop probably tried to be but failed – and you can set it up with different 'database' instructions – various interactive wallpaper-type images, etc which means that the actual amount of configuration is really only limited by your imagination. Where a HTML page is basically text-based, Bonjour is object-based. One interesting use of Bonjour is as a small Intranet-type system for use on a LAN network. Allocate a different 'desktop' for each machine and then provide links between them. The download site offers various desktop databases from some of the users of this sensational program. Sizes of these additional 'bases' range from about 500kB to about 1MB. However a word of warning. Bonjour is a beta program which will eventually become Talisman 1.0. As a beta it might have bugs which could affect your computer. There is certainly little documentation or on-line help with it so you must have some basic understanding of your computer before attempting to use it. If in doubt, wait for Talisman to come out. Access this fabulous 2.44MB download from: W95 General Programs
Tangram – W95
This is a terrific multi-level Chinese puzzle where traditionally you have to fit seven pieces of the puzzle into a preset shape. The 'Easy' level is suitable for children (and uses less than the standard pieces) but as you move up through Medium to the Hard and Extra Hard levels it really does start to test the brain matter. Luckily there is no time limit and there is a 'Solve puzzle' facility as part of the Help menu (it shows you the correct location of each piece for about 4 seconds and then resets the puzzle). The puzzles themselves are generally in the shape of animals, birds and people, which adds a little more to the playability of the puzzle. With 25 puzzles per level (15 in the 'Easy') you get a good selection to play with. There are also five additional puzzle sets supplied giving a further 140 individual puzzles. This means that you have a total of 230 separate puzzles to play with. Enough for an hour or so... Should you want even more, there is an editor supplied so you can create your own! Optional sound rounds out this very well presented, and very addictive, puzzle game for all ages. Access this 875kB download from: W95 General Games
CD Navigator – DOS
While DOS programs are becoming a thing of the past, this is one exception (though we'd still like to see a Windows version... please!). CD Navigator is a catalog program which lists all your CD-ROMs, audio CDs and floppy disks. With 600MB of data on most CD-ROMs, it is often quite hard to locate a program, and CD Navigator slots in very nicely with full search facilities of its database for each CD-ROM: search filename, filenote, diskname, disknote, audiotrack or keywords; use logical operators in search; etc. Actually, there is so much this cataloger does it would take all of this update just to list its features. Multi-lingual support; Norton Commander-type dual window face; up to 65,000 directory items and notes on each disk; add notes and predefined keywords to files; etc. It even has a built-in screen blanker! The list goes on and on... If you have a bevy of CDs threatening to swamp your poor old brain (where WAS that file or that song?) then go grab this little program. By the way, there is also an editor available from the author's site which you might want to grab as well. It's only an additional 60kB download. Access this sensational 111kB download from: W31 General Programs
ZipSearch – W95
Have you ever wanted to find a particular file buried somewhere in a stack of ZIP archives? Yeh, us too! It used to be such a hassle but not any more – not since we started using ZipSearch. This amazing little utility is an add-on to the Find command in Windows Explorer and allows you to search for a file inside all the ZIP archives within a directory (recursive sub-directory searches too), a drive, or even the entire computer. Like Win95's Find command, ZipSearch presents you with a list of files found – and the search can include use of the normal DOS wildcard commands. For example, if you wanted to find a document which had Jan_98 in its name you could do a search for *jan_98*.doc (or even *jan_98*.* if you weren't sure of the file extension) and find all occurrences within the area of your search. The files listed are double-clickable (it will load your default ZIP archiving tool – in our case the fabulous, and free, PowerZip) and you can extract or view/execute the requested file(s). Excited? We certainly were. When you get the quantity of archives we have, ZipSearch is essential. At present it is a beta product (though very stable on our test computer) and the author says that he is looking to include support for other types compression, i.e LHA, 'ARJ', CAB and lots more in the next beta. Access this 983kB download from: W95 Desktop Utilities
Meta Tag Builder – W95
Meta Tag Builder creates those meta tags which are used by some search engines when searching through websites. Fill in the blanks and click on generate and it will convert what you've written into text which can then be copied and pasted into your HTML page. There are four sections: Web Site Title; Author's Name; Keywords; and Description. Unfortunately, it doesn't give any help as to what to write – how many keywords to use (the blank for writing them is small which indicates only a few - but this is wrong) and how long the site description should be (a large box which indicates that you should write lots – which is also wrong!) – so we have some reservations about this program. Still, if you've done your homework and you know that well over 30 keywords/phrases is OK, and that you should limit a site description to 200 characters maximum (about 30 words plus spaces), then this could be a handy little (well, maybe not so little!) program.Access this 1.36MB download (why should it be so big???) from: W95 Internet Related
SmartBee – W95 (DOS also available)
SmartBee is a fortune cookie program – a BIG fortune cookie program! The compressed datafile alone for this program runs out at about 4.3MB and, together with the actual program to run the cookies, you are looking at a 4.76MB download. Phew! If you like random quotes – 93,142 of them! – from a variety of sources, then SmartBee will probably make you a smarter 'b' than almost anyone else. One of the best things about this program is that it is available for almost any platform: Win NT/95; Win 3.51; MSDOS; HP Unix; Digital Unix; Solaris; SunOS; BeOS; AmigaOS; Java; IRIX; and Perl (but not Win 3.1). We have only listed the program under Win95 but if you want one of the other versions – all with much the same download size – then go grab it from: W95 General Programs
NotAgain – W95
NotAgain is a handy little utility which sits in the desktray and gives you fast access to programs. Double click on the icon and you can access your programs from the menu which appears, or right click on it and access the setup program. Any program which uses commandline operatives (which is basically all programs, including DOS ones!) can be included and this is a very fast way of accessing your most popular applications. It can be setup to use hotkeys for individual programs so you can really speed up access to your favorite apps. While similar to a buttonbar launcher in its execution, NotAgain does not take up any valuable desktop space. With a tiny executionable size of only 36kB, NotAgain is not a resource hog and you can happily add it to your Startup menu knowing that you don't have to add another 16 meg of RAM just to cover the resources it uses! Access this 140kB download from: W95 Desktop Utilities
Yamp – W95
"Yamp" stands for "Yet Another Media Player" which is one of the biggest putdowns we know. Yamp is not 'just' another media player but is one of 'the' best media players available. It can play an amazing array of music files (WAV, MID, RMI, MOD, S3M, XM and IT) as well as audio CDs, and even comes with well over 40 design faces for you to choose from (and there are even more on the author's homepage), many of which aren't rectangular. We don't propose to say any more about Yamp other than to encourage you to go get a copy. There are the others, there is Yamp. 'Nuff said! Access this 1.33MB download from: W95 Multimedia Programs
UPDATES
TreeSize has been upgraded to v1.43. This essential program measures the size (in bytes) of directories, and the sub-directories under them. It also presents information about wasted space (on a modern large drive wasted space can hurt!) as well as presenting other handy information about directories and drives. This is one utility we use regularly and we cannot understand why Microsoft has never included this information in Windows (it's not even available when you use the DOS 'dir' command). The download size of the new version has been slightly increased to 190kB – which is still quite small. Access it from: W95 Desktop Utilities
Mr. Internet has been upgraded to version 2.01. Changes are minor but as this is such a small download it isn't the problem to upgrade as with some of the larger downloads. Mr. Internet is an Internet launcher which will not just connect you up quickly to your ISP, but will also optionally launch your browser, e-mail client, etc. Access it from: W95 Internet Related
Solitude for Windows 95 has been upgraded yet again – this time with the addition of a further five games (Aces Up, Gargantua, Poker Solitaire, Thirteens and Windmill) making 24 separate solitaire cardgames. The download size has crept up to 1.3MB. Access Solitude from: W95 General Games
COMMENTS
Regular users of the 'New Additions' page will be pleased to find that links now go straight to the location on the CFS page where the program is listed to save searching through a full page of programs to find the one you want. We have also done the same with these e-mail updates. We have done this reluctantly, not because we are trying to make it hard for you but because it bypasses the advertising banner(s) on each page. We also don't want to have to put the banner into a frame at the top or bottom of the screen. Paid advertising is helping to keep this site alive and constantly updated. Please support our advertisers.
We would 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.
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