Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #433 issued May 25, 2007

Home > CFS Weekly Newsletter #433: issued May 25, 2007

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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Quack Shoot – WinXP/Vista
Quack Shoot is a 3D hunting game set in 1815 where you must supplement your larder with wild duck. It features sensational 3D graphics, challenging gameplay, good sound effects, and more. The author says: "Quack Shoot is part of the Real Time Strategy and Adventure game 'Territory: The Mountain Men'. It is an arcade sub level, a game within a game, that gives the player an opportunity to augment the food supply." This is a great shooter with a major challenge for players – there are no crosshairs or target-sights when you are shooting at the ducks flying around you so you must lead the ducks with the bullets to hit them. This takes some practice. Even if you do hit a duck you may not kill it, or it may fall into the water and be lost (the idea is shooting for food, not for sport). You are aided by having a semi-automatic, fast-loading flintlock pistol (as the author says, a rare weapon in 1815!) but, as all shots are counted, just blasting away means your poor shooting is noted. The game is enhanced with excellent 3D graphics, and an opening scene where you are the duck, flying over the countryside and diving into the ponds to catch fish. While you can't interact with the game during this intro, it is worth letting it play just to enjoy the graphics. The game is played until it gets dark and you must go back to the camp to, we hope, enjoy your meal of roast duck. We had a couple of issues with Quack Shoot. First, if you have a widescreen monitor there is no (apparent) way of playing the game in a 4:3 window to ensure that imagery is not distorted. The second is that there are no high scores saved so your excellent scores cannot be shared with others. An overall score for a game would be good because there are a number of factors – the total number of shots fired, the number of ducks hit, the number of ducks killed, the number of ducks which fell into water (and could be saved for food), and the number of ducks which fell on land and could be used for food. Quack Shoot is a challenging game but its major attraction is the superb 3D graphics. Because of these graphics it requires a reasonably high-end computer with at least a 2.5GHz Pentium 4 processor. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 17.8MB download from: WinXP General Games

FreeClip v1.0.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
FreeClip is a Clipboard extender that saves up to 4 separate clips in 4 separate Clipboards for instant retrieval (pasting into a document). It features fast shortcut keys for all functions, it auto-starts with Windows, resides as a desktray icon that displays the current active Clipboard, saves clips between sessions, and more. This is a handy little tool that multiplies your current Clipboard function by four, giving you four separate Clipboards. You can, for example, keep one Clipboard for the currently copied text or image while storing frequently used clips in the other three Clipboards. Data can be copied to individual Clipboards using shortcut keys, or by changing the current active Clipboard through the right-click context menu. Clips from any of the four Clipboards can be selected by hotkey for pasting into the current document. FreeClip is easy to use and quite intuitive, though there is a Helpfile provided with the program. The only issues we had in regard to FreeClip were relatively minor. We would have liked to have seen more Clipboards available, and consider that 10 would be a workable number. We were also not happy with fact that the auto-start feature cannot be turned off. While we acknowledge that most users would like to have it auto-load with Windows, we feel that a "well behaved" program should offer an option to easily turn this feature off should a user so desire. We really liked the ease in which you can skip between Clipboards using the hotkeys, and that FreeClip saves its clips between sessions so you can keep the contents of a Clipboard indefinitely (like a boilerplate program). Small, functional and easy-to-use, FreeClip is all of these things and more. Worth a look! Access this 366kB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 v1.0 – WinXP/Vista
Microsoft Virtual PC is a program that runs multiple operating systems on the same physical computer, such as MS-DOS, Windows & OS/2. It features a setup Wizard for the virtual OS, auto creates a new partition for each OS, is easy-to-use, has a detailed Helpfile, and more. This is an excellent tool for anyone who wishes to run more than one operating system on their PC. It creates a special partition on your hard drive to house the new operating system which can be run at the same time as you main operating system. It requires sufficient space to house both the program and the new operating system, plus requires sufficient resources (RAM, etc) to run two operating systems at the same time. For example, if you wished to add, say, Windows 98 to an XP computer you would need to allocate at least 64MB of RAM for the virtual Windows 98 OS, though 128MB or 256MB would be advisable. You will also need a legal copy, on CD or DVD, of the operating system you wish to add. To create a new virtual PC simply follow the promptings from the Wizard which will lead you through the installation. Once installed, you will see that Microsoft Virtual PC is just a small window that lists your virtual operating systems. Click on the one you want and it will open up on top of your existing OS. You might experience some problems with your mouse and have to use the right Alt key to open it in the current window. When we created a virtual PC to add Windows 98 to our test computer we were worried when, during installation, we saw the message that it was formatting "drive C:" – but then realized that the "drive C:" it was describing was the new partition and not our existing drive C: (the one that houses our main XP operating system). The new operating system will only have access to the "new" drive C: and to your first CD or DVD-ROM drive (if you have multiple drives). You cannot access your other drives (the ones used by your old OS) and you must re-create your Internet access files for this new OS if you wish to go on-line with it. We had a problem with our widescreen monitor because the graphics card we use, which supports widescreen, does not have a driver for Windows 98. This meant that Windows used another driver and everything was stretched to fit the "non-standard" 8:5 screen size (the standard format is 4:3). Because your new virtual PC has access to the CD or DVD player in your computer, you can load programs from there, or even burn data from your main computer onto a CD or DVD and then access it from the new, virtual PC. Microsoft has provided two versions of this program, one for an x86-based computer (32-bit) and other for an x64-based computer (64-bit). Download sizes are similar for both versions. We were most impressed with Microsoft Virtual PC. It gives a user the opportunity to run multiple operating systems at the same time. An impressive tool and one that many PC users will find valuable. Try it for yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 30.4MB download from: WinXP Windows Enhancements

STG WordList v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP
STG WordList is a word game helper that can supply a list of words from jumbled letters (great for Scrabble), or use a mask to present a list of words with certain characters at the same points (great for Crosswords, or Hangman). It features an editable word list of over 173,500 words, has an easy-to-use interface, and more. Word game lovers will consider STG WordList a "must have". You can give it a pile of jumbled letters (like you have in a game of Scrabble) and it will give you the anagrams of those letters – all the possible words that use those letters, or any combination of those letters. It can also present words from masks where you specify the number of letters and any characters (with their locations) you may already have, and it will give you a list of words which fit that mask. For example, if the word you need is "compared" (8 letters) and the only letters you have are the first letter (c), the fourth letter (p) and the sixth letter (r) you would make the mask c**p*r** and STG WordList would give you a list of 17 words that fitted that mask. Simple. With its huge word list (most household dictionaries only have about 60,000 words, one third the number of words in this list), STG WordList can help you win even the toughest word game (specially when playing Hangman against a 5 year old). We loved! Access this 834kB download from: Win95 Text Programs

Truck Dismount v1.01 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Truck Dismount is a crash-test dummy game using ragdoll physics where you crash a truck into a barricade and get points for the most damage you can do to the driver. It features a choice of 7 different camera angles, 6 slide controls (ramp locations, driver location control, etc), 6 different locations for the driver, choice of ramps (none, 1 or 2), choice of windscreen or no windscreen, fog, replay, Internet high scores, and more. A more advanced version of the "Stair Dismount" game (also listed with CFS), Truck Dismount adds many more controls and much more action. There are so many variables that you can make tiny changes to see just how much damage you can inflict on the driver. When you have achieved a high score and want to see it again, you can view the replay and even change the camera angles to see the action from many different viewpoints. The game uses ragdoll physics to simulate a rag doll falling – arms and legs go in different directions and the "body" finishes up at impossible angles. While this may sound like a one-play game, in fact it is surprisingly enjoyable and quite addictive. There are just enough variables to keep you coming back. We enjoyed playing Truck Dismount and thought it well worth grabbing. Access this 2.05MB download from: Win95 General Games

Zoom Menu Maker v1 – WinXP/Vista
Zoom Menu Maker is a small program that adds a zoom function to Internet Explorer which is selectable from the right-click context menu. It features 6 preset zoom settings (from 75% to 300%), a variable zoom control (up to 1000%), a multi-lingual interface (English, French & Spanish), and more. This is a neat little application that allows you to add zoom features to Internet Explorer (and also with MSN Explorer). Simply select the zoom settings you want added to IE, click on Apply, and those zoom items will be added to the IE right-click context menu. Once a Webpage has been zoomed, it reverts back to normal by simply reloading the page (or by adding the "100%" zoom menu item and clicking on it). Useful for close ups or for people with poor eyesight and, if a zoom factor of less than 100% is selected, also handy if you wish to see more of a page than what is displayed normally. The added menu items can be removed by re-opening the program, unclicking the menu items not required, and then clicking on Apply. Zoom Menu Maker does not need to be running to maintain the new menu items and it can be opened, changes made, and then closed again. Changes will be reflected in the IE context menu until another change is made. We really liked Zoom Menu Maker. We can see many, many applications for this little tool and consider it excellent for anyone using Internet Explorer as their main Web browser. Get a copy and see for yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 291kB download from: WinXP Internet Related

Helicon Filter Free v4.65.1 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Helicon Filter Free is a full set of post processing tools for the digital photographer. It features an intuitive interface, a correction Wizard, a huge number of retouching tools & image filters, support of external plug-ins, full EXIF & IPTC information, supports user settings, 16-bit precision image processing, support for color profiles, excellent Helpfile, and more. Helicon Filter Free is an excellent photo editing suite that should suit all but a professional photographer. While some of the filters and effects run in a simplified mode (compared to the "expert" mode used by its not-free big brothers), the results are still better than many professional photo editing programs which cost big dollars. Designed with the digital photographer in mind, it lacks text support (you cannot use it to add a caption to your image, or to add comments) but this is the only major omission from this package. If you are a digital photographer and only want one retouching suite, then grab a copy of Helicon Filter Free. You won't regret it... Access this 12.2MB download from: Win95 Graphic Programs

Flew Fighter v1.02 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Flew Fighter is a vertically scrolling space shooter (like ChoRenSha meets DoDonPachi). It features excellent graphics, good sound effects, 2 game modes, lots of powerups, and more. While this is "just" a basic shooter, it seems to offer more because of the great graphics and smooth action. Unfortunately, all instructions and information is in Japanese so we are struggling to get information about this game. On the surface, it plays really well – you use the arrow keys for movement and the Z key or Spacebar to fire (and also for the menu). The X key gives a wide angle of firepower and the C key plants a bomb. There are multiple Stages (6?) with a Boss at the end of each stage. However, we believe that there is much more to Flew Fighter that we have discovered so it would be a learning curve for anyone wanting to play this fun shooter with its typical Japanese style. A "must have" for all space shooter fans. Get this 4.18MB download from: Win95 General Games
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