Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #439 issued July 13, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Machine World v1.3 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Machine World is a top-down, vertically-scrolling mecho shooter. It features excellent 3D-style graphics, 15 levels & 15 landscapes, huge variety of enemies, 7 powerups, highly addictive gameplay, and more. In this action shooter you are aboard a hovercraft, armed with laser, rocket, plasma weapons and bombs, and you are battling mechanical monsters and their troops. These are both air and ground based, and you must destroy them before they destroy you. Your enemies will try to follow you as you duck 'n weave across the screen, grabbing powerups where you can to power your weaponry, and to give you more health and more lives. The graphics are superb, using a pseudo 3D effect, and some enemies are extraordinarily detailed. However, in most ways this is just another shooter and it stands out from the others through the quality of the graphics. As will all good shooters, it has an addictive element that draws you back time after time to see if you can better your previous scores (or those of your friends). We found Machine World to be an excellent example of this genre and a "must have" for all space shooter fans. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 12.8MB download from: Win98 General Games

GSplit v2.1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
GSplit is a small utility that splits large files and creates a self-uniting executable file. It features 18 predefined split-file sizes (or create your own size), splits very large files (bigger than 4GB) or small files (less than 100kB), restores file properties (author, filedate, attributes, etc), detects file corruption, integrates with Explorer shell (right-click context menu), and more. This is an excellent way of sharing large files through either portable media (disks, etc) or over a network (specially the Internet). GSplit breaks up the file into the size(s) you desire and stores them in a folder of your choosing. Together with the split portions is a small executionable file to recreate the original. You can access this program from the Start menu, or use the optional Windows Explorer shell integration so you can simply highlight a file, select GSplit from the right-click context menu in Explorer, and the program will open with that file ready for splitting. It does not compress files so you may wish to use another program to create a Zip archive (or a self-extracting archive) to reduce its size, and then split it into manageable portions using GSplit. The recipient of the split files (with the extension GSD) need only place them all in the same folder and then launch the 70kB EXE file (disk1.exe) which comes with the files. The sum total of the split files is a little larger than the original – a 129MB split file is an extra 130kB and a 665MB split file is 373kB larger (both cases using a base size of 1.44MB for the split files). We were very impressed with the professionalism of GSplit. Not only does the program work extremely well but it also is easy to use and presents well. If you have need to split large files for transport, grab a copy of GSplit. Like us, you too will be impressed with file splitter. Access this 1.32MB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Audio Recorder for FREE v8.0 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Audio Recorder for FREE is a tool that records the input through the computer's audio card (line-in, microphone, etc) and saves it as a WAV, MP3 or WMA music file. It features configurable output format settings (for each format), optional automatic gain control (AGC), voice-active recording to remove silence, MP3 bandpass filtering, 6 recording-view modes, and more. This is a terrific program for copying analog sound sources (LPs, cassettes, VCR audio, telephone, etc) and saving them as a digital file. It can save the sound as CD quality (perfect for converting old LP records into CDs) using the WAV file format, or as a smaller file size using MP3 or WMA. Simple to use, just connect an external device to your sound card and start recording – and you can use the voice-active recording mode so that you don't get a silent leader when you start recording before you start playing the external source. By default, audio quality is excellent, but you have full control over audio settings so you can reduce file sizes by reducing quality. Audio Recorder for FREE ships with Audio Record Edit Toolbox, a set of shareware editing tools that, unless unlocked, cannot save. Apart from the extra bandwidth required for this shareware add-on, we loved Audio Recorder for FREE and consider it a "must have" for anyone wishing to record from an external source through the computer's sound card. 10 out of 10. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 11.4MB download from: Win98 Multimedia Programs

My Pictures 3D Album v0.96 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
My Pictures 3D Album is a program that displays photos in picturesque 3D galleries that can be viewed in automatic or free movement mode. It also includes "My Pictures 3D Screensaver" (also listed with CFS) & "Web Photo Album". My Pictures 3D Album is one of the neatest ways of displaying your photos. It is supplied with three galleries (Showroom, Yard, and Art Gallery) or you can download a further 16 different 3D galleries (average 2MB download per gallery). These include Space Station, Yacht Wharf, Saloon, Lighthouse, Egypt, Neon Maze and Moon Observatory. The galleries can be viewed automatically, with the viewer floating through the 3D gallery, or you can take charge and manually move the camera viewpoint using the mouse. Presentations can be shared on CD without the necessity for the main program to be included (it creates a stand-alone EXE file). My Pictures 3D Album has one major limitation – galleries can only display a limited number of images (51 in Art Gallery, 24 in Yard, etc). It also only supports JPG images. Combined in the same download is My Pictures 3D Screensaver, a screensaver version of the main program, and Web Photo Album – a program for creating thumbnails (127x169) and Web-sized images (300x400) from your photos and putting them into a series of Web pages. It offers a choice of seven different template designs for the photos (Cats, Merry Christmas, Old Album, Pets, Simple, Sports & Wedding). The My Pictures 3D Album suite is a sensational tool for displaying photos. The 3D effects are awesome and the graphics superb. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 13.6MB download from: Win98 Graphic Programs

Spellagories v1.0.75 – WinXP/Vista
Spellagories is a magic-word puzzle where you must guess the correct word and free the villagers from the curse of the Evil mage. It features 3 modes of play (Story, Untimed & Arcade), 5 levels in Arcade mode, 3 levels of difficulty in Story & Untimed modes, excellent graphics, interactive tutorial, and more. This is a word puzzle game where you must unscramble the letters to find the word that will help lift a curse. This is a game full of spells, curses and other spirit world activity that some people may find offensive. It is well presented and includes, amongst other things, an excellent tutorial. It has hints and a letter re-scrambler to help you find the correct word. Not all the scrambled letters are used so it is not as simple as it sounds. Unfortunately, Spellagories is spoilt with a huge download (unspecified size) and advertising. To download this game you must first get a small 726kB helper file that, when launched, downloads both the game browser and the game. We are unsure of the size of these two programs, but the game itself claims to be 11.89MB, but we noticed over 30MB of traffic when this file was being downloaded and installed. The game browser (which you can use for other games from the same publisher) is of unknown size but we estimate that it probably over 10MB. This makes Spellagories a large download that is probably more suitable for broadband connections than for dialup. The game browser installs itself in the Startup folder and loads every time Windows loads. We suggest that you delete the shortcut to this game browser so that it only loads when you want to play the game. The advertising is, at the time of writing, not very invasive and you get to view some comedic television ads (which has nothing to do this advertising – it appears to be an attention getter). At the time of doing the review, clicking on those TV ads simply tries to sell you some games (ie it is a house ad). This could change at any time. Even with all the negative aspects (including the download size and the advertising), we liked Spellagories. It is an adult version of the old Hangman game with terrific graphics. If you have the patience (and a broadband connection) try it for yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 726kB download (this is the helper file) from: WinXP General Games

TVPC Elite v2 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
TVPC Elite is a small program that accesses TV stations and sites streaming films, sports, radio, etc over the Internet. It features 4 categories (TV Stations, Radio Stations, Movies/trailers & Live Sports), lists over 2,000 worldwide stations/sites in about 75 countries, has an update button to get the latest channels, and more. This is a great little program, based on the Internet Explorer Web browser, that lets you quickly access a huge variety of streaming video, plus lots of movie clips and live radio. The variety is huge but, when we reviewed this program, over 80% of the stations we tried were not working. We assume that not all broadcast 24/7. There is a huge number of radio stations, and even a lot of animated cartoon clips and game reviews. Not all countries have a huge selection of channels and stations but the overall variety is excellent. TVPC Elite is small, easy to use, and lots of fun for anyone who enjoys TV that is free (even though others may have to pay to view them through a cable or satellite provider!). It does not require a TV capture card, or anything else but an active Internet connection (broadband is definitely recommended, though some providers cater for dialup speeds). The main downside to TVPC Elite is that it is advertiser supported, but these are relatively passive ads (like Google ads on a Website). In spite of the ads, we loved! Access this 482kB download from: Win95 Internet Related

ClamWin Free Antivirus v0.90.2.1 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
ClamWin Free Antivirus is an OpenSource antivirus program for manually scanning files, folders or drives. It features a scanning scheduler, automatic virus database updates, integrates with Windows Explorer context menu, Microsoft Outlook addin, desktray icon access, and more. This is a fabulous antivirus program, even though it lacks a real-time scanner (you have to manually scan files). However, it does scan Outlook files (both in and out), and it integrates with Internet Explorer. While we tried ClamWin Free Antivirus by scanning files and folders, it did not detect any viruses (as we expected) so we cannot categorically comment on its effectiveness. However, it has a solid reputation and we believe that it would be an effective tool to fight viruses (or should that be "virii"?). The integration into the Explorer shell through the right-click context menu means that you can target a file or a folder and quickly scan it for viruses. ClamWin Free Antivirus does not appear to affect other anti-virus programs so you can run it as an adjunct to your regular protection. We liked! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 15.1MB download from: Win98 General Programs

Project Aura v0.75 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Project Aura is an easy-to-play side-scrolling space shooter where you shoot everything that moves. It features 10 levels, lots of powerups & weapons, strong bosses, addictive gameplay, good music & effects, and more. This is a fast paced shooter that is not very hard to win as your ship has good shields and there are lots of powerups to keep you playing. While the end-of-level bosses are strong, continual firing, or the deployment of special weapons, will beat them and you can move to the next level. The action keys are spread out over the keyboard and you may wish to consolidate them so they are closer together, but this is really the only criticism we had about this game. Project Aura doesn't offer any real surprises, just good shootin' action and good graphics. Worth grabbing! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 9.13MB download from: Win98 General Games
COMMENTS
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