Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #440 issued August 3, 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.
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COMPLETELY FREE SOFTWARE

Super Cosplay War Ultra v1.02.00 – WinXP/Vista
Super Cosplay War Ultra is a frenetic street fighting game, similar to Fighters Kyodotai, but using anime characters. It features 2 game modes (Normal & Battle Royale), 26 characters (plus bosses), 1 or 2 players, excellent anime-style animated graphics, powerful gameplay, good music & sound effects, and more. This is an awesome street fighting game that equals the best of the commercially available fighting games. Massive in size, this is not a game for a once-only play but one that you will still be playing after many months. The controls revolve around the numkey direction arrows and four buttons – punch, kick, grab and "air" – including combinations of those keys. While it can be played on a keyboard, it is better played using either a joystick or gamepad. You can select the character you wish to use and, in single player mode, the computer will select an appropriate opponent. The storyline explains that characters take on the attributes of the clothes they are wearing so the various types of characters offered exhibit a wide variety of attributes. There is a storyline for this game should you wish to follow it but, at the time of writing, all instructions are in both Japanese and Chinese, but not English. The game has a strong Japanese feel, even though the design team is Chinese. Super Cosplay War Ultra includes some audio comments (in English) that add to the overall effect of the game. It is important to know that the password to install the game is "http://www.fkdigital.net" (you don't need a key). We were most impressed with Super Cosplay War Ultra. It is a huge concept game (with an appropriately huge size) that will please all lovers of the street fighting genre. In a word – impressive! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 243MB download from: WinXP General Games

Avi2Dvd v0.4.5 – WinXP/Vista
Avi2Dvd is a suite of tools to convert movie files (AVI, OGM, MKV, WMV & DVD) to DVD, SVCD or VCD. It supports multiple audiostreams & up to 3 textual external subtitles, supports DV-AVI videos, produces semi-professional DVD menus with chapter/audio/subtitle buttons, creates an ISO file for DVD burning, and more. This is a neat package of (mainly) GNU utilities which, together, can convert a range of movie types to make them suitable for DVD and VCD disks. It is dependent on codecs and you may need to get additional codecs for the program to create the DVD or VCD movie format you require. Presented in a 5 step process, Avi2Dvd makes it very easy to create a disk image of the movie format you want. Because it is dependent on codecs, you may have to download additional files to ensure it produces the results you want. We were impressed with Avi2Dvd. We found it easy to use and produced excellent results. However, you may wish to get a coffee while it is converting files because larger files can take some considerable time to process. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 23.8MB download from: WinXP Multimedia Programs

Multi Virus Cleaner 2007 v7.6.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Multi Virus Cleaner 2007 is a stand-alone utility used to detect & remove major viruses (but is not a substitute for an anti-virus program). It can detect over 6,000 common viruses, worms, trojans & dialers (including all variants of Sober, MyDoom & Bagle viruses), has a fast scanner that requires minimal processing power, can repair a compromised system, and more. This appears to be an excellent adjunct to a regular anti-virus program (like Norton, Kaspersky, etc). It is simple to use, offers fast scan (only scans at-risk files and system files) plus a deep scan, can scan selected files and folders, and more. Importantly, it is regularly updated, though you cannot simply download an updated virus/spyware list, you must download the newest version of the program which means that your virus signatures might be a month or more old. This appears to be the biggest problem with this program and we would like to see automatic signature updates, preferably daily. We would have also liked to have seen a scheduled scan option because users can forget to keep their computer regularly scanned (it should be done daily). We used Multi Virus Cleaner 2007 to scan our test computer and, as expected, it came up negative (we use multiple levels of protection). We can only assume that it would pick up major problems as we have no way of testing its effectiveness in a real-time situation. Multi Virus Cleaner 2007 seems to do what it says it does and, apart from the couple of areas in which we thought it was deficient, is a worthy layer of protection against Internet attack. Try it for yourself. Access this 1.37MB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Libra v0.8.2 – WinXP/Vista
Libra is a library database to manage books, music, movies & games. It can track loaned items, or tag them with meaningful descriptions to aid effective management. Libra allows for the importation of data from outside sources (Amazon, barcodes, ISDN numbers, etc), creates catalogs, prints catalogs, stores information about friends, and more. This is a superb library database program that not only allows for a high degree of detail to be inserted about each item, but presents the information intelligently and clearly. By using an outside source (like Amazon) for the information about your movie, book, etc, you can import the data with the click of a button. This makes it much easier to create a database of your existing collection because you don't have to spend hours, or even days, just typing in data. Of course, if it isn't listed then you will have to add the relevant information manually (or as much of it as you require) but, by using the resources of various Amazon sites worldwide, you should be able to get a significant percentage of your collection (specially movies and music) included with the minimum amount of effort. Your collection can be viewed in its entirety, or just selected items can be displayed (just DVDs, just Science Fiction, etc). By adding your friends to the database, you can make notations of what has been loaned, and to whom – essential if you have a large collection that you allow friends to borrow from. Visually, Libra is excellent, and it will even allow you to print out a copy of your collection (handy for insurance purposes). The author states that you can hook up your webcam, and Libra turns it instantly into a barcode scanner, getting information about a book or movie automatically. However, we could not get this to work with our webcam. We fell in love with Libra as soon as we started to use it. It is everything we were looking for in a library database program, and then more. It has become an essential tool in our battle to keep track of our various collections. Grab a copy now before the author realizes what a brilliant tool he has created and decides to make money out of it. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 4.23MB download from: WinXP General Programs

Mayura Chess Board v2.0.0.2 – WinXP/Vista
Mayura Chess Board is a chess boardgame for playing against the computer or against a human player. It features the powerful Sjeng v12.13 chess engine, 3 levels of difficulty (when playing against the computer), move timer, unlimited undo/redo, optional next move hint, excellent graphics, can highlight undefended and/or attacked pieces, supports multiple chess engines via the WinBoard interface, and more. This is a sensational chess game that offers a huge number of features. With its built-in chess engine (the AI that runs the computer opponent), and its three levels of difficulty, Mayura Chess Board is an ideal computerized chess game for all players, from beginners to the very experienced player. It can save, open, copy and paste positions in FEN format, and displays the move history. It includes excellent animated graphics, and the whole package has a professional look 'n feel. We were most impressed with Mayura Chess Board and consider it one of the better chess programs we have seen. Grab a copy now! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 4.23MB download from: WinXP General Games

iText v3.1.6 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
iTex is an ASCII text editor and RTF word processor with iMac document compatibility in its native ITE format. It features a built-in spell checker, has no filesize limits, has last change (1 level) undo/redo, includes 14 built-in skins (color schemes), offers document formatting, and more. This is an excellent word processor and ASCII text editor that offers some exceptional features – like the built-in spell checker, and the iMac document compatibility (handy for exchanging documents between iMacs and PCs). Because it supports RTF (rich text format) files, it can offer colored text, various fonts in the same document, text justification, and many more attributes that are not available in ASCII text. One of the best features of iTex is its built-in spell checker, though the English dictionary included is reasonably small and you will need to add many new words as you use this program (just ensure that the words you are adding really are spelt correctly!). The main problem with iTex is its inability to open multiple documents – it does have a recent file list but only one document is opened at any one time, which can be frustrating if you are jumping between documents. It also cannot read Word documents. That aside, iTex is a terrific text editor and word processor and one that should be able to handle the majority of your letters and other basic documents. We liked! Access this 1.86MB download from: Win95 Text Programs

Add2Run v1.0 – WinXP/Vista
Add2Run is a small utility that launches programs, or open files, from the Start menu Run command using an alias (ie type "word" and Microsoft Word will open). It requires no installation, does not need to be running for the alias to work, simple to use, and more. This little program is cool. Tell it that you want the word, say, "firefox" to open your Firefox web browser and you simply open the Run command box in the Start menu (or use the Win-R shortcut), type in firefox, and your Firefox Web browser will open. You could use the word "mail" to open your e-mail client (Outlook Express, Pegasus, Thunderbird, Eudora, etc), "photo" for your image editor (PhotoPlus, Picture Publisher, CorelDraw, etc) – the potential is enormous! You can also use an alias to open documents, Excel files, or any other specific file you like (as long as it is associated with a program). We said it was a cool little program! Start to use Add2Run and you will wonder how you ever lived without it. A "must have" for all computer users. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 220kB download from: WinXP Desktop Utilities

FastStone Image Viewer v3.2 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
FastStone Image Viewer is an image browser, converter and editor that supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPG, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIF, WMF, ICO & TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF & DNG). It features true fullscreen viewing, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping, a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram, and more. Much more than just an image viewer, FastStone Image Viewer offers a huge range of editing, image management and image conversion features. The fullscreen viewing has special menus that are activated when the cursor is placed on the four sides of the screen – the bottom of the screen brings up the normal Windows system tray/desktray bar, though the other three sides are specific for this program. The editing controls are excellent, as is the look n' feel of the program. FastStone Image Viewer is supplied with 9 skins so you can change its appearance at will. One feature we really liked was the folder thumbnail – it includes 4 of the images from within the folder. If your camera offers EXIF information it will automatically rotate a photo so that it displays correctly. The slideshow is one of the best we have seen and offers a massive number of transitions and effects. This is not a small program, but it loads fast and displays images quickly. It is hard not to be impressed with FastStone Image Viewer because it offers so much in such a neat package. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 3.43MB download from: Win98 Graphic Programs
UPDATE
DS Clock – a fully customizable digital desktop clock with sounds and Swatch Internet Time – has been updated to version 2.0 with a new, much larger download size of 1.26MB. The author advises that changes in this version include: adding Windows Vista support; updating Westminster chimes; and fixing bugs. Get this latest version from: Win95 Desktop Utilities
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