Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #441 issued August 10, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

EndEffector v13.2000 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
EndEffector is a fast-paced, Japanese polygonic side-scrolling space shooter. It features 6 levels of gameplay, 2 levels of difficulty (Novice & Expert), challenging bosses, superb animated graphics, replay, demonstration mode, 5 preset screen resolutions, fullscreen or windowed modes, and more. This is one of the better side-scrolling space shooters which features excellent polygonic 2D graphics with a 3D feel. Because the author's site, and the corresponding instructions, are in Japanese, it is handy to know that three keys, plus the arrow keys, are mainly used in this game. On a keyboard, the X key is the main firing key (corresponds with the 1st button on a gamepad), the secondary firing key, the Z or 2nd button, fires a globe of energy, and the C key (4th button) is for pausing the game. The X&Z/1&2 keys are used with the arrow keys for navigation, and are "select" and "cancel" respectively. The game starts with a demonstration but we found that we had to let the demonstration run through to the end – none of the keys seemed to stop it (contrary to the on-screen instruction). However, once started the game will keep you on the edge of your seat as you fight the swarms of enemy ships that attack you. Different enemy ships have different protection, which also varies between Novice and Expert modes. EndEffector is a classic side-scrolling space shooter, in the typically Japanese format, but it adds an element to the gameplay that most similar shooters do not have. We found it highly addictive and consider it should come with a Surgeon General warning that it could waste many hours of your time. A "must have" for shooter fans. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 69.2MB download from: Win98 General Games

Easy Email Protector v1.00 – Win9x/ME/XP
Easy Email Protector is a small program that uses unicodes to help to protect e-mail addresses from being trawled by spammers. It features 2 levels of protection, copies the protected address & HTML link to the Windows Clipboard, requires no installation, is easy to use, and more. It is no secret that spammers trawl Websites using spambots, looking for e-mail address to harvest. Those spambots look for the dedicated e-mail symbol, the @ sign and then grab the address. One way to beat spammers is to use a unicode for the @ symbol, which most spambots cannot detect but which a Web browser correctly displays. For some time, CFS has been successfully using the @ unicode on its site. Easy Email Protector creates a mailto link that uses unicode for @ so that it can be pasted into an HTML document. It has a second, and more secure, option, and that is to turn the entire address into its unicode form – again, a Web browser will read the unicodes and interpret them but, unless spambots are programmed to look for the unicode version of the @ sign, it will not see the e-mail addresses. While we cannot see the advantage in using the second, and "more secure" option of placing all of the address in unicode format, it is good that the programmer of this tool has given us the choice. Unfortunately, if your e-mail address is already in the spammer's list, you won't see much change in the level of spam for some time. However, since CFS started using the unicode @, its spam mail has reduced by well over one-third. We hope that this figure will continue to reduce as we get dropped from old mailing lists but not added to new ones. If you have a Website, and wish to give your visitors access to you via e-mail, then using a program like Easy Email Protector is a great way to beat the spammers. We loved! Note: there appears to be no Webpage established for this program at the author's site, so CFS has linked directly to the download. Get this 734kB download from: Win95 Internet Related

Wavepad v3.05 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Wavepad is a sound editor and recorder that supports more than 16 popular audio formats. It features audio editing functions (cut, copy, paste, delete, insert, silence, autotrim, etc), sound effects (amplify, normalize, equalizer, envelope, reverb, echo, reverse, sample rate conversion, etc), special effects (reduce vocals, distortion, chorus, etc), batch processing, audio restoration (noise reduction & click pop removal), supports variable sample rates (6000 to 96000Hz, stereo or mono, 8, & 16, 24 or 32 bits), CD ripper with CDDB music database lookup, text to speech (requires speech engine), MDI (Multiple Document Interface), good Helpfile, and more. This is a full-featured sound editor and recorder that supports an excellent number of audio formats (MP3, WAV, VOX, GSM, Real Audio, AU, AIF, FLAC, OGG, etc). It can rip CDs and save to WAV format (may require additional codecs), offers spectral analysis (FFT), and speech synthesis (text to speech). Combined with a good Helpfile, it seems to be an attempt to be all things to all people in this field. We had mixed feelings about Wavepad. While acknowledging its depth of features, its interface was, to us, a little clumsy, and we did not find it quite as good as its promise. Novice users may stumble a little at first, mainly because it does not seem as intuitive as some other sound editors. That aside, it is amazing the features packed into such a small program and Wavepad definitely is a powerful tool for anyone wishing to record and/or edit sound files. Worth a look! Access this 423kB download from: Win95 Multimedia Programs

Easy Duplicate Finder v1.4.2 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Easy Duplicate Finder is a small utility that finds and lists duplicate files for easy removal. It searches for true duplicates (files with same contents), offers flexible scan settings, protects system files & folders, has a powerful search engine with fast file check, offers an optional preset deletion menu, files can be moved to another folder, and more. This is an excellent way of removing duplicated files that can clutter your hard drive. By using the "Move to Folder" button you can move files you think should be deleted to a safe folder where they could reside for as long as you like to ensure that they are not needed by your programs (if you get an error message you could move them back). Unfortunately it does not retain the original file structure and, if two files of the same name are moved to a folder, one will be overwritten by the other. Easy Duplicate Finder took about 10 minutes to scan almost 24,000 files on our C:\ drive – and found over 17,000 that could be deleted (using about 5GB of disk space!). Of course, you should not delete all duplicated files or you would be removing the original too so we were pleased to see a right-click deletion menu that allows you to just select older duplicates, or just select newer duplicates. You can also check file properties from that context menu, and even open that file in Explorer. Files can be sorted by any of the five columns – File Name, Path, Dup Group, Size, and Modified. One area which disappointed us was that you cannot select blocks of files using standard Windows controls (for example, highlighting a group by using the Shift key). That aside, Easy Duplicate Finder is a superb tool to find duplicate files. We loved! Access this 653kB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Peg Solitaire v1.1.0 – WinXP/Vista
Peg Solitaire is a Flash version of the classic 17th Century peg solitaire game. It features excellent graphics, simple but challenging gameplay, timer, peg counter, Internet high scores, suitable for all ages, and more. This is an excellent puzzle game where you must move the pegs until only one peg is left. This is done by jumping over an adjacent peg into a spare slot which removes the jumped peg. This is not an easy game to win but it is lots of fun to play and very addictive. In this version we found the animated graphics excellent and were pleased to see both a timer and a peg counter (counts the number of pegs removed). Peg Solitaire does have an advertising nag screen when it closes, though the ad is benign unless clicked. A good presentation of a classic, and popular, boardgame. We liked! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 338kB download from: WinXP General Games

Haxial TextEdit v1.700 – WinXP/Vista
Haxial TextEdit is a skinnable ASCII text editor that edits plain text files in Mac, DOS/Windows, and Unix formats. It features support for the international Unicode standard, has no filesize limit, offers search & replace, "live" URLs, a word counter, optional encryption, includes 16 skins, has a "revert to saved" option, a multiple document interface (MDI), and more. This is an excellent little text editor with some big features. Unlike Microsoft's Notepad, it has no filesize limits and it opened our 10MB test file, with 470,000 lines of text, instantly (not even a 1 second delay as it loaded!). It offers full unicode support and includes both a document counter (the number of characters, words and hard lines) and a counter for specific words or characters (you can see how many time, say, the word "the" appears in a document). It opens multiple documents which can be accessed by tabs. Because Haxial TextEdit is not specifically designed for Windows, it lacks some of the normal Windows conventions, but it is very easy to use and has a minimal learning curve. We were not so impressed with its appearance and interface, which is definitely not a Windows standard. However, there are 15 other skins or color schemes you can choose (though none are truly Windows-like) so you can, at least, change the color scheme. We were disappointed that it does not include a global search and replace function – you can search and replace (and count, etc) through the active (topmost) document but not globally. This is a major omission as the ability to be able to search through all open documents is very handy. Overall, Haxial TextEdit is an excellent text editor that packs a lot of punch into a very small size. We were impressed. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 378kB download from: WinXP Text Programs

FastStone Photo Resizer v2.4 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
FastStone Photo Resizer is an image converter/resizer that supports for popular image formats. It features batch processing of images (convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text & watermarks), renames images with sequential numbers, supports folder/non-folder structure, drag 'n drop, and more. This is an awesome tool that is specifically designed for batch processing images. Apart from the five formats it can write to – JPG, GIF, BMP, TIF & PNG – it can also read PSD, TGA, WMF & ICO files. Its interface is easy to use, though there is a huge depth to the number of settings it offers. FastStone Photo Resizer will accept a selection of mixed-format images and batch convert them into, say, JPG images with a specific size, image quality, color depth, etc. It can even insert a watermark into your images. If you are looking for a program to batch convert your images, then FastStone Photo Resizer should be on your very, very short list. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 1.24MB download from: Win98 Graphic Programs

Strike Ball 2 Deluxe v1 – WinXP/Vista
Strike Ball 2 Deluxe is a paddle-driven, fast-action, brick-busting 3D Breakout clone. It features 200 levels, awesome 3D graphics, lots of powerups, highly addictive gameplay, high scores, and more. This is a game that must be played to be appreciated. It has amazing 3D graphics that puts it into a class on its own as far as Breakout clones are concerned. There is an abundance of regular Breakout powerups, plus a few specials. One feature of the game is a bomber that flies over the board at regular intervals and drops two parachutes, each with a crate. If you hit that crate with your ball a powerup appears and, like all powerups in this game, slowly makes its way towards you. Because this is played on a 3D board, it feels small compared to other Breakout games and you can be caught with a quickly returning ball. The ball will often smash its way through the underside of buildings and structures and, while you can see the result of the ball's action, you cannot see the ball until it suddenly appears. Unfortunately, Strike Ball 2 Deluxe is spoilt with a huge download and advertising. To download this game you must first get a small 673kB helper file that, when launched, downloads both the game browser or agent and the game. We are unsure of the size of these two programs, but the game itself claims to be 13.6MB, though we noticed over 55MB 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 a further 11MB. This makes Strike Ball 2 Deluxe a massive download. 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 (download size and advertising), we loved Strike Ball 2 Deluxe. It is one of the best Breakout clones we have seen and a "must have" for all fans of this genre. 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 674kB download from: WinXP General Games
COMMENTS
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