Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #442 issued August 24, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Between Heaven and Hell v1.00 – WinXP/Vista
Between Heaven and Hell is a 2D action/adventure/platform/puzzle game, like Out of This World & Prince of Persia. In this game, Vince and his fiancee Anna have been killed in a car accident, but there is an error and Anna is on her way to Hell so Vince must save her. It features excellent animated graphics (with a painted look), strong storyline, addictive gameplay, and more. This is a slow paced adventure/platform game with a decidedly retro look 'n feel. The puzzles are well crafted and the game should last at least an afternoon. It lacks a save function so, if you have not finished by bed time, you will have to start over again. Due to the some swearing and comical violence, the author suggests that this is a PG:13 game, suitable for teenagers and above. The theology behind Between Heaven and Hell is a little strange, and certainly not "orthodox Christian", but the game is lots of fun and does not try to present an alternative theology. Controls are simple and, apart from a couple of times when things didn't seem to go "by the book", Between Heaven and Hell has a good solid feel about it. We were most impressed with this game. It is humongous, but worth every byte. If you enjoyed games like Prince of Persia, Flashback, Oddworld, and Blackthorne you will love Between Heaven and Hell. Give it a try – you won't be disappointed! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 138MB download from: WinXP General Games

MP3 CD Doctor Lite – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
MP3 CD Doctor Lite is an MP3 CD burner that burns audio CDs from MP3, OGG, WMA & WAV files. It can copy track info for CD label printing, create a CD from an M3U playlist, sort & shuffle tracks, it supports all MMC CD/DVD recorders (CD-R/W, DVD-R/W, DVD+R/W & DVD-RAM), you can drag 'n drop files to burn, choose 74 or 80 minute CDs, and more. It also supports BURNproof, JustLink, Power-Burn, SafeBurn and SeamlessLink burning tools. If you are just looking to turn your existing audio files into audio CDs then MP3 CD Doctor Lite could be exactly what you want. Aim the program at your sound files or M3U playlist, or drag 'n drop files into the program's window, decide if you want it to do either a test burn or an actual burn, and click on the program's Start button. Simple. MP3 CD Doctor Lite has a limited application, but does what it does extremely well. One area we were a little disappointed in was in the separation between tracks. There is a very small gap between tracks, and no way of increasing it, which can make tracks seem like they run on, one to another. That aside, we did like MP3 CD Doctor Lite. It might lack a CD labeler (available in the Pro version) but, to us, that is a small omission. Grab a copy and check it out yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 1.16MB download from: Win98 Multimedia Programs

Text Suite Pro v3.5.5590 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Text Suite Pro is a word processor & text editor with a built-in MP3 audio player. It features virtually unlimited filesize, MDI (multi document interface), quick access to System tools (Registry Editor, Explorer, DOS prompt, etc) & e-mail client, built-in tools (dictionary, character map, calculator, etc), RTF text attributes, and more. While Text Suite Pro acts an excellent replacement for the Notepad ASCII text editor, it is also a word processor, opening and saving RTF (rich text format) documents. It includes all the usual RTF attributes – bold, italics, colored text, colored backgrounds, font control, bullets, images, etc. It has a built-in MP3 music player which, while somewhat cumbersome to use, allows you to play individual audio files while you are working (we aren't sure why you'd want to, but the facility is there). There are also links to some handy System tools that you can open from within Text Suite Pro, plus it will open your default e-mail client. Alas, it cannot e-mail a document from within the program (or even place that information in the e-mail client) so its functionality is limited. Text Suite Pro has some built-in tools, including a dictionary. The Helpfile says that you can place your words in the dictionary for later retrieval, but this did not work for us and the Helpfile was not much help in showing us how we were expected to achieve this. Finally, while it can open extra large files (we had it open our 10MB, 470,000 lines of text test file), it is extremely slow and is not very happy about opening a second file when it already has a huge one in memory. It seemed to us that Text Suite Pro was trying to be all things to all people, and not succeeding very well in most areas. However, as a simple word processor and ASCII text editor, it did an excellent job except in the area of huge file sizes. The add-on functions were of varying value, but none were considered essential and none would have encouraged us to download and use this program. Text Suite Pro is a very good RTF and ASCII text editor that has a basic MP3 player built-in. If you like gadgets, you will probably love Text Suite Pro. Note: if you decide to uninstall this program do not allow it to remove OCX and DLL files from the Windows/system32 folder as these are required by other programs! Access this 3.33MB download from: Win95 Text Programs

Runscanner v1.0.3.0 – WinXP/Vista
Runscanner is a program that detects autostart programs, spyware, adware, homepage hijackers, unverified drivers and other problems so they can be rectified. It features scanning of 80+ hijack locations, provides an online malware analysis of results, has a powerful process killer that can kill multiple processes at once, includes a Host file editor, has an online lookup of scanned entries, Beginner & Expert modes, opens Regedit, no installation required (unzip and run), and more. This is an excellent tool for finding programs that autostart with Windows and preventing unwanted programs from doing so in the future. It offers not just an exhaustive list of programs which do autostart (including many from so-called hidden locations that are sometimes hard to find) but also a list of current processes (note – it is always better to kill a running process before removing its autostart link to prevent it from re-establishing that autostart link automatically). It also offers an online malware analysis report to help you determine if a particular process is malignant or benign. While this is not an exhaustive analysis of your processes, it does help somewhat in knowing what to kill and what not to kill. Unfortunately, it stated that some essential processes, like our Kaspersky anti-virus program and our PC Tools firewall, were unrated items needed attention. They didn't! Using information provided carefully is always important and we suggest that, if you find a process that seems to be questionable, conduct an Internet search and look to see what others are saying about that process. Runscanner can also display your Hosts file, and even provides an editor so you can change, or delete, entries. A Hosts file can be used to hijack Web addresses by telling your Web browser that a particular domain address should be linked to a particular IP address. In most cases, your Hosts file should be empty (it may have a Localhost entry to 127.0.0.1 or similar). The Beginner mode simply provides a log of what the program found during a system scan and we consider the Expert mode to be much more valuable. We loved Runscanner. It is one of the best process displayers and autostart program listing tools we have seen. While it does provide probably more information than most users will need, the information provided is excellent and can be used to rid your computer of malware and other non-required autostart programs. A "must have" tool for your computer. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 1.84MB download from: WinXP Desktop Utilities

Sudoku Generator v1.1 – WinXP/Vista
Sudoku Generator is a small program that creates Sudoku number puzzles on a 9x9 grid for playing and sharing. It features 3 levels of difficulty, displays the solution if required, puzzles (with or without the solution) can be printed, puzzles can be saved to disk, has an always-on-top option, there is no instalation required (just download and play), and more. This is an easy-to-use Sudoku tool for creating these popular number puzzles. Using a standard 9x9 grid, all numbers between 1 and 9 (no zero) must be used vertically and horizontally to complete the puzzle. There can be no duplication of numbers in any individual row or column. Sudoku Generator fulfills the requirement of creating puzzles (and their solutions) that fits this criteria and, while it is not the prettiest program around, it is both functional and easy to use. As there is no installation required, you just download the program and run it. Saved puzzles have the extension SDK and can be placed anywhere on your computer (default is My Documents). We liked Sudoku Generator. It creates good puzzles that can be printed and shared. Try it for yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 240kB download from: WinXP General Games

Cartoonist v1.3 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Cartoonist adds a touch of humor to photos by distorting images to make caricatures. It features a variable warp radius, supports 3 popular file formats (JPG, GIF & BMP), offers an online tutorial, you can change background color, it preserves EXIF information, has one-level undo/redo, zoom, and more. This is a fabulous way of adding humor to your digital photos (specially those of people). Drag the warp control over your image and watch how it changes. Vary the size of the warp to vary the effect. Working better with images larger than 100x100 pixels, Cartoonist is one of those fun programs that, once used, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. We loved! Access this 5.07MB download from: Win95 Graphic Programs

Text to HTML Converter v1.0 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Text to HTML Converter is a small program that converts plain text files to HTML, and also converts pasted Clipboard text. It features syntax coloring, raw HTML display in browser, built-in preview window, simple to use, and more. HTML coding is quite daunting for many Web users and this is an easy way to convert your old text files into HTML format, suitable for displaying on the Internet or through any Web browser. Unfortunately, it does not allow for the inclusion of images, or even different sized headings, but as a straight conversion from ASCII text to HTML it is excellent. One useful aspect of this tool is the ability to display HTML as HTML in a Web browser – if you add HTML coded text it will display that text in its raw HTML and not present it as it is normally seen in a browser. This is handy if you want to display your coding to your viewers, maybe for teaching purposes. If you want to convert text into HTML, or display HTML coding in a Web browser, then grab a copy of Text to HTML Converter. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 555kB download from: Win98 Internet Related

YS Flight Simulation System 2000 v20070415 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
YS Flight Simulation System 2000 is a fully featured flight simulator where you can fly a dogfight, participate in a ground attack, be a formation leader, take off & land from an aircraft carrier, try a cross wind landing, etc. It features over 60 planes to choose (fixed wing, rotary wing, jet powered, turbo-prop, commercial, fighter, etc), a choice of 14 airstrips, you can fly during day or night, be involved with network or local play, and more. This is an awesome flight sim which offers an immense number of choices of craft, weather conditions, location, etc. There are two variations of the game, an OpenGL version and a non-OpenGL version, and players can choose which version they want depending on their graphics card and computer setup. Like most similar programs, the scenery is not photo realistic, but that is one of the few areas in which this game suffers. If you are prepared to pay a small sum of money, you can get a scenery editor and some other add-ons, though none are necessary and the game plays extremely well "out of the box". Also like many other sims, the author has assumed that the player has some knowledge about flight sims and we were disappointed that there was not more basic instruction. That aside, YS Flight Simulation System 2000 really is an amazing game where you can lose yourself for many, many hours. It can be played across a network with (theoretically) up to 17 players, or as a single player game where you battle a computerized enemy. If you love flight, or just wish to experience the thrill of soaring up with the birds, then YS Flight Simulation System 2000 is for you. However, we warn you that it is addictive and you should expect to wonder where the time has gone after you start playing. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 7.74MB download from: Win98 General Games
UPDATES
Reach-a-Mail – a portable e-mail client, suitable for use on a USB flash drive – has been updated to version 2.9 with a slightly larger download size of 2.25MB. We have not been advised of the changes made to this version. Get this update from: Win98 Internet Related
Rainbow Folders – colorizes folder icons in Explorer to aid in grouping similar types of folders with the same color – has been updated to version 2.00 with a much larger download size of 559kB. The author advises that changes in this version include: a full program rewrite; support for three sizes of icons; colorizing & decolorizing multiple folders at the same time; color extraction; modern-style icons & high-contrast icons; random colors; cache icon rebuilding; system shell extension; visual styles support; Helpfile in CHM format; bugfixes, and more. Get this much updated program from: Win95 Windows Enhancements
COMMENTS
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. If you are an author of a freeware app (or would just like to suggest a program) and would like it listed on these pages, please fill in the Submit Software form.
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