Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #453 issued November 16, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Dr. Green v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Dr. Green is a 3D first person shooter where you must kill the Robo Hounds & Green Goblins that Dr Green has unleashed on the city. It features 5 lives, 2 closely guarded med kits, 3D graphics, challenging gameplay, and more. This is a another well-executed 1st person shooter using 3D graphics (similar to some corridor games) from OTS Software. It follows standard gameplay for this type of 3D 1st person shooter and you must blast away at everything that moves without getting blasted yourself. This example of the genre is a little harder to win than many of the others because the enemies (Robo Hounds & Green Goblins) are hard to hit. We enjoy this type of game and we found Dr. Green highly playable, and even addictive. Worth a look! Access this 7.41MB download from: Win95 General Games

Smart Blogger v2.0 – WinXP/Vista
Smart Blogger is a tool that centralizes management of diaries & blogs anywhere on the Internet. It features text formatting, text editing, publishing on-line, helps create a new blog account (through LiveJournal, Blogger or WordPress), and more. This is a sensational tool for anyone regularly publishing blogs to any service on the Internet. If you don't already have an account with a web-blog service you use can use the Wizard to create one from any of the three supported services. Otherwise, you can add your address and log-in information for any blog or diary service, and use this excellent tool to maintain it. Smart Blogger offers text editing and formatting so you can create a blog on your desktop and then use it to publish the blog on-online. Smart Blogger truly is the smart way to manage your blogs. It looks good, is easy to use, and is practical. We loved! Note: though the author did tell us it was suitable for Windows 95 and later, the official Website says XP and later. Access this 1.45MB download from: WinXP Internet Related

Sweet Home 3D v1.2 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Sweet Home 3D is an interior design application that helps positioning furniture on a 2D floor plan. It features a 3D preview, 75 different pieces of 3D furniture to place (or you can download more), you can create your own furniture (supports OBJ, LWS & 3DS formats), you can include sloping walls, ground & wall textures, and more. This is an awesome way of determining what will fit in a room, and for seeing how rearranging the furniture will help get the best from a room. It gives a 3D preview in real-time, even though you position furniture on a 2D floor plan. Sweet Home 3D is a cross-platform Java application and the main download includes Java. There is a smaller download available (approximately 10MB) for people who already have Java installed and who are comfortable working with Java (the full download is seamless and is recommended for most users). We were highly impressed with Sweet Home 3D. It is a "must have" for anyone considering doing some home renovations and/or decorations. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 24.0MB download (includes Java) from: Win98 Graphic Programs

CCleaner v2.02.527 – WinXP/Vista
CCleaner is a system optimizer and cleaner that removes unused & temporary files from the computer, allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently, and frees hard disk space. It features control over program uninstall entries, control over startup entries, optional Registry backup before cleaning, automatic checking for program updates, fast scanning, and more. This is a superb system optimizer that flushes away dead Registry entries and optionally removes unnecessary and wasteful files. However, its biggest feature is its speed – CCleaner is blindingly fast. There are options to specify which cookies to retain, and even which custom files and folders to include or exclude from the cleanup. Simple to use, CCleaner is one of the best system cleaners we have seen. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 2.59MB download from: WinXP Windows Enhancements

Vivid Bricks v2.1 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Vivid Bricks is a falling blocks game set in a nursery where a young boy is being attacked by his toys and he must shoot them to make them disappear. It features excellent graphics, 4 levels of play, mouse controlled, simple to play but addictive, fun for all ages, high score, and more. This is a great little game that requires little brainpower but is still fun to play. You must shoot two or more blocks of the same color to make them disappear, but new blocks are appearing all the time so you have to move fast. The more blocks you destroy at one time, the higher the score. This game is characterized by very good animated graphics, and simple gameplay. Vivid Bricks is available directly from the CFS server and, the version we offer, contains no ads (though it does open up an Internet link to the publisher, MyPlayCity.com, when the game is closed). The version from MyPLayCity.com is about 1MB larger than the version CFS hosts, and we assume that this is because of advertising. We liked Vivid Bricks. It is a fun game that all should enjoy. Get this 1.69MB download from: Win95 General Games

PeaZip v1.9.3 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
PeaZip is an archive manager that can open 24 archive formats, and save to 11 (incl ZIP, TAR, GZIP & 7Z). It features drag 'n drop archiving, Explorer right-click context menu (shell) integration, supports password protection, can split/join/compare/wipe/encrypt files, and more. This is an excellent archive manager that can save to 11 different archive formats (including its own native PEA format) and extract a whopping 24 different archive formats. These are 7Z, 7-Zip sfx, ACE, ARJ, BZ2, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, GZ, ISO, JAR, LHA/LZH, NSIS, OOo, PAQ/LPAQ, PEA, QUAD, RAR, RPM, split, TAR, Z and ZIP. However, it does not allow the creation of SFX (self extracting ZIP archives) files, and this we found strange as this is a very common function of archive managers. We were surprised to find that the only way to add Explorer shell integration was during the initial install – there is no way (we could see) of adding it later if you had changed your mind. It also lacks some of the more esoteric bells and whistles, like a built-in FTP client, and e-mail integration. That aside, PeaZip is a most impressive tool that supports a huge number of archive formats. We liked! Access this 2.87MB download from: Win95 General Programs

Avidemux v2.4 – WinXP/Vista
Avidemux is a video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks (similar to VirtualDub). It supports many file types (AVI, MPEG/VOB/TS , MP4, ASF, OGM, MKV & FLV), has built-in video & audio encoders (Xvid, x264, libavcodec MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, DV, Lame, FAAC, Aften & OggVorbis), includes many video filters (most ported from MPlayer, VirtualDub & Avisynth), supports external video filter plug-ins, and more. Unfortunately CFS was unable to review this program. The author says: "Imagine an application which does everything VirtualDub can do, but runs on various platforms, supports a lot of containers, comes with all Codecs you need built-in and doesn't use the nasty VfW interface. That application is Avidemux! Its graphical user interface looks pretty similar to VirtualDub and most features known from VirtualDub are available too. Avidemux supports a great number of file types, such as AVI, MPEG/VOB/TS , MP4, ASF, OGM, MKV and FLV. At the same time it supports a wide range of Video and Audio formats, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264/AVC, DV, HuffYUV, MP3, AAC, AC-3 and Vorbis. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities. Video-DVD or (S)VCD compliant streams can be created with easy-to-use 'Auto' wizards. Avidemux does not support the platform-specific and outdated 'Video for Windows'." If you are looking for a program like VirtualDub then Avidemux should be on your short-list. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 11.0MB download from: WinXP Multimedia Programs

DateInTray v1.5 – Win9x/ME/XP
DateInTray is a small utility that displays the current date as an icon in the desktray (next to the clock). It features a built-in calendar (displays from 1792 to 9999), uses few system resources, and more. This is a neat little tool for anyone who wants to instantly see the current day's date (day of the month) as an icon in the desktray. It also has a very handy calendar with an excellent date range. You can either use the left and right arrow buttons to change the calendar display one month at a time, or click on the month and a small menu will popup giving you a choice of selecting any month of the year. Click on the year in the calendar and it changes to a scroll window that allows you to scroll from 1752 to an optimistic 9999. At any time you can return to the current date by right clicking anywhere in the calendar and clicking on the "Go to today" mini-window that pops up. Simple. Unfortunately it lacks an alarm function, and the only way to change the date format is to change it globally within Windows (it uses the time/date display information from the computer). Probably its biggest omission was the lack of a control to automatically have the program open with Windows. The author points out that you can do this manually but a simple checkbox within the program would have been a real bonus. Even with the lack of features, DateInTray is a great little tool and the calendar is a great asset for any desktop. We loved! Access this 113kB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Oasis v1 – WinXP
Oasis is a strategy and puzzle game set in mythical Egypt where an evil fog has enveloped the land, and you must clear the fog and defend against the attacking barbarians. It features 8 challenges, superb graphics, challenging gameplay, interesting scenarios, powerups to collect, barbarians to kill, cities to uncover & defend, excellent interactive tutorial, and more. This is an excellent game that is something like a combination of Minesweeper (finding hidden cities) and Civilization (building infrastructure to defend your cities). Unfortunately, Oasis is spoilt with a huge download and advertising. To download this game you must first get a small 672kB 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 14.8MB, though we noticed over 112MB 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 Oasis 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 somewhat invasive but you get to view some television-style ads which, if you click on them, will take you to the advertiser's Website. Both the agent and the game are slow loaders, even with a fast computer, and this can be most annoying. Even with all the negative aspects (including the download size and the advertising), we thought Oasis an excellent game. If you have the patience (and a fast 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 672kB download (the helper file) from: WinXP General Games
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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