Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #456 issued December 7, 2007

Home > CFS Weekly Newsletter #456: issued December 7, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Battleships Forever v0.83 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Battleships Forever is a real-time space strategy game where you control a force of spaceships. It features 8 Career missions & 5 Skirmish modes (including Sandbox where you can import custom ships), a ship builder, superb animated graphics, powerups, radar display, addictive gameplay, and more. We loved this amazing strategy-based space game. It is much too good to be called simply a "shooter" because it goes much further than most games in the space shooter genre. There is a high degree of customization that can be applied and you can select which enemy ship to attack, select different weapons on your ship (varies from ship to ship), you can target certain areas on an enemy ship, zoom in and out, and use the various powerups to improve your ship or draw other allied ships into a combined attack. Generally the interface is intuitive, but there is a huge number of keystroke combos that can be employed to get the best from the game. However, to learn all the keystroke combos is a massive job. Battleships Forever is probably not a game that you will play just once or twice because it gets better and better every time you play (well, you get better and better at controlling the game). The superb animated graphics are a major bonus. Battleships Forever can be run under Windows 98 but it is unlikely that an average Windows 98 computer would be powerful enough to run this game with full graphics. If you have Windows Vista then you should read the game's README file so you know where to install it or it may not run properly. It ran normally under our standard Windows XP computer. If you are looking for a game that stands out from the crowd because it is so good, then grab a copy of Battleships Forever. You won't regret it! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 11.3MB download from: Win98 General Games

WinBubble v1.0 – Vista
WinBubble is a Vista customization & tweaking tool. It features 3 main categories (Customization, Security & Optimization), makes over 40 changes, is a portable application (no installation required), and more. Unfortunately CFS was unable to review this program. The author says that WinBubble offers to customize the context menu, customize desktop icons, hack the Windows Experience score, enable Aurora Bootscreen guide, launch WinSAT Aurora, customize Internet Explorer, and more. Optimizations include speeding-up the Start menu search, clearing the multiple monitor configuration, and more. Security tweaks include disabling "Folder Options", the Task Manager, AutoPlay, access to Control Panel, and more. Other security tweaks include adding Encrypt/Decrypt to Explorer's right-click context menu, enabling/disabling UAC, disabling the RUN command in the Start Menu & Task Manager, hiding a specific drive, hiding all fixed drives, hiding the Shutdown button & options in the Start Menu, and lots more. If you have Vista you would be wise to checkout WinBubble. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98, ME or XP. Access this 269kB download from: Vista Windows Enhancements

Fresh HTML v1.80 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Fresh HTML is a WYSIWYG HTML editor. It features both WYSIWYG & source code editing, fast insertion of common objects (tables, forms, checkboxes, images, etc), word processor-style control over text, a recent file list, it is suitable for inexperienced Web authors, there is a Helpfile, and more. While Fresh HTML lacks templates, never-the-less it is an easy HTML editor for anyone who is more used to working with word processors than HTML. It offers two tabs for a page – the WYSIWYG view and the source code view. The page can be edited in either tab. One disappointment we had was that Fresh HTML did not automatically add size tags to an image. While you could add them yourself (if you knew them) any page created using images without size tags gives much more work to the reader's Web browser which must try and fit the page together after images are downloaded, instead of making up the page while images are being downloaded. Another disappointment was that you could only open one page at a time – which makes global editing of multiple pages impossible. That aside, Fresh HTML is an easy-to-use, if somewhat basic, HTML editor. It does not offer JavaScripts or other bells and whistles found in many other editors. For an inexperienced user that is fine – those extra functions just make the editor more cumbersome and harder to learn. The downside is that if a user continues to develop HTML skills, they will soon grow out of Fresh HTML and look for something more gutsy – an editor they can grow into rather than out of. The Helpfile is very basic and will probably not give a raw novice the entry into HTML editing that it could. We still found Fresh HTML to be a good little WYSIWYG HTML editor that should serve most users well. It is definitely worth a look. Access this 1.49MB download from: Win95 Internet Related

Screen Grab Pro v1.5 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Screen Grab Pro is a screen capture tool that can save to Clipboard and/or file. It captures the active window or fullscreen, optionally captures a portion or region of the screen (any size, square or rectangular), hotkey capture (F9 for main capture, F8 for region capture), optional delay timer (5, 10 or 30 sec), saves screenshot to BMP & JPG, beeps on capture, and more. This is potentially a superb screen capture tool. It is easy to use, offers a hotkey activated capture, and allows you to save to the Clipboard and/or to both a BMP and a JPG image. Simply open the program, ensure the settings are correct and go into the program you want to capture the screen of. Screen Grab Pro sits quietly in the system tray with all the other programs but has "stolen" both the F8 and F9 keys from the program you are using. When you want the screenshot you simply press the appropriate key and a copy of that screen is created in the Screen Grab Pro folder (plus into the Clipboard if that option is ticked). There were a few issues with this program. First, it only saves the last screenshot so if you take two, the second one will overwrite the first one. The only way to beat this is to use a Clipboard extender (like Yankee Clipper) that saves each copy of whatever goes into the Clipboard. Second, it doesn't seem to "remember" the last used settings. This means that every time you open the program you have to ensure that your settings are correct (specially if, like us, you use a Clipboard extender and want to save multiple screenshots in the Clipboard). Finally, the timer function did not seem to be working – it didn't matter what setting we had it on the image was captured immediately. That aside, Screen Grab Pro is a great little screen capture tool that, while not pretty, is very practical. We liked! Access this 1.17MB download from: Win95 Graphic Programs

Filler v2.01 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Filler is a strategy-based puzzle for 1 or 2 players where you must convert as many colored hexagrams as you can to the same color. It features 2 levels of difficulty against the computer, choose 5 to 9 colors, optional "blind" game, limit thinking time, highly addictive, simple to play, and more. This really is an easy game to play – you start in one corner, your opponent starts in the opposite corner, and the object is to accumulate as many hexagons as possible. By changing the primary color of your hexagons to encompass the color of adjoining tiles, you incorporate them into your collection, building your score. Taking turns, your opponent (human or computer) is doing the same thing. There is a running total of the number hexagons in each collection. You can select any color you like except the current "active" color of your opponent. Even in Easy mode, the computer is hard to beat (but not impossible). Filler lacks a good Helpfile but it is reasonably intuitive to play. By default the game starts in the top left hand corner of the screen and can only be moved by using the center button marked "Filler". Unfortunately, it does not appear in the system tray when open so the best way to get it back if you open another program over the top of it is to use the Alt-Tab combo to switch between active programs. Most annoying. Filler is a terrible game if you wish to do anything else for the rest of the day! We found it impossibly addictive as it keeps on drawing you back for "just one more game". Not good if you are supposed to be working... Simple in concept, easy to play (but not so easy to win) Filler is, to us, almost the perfect strategy-based puzzle. We loved! Access this 136kB download from: Win95 General Games

Dark Room v0.8.0.0 – WinXP/Vista
Dark Room is a simple word processor & text editor that highlights simplicity rather than features. It has options for color scheme (font & background), choice of font & size, windowed & fullscreen modes, autosave, and more. This is a clone of the Apple Mac OS X WriteRoom project which is for "people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a full-screen writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you're used to, WriteRoom is just about you and your text." Dark Room has the same ideals (albeit without a spell checker!) and, as the author says, it is "a child of necessity, as there were no viable alternatives in Windows to produce the same behavior". So Dark Room is a simplistic word processor where the focus is away from features and just on the words you type (like putting a blank sheet of paper in a typewriter). Normally run in fullscreen mode, unfortunately many of the functions are only available in windowed mode – like printing, opening documents, etc. There are some shortcuts (most are standard Windows hotkeys, like Ctrl-S for save, Ctrl-P for printing, etc) but it seems strange that there are such limited features available through context menus in the fullscreen mode. However, switching between fullscreen and windows modes is as simple as pressing either the Esc key or the F11 key – both of which toggle between the two modes. We found the only real negative was the lack of spell checker, though there are add-on spell checkers available to fill that role. Dark Room is a great little tool that many users will find of great value. We liked! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 47kB (yes, you read right) download from: WinXP Text Programs

SolveigMM AVI Trimmer v1.5 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
SolveigMM AVI Trimmer is a video editor that enables the trimming of most movie files, and saves to AVI format. It supports most video formats (DV, XviD, DivX, 3ivX, MPEG-4, etc), supports most audio formats (MPEG-1,2 Layer I, II, III; AC3, etc), supports large AVI files (to 4GB), trims multiple segments from a file (good for removing ads), good Helpfile, and more. This is an excellent tool for anyone who wishes to remove segments from a video file. It supports a good range of popular movie formats, though it can only save the result to the AVI format. There is a good Helpfile but most users will find it quite intuitive and easy to use. Just aim it at your movie file, play the movie through the program, marking the start and finish of each segment you want to keep. Click on the Add button and then the Run button (having assured yourself that the file will be saved to the correct location with the correct filename). Simple. SolveigMM AVI Trimmer may not be the prettiest program we have seen but it is extremely practical and works very, very well. We were most impressed! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 2.44MB download from: Win98 Multimedia Programs

Stoneout Alpha 2 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Stoneout is a 3D Breakout clone. It features 4 levels of play (cycles through getting faster each time), lots of powerups, interesting 3D graphics, fullscreen & windowed modes, supports 4 screen resolutions, and more. This is an early development of this game, but we thought it showed lots of promise. Presently there are only four levels but this should change soon as the game is expanded. The game plays fast so there is often a real challenge in keeping the ball in play. This is an excellent project for any Breakout fan who may want to become involved in its development by making suggestions to the author. We found that it had some quirks that added a challenge to the game (albeit probably unintentional). For example, when the ball is hit by the bat it does not always bounce off in a predicable way, and we could determine if this was a ploy to add additional challenges, or a glitch in the programming. Currently there is no high score, and it doesn't seem to matter how many balls you lose – there seems to be an endless supply. As a serious game for serious gamers Stoneout is certainly not ready. As a work in progress that, possibly, you could have input into making it a top notch game, it is certainly worthy of the tiny download. We enjoyed playing Stoneout. It is a refreshing change from other Breakout clones. Check it out for yourself. Access this 392kB download from: Win95 General Games
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