Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #466 issued March 7, 2008

Home > CFS Weekly Newsletter #466: issued March 7, 2008

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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

Earthworm Jim v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Earthworm Jim is a wild & wacky platform shooter where an earthworm, after discovering a high-tech space cybersuit, becomes a super mean fighting machine. It features 12 incredible levels, lots of powerups, tons of wacky enemies to fight, highly addictive gameplay, excellent graphics, and more. This is an old Sega game from 1994 that is powered by a Fusion emulator. The storyline is superb, the game full of action, and the enemies persistent. The plot is loads of fun, with lots of unforgettable characters: "The storyline involves many colorful characters. Jim was at first an ordinary Earth earthworm who did very earthworm-like things such as flee from crows and eat dirt. One day, in the space above Earth, the evil Psy-Crow had cornered a rebel spaceship pilot who had stolen an 'Ultra-high-tech-indestructible-super-space-cyber-suit' built by Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. The suit had been commissioned by the evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt so that she could further conquer the galaxy. In the ensuing space fight, the suit was dropped to Earth, and fell on Jim. By a stroke of luck, Jim managed to land within the collar of the suit, and it ended up mutating him into the large and intelligent (at least by earthworm standards) superhero he is today. Jim overhears Psy-Crow talking to Queen Slug-for-a-Butt about the scorch marks left by the suit and her plans for her sister, Princess What's-Her-Name. Jim thus sets out to rescue the princess, fighting many enemies along the way, such as Major Mucus, Chuck and Fifi, Evil the Cat, and Bob the Killer Goldfish." With a plot like that, you just know that Earthworm Jim is going to be an unforgettable game. With its excellent graphics, this is a game to bring you back again and again. We loved! Access this 2.38MB download from: Win95 General Games

Recuva v1.11.257 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Recuva is a program that restores files that have been accidentally deleted from the computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle Bin, images deleted from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players, even files deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses. This is one of the most efficient file recovery programs we have seen. It first gathers information about all deleted file snippets and packets laying around your drive, and then checks to see if whole files are recoverable. Recuva (pronounced "recover") found nearly 64,000 deleted files on our drive C:, though only a few hundred were recoverable. It reports on the state of the found file – excellent, poor and unrecoverable. It supports all major file formats (FAT32, NTSF, etc) and is extremely easy to use. Recuva is a "must have" for all PC users. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 679kB download from: Win98 Desktop Utilities

MediaPortal v0.2.3.0 – WinXP/Vista
MediaPortal is a portal for playing DVDs, TV, video, image viewing, playing CDs, digital music and radio. It features local weather information, PVR function (recording, pausing & rewinding live television), supports plugins & skin engine, includes some codecs (even the Lame MP3 DLL), and more. This is an awesome front-end for your multimedia needs. If you have a TV capture card in your computer it can act like a personal video recorder (PVR) and let you pause, rewind and record your favorite TV programs. It also offers a slideshow of your images, plays your movie files and MP3 audio files, and lots more. You can set up your local city in the separate configuration program and get the current weather from the Internet for your location. MediaPortal is an OpenSource program that puts all your multimedia needs together under a single interface. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 26.6MB download from: WinXP Multimedia Programs

Email Monitor v2.1 – WinXP/Vista
Email Monitor is a small program that monitors all outgoing e-mails from a computer and alerts whenever an unauthorized or unknown program (virus, keylogger, spyware etc) is trying to send an e-mail. It resides as an icon in the desktray (next to the clock), auto loads with Windows, offers filters & rules (for clients, recipients & attachments), works on a System level so it cannot be bypassed, and more. This is an excellent tool that sits in the background and quietly checks all outgoing mail. You can set it up to have you manually allow all mail, or you can allow certain e-mail clients to send out mail without question. However, we advise users of Outlook and Outlook Express to not give their e-mail client full, unchecked use because many Trojans target the Outlook address book and mail out to everyone in your list. Of course, your anti-virus program should be doing this for you, but we all know that they aren't perfect and a new virus or spyware program can infect your system before it is stopped by your anti-virus program. Email Monitor stops all unauthorized mail from getting past your other defenses. We were disappointed that there was basically no information provided about creating the rules to block, or allow, certain mail. We do not know the format the program requires to work and we believe that this is the most important area for the authors to rectify. We were also a little disappointed that we could not change the location where the program resides – it automatically installs itself at C:\Program Files\Email Monitor. That aside, Email Monitor is a superb program and one that all PC users, connected to the Internet, should use. Grab a copy now! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 172kB download from: WinXP Internet Related

Mario Time Attack v1 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Mario Time Attack is a time-based run 'n jump game where you must cross the desert to deliver water to Princess Peach. It features multiple levels, is a SWF game that runs in a browser window, is simple to play, suitable for all ages, has good retro graphics, and more. This is a fun little game that can be played on-line or on your computer (you could even post a copy of it on your Website for your visitors to play). Mario Time Attack is a standard run 'n jump game where the up arrow on your keyboards makes Mario jump, and the left/right arrows move. He can be made to run by pressing the Shift key. You cross the obstacles to deliver the water to Princess Peach, collecting coins, etc along the way, but you must get that water to her before she dies of thirst. Mario Time Attack is a simple game that is simple to play but it has an addictive element that brings you back for more and more. We liked! Access this 204kB download from: Win95 General Games

HDD Health v3.2 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
HDD Health is a full-featured failure-prediction agent that monitors hard disks and alerts to impending failure. It features simple bar graphs for HDD temperature & health, gives full HDD information (manufacturer, size, etc), shows full partition information, and more. Using S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis & Reporting Technology) which is generally available on all modern hard drives (though sometimes it needs to be activated through the BIOS settings panel), HDD Health resides as an icon in the desktray (next to the clock) and reports on the condition of your hard drive. It is simple to use but still offers worthwhile assistance in determining the condition of your HDD(s). A "must have" for all PC users! Access this 844kB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Wink v2.0 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Wink is a tool that creates video-based tutorials of screen activity. It offers inputs directly from the screen or from bitmapped images (BMP, JPG, PNG, TIF & GIF), the optional inclusion of audio, it offers various output formats (Macromedia Flash, EXE, PDF, PostScript, HTML, etc), you can add dialog boxes & play controls, includes its own tutorial, and more. This is a handy tool for anyone wishing to create a tutorial. It can capture the entire screen, the active window, or a portion of the screen (a rectangle, the size of which you designate). By default it captures screenshots automatically as you use your PC, based on mouse and keyboard input, but we had some trouble when we tried to capture multiple screens from the same window. More experimentation would probably solve this mini problem. Generally, we found Wink to be a program that creates professional looking tutorials, though there is a small learning curve before your tutorials will look like you want them to. Fortunately there is lots of help included with the program – you just need to take the time to go through it all. Wink proves the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. A great tool for anyone looking to create tutorials. Note: we have been advised that this program may not be suitable for Windows 95. Access this 3.08MB download from: Win98 General Programs

Scrolling LED Bitmap Generator v3.2.0 – WinXP/Vista
Scrolling LED Bitmap Generator is a program that creates an animated GIF with scrolling text that seems to be displayed by LEDs. It features full control over text used, control over the width of the image, choice of font, LED color (green or red), background image, animation style, and more. If you like scrolling LED-style displays, then Scrolling LED Bitmap Generator is exactly what you are probably looking for. It creates a scrolling text image and offers an excellent number of options so you can personalize it as much as you like. Unfortunately, long text means huge filesizes, and those are not conducive to posting on the Internet, though they can be used in other areas where image size isn't quite as much of an issue. We had two main issues with Scrolling LED Bitmap Generator. The first relates to the number of frames created. Yes, you can manually delete frames before it is compiled (saved as an animated GIF) but there is no way to automatically, say, half the number of frames by removing every second frame. While that might make the animation slightly more jerky, it does reduce the total image size by approximately 50%. A way of removing a set number of frames (say, one in every three) would be immensely valuable. There is also no way to globally change the delay time between frames – you can change individual frames but you cannot change them globally. Both these functions could be used in concert to, say, half the number of frames and then double the amount of time it takes for each frame to display so the overall speed of scrolling was the same. This aside, Scrolling LED Bitmap Generator is a fun tool that many will find invaluable. Worth a look! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 3.99MB download from: WinXP Graphic Programs

Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery v1 – WinXP/Vista
Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery is a beautifully crafted mystery-puzzle quest where you must find the killer of King Tut by placing shapes and decrypting ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. It features spectacular 3D effects, an involving murder-mystery plot based on actual historic events, 6 powerups to collect, lots of levels, over 300 ancient hieroglyphs to decrypt, and more. Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery is a stunning inlay puzzle type game where you must move falling shapes and place them in their correct location on the board (often they need to be rotated to align them correctly). There are even pieces which do not fit and these must be dropped into the crusher. Without a doubt, it is the sensational 3D graphics (and associated effects) which draw you to this game. The puzzle itself is captivating but it is the graphics that hold you there. Unfortunately, Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery is spoilt with a huge download and advertising. To download this game you must first get a small 678kB 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 44.05MB, though we noticed over 168MB 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 Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery 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 Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery an excellent game – one of the best mystery-puzzle quests we have seen. 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 678kB download (this is just the helper file) from: WinXP General Games
UPDATE
Multi Virus Cleaner 2008 – a stand-alone utility used to detect & remove major viruses – has been updated to version 8.0.6 with a new, slightly larger download size of 1.59MB. The author advises that this version has a new look. Get this update from: Win95 Desktop Utilities
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