Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #485 issued August 22, 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.
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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Mystery Island II v1.8.1 – WinXP/Vista
Mystery Island II is a science fiction themed adventure puzzle where players must find and use items to progress further in the game, ensure they stay alive, and finally defeat the aliens, saving Earth. It features a strong storyline, good characterization, excellent puzzles, a mouse-driven interface, a choice of 7 background music styles (or none), an HTML Helpfile that includes a walkthrough & cheats, and more. This is a terrific puzzle adventure game with some challenging puzzles and a great storyline. The author says: "You are a Navy Seal currently serving aboard the USS Volarus when your submarine is destroyed by an unidentified vessel. A Russian nuclear warship seems the most likely possibility. You escape the final blast and wash up on a tropical island. The situation, as you find out, is a much more grim that you originally anticipated. The fate of humankind now rests in your hands." The game suffers a little from its retro-style graphics and the inability of the game to run fullscreen. However, once you get playing these minor points cease to be important as you become engrossed in the game. Apart from the puzzles, we liked the exclusive use of the mouse to play this game. Mystery Island II is a "must have" for all fans of this type of RPG. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 51.3MB download from: WinXP General Games

Moffsoft FreeCalc v1.2.0.6 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Moffsoft FreeCalc is a replacement for the existing Windows calculator. It features a printable/savable history tape, a re-sizeable display, double & triple zero keys, a visible memory display (to easily see the memory contents), color schemes, it minimizes to the system tray, has international support for digit grouping, and more. This is a superb replacement for the aging calculator supplied with the Windows OS. While there are lots of minor improvements, it is the addition of a ticker tape display, so you can always see your calculations, that really makes Moffsoft FreeCalc stand out from the crowd. That ticker tape can be printed and/or saved for future reference. The one area where we thought Moffsoft FreeCalc deficient was the lack of a button to easily copy the contents of the ticker tape into the Windows Clipboard (for pasting into other documents). However, you could highlight the ticker tape printout (using Ctrl-A) and copy it using Ctrl-C. Likewise, the results of your calculations could also be copied for pasting into other documents. These functions are available from the Menu. We were most impressed with Moffsoft FreeCalc. It is a superb calculator for anyone not looking for scientific functions. The history tape was an excellent addition and a function that most users will appreciate. Grab a copy now! Access this 765kB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

DVD Flick v1.3.0.0 – WinXP/Vista
DVD Flick is a video to DVD authoring tool. It supports over 45 file formats (3GP, AVI, DIVX, FLV, MPEG, MP4, MJPG, QT, MOV, RM, WMV, ASF, etc), supports both NTSC & PAL TV systems, optionally adds subtitles, adds custom audio tracks, creates ISO file, and more. DVD Flick is an excellent way to convert video files, in almost any format, to a DVD format that can be burnt onto a disk or saved as an ISO for later burning. Using a barrage of free tools, like ImgBurn, and adding an easy-to-use interface, it provides an excellent way of getting your movies onto DVD so they can be played in virtually all DVD players. DVD Flick will even work with a number of video files, allowing you to create a composite of your video files on the same DVD. It will, for example, burn a composite DVD of all your downloaded YouTube files (subject to copyright permission, of course). If you need to copy video files to DVD then you need DVD Flick. A terrific tool that is easy to use. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 11.7MB download from: WinXP Multimedia Programs

ColdFusionPad v1.1 – WinXP/Vista
ColdFusionPad is a programmer's text editor specifically designed for developing ColdFusion code. It includes 36 preset tags, hundreds of preset function commands, 15 code examples, ColdFusion 7 & SQL quick reference documentation, and more. This is potentially a handy tool for ColdFusion programmers, though the program itself has a number of issues which reduce its potential. For example, the program has a fixed maximum (and, effectively, minimum) window size of 800x600, minuscule in this day of huge widescreen monitors! It also has a 64kB filesize limit, there is no recently opened file list or tabbed interface, no toolbar, and it doesn't offer ColdFusion or SQL syntax highlighting – all of which are usually considered essential in the 21st Century. However, it does offer strong ColdFusion and SQL reference documentation, and lots of good function commands. While it may lack as an ASCII text editor, ColdFusionPad is a dedicated text editor which some programmers will find valuable. If that is you then grab a copy and try it for yourself – but the rest of us would be wise to avoid it. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 252kB download from: WinXP Text Programs

2inventive Master Mind – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
2inventive Master Mind is a Flash game (SWF) that is based on the old Master Mind boardgame. In this game you must deduct the 4 correct colored balls (from 8 possibilities) and place them in the correct order, all within 10 moves. 2inventive Master Mind is an excellent version of this classic game. It plays in a Web browser or a standalone program that plays SWF files (like irfanView). You are faced with 8 colored balls and you must deduct the correct order of the 4 correct colored balls within the 10 allowed moves. To assist you, the program will let you know how many correct colors you have chosen and how many are in the correct location on the board. Challenging and fun to play, 2inventive Master Mind is a fabulous way to kill some time and exercise the gray matter at the same time. We loved! Access this 51kB download from: Win95 General Games

Explorer++ (alpha 2) – WinXP/Vista
Explorer++ is a multi-tab file manager & replacement for Windows Explorer. It features the ability to browse real & virtual folders, it offers a preview of selected images (JPG, GIF, BMP, ICO, etc), there are advanced file management tools (merging, splitting, etc), it uses Explorer's right-click context menu, it supports drag 'n drop, there are handy keyboard shortcuts, it has a customizable user interface, requires no installation, and more. This is an excellent file manager that can only get better and better as it is developed. Even though this is still an early version, it appeared stable and functional. It offers quite a few functions that Explorer does not offer though, in some areas, there seemed to be some further development required. This included the folder view which presents the folders in what appears to be a random order (they do not progress alphabetically). This makes it very hard to find a specific drive if you have multiple drives (or partitions). Explorer++ has a built-in image viewer which will display a thumbnail of a highlighted single image (multiple images are not shown) but we were disappointment in the limited number of filetypes supported (for example, neither TIF nor TGA images display). We loved the tabbed interface and some of the advanced file management functions. Overall, Explorer++ is a great file manager that should just get better and better as it is refined. Grab a copy and see for yourself! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 227kB download from: WinXP Windows Enhancements

PC Tools ThreatFire v3.5.0 – WinXP/Vista
PC Tools ThreatFire is an anti-virus add-on that continually protects a PC against attacks by detecting malicious behavior, such as capturing keystrokes or stealing data, instead of only looking for known threats (like normal antivirus software). Unfortunately CFS was unable to properly review this program (even though we are now using it ourselves). PC Tools says: "ThreatFire is dramatically different to traditional antivirus software. Normal antivirus products usually need to have first identified and seen a threat before they can provide adequate protection against it. The protection is then provided via a signature or fingerprint update, which must first be written by an antivirus researcher. This creates a large window of time where threats are undetected and can therefore infect your PC even when you have antivirus software installed. ThreatFire continually protects your PC against attacks by detecting malicious behavior, such as capturing your keystrokes or stealing your data, instead of only looking for known threats like normal antivirus software. By implementing sophisticated real-time behavioral analysis ThreatFire is able to stop never- before-seen "zero-day" threats solely by detecting their malicious activity. Zero-day threats are usually designed to take advantage of new vulnerabilities or exploits that are currently unprotected by traditional security products. They are usually distributed in huge quantities very quickly by mass email (SPAM), website hijacks, instant messaging or over peer-to-peer networks. Because they are undetectable they are able to wreak havoc and compromise your PC even when you have up-to-date antivirus software installed. ThreatFire's patent-pending ActiveDefense technology offers protection against all types of internet threats – both known and unknown – spyware, adware, keyloggers, viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, buffer overflows, and other malware. ThreatFire uses its unparalleled protection to hunt down and paralyze those threats that are either too new or too clever to be recognized by traditional "signature-based" antivirus software." Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 21.1MB download from: WinXP Internet Related

Polestar Virtual Printer v1.0 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Polestar Virtual Printer is a printer driver that allows the user to "print" or convert any printable document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, AutoCAD, Photoshop, etc) to a PDF document, or to an image file(s). It supports TIF, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP & EMF image formats. This is a terrific tool to convert any printable document (even Websites!) to the PDF format, or save it as an image file. It offers a number of options for quality and image size, and is as easy to use as simply selecting the print function from a page and then selecting Polestar Virtual Printer as the "printer". You are then asked what format in which to save the "print job", and the location for the resultant file. Clicking on "Save" will do just that. If you save a large document as an image it will create an image for every page whereas in PDF format it will save it as a multiple page document. Polestar Virtual Printer works extremely well and there are ample controls to ensure that quality does not suffer unless you want it to. If you have a need to convert a printable page to PDF or to an image then Polestar Virtual Printer is the way to go. In one word, impressive! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 2.49MB download from: Win98 General Programs

Lone Soldier v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Lone Soldier is a top-down, war-based shoot-em-up where you, as a lone soldier, must take out the enemy using your machine gun and hand grenades. This is an unpretentious little game that is quite good fun to play. It is a basic shooter that uses the combination of the Ctrl key and the arrow keys to aim and fire the machine gun, and the Spacebar and the arrow keys to throw hand grenades. The enemy soldiers come at you in ever increasing numbers and you must battle your way through them before succumbing to their attacks. We liked Lone Soldier. It lacks the sophistication of some modern shooters, and the fancy graphics, but it makes up for that by being a fun little game to play. If you are looking for a simple little shooter then try Lone Soldier. Get this 441kB download from: Win95 General Games
COMMENTS
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