Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #513 issued July 17, 2009

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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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Phoenix v0.975 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Phoenix is a classy space shooter where you must defeat the Phoenix armada before it invades Earth. It features 5 levels, offers an optional temporary shield, has good animated graphics & sound effects, challenging gameplay, and more. While this appears to be yet another vertically scrolling space shooter with hordes of attacking enemy space ships, Phoenix has a classy feel about it that is a combination of very good graphics and quite challenging gameplay. There are five levels or stages to this game – the first two are waves of scouts (small space birds), the second two waves are soldiers (large falcon-like birds), and the final wave is the mothership or Boss. Apart from your weapons (typical spacebar firing), you have access to a temporary shield that, while it protects you from attack, it also prevents you from moving. Fortunately, you can still fire your weapons with the shield in place. The shield lasts for only 1 second and you must wait another 4 seconds before deploying it again. The author offers this game only as a RAR archive, so CFS has also offered a ZIP format download. Phoenix is a better space shooter than its description indicates and is highly addictive. Worth grabbing! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 7.79MB download from: Win98 General Games

sPrint v2.0 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
sPrint is a screen capture utility that can capture the whole screen, a window, or a selected area that can be printed, copied to the Clipboard, or saved as a bitmap image. It features optional capture delay (up to 1 second delay), it can use the Print Screen key if required, offers optional grayscale saving and/or printing, and more. This is a simple screen capture utility that carries out the basic screen capture functions without too many bells or whistles. It cannot capture multiple images (there is no automated image saving) but it does offer a printing facility so you can get a hardcopy of the screen through your printer. We did find some fault with the window capturing function as it copied the active window element (usually a toolbar) rather than the entire active window. We also felt that a maximum 1 second delay was much to short for many captures and would like to see this increased to at least 100 seconds (1,000 seconds would not be too long!). Generally, sPrint is an acceptable screen capture utility for anyone who wants minimum functionality but still wants more than simply using the Clipboard. Check it out for yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 332kB from: Win98 Graphic Programs

Windows In A Box v2.0 – WinXP
Windows In A Box is a small tool that gives fast access to over 110 system functions & utilities which are often hard to find. It offers 4 tabs, with 35 entries in the "Functions" tab, 33 "Hidden XP Functions", 38 "Other" entries & 13 "Folder" entries. This is a great way of accessing Windows' tools and functions which are often either buried under layers of menu, or which are not listed in the Control Panel or in the Start/Programs/Accessories menu. While many of the functions listed are commonly known and easy to access, others are relatively unknown and/or are so buried that they are hard to access. Some of the functions in this program are not well executed and, sometimes, inaccurate. For example, we have Windows In A Box loaded on our D drive, which is one of 5 partitioned drives we use. The program erroneously reported that "My Hard Drive" was D with the comment "Your PC's main drive is D". Our system is on drive C and we would consider that to be our "main" drive. The functions are not listed alphabetically or, apart from the four main tabs, in groups, so it is often just as hard to find a function through Windows In A Box as it is to find it through the Start menu. Many of the items in the "Hidden XP Functions" tab are just as easy, or hard, to access as items listed in the program's other categories, and we cannot understand why they were chosen to go in that category. Items, like the Character Map, are no harder to access than, say, the Disk Defag tool which the author has listed under "Functions". We would recommend a revamp of the menuing system to better categorize the functions and to possibly create a number of sub groups. Finally, we would have liked to have seen this program minimize to an icon in the tray (next to the clock) so that it could be available but not "in your face" as it is when it simply minimizes like the other main programs. The author might even offer a "Load with Windows" checkbox so it could always be available. Even with all our relatively negative comments, Windows In A Box really is a great concept and, with a little tweaking, could become one of the most valuable tools on your desktop. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program was designed for Windows XP – and later versions may not be able to utilize all functions. Access this 158kB download from: WinXP Windows Enhancements

Ashampoo ClipFinder HD v2.04 – WinXP/Vista
Ashampoo ClipFinder HD is a Web video search & download tool that searches up to 15 sites for clips. It features playlist queuing, converts video formats (supports 6 formats – FLV, AVI, 3GP, MOV, MP4 & MP3), has a built-in video player, offers optional HD filtering, it has tabbed searching, an exceptional 3D interface, a choice of 9 skins (7 are 3D), it supports 23 languages, and more. This is an amazing search tool that finds video clips from up to 15 popular Websites (includes YouTube, Vimeo, Spike, Veoh, Google Video, LiveVideo, Dailymotion, blip.tv & Yahoo! Video). You can search using normal keywords and results include up to 100 clips from each site. Move your cursor over a visual listing and the clip will start to play (albeit at thumbnail size) or click on it to bring up the clip at full size. If you decide you want to keep a copy of that clip just click once on the "Download/Convert" button to save that clip, in the designated format, on your computer. You can zoom in and out of the display, using your mouse's scroll wheel, if you are using one of the 3D skins. Ashampoo ClipFinder HD gets top marks for appearance, functionality and ease of use. If you enjoy watching and/or downloading clips from sites like YouTube or Google Video, then grab a copy of Ashampoo ClipFinder HD. In one word – awesome! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 11.5MB download from: WinXP Internet Related

HTML & Text Editor Portable v1.0 – WinXP/Vista
HTML & Text Editor Portable is an ASCII text editor with a 64kB filesize limit. It features both split screen HTML preview (Ctrl-S) & standalone HTML preview (Ctrl-V), it minimizes to a tray icon, you can change the display font & size, there are 3 display font colors from which to choose, it has a link to Windows calculator, there is no installation required, and more. This is a basic text editor with an HTML preview function. It is fully portable and can be run from a USB drive. Unfortunately, it is crippled by the old Notepad 64kB filesize limitation that means that not only will it not open a file larger than 64kB, but it locks itself up if it tries and is hard to unlock. While HTML & Text Editor Portable has an HTML preview function, it does not offer any additional HTML shortcuts to creating code and it does not offer syntax colored text. We particularly liked the split screen preview where you can make changes to the code in the top section, use the refresh shortcut (CTRL-R), and see the changes in the bottom, preview screen. We didn't like the 64kB filesize limitation (totally inappropriate in the 21st century), nor did we like its inability to "remember" the last folder it was in as it always reverts back to the folder that hosts the program whenever you want to open a new document. It also displays all the files in a folder instead of just displaying the supported filetypes (primarily TXT and HTML). While we had some issues with HTML & Text Editor Portable, it is hard to ignore its positive aspects and this is a great little editor for someone who wants to be able to run a basic editor from a portable USB pen drive, and still enjoy the HTML preview functions. If you need a small, portable, fast ASCII editor with some HTML functions, and you don't mind the filesize limitation, then grab a copy of HTML & Text Editor Portable. It could be exactly what you want. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Get this 77kB download from: WinXP Text Programs

Winyl v1.4 – WinXP/Vista
Winyl is an audio player. It features SHOUTcast radio, built-in media library, great sound, fully skinable with transparency skins (6 skins included), song rating support, album art support, equalizer, drag 'n drop playlist, minimizes to tray, and more. This is an excellent little audio player that offers all required functions and looks good too. It supports the major audio file formats – MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, APE, AAC, MP4 & M4A – and includes an Internet radio so your can listen to all your favorite on-line radio stations. There are 48 categories of radio stations listed, usually with many stations in each category. Each station is listed in order of its rating. Winyl is a modern audio player with good eye candy and lots of great features. We were a little disappointed that it did not recognize established M3U playlists and required that you build your own playlists but, as this is such an easy task, it was not the problem that it is with some other players. We were most impressed with Winyl. It is a terrific audio player that is worthwhile grabbing. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 1.70MB download from: WinXP Multimedia Programs

ImageMaster v1.0.3.4 – WinXP/Vista
ImageMaster is a disk image manager for reading & writing disk images (ISO files). It displays the contents of ISO files before burning, extracts contents without burning, burns ISO files, converts images to ISO format (supports BIN, NRG, MDF, IMG & CDI disk image formats), supports multi-session burning, and more. This is a terrific program for anyone working with disk images. These are files that contain the contents of a disk compressed into an image file that can be burnt to a CD or DVD using most burning software. They are an excellent way of packaging a number of files into a single file suitable for burning, storage or sharing. You can also use them to make a bootable disk. ImageMaster is a superb tool for working with these files – exposing their contents without the necessity to burn them to a disk first, converting from a number of disk image formats, including the popular Nero Image Files (NRG). Windows XP users will require .Net Framework v2.0, a 22.4MB download (most users will already have this installed), and Imapi v2.0, a 757kB download. Vista users already have these files installed. We found ImageMaster to be easy to use with an excellent Helpfile which, we were surprised to see, was not linked from the program – you have to go into the program's folder or use the Start menu to find it. However, most users will have no trouble using this program, even without that Helpfile. A "must have" for anyone working with disk images. Grab a copy now! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 1.07MB download from: WinXP General Programs

CPU Speed Professional v3.0.3.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
CPU Speed Professional is a small utility that tests the actual speed of a CPU, not just the rated speed. It uses a full load test, and also displays some CPU and computer details. This is a nice looking utility, with lots of flashy eye candy, that loads up your CPU and then reports its actual speed. If you overclock your CPU it will show the new speed, not just the rated speed, and for that there is some value in CPU Speed Professional. If you are not an overclocker then you may find this a relatively useless tool, unless you think that your computer is under-performing compared to other computers with the same chip speed. We overclocked an 1800MHz CPU to 1890MHz and were pleased to see that new speed confirmed in CPU Speed Professional. If you overclock your computer's CPU, or are planning on overclocking it, then grab a copy of CPU Speed Professional to confirm your old and new speeds. We liked! Access this 1.68MB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Marks Chess v2 – WinXP/Vista
Marks Chess is a Chess graphical user interface (GUI) with two engines (Mainsworthy & SonOfMainsworthy). It features white or black playing against either engine, you can flip the board, it includes "ChessTV" (both engines playing against each other), it has an easy-to-use interface, and more. This is a nice little Chess game where you can play against either Chess engine and take either black or white. Alternatively you can sit back and watch "ChessTV" as both engines fight it out. The interface is simple, and the game is closed with the Escape key. Marks Chess offers a strong game, though there isn't any way of varying the degree of difficulty. We enjoyed playing Marks Chess and suggest you download a copy and try it for yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 976kB download from: WinXP General Games
COMMENTS
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