Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #514 issued July 31, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

The Babylon Project v3.4b – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
The Babylon Project is a 3D space shooter based off the Babylon 5 TV series. It features 5 levels of difficulty, 2 campaigns (Raider Wars & Earth Minbari War demo), there is an optional DVD version with extra campaigns (1.81GB download!), it has an on-screen HUD including a radar display, it offers standalone or on-line multiplayer gaming, it has sensational 3D graphics, and more. This is an awesome, fan-based game which is huge from every perspective. Graphics are crisply drawn renderings, the gameplay is concise, and it is easy to play though still challenging. The Babylon Project must be experienced to get a full picture of this game, though the download size is immense and would possibly cause a problem for anyone on a limited bandwidth ADSL connection, or on a dial-up connection. While it runs on a basic Windows 98 platform, it requires at least 256MB of RAM and 2GB of HDD space. The DVD version includes "many extras including several complete campaigns and multi player missions [plus] unspecified updates". We were extremely impressed with all aspects of The Babylon Project. It could almost be considered the quintessential 3D role-playing space shooter. While you don't have to be a Babylon 5 fan to enjoy this game, fans will get more from it than people who haven't watched the TV series. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 750MB download from: Win98 General Games

FileMenu Tools v5.7 – WinXP/Vista
FileMenu Tools is a tool to customize the context menu in Windows Explorer (add or remove entries) and adds additional utilities (about 30) to the context menu. These utilities include Synchronize Folders, Extended Delete, Find & Replace, Advanced Renamer, Delete Locked File, Delete & no move to Recycle Bin, Change Icon, Run with Arguments, Command Line From Here, Change Time, Register/Unregister DLL, Shred Files, and Attributes. This is a terrific tool to control your context menu items, and to get some awesome little utilities to enhance your Windows experience. While we were generally very pleased with this program, we found that it didn't remove all references to an item in the context menu, even though we had un-ticked every instance mentioned in the tabbed menu – though most references were removed. We also found that it didn't add all the utilities we had indicated we wanted to see – in fact, out of 22 we selected we only had 15 actually listed... That aside, FileMenu Tools is a worthwhile addition to any desktop because it does put some power back into the user's hands. We liked! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 7.34MB download from: WinXP Windows Enhancements

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer v1.20 – WinXP/Vista
Ashampoo Photo Optimizer is a program that optimizes and enhances digital photos with a single click by improving contrast, brightness, color intensity & sharpness. It features a picture preview, you can undo the optimization, automatic backup of old images, it offers batch processing, picture rotation, and more. No words can describe how well this program improves an average digital photograph – specially a landscape scene. Open an image, click on the "Optimize" button and watch how the image is instantly enhanced. It can be rotated if necessary and, when you save an image, a backup of the old image is created and placed in a sub-folder. Once you are confident that Ashampoo Photo Optimizer will not trash your images – and saves the old copies so you can always restore them – you can aim it at a folder and tell it to optimize all the images there. Check out the CFS screenshots to see how one photo was miraculously transformed from a weak image, lacking contrast and color, into a dynamic photo with lots of impact. Amazing! Ashampoo Photo Optimizer is one of the best products of its type we have seen – at any price! If you own a digital camera then you will most likely find that Ashampoo Photo Optimizer will become your most important tool. It certainly is for us. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 9.94MB download from: WinXP Graphic Programs

Some PDF to Word Converter v1.5 – WinXP/Vista
Some PDF to Word Converter is software that converts PDF documents to RTF (Rich Text Format) which can be read by most word processors. It features the preservation of most layout features (columns, tables, headers, footers, graphics, etc), it converts outer fonts into text & embedded fonts into images, offers partial document conversion (selected pages instead of the entire document), converts multiple documents at once (batch processing), does not require MS Word or Adobe Acrobat to be installed, and more. It saves the resultant RTF file in the same folder as the original PDF document. This is quite an effective PDF converter, though we had a problem with its title as it does not convert to Microsoft Word format (DOC) but to a more universal RTF format – a format that lacks many of Word's higher-end formatting features. Testing the conversion of some complex brochure and technical-content PDFs, we found that the original layout was not always preserved, though the result was readable and acceptable in most cases. You could certainly use the text to re-create a better likeness of the original if you used a high-end word processor (MS Word, WordPerfect, OpenOffice,org, etc). Some PDF to Word Converter allows you to copy any graphics out of the finished RTF document (highlight the graphic and use Ctrl-C to copy it into the Windows' Clipboard) and text can be copied in blocks by highlighting. Apart from the lack of true Word DOC format, Some PDF to Word Converter does a credible job of converting PDF files into an editable format. Worth a look. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 641kB download from: WinXP Text Programs

VLC media player v1.0.1 – WinXP/Vista
VLC media player is a skinable, highly portable, multimedia player for various audio & video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, FLV, AVI, Raw DV, MP3, OGG, AAC, etc) plus audio CDs, DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. This is an excellent multimedia player that really does play a huge array of multimedia formats, including all our favorites and lots more besides. There is an older version available that supports Windows 95 and 98, but the current version requires Windows XP or later. VLC media player might be the new kid on the block but it has taken the world by storm since its very recent debut. It offers so much in the one package that it is hard to be too critical. Every media format we tried was successfully played – and the video and sound quality were excellent. It comes with a couple of replacement skins, or you can download more, but the default look was good enough for us (the more eye candy used the more system resources are tied up). VLC media player optionally places an icon in the tray next to the clock, but it does not minimize there, a fact we found most strange. We did have some stability issues with this version which had just been released as we were starting our Review. We loved VLC media player but found it locked up at odd times and sometimes behaved poorly. While these were somewhat annoying, we still thought it to be a superb player in view of its play-quality and the number of formats supported. Try it for yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 17.1MB download from: WinXP Multimedia Programs

Partition Wizard Home Edition v4.0 – WinXP/Vista
Partition Wizard is a hard disk partition manager (resizing, copying, creating, deleting, formatting, exploring & hiding partitions). It supports FAT & NTFS partitions, supports RAID & USB drives, changes drive letter, sets active partition, offers partition recovery, has a good Helpfile, and more. This is an excellent partition manager that offers most requested features. It is very easy to use, and visually shows which partitions are NTFS, which are FAT, etc. Unfortunately it does not display non-Windows partitions (for example, Linux) so you cannot manage those partitions through Partition Wizard. Apart from the ability to re-size existing partitions (great if you want to add a new partition or drive), we were most impressed with the Wipe Disk function which offers five different types of disk wiping or erasing – everything from a quick "fill sectors with zeros" to an ultra slow (but very secure) 7-pass wipe to US Department of Defense specification DoD 5220.28-STD. Partition Wizard is a superb way to manage your drive partitions. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 5.53MB download from: WinXP Desktop Utilities

Google Map Buddy v1.1 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Google Map Buddy is a tool to download Google Map images. It allows them to be stored as images on the hard drive, and for maps to be printed of entire cities at zoom levels that would take hours to put together through Google. In a simple 4-step process, the user locates the Google map area, draws a rectangle around the desired location, specifies the zoom level (must be higher than the zoom level indicated by the program) and, finally, nominates a location and name for the PNG image that is created. Simple. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, the time of day, the size of the map you require and the level of detail required, it can take a few minutes (or longer) to download all the individual maps from Google and then stitch them together into a single image. The maximum zoom level in the program is 17, even though Google offers up to 19. We found that the program must be closed and then re-opened if you want to try another map (or you make a mistake with the first attempt). The most annoying aspect of Google Map Buddy is a persistent nag screen requesting a donation. This appears at the start of every fifth time the program is opened and, while we understand the author wanting to get donations to keep the project alive, asking multiple times is not acceptable – to us "no" means "no"! That aside, Google Map Buddy is a terrific little program and a "must have" for anyone working with Google Maps. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 43kB download from: Win98 General Programs

Digger XP v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Digger XP is a re-mastered version of the classic Digger game. It features 1- & 2-player modes, Gauntlet mode, additional graphics effects & improvements, true-color graphics (supporting different graphics themes), digital music/sound (supporting sound themes), and more. This is an average version of the old Digger classic. While it does offer some enhancements over the original, and includes a Helpfile, the graphics are more like the original than modern gamers expect to see in a "re-mastered version". Even though the title says "XP", this is a game that can be played on a Windows 95 computer, though it does need DirectX 8.0a (or later). Digger was always a good, if basic game and Digger XP continues that theme, albeit with more game modes. If you enjoy playing the classic games then Digger XP should be on your list. Give it a try. Get this 1.59MB download from: Win95 General Games
UPDATES
FreeUndelete – a data recovery program for deleted files – has been updated to version 2.0.31119 with a new, much smaller download size of 480kB. The author advises that changes in this version include: improved support for Windows 2003 Server & bug fixes. Grab this excellent data recovery tool from: WinXP Desktop Utilities
Lunascape – a tabbed Web browser compatible with Internet Explorer & Firefox – has been updated to version 5.1.3.4 with a download size of 8.42. The author advises that changes in this version include: improving speed in page load, updating the Gecko engine to revision 1.9.1.1 (same as Firefox 3.5.1), which overcomes vulnerability issues (and also supports HTML 5 including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio), and fixing some bugs related to Windows Vista/XP, and crash issues specific to Gecko. Get this superb Web browser from: WinXP Internet Related
1st AutoRun Express – CD auto-start Wizard that creates CDs that will automatically run – has been updated to version 3.1 with a download size of 1.06MB. The author advises that changes in this version includes the ability to launch several documents at once. Access this CD auto-start program from: Win98 Desktop Utilities
COMMENTS
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