Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #528 issued November 26, 2009

Home > CFS Weekly Newsletter #528: issued November 26, 2009

Enter your search termsSubmit search form

Search the CFS site Search the Web

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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

PanzerStorm – Win98/ME/XP/Vista/7
PanzerStorm is a top-down WWII action tank game where you, a Red Army tank commander, have to fulfill missions protecting Russia from the Nazi invaders. It features OSD (on screen display), multiple missions, excellent 2D animated graphics, addictive gameplay, no installation required, and more. This is a fun game with some historical background. In 1941 Hitler attempted to realize his goal of dominion over all Russia when he invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbrossa. This game portrays a microcosm of that invasion, albeit with a tank that does not seem to run out of ammunitions and which can be continuously fired. Hit a tree, building, another tank, or even an artillery piece, and realistic fire comes from it. Destroy all the enemies in the region and you move to the next mission. Finally you must penetrate the Nazi fortified area and destroy the enemy staff officer on a Horch vehicle. PanzerStorm may not be the greatest combat game ever created, or the greatest top-down shooter, or the greatest anything. However, it is very, very good in what it does – a 2D top down shooter that will keep you coming back for more and more. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 8.01MB download from: Win98 General Games

Pirmasoft Copier v1.6.193.1116 – WinXP/Vista/7
Pirmasoft Copier is an easy-to-use photocopier with print & fax capabilities. It features brightness adjust, image resize, produces a variable number of copies, prints in B&W, grayscale or color (printer dependant), no installation is required, runs from a USB pen drive, and more. This is a terrific way to turn your scanner and printer into a photocopier. When first opened it checks the scanners and printers available and, if there are multiple devices registered with Windows, gives the user the choice of which devices to use. You can also run it off a USB pen drive so it is truly portable. Pirmasoft Copier has two major limitations. It cannot save the scanned image to your computer and it cannot e-mail your scanned image. These are two quite serious omissions and restrict the value of Pirmasoft Copier severely unless you are only looking for basic photocopier functionality. Apart from that, it works extremely well and produces an excellent image – and if the image isn't so excellent, it allows you to alter the brightness to help improve it. If, like us, you use it with a mono laser printer, you will probably have to experiment between grayscale and black & white to see which is best for the particular document being copied. We really liked Pirmasoft Copier, but would like to see the image saving and e-mailing functions to make it a truly superb photocopier. Small, fast and effective. What more could you want from any software! Grab a copy now. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 234kB download from: WinXP General Programs

PhotoPerfect Express v1.0.78 – WinXP/Vista/7
PhotoPerfect Express is a one-click digital photo enhancer. It features 5 preset image optimization algorithms (2 include digital watermarks unless payment is made), you can instantly preview preset enhancements, you can also view the original image and 5 variants onscreen at same time, and more. This is an easy way to optimize a digital photo. Simply select your image, click on one of the five preset optimization algorithms (remembering that the last two include a watermark unless payment is made), and then save the new, optimized image. The old image is relocated to a sub-folder labeled "Originals" and the new image has a suffix relating to the algorithm selected. While you can manually adjust the settings for the third preset (labeled Xe847) by right-clicking on its button, this will add a watermark (only the default of that preset does not include the watermark). We understand that the watermarks are provided under license from other companies, which is why there is a fee to have the watermark removed, but this still spoils what could have been a free top-line photo enhancing tool. The first three presets (labeled RGBMax, Ymax and Xe847) offer good optimization algorithms, and most users will find that they will enhance their digital photos considerably. Alas, the batch mode, image cropping and image resizing tools are only available in the paid-for version. If you get the impression that PhotoPerfect Express is very much a cut-back version, a teaser, to encourage you to purchase the full version then you are probably right. However, the functions in this free version are still worthwhile and, in the absence of an expensive commercial image editor, offers a simple one-click solution that should suit most non-professional users. Worth a look. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 36.5MB download from: WinXP Graphic Programs

Windows7 in a Box v1.0 – Win7
Windows7 in a Box is a fast way to access some of the functions and settings embedded in Windows 7 without hunting through endless menus. It lists over 150 functions & settings in 6 categories (Functions, Folders, Internet Settings, Programs, Tools & Settings), no installation is required, it is fully portable (runs from a USB pen drive), and more. If you are new to Windows 7 and wish to discover its array of functions and settings you may find it hard to discover all the options you have available. While Windows7 in a Box does not claim to list every function and setting, it does list the major ones (more than 150 of them!) and presents them in six menu categories. While it is certainly easier to find these functions and settings using Windows7 in a Box rather than through the various Windows menus, sub-menus, etc, unfortunately they are not listed in an order that is always easy find. Not only do you have to guess which of the categories a particular function or setting comes under, but the lists are not alphabetically ordered so you have to hunt through lots of entries to find the one you want. Of course, if you are using a particular function or setting regularly then you will quickly learn where it resides, and if you are using it to set up Windows (something you should not have to do very often) then the extra time taken to find individual functions or settings is irrelevant because it is almost always faster than trying to do it through the Windows interface. Still, some more order to those Windows7 in a Box lists would be helpful... We would have also liked to have seen it minimize to a tray icon so we could have it handy but not "in our face". Overall, Windows7 in a Box is an excellent program and a "must have" for anyone using Windows 7. We liked! Note: we have been advised this program is only suitable for Windows 7. Access this 122kB download from: Win7 Windows Enhancements

HandBrake v0.9.4 – WinXP/Vista/7
HandBrake is a multi-threaded video transcoder that accepts almost any DVD-type input and most multimedia file formats, and outputs to MP4 (M4V) or MKV. It features chapter selection, basic subtitle support (burned into the picture), integrated bitrate calculator, picture deinterlacing/cropping/scaling, grayscale encoding, built-in previewer (requires VLC player or QuickTime), and more. This is an interesting program that converts video files or DVDs (but not copy-protected DVDs) into either of the supported formats. It offers some control over the output video, specially if you choose the H.264 video codec instead of FFmpeg. We were a little disappointed at the speed of the transcoder which uses a command-line interface (an 89 minute DVD movie took about 100 minutes to be transcoded) but the final result was worth the wait and we were pleased with the converted file. Even though many multimedia players support the MP4 (M4V) and MKV file formats, we would have preferred to have seen some of the more conventional output formats supported, like AVI, MPEG, etc. HandBrake is a great little video transcoder, even if it is a little slow. Worth checking out! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 4.66MB download from: WinXP Multimedia Programs

TextCrawler v1.1.3 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista/7
TextCrawler is a tool to find & replace words and phrases (text strings) across multiple files and folders. It features a powerful Regular Expression engine for advanced find/replace, it has a text extractor (rips text into a new file), you can save a search, create backup files, it offers highlighted search results, you can export results, there is a good Helpfile, and more. If you wish to change text (find and replace) across multiple documents then TextCrawler is for you. While it does not support Unicode, and works only with ANSI text files, this should not affect most users. You can use any filemask you like (even multiple filemasks), but standard ones, like TXT, HTM (and HTML), CSS, JS, INI, BAT, C, etc are already included. It uses regular expressions to help you refine your find/replace (for example the expression gr(a|e)y could match the words "grey" or "gray") and the included Helpfile has a list of all regular expressions you can use. TextCrawler is a superb text find & replace tool. It is fast, accurate, and easy to use. It also offers some very sophisticated advanced search/replace options. A "must have" for anyone working in text files (like HTML, C, etc). We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 1.64MB download from: Win98 Text Programs

Free DVD Copy Maker v2.0 – WinXP/Vista/7
Free DVD Copy Maker is a DVD to ISO cloner. It creates 1:1 copies of your DVDs and saves them on your hard drive as an ISO disk image which can be burnt to a backup blank writable DVD. Unfortunately CFS was unable to review this program. The author says: "You can now backup and protect all of your DVDs to keep your movies collection safe from scratches, theft and loss. Copy any DVDs to blank DVD or computer hard drive with ease. The copied DVD is completely the same as the original DVD you bought. Free DVD Copy Maker is a simple, great and free DVD cloner software. It has a pretty-looking interface, so you will be amazed using it." It should be noted that if you rip a double-layer commercial video DVD, the resultant ISO file would be too large to burn on to a standard, single-layer writable DVD. We would remind you that it may be illegal to copy commercial video DVDs. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 850kB download from: WinXP General Programs

Ivanche Minesweeper v1.0.33 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Ivanche Minesweeper is a scalable Minesweeper clone. It features 4 levels of difficulty, choice of 3 digit types, resizable window, indicator for number of mines not yet marked, game timer, and more. This is a relatively standard version of this fun, and addictive, puzzle. The author offers three levels of difficulty, being a combination of grid size and number of mines. A fourth is labeled "custom" but we could not see any way of changing either the grid size (which was 50 x 50) or the number of mines to be found (250). The easiest version is a 10 x 10 grid with 10 mines. One of the best parts of Ivanche Minesweeper is that you can drag the window size larger, or smaller, even though this doesn't affect the grid or the number of mines (dragging it larger just makes it easier to see – great for visually impaired users, or young children). We liked Ivanche Minesweeper. It may not offer a Minesweeper experience that is much different from other variants of this popular game, but it is resizable (scalable) and there are four levels of difficulty. Worth checking out. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 1.21MB download from: Win98 General Games
UPDATE
AllMyNotes Organizer – an hierarchical information manager – has been updated to version 1.14 with a download size of 2.39MB. The author has advised that changes in this version include: task (checkbox) attributed can be assigned to Folder & Note caption, icon/color/priority can be assigned to Folder & Note caption, notes can be marked as read-only to prevent unwanted modification, extended First Start Wizard, and minor bugs fixed. Get this latest version from: WinXP Text Programs
COMMENTS
We would like to thank the regular visitors to the CFS site who have told us their favorite freeware. If you have a favorite program which isn't listed on the CFS pages we invite you to share that information with everyone through this site and this newsletter. If you are an author of a freeware app (or would just like to suggest a program) and would like it listed on these pages, please fill in the Submit Software form.
If you enjoy the Completely FREE Software site please don't feel shy about letting others know.

Click Here to share this page with your friends, website visitors, ezine readers, social followers and other online contacts.
The Link-To Tool is a gift from:
Website software that works
120 Florida Nature Videos
Completely FREE Software