Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #529 issued December 4, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Ara Fell: The Legend of Dirisetsu Hollow v1.50 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista/7
Ara Fell: The Legend of Dirisetsu Hollow (also known as Ara Fell 2k3) is an immersive, atmospheric RPG (role playing game) set in a medieval world. It features over 50 hours of gameplay, dozens of sidequests, 3 unique characters to control, choose from over 60 skills, it offers deep & involving character advancement, extensive alchemy & crafting systems, a real-time battle system (RTB) inspired by Secret of Mana, and more. This is a great RPG in which you control young archer, Lita LeCotta, who meets up with other people and together complete the quests they have been given. It has lots of side puzzles and quests, and some of those puzzles are not easy to solve (the author even includes some solutions on the README page). The 2D graphics are excellent, as is the background music, and the whole game has a nice look 'n feel. The only problems we experienced might have been caused by us using Windows 7. We had trouble getting the fonts supplied with the game to work and we were left with poor quality text throughout the game. We also could not get the crawl command (pressing the "2" key) to work. Even with those minor glitches, Ara Fell: The Legend of Dirisetsu Hollow is a great game and a terrific way to kill some spare hours. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 38.5MB download from: Win98 General Games

GetGo Download Manager v4.4.1.435 – WinXP/Vista/7
GetGo Download Manager is a download manager that can get files, music & video clips from the Internet. It resumes broken downloads, integrates with Firefox & IE browsers, has an optional drop-box, it downloads embedded FLV videos from Websites (YouTube, Myspace, Google Video, MetaCafe, DailyMotion, iFilm/Spike, Vimeo, etc), and more. This is one of the best download managers we have seen. It offers lots of features we love, including the ability to add a username and password so that protected files can be downloaded from sites like CFS (assuming you have the correct access permission). You can drag a video clip to its drop-box and it will download it for you – and even place it in a folder marked "videos" in the location you want it (default is C:\Downloads). GetGo Download Manager is undoubtedly one of the best download managers of its type we have seen. However, there is a dark side to this otherwise fabulous program – intrusive advertising. Not only will it add an "Ask" search toolbar to Internet Explorer, it will alter your homepage to that of Ask. This is done automatically and you are not asked (or even told it is likely to happen). You can disable the toolbars (it also adds its own toolbar to IE), and you can change your homepage back to the one of your choice (CFS?) but this should not be necessary. We consider this type of advertising highly intrusive because, even if you uninstall the host program, the Ask toolbar and homepage changes are not removed – and are still operative even when the host program (in this case GetGo Download Manager) is not open. Not nice. There is also an Ask searchbar within the program but this is not intrusive. The intrusive advertising is a shame because this really is a terrific download manager. If you don't mind manually "correcting" your IE settings then you are left with a superb download manager, that you will love to use, without suffering from the advertising intrusion. If that is you, then grab a copy of GetGo Download Manager. You will love it too! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 3.79MB download from: WinXP Internet Related

Audiograbber v1.8.3 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista/7
Audiograbber is a small program that copies (rips) music digitally from CDs and external sources (radios, cassettes, turntables, etc) without using the sound-card. It features on-line freedb.org album information, ID3 tag information, line-in sampling, audio normalization, it can auto delete leading & trailing silence, optionally create a playlist for the ripped files, and more. This is an excellent tool to convert (rip) CD audio to MP3, WMA, etc. The MP3 function requires an MP3 encoder, like LAME or BladeEnc, both of which are available through CFS. Just put the DLL file in the same folder as Audiograbber for it to be recognized as an "internal" encoder. The secret to the success of Audiograbber is that, by default, it does not use the analog sound from the computer's soundcard but processes the sound digitally. This gives much better quality sound and is a perfect copy of the original. We were extremely impressed with Audiograbber and consider it one of the best tools for extracting audio from CDs, cassette tapes, even old vinyl records. A "must have" for anyone with digital music. Note: this program was originally shareware but is now free. Access this 1.58MB download from: Win95 Multimedia Programs

Softwaremile Data Shredder v1.0.0.1 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista/7
Softwaremile Data Shredder is a file shredder that will totally destroy files, free space and the Recycle Bin contents. It features a choice of 5 data shredding algorithms, it integrates with the Windows Explorer shell, has a Wizard-style setup, deletion scheduler, and more. If you had sensitive data on your computer that has been deleted you may find that someone with a couple of simple freeware programs could recover most, if not all, of your deleted data. Softwaremile Data Shredder helps overcome that by deleting data in such a way that it is virtually impossible to recover. It is accessible from the Windows Explorer right-click context menu, or from the main program window. When it installs, it uses a Wizard to guide you through cleaning up your computer. This even includes deleting restore points created by Windows. We had two major issues with Softwaremile Data Shredder. First, it includes the highly intrusive RelevantKnowledge advertising that runs separately to this program. We are never impressed with any software author who chooses to include intrusive advertising like this. Secondly, it crashed some of the programs we run on our test computer. While this may not happen with every user, it crashed or caused problems with sufficient of our standing programs that we felt it was a concern. If you need to totally destroy sensitive data on your computer then Softwaremile Data Shredder could be what you need, assuming you don't mind the RelevantKnowledge advertising and it doesn't cause a problem with some open programs on your computer. Access this 3.31MB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Clonezilla v1.2.2-31 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista/7
Clonezilla is a bare-metal HDD backup & recovery tool (like Norton Ghost or Partition Image) that runs from a bootable CD disk or external USB drive. It features 2 versions (Live & Server – Live is for single computers, Server can multicast to many computers), available as ISO or ZIP file, can backup partitions or whole disks, supports all Windows disk formats (NTSF & FAT), and more. Unfortunately, CFS was unable to review this program. The author says: "Clonezilla, based on DRBL, Partition Image, ntfsclone, partclone, and udpcast, allows you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Two types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla SE is for massive deployment, it can clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously. Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the hard disk. This increases the clone efficiency. At the NCHC's Classroom C, Clonezilla SE was used to clone 41 computers simultaneously. It took only about 10 minutes to clone a 5.6 GBstem image to all 41 compute via multicasting!" It can be run from an ISO burnt onto a CD (an ISO file download), or from a bootable USB drive (there is a utility included to make a USB drive bootable) which is a ZIP file download. We consider that Clonezilla is a tool for experienced PC users only. Access this 104MB download from: Win95 General Programs

Revo Uninstaller v1.83 – WinXP/Vista/7
Revo Uninstaller is a program uninstall manager that can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and Registry keys that are usually left behind. It features a Hunter mode (place the target over the program you want uninstalled), an autorun manager, fast access to 14 Windows tools, it creates a Windows restore point before uninstalling, a junk files cleaner, and more. This is an awesome program uninstaller that is far superior to the wimpy tool provided with Windows. Revo Uninstaller doesn't just accept a program's uninstall info to know what to delete but does its own Registry scans to ensure that all the program's "hooks" are removed. It offers various levels of scanning and should get rid of even the most persistent program – like some advertising and malicious software (malware). It also allows the user to control what program's start with Windows, though the list is far from complete and is probably the least valuable aspect of Revo Uninstaller. That aside, for completely uninstalling and removing all traces of a program, there are few programs on the same level as Revo Uninstaller. Forget Microsoft's Add/Remove applet and grab a copy of Revo Uninstaller. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 1.02MB download from: WinXP Windows Enhancements

Artweaver v1.06 – WinXP/Vista/7
Artweaver is a drawing, painting and image editing tool. It features a large number of customizable brushes (chalk, charcoal, pencils, etc), it supports most popular image formats (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, TGA, TIFF, PNG, PSD, etc), has layer & layer group support, transparency support, lots of effect filters (sharpen, blur, emboss, mosaic, etc), it has editable text layers, multi-level undo/redo, supports expandable plug-in modules, a good Helpfile, and more. This is an excellent tool for most of your image editing and creation needs. It offers layers, group layers, transparency, and lots more. The wide variety of brushes can be configured for most requirements, and you can add text layers to your image. In some ways, Artweaver tries to do too much, to be all things to all people. As such it is probably not as successful as, say, a dedicated photo editor, or a dedicated drawing program. However, for most users the depth of control is more than sufficient and it requires little learning to master its tools (unlike most heavyweight imaging programs!). We checked the levels of undo and redo to 15, but assume it goes well beyond that (not that 15 levels is insignificant). Artweaver uses undocked sub-windows to access many of its functions, but this is not a layout style we prefer. Overall, Artweaver is a superb tool which should handle 98% of your drawing, painting and image editing requirements. It lacks the sophistication of a truly dedicated tool but users will enjoy being able to carry them out in one program, rather than multiple programs. We liked! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 6.33MB download from: WinXP Graphic Programs

Mulch Shoot v1.0 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista/7
Mulch Shoot is a novelty shooter where you blast the mulch pigeons from the sky with your blunderbuss. It features a secret level (if you can score enough), challenging gameplay, good animated graphics & sound effects, it is mouse-driven, and more. This is a fun way to kill a few minutes. Press the lever and launch the mulch pigeons (like clay pigeons) and then shoot them out of the sky – if you can! You have limited ammunition but, fortunately, you have a multi-shot blunderbuss (probably the only one ever invented!). The game is portrayed as a "stress reliever" but we think it probably adds more stress than it relieves. Mulch Shoot is a fun little game that does not stretch the gray matter, though you will need to be quick with the trigger finger. A great little game. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Get this 2.66MB download from: Win98 General Games
UPDATE
Territory: the Mountain Men – a 3D strategy/adventure where you play a fur trader in the 1800s seeking fame and fortune – has been updated to version 1.4 with a slightly smaller download size of 71.4MB. About this new version, the author says: "I made many small changes to improve gameplay and make it more fun, and several changes to the interface. I didn't keep track but there are probably well over a hundred changes to eliminate minor irritations and anomalies and to smooth out the progress of the game. I also changed some models and map entities to speed up the frame rate." Territory: the Mountain Men is an awesome game. Don't miss getting this latest version. Access this game from: WinXP General Games
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.
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