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This electronic newsletter is registered – ISSN 1441-6840
Welcome to the ‘Completely Free Software’ E-mail 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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.
We remind our visitors that they can obtain almost all the newly listed software from this site on the Completely Free Software “Master Freeware Collection” CD-ROMs plus get bonus software, and often free graphics, icons, fonts, etc.
COMPLETELY FREE SOFTWARE
Ulead's ImagePals v1.2 – Win3.1 (suitable for Win9x)
ImagePals is a commercial software image manipulation suite from Ulead which is being offered free through the PC Plus magazine website in the UK. This extremely powerful suite features one main program and three utilities. First, the main program, is 'Enhancer', which can give your image a full make-over with all the usual image editing tools, like adding text, altering color, size, etc plus a myriad of special effects. An impressive and very powerful photo-paint style program. The second is the utility 'Album' which displays thumbnail images (default is 88x88 pixels) of the images collected in 'albums'. The third is the 'Collector' program which, you guessed it, collects the images to put them into albums. The fourth is 'Capture', a screen capture utility. All four programs integrate extremely well into a single suite. The program suffers from its Win 3.1 heritage (it's dated 1993) and the interface is not quite as good as later Win 3.1 programs or Win9x programs. There is no flyover help and very little real help from the Helpfile – this is a program which you will have to experiment with a little to master. However, as you start to use it, the raw power (specially of Enhancer) will captivate you. This is not a 'toy' program but one which previously sold for $249! Not quite in the same league as the 'big' photo-paint style programs, never-the-less it fills the middle ground very well. There is a registration code you will need to add to set up the program, and this is available form the download site or from the readme with the archive. Access this 3.75MB download from: Win 3.1 General Programs
Alien Hunt v1.0 – Win9x
Alien Hunt is a simplistic arcade-style game where the idea is to to shoot the aliens infesting a rural area. Brian flushes them out and you have four shots and 10 seconds to get them. The game is a no brainer but the graphics/animation are reasonable, as are the sound effects. The introduction is very long (Brian travels along the sidewalk as if he's on a moving walkway and leaps like Superman over a fence) and the real action minimal. Probably more for the sub-teens. Access this 932kB download from: Win9x General Games
Naviscope v8.20 – Win9x
Naviscope is a fascinating Web toolkit. It acts as a Web accelerator by prefetching, DNS resolution caching, aggressive connections, MTU/RWIN optimizations and advertisement blocking. It can also block items other than just ads – things like cookies, popup windows, backgrounds, blinking text, JavaScript and sounds. It will even keep the time on your PC's clock adjusted! There are quite a few other features – too numerous to mention – and all can be individually configured either globally or on a site-by-site basis. Wow! The program adds a small toolbar to your screen – a toolbar which is only active and visible when your browser is working. Once the browser finishes loading a website, the toolbar can be set to disappear again. It leaves a small icon hovering near the top of your screen and another in the desktray near the clock. With an Internet 'update' button and a host of other configurable toys, Naviscope really impresses. Some caution must be undertaken, specially if you block popup JavaScript windows of the type that CFS is now using to present program reviews. Of course, you can always configure certain sites, like CFS, not to have popup window blocking, but still leave it intact for other sites. Blocked ads can be configured so that when you hold your mouse cursor over a blocked ad for a preset period of time (the default is one second) the ad will be called. Don't forget that many sites, like this one, rely on income from those ads to survive. If you block the ads then they won't get the income from them and will have to shut down! Is the short term gain worth the long term effects? Simple words do not do justice to this program. Grab a copy for yourself and try it out. You can always remove it from your system if you're not happy with it. Definitively a 10 out of 10! Access this 508kB download from: Win9x Internet Related
DupeLocator v1.1 – Win9x
DupeLocator is an interesting utility which finds duplicate files within specified directories. Open both Explorer and DupeLocator at the same time (by default this utility will stay on top) and drag directories to the DupeLocator window. Click on the search button and it will bring up a list of file duplicates with the second (and subsequent) duplicated file highlighted so you can drag them to the Recycle Bin as a group. DupeLocator will find identical files, even though they might have a different name or extension! Really more suitable for finding duplicated images (which can take up a huge amount of hard disk real estate) because many of the duplicated files – specially in the Windows directory – are necessary and removing them could cause problems with your programs or the operating system. If used with care, DupeLocator is a valuable tool. Used carelessly, it could cause massive problems. The interface is basic and the help screen just sufficient. It doesn't offer bells and whistles, just a functional utility to ferret out duplicates. The download is not archived and you can run the executionable from wherever you like. Access this 202kB file from: Win9x Desktop Utilities
Mega Hyper Edit v3.0.0 – Win9x
Mega Hyper Edit is like a 'sticky notes' utility in reverse. It helps maintain a continuous record of your various pastings and scribblings, stored in Rich Text File (RTF) format and loaded automatically on program start. You can append any jottings or Clipboard information (URLs, etc) to the list, and even separate notes with a time/date stamped separator. Time and date can also be added separately. The program offers a huge selection of features including the ability to save the information as a separate TXT or RTF file. As it uses RTF, information can be stored with many word processing-type attributes – colored text, different fonts, different font sizes, left, centering and right justification of text, etc. The program also offers three macros you can define yourself, a search and replace facility, undo, etc. It can also work with binary files so is extremely valuable for programmers. Overall we were most impressed with Mega Hyper Edit and consider it a most valuable tool. There are separate Win95 and Win98 versions with download sizes of 592kB and 464kB respectively and requires the VB6 runtime library. Access this excellent scratchpad from: Win9x Text Programs
Files2Text v7.1 – Win9x
This is an interesting utility which captures filenames and saves them as text. Groups of names can be displayed and copied to the Clipboard. There is a choice of information displayed – file information (full path, part path, filesize, date, etc), conversion of the filename to 8.3 format, conversion to all uppercase, conversion of back slashes to forward slashes, use of HTML tags, quotes around filenames, etc. Check boxes for all of these options are toggle switches, reverting back to 'normal' when unchecked. There really are a myriad of options. Filenames can be drag 'n dropped into the Files2Text window or can be added using the Add button (brings up a 'common file dialog' box). There are many occasions when it is advantageous to compile a list of filenames for insertion into a document and this is the best way we've seen to copy more than one filename at a time. Definitely worth having in your toolkit! Access this 114kB download from: Win9x Desktop Utilities
MathQuiz v2.01 – Win9x
This is actually two programs in one – a simple multiplication table tester (MathQuiz Lite) and a multiplication, addition, subtraction and division tester (MathQuiz). Designed with children in mind, these two programs feature animated cartoons, sounds and music. They also include a memory game (like Concentration but without the background image) which pops up after each successful round. The main program, MathQuiz, does everything which MathQuiz Lite does plus more and one wonders why the author even bothered to include the Lite version in the download. The download size could certainly be reduced if it was on its own. With an option to include tables from 11 to 17, MathQuiz is a valuable education resource for children. Access this 1.09MB download from: Win9x General Programs
XO v1.0 – Win9x
This game is like a cross between 'Connect4' and 'Tic-tac-toe'. The idea is to get five Xs in a row – horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The computer is trying to not just beat you but to place five in a row itself. Not easy to win, this is a game which will challenge you right to the end. You can start anywhere you like on the 16x16 grid and the computer will follow your Xs with Os of its own. There are alternative 'skinz' for this game at the author's website but we preferred the original. It could possibly be improved with some basic sound effects but this is a minor criticism. We liked! Access this 129kB download from: Win9x General Games
AnalogX Scratch v1.03 – Win9x
We've all heard the 'rap' scratch effect which DJs use on old vinyl records. The turntable with the record on it is manually turned, usually backwards, to give a scratching sound, and another record plays on a second turntable to give the beat. Apart from not doing anything good for vinyl records, the effect is rather hard to achieve using CDs. Digital effects, like record scratching, can be added through software and that is where AnalogX 's Scratch comes in. Using two mono WAV files (one for background and one for scratching), you can create your own scratch effects. The program also allows you to vary the 'turntable' speed by as much as 50% – which far exceeds the control offered on 'real' turntables – and there are separate volume controls for the two 'turntables'. As the WAV files play, you can manually add the scratch effect with the mouse. There is also the waveform of the sound to help you integrate the scratch with the beat. You can save your finest scratch effects to a third file (with or without the beat effect). If you like having fun with audio files then this is one handy tool to keep. Guess that's a rap... Access the 341kB download from: Win9x Multimedia Programs
PicPluck v1.3 – Win9x
PicPluck is a great little tool for extracting images from websites and downloading them to your hard drive. Type in the base URL, check that the options you want are selected, and click on the Go button. Simple. PicPluck will squirrel down as many levels as you specify – the default is one level below the main URL you entered – and you can limit the images to those on the one domain (again, the default). You specify that the program only get either GIFs or JPGs, there are proxy facilities if you need to use them, you can limit the minimum image size grabbed, etc. The only help is on-line but, in truth, none is needed – everything is so easy to use, and the options so obvious, that you will be using this program within seconds of first loading it. Advertiser supported (it pulls down ads from the Net), we were less impressed with the constant nagging to 'update' to the advertiser-free version. At least the splash screen nag should have a disabling feature as there is a permanent reminder on the main screen. However, every time you load this program you have to choose whether to register it or to continue unregistered (and therefore accept the advertising). The interface is clean and easy to use and you can display any downloaded image within the program. Overall we were most impressed. Access this 1.32MB download from: Win9x Internet Related
UPDATE
Ma Page Web – an easy Webpage creation which offerers quite good control over the finished page – has been upgraded to version 1.3 with a new, slightly larger download size of 628kB. The author says: "I took into consideration the very good remarks made by CFS in its newsletter #85 issued April 9, 1999. Now, Ma Page Web will automatically add pictures' dimensions (main new feature), as it is true that most new users would not know how to get them." What more can we say! Access this upgrade from: Win9x Internet Related
COMMENTS
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