The most recent Download Reviews from Incisive Media

Microsoft Works 6-9 File Converter

Tim Smith — 2009-11-12T12:47:00.000Z

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 12:47:00

Open Works documents in Microsoft Office

This is the software publisher's description:

When installed with Microsoft Office applications, the Microsoft Works 6-9 File Converter allows you to open, edit, and save files in the Works word Processor file format supported by Works versions 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Supported operating systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 3; Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista; Windows XP

Supported Office versions: Office 2003 Service Pack 2 or greater; Office 2007

Instructions

1. Download the .msi file by clicking on the Download button at the top of the page, and then save the file to your hard disk drive.

2. It is recommended that you quit any programs you are running.

3. In Windows Explorer, double-click the .msi file that you saved to your hard disk drive, and follow the instructions on the screen.

Opensuse Linux 11.2

Tim Smith — 2009-11-12T11:22:00.000Z

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 11:22:00

The latest version of this popular Linux distribution

Opensuse 11 is the latest version of this long-standing Linux distribution. As a DVD download it has more choices than Ubuntu by virtue of the greater space available.

The first noticeable change is that there is a new installation program. It is not just a change of appearance, there are nice touches such as getting the time zone right from the language settings, rather than defaulting to a US timezone.

One important choice during installation is which desktop to use. There is Gnome, which will be familiar to anyone who has used Ubuntu, and two versions of KDE to choose from, one of which is the very latest version, KDE4.

This has a new style interface (KDE used to be the most like Windows of the desktops) that includes desktop widgets that can be used to read RSS news feeds and show battery status on notebooks. 3D effects can also be used on the Desktop.

All of the software that could possibly be needed is included, from Openoffice to the Firefox browser.

Bullzip PDF Printer 7.1

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-12T10:06:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 10:06:00

Output just about any document as a PDF file

When working with other users, there are few guaranteed ways of producing content that’s viewable across multiple computers, irrespective of operating system or age of computer. Sure you could simply output your work as a GIF or JPEG image (and many do) and email or make it available for download on your website. However, it’s almost impossible to produce a document with multiple pages as an image.

The solution is a PDF document. Output anything as a PDF document and the contents should be retained, along with the correct layout, fonts, images and more. When the end user downloads your PDF document, then they will see it exactly as it appeared on your computer, even though they do not have the fonts installed on their machine. If they choose to print your document, the output will appear as it did on-screen.

If you want your end user to be able to print your document commercial, a key advantage a PDF document is that it will enable you to output your work as either a web-quality file or something that can be managed by a commercial printer. The only difference is the size of the final document.

Perfect, or it would be if you could output your work as a PDF document on a Windows machine. On a Mac, PDF support has been built-in to OS X from launch. Some Windows applications do include PDF support, such as a DTP tool.

The answer is one of the many free PDF creation tools that exist on the market. Bullzip PDF Printer is one of these free PDF creation tools and will enable you to produce a PDF document that can be used on the web or for commercial reproduction. It’s free for personal and commercial use, for small organisations with up to 10 users.

Note that, unlike doPDF and others, this requires Ghostscript installed which is an opensource Postscript to PDF conversion tool.

The latest v7 now ships with Windows 7 support.

Safari for Windows 4.0.4

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-12T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Minor update for the Apple web browser

This is the software publisher’s description.

Safari is the world’s fastest and easiest-to-use web browser for Windows PCs and Macs. Safari is the fastest browser running on Windows, based on the industry standard iBench tests, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2. Safari joins iTunes in delivering Apple’s legendary user experience to both Windows and Mac users as well as full support of open Internet standards. Safari features easy-to-manage bookmarks, effortless browsing with easy-to-organize tabs and a built-in RSS reader to quickly scan the latest news and information.

“We think Windows users are going to be really impressed when they see how fast and intuitive web browsing can be with Safari,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Hundreds of millions of Windows users already use iTunes, and we look forward to turning them on to Safari’s superior browsing experience too.”

Safari has always been the fastest browser on the Mac and now it’s the fastest browser on Windows, loading and drawing web pages up to twice as fast as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.7 times faster than Mozilla Firefox 2. The speed of Safari combined with its intuitive user interface lets users spend more time surfing the web and less time waiting for pages to load. Other Safari features now available to Windows users include SnapBack, one-click access to an initial search query; resizable text fields; and private browsing to ensure that information about an individual’s browsing history isn’t stored.

Safari supports all modern Internet standards so users can view websites as they were meant to be seen, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG and Java. Safari software updates are delivered seamlessly through Apple’s Software Update application, which automatically checks for updates.

Safari v4 is finally here and supports many new technologies. Browser your favourite websites (or your browsing history) in 'cover flow' mode, quickly search through your web history, support for the latest web standards such as HTML 5, a flawless ACID3 test, as well as being far faster and shipping with a Windows look-and-feel.

FoxyTunes for Firefox 4.0.5.1

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-12T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Control your audio from Firefox

You're busy working, occasionally browsing the web, while listening to your music via your favourite audio player (such as iTunes).

You want to move to the next track on your favourite album, but you've got iTunes as an icon in your task bar and it always takes a second or two to maximise.

FoxyTunes is a small plug-in for Mozilla Firefox that enables you to control audio being played back from your audio player from within your Firefox status bar.

From your status bar, you can pause, move to the next track, alter the volume and much more.

FoxyTunes 3 goes much further than the previous version and enables you to perform web searches while you are listening to your music, so you can find information about your favourite (or unknown) artist.

Note that the download here links directly to the Firefox extension. You might need to authorise this download (from Firefox) if you are using Firefox to install.

This version now supports Firefox 3.

Auslogics Disk Defrag 3.1.0.60

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-12T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Defragment your hard drives

This is the software publisher’s description.

Hard disks are by far the slowest component in your computer, particularly if you’re a laptop user with a 2.5” drive. CPU and memory work much faster than hard disks because they do not have moving parts. Therefore fragmented disks often become a bottleneck of the system performance.

Besides causing slowdowns, fragmentation makes the hard drive disk heads move frequently when reading files which leads to freeze-ups and system crashes. It is important to keep your disks defragmented and optimised as much as possible.

Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startup and shutdown and sometimes to system failures.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimisation of today's modern hard disks. Get the maximum performance out of your expensive hardware investment.

This v3 release now ships with a number of new optimisation features within an enhanced user interface.

AVG Anti-Virus Free 9.0.707

Chris Wiles/Tim Smith — 2009-11-12T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles/Tim Smith, V3.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Major update to the mpressive and free antivirus package

AVG continues to be one of the most popular free antivirus programs available on the internet and it maintains this position with a combination of effective protection and an easy to use interface.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 9 improves on both areas, and is an essential upgrade, as updates will be stopped for the previous version. If you already have AVG installed it is best to click on the upgrade option when it is offered. If you have never installed it before, this is the download to use. We would recommend disconnecting from the internet during installation as there will a period where there is no protection.

As noted the interface of AVG Free has been improved and it is easier to see what protection AVG is providing and what needs attention via icons in the main part of the screen. Tabs along the left hand side give quick access to important information on updates and ongoing scans.

In addition to traditional antivirus protection, AVG Free now offers protection from Spyware without installing extra software.

Extra features included with AVG Free 9 are basic support for anti-rootkit, an email scanner, the web page LinkScanner, to make sure you avoid malicious websites and more.

Task Coach 0.76

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-11T10:31:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 10:31:00

Schedule a project & track tasks

How many of us start a new project but do not bother to write down the tasks required to reach completion? If you’re a project leader, managing a development team, it’s best to have a solution that enables you to assign tasks to the other users, schedule deadlines and even manage the cost aspect of each task. For instance, if you require graphic work for your project, you won’t want someone managing this task to spend twice as much as you’ve assigned.

Unless you know how to work with Gantt charts and can understand an advanced project management tool such as Microsoft Project, tracking your tasks may present more problems than they solve (ie. you’ll spend too long trying to understand your project management tool). The solution is something far more simplistic.

One solution is Task Coach, which is a single-person solution for managing a project, or a set of projects. You can assign tasks, users, time schedules and costs involved with completing a project. At this stage, it’s a single-person task manager, which means that you can’t share the task information with other users. Hopefully that will change in the future – the developer has stated he intends to migrate the tool so you can share the info with other users, using iCalendar standard, which means you will be able to share the information through the Internet.

Now, if only the Task Coach developer takes note of something like Evernote that is a cross-platform note and information sharing tool that enables you to sync information across your installed editions, whatever the OS.

Note that Task Coach is available for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and other operating systems, although the download here is for the Windows version.

ChromePlus 1.3

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-11T10:23:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 10:23:00

Try this alternative version to Google Chrome

It’s interesting to see some of the smaller developers who like to take a browser, from a heavyweight such as Google, then turn this in to their own project. It happened with Internet Explorer. There are a number of derivatives that use the IE engine that ships with Windows, then produce their own browser around these components.

ChromePlus is an upgraded version of the publically available Google Chrome v3.x. The developers have taken then source code then added their own features. For example, ChromePlus enables you to use ‘super drag’ which means you can highlight a link and then drag that to your new page tab to open in another tab. Mouse gestures enable you to perform commands with a quick mouse movement within the browser, whilst IE tab offers Internet Explorer functionality within its own tab. Ideal if certain websites claim they will only work with Internet Explorer.

The problem with these ‘updated’ versions of web browsers is that it’s always going to be difficult to convince end users to use a browser from an unknown developer. A browser uses so much private and important information, that it takes a lot to convince users. However, it will be interesting to see the progress of this alternative version of the Google Chrome web browser.

Hotspot Shield 1.33

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-11T09:55:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 09:55:00

Create a secure WIFI connection

This is the software publisher's description.

Sure, public networks (both wired and wireless) are great. After all, what would life be without connecting while at airports, hotels, coffee shops and more. But while you're connecting to any open network - even if you pay an access fee from a recognized provider, you’re still at risk of insecurely sending your data over the wires and airways. Your passwords, credit card numbers, and any data you send can be seen and associated with you personally. Standard antivirus software won't protect you as this threat is on the network, not your laptop or iPhone.

That's why AnchorFree is pleased to offer Hotspot Shield. This free privacy/security software keeps your Internet connection secure and anonymous on public networks: including hotels, airports, coffee shops, even work and home.

Hotspot Shield creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your laptop or iPhone and our Internet gateway. This impenetrable tunnel prevents snoopers and hackers from viewing your email, instant messages, credit card information or anything else you send over the network. This means you’ll remain anonymous and secure while on-line. Hotspot Shield security software is free to download, employs the latest VPN technology, and is easy to install and use.

Stickies 7.0b

Paul Rowlingson — 2009-11-11T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Rowlingson, V3.co.uk, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Sticky notes on your desktop

Stickies is just one of many programs that let you create desktop notes. Unlike most, however, Stickies is completely free.

The program sits in your system tray, and clearly displays the number of stored notes. Notes can be made to sit on top of all other windows, and you can create up to 10 different styles, which is great for separating 'work' and 'personal' for example.

Notes can be hidden from view for any number of minutes, hours, week or months.

Stickies can be shared with Pocket PC devices, although they simply get stored in the My Documents folder. Also, if you're on a network, individual notes can be sent to other Stickies users.

O&O CleverCache 7

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-11T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Give your PC a performance boost

This is the software publisher's description.

Unique tool for optimizing the File Cache Management in Windows Vista, XP, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, and Windows NT. With the help of this software, it is possible to achieve enormous performance improvements. Depending on your specific configuration and resources, you can double you performance speed without an additional Hardware or reductions in system stability.

Through intelligent management of the file cache by O&O CleverCache, more memory is made available to the system, increasing overall performance. To achieve this, the software Every time your computer is booted, the system's memory configuration is detected. This software then adjusts its system settings to optimally respond to this configuration. In addition, users can take advantage of a diverse series of pre-defined profiles designed to enhance performance during specific applications or games. Users also have the ability to define individual profiles.

With the help of O&O CleverCache's Mem-O-Free function, the main memory can be defragmented, improving the speed at which applications and games can utilize memory resources. An additional function, Mem-O-Safe, reduces the risk of data loss in the event of a system crash by quickly transferring the data stored in memory to the hard disk. By way of the Status Monitor it is also possible to monitor the CPU, main memory, system cache, and hard disk, as well as gather additional information useful in tuning you system.

ReminderFox 1.9.5

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-10T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Manage your daily tasks via Firefox

Extension for Firefox and Thunderbird that displays and manages lists of date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) without having to run an entire calendar application.

ReminderFox helps you manage reminders, ToDo's, and other tasks. ReminderFox adds an icon to your application -- a ribbon tied into a reminder-knot. By default this is shown in the status bar, but can be changed via the options. The ribbon will show any current reminders for the day. Hovering over the ribbon will show a snapshot of your upcoming reminders and ToDo's.

Right-clicking on the ribbon will bring up a list of available context menu options. From here you can go to the ReminderFox options as well as a number of other operations.

Trillian Astra 4.0.0.119

Paul Rowlingson — 2009-11-10T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Rowlingson, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Versatile multi-IM chat program

Trillian is a great Instant Messenger that's fully compatible with all the other major services: Windows Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Skype, MySpace IM, Facebook, Twitter and more. The key advantage is that you only need one login for all these accounts and it's an ideal way of bringing together various friends and business colleagues, across multiple IM accounts, within one user-interface.

In order to communicate with users on these IMs it's necessary to have accounts with the appropriate ones. If you already have accounts these can be entered during set up and all existing contacts will be imported into Trillian's address book.

The interface is effective, enabling you to bring in different themes. Some may be way over the top and for business users, you may miss the simplicity of simple interface that just does its job.

This is the major new 'Astra' (v4) update that's been in beta-testing for absolutely ages. There are many new features over the last version. We suggest you look on the Trillian website for more new feature information.

Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool 3.1

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-10T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Protect from malicious software

Security must be becoming an important issue for Microsoft, as this is the second release in almost as many days, coming hot on the heels of its AntiSpyware software.

Download this small tool and your PC will be scanned and checked for malicious software. Should any be found it is automatically removed, and a full report displayed on-screen at the end of the scan.

A new version of this tool will be released every second Tuesday of the month, and the download link above takes you to the Microsoft download page to ensure you get the most up-to-date version.

You must have administrator access in order to run this software on your PC.