Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #474 issued May 16, 2008

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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

PGM Tanks: Open War v1.1 – WinXP/Vista
PGM Tanks: Open War is a top-down, 2D tank battle where you to throw bombs at enemy tanks & shoot them from your turret. It features 10 levels, a powerful Boss to defeat on level 10, lots of health powerups to collect, and more. This is a fun, if somewhat lightweight, shooter where you manoeuvre your tank around a battlefield, collecting health powerups when you can and destroying enemy tanks. You move using the W,A and S keys and fire using the right and left mouse buttons. The mouse is used to target the enemy tanks. To bomb a tank you must lob your bomb where it is expected to be when the bomb explodes (there is a small delay before the detonation) and, if you are close enough, you see the health bar on that tank diminish. It usually takes three direct hits to kill a tank (many more for the Boss). PGM Tanks: Open War is a little cumbersome to play because manoeuvering your tank is not that easy. Strangely, you start with 5 lives but, when those are gone, you simply move into negative numbers. The graphics are rather basic and the whole game has a retro feel. Even so, PGM Tanks: Open War is a fun game that should give the player about half an hour's enjoyment to play the full 10 levels. We liked. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 3.71MB download from: WinXP General Games

ExplorerXP v1.07a – WinXP
ExplorerXP is a small, fast file manager (replacement for MS Explorer). It features a tabbed interface, multiple file rename, displays folder size, supports Explorer shell, advanced copy & move, merge & split tools, Unicode support, configurable keyboard shortcuts, recursively removes files that match given list of extensions or wildcards, easy access to Windows' tools (Recycle Bin, My Computer, My Documents, etc), and more. This is one of the best replacements for the Microsoft Explorer file manager we have seen. It offers many, many more functions than Explorer yet is still only a tiny program. The tabbed interface allows you to tile open drives so that all windows can be seen at the same time for easy file transfer or comparison. In its default configuration it has lines between each entry and vertical lines can be added, or all lines removed (this makes it look more like Explorer and is a cleaner display). One feature we liked was the (optional) display of a folder's size so that you have some understanding on just how big it is (for example, our Windows' folder and its sub folders is a whopping 5.13GB!). Fortunately, it also includes a cache for the folder size so that the information loads faster. ExplorerXP "remembers" the last open drives and reverts back to that setting when it is subsequently re-opened. We cannot speak highly enough of ExplorerXP. It offers all the benefits of the standard Explorer window (including its shell items) but adds dozens of additional functions and features. We loved! Note: this program was only designed for use with Windows XP and was only reviewed on that platform – it may, or may not, be suitable for later versions of Windows. Access this 411kB download from: WinXP Windows Enhancements

AV MP3 Player Morpher v4.0.61 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
AV MP3 Player Morpher is an all-in-one audio morphing studio for digital music and movie editing. It features support for most popular audio formats (MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, APE, AIF, IRC, NIST, AU & MP2), 25 beats, 32 preset effects, 32 advanced effects, CD ripping, CD/DVD burning, CD cover & label editor, supports M3U playlists, and more. It can change the pitch & timbre of an audio clip, change the tempo of a song, make Cher effects, it has a voice LPC pitch changer, you can select a robot voice, it can reduce noise, and it offers Chorus plus. It also offers the built-in Funny Space – a place where you can upload, download, watch or listen to some of the work of others. This includes videos, images, audio tracks, and more. Some of the content is questionable so you might not want your 13 year old unvetted access to it, but other items are very funny. This is an amazing suite of audio and video tools that can take your voice or music and completely change it in some amazing ways.AV MP3 Player Morpher requires free on-line registration, which gives additional functions for 7 days before reverting to the Lite version. The audio tools in this suite are fantastic and, while they may not always create an end result that is worth keeping, you can have a lot of fun playing with it. We loved AV MP3 Player Morpher and highly recommend it to everybody who likes to dabble in audio and movie editing. Grab a copy now! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 6.31MB download from: Win98 Multimedia Programs

Tiny USB Office v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Tiny USB Office is a small, portable productivity software suite which offers a collection of unique stand-alone free software applications. It features word processing, file sharing, creation of spreadsheets & databases, e-mail, creation of PDF files, securely encrypt or delete files, FTP file manager, archiving tool (creates ZIP archives), and more. This is a fabulous package of free programs (many of which are independently listed with CFS) which, together, become a small Office-style suite which can be run from a USB pen device. The package is combined with Qsel portable program launcher which can give you quick access to the program you require. The suite comprises CSVed (database), DScrypt (data encryption), NPopUK (e-mail client), 100 Zipper (file compression), HFS (file sharing), FTP Wanderer (file transfer), EVE Vector Editor (flowchart creation), PixaMSN (MSN Messenger client), Mempad (tree-style outliner), PDF Producer (PDF creation), XPass (password recovery), DSdel (secure deletion), Spread32 (spreadsheet creation), TedNotepad (text editing), and Kpad (word processing). You are not locked into using the programs in this suite and you can substitute others should you so desire. However, if you want the portability aspect any replacements must be able to be run, without installation, from a USB drive. Tiny USB Office is an awesome suite of productivity tools for anyone who needs to jump between computers to keep working. Great for students as well as business people. We liked! Access this 2.31MB download from: Win95 General Programs

Freighter – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Freighter is a vertically-scrolling truck driving game where you must use your 18-wheeler to pick up freight & fuel, while avoiding other vehicles and the police. It features a choice of right or left hand drive (UK/Australia or USA/Europe), fullscreen or window modes, cheat keys, and more. This is quite a challenging game. This idea is to drive along a highway, avoiding other cars while picking up freight. Sounds simple? Don't be mislead, this is not a game you can win without some serious practice. The truck starts in the center of the road and you must quickly move into the appropriate lane depending on if you are playing the Australian version (right hand drive) or the USA version (left hand drive). Touch another vehicle, however lightly, and you are history. Allow your truck to go outside the area of the screen, and you are history. You must also watch out for kamikaze-style police who will try to ram you (fortunately, they don't appear until you pass 3,500 points). Simple in concept, simple in gameplay, annoyingly hard to win. That is Freighter. If you are up to the challenge then grab a copy and take to the road. But don't say you haven't been warned... Get this 3.96MB download from: Win95 General Games

WinAudit v2.27MB – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
WinAudit is a utility that provides a full PC audit and inventory of software, licenses, security configuration, hardware, network settings, etc. It features options to print or save results (to CSV, HTML, PDF, XML & e-mail), service tag detection, hard-drive failure diagnosis, network port to process mapping, network connection speed, system availability statistics, Windows update information, firewall settings, there is no setup required (can be run from a USB drive), and more. This is an exhaustive look at a computer with more information than most people would ever need. WinAudit presents this data in a user-friendly HTML style format that can be saved in any of a number of formats. It includes security information that could be sensitive so you may not wish to share this information with other people but will be crucial if you have a major system crash and need to re-establish your computer. Because there is no setup required it can be copied to a USB pen drive and used on multiple computers without having to share data over a network. We were most impressed with the scope of WinAudit. It provides a massive amount of information about a computer. We loved! Access this 830kB download from: Win95 Desktop Utilities

Photo Card Maker v1.0.1 – WinXP/Vista
Photo Card Maker is a program that creates photo cards, using templates, that can be printed or shared. It features 32 templates in 8 categories (another 71 templates are available – a 3.22MB download), supports popular photo formats (BMP, JPG, TIF, TGA, PNG & JP2), choice of text attributes (font, size & color), easy to use, good Helpfile, and more. If you wish to share your digital photos you can incorporate them into a photo card and then save that card as a JPG. The resultant card can then be shared as an image or printed through an image viewer program. Unfortunately, you cannot print directly from Photo Card Maker, an omission we find strange. However, the cards you make are excellent – they are easy to prepare and even easier to save. The image you select for your card slots behind the template so that only the section in the photo window can be seen. As many of the templates have circles and other non-rectangular shapes, this can look excellent. An image can be resized or moved about inside the template so that only the pertinent section is on view (an effective way to crop an image to improve its impact). We were most impressed with Photo Card Maker. It offers some excellent templates (specially the additional ones you can download) or you can create your own template. Text for your card can be modified as much as you like with a different font, font size and/or color. Photo Card Maker is a terrific tool which helps present digital photos in a new way, with added impact. Grab a copy now! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 4.03MB download from: WinXP Graphic Programs

Gaea's Shield v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Gaea's Shield is a retro vertically-scrolling space shooter where enemy quality and not quantity reigns. It features powerups, strong Bosses to overcome, optional shield, limited "bullets", retro graphics, challenging gameplay, and more. This is a simple space-based arcade shooter that is harder to beat than it looks. Instead of hordes of enemy craft to destroy, you have fewer enemies but they are smarter and harder to kill. To complicate matters you only have limited ammunition in which to fight them so you must make every shot count. Graphics are straight out of the 80s (well, OK, there were also a few games made with this type of graphics in the 90s) but the game offers a good challenge and is definitely not just a "blast away at everything" type shooter. Gaea's Shield is a "must have" for all lovers of this genre. Try it for yourself. Get this 752kB download from: Win95 General Games
COMMENTS
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