Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #476 issued May 30, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Golden Warriors v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Golden Warriors is a 3D corridor shooter, set in the style of Indiana Jones, where you must collect as much gold as possible. It features good animated graphics, lots of powerups to collect, strong Boss to fight, mouse & keyboard control, and more. This is quite a good, and challenging, 3D corridor shooter where you must collect as much gold as possible, while grabbing as much water as you can to replenish your energy. In this game, the gold fights back! Golden Warriors is a rather light weight 3D corridor shooter that is not so easy to beat. You must blast your way at the creatures there to protect the gold and, finally, you must kill the mummy that protects the tomb. Graphics are good without being spectacular but the game has a fun feel about it and it should suit anyone who enjoys the Indiana Jones style of high adventure. We enjoyed playing Golden Warriors, and consider it is worth the bandwidth to try it for yourself. Access this 6.92MB download from: Win95 General Games

Unknown Device Identifier v6.01 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Unknown Device Identifier is a tool that identifies the yellow question mark labeled "Unknown Devices" in Device Manager and reports a detailed summary for the manufacturer name, OEM name, device type, device model and the exact name of the unknown device(s). It Identifies USB 1.1/2.0 devices, IEEE 1394 devices, ISA Plug&Play devices, AGP Bus devices and PCI, PCI-E devices. Unfortunately, CFS was unable to review this program. The author says: "Unknown Device Identifier enables you to identify the yellow question mark labeled Unknown Devices in Device Manager. And reports you a detailed summary for the manufacturer name, OEM name, device type, device model and even the exact name of the unknown devices. With the collected information, you might contact your hardware manufacturer for support or search the Internet for the corresponding driver with a simple click. With this utility, you might immediately convert your unidentified unknown devices into identified known devices and find proper driver on the Internet and contact the hardware device manufacturer or vender. Known devices recognized by Microsoft Windows will also be analyzed independent of the operating system." Access this 850kB download from: Win95 Windows Enhancements

QuickBooks Simple Start 2008 R1 – WinXP/Vista
QuickBooks Simple Start is a professional accounting package suitable for small businesses. It creates invoices & estimates, allows the user to receive payments & create sales receipts, record deposits, write & print checks, records cash & credit card expenses, automatically tracks tax-related income & expenses, it creates 14 reports (financial, sales & tax), on-line video tutorials, 30 days free e-mail assistance, and more. This is an excellent package for SOHO businesses. It offers a path into small business accounting that does not require accounting qualifications and is designed for small business owners to do their own books. Because it is designed as an entry-level tool it does not allow the user to import data from prior versions of QuickBooks, Quicken, or Peachtree, but this is one of its few limitations for very small businesses. It tracks money going into and out of the business. It also helps manage the business better with the provision for adding thousands of customer and vendor contacts, and for assisting with tax preparation (US centered but still suitable for users in other countries with balance sheets, profit & loss, and other reporting tools). We found the interface excellent. It is clear what to do from the main window with a number of icons for money in, money out, etc. When you need to add new data, just click on the appropriate icon and then select "New" to bring up a dialog box to add the information. Simple. The payroll functions require a payment to Intuit, the creators of QuickBooks Simple Start, but this is the only major restriction in this version. We were extremely impressed with QuickBooks Simple Start. It provides a sophisticated accounting package but can still be used by a non-accountant with the most basic of accounting information. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 513kB installer which will download the full setup program (284MB) from: WinXP General Programs

iPad v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
iPad is an ASCII text editor and Notepad replacement. It features unlimited filesize (no 64kB limits), has a built-in Clipboard extender for boilerplate text, it has options to change the screen font (does not affect printing, just the on-screen appearance), a recently opened documents list, word count statistics, search & replace, and more. This is a basic ASCII text editor that opens very large documents virtually instantly (about 2 seconds for our 10MB test file with 470,000 lines of text). Its main feature is the iSnip Board which a repository for clips of text (which can be any size). Unfortunately, if closed and re-opened, the clips are still there but a large section of text becomes a series of very small segments of text – the text remains but it ceases to be a single large item of text. This is most annoying if you wish to retain clips for later use. However, during the session they were added, they retain the cohesion and remain as large blocks of texts that can be pasted back into documents. iPad lacks an undo and/or redo function, but it does offer document statistics, including the word count. Overall, iPad has some great features, but lacks some common features so it will not suit everybody. What we could not understand was the size of this program. It is a massive download for a program of this type. iPad is a worthy Notepad replacement. In spite of its shortcomings, we liked. Get this 5.63MB download from: Win95 Text Programs

Elite Soccer v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Elite Soccer is a football (soccer) game using competition sides from around the world. It features 3 game modes (exhibition, league & tournament), a choice of 33 teams, team players can be edited, 1- & 2-player games (computer & human opponents), and more. Originally released in 1994 through the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Elite Soccer is a fun way for soccer fans to enjoy this game on their computer. Just to get you started, some of the keys you will need are the Enter key next to the QWERTY keyboard, the A key and the Z key – you can learn the others for yourself (we can't make it too easy!). Apart from the out-of-date player information and teams, Elite Soccer stands up well on a modern PC and is quite a challenging game. Graphics are a little dated, specially when blown up to fill a modern PC monitor, but the game itself is very addictive and lots of fun to play. Elite Soccer is a fun way to play football on a computer. We loved! Access this 1.46MB download from: Win95 General Games

Online Armor Free v2.1.0.131 – WinXP
Online Armor Free is a basic firewall that protects a computer against on-line attacks and prevents unknown programs from opening without permission. It features kernel mode security, execution & termination protection, some autostart protection, detects keylogger hooks, tamper protection, script/worm protection, and more. This is a very effective, and secure, firewall. While it does not offer some of the high end features of its paid-for brothers, it provides adequate security for virtually all home users. We were disappointed that updates are only carried out manually (shareware versions offer auto updates). Users must remember to regularly check for updates to ensure that they are getting maximum protection. We checked Online Armor Free using Gibson Research Corporation's famous Shields Up! test (http://www.grc.com) which gave it a clean bill of health – even in areas which are normally susceptible to attack: "All attempts to get any information from your computer have FAILED. (This is very uncommon for a Windows networking-based PC.) Relative to vulnerabilities from Windows networking, this computer appears to be VERY SECURE since it is NOT exposing ANY of its internal NetBIOS networking protocol over the Internet." With independent comments like this we are confident that Online Armor Free will supply a high degree of protection for its users and we are happy to recommend it. It is easy to configure, and includes a safety check when first installed. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME – we have also been advised that, at the time of carrying out this review, Vista was also not supported (this situation should change soon). Access this 9.92MB download from: WinXP Internet Related

Snow Player v0.79 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Snow Player is a multimedia player for both audio & video files. It features support for all major audio formats (WAV, MP3, MOD, OGG & AIFF), supports all major video formats (AVI, MPG, 3GP & DivX – installed codecs required), plays streaming Internet radio (OGG/MP3 streams), 8-band graphic equalizer, minimizes to desktray (next to clock), drag 'n drop, supports M3U playlists, displays & edits ID3v1 tags, track lyrics search using Google, IMDB movie search, and more. This is a terrific media player that supports most popular audio and video formats, though some video formats require additional codecs to be pre-installed. Some functions don't seem to work well – the CPU usage meter didn't work and the 8-band graphic equalizer didn't seem to do anything – but this is a beta version and these functions may not yet be fully implemented. We particularly liked the "minimize to desktray" feature so we could set up an audio playlist and then have it playing in the background. Cool. Snow Player is a great way to play your audio and video files. Worth grabbing! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 437kB download from: Win98 Multimedia Programs

Falco Auto Image v1.5 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Falco Auto Image is an image editing tool that supports BMP, GIF, PNG & JPG files. It features 11 editing effects (Contrast, Brightness, Invert Colors, Blur, GrayScale, HSB Adjustment, Sharpen, Emboss, Crop, Lighting & Resize), supports TWAIN scanners & Webcams, you can add text, rotate images, and more. This is potentially an excellent, if rather basic, image editing tool. Unfortunately none of its editing functions are more than just "basic" – it lacks the depth that high end image editors offer. It does offer slide controls for some effects, and these can assist in getting the best impact from your photos. Fortunately, changes are instantly previewed so you can ensure that you are getting the effect you desire. We were disappointed that thumbnail images displayed in the program are stretched to fit the window, which sometimes makes it harder to judge the final result from adding an effect. Falco Auto Image is advertiser supported (using Google ads) but these are not "spyware" type ads but ones the same as you would see on any Website. Those small criticisms aside, Falco Auto Image is still a worthwhile contender for anyone looking for a more basic image editor. Check it out for yourself! Access this 1.93MB download from: Win95 Graphic Programs

Cartoonix v1.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Cartoonix is a colorful arcade game where you must destroy the magic wall created by the evil warlocks and free the famous cartoon characters locked behind it. It features superb animated graphics, there are 6 powerups to collect, you get a password every 5 levels to return to that point when next you play, it is a fun puzzle for all ages, and more. This game is also known as Cartoon Xonix. In this game you must dissect the screen to reveal the image underneath but, if your track is touched by an evil warlock, you are dead. Therefore, you must carve off pieces of the wall to expose the hidden picture but this must be done away from the warlocks. Eventually the whole image is revealed and you move on to the next level. The game is simple to play and, even though it can be played by all ages, younger children will probably enjoy it most because it exposes their favorite cartoon characters. Cartoonix is quite easy to play, specially on the earlier levels, but it has a fun, addictive feel to it that should bring you back to play it again. We liked! Access this 6.98MB download from: Win95 General Games
COMMENTS
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