Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #482 issued July 18, 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(does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid.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

Marathon – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Marathon is a retro 3D corridor, first person shooter, released for the Macintosh in 1994. It features 6 chapters over 27 levels, 7 weapons (fist, pistol, assault rifle, fusion gun, rocket launcher, flamethrower & an unidentified alien weapon), 7 levels of difficulty (from "Kindergarten" to "Total Carnage"), multiplayer deathmatch mode, challenging obstacles & puzzles, strong characterization, excellent gameplay with coherent storyline, good 3D graphics, and more. This is an awesome corridor shooter that goes to the next step beyond Doom by being more than just a "blast 'em" type shooter. In Marathon you have some tough obstacles to overcome, some tough puzzles to solve, and you will need some luck to work your way right through to the end. Fortunately there is a "save game" function which means that you can keep saving your game so you have a reference point to return to when you crash and burn. There is a huge variety in the environment in which you will be fighting but, for the first half of the game, you will be aboard a large, multi-generational colony spacecraft called the UESC (United Earth Space Council) Marathon. Later levels will find yourself on the alien mothership. Most Marathon levels involve the player executing objective-based missions. You can play on your computer in single player mode, or across a LAN in multiplayer deathmatch mode (up to 8 players on the same network connected to a single host machine). We suggest that you modify the controls in the game as the default has you moving around using the NumLock keys rather than just the normal arrow keys. You can also use the mouse for turning though, again, this is not the default setting. Because Marathon has been released for the Macintosh operating system, you must play the game in an emulation program called Aleph One. CFS has combined the original game, and the emulation, into a single ZIP download (which includes the full, original, PDF manual), though you can get them separately from http://source.bungie.org/get/ with instructions at the "Marathon (on Windows) for DUMMIES" site at http://www.calormen.com/mwd.htm. However, it is easier just to download the CFS file and simply run AlephOne.exe to play the game. We loved Marathon. It is an awesome, full length game that will give lots of pleasure to its players. A "must have" if you enjoy 3D corridor-style shooters – specially if you enjoy some challenges along the way. Grab a copy now! Get this 40,6MB download from: Win95 General Game

Windows Sidebar Styler v2.0.6 – Vista
Windows Sidebar Styler is a tool that tweaks the Sidebar's User Interface. It features resource-related & preview mode views, Sidebar resizing, add or modify Gadgets (mini applications managed by Windows Sidebar), and more. CFS was unable to review this program. The author says: "Windows Sidebar Styler takes advantage of the new technologies introduced in Windows Vista in order to provide extensions to the existing functionality of Windows Sidebar. Custom styles allow for resizing and customizing the appearance of Windows Sidebar so that it fits other UI elements, such as the Aero Glass colorization or an actual third party theme. Gadgets can now take full advantage of Windows Presentation Foundation – the powerful managed code-oriented framework for presenting rich visual compositions such as vector graphics, 3D drawing, animations and more. In addition to that, it could be used in conjunction with Windows Communication Foundation in order for the Gadgets to connect to services and provide frequently updated information." Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME – with limited functionality on XP. Access this 6.87MB download from: Vista Windows Enhancement

SC DVD-Video Maker v1.0.0.0 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
SC DVD-Video Maker is a program that creates movie DVDs from a huge number of video file formats. It supports over 45 file formats, supports over 60 video codecs, supports over 40 audio codecs, you can add subtitles, burn to ISO file or disk, it has options for advanced users, there is an easy-to-use interface, and more. This is an excellent tool for anyone who wishes to convert video files into movie disks playable on DVD players. The major video formats it supports are 3GP, AVI, FLV, HDMOV, MPG, MP4, MKV, MJPG, NUT, QT, MOV, SMK, OGM WMV & ASF. Subtitles can be added from a normal TXT file. SC DVD-Video Maker uses the free ImgBurn program to effect the actual disk creation and, apart from a message telling us that there was a later version of ImgBurn available for download, it was seamless marriage between the programs. Disks (or ISO disk images) worked well though we were disappointed that the program only recognized one of our two DVD burners – and that, of course, was our secondary unit not our main burner. That aside, SC DVD-Video Maker conducted itself perfectly and created a DVD disk that played exactly as expected. Unfortunately, its authors have chosen to include RelevantKnowledge advertising which integrates with the Internet Explorer Web browser. This toolbar was automatically removed by our anti-virus program. We loved SC DVD-Video Maker. It is an excellent program that does exactly what it claims to do, and does it well. Grab a copy now! Access this 8.96MB download from: Win95 Multimedia Program

LopeEdit v5.4.2 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
LopeEdit is a powerful tab-based programmer's editor and replacement for Windows Notepad. It features global search & replace, user configurable syntax highlighting (pre-configured for 16 programming languages), unlimited undo/redo, UNICODE & UTF-8 support, several docking windows with utilities, text string search & replace across an entire folder (not just open documents), and more. This is an awesome ASCII text editor which has been designed with programmer's in mind. It has all the usual features, plus some, packaged together in a very workable tool. We particularly liked the search & replace of text strings across a folder – a feature that assists greatly when changes are required to multiple files (too many to load into the program). It has no filesize limits and handled our 10MB test file, with 470,000 lines of text, easily. It took only a couple of seconds to load that entire file! Unfortunately, LopeEdit lacks a spell checker, though there are a number of add-on spell checkers available if you need this facility. LopeEdit comes in two formats – a free "lite" version for non-commercial use, and a shareware "pro" version with some additional features not included in the free version. Both versions are included in the download and you must decide which version you want during installation. We were most impressed with LopeEdit. It is not only a highly functional ASCII text editor for programmer's, but a worthy replacement for the terrible Notepad editor included with Windows. We loved! Access this 3.40MB download from: Win95 Text Program

Golden Classic Mahjong – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
Golden Classic Mahjong is a Chinese-character "traditional" Mahjong solitaire boardgame played in a Web browser. It features good graphics, timer, and more. This is a standard Mahjong solitaire tile game where you must match up the tiles to make them disappear, the idea being to remove all tiles from the board. The game uses the traditional Chinese characters which is great if you read Chinese, but not so easy on non-Chinese reading players as some of the characters are hard to differentiate. Golden Classic Mahjong changes your Internet Explorer's homepage during installation. Of course, you can change it back immediately after and still play the game but we felt it was an unwarranted intrusion on our right to choose our own homepage. Apart from the graphics, Golden Classic Mahjong has little going for it unless you are an ardent fan of the traditional Chinese character set, don't mind the fact that the game is played in a browser and is therefore not resizable, and has no other options. Mahjong solitaire is a fabulous game, but Golden Classic Mahjong is not our favorite version. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 1.05MB download from: Win98 General Game

Easeus Partition Manager v1.6.4 – WinXP
Easeus Partition Manager is a hard disk partition manager, with an easy-to-use user interface. It can resize/move partitions without losing data, can create & delete partitions, supports FAT (FAT12, FAT16 & FAT32) plus NTFS partitions, supports hardware RAID, supports USB drives, and more. This is one of the best partition managers we have seen. It allows you to do a huge number of tasks on your hard drive partitions, including changing their size and also moving them. The best part is, you can do that without destroying your data! Other functions are also carried out through an excellent interface that makes it so much easier for users than trying to use FDISK or other DOS tools (which probably won't read NTFS partitions anyway). Easeus Partition Manager cannot display partition information from secondary operating systems, like Linux, so this is one small problem for people with dual OS computers. We found Easeus Partition Manager to be an excellent tool for working with partitions through a Windows GUI. A "must have" for all serious PC users. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME, and the author does not state if it is suitable for Vista. Access this 4.53MB download from: WinXP General Program

i.Ftp v2.11 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
i.Ftp is a simple FTP file transfer program. It features SFTP support, runs from portable media (like USB pen drives), offers the ability to change permissions (CHMOD), download scheduling, binary & ASCII transfer modes (file types can also be specified as ASCII only), multi-lingual interface (8 languages), and more. This is a neat little FTP client that makes up for in speed and simplicity what it lacks in fancy bells and whistles. We found i.Ftp to be a little too austere and we did miss some of the functions we enjoy in other FPT clients. That said, you may not need more than its limited functionality and, if that is the case, then it will do exactly what you want without a lot of waste features. A "must have" for anyone who wants a portable FTP client (it doesn't write anything to the Registry), i.Ftp is worth checking out. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 839kB download from: Win98 Internet Related

RainBall v3.48 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
RainBall is a blocks-based puzzle (like a cross between Lines & Rubik's Cube). It features 3 levels of difficulty, 3 block sizes, 3 grid sizes, 9 block faces, 8 textures, 4 effects, excellent animated graphics, and more. This is a surprisingly addictive, and quite challenging, puzzle game. You must used the large square cursor to rotate the four blocks under it so that same images appear in a line (either 4, 5 or 6 depending on the level of difficulty). These lines can be horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Once you match them up, the lines disappear. However, while you are deleting lines of similar blocks, more blocks are falling and they will soon fill the window. It sounds confusing, and the rules change depending on what options you select, but you quickly learn them and it isn't anywhere near as confusing as it might be. The Help page is a "must" read when you first start, though it may also confuse you as the author's first language is not English. RainBall is an excellent puzzle, and one that will keep you playing long after you should have gone and done whatever else you had to do. The one thing that spoilt the game for us was the author's insistence that you register it. While this is free, it is still an imposition and we are unhappy giving our e-mail address out to everyone who asks. That said, RainBall is worth the effort to register and learn. We loved! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 8.10MB download from: Win98 General Game
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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