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The new version of DAEMON Tools Lite has been released recently. It is DAEMON Tools Lite version 4.11. DAEMON Tools Lite is free and well known application for cd/dvd-rom emulation. This program is able to emulate almost all known copy protections on the market today, allowing you to run backup copies of Laserlock, SafeDisc, CDCOPS, Securom, Protect CD and StarForce protected games.
DAEMON Tools allows you to create a virtual DVD-ROM drives. So you can mount and use nearly any CD and DVD images without the need for the physical disc.
DAEMON Tools supports all popular versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows XP and Windows Vista. It also supports more CD/DVD image types than any other optical disc emulation program.
The program has simple and well designed interface. It creates a small system tray icon that gives you quick access to all its commands. Here you can select the number of virtual drives that you want to have at your disposal and mount images for each of them. You can assign each virtual drive any letter of English alphabet which is not yet in use. There is also a capability to select the regional code for any created virtual drives. I want to note that mounting and unmounting of virtual drives occurs almost instantly and without the need to reboot.

The features of the DAEMON Tools can be extended with additional modules, which are produced by third-party developers.
Major improvements of the new version:

• included DT Panel with Internet search box and "Mount'n'Drive manager"
• DT tray behaviour changed to DT Pro style
• Languages are now changed more easily and more convenient
• Fixed several bugs

Before you begin to download this good and very useful application, I would like to warn you that DAEMON Tools Lite contains an optional adware toolbar. I recommend you deselect this option during installation.
You can download free version of DAEMON Tools from this page. (2.4 MB)

Labels: CD/DVD utilities, windows utilities

The new version 1.92 of XnView has been released. It is free for non-commercial use and fast application for viewing and converting graphics files.
This program has well designed user interface, that is highly customizable.
By default window is divided into three areas: tree of folders, the contents of the selected folder (list or thumbnails of images), and the preview pane. Each of these panes can be easily hidden, using the special blue buttons, placed exactly on the separators.
XnView has advanced functionality. This program supports more than 400 file formats, a lot of operating systems and 44 languages (Windows only).
XnView provides a lot of useful tools for working with digital photos. It allows you to apply special effects and filters to your images.

The program can display pictures in slide show mode, generate simple hyperlinked thumbnail web pages, create TIFF and PDF files based on the selected images.

It also offers many other features, including screen capture, tools for converting, renaming and scanning images in batch mode, and more.
New features in the latest version of XnView including APNG read support, IPTC read support for RAW files, experimental Shadow/highlight function, the possibility to print selected area, improved batch processing of files. Errors of previous versions were fixed.
I think XnView is a must have software. According to many user reviews out there, it's application that handles well.
You can download the latest version of XnView from this page.

Labels: graphic software, windows utilities

PhotoFiltre is an excellent tool for anyone who wants to retouch their digital photos. Actually, I think it’s one of the best free digital image editors for Windows PCs that is available today. Though PhotoFiltre is not for professional use, it may be a good alternative to such programs as Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.
PhotoFiltre has simple, but elegant user interface that is very easy to use.
The program has a well designed set of toolbars. You easily notice the toolbar with the most frequently used tools, with easy recognizable icons. Other toolbars give you access to more advanced tools such as gamma correction, dust reduction and another standard filters with just a few clicks.

PhotoFiltre supports almost all image file formats. This application offers all standard editing tools such as paint brush, clone brush, selection etc. But these basic features will no longer seem attractive after you find a large number of image effects, photo masks, and image adjustments. Among numerous PhotoFiltre image processing features you find effects and filters like sharpen, blur, soften, noise, texture, color, flatten, stylize and much more.
One of the most useful features of PhotoFiltre is batch processing capability. This feature allows you work with a great number of images at the same time and apply image effects, rotate images and perform other image processing tasks in one fell swoop.
Another great feature of PhotoFiltre is that it supports 11 language, including English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Spanish Catalan and Czech.
The new version 6.3.0 of PhotoFiltre has been released recently. In new version some bugs was fixed and compatibility with Vista was improved.
PhotoFiltre 6.3.0 is free for personal and non-commercial use. I recommend it for anyone who needs to work with digital images.
PhotoFiltre can be downloaded for free here (1.68 MB).

Labels: free software, graphic software, image editor

If you're looking for a flexible, powerful media player with numerous features, you should try Zoom Player. This is one of the most well-known multimedia players was designed to be simple at first glance while being strikingly flexible and powerful when used to its full potential. The interface of Zoom Player can be easy learned even by a child, but it may take a lifetime to reveal all its features.



Zoom Player’s modular design and flexibility allows you to personalize this player to match your needs. You can modify the interface of the player by number of different type of skins suitable for any user as well as change operation modes, codec compatibility, control options and many other features. The great customization capabilities make Zoom Player ideal for both users with no previous computer experience and to the highly qualified professional.



Zoom Player supports nearly all audio, video and image formats, including AVI, Matroska (MKV), Windows Media Format (ASF/WMV/WMA including DRM with WMV Professional version), QuickTime (MOV), Cellphone 3GPP (3GP), Flash (SWF), MPEG-1 (MPG/VCD), MPEG-2 (MPG/SVCD/VOB), MPEG-4 (DIVX/XVID/ISO), RealMedia (RA/RM/RMVB/RAM), OGG Movie (OGM), VP3-VP6, MPEG Layer 3 (MP3), Vorbis Audio (OGG), Dolby Digital (AC3), MusePack Audio (MPC), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), FLAC Audio (FLAC), OptimFROG Audio, Monkey Audio (APE), Wave Audio (WAV), True Audio (TTU), CD-Audio and many others.
The program updated on a regular basis and supports all the latest playback technologies such as P2P Video Preview, VMR9, and Multi Monitor.
One of the special Zoom Player’s features is the zoom functions to improve TV-Output quality by eliminating overscan.
There are three versions of Zoom Player: Standard, Professional and WMV Professional. The Standard version is free for non-commercial use, while Zoom Player Professional and WMV Professional cost 27.95$ and 35.95$ respectively.
The only important feature missing in Standard version is DVD support, which is available in Zoom Player Professional. The WMV Professional version of Zoom Player, besides all features available in Zoom Player Professional, also has the ability to playback DRM Encoded Windows Media files.
A few days ago, the new version Zoom Player was announced. It is Zoom Player 5.01 final. This release patches a recently discovered vulnerability and some other errors.
You can download appropriate version of Zoom Player on this page.

Labels: CD/DVD utilities, multimedia

There are many optical disc recorders and great number of brands that sell CDs or DVDs, and you shouldn’t count solely on a brand name when you require long term data reliability. You can verify written data in your favorite CD burning program, but it’s not enough. If you want to be sure in the quality of your home-written media, you need a program to test your optical drives and media.
One of the most popular programs for this purpose is Nero CD-DVD Speed that is part of Nero Toolkit.
Nero CD-DVD Speed is a powerful tool for testing optical drives.
The program has simple tabbed interface that is very easy to use. The first tab is called Benchmark. It allows you to check the read speed of a disc, DAE quality (for Audio CD), disc access type, access times, CPU usage at different speeds, and data interface burst rate.
After scanning a disc you will see the curve of reading speed. If this curve isn’t smooth, then you should worry about reliability of your media and written data quality.

Nero CD-DVD Speed allows you to perform test of writing performance of your optical drive (Create Disc tab).
On the tab “Disc Info” you can find such information about disc as disc type, manufacturer, write speed, number of layers, disc capacity, disc status and others.

One of the most important features of Nero CD-DVD Speed is its disc quality test. When this test is complete, you will obtain report about the discovered errors and will see two histograms that demonstrate the errors encountered. And finally Nero CD-DVD Speed calculates cumulative quality score. The higher this score, the better quality.

Nero CD-DVD Speed also includes a ScanDisc function with File Test & Surface Scan to check the integrity of the optical disc and allows to perform TA jitter test.

The are several others features such as overburning test, advanced quality DAE tests, etc.
Nero CD-DVD Speed supports for CD, DVD, Blu-Ray and HD DVD drives and media. And finally this good and very useful program is absolutely free.
The latest available version of Nero CD-DVD Speed is 4.7.7.15 that has been released recently.
Downloand Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.7.7.15 (733 KB)

Labels: CD/DVD utilities, windows utilities

VSO Software has just released the new version 2.6.4 of PhotoDVD. PhotoDVD is probably one of the easiest applications to create an animated slideshows on DVD.
It takes your digital images and animates them to make a DVD photo slide show. The program is able to add multiple soundtracks and comments as DVD Subtitles.
As you can see PhotoDVD has simple interface. It is very easy to use.

This is the first screen on PhotoDVD. From here you can add pictures, soundtracks and adjust the global settings of the slideshow.

PhotoDVD supports a great number of various digital image formats, including JPG, GIF, BMP, ANI, PCX, EMF, WMF, and so on. The list of audio formats supported by PhotoDVD isn’t so impressive but it includes all popular audio formats such as MP3, WMA, OGG, MPC, WAV and APE.
Once images have been added, you can select each image and adjust what happens with it. PhotoDVD takes care of all the animation factors for you and can analyze the picture’s size and orientation to automatically create a movie with cool fade, zoom, and pan effects.

Once all editing tasks have been finished, you can add soundtracks to the slide show and define the desired video format and output destination. PhotoDVD supports Fullscreen (4:3) and Widescreen (16:9) output and can write the created slide show to your hard drive as well as burn it to DVD disc (Single or Double Layer).

I think it is very good software that will be useful for anyone interested in creating DVD photo slide show. DVD slide show created by PhotoDVD has impressive quality and the animation and transitions have calming effect increasing the viewing pleasure.
The new VSO PhotoDVD v2.6.4 has added the ability to automatically rotate image based on EXIF information.
VSO PhotoDVD is shareware. You can download it from this page.

Labels: digital photo tools, graphic software

The new version 1.2.101.109 of Prevx CSI Free malware scanner has been released recently. Prevx CSI Free is free program for quick, effective scanning and real-time checking against the most comprehensive malware database in the world.
If you suspect your PC is infected this utility can help you check your PC for active infections like spyware, Trojans, key loggers, rootkits, adware, viruses, screen watchers and many more types of malware.

Prevx CSI does not require the installation or reboot. The program works fast and very easy to use. It takes about two minutes to scan your PC.
There is an option to update the database of threats that allows you to benefit from the knowledge gained from the Prevx community. Every day, more than 8000 detection for new threats are added to the Prevx community database. So if there is an infection Prevx CSI Free malware scanner will found it.

Prevx CSI Free is fully compatible with all popular Windows OS, including Windows Vista and Windows XP, as well as major security applications.
The new version 1.2.101.109 may include several enhancements, or bug fixes.
I think it is definitely worth a try.
Download Prevx CSI Free malware scanner (927 KB, Freeware)

Labels: anti spyware, free software, security software

Winamp is flexible and free multimedia player designed to play and manage your music. But Winamp is more than just a player. It is your window to the world of multimedia. From mp3s to streaming video Winamp is the one place you go to feed your audio and video habit.
Winamp supports a great number of audio and video formats. It can play any video or audio file for which there are built-in, or external decoders. Winamp also plays streamed audio and video content, interacts with online shops and online-services, synchronize audio files with portable digital players, and more.
Moreover, it has an extremely customizable media library, and allows you to rip and burn your favorite music CDs.
Winamp has highly flexible and customizable interface. There are thousands of skins and plug-ins that allow you to completely modify the appearance of the player interface and add new features. It is also worth mentioning a new Bento layout that gets Winamp away from the old modular design. The joined panes for the media library, browser, media player, playlist editor and more make Winamp at once more visually attractive.

The player also can easily tune into user created Internet TV and Radio stations, allowing you to choose from over 10000 SHOUTcast Radio stations and 250 Internet TV channels.
Winamp comes in several versions: Lite, Full, Bundle and Pro. The differences between them are in the additional features. The Pro version is the only non-free version that allows users to encode mp3 and burn CD at full-speed.
The new version 5.52 build 1800 of Winamp has been released recently.
New version has a completely redesigned interface, multiple device support, including iPods. It also has Winamp Remote feature to access and share user’s music and videos, and better integration with a web services for downloading music and obtaining data on songs.
You can download the latest version of Winamp from this page.

Labels: CD/DVD utilities, free software, multimedia

Everyone knows that backing up data is important. Most of us periodically backup files and folders that are important to us. But, what happens if your whole system goes down? Do you want to waste your time reinstalling operating system, installing all the software you need and configure them the way best fits you? Probably not.
One solution is to make a backup of your entire drive. This solution allows you simply restore the whole system, in conjunction with your installed software, preferences and other data.
There are many programs designed to backup and restore the whole system. One of the oldest and most well known is Norton Ghost. Here is my review of Norton Ghost 12.0 - the latest version of one of the best backup software.
Norton Ghost 12.0 provides advanced backup and recovery for your computer. It will allow you to create backups of any file, folder or drive you want. You can create backup manually at any time or schedule backups to run automatically at any time of the day as frequently as you like. Norton Ghost also allows you to create event triggered backups that run in response to specific events.
When you experience a problem with your computer, you can use Norton Ghost to revert your computer back to a previous working state.
Norton Ghost also includes such features as support of Windows Vista, automatic backup destination detection, ability to convert recovery points to virtual disk formats, ability to browse of files and folders inside recovery points for quick and easy recovery and many others.
The interface of the program is well designed and very easy to use.

Both backup and recovery options are available through the Task menu of the program. Opt for Run and Manage Backup in Backup section of the Task menu in order to run, define, remove or edit existing backup jobs. The easy to follow Define Setup Wizard dialog will pop up and you can define every aspect for the backup.

Then from the list of disks, you need to select the drive or drives that you want to backup.

After that, you need to specify the type of restore points. You can select Recovery point set in order to create an initial recovery point with additional recovery points containing only the incremental changes made to your computer since the previous backup or Independed recovery point if you want always create a complete, independed copy of the drives you selected.

Next, you need to select a destination for storing backup data.

After that you can choose appropriate recovery options such as name, compression type, verify recovery point after creation and others (see picture below).

After creation recovery point you can write it to CD, DVD or any physical location or convert existing recovery point to virtual disk format by using the appropriate option of Tools menu.

If there is backup there must be a way to recover the backup data from the restoration point. The option is available in Tasks menu under Recovery section.The program has great ability to browse the backup file, recover only certain files and folders and even launch them.
Norton Ghost also lets you to create a recovery disk. So when you cannot start you operation system, use this disc to restore your system.
Norton Ghost is a very good backup software application that will help you to protect your data from loss.
You can download Norton Ghost 12 from this page.

Labels: backup and recovery software, windows utilities

Easy CD-DA Extractor is very popular software that rip Audio CDs, edit metadata of audio files, converts audio files from one format to another, can write Audio CD, MP3 and WMA CD & DVD, and Data CD & DVD.
The program supports the absolute majority of music formats, including MP3, WMA (Windows Media Audio), MP4, M4A (iTunes, iPod), AAC, WAV, AIFF, Shorten, CUE and M3U.
Easy CD-DA Extractor has a well-designed interface that displays all of the main features and settings. Program consists of several tools: Audio CD Ripper, Audio File Format Converter, Audio CD Creator and MP3/WMA CD Creator. This tools are displayed in tabs of the main window.
Audio CD Ripper tool allows you to copy audio CDs to selected audio format. This tool can rip CDs with copy protections and bad condition CDs, gets disc information and metadata from Internet and much more.
Ripping CDs is very simple: Just insert a Audio CD disc and the Audio CD Ripper window displays info about the disc. Then select the output folder, the quality and format of output tracks and click the Rip button.

The “Audio File Format Converter” window allows you to converts audio files from one format to another. Here you can edit metadata of the existing audio files, select the one of the numerous output formats, make the settings for volume control and normalization of the audio.

Creating an Audio CD with Easy CD-DA Extractor is very easy. Just drag and drop the files into the window and select the recording speed. You can also write CD-text by enabling “Write CD-Text” option so that the CD-player can show the track titles.

The “MP3/WMA CD Creator” tool works the same way as the "Audio CD Creator". It lets you to burn MP3 CD/DVD, Data CD/DVD, and DVD Video.
Easy CD-DA Extractor is very good software that does its job very well and very fast.
You can download Easy CD-DA Extractor from this page.

Labels: audio converters, audio rippers

Spyware Terminator is a free full-featured adware and spyware scanner with real-time protection, which stands out from other less popular anti-spyware programs in rather effective real-time protection and valuable additional tools.
Spyware Terminator scans, cleans and protects your computer against spyware, adware, trojans, home page hijackers, keyloggers, and malware threats. It allows you to choose from three scan modes. Fast scan includes only Smart System scan that checks only known spyware locations such as system folders, registry, cookies and files for items already included in the program database. This type of scan takes only a few minutes. Full Scan allows you to check the whole system. But it takes a lot of time. And finally, you can do customized scan and specify in detail which locations and types of files you want to check.

Spyware Terminator also allows you to perform scheduled scans. The threats found on your system can be moved to quarantine or to the ignore list.
The program automatically downloads latest spyware signatures so you don’t need to worry about the up-to-date status of its database.
Spyware Terminator offers real-time protection that monitors running applications, active services, and other objects. The real-time protection helps protect your computer from spyware and other defined threats by blocking their installation and preventing unauthorized system modification and browser hijacks.

Spyware Terminator can optionally use ClamAV antivirus for additional protection against viruses. Other features include a system restore utility, file analysis tool, File Removal and more. The first utility can create special checkpoints that should help recovering the compromised system. The File Analysis analyzes specified files and makes detailed reports on them. File Removal tool allows user to delete a file that is locked and cannot be removed in an ordinary way.
The program has well design interface that is very easy to use.

I think anyone will find Spyware Terminator simple, flexible and effective security software application.
Download Spyware Terminator 2.1

Labels: Spyware Doctor - Best Spyware Protection

The new version 3.7.0 of TweakNow RegCleaner has been released recently. TweakNow RegCleaner is very useful software that can remove all Windows registry errors and restore your system to optimum performance.
The system registry is one of the most vitally important parts of any Windows system.
It contains information about your system configuration and determines how Windows looks, how efficiently it works, and what you're allowed to do.
Almost all programs use registry to keep configuration and other information. When you delete a file or uninstall a program, the registry entries of this program are deleted automatically. Unfortunately, it does not always work that way. Sometimes, programs fail to remove their own registry entries. Thus, an obsolete data or error stays in the registry.
Over time your Windows registry becomes saturated with these obsolete entries and invalid data that cause errors and even system crashes. Therefore it is very useful to periodically clean your system's registry.
TweakNow RegCleaner is an excellent utility for this purpose. The program has clean and simple interface. It is very easy to use.

The default settings are configured for immediate use. However, you can adjust them to suit your need.
TweakNow RegCleaner has two scanning modes: Quick Scan and Custom. The first one only scan the most important part of your system’s registry. The second mode allows you to manually select list of registry sections to be scanned.
The user mode section of RegCleaner allows you to select the available options that best describe your understanding of Windows registry. The default Beginner mode only displays scan results that rated as safe to delete, and the Expert mode allows scanning the registry using all available scan methods and all scan results will be shown to user. You can restore the Windows registry, in case something goes wrong after removing some registry entries.
TweakNow RegCleaner available in two editions: standard (free) and professional, which has a more powerful registry scan engine and some advanced features.
I think TweakNow RegCleaner is a very safe registry cleaning software that is perfect for everyone who wants to clean out his Windows registry and doesn’t want to worry about messing up their system.

• Download TweakNow RegCleaner Standard Edition v.3.0.1 (1,0 Мб, Freeware, Windows All)
  
• Download TweakNow RegCleaner Professional Edition (3,3 Мб, Shareware, Windows XP/2003/Vista)

Labels: optimization utilities, windows utilities