Need to reinstall Windows but you misplaced your driver disks? Not sure you have everything you need? DriverMax has you covered. Backing up and reinstalling your drivers couldn't be easier.
After installing DriverMax, go into Driver Operations and click on Export drivers. A list of all your installed drivers will be displayed and you can pick and choose which ones to export, or simply export the whole lot in one go. Once you've reinstalled Windows, go back into Driver Operations, click on Import drivers, and point to the folder containing your saved drivers. The import can take a while, but in comparison to manually installing each driver individually, this is a walk in the park.
DriverMax is also useful even if you don't need to perform a complete reinstall - you can use the program just to make sure that your drivers are up to date or export a list of your installed drivers as an html or text file.
DriverMax is compatible with Windows 2003, XP and Vista and you have to supply your email address in order to receive a registration code.
Adobe Reader 9 is out, and while the latest version of Adobe's popular PDF reader offers faster launch speeds and native support for Flash content, it still takes forever to run Adobe Reader on some computer systems. If you've ever come across an unexpected PDF link on the web, you know what we mean.
While there are plenty of alternative PDF readers (some of our favorites include Foxit and Sumatra), if you want an application that can handle pretty much any PDF file in existence, you're still best off running Adobe Reader, even if it has a ton of features you'll never need. Fortunately, there's a stripped down version of Adobe Reader called Adobe Reader Lite.
Adobe Reader Lite is maintained by a third party developer and isn't officially supported by Adobe. But version 9 was released last week, hot on the heels of Adobe Reader 9. AR Lite contains all of the basic functions you'd need from Adobe Reader, but none of the extra junk like autorun, desktop shortcuts, or some of the less frequently used plugins.
PCIncubator aims to help you find the right parts at the right prices to build your dream PC.
We've all built a PC at some point. It's fun, isn't it? Pick our your case, the mother board, memory, GI Joe Stickers.
What?
The pain in the neck part of the process is finding the right parts that you need and not paying too much for them...or buying really crappy parts as a default because you don't want to break the bank.
The parts are all out there, the internet is vast, but PCIncubator keeps tabs on the stuff that you need, the prices that are right, and does so very nicely if we may say.
They use NewEgg which is the geek chic place to shop for parts. They also keep a price history of all items so you can wait for prices to go back down if they go up. It's kind of like shopping for airline tickets. It also gives you that Dell and Apple builder feel
Once you've picked your perfect PC parts, you can toss them all into a NewEgg cart and away you go!
We've tried plenty of Gnutella clients that just aren't any good, and usually end up back with Frostwire or Limewire by default. Thankfully, Cabos has an excellent alternative for Windows and Mac users.
Cabos doesn't support torrents, and it doesn't have a built in media player, but who needs that anyway? Most of us have favorite apps for handling those files anyways, and Limewire probably isn't either of them. It simply searches the Gnutella network, displays your results, lets you filter and sort them six ways from Sunday, and downloads them quickly. It even offers basic iTunes integration.
There's no lime green splashed around the UI, just a tranquil, muted gray, and 21 languages are supported. It's totally ad-free and there are no nags - Cabos just does what you want it to and doesn't get in the way.
If you ever used the "E-mail this file" or "Send To Mail Recipient" link in Windows you know what a great convenience this is. Select the file and an email is automatically created with the attachment. All that's left to do is fill out the To field and send the file, the only downside is that you must use a desktop mail client like Outlook Express. This leaves people who only use web based email services out in the cold... unless you're a Gmail user.
Developed by Chris Wood, gAttach! changes the functions of these built in links so that instead of Outlook Express gAttach! will launch Internet Explorer, create a new email and attach the file and have it ready and waiting for you. In addition gAttach! also works from within applications like Microsoft Office, Firefox and Adobe Reader to further streamline your emailing needs by selecting the File > Sent To option on your tool bar.
So if you're a Gmail user wanting more integration with your desktop gAttach! just might make your life easier.
TweetDeck is a desktop client for Twitter build on Adobe AIR. Nothing new there. That sentence could have described Twhirl, Snitter, or Alert Thingy. But TweetDeck has a few features up its sleeve that other Twitter clients lack.
The most noticeable difference is that TweetDeck has a multi-column view. You can glance at all of the latest tweets from your contacts in one column, see replies in another, and direct messages in a third. Or you can create groups of contacts (for example, a group of all your favorite Download Squad bloggers on Twitter), and see just updates from those contacts in a column.
You can customize the display by adding up to 10 columns, or removing columns you don't need. The display is also resizable. There are no themes and no way to adjust the font yet. But the application is still in beta.
We told you about Cobian Backup 8 a few months back, the update to version 9 has brought with it a whole host of new and updated features.
For starters, Volume Shadow Copy is now supported, meaning no more annoying errors due to a file being in use. 7zip support and more detailed compression options have been added, as has 256-bit RSA-Rijndael encryption.
Those of you needing to backup up programs that utilize database servers (newer versions of Quickbooks and Simply Accounting, for example) will appreciate Cobian's Events handler, which can stop and start services, execute files, and close programs.
There is a battle for the hearts and wallets souls of our young surfing children on the interwebs. Parents are obviously concerned about the appropriateness of the world wide web being a kid's playground, so are looking for suitable controls to help them feel their children are protected online.
We looked at 2 kids browsers, Glubble and Kidzui, and gave them a test spin as well as subjected them to an unscientific kid focus group. Check out our results after the jump.
Ever wonder how your PC would hold up under stress. Like, a lot of stress? HeavyLoad is an application designed to do one thing: give your computer a hard time. The program writes a large file to a temp directory and puts strain on your CPU, RAM, hard drive, network connection and operating system.
HeavyLoad doesn't provide detailed results. The test is more of a pass/fail kind of thing. You can run it for as long as you'd like. If your PC or the application doesn't crash, then it means your PC can hold up to a reasonable amount of stress.
Because HeavyLoad is likely to fragment your memory and swap files, you should reboot your computer after you're done using the program. And if the program terminates unexpectedly you may have a huge test file left in your temp directory.
The default folder icons in Windows are so dreadfully boring, what with their bland manilla coloring and horizontal orientation. What we want is brightly colored folders that we can choose to stand on their side (like Vista). In the real world, not such a great idea - your paperwork would just slide out constantly and you end up with a bigger mess than before you crammed it into a folder.
In Windows, it's another story. Using Rainbow Folders to change the default icons gives you a quick way to visually distinguish your folders. Color all your image folders orange, documents green, or memos from your boss brown. It's a very simple way to add a bit of sanity to any directory that is overrun with subfolders. You can even add tooltip text to your folder, which displays in Explorer's status bar when you single click it.
As an added bonus you can also switch between old school (Windows 9x), XP, and Vista style icons. Sweet.
(note: publisher's site is not linked as it timed out repeatedly)
Aw snap, someone get the holy water. Open Source Zombies!
Grab whatever you can - pitchfork, chainsaw, hatchet, or a shotgun for those of you who can't be bothered to "finesse" a zombie into submission. Your goal in this addictive little game is to save as many of the humans as you can from a horrible fate no doubt involving their brains being eaten.
It's set up kind of like a chessboard, with humans and zombies randomly placed. Set your difficulty and gore level, and go to it. Use the right and left arrows to turn your character around, then walk them with up and down (preferably over a weapon). Next to a zombie? Turn to face it, move towards it, and you automatically attack - you may miss, of course, so make it count. Grab a shotgun if you can, they've got phenomenal stopping power (read: one blast and you've got yourself a heaping pile of zombie slaw).
The graphics aren't great, but who cares? Zombies is ridiculously fun, only 7MB to download, doesn't require an install, and runs on Windows and Mac. Everybody wins! Linux users can play too, you've just got to compile the included RealBasic source code yourself.
There are already more desktop apps for Twitter than we could ever possibly cover without losing our minds. But what about that OTHER microblogging service, Plurk? A couple of people have hacked the mobile version into Adobe Air to create two similar apps: PlurkAir and PlurkIt. This is ok for now, but it's nowhere near the level that Twitter clients have achieved.
That's where Plurker comes in. It's scheduled to be the first dedicated Windows desktop version of Plurk, and the feature list looks pretty impressive. Sort Plurks using custom searches, set alerts for private Plurks you receive, enjoy autocompleting @message functionality, and way too much more for us to list here. If Plurker is as good as promised, it could give Plurk a big user boost by taking away one major excuse not to use the service.
Truecrypt has been a trusted name in on-the-fly encryption for ages (v5 arrived in February). What's new in version 6? Plenty.
One of the biggest advances is support for multiple processors, which provides a boost in the encryption/decryption speed equal to the number of processors/cores in use. Other tweaks have increased the overall speed by as much as 20% in some operations - on top of the parallel processing gains.
And - holy crap - how about being able to run a fully encrypted, hidden OS? Yeah, version 6 can do that, too. There's even a handy guide on Truecrypt's website. It'll also hide volumes, and on Vista and Windows 2008 you can even hide a system volume (not on XP, though).
They've really done it right this time. If you don't have Truecrypt, get it. We've all got some data on our PC that deserves a little extra privacy and protection. Mac and Linux versions are also available, so everyone's invited to the Truecrypt party.
Fine, it doesn't really takes names, but you won't care after you download and install this do-all media converter. FormatFactory's simple interface and broad file type support make it an excellent weapon of choice for media file junkies.
What could be better than a program that will convert audio, video, and image files from and to just about any format you can think of? How about one that does it all batch-style with minimal clicking? FormatFactory doesn't care what files you want to swap in what order, just feed it your sources and watch it go to work. Unlike a lot of similar apps, this one doesn't limit you to only video or audio, or even to one file at a time.
Sometimes you want to open a file saved on your desktop, but you don't want to minimize all of the applications you're currently running just to get to it. DesktopOnTop can help. While Windows lets you add a "desktop" toolbar to the taskbar that will let you launch items saved on your desktop, DeskTopOnTop goes one step further and actually shows you a visual representation of your desktop.
If you just want a list, you can right-click on the DesktopOnTop icon in the system tray and get a start-menu lookalike with a list of programs and files on your desktop. But a left click brings up a picture of your desktop. Sort of. The first thing you'll probably notice is that the wallpaper doesn't match yours. If this bothers you, you can either change your desktop wallpaper to match DesktopOnTop (which nobody really expects you to do), or you can select a solid color that looks good with your desktop an adjust the program's transparency level.
DesktopOnTop is highly customizable and light weight. It uses about 8MB of RAM.
PCIncubator
