Software Reviews

PDFs, or "Portable Document Format" files are usually made with software from Adobe Systems, Inc, and are one of the most common types of documents shared on the web. In fact, most PCs today come bundled with Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read ... PDF files. The problem with Acrobat Reader is that it has grown to be monolithic in size and is slow to launch. If you don't like Adobe Reader, you may like Foxit PDF Reader (a program I reviewed a short while ago). However, if you must insist on Adobe Reader, then be sure to check out the Adobe Reader Speedup Tool (ARST). ARST was brought ... (view more)

Have you ever wanted to download a page (or more) from a website so that you could read it later, when you're not connected to the Internet? "Getleft" is a website downloading tool that lets you download entire websites, pictures, text and more. ... Once the website is archived you can view it with your favorite Internet browser (even when you're not connected). I ran into Getleft after a search for tools to back up FreewareWiki completely. A friend in the wiki forums was trying another website downloader tool and he wasn't having much luck. Lucky me, Getleft was my first pick, and it works like ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bev C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I laughed out loud when the subject line of your newsletter, ' Dusting the Computer from the Inside? '. The funny thing is that I just dusted the inside my computer last night -- literally! As it ... turns out, HDD Health (freeware), alerted me late yesterday with a warning that my hard drive temperature was close to critical. So I shut down, opened case and left it to cool. Later on, I inspected the inside of the computer case. That's when I noticed that dust had built up (considerably) on my power supply vents and on my CPU. In fact, darn near ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Raymond T. writes: " Dear Dennis, It must be nice to know how all the rubber bands and wheels work to make the computer operate. I have been a computer user since 1982. Back then, I owned a Radio Shack TRS80 Mk 11, or a 'Trash ... 80', as they were called. It had stick figures that walked across the screen, stopped in the middle, turned and said, 'Hi ray!', so I just had to buy it. ;-) But now I am 65 and my memory is not as good as it used to be; in fact, I am getting to the stage where technology she gets better and memory gets worse. So, I want a program that will have a ... (view more)

Back in October of last year, I posted a request in the Freeware Revolution's forum . In the message, I asked all the members of the forum to post a mini-review of their favorite freeware program. Here's what Scott Williams, webmaster of Freeware ... Arena , had to say: " Often times many of us can best express ourselves digitally by doing a bit of 'pixel pushing' (image editing/creation) ... there are a plethora of great graphics editing apps available. Originally I was alerted to PhotoFiltre ... a program that really does suit the needs of both the graphics artist of all levels ... Whether ... (view more)

When it comes to chatting, I use all the big name services: MSN, AIM, and Yahoo. But I don't use each of these programs individually; in fact, I've been using a cool utility that lets me manage all of my chat accounts at the same time. The utility ... is called Easy Message, and I've been using it for well over a year Easy Message doesn't have all the features of the big Instant Messaging (IM) clients, but (for me) the trade-off is well worth it because Easy Message doesn't hog my system resources. In fact, Easy Message is so small that you can put it on a floppy disk or thumb drive and take it ... (view more)

You might hear security experts say that a good defense against malware is to add multiple layers of defense, keep them updated, and use them often. If you'd like an additional way to scan your PC for malware like Trojans, dialers, worms, and ... Spyware, you might want to give "a-squared Free" a try. Currently, a-squared has more than 200,000 malware signatures that it scans for. My wife and I have been using this program as an extra layer of defense for nearly two years now. It is often updated and rock solid stable. The a-squared Free scanner may not be the very best scanner ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Susan C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I love your newsletters ;-) Question: I am using Windows ME and tried to restore my computer to an earlier time using System Restore; however, the problem is that the computer keeps telling me to ... pick a earlier date on the calendar than what is available. For example: I can bring up the calendar to choose which restore to use, but the only option I have available is for December 1999. I have used system restore before, but for some reason it's now gone awol and won't let me pick another date. Is there any way that I can restore my computer to ... (view more)

Have you ever seen those dreaded "Yellow Question Marks" when you are inside of Windows Device Manager ? A Yellow Question Mark usually implies that a device attached to your system has an incorrect driver or is malfunctioning. If the device uses ... the PCI bus, then a program called "Unknown Devices" is one of the *very* best ways to resolve the issue by attempting to search for drivers. Unknown Devices: How it Works Just like Belarc Advisor , "Unknown Devices" provides information about a device. By right-clicking on on any information it finds, your web browser will launch and search for ... (view more)

While chatting with Tom at Temerc, he mentioned a PC auditing tool I wasn't very familiar with: it's called WinAudit. In a nutshell, WinAudit is used to keep track of all the software and licensing on PC's. I couldn't resist, and so I had to try it ... out. WinAudit is fast and free for home or commercial use. No installation is needed; just download WinAudit and start using it. In 30 seconds it develops a complete hardware and software profile of your PC and displays the results. You can save the profile in many formats for looking at it later or sending it to others for hardware or software ... (view more)