Portable FastStone Capture 5.4

FastStone Capture is a powerful, flexible and intuitive screen-capture utility. It allows you to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen, rectangle regions, freehand-selected regions and scrolling windows/web pages.

FastStone Capture has innovative features such as a floating Capture Panel, hotkeys, printing, cropping, e-mailing, text annotation, resizing, screen magnifier and many more.

Here are some key features of "Portable FastStone Capture":

· A small floating Capture Panel that can be dragged anywhere or minimized to the Windows tray area
· Resource friendly - uses a very small amount of memory, especially when minimized to the Windows tray area
· Global hotkeys to activate the program's capture capabilities anytime, anywhere
· Efficient tools to capture windows, objects, full screen, rectangle/freehand-selected regions and scrolling areas
· Capture web pages in Microsoft Internet Explorer, FireFox and Opera
· Option to specify destination (internal editor, clipboard or file) where the captured image will be sent
· Screen color picker
· Text/Arrowed line/Highlight/Watermark annotation
· Resize, crop, brightness, contrast, gamma, sharpen, blur, gray, negative
· Zoom in/out
· Undo/Redo
· Save as BMP, JPEG, JPEG2000, PNG, GIF, TIFF, TGA
· Send captured images in e-mails
· Screen Magnifier
· Divide it into multi-pages when printing long document
· Multi-monitor support
· Option to run when Windows starts


Requirements:

· 256MB RAM
· 5MB space in hard drive
· Mouse

What's New in This Release:

· Improved the Draw tool
· Now it is possible to input double-byte characters such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian in the Draw tool... [ read full changelog ]

Softpedia guarantees that Portable FastStone Capture 5.4 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

Portable FastStone Capture Download

Portable FastStone Capture Screenshots

MP3DJ PRO 3.1

MP3DJ PRO is a program used to play songs and mix them together in the most simple way.

Don't worry about doing complex settings only four settings are needed: Transition Type, Transition Time, Cut First and Cut Last seconds of each mixed song.

+PLUS the interesting feature of using more than one sound card in the same computer.

MP3DJ PRO can playback playlists in diferent sound cards, so more than one window of the program can be running at the same time, one window can be used as Previous Output (Head Set) and the other window for playing back to AIR.

The idea is to hear what song to play next before actually play that song to air.

This same feature can also be used for playing several channels (playlists) of mixed music from the same computer at the same time.
Drag and drop files between windows to move songs from one channel to the other.

Limitations:

· Demo version does not allow the use of two different sound cards as outputs.

Softpedia guarantees that MP3DJ PRO 3.1 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

MP3DJ PRO Download

MP3DJ PRO Screenshots

IphotoDVD Wizard 2.6 b25

IphotoDVD Wizard is a software that is designed to add digital photos into DVD compatible MPEG files with hundreds of transition effects and audio. You can create photo video, photo show on DVD easily.

The transformation includes photo to dvd, photo to vcd, photo to mpeg, jpg to mpg and jpg to mpeg.You can creat photo video, photo show on DVD easily. These files can also be viewed on computer.

Here are some key features of "IphotoDVD Wizard":

· DVD are well supported.
· Professional user interface and very easy to use.
· Powerful photo editor integrated makes it easy to edit your photos.
· Choose from hundreds of transition effects for your slideshow.
· Choose background music (MP3) for your album.
· And multiple music files for a single slide show is supported.
· Easily control for individual photos.
· Select different display times and transition settings for individual photos.
· You can now add text, photo date, file name on your photo. And easily to change the font of the text.
· Easily to organize your photos into multiple albums.
· Preview movie before making.
· Auto/manual synchronize audio & video
· Sorting of photos by NAME, SIZE, TYPE, DATE


Limitations:

· 15 days trial.

Softpedia guarantees that IphotoDVD Wizard 2.6 b25 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

IphotoDVD Wizard Download

IphotoDVD Wizard Screenshots

Hard Drive Inspector 2.33 build 385

Hard Drive Inspector is a new software application that monitors hard-drives for possible problems and alerts PC owners when things go or might go wrong. The program is based on the S.M.A.R.T technology, which is a part of almost every hard-drive manufactured in the world today.

Hard Drive Inspector is a very useful hard disk application that will help you when you will have hard disk problems or when you will want to test or monitor it.

This is how it works. Hard Drive Inspector checks for hard-drive changes and performs diagnosis. For example, an increase in the drive spin-up time and the number of retries it takes to succeed in spinning up the drive usually means motor and/or bearing failure, which can lead to data loss.

Hard Drive Inspector access S.M.A.R.T. data, processes it and informs PC owner when their hard-drive is no longer safe to use. This gives people an option to back up their hard-drive before anything bad happens or completely replace their HDD, especially if the data stored there is critical to running a business.

While Hard Drive Inspector is very simple and can be used by complete newbies, the program offers advanced features for professionals too. It is completely customizable and is capable of giving access to S.M.A.R.T. monitoring data real-time.

Requirements:

· MS Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
· Intel 486DX with 32 MB RAM
· 5 MB free disk space
· An ATA S.M.A.R.T.-capable hard disk drive
· A mouse
· 16-color VGA Card (High Color recommended).


Limitations:

· 30 days trial.

What's New in This Release:

· Added Dutch - The Netherlands language
· Changed the "HDD Info Service" installation procedure. It doesn't require the OS restarting now.... [ read full changelog ]

Softpedia guarantees that Hard Drive Inspector 2.33 build 385 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

Hard Drive Inspector Download

Hard Drive Inspector Screenshots

VMware Workstation 6.0.0.45731

VMware Workstation is a powerful virtual machine software for system administrators and developers who want to revolutionize software development, deployment and testing in their enterprise.

Shipping for more than five years and winner of over a dozen major product awards, VMware Workstation enables software developers to develop and test the most complex networked server-class applications running on Microsoft Windows, Linux or NetWare all on a single desktop.

Essential features such as virtual networking, live snapshots, drag and drop and shared folders, and PXE support make VMware Workstation the most powerful and indispensable tool for enterprise IT developers and system administrators.

Here are some key features of "VMware Workstation":

· Streamline software development and testing operations. Create multiple development and testing environments as virtual machines on a single PC and use them to test "real world" multi-tier configurations, complex networks, and multiple operating systems and applications all on a single machine.

· Improve team collaboration. The portability and hardware-independent properties of virtual machines, coupled with new features in VMware Workstation, lets users easily share development environments and pre-packaged testing configurations without risk, and also facilitates collaboration between development and QA.

· Enhance the productivity of IT professionals. Allows system administrators and other enterprise IT professionals to test software, including new applications, application updates, and operating system patches, in virtual machines prior to deployment on physical PCs or servers in a production environment. IT help desk departments can create and reference a virtual library of end-user configurations to help them resolve problems more quickly.

· Introduce virtual infrastructure to your enterprise. Virtual machines created in Workstation can be deployed to the other desktop and server virtualization platforms offered by VMware. Introducing VMware Workstation virtualization to the desktop is an ideal first step to transforming your physical IT infrastructure into virtual infrastructure.


Note: While VMware does not provide technical support for evaluation users, registered customers of VMware Workstation receive 30 days of up-and-running technical support including access to our Online Support Request filing system.

Limitations of VMware Workstation:

· A 30-day serial number is required to use the software. After installation, on the user interface go to Help > Enter Serial Number and click on "Get Serial Number"

Softpedia guarantees that VMware Workstation 6.0.0.45731 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

VMware Workstation Download

VMware Workstation Screenshots

Audacity Portable 1.2.6 R2

Audacity Portable is the popular Audacity audio editor packaged as a portable app, so you can take your audio files along with everything you need to edit and record on the go.

You can place it on your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or a CD and use it on any PC, without leaving any personal information behind.

Recording
· Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
· Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
· Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi-channel hardware).
· Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.

Import and Export
· Import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
· Import MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
· Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder library.
· Create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to CD.
· Import and export all file formats supported by libsndfile.
· Open raw (headerless) audio files using the “Import Raw” command.
· Note: Audacity does not currently support WMA, AAC, or most other proprietary or restricted file formats

Editing
· Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
· Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any number of steps.
· Very fast editing of large files.
· Edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.
· Use the Drawing tool to alter individual sample points.
· Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool.

Effects
· Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
· Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
· Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
· Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
· Other built-in effects include: Echo, Phaser, Wahwah, Reverse

Sound Quality
· Record and edit 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit (floating point) samples.
· Record at up to 96 KHz.
· Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.
· Mix tracks with different sample rates or formats, and Audacity will convert them automatically in realtime.

Plug-Ins
· Add new effects with LADSPA plugins.
· Audacity includes some sample plugins by Steve Harris.
· Load VST plugins for Windows and Mac, with the optional VST Enabler.
· Write new effects with the built-in Nyquist programming language

Analysis
· Spectrogram mode for visualizing frequencies.
· “Plot Spectrum” command for detailed frequency analysis.

Softpedia guarantees that Audacity Portable 1.2.6 R2 is 100% FREE, which means it is a freeware product (both for personal and commercial use) that does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

Audacity Portable Download

Audacity Portable Screenshots

Instant Theme Creator 2.0

Instant Theme Creator will take the hassle out of creating custom desktop themes. Many other theme programs are difficult and confusing to use, this one isn't!

It's written specially so that anyone can make their own desktop theme within minutes, whether they're a "power user" or it's their first time. There's a full user guide included and a dedicated e-mail address for technical support issues!

Now the software comes with complete access to the members-only Support Site, with a wealth of information about creating your own themes - invaluable!

Here are some key features of "Instant Theme Creator":

With Instant Theme Creator you can:
· Make something to spice up your home computer
· Send a theme to a friend as a unique gift
· Set up a company theme
· Make a theme for a club you belong to
· Make a theme to accompany your own website


Limitations:

· 5 uses trial

Softpedia guarantees that Instant Theme Creator 2.0 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

Instant Theme Creator Download

Instant Theme Creator Screenshots

Nero 7 Premium 7.8.5.0

ero 7 Premium enables the user to experience digital media in completely new innovative ways. With the addition of a Nero Home – media manager, you can now have the complete PC and TV experience. Whether you want to access your media files from the comfort of your living room, or complete digital media projects on your PC, Nero 7 Premium is all you need.

Now, with more features than ever before, this powerful software can transform your digital photos into professional animated slideshows, backup all of your valuable data, manage or search your media files, edit video or photos, create DVDs (including menus), and stream your files over a media server, and compress files to take on the go. Beginners and experts alike will be amazed by what one solution can do. Really, it’s that good.

Your own personal Hollywood movie studio
If you’ve ever wanted to turn your old home videos into Hollywood quality movies, you now can with Nero 7 Premium — among many other digital media projects: create your own professional DVDs, compose beats, edit videos with transitions and menus, compress to various profiles (Mobile, Portable, Standard, Cinema and HDTV), burn a CD/DVD, design CD labels, and much more. These are just some of the ways that Nero 7 Premium can help you explore your creative side.

Save and Restore with BackItUp 2
Backup your entire system up on spanning over several CDs/DVDs, schedule an automatic backup with Job Scheduler, drag and drop the files you want to save, create an FTP backup, or password protect your data. Whichever you choose, Nero 7 makes sure that your important files stay right where you need them.

Make your memories last a lifetime—and then some!
The days of storing your photos in huge, heavy photo albums are over. With Nero 7 Premium, you can store, manage and edit all of your digital photos with ease. In addition to that, you can turn your photos and videos into slideshows, add transitions and music, burn them to DVD, and then give them to friends and family to watch on their DVD players.

Now supports Blu-ray technology.
Nero 7 Premium now gives you the ability to burn your data to BD-RE and BD-R (Blu-ray) media, which enables you to store enormous amounts of data (25-50 GB) onto a single disc.

Here are some key features of "Nero 7 Premium":


Audio
Burn
· Copy your favorite CDs – to use at home or when travelling
· Select your favorite songs and create best-of CDs – make individual selections, time and time again
· Burn MP3 CDs – for hours of music enjoyment

Create
· Design your own music CD covers – with numerous word processing and picture editing functions
· Create and mix your own sound files – with crossfades and volume settings
· Create playlists for your parties – with combinations of video files and sound files
· Arrange your own DJ mixes – with professional effects and multi-track option

Edit
· Rip music CDs – in all different formats
· Split sound files, design crossfades and control pauses – easily and conveniently
· Copy your LPs and tapes to CD – in just a few steps

Share
· Share your favorite hits – in completely new areas


Video
Burn
· Copy DVDs – so fast as never before
· Record Home Videos on CD or DVD – so user-friendly as never before
· Burn videos from PC onto CD or DVD – so easy as never before
· Save a complete DVD on a CD and keep the 5.1 Surround Sound – so space-saving as never before

Create
· Produce animated menus, titles and closing credits - with a large variety of templates

· Make even better home-made videos with background music and navigation effects – with the possibility of changing them at any time

Edit
· Record home-made videos on your digital camcorder – and watch them on your PC
· Edit DVD films completely individually, insert new contents and change subtitles – and experience previews in real time

Share
· Let your family share your videos – via your UPnP network


Photo
Burn
· Find the photos you want and burn them onto CD/DVD - it's very fast and very simple
· Archive all your photos - the layout is clear and your files are absolutely secure

Create
· Design slideshows with your favorite pictures - fully animated and with backing music.

Edit
· Get more from your pictures - rotate in any direction, flip and edit using effects

Share
· Put your photos on television - using UPnP with continuous update function


Data
Burn
· Burn your data onto CD and DVD - quickly and conveniently
· Create backups - easily and automatically
· Archive your data - reliably and securely

Create
· Design individual CD and DVD labels - professionally and creatively


TV
Create
· Create slideshows with photos, videos and music – unlimited combinations
· Produce playlists with your favorite hits to fill an entire evening – take a break from the inconvenience of CD changing

Share
· Relive your memories with friends and relations in front of the TV –
combine media and link hardware

Enjoy
· Watch the television channel on your PC – to suit your preferences
· Do not miss a second of your favorite programme with time-shifting – to suit your timetable
· Enjoy your favorite songs – to suit your requirements
· Experience your pictures and videos with great links and special effects –
to suit your own ideas


Applications included
Here are some key features of "Nero Home":

· Quick & easy access to all your digital media files from the comfort of your living room using a remote control
· Integrates TV time-shifting, DVD, video, photo and audio playback
· Easy wizard setup and user interface
· Support for all popular media formats
· Powerful database for storing and organizing of media files into playlists
· Advanced search options
· Complete multiple tasks concurrently

Here are some key features of "Nero Scout":

· Optimized to provide access to media files from all Nero applications
· Browse media files from Windows Explorer

Here are some key features of "Nero StartSmart 3":

· Simple-to-use interface
· Easy connection to the Nero ProductCenter
· Improved integration in Windows XP autoplay

Here are some key features of "Nero Burning ROM 7":

· Advanced search options with Nero Scout
· Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, efficiency and speed LightScribe support
· Support for DVD-R Dual Layer format and DVD+R Double Layer

Here are some key features of "Nero Express 7":

· Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, efficiency and speed
· The integrated Nero Scout technology provides fast access to all media files including advanced keyword search options
· LightScribe support
· Support for DVD-R Dual Layer format and DVD+R Double Layer
· Verification for Audio CD, Video CD and Super Video CD
· Support for short lead-out recording
· Intelligent compilation size status bar
· Tree-view in data project

Here are some key features of "Nero WaveEditor 3":

· Surround sound editing with up to 7.1 channels
· Zoom out/in of the recording beyond any limits
· Layout improvements: all channel view/channel sum view
· Extended sample format conversion and rendering multi-channel audio recordings
· Offline effect processing possible
· HQ-Dithering to reduce the noise (noise reduction)
· Edit history window showing all editing steps
· Automatic track splitting – export tracks to separate files

Here are some key features of "Nero SoundTrax 2":

· Support for up to 7.1 channel surround sound editing and mixing
· Real-time panning fields to adjust the sound output position (i.e. front/rear)
· Option to produce subwoofer channel tracks automatically
· Multi-channel optimized effects (for surround sound 5.1 and 7.1 with/without subwoofer)
· Automatic record triggering for LP/tape with supporting wizards option
· Switching from Nero WaveEditor 3 to Nero SoundTrax 2 and vice versa with one click
· Drop CD track splits or CD indexes directly in the multi-track project
· Includes wizard for easy vinyl-to-CD or tape-to-CD transfer
· Add volume or pan curves to the audio tracks

Here are some key features of "Nero Vision 4":

· HDV capturing support
· Improved support for DVD camcorder media (8 cm)
· Easily access all your media files with Nero Scout
· Full support of Dolby® Digital 5.1 audio
· DVD+VR
· Supports chapter menus
· Splitting and merging of titles
· Setting or removing write protection for single titles
· Possibility to overwrite unprotected titles automatically if disc space is low
· DVD-VR
· Playback of slideshows
· Adding or removing images from slideshows
· Importing of slideshows to hard disk
· Simulation/preview of the project

Here are some key features of "Nero Recode 2":

· Copy your DVDs with the fastest DVD 9 to 5 copying software in the world
· Convert DVDs and video data into Nero Digital (MPEG-4)
· Convert from 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround into space-saving Nero Digital audio format
· Remove unwanted audio tracks, subtitles or bonus material

Here are some key features of "Nero ShowTime 2":

· Support for Nero Scout
· Support for H.264/AVC playback
· Playback media from Nero MediaHome with excellent sound and video quality

Here are some key features of "Nero MediaHome":

· Fully certified UPnP AV Media Server 1.0
· Decide on a per-media-type (i.e. MP3, MPEG-2, MPEG-4) basis what should be shared over the network
· Parsing of media files for gathering metadata such as the song's artist, album, title, duration, bit rate, color depth, resolution etc.
· Playback your media files on your TV or hi-fi system
· Automatically update shared folder hierarchy if user copies, moves or deletes files (for example using the Windows Explorer)

Here are some key features of "Nero PhotoSnap":

· Support for Nero Scout
· Rotate and cut pictures
· Numerous visual effects
· Improve the resolution of your pictures.
· Supports file format JPEG 2000

Here are some key features of "Nero CoverDesigner 2":

· Support for Nero Scout
· Choose from a variety of templates
· Import covers from your scanner, digital camera or the Internet

Here are some key features of "Nero BackItUp 2":

· Supports drag and drop for file backup
· File backup from Windows Explorer
· Supports a virus check
· On-the-fly compression
· FTP backup and restore
· Shadow copy
· Predefined file filters and file excluding list
· Drive backups from an active partition can be copied onto the hard disk
· Selectable recording speed according to recorder capabilities

Here are some key features of "Nero ImageDrive":

· Supports up to two image drives simultaneously
· Mount image after boot of PC
· Seamless integration into Windows Explorer


Requirements:

Processor and memory:
· For writing audio and data discs:
- 800Mhz Intel Pentium 3 processor or AMD Sempron 2200+ processors or equivalent
- 128MB RAM
· For TV recordings, DVD and video authoring:
- 1.2Ghz Intel Pentium 3 processor or AMD Sempron 2600+ processors or equivalent
- 128MB RAM
· For real-time capturing and burning:
- 1.6Ghz Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Sempron 2600+ processors or equivalent
- 128MB RAM

Hard disk space:
· 600 MB disk space for a typical installation of all the components
· Up to 9 GB available hard disk space for DVD images and temporary DVD files

Nero ShowTime 2, Nero Home / NeroVision 4, Nero Recode 2, Nero PhotoSnap, Nero PhotoSnap Viewer require Microsoft DirectX 9.0a or later


The Softpedia Team has reviewed Nero 7 Premium, if you'd like to read our opinion about it, click here.

What's New in This Release:

· Support of Labelflash in Nero Burning ROM
· Burn support for audible audiobooks
· Nero Burning ROM crashed after an image was burned and a new project was started afterwards... [ read full changelog ]

Softpedia guarantees that Nero 7 Premium 7.8.5.0 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

Nero 7 Premium Download

Nero 7 Premium Screenshots

Vista Visual Styles Pack 6.0

Change your old Windows XP theme to look like Vista using MSStyles! Plus you don't need to download any software to do it either (so your computer won't get messed up!). You can do it all by yourself and when you are done it is surely going to look like Windows Vista and move like Windows XP ;)

This visual styles pack contains:

- Windows Aero
- Windows Vista Basic
- Aero Style (WindowBlinds skin)

You MIGHT need to patch your uxtheme.dll, if you didn't already to get this to work. If you want to try patching it, check out Windows X's UXTheme Multi-Patcher.

This program will patch your uxtheme.dll file so you can use any 3rd party visual style on Windows XP (includes SP1 and SP2) and Windows Server 2003 (includes SP1 and SP2) for both x86 and x64 Edition operating system. File protection dialogs should be cancelled and a reboot is required after using this patch.

Patched Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems with this program can be unpatched by running this program again.

You may also want to try Royale Noir Theme for WinXP ...

What's New in This Release:

· Added display configuration for the best view of machine's display
· Added WindowBlinds detection warning message (for user who is mistaken about glass border skin)
· Changed theme'structure to be the same with different shellstyles
· Changed visual styles' name to match with Vista RTM
· Fixed CaptionButton alignment problem when maximized in Vertical shellstyle WindowBlinds theme
· Fixed ToolbarBackground sizing mismatched from real Vista style
· Fixed shellstyle background color mismatch in some areas
· Updated frame border in Windows Aero visual style
· Updated StartGroupToolBarButton
· Updated TaskBandButton back to default ones
· Updated TaskBandGroup's backgroun and button... [ read full changelog ]

Softpedia guarantees that Vista Visual Styles Pack 6.0 is 100% FREE, which means it is a freeware product (both for personal and commercial use) that does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

Vista Visual Styles Pack Download

Vista Visual Styles Pack Screenshots

Vista Start Menu 2.23

Each time you start programs from the Start menu, you use the interface that has not changed for 10 years. No wonder that it becomes more and more difficult to use it due to the increase in the number of programs...

Vista Start Menu is a completely another approach to the interface. In the process of development we were oriented towards how people perceive information and also towards the ability to remember the position of items.

All you see in the standard menu is a long list and you have to read most names in order to find the program you need. Vista Start Menu will show program icons that is why it is a lot easier to find the program you need with just one glance. Besides, the programs are arranged in a table visually divided into sections, which also contributes to finding what you need in no time.

With Vista Start Menu, you just open the menu and click the program icon. If you need supplemental files installed together with the program, just move the mouse pointer over the icon and you will see a submenu where you can find all you need.

Vista Start Menu retains the position of icons that is why when you install or remove programs, icons remain in their places. You do not have to spend time on looking for an icons that has "slid away" as it usually happens in the standard menu.

You can also purchase an extended version of the program, which includes the following features:

· Recently installed programs highlighted in color
· Moving icons in the workspace of the window, place icons the way you find it convenient!
· Quick Uninstall any program by just right clicking its shortcut. Read More...
· Free subscription to all new versions of the program
· Priority support and other useful functions, which are either already available, or will be added to the future versions

NOTE: The program uses a system of hooks for integration with the "Start" menu. A hook is a special library named VistaStartMenu.dll. It detects when the user moves the mouse pointer to the "start" button in order to replace the standard menu with its own one. Some firewalls detect adding new hooks because they can be used for spying and inform you about it.

Vista Start Menu neither spies on the user nor sends any data via the Internet if it is downloaded from the developers' official site. We are not responsible for software obtained from other sources.

Limitations:

· The PRO Version enable the unique feature named "one-click launch" and customize the menu the way you like it by purchasing the PRO version.

What's New in This Release:

· Now it is possible to launch all items in the main menu.
· The program automatically detects the menu type and imports the list of these programs; it also adds the help shortcut to the main list.
· More info: http://www.vistastartmenu.com/updates.html... [ read full changelog ]

Softpedia guarantees that Vista Start Menu 2.23 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

Vista Start Menu Download

Vista Start Menu Screenshots

Windows Internet Explorer 7 MUI Pack

Internet Explorer 7 MultiLanguage User Interface (MUI) has been designed to make everyday tasks easier, provide dynamic security protection and improve the development platform and manageability.

The Internet Explorer 7 MUI is a set of language-specific resource files that may be added to the English version of Windows with the OS MUI pack and Internet Explorer 7 installed.

The Internet Explorer 7 MUI lets the browser user interface (UI) language to be changed to any of the supported languages according to the preferences of individual users.

This allows large corporations to roll out the same worldwide image by using a single install job. Local users can then select the UI language or the UI language can be set by Group Policy for organizational units.

Internet Explorer 7 MUI allows the user interface language of the browser to be changed to one of the following supported languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish.

Requirements:

· Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Service Pack 2
· The OS MUI language pack for the desired MUI language must be installed. The IE7 MUI language packs can be installed on the following language versions of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005: Traditional Chinese(Hong Kong), Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian(Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese(Portugal), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.
· Windows Internet Explorer 7 must be installed.

Softpedia guarantees that Windows Internet Explorer 7 MUI Pack is 100% FREE, which means it is a freeware product (both for personal and commercial use) that does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

Internet Explorer 7 MUI Pack Download

Internet Explorer 7 MUI Pack Screenshots

GMail Drive shell extension 1.0.11 Final

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer.

GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.GMail Drive shell extension is a tool that creates a virtual filesystem.

Ever since Google started to offer users a GMail e-mail account, which includes storage space of a 1000 megabytes, you have had plenty of storage space but not a lot to fill it up with.

With GMail Drive you can easily copy files to your GMail account and retrieve them again. When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account.

The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the GMail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures.

But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer.
You can copy files to and from the GMail Drive folder simply by using drag'n'drop like you're used to with the normal Explorer folders.

Because the GMail files will clutter up your Inbox folder, you may wish to create a filter in GMail to automatically move the files (prefixed with the GMAILFS letters) to your archived mail folder.

Please note that GMail Drive is still an experimental tool. There's still a number of limitations of the file-system (such as total filename size must be less than 40 characters), and it doesn't make full use of the secure internet protocols available.

You can try Xmail alternative for portability.

Requirements:

· Internet Explorer 5 or better

Softpedia guarantees that GMail Drive shell extension 1.0.11 Final is 100% FREE, which means it is a freeware product (both for personal and commercial use) that does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.However, it should be noted that this product will be retested periodically and the award may be withdrawn, so you should check back on this page from time to time.

GMail Drive shell extension Download

GMail Drive shell extension Screenshots

Effective Video Converting

Version reviewed: 5.6.1.705

Its new skinable interface allows you not only to get advantage of all the excellent features AVS Video Converter offers, but also to customize the exterior of the program, bringing even more pleasure to your video processing work.

Some features:

Convert video between almost any formats
Create movie DVDs
Convert video files and DVD
Convert video content for DVD/MPEG-4 players
Make Flash SWF, Real Video or WMV movies
Convert video to audio tracks and images
Enhance your movies
Batch mode Video Converter
Easy to use

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A friend of mine told me how he once burned his CPU during a video conversion session. He actually had to buy a new computer as the motherboard and RAM were also ruined. The story is not fantastic and the happening really took place (two of our friends already confirming it). He was running a video conversion software on his home computer which had the case opened. In a careless move, he managed to spill a refreshing drink in the case (CPU, motherboard, source) and everything short-circuited.

He has been mentioning video conversion among the fiercest CPU killers ever since. So I guess you should be careful with drinking and video converting at the same time, as results may be a total disaster. AVS Video Converter is by far not as dangerous as my friend and it is actually capable of supplying you the means for transforming the regular AVI format into various other formats compatible with different modern portable video devices like iPods, portable DVD players, PSPs, cell phones etc.

The new marketing strategy adopted by the publisher makes available any of the softwares under the mark to be downloaded for free with a $29 1 year subscription or for $59 for an unlimited subscription. The available tools in there include video related software, audio software, disc burning solutions and data conversion for mobile devices rendering.

AVS Video Converter from Online Media Technologies is an all-inclusive tool designed to convert your video to different file formats compatible with various portable devices. The supported formats available allow you to transform to DVD, AVI, MP4, 3GP, MPEG, MOV, WMV, RM and SWF. The operation is swift and the unregistered version's result will bear the mark of the application right in the middle. That is the only limitation imposed by the publisher to evaluation versions.

The interface is almost inexistent as the application is created for functionality not for aesthetics. In the upper part of the window there is the conversion bar containing all the above mentioned formats. The conversion procedure is extremely simple. First select the format of the output result and input the desired file. As batch conversion is supported, you can add as many files as you want and also select the order to be converted.

To make your work easier, AVS Video Converter works with profiles. These are a set of standard presets designed to work on different qualities

for different portable devices. You will find that there are different settings for both video and audio that reflect in the quality of the output result. To give you an example, when converting to MP4 you will find a number of 16 presets, each of them rendering a greater or lower video quality depending on the standard, resolution and audio settings.

There may be cases when the user may want to apply his/her own settings to the video and customize it. AVS Video Converter is equipped with an editing section allowing you just that. You can change the video format (quality), frame size, audio format, file type (depending on the device it is going to run on), framerate, audio channels, resolution etc. The newly created profile can be saved for later use on other conversions or it can replace and already existent one.

For AVI conversion the user can select and configure the video encoder so to his/her own needs. The application comes equipped with a number of codecs to assist you among which there is DivX (version 5.0.5), XviD MPEG-4.

Besides configuring the quality of the resulting video, AVS Video Converter comes with a video editor, located in the top right hand corner of the window. You can apply great effects on the movies coming out of AVS Video Converter. Get creative and apply all sorts of effects on all the video piece or only on part of it.

With the aid of marks applied to the video, you can apply a certain effect only on a small proportion of the movie. The effects available comprise Deinterlace, Blur, Gaussian Blur, Motion Blur, Sharpen, Mosaic, Add Noise, Diffuse or Emboss. For each of them, you have a small amount of adjustment to make, as they are not presets. For Emboss, you get to set the angle degree, the pixel distance and the amount to be applied.

Other editing options allow you to tamper with the colors (invert, equalize, hue, saturation, gamma, grayscale), adjust the brightness, enable the auto-levels and auto-contrast, set the color temperature, etc. Transforming the video lets you flip it, rotate it, display it in mirror, perspective etc.

Additionally, if you want to censor something or simply hide it from view, you can resort to the drawing tools of the application. Lines, rectangles, ellipses, images, text credits and border, they can all be applied to your video. The only trouble I had was with the "credits" feature as I could not adjust the text on the screen in a visible point. However, "text" option can be used instead with great ease.

The preview area will show you how exactly the effect will look on the newly improved video. The effects and changes can be removed from the video with the same ease with which they were added. At the bottom of the Edit window there are two options for exporting the audio track of the video and for exporting the current frame of the file. The audio can be saved as MP3 or uncompressed WAV. The images can be stored as BMP, WMF, EMF, JPEG, GIF, PNG or TIFF.

The Good

AVS Video Converter acted stable and converted all the videos I fed it with. The flexibility of the software allows editing the settings for the output result as well as choosing one of the preset configurations.

The list of effects and settings available for editing the video is amazing. You can practically customize it the way you want it. It is perfect for home use.

The Bad

There are still some matters to be attended. Minor spelling mistakes, updating of the video codecs or a help file (included in the application, not an online one) for the less accustomed users, these contribute to the (de)appreciation of the application. However, the quality of the result is almost as good as the original (no conversion will preserve the same quality).

The Truth

The price is good, the application works fine, what is not to like? Maybe the interface, but what the software loses in aspect gains in functionality and quality. And the five skins available in the software are at your disposal (the "S" button in the top right hand corner of the converter).

The video editor is great and pretty easy to use. Once you got the taste of it, you will get all your videos converted and "effected".

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

Ghosting Away

Version reviewed: 12.0

Norton Ghost saves the stuff you most care about.
Norton Ghost provides advanced backup and recovery for your computer. Protect your documents, financial records, presentations, photos, music, videos, historical documents, or any other kinds of data you keep on your computer by making a backup of your computer's entire hard disk. Or, limit your backup to include only those files and folders that mean the most to you

Some features:

Enhanced ease-of-use
Windows Vista support
Improved Easy Setup
File and folder backup
One Time backups
Desktop search engine support
Convert a recovery point to virtual disk format
LightsOut Restore
Simplified schedule editor
Manage backup data
Automatic backup destination detection
Event-triggered backups
Performance throttling

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Computer world breathed with relief the moment system backup tools appeared on the market. Until then

there was nothing to create a bit-by-bit image of the system drive. The only way for a clean operating system to reside on your computer was re-install. This operation, though very easy for some, took a lot of time and the process was among the most despicable for computer users. With the introduction of Vista and the new technologies on the loose, everything is a whole lot easier. However, backing up one's files (especially system files) is an unavoided task.

Restoring the operating system to a clean state is just a matter of minutes and the hassle with booting from a CD/DVD, configuring the network settings (operating systems lower than Vista), typing in the product key (that's the part I hate most when performing a clean Windows install) is eliminated.

Additionally, after installing the OS the fun part begins: install all the software you need and configure them the way best fits you. That is actually the most time consuming part.

The great deal of products up to the system backup job only encourage you to pick one and save yourself time and effort. One of the oldest such tools (and one of the most used), is Norton Ghost. Its system backup abilities are worldwide known and despite the abundant competition it has to face it still manages to find way on a significant number of machines.

The 12th edition from Symantec comes as a 30 days trial version for testing its capabilities and the price tag for the full version reads $69.99. Regarding the interface there is not much changed but hey, the Vista support has to be appreciated.

The functionality of the application is well known and its improved backup options include file and folder backup, one time backup, automatic detection of the backup destination or event triggered backups.

For a first time the looks and messages displayed by Norton Ghost may be pretty scary as you will be presented with the current backup status. Being the first time using the application results in showing the "At Risk" message. The remedy is of course backing up and creating a recovery point. In the lower half of the Home screen you get to proceed to an action, according to the status of your computer. Both backup and recovery options are available but you will have to start with the beginning and make a backup in order to have where to recover your computer from.

Opt for Run or Manage Backups in order to proceed to safeguarding your data. Norton Ghost will allow you to create backups of any file, folder or drive you want. The Easy Setup dialog will pop up and you can define every aspect for the backup. The two options are for backing up the computer and for backing up the documents. Selecting the drive to be saved, naming the backup job and scheduling the job to take place at a later date and time are the choices for you in the Backup My Computer section.

For Back Up My Documents the options are slightly different as you get to select from My Documents folder what to be saved (i.e Favorites, My Music, My Pictures, My Video folders, etc.). It is not the time for a customized job, yet, that allows you to select any file and folder on your computer. For this there is the Custom bottom in the right lower corner of the Easy Setup screen. The wizard is extremely user oriented and upon selection of the files to include in the job. The choices at the bottom of the screen let you add entire folders, files or file types.

After all the settings have been made you can opt for the job to run according to the previously defined schedule or to take place immediately. Choosing the latter results in opening the Progress and Performance window, which shows the advancement of the job and allows you to adjust the performance slider so that other programs can have a quicker response time. Of course, dragging the slidebar from Fast to Slow will significantly decelerate the backup job progress.

The Status window shows all the drives that have been backed up and may I say that the initial "At Risk" message in the Home screen will not disappear until all the drives have been backed up. The user can invoke the backup wizard for backing up the data on the disk from the context menu. The flexibility provided by Symantec in this product allows the user to customize the status reporting by viewing the full report, show only the errors or choose no report at all.

If there is backup there must be a way to restore those files to the original location. The option is available in Tasks menu under Recovery section. Strangely enough, upon invoking the Recover window there are displayed all the recovery points the application has made, including those that are no longer existent (for the manually deleted backups). Recovering from them would have been a miracle Norton Ghost is not keen on performing.

In the counterpart section (Backup) there is the newest feature added in the program. One Time Backup will create a one time independent recovery point as opposed to the regular recovery points which defines an incremental backup of the files. The issue at hand here is that refreshing the information on the drives' sizes is done only by restarting the application. I ran a backup job and then I wanted to make a one time backup. The values for the size were not refreshed automatically and on the destination drive of the backup it seemed that I was using only 88.6MB of space whereas the properties window of the drive clearly showed a 4.7GB space usage.

Copying the recovery points from one destination to another is a walk in the park due to the built-in wizard. It allows setting the compression level (Standard, Medium, High and None) and in the Advanced Options there is the possibility of dividing the resulting file into smaller pieces to simplify archiving and to set a password (the encryption is AES, 128-bit, 192-bit or 256-bit).

Moving onward to tools there are five titles at your disposal. Out of these for two of them "you may need to license the product" (that is what the restriction message says). These are Convert to Virtual Disk (converting a recovery point to a virtual disk format) and Copy My Hard Drive (creates a copy of an entire HDD to another).

Copying the recovery point to a different location (local) then the one originally defined proved to be a very easy job for Norton Ghost. Its ability to copy the image file to a CD/DVD media may be a little difficult though as the my recovery point was a bit too large for one DVD and the software asked for another one, spitting the first one after filling it. Upon inserting the second DVD the job refused to advance to the finish. There was no prompting that the operation failed or and error message. The progress bar simply froze. After 10 minutes of waiting for a resume of the job I pressed the Cancel Operation button and waited some more (about 30 seconds).

A second test involved backing up enough data to fit on a DVD5 disc. Though the process took quite a time to complete, it was finished with no errors. However, despite the fact that the software showed that the operation was a success, the disc had not been written one bit.

Recovery Point Browser tool instead is simply fantastic. It lets you take a peek inside the backup file, recover only certain files and folders and even launch them. The feature comes in very handy when you want to recover only some of the files included in the entire backup and restoring them to any local residence is extremely easy.


The Good

Norton Ghost does a hell of a job with backing up your files and managing them. Also, the Easy Setup feature gives the software the ease of use any user desires.

Recovery Point Browser is definitely an asset not many similar utilities are equipped with. The recovery of the files is easy and pretty fast, too.

The Bad

In what concerns the copying the recover points on CD/DVD Norton Ghost fails to deliver the user the necessary information for preparing a certain number of discs.

Refreshing the amount of data used on a disc immediately after the operation is complete is not done automatically. The user has to restart Norton Ghost for a glimpse at the accurate values.

Backing up the system drive was extremely easy. But proceeding to creating a backup of files and folders was a real ordeal. Not only did Norton not create an image of the entire folder, but recovering it file by file took more than I expected (there is no elapsed time counter available).


The Truth

Norton Ghost is excellent for running backup jobs of the local drives. Copying the recovery points to a CD/DVD disc however may result in utter failure.

The software does a good job at creating "safety nets" for the drives available on your computer, but with the same job applied to the folders there is a different, time consuming, tedious thing.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: