Entries tagged with software - Channel 10

Soluto Launches Software that Decreases Boot, Improves Performance

Sarah Perez — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:41:00 GMT

An application called Soluto (beta) just launched at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, where a number of new startups are now being revealed. This software aims to improve PC performance by analyzing a computer’s boot up process to uncover which installed applications may be slowing the computer down. According to the Soluto website, the software can cut down on PC boot time and improve on-going PC performance.

As TechCrunch explains, the app helps with performance by tracking what applications were running when your PC has a “hiccup” (a momentary lag in performance). And through its back-end, it tracks other users who have that same problem. If someone, somewhere in the world, makes a change that fixes the issue, Soluto tells the other users about the suggested fix. Crowd-sourced troubleshooting!

Another Soluto project, this one yet to launch, is called PCGenome. This piece of the puzzle would actually solve PC problems by not only identifying issues, but then automatically fixing them.

Those interested in testing the Soluto beta can sign up to do so now, but be forewarned. The label says “beta” which means this app could cause issues of its own. I’m heading off to download it now, so I can’t report on its stability just yet. But from the description, it sounds like a promising solution for both non-technical users and anyone else who wants to speed up their PC.

Seesmic Launches Preview of New Desktop App for Twitter, Facebook

Sarah Perez — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:32:00 GMT

Seesmic has just released a preview version of their Seesmic Desktop Twitter application, Seesmic Desktop 2, the app that runs on Silverlight on both Mac and Windows PC. The most notable thing about this release is the built in support for Seesmic’s new plugin architecture. With the new platform, every tool, feature and service can be integrated into the app as a plugin, which allows for complete user customization of the app.

By default, the app supports multiple Twitter accounts and Facebook, plus it offers support for lesser known services like Google Buzz and Socialwok. You can add in even more plugins, too, like Bit.ly and Bing Maps, for example.

Also new to this version of Seesmic are unique backgrounds provided by Red Bull (and more will arrive later, we’re told). Directory and channels like those supported in Seesmic Look are now available too.

You can download the preview version of Seesmic Desktop here.

WinZip Gets Office-Style Ribbon Interface

Sarah Perez — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:58:00 GMT

WinZip, probably the most well-known utility for file compression, encryption, extraction and sharing now features a Microsoft Office 2010-style ribbon interface in their latest release. The new UI arrives in the updated WinZip 14.5 software package (available here) which also includes special features just for Windows 7 users. Specifically, the new WinZip supports libraries, jump lists, explorer preview, touch screen input, multi-touch gestures and more.

CNET says the ribbon is “the most radical change to the program” in their review, noting that it makes the program instantly recognizable to Office users and helps to highlight the advanced features in a way where users can finally locate them. However, if you’re anti-ribbon, the Classic interface is still available under “Options.”

The new WinZip looks great, but the price ($29.95) is probably a little too high for most of us who simply use the built in compression and extraction tools found in Windows. However, anyone who needs the advanced features WinZip provides should be happy with the upgrade.

Commands in Demand Provides Easy Access to Geeky Tools

Sarah Perez — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:27:00 GMT

In between the total computer newbie and the total computer geek, there’s that person who knows just enough to get by (or to be dangerous, in many cases). I’m sure you all know someone like them. They may not have the first idea how to go about releasing and renewing their IP address, but they do know, thanks to their many tech support calls in the past, that it’s something they should try when they lose connectivity. I’ve recently discovered a handy tool just for this type of computer users thanks to the Life Rocks blog.

The tool is called Commands in Demand and it provides access to over 70 different Windows commands from its easy-to-use interface. You’ll find commonly used commands like the one for restarting Windows Explorer, terminating non-responsive programs, hiding or showing desktop icons, clearing the clipboard, displaying CPU info, and a whole lot more.

Commands in Demand is a free download and works on XP and Vista. However, with compatibly mode enabled, it should work on Windows 7 too.

Yet Another Windows 7 Tweaker Emerges

Sarah Perez — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:08:00 GMT

Just when I thought we had all the Windows 7 tweaking utilities covered, yet another application appears on the scene. From the creators of the popular Vista tweaker, TweakVI, comes a new application called simply “Tweak-7.” Although still in beta, the application is available for everyone to try for 14 days and will work in any Windows 7 build from RC1 (build 7100) and up. Like its Vista counterpart, the program offers hundreds of tweaks including tweaks for everything from the Start Menu to the taskbar and from desktop to the system itself.

In addition to the tweaks, the software also includes other utilities like a registry cleaner and defragmenter, a disk drive clean up utility, a system performance analyzer, an automatic internet connection optimizer, and more.

The final version of Tweak 7 should become available in July 2009. You can grab the beta here.

Test Your Website's Compatibility with SuperPreview

Sarah Perez — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:17:00 GMT

Microsoft SuperPreview is a tool which was launched a few months ago at the MIX09 Developer Conference. This standalone visual debugging software makes it easier to migrate your sites from IE6 to IE7 to IE8 as well as compare how the site looks in different web browsers. The features found in this application were determined by asking web developers what sorts of things they needed in a browser comparison tool.

With this app, you can view pages side by side or even as an onion-skin overlay – a great feature that lets you stack a partially transparent browser on top of another to see the rendering differences. It also includes rulers, guides, and zoom/pan tools that help you navigate and identify differences in layout.

SuperPreview is available as a free 250 MB download from here. Note: requires .NET

Ultimate Tweaker for Windows 7

Sarah Perez — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:26:00 GMT

WinVistaClub’s Ultimate Windows Tweaker software has just been updated with 20 more tweaks for users of Windows Vista. However, it seems that Windows 7 Beta testers can use this application to do a bit of tweaking of their own, too. According to DownloadSquad, they tried UWT on their Windows 7 install and the application worked fine save for one error message that didn’t seem to have any impact on the changes being applied.

With UWT, you can configure settings for your Windows UI, your Start Menu, IE, shutdown behavior and more. The program is portable, too, and can fit on a USB flash drive.

You can get the latest version (1.1) which now features over 150 tweaks from here.

AMD’s Fusion Media Explorer

Sarah Perez — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:43:00 GMT

At CES, I was fortunate enough to get one of the first looks at AMD’s new Fusion Media Explorer, a freeware tool which has undergone many revisions over the past year, now transformed into a stunning media-rich application just for AMD PCs. Designed to highlight the power of AMD’s platform – that is, both CPU and GPU combined - Fusion Media Explorer integrates music, photos, video, web, TV, and other web services into one glossy and beautiful software program. Although the version of Fusion Media Explorer demonstrated at CES 2009 was still alpha software, it’s easy to see the potential of this program – especially considering all the new high-end, touchscreen Windows 7 PCs being introduced this year.

Navigating through the media on your PC or web using Media Explorer is easy to do, but it’s the graphics that make the experience so notable. Using a flowing, ribbon-like display, media glides by smoothly across the screen. For videos, each thumbnail shows the video playing - no static thumbnail images here! Of course, the power of this software means that it runs best on high-end PCs, although AMD claims that the program will automatically adjust itself appropriately to run on any PC that contains an AMD CPU.

As you switch between watching video or surfing the web or whatever it is that you’re doing, other content can continue to run in the program’s sidebar for a true dashboard-like experience. (I already envisioned having Twitter open on the side while I watched videos in the main window.)

The software also has an extendible architecture which they've demonstrated through additional integrations with LogMeIn and Orb, but really any program could be incorporated within this program.

With the recent craze surrounding netbooks, this AMD program demonstrates why great PCs don’t have to be for gaming only. Unfortunately, the software isn’t available for download yet, but stayed tuned for news from AMD – it’s sure to make a splash when it is. If you want to be among the first to know, sign up at amdlive.com for more information.

Introducing The Microsoft Store

Sarah Perez — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:54:00 GMT

Did you hear the news? Finally! There’s now a way to buy genuine Microsoft software without a trip to the store – you can now download software over the internet instead. The new Microsoft Store, available at www.microsoftstore.com sells everything you need from Xbox games to Office to Windows and more. After making your secure purchase, the software is immediately available for download to your PC.

But the store isn’t just a software shop - you can also order Microsoft hardware like the new Arc Mouse, for example or one of the new Microsoft LifeCam Show webcams and have it delivered.

The Microsoft Store at the .com domain is for the U.S., but the UK, Germany and Korea have their own stores, too. Coming soon are Japan, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Other countries will have stores come online throughout the year.

Upgrade Task Manager

Sarah Perez — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:17:00 GMT

Anyone who runs Windows is familiar with Task Manager, the program that shows you which applications and processes are running as well as displaying real-time statistics as to how much CPU and memory those programs are using, among other things. I knew that there were programs available (like our very own Sysinternals app Process Explorer) that let you see far more info than what Task Manager displayed, but I didn’t know that you could actually upgrade Task Manager itself.

However, it turns out that there is an add-on for Task Manager called Task Manager Extension which will add more features to this program. With Task Manager Extension installed, you’ll have new features like icons in the processes window, Windows processes will be greyed-out so you’ll know to leave them alone, and you’ll have tons more features from the right-click menu including options for displaying the system path and time the process has been running.

I think for casual users a simple tool like this would be much more friendly to use than Process Explorer, for example. Unfortunately, this program only works on XP and lower, and not on XP 64 or Vista. How disappointing! If anyone knows of any similar program for Vista users, please let me know.

(thanks DownloadSquad)

PC Decrapifier 2.0 Arrives

Sarah Perez — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:35:00 GMT

You’ve got to love a piece of software with a name like “PC Decrapifier.” The software was originally created years ago to help you clean up a brand-new PC. It does this by removing all the trial versions, begware, and other junk apps that come pre-installed on new systems. Recently, a new version of the program launched: PC Decrapifier 2.0.0. This version offers a complete rewrite of the program using a new scripting language, which means the app is now more stable and reliable. Beyond that, though, there aren’t many new features besides a couple more icons and startup entries. However, Jason (the dev) promises that you’ll see more updates coming through more often now that the hard work of the rewrite is done. Decrapifier is free for personal use. You can download it here.

CraigsPal Brings Craigslist To Your Desktop

Sarah Perez — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:49:00 GMT

Are you a heavy user of the online classified website Craigslist? If so, then you definitely have to look at CraigsPal, a desktop software program designed just for searching Craigslist. The application is available in two different versions, one free and one paid. The free version lets you search across cities, states, and countries, filter content, use negative searches (-keyword), preview listings/photos, sort by price or date, flag spam, and has several keyboard shortcuts.

The paid version, however, is for the true Craigslist fanatic. With CraigsPal Pro ($29.99), you can receive mobile SMS and email alerts, save favorite searches, backup your user data, automate searches, and you have access to free updates for the life of the program.

Of course, if you just want to search all the Craigslist sites, you don’t need an app to do so: Search All Craig's lets you do that from one simple web page. And if you really want to delve into all that is Craigslist, Lifehacker has the definitive Craigslist Power Users Guide.

A Simple Tool To Change Your Icons

Sarah Perez — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:20:00 GMT

Although changing an icon is something that’s built into the Windows OS, avid desktop customizers are always on the lookout for better ways to make changes on the fly. A new tool that helps you quickly update your drive icons is Drive Icon Changer. All it does is update icons, nothing else, but sometimes a simple tool is just what you need.

To use the tool, you simply select the drive from the top drop-down box and then browse for the icon in the second box. Click “Save” and you’re done! This app was built by Taimur Asad in C# using Visual Studio 2008. He’s tested it on Vista only, but it may work on older versions of Windows, too. You can download the software for free from here (zip file).

Finding More Space On Your Hard Drive (Part 2)

Sarah Perez — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:55:00 GMT

In the past, I looked at a couple of programs that can help you find more space on your hard drive: Xinorbis and WinDirStat (my current favorite). However, I recently discovered a couple more tools thanks to Steve Smith’s blog. Steve recommends a program called SpaceMonger. The current version of the program, version 2.1, claims to work on any version of Windows from 95 to XP to Server 2003. Although it doesn’t mention Windows Vista, Steve is using it on Vista with few issues. The program displays your disk space using proportionally sized rectangles so you can easily identify the places where you may be able to delete files.

He also mentions another utility called Easy Duplicate File Finder, which he found on PCWorld’s site. However, this program was not too good for Windows Vista as it had issues with the Vista file junctions (like, for example, the program didn’t know that c:\Users\Sarah\Pictures is really the same as c:\Users\Sarah\Documents\My Pictures\). This slowed the program down quite a bit.

If you have any favorite programs to recommend, leave us a note in the comments!

Making Engaging Digital Presentations With Freepath

Sarah Perez — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:42:00 GMT

Freepath 2.0 is a new application that lets you create presentations that are mashups of web content and content from your PC. So, instead of a traditional PowerPoint, for example, your Freepath presentation could combine a PowerPoint file with images, videos, music, PDFs, Word, and Excel documents and play them as a seamless digital presentation. You can integrate web content like YouTube videos, slideshow’s from slide.com, music from Pandora, images from flickr or photobucket, and more alongside files saved on your PC like those from Office documents, PDFs, Quicktime videos, or Flash files.

The Freepath 2.0 software offers three different viewing modes: a preview mode which shows you digital assets on the right but also makes the playlist and playlist library accessible, a full screen mode (like what PowerPoint offers), and a dual screen mode which shows the presentation both on your screen and that of an external monitor. This dual monitor mode is also compatible with WebEx, GoToMeeting, Live Meeting, and Intercall.

If you’re more comfortable creating presentations in PowerPoint and are hesitant to try a new tool like this, you can actually prepare your slides in PowerPoint itself and then drag them into FreePath’s downloadable software to take advantage of the other tools that it provides.

When complete, your presentations can be shared with the Freepath community on myFreepath.com, which is similar to how Slideshare operates. All beta users receive 100 MB of free storage space in this community.

nCleaner – A Free App for System Cleaning

Sarah Perez — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:31:00 GMT

If you have ever used the system cleaning app cCleaner, you may be interested in checking out nCleaner as an alterative. cCleaner let you delete your browsing history, cache, cookies, while also cleaning up your Windows Explorer, emptying the recycle bin, cleaning your clipboard history, and clearing the memory in various applications (like Office).

nCleaner, on the other hand, goes even further and offers a slew of detailed options for system cleaning and offers to clean over 90 items, one of these items being a registry cleaner. Now, you will no longer need a separate program for that – it’s built right in. In addition, the software provides a system resource monitor, a system advisor, logging, scheduling, plug in option, custom cleaning, statistics, automatic updating, and a lot more.

Karl on MakeUseOf put it to the test recently and managed to recover 17 GB worth of disk space and declared the app a winner. That’s good enough for me – since it’s a free download, I’ll give it a shot. You can try it too – the download link is here.

Animoto: An Automated Video Creation Tool

Sarah Perez — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:20:00 GMT

Have you seen this? A web app called Animoto is announcing “the end of slideshows” thanks to their automatic video creation tool. You don’t have to create anything yourself – just point it to your media on the web (or upload from your PC) and Animoto’s Cinematic A.I. technology will create a completely customized video for you including a background track!

After you sign up for Animoto and start creating your first video, you’re promoted to either upload your photos from your computer or direct the app to use images you have stored on an online photo service like flickr, smugmug, Picasa, photobucket, or even Facebook! If you have your photos organized into albums, you can configure Animoto to retrieve the images just from one particular album.

You have to wait for a moment while the application retrieves your images. Ideally, for their 30-second video, you should have around 15 images – more than that, and some could be left off. If you want to make a longer video it’s only $3 – regardless of how many images are used.

For the music selection, you can upload a track from your PC or select one from their online collection, which lets you browse by genre (top 40, indie rock, hip hop, etc.) to find something appropriate. Note: though “Top 40” is a category, I’m either officially old or these are unsigned artists.

Finally, you’ll have your end product – a customized video created with their unique technology. Their app analyzes and combines the images and takes into account every detail about a song – genre, structure, energy, rhythm, instrumentation, and vocals. Every video created will have a distinct set of motion. The video can then be emailed to friends, posted to your social network profile, downloaded to your computer, uploaded to YouTube, embedded on your blog, and more.

Animoto isn’t a new service – they’ve been in the works since 2005 and started receiving a lot of blog coverage last year. However, I personally had not tried the site for myself until today, and now that I have, I have to say I’m highly impressed. The app was fast, slick, and dead-simple to use, and the end product looks great. Looks like I’ll be pimping my MySpace page this weekend!

Get Virtual Desktops With VirtuaWin

Sarah Perez — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:08:00 GMT

Who’s been on a desktop customization kick lately? Me, of course! Another great find I recently stumbled upon is VirtuaWin, a virtual desktop manager for Windows. It works with Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2K, XP, 2003, and Vista. The program sets up several virtual desktops – you can have up to 9! – but what’s really cool is that the program supports the addition of “modules,” which are independently developed add-ons to the VirtuaWin application which offer more functionality. For example, there are add-ons that offer different ways to cycle through your desktop, add-ons that let you name the different desktops, add-ons that let you change your wallpaper from desktop to desktop, and much more.

The VirtuaWin program is freely distributed and licensed under the GNU General Public License. You can download VirtuaWin from here. The list of available modules is here.

iPower: Power Off Your PC Instantly

Sarah Perez — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:54:00 GMT

iPower is a little app that runs in your system tray allowing you to instantly logoff, reboot, or shutdown your computer. From the right-click menu, you choose what you want the default action to be (after installation, it’s set to “shutdown”). After it’s configured, you only need to double-click on the icon to have it perform your preferred action. This is a pretty quick way to do a shutdown, but be careful not to click it when you meant to click on another system tray app like your anti-virus or your Wi-Fi connection! You may prefer going with a Vista sidebar widget instead (like this one) – it’s just as fast and not as easy to accidentally click.

Browsing Photos With Pictomio

Sarah Perez — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:34:00 GMT

Pictomio is a new, downloadable app for Windows that makes browsing through your photos a really cool experience. The app has a slick, modern interface and lets you flip through your photos in 3D. Because of the 3D rendering, your graphics card will need to have some juice to take advantage of this software, but the end result is worth it. Pictomio very much reminds me of what the PicLens browser add-on offers, and makes me wonder if 3D browsing is the next big thing we're going to be seeing both on the web and in our software programs.

You can also use the program to view, organize, browse, and edit your photos’ metadata, but it stops short of being a full-on image editing program. Still, this program is a lot of fun and it’s definitely being added to my list of alternatives to Windows Explorer.

Thanks FreewareGenius

Create Custom Themes With Vista Style Builder

Sarah Perez — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:32:00 GMT

Have you always wanted to build your own theme for Vista? You can with a new application called Vista Style Builder and the How-To-Geek has a great walkthrough to get you started with doing so. The Vista Style Builder application lets you modify the visual style of your Vista theme or even import styles from XP to be used on Vista. Also, if you’ve found a style you liked on the web, like on devianART, for example, you can also open that file up in the program and use it as a starting point. From there, you can completely customize every aspect of the UI and theme, using the software’s easy-to-use built-in tools. The program is not available just yet, so bookmark this download page and check back soon. The program will not be free and pricing info is not available yet, but the How-To-Geek promises it will be reasonable.

UltraExplorer, An Awesome Alternative to Windows Explorer

Sarah Perez — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:51:00 GMT

This weekend, I decided to look for an alternative to Windows Explorer. Although Windows Explorer gets the job done, there’s just a lot that it doesn’t do that I wish it would, and frankly, I miss XP’s version. Well, now, I have it back and then some! That’s one of the great things about Windows actually – you don’t have to be stuck with the way things come out of the box. If you don’t like something, you have the power to change it. Tweak, customize, download new software, whatever – you can really make Windows your own.

I decided to go on the hunt for a new version of Explorer. I heard a rumor someone out there is creating an XP version of Windows Explorer for Vista users, but I couldn’t find it. (If you know, please leave a comment! The closest I found was Explorer XP, which is similar, but not the same.)

Instead, I found something nearly as good, if not better: UltraExplorer. This alternative Windows Explorer program has it all: a completely customizable interface, tons of configurable toolbars, lots of different views, favorites, a temporary holding area for moving files around called “Drop Stack,” and, of course, the long-lost “up” button. (Don’t tell me about Alt+Up, I know - I want a button!).

Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the program except that I would like to customize the defaults for the views depending on the folder I’m accessing, and it seems that you can only set defaults for the whole program. However, the app does remember your most recent settings, so this hasn’t been a huge problem.

If you want to try this alternate version of Window Explorer, you can visit the app’s homepage here or download it from Download.com here.

Impulse Brings Software and Games Straight to the Desktop

Sarah Perez — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:17:00 GMT

Stardock, the company behind Windows skinning software like WindowBlinds and Object Desktop, have just released a new product called Impulse. This new tool is a platform for digital distribution that lets you quickly and easily download games and other software to your PC’s desktop. Via Impulse, you can get access to all sorts of games from casual games to first-person shooters to RPGs to puzzles and a lot more. In addition to the games, Impulse can also distribute the company’s other popular products like like WindowBlinds, ObjectDock, CursorFX, TweakVista, DeskScapes, SkinStudio, MyColors, as well as 3rd party software like AVG anti-virus or Corel Office. Impulse is a free download, but the programs themselves are not.

NitroDesk Launches New Media Edition

Sarah Perez — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

NitroDesk is a program that helps photographers easily manage, upload, transfer, and sync their photos and/or videos from their PC to several online media sharing websites including PlanetEye, SmugMug, Zenfolio, Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Facebook, ShutterPoint, and Windows Live Spaces for photos and Vimeo and YouTube for video. Nitrodesk also support workflow tools like Adobe LightRoom, Google Picasa2, and Microsoft Expression Media 2. With this latest release of Media Edition, users can now drag and drop photos, albums, or video from one site to another or upload to multiple sites simultaneously. For anyone who works with publishing their media to several different sites, NitroDesk Media Edition may just be worth the one-time fee of $29.99 to save you the hassle. To use this software, you’ll need Windows XP or Windows Vista, and Microsoft .Net Framework 3.0. You can watch a video about Nitrodesk here.

Use Any Object as a Controller With Cam-Trax

Sarah Perez — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:39:00 GMT

Cam-Trax lets you play any PC game you want using almost any object you can find as a game controller - you just need to have a PC and a webcam to do so. The software uses the webcam to scan the object you’re holding and then the object can be used to control your game! (See it in action here). Crazy! What’s even crazier is that I just discovered that the Xbox 360 can do this, too, but not many people know about it. The Xbox can be paired with a camera and through XNA, casual game designers can experiment with their ideas. In fact, here are a couple of videos of people doing the machine vision thing with their Xbox: video 1, video 2. Want to give that a try yourself, this guy documented some of the techie details on how to access the elusive camera frame buffer. The documentation is available as a download here. Now, who’s got a machine vision system that works with XNA?