Skip to Content

Get the perfect Travel Gadget for the jetsetter on your list!
AOL Tech

Filed under: Utilities

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

WinFlog powers up your Windows context menus

WinFlog
WinFlog Extreme is a tiny Windows utility that lets you add a handful of useful items to your right-click context menus. That includes the ability to turn Aero desktop effects on or off in Windows Vista, eject a CD or DVD, or turn on the Flip 3D Windows switcher in Windows Vista. You can also add an option to turn off your display from the context menu. Don't worry, it will come back on as soon as you move your mouse.

The utility lets you pull up these features when you right click your My Computer icon, when you right click on your desktop or a Windows Explorer Window, or when you click your middle mouse button or scroll wheel.

The only feature that actually seems to work for Windows XP users is the option to turn off the monitor by right-clicking on the My Computer icon. So if you're running Windows XP, I'd recommend downloading the lite version of WinFlog, which offers just a few features, rather than the full WinFlog Extreme. Of course, both versions take up less than half a megabyte, so unless you're on a dialup connection where every KB counts, you might want to just go ahead and splurge and get the full version.

[via Download.com]

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Commercial

Three apps for the Windows sysadmin - Holiday Gift Guide

Hyena
If you have a Windows systems admin (the kind of person responsible for managing a computer network and/or server farm) on your holiday gift-giving list, check out these three commercial apps that they are sure to love:

Hyena ($199) - This Windows application is an Active Directory admin's sidekick. In addition to acting as a an AD Users/Computers snap-in on steroids, it also lets you easily change local account usernames and passwords on multiple computers, create helpful lists of group members, and manage services. Hyena also makes it easy to quickly view the currently logged in users of a machine and shutdown or reboot a group of computers.

Read more →

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Commercial

Get VMware Fusion for as little as $9.99 today only


Twitter does have legitimate uses after all! One is finding sweet deals on some of our favorite software. If you happen to follow @vmwarefusion, you know what I'm talking about.

Team Fusion announced in their updates that today only, December 1, 2008, a copy of VMWare Fusion 2.0 for OSX is available for just $39.99! That's 50% off the regular price! The site has just updated to reflect the special price, though earlier, the promo code CyberMondayDeal needed to be entered to take advantage of the offer.

VMWare has a competitive upgrade offer in effect. If you're an existing Parallels or Virtual PC user, you're eligible for an additional $30 rebate.

The 30-day trial is still available for download as well, but how can you go wrong for $10?

[via TUAW]

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Browsers

Safari updates messing with your ad blocker? Try GlimmerBlocker.


If you use some popular ad blocking add-ons for Safari (like the excellent PithHelmet), you may have run into problems when a new version of Safari was released. Updating can break your ad-blocker or cause Safari to crash until a new version of the plugin is released. This isn't a big deal to me, because Safari 3.2-compatible version of PithHelmet has already been released. If you're crazy about stability, though, GlimmerBlocker is offering an alternative.

GlimmerBlocker is downright derisive of other ad blocking options, explaining on their website that "The problem with other ad-blockers for Safari is that they are implemented as awful hacks ...This compromises the stability of Safari ..." Instead of using InputManagers, GlimmerBlocker works by http proxy. This is handy if you're using nightly builds of WebKit that other methods of adblocking can't keep up with. You do unfortunately have to make some small sacrifices for the stability: GlimmerBlocker won't stop pop-unders or filter cookies from 3rd-party sites.

Filed under: Photo, Utilities, Video, Web

ZunaVision lets you place images and videos inside your videos

ZunaVision is a video technology that movie studios have had for years, brought to the average user by the computer science department at Stanford University. It lets you place images and videos within existing videos. Want to put a poster or an advertisement on a building in the background of your footage? ZunaVision's got you covered. How about changing the painting in a picture frame? It can do that, too.

ZunaVision isn't very hard to use. You can just select a surface, and it does a capable job of making your image look like it could plausibly be hanging there. It's not just pasted haphazardly on top of your video. It's cool enough that I'm already worried it won't stay free for long. The last Stanford web toy I fell in love with, Vector Magic, turned into a pay service after a while. Zunavision looks like it could be worth selling, too, but maybe the creators can just turn a profit by sneaking ads into other videos.

UPDATED: The URL for Zunavision changed, so the links in this post were broken. They should be working now. Thanks to all the readers who pointed that out!

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

Cubic Explorer is a highly customizable portable file manager


There are plenty of Windows Explorer replacements out there, and most of you probably have a favorite. While I'm normally content to use what Windows gives me, I'm always looking for a good portable replacement to help ease file management tasks on customer computers.

Cubic Explorer
has a number of options that have earned it the job. While it's packed with functionality and can be customized any number of ways, the interface remains mostly uncomplicated. It's a given that when you add tabs, breadcrumbs, bookmarks, previewing, folder trees, and everything else normally found in an Explorer replacement that the interface will become cluttered, but Cubic keeps things under control.

I've added all the folders I normally need to access during a repair to the favorites, like c:\windows, control panel, network connections, and my network app shares. After launching Cubic, hitting the bookmarks menu and open all in tabs quickly displays everything. It's much quicker than using start -> run every time I need to open a folder.

Cubic also supports sessions, allowing you to have several customized sets of tabs, bookmarks, and layouts. It's a handy feature for moving between customer systems, our office machines, and my home computers. Several themes are included, and your choice is saved with the session.

Cubic Explorer is freeware for Windows only, and both an installer and portable version are available.

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

Automate your drive re-organizing with Download Mover

I've been writing about plenty of manual ways to keep your hard drive neat and clean recently. That's a nice start, but what about some automated help along the lines of Auto-Delete?

While Download Mover is no longer actively developed, it's still good at what it does. Download and extract the zip file and launch the executable, and DM will ask you where and what you want to monitor. Specify the interval for checks and set your notification options, and you're done.

You can specify multiple folders to watch and specify different targets for each file type you add. I often forget to change my Firefox download preferences to save things in my d:\downloads folder. Setting Download Mover to scrape .exe and .zip files into the proper directory keeps my desktop nice and tidy with no interference.

If you've got another automated tool for handling chores like this, please share it! I'm always on the lookout for another app that can tackle tedious tasks like directory cleanup.

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Beta

FileAlyzer shows you detailed info for any Windows file


FileAlyzer is a Windows utility from the makers of Spybot Search & Destroy, which provides you with all sorts of information about any file on your computer. Once you install FileAlyzer, just right click on any file and click the Analyze with FileAlyzer button to see detailed information that goes far beyond the usual size and last modified date.

The utility can display the contents of archived files, display audio tag information, and a whole bunch of other information that I'm not smart enough to understand.

The latest beta version of FileAlyzer adds the ability to analyze multiple files in one window.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, Web services, Education

Frengly does translation, but does it beat Babelfish?


The biggest players in the online translation game are Yahoo! Babelfish and Google Translate. They both have their unique charms, but a site called Frengly might offer a little competition. Its selection of languages isn't quite as extensive as Google's -- you won't find Hindi, Latvian or Catalan, for example -- but it does offer more languages and more combinations than Babelfish. Frengly's killer feature is auto-detection, though.

Frengly's language detection is even cooler than Google's, for a couple of reasons. First, you don't have to select auto-detection from a language list, like you do in Google Translate. If it's automatic, why should it take an extra step?
Second, you don't have to select a target language from a menu. You can just click it, and the original text remains on screen. If you want another language, just click again.

Frengly doesn't do webpages, and doesn't have a bookmarklet. If that's the bulk of what you want to do, stick with Google for now. On the other hand, it does save a list of your translations. If you're looking for a translator to help you do homework or understand a few words in a book you're reading, look no further.

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Commercial, Beta

Eset Smart Security Beta 4 available for download

Eset has released the first public beta downloads of their excellent Smart Security suite. It's available for both 32 and 64-bit Windows systems.

The list of enhancements in the new version is lengthy, including:
  • a new device driver has been added which can remove malware at boot time
  • improved scanning of files over 2gb, network files, and Microsoft Office documents
  • hardened kernel service that better resists malicious tampering attempts
  • scanning of SSL-encrypted SMTP and POP3 email, as well as IMAP mail
  • support for Windows Live Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird
  • better support for Windows Vista's UAC
  • a "Watch Activity" pane shows File and Network Activity and can graph by hour, minute, or second
  • addition of a text-mode UI with keyboard navigation
Among numerous new features and improvements to the antivirus/malware protection, the suite now also includes Eset's SysInspector, an excellent system diagnostic, monitoring, and reporting tool. Antispam and firewall features are also included in the package, as is the SysRescue tool which can create bootable rescude media.

Though Eset has yet to announce an official release date, my Beta 4 install license reports that it will remain valid until March 2, 2009.

[via CyberNet]

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

Use Folder2Iso to declutter your hard drive

When I first came across Folder2Iso I wasn't convinced of its usefulness. The author proposes using it in combination with DVD Decrypter and ImgBurn to copy DVDs and CDs, but I'm guessing most of you have a more streamlined system for doing that.

Recently one of our readers wrote in looking for help in tidying up a disorganized hard drive. I thought back to that post, and figured I might be able to use this app to further my organizational efforts.

Instead of leaving multiple folders of installers that I may only require once in a blue moon on my drive, I can use Folder2Iso to quickly convert the whole lot into individual ISO files. If I need and app in a particular category later, I just mount it with Daemon Tools and share it.

My tools folder is quite a bit more streamlined now. Everything I need on a daily basis is in a common folder, and anything else has been dumped to a single ISO file and labeled appropriately.

It's a nice bonus that I can also quickly burn an entire set of tools to give to a friend if I need to using ImgBurn. Folder2Iso is freeware for Windows only.

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

Newzie RSS reader will monitor pages without RSS feeds

Newzie
It's been a few years since we last checked in on RSS reader Newzie. And it turns out the developers weren't sitting on their behinds for the past three years. Because the latest version of this free RSS reader for Windows is even cooler.

First up, Newzie has all the same basic features we loved, including color coded indicators that let you know at a glance how new an item is. But it also has one awesome new feature: the ability to monitor pages without RSS feeds. Just click the add button, select webpage, and then decide what kind of changes you want to monitor. You can get alerts when a certain keyword pops up on a page, when new images are uploaded, or when anything at all changes.

You can also create several different types of custom channels. For example, if you subscribe to several similar RSS feeds that don't publish posts very often, you can combine them into a single "bulk" feed. Or you can create a "word watchdog" feed that monitors all of your feeds for certain keywords and creates a single feed displaying articles from any other feeds that mention that keyword.

[via gHacks]

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mobile

BitPim: Bluetooth syncing for CDMA phones

BitPim isn't a new app, but I've been using it for quite a while, and I thought I'd share. We write a fair amount about the iPhone here at Download Squad, but some of us are stuck with less-than-smart phones that are over a year old, on CDMA networks. Not that I'm bitter, or anything, but how are you supposed to get data like contacts and ringtones onto (and off of) these things? BitPim!

Bitpim is an an open source app that lets you access your phone's data via Bluetooth. I use it to get custom mp3 ringtones onto my junky Samsung dumbphone, and it works phenomenally well. There's a list of compatible phones on the Bitpim site, but chances are that yours will work. Be aware that Bitpim could potentially mess up your phone, although I haven't any issues with it personally.

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 for Windows now works with Firefox

Foxit Firefox
While Adobe may have been the driving force behind the PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader has grown to be a bloated application which can take an excruciatingly long time to load. One of my favorite alternatives is Foxit Reader, which can open most PDF files in just a second or two, while providing many of the same features you'd expect from Adobe Acrobat Reader, like the ability to fill in text boxes or open password protected documents.

Last week the Foxit team released version 3.0, with a ton of updates. Possibly the most exiciting is a plugin for Firefox that lets you open documents in your web browser. Adobe has offered this feature for ages, but again, it often takes forever to load. To be honest, the Foxit plugin isn't exactly a speed demon. You may find it faster to download some files and open them in the desktop version of Foxit Reader. But it's nice to have the option of opening them in your browser.

Here are a few other new features:
  • Thumbnail previews of each page
  • Attachment panel shows list of files attached to a PDF and allows you to open, delete, or perform other actions on them
  • The text select tool now also lets you add annotations like highlights, strikeout, or underline
  • You can transfer your preference settings by copying an INI file
  • New Foxit OnDemand Content Management add-on allows users to share and collaborate on documents online
You can find a complete list of updates in the Foxit 3.0 release notes.

[via CyberNotes]

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Microsoft, Freeware

Microsoft to replace FolderShare with Windows Live Sync

FolderShare
About three years after acquiring FolderShare, a utility for synchronizing files across multiple computers, Microsoft is retiring the application and plans to replace it with a similar utility called Windows Live Sync. You could make the case that what's happening is Microsoft is renaming FolderShare rather than replacing it, as the new version will likely look a lot like FolderShare and have many of the same functions. But it will also have a few improvements including:
  • Ability to sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each
  • You can login with your Windows Live ID
  • Integration with the Windos Recycle Bin
  • New clients for Windows and Mac
  • Unicode support for synchronizing files in other languages (beside English)
Why Microsoft is continuing to push this software at the same time as it develops Windows Live Mesh which allows you to synchronize files across mutilple computers, the web, and mobile devices, is anyone's guess.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
SXSWi 2008 Schwag Unboxing
SXSWi 2008 Day 1
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

BloggingStocks Tech Coverage

More Tech Coverage

Joystiq

TUAW

BloggingStocks

Autoblog

Xbox 360 Fanboy

Engadget

WOW Insider

Switched.com

FanHouse