Skype 1.1.0.79

Review:

This software can make you call all your friends all over the world for FREE using your internet broadband connection. It is like a big free telephony company where you can make unlimited calls absolutely FREE of charge.

Installing Skype software is so quick and easy that even novice can do the necessary set up. You do not even need to configure your firewall or router or any other networking peripherals to make Skype work properly.

Once it is downloaded, registered and installed, plug in your audio device and start calling your friends. You can use your headset, speakers or your USB phone for communicating with friends. The calls produce excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption. Just to differentiate with a normal telephone, the latter is capable of emitting sounds which you can hear from 300 Hz to 3 kHz. With Skype you can hear the lowest hum to the highest screech.

Unlike other freeware/software, Skype works on multiple platforms. It works on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and PDAs using Pocket PC, with a native look and feel for each platform. You can talk, send messages and even send files between different platforms without encountering platforms problems.

Quick chat is also part of Skype. It consists of a global user directory like a giant Skype directory containing all Skype users across the world. You can see whether your friends are online through its monitoring facility.

Aside from its chat feature, you can also send short and instant messages. In this way, if you would like to convey unfamiliar long words, you can do this via its instant message facility instead of its audio feature.

Skype can be a powerful tool for teleconferencing. It is completely secure for you and up to four others to get together collaborate and make confidential decisions even if you are all on different continents.


Use (9.3/10): This is a very useful and powerful software showcasing internet telephony technology. It makes online collaboration better in real time because of its high quality audio and text facilities. However, one drawback is that the receiving caller should also operate the Skype software while the communication is on.

Unfortunately, many still use the old land lines and mobile lines. And still many are not in possession of computers with broadband connection installed with Skype. But there are smart guys, there is the Skypeout software though NOT FREE can take care of this constraint.

Value (9.5/10): A highly invaluable software for internet users. It improves home and office productivity. Online collaboration on a personal and official level becomes more interesting and rewarding. It provides people with affordable technology to stay in touch with the rest.

Overall (9.4/10): Highly recommended software for everyone. The internet telephony technology is here and will stay and make this world closer to everyone despite space and culture barriers. Skype gives the world an alternative choice of communication.

HijackThis 1.99.1

Review:

If pesky spyware and ad adware remain undetected and keep on bogging your PC even with the watchful eye of your favorite anti sypware and adware applications, try HijackThis.

HijackThis keeps a close watch on the contents of key areas of your PC's Registry and hard drive which are commonly used by both legitimate programmers and hijackers. This tiny application is designed to target methods used by hijackers to force site visitors to redirect to their sites. It does not target specific programs and URLs.

This application is susceptible to false positives results if not taken with due caution. That is, legitimate files can be mistakenly subjected for deletion. Thus the necessity of caution and the need to consult with advance users then should be exercised.

HijackThis examines vulnerable or suspect parts of your system, such as browser helper objects and certain types of Registry keys. The procedure of administering the test is simple. The scan button generates a report -- a log of dozens of items, most of which are just customizations. At the outset however, be forewarned not to check off an item and hit the fix checked button unless you're sure it is malware. Clicking the info button on selected item generates reports why the entry was flagged as suspicious, but no indication whether it's actually malware or not.

To find that out whether a suspicious item is malware or not, search the Web for that item's name or go straight to a forum, such as SpywareInfo or Computer Cops. Saving the log creates a text document which you can post to these forums.

The latest version adds powerful tools to the Config window. The process manager and hosts file editor help you excise virulent infections. The unique ADS Spy tool scans for alternate data streams, which some browser hijackers use to hide from spyware removers.

The program can be installed into whatever directory in which you unzip the file, which can make it hard to locate. HijackThis is a serious tool for any user who needs to root out a serious infestation, but should be taken with caution to avoid deletion of important files.

Value: (8.4/10) A useful tool that can address serious infestation of spyware and adware. This FREE tiny application (218KB) is a powerful tool but should be exercised with high caution.

Use: (7.1/10) HijackThis is a general homepage hijacker's detector and remover. It checks against hijackers' tricks that will force you to their sites. It takes some advance knowledge though in its actual use. You should be familiar with running processes on your computer and other installations tied up with your web browser. Otherwise, this powerful tool will not be much of help to you in addressing serious infiltration of spyware and adware into your PC.

Overall: (7.75/10) A powerful tool designed to combat serious spyware and ad ware infestation. This is a Freeware. But it takes an advance user to operate and maximize its capability. With the proliferation of spyware and ad ware undetected by commercial tools, HijackThis is an alternative tool as this is regularly updated to detect and remove hijacks.

IMVITE 2

Review:

Rarely you find a freeware plus a cash reward.

IMVITE offers a unique opportunity by introducing its unique and exciting Instant Message (IM) application that rewards its users with cash. The concept is simple. You use IMVITE IM for FREE and earn money at the same time. Just by downloading the IMVITE IM, you earn an outright cash reward of $5. You can earn more through its affiliate program. Shopping purchases through the IMVITE Shopping mall of your referrals for using IMVITE IM entitle to monetary rewards.

IMVITE instant messaging is simple to install and use. Its interface is user friendly. Guaranteed with 100% encrypted messaging, IMVITE IM is not a spyware nor an adware. It is a client based application with interoperability features with MSN, AIM, YAHOO, AIM and ICQ.

The following are unique features of IMVITE relative to common IM applications:

* Shopping cart to open up IMVITE Shopping mall with thousands online stores searchable via category or A-z and by country

* Interoperability with YAHOO, AIM, ICQ and MSN

* News headlines, other news and personalized news from news sources which are displayed on a new window when these are clicked

* Myshops and personalized shops containing selected favorite online stores which entitle you to receive rebates

* Google search which provides easy access to google search engine

* Invitation to your friends and family to download the IMVITE messenger

* Banners containing special offers and information about great name brand stores as shopping destination

* Online office which serves as your monitoring tool on your referral base.


Value: (8.2/10) This is a unique opportunity to use an instant messenger for FREE and earn money at the same time. Most strings attached to freeware are meant to benefit the developer. The IMVITE IM however refocused these to benefit its users more than the use of its application as an instant messenger.

Use: (7.7/10) This application is easy to install and use. It is lean but equipped with all the necessary features of a desired IM application. Its interoperability feature with MSN, YAHOO, AIM and ICQ makes it attractive to new users and even existing users of these common IM applications. It serves its purpose as a tool for instant messaging while providing a money making opportunity to its users.

Overall: (7.95/10) The main features of IMVITE IM are similar to existing and popular IM applications. Its value added however is its opportunity to offer free IM application and earn money at the same time. This is highly recommended to enterprising users of IM applications.

HJSplit 2.2

Review:

Sending a large file thru email or copying the same file to several floppy diskettes has never been easy. This task is even more difficult if you deal with multiple operating systems.

Those days are over. Freebyte created a set of popular file-splitting programs called HJSplit. It can split a large file into small chunks allowing ease in transferring files and storing the same in low capacity media format. A set of freeware, HJSplit supports multiple platforms (Windows 3.x/95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP, DOS, Amiga, Java, etc.). All versions are compatible with each other and allow you to exchange files between these different platforms. For instance, a file split on the Amiga platform can be joined on Windows 2000 or Windows XP and vice versa.

What is impressive about HJSplit is that it can backup a very large file in gigabytes size. HJSplit allows you to split a 10 Gb file into 640 Mb parts, which can then be stored onto CD-ROMs by your CD-writer software. You have the option though to set your desired size of split parts.

These split parts can be joined together thru the join feature of HJSplit. Once these split parts are joined, the entire original file is restored.

HJSplit is very reliable, simple, small and easy to use. It does not need any complicated dynamic link libraries (DLLs) in the installation process .HJSplit just consists of one '.exe' file. This means that you can also run it directly from a floppy or CD-Rom.

This program is not only fast in loading time, but also small in size that can be copied in one floppy diskette.

Value: (9.2/10) A very handy and useful utility for everyone. It is a FREE application with a simple and yet user friendly interface. It is a productivity tool. You do not need to install. Just click the .exe file and the application is up and running.

Use: (8.9/10) Regardless of operating system, files generated from HJSplit are compatible. This application is useful in sending large files thru email and transferring the same files in lower capacity storage media. This application makes sending of video clips much easier. It is a very convenient tool for backing up files especially for novice users.

Overall: (9.05/10) Very rare you find a FREE application bundled with different programs in different platforms. It is a lean application with all the features you need to split large files into smaller chunks. Definitely a must have utility for everyone.

FastStone Image Viewer 2.15

Review:

FastStone Image Viewer is a FREE image browser, viewer, converter and editor. Though a lean application, it is equipped with powerful features such as resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustment, creating watermarks, and a broad array of other image-managing features.

Its built-in crystal-clear magnifier presents images details clearly. Its image converter/resizer enables you to convert, resize, rename, crop, color adjust, add text and watermark to images in a batch mode with ease. Other features include a full-screen image viewer with select-zoom support, slideshow, resize, crop, rotate, add shadows, add frames, reduce colors and many more. With its slide-show feature, you can include your favorite MP3s between images.

FastStone Image Viewer can support various graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA.

FastStone features are applicable to both novice and professional users. Unlike other image editor, FlashStone is not resource intensive application. It is easy to use for everyone from beginner to professional level.

FastStone is certified clean software which does not contain any form of malware including viruses, Trojans and backdoors.

Features:

* Image browser with a Window-Resource-Explorer user interface

* Common image formats support, including loading of JPEG, JPEG2000, GIF, BMP, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO, TAG, EMF, PXM, WBMP and saving to TIFF, GIF, PCX, BMP, ICO, PNG, TGA, PXM, WBMP, JPEG, JPEG2000, PS, EPS, PDF.

* Full screen viewer with Select - Zoom support

* Crystal clear and customizable magnifier

* Resizing, flipping, rotating, cropping, color adjusting tools

* Image EXIF metadata support

* Batch image converter/resizer

* Slideshow with dozens of transitional effects

* Undo, Redo and Mouse Wheel support

Value: (8.6/10) FastStone is free for private and non commercial use. For commercial use, registration is required. The latest version is 2.12 with all the necessary basic image editing features. FastStone is an invaluable tool for novices in dealing with image editing related tasks.

Use: (9.0/10) A very handy image editor. It is lean software yet very powerful for beginners and even professionals. FastStone performs basic image editing tasks with ease to include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustment, creating watermarks and other related image editing tasks.

Overall: (8.8/10) The learning curve for full featured image editors is tough. For beginners, this product is a ready tool to use without going through the usual rigorous training. It is easy to use with its user friendly navigation environment. The common image editing tasks are available which include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustment, creating watermarks and other related image editing features. It is a lean software and does not require intensive PC resources. Though FastStone Image Viewer cannot compete with the full featured image editor, it can perform fairly well the basic image editing tasks. Free for private and non commercial use, this is a must have application for beginners.

Free Google Monitor 2.0

Review:

You can have the best website in terms of design and content. But if nobody visits your site since nobody knows about it, it is as good as having no website at all.

One way to establish a good web presence is a good page ranking in popular search engines like Google. To achieve a good ranking, your site should be optimized. Among other important considerations, your site keywords should be properly selected vis-à-vis similar keywords of other sites. Moreover, you should know where your site stands relative to sites with similar contents. Without the necessary tool, undertaking site optimization is a daunting task.

Free Monitor for Google is a free web promotion software designed for helping search engine specialists and webmasters like you improve your sites' google ranking. It allows you to find position of your web site in Google Top for popular keywords and get more traffic from Google. Google Monitor will query Google and show you the position of your site by your target keywords and also how well your competitors are doing. It keeps statistics for several URLs and several lists of keywords.

Google monitor is a lean software which can be stored on a floppy diskette. It is easy to install. Its user interface is simple and easy to use. It comes with its latest version (Free Google Monitor version 2.0) equipped with additional features. With its new version, Free Google Monitor performs query to Google much faster and it has added option to work through with Google Web API. It also supports international data centers with 16 countries listed as of the latest version.

Value: (8.3/10) Free Google Monitor is a FREE application. Though, a lean program, it can significantly help webmasters in site optimization tasks for Google. This tool comes with an advance version capable of supporting similar tasks for other popular search engines but for a fee.

Use: (8.4/10) Google Monitor provides search engine specialist and webmasters a handy tool for improving their sites' Google ranking. Google is one of the biggest internet search engines for locating information on the internet. Achieving a good Google rank is a daunting task. It can be achieved, however, by employing offline and online site optimization process. With the necessary tool like Free Google Monitor, optimization process can be less taxing.

Overall: (8.5/10) Google Monitor which is a FREE application is an indispensable tool for search engine specialist and webmasters. With this tool, emphasis of improving site google ranking is taken into account outside of the conventional focus on website look and design. It is a light program which can make website development more rewarding and more profitable with more site visitors coming in.

Good Keywords

You can have the best website design. But it can be as good as having no website at all if it does not have any traffic to boast or it does not belong to the top search engine list.

If you are looking for ways to increase your website traffic, Good Keywords is a useful tool . Good Keywords is a free software for targeting your site's keywords. With this tool, you can find the best keyword combination of your website for your target audience or your target market.

Much emphasis and efforts are poured into site keyword selection because of its high bearing on search engine listings. Internet users rely heavily on search engines in locating online information and related products and services.

General Features

Good Keywords makes use of various tools provided by search engines like the Overture Search Suggestion Tool, Search Engines Like Yahoo, Google, Teoma and other services like Alexa. Although you can manually undertake most of the tasks performed by Good Keywords, why bother doing it manually if Good Keywords makes it all for you in very simple, fast and straight forward fashion.

The noteworthy features of Good Keywords are as follows:

* An advanced keyword suggestion tool to help you find many more useful keywords.
* Keyword organizer that will help you organize all your keywords.
* Web Page Explorer to study web pages
* Misspelled keyword generator
* Site & Link Popularity Checker.
* A powerful Keyword Phrase Builder to generate keyword phrases from word sets.
* Meta tag creator

Good Keywords is completely free which comes with its latest version 2.0 copy. There are no strings attached like advertisements, registrations etc. Moreover, Good Keywords is a light application (less than 500KB) .


Value (9/10)

Good keywords is free without any strings attached. It does not require registration prior to acquisition. It is a small application yet very useful for web developers .

Use: (9.5/10)

It is an indispensable tool for web designers. With this tool, web designers can integrate in their design necessary components to their sites which can gain upper hand in search engine listings relative to similar sites online. Sites in the top list of search engines generate good traffic and can make good sales.

Overall: (9.0/10)

Good keywords helps build traffic by generating good keywords for web sites. Given the high magnitude of websites online, it has become imperative for website owners to have their sites optimized. In this way, their respective sites can be easily located online. Using Good Keywords in website development process makes a lot of sense. For one, it promotes productivity on the part of web designers since it can automate search engine optimization tasks. More importantly, it helps generate traffic which can turn into potential sales for product or service providers. A must to have software for web developers.

Window Washer 5.5

Review:

Webroot's award winning Window Washer is a comprehensive, simple to use utility software designed to protect users privacy and improve computer performance.

It has become a mandatory tool for care free surfing. Computer risks and performance slowdown confront online users because online activities can be traced through browser cache, cookies and history. Systems and applications installed in computers store vital information accessible unknowingly from users' computers thus a daunting threat to their privacy.

Window Washer features:

* Online/offline tracks and useless files cleaner It removes hundreds of unwanted tracking and temporary files found in internet cache, cookies, history, mail trash, drop-down address bar, auto-complete forms, downloaded program files, plus other Windows components, including the Recycle Bin, Windows Registry, Windows run and find history and much more.

* File "Bleaching" or Shred function Window Washer can completely overwrite files with random characters making them unrecoverable by undelete / unerase utilities.

* Automated cleaning facility It saves time because of its convenient scheduled and automated cleaning facility at specified intervals, and / or during Windows shut down or startup.

* Custom wash cycles Window Washer is equipped with custom wash items capable of monitoring a personal set of files, including folders, or registry entries for cleaning. Window Washer also has a Web Cookie Keeper which can be used to maintain your preferred internet settings and logins.

* Free plug-ins Window Washer comes with FREE downloadable plug-ins to clean your favorite applications (60 applications). It includes over 150 free downloadable plug-ins which can clean the tracks of popular programs such as Real One Player, Adobe Acrobat, Netscape, and many more.

Value: (9.1/10) The latest version is Windows Washer 5.5. Licensed copy costs $29.95. A 30 day trial version is also available. This is a light software but powerful enough to process and clean files at a fast speed. Considering present computer security risks, it becomes a must decision to invest on software like Window Washer.

Use: (8.8/10) The software is easy to install and its interface is very easy to use. Window Washer requires very little resource. Its latest version 5.5 requires a minimum 266 Mhz processor, 64 megabyte of system memory, and 5 megabytes of hard drive space.

Overall: (8.95/10) Window Washer 5.5 is impressive software. It's an internet washer, system cleaner, registry cleaner and privacy protector all in one package It is a must software for internet surfers and a wise investment in ensuring computer security and performance.