Test any app securely with Sandboxie

Sandboxie lets you run any program in a way so that it doesn`t interact with your data or settings, for example you could run your browser in sandboxie and any toolbar,malware,adware that gets installed why using it becomes trapped in sandboxie!,of course this make it a great tool for when you like to check something dangerous inside your computer without all the risk involved.

get it at http://www.sandboxie.com/

Gspot lets you know which codecs are needed to play a video file

Gspot lets you know which codecs are needed to play a video file, is an awesome utility if you keep downloading videos and need to know more info about them,Gspot is available for windows.

get it at http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

CPU-Z helps you being more informed about your hardware

CPU-Z gathers information about your computer`s hardware, with it you can know information about your CPU, cache, motherboard and memory. you can know very detailed data about your hardware like the CPU revision, latency of the RAM, core voltages, speed of the CPU, number of cores, Etc.
it supports most current and old hardware and its constantly updated so all new hardware will supported as well, even my crappy Pentium 4 with a 478 socket is supported as shown in the above screenshot (Yes my computer sucks…a lot).
CPU-Z is a simple but useful utility that will let you know more about your hardware, available to all versions of windows.

List of information you can know with CPU-Z:

CPU

• Name and number.
• Core stepping and process.
• Package.
• Core voltage.
• Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier.
• Supported instructions sets.
• Cache information.

Mainboard

• Vendor, model and revision.
• BIOS model and date.
• Chipset (northbridge and southbridge) and sensor.
• Graphic interface.

Memory

• Frequency and timings.
• Module(s) specification using SPD (Serial Presence Detect) : vendor, serial number, timings table.

System

• Windows and DirectX version.

Get it at http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Learn the english alphabet in sign language easily with Sign Lingo

Sign lingo is a very simple utility that shows you how to make a letter in the sign language, just type a letter and it will automatically show you how to make it with your hands.
Yes i realize this is a utility that probably none of you will use but i found it interesting, this particular program was found on a website of some guy who writes open source software, he is shutting down is site because no one donates him money, on one part i feel sad for him on the other i found his decision to shutdown his site stupid. You can`t write software and expect to roll in cash because most people don`t care about donating at all, unless your software is really good and unique no one will give a rat ass the effort you place in writing the software you create, you have to code programs for you i guess. most of the stuff on his site was pretty useless anyway because someone already beat him to the punch so i guess is not a big loss.
Sorry for this long rant that has nothing to do with the object of this blog but since the GTA 4 gameplay videos went online i have been hooked on them and i have been having trouble finding good freeware material to post.

Get it at http://gravityfx.org/2005/08/27/sign-lingo/

Mirror (In the likely case his site disappears) :

http://www.divshare.com/download/4342223-9e5

Kakasoft`s File encryption provides a quick but light way of encrypting your files

Overview:

Kakasoft`s file encryption is a very simple but efective file encryption utility

Review:

Kakasoft`s file encryption makes some promises that it doesn`t keep, for example it claims that it has:

1. Four encryption algorithms Blowfish, AES, MD5, Triple-DES.
2. Strong key support, handling and cryptographic implementations.
3. Encrypts megabytes of file data per second on modern machines.

the first i dunno if its true because when you encrypt stuff it doesn`t give you any option to select the encryption algorithm!, the second claim also can`t be verified without knowing the type of encryption and the third claim is the one i am willing to to concede its true because it encrypted stuff fast. So why i am posting this program if some of the stuff it claims can`t be verified?, well its because it works in a very basic but effective way. When you start the program you will see the interface of the picture i have uploaded into my post, click in “Add files” to add one or several files and type a password, if you select 2 or more files to be encrypted at the same time each one will have the same password which is a bad idea from a security standpoint, anyway after inputting a password click “Encrypt” and the selected files will have their extension changed into .encrypt and will have a new icon and also can only be decrypted by launching the file and inputting the correct password however the filename and the original extension will be visible to anyone , that is a problem if your filename is something like BIGBOOBIESANDASSES.AVI so you better rename the file you want to encrypt beforehand to something less conspicuous. Now after the file has been encrypted even if you change the extension to what it was originally and open it you will only get a message that the file has been corrupted. Kakasoft`s file encryption will probably stand low level users from getting into your files (read: your mom) but i dunno if it will stand high level users (Read: The feds) i wish i was an advanced computer technician in order to confirm this.
In conclusion Kakasoft`s file encryption is probably a good encryption utility but i wouldn`t recommend it for keeping your credit card info secret, it is better suited in my judgement to keep your porno videos secure from your mom,dad, or little brother`s prying hands. Available for all versions of Windows.

Get it at http://www.kakasoft.com/freeware.htm

HoverSnap is a small snapshot tool for windows

Overview:

HoverSnap is a a free handy snapshot tool with jpg, png, bmp and gif support.HoverSnap can take snapshots of the full screen, active window or a selected area. It can even capture layered windows alphablended ones under 2K / XP. You can even FTP upload your screenshots !

Features:

*You can set up the capture folder / filename and format.

*You can reduce the capture size.

*Auto-generate filename option will add the time stamp date/time to your filename in order to be able to take several captures without having to change the filename.

*Optional sound when capture is done.

*HoverSnap is FREE for personal use only !

Review:

Hoversnap is a small and very handy snapshot utility. It will sit in the system tray and will allow you to take various types of screenshots using the printscreen key with some keyboard combinations. For example you can use alt+printscreen to take a picture of the currently selected windows or use ctrl+printscreen in order to select the area that you want to take a picture of. The pictures that you take can be uploaded to a FTP server with the built in client which is good i guess if you have a need for that stuff. This program only has a couple of faults in my eyes. for one taking a screenshot of the currently selected window is not perfect, it will show some of the background around the edges of the window which is disappointing. Also the “auto-generate filename on new capture” is disabled by default which is stupid because without that option each new snapshot will overwrite the previous one.
In conclusion hoversnap is a good way of taking quick screenshots. Available for all Windows versions.

Get it at http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Recover deleted files with Undelete Plus

Overview:

Undelete Plus is a quick and effective way to restore accidentally deleted files. It can also recover files that have been emptied from the Recycle Bin, permanently deleted files within Windows using the Shift + Delete, and files that have been deleted from within a Command Prompt.

Features:

Undelete Plus allows the following tasks to be performed:

– Recovery of deleted files from NTFS/NTFS5, FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 volumes.

– Restoring deleted files on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2003, Windows Vista.

Review:

File recovery programs are everywhere these days but Undelete Plus stands from the pack with some well though out features. for starters after you have searched for salvageable files you can quickly sort the results by using the left pane tree view that shows the various types of files like text , pictures, word documents ,Etc. you can narrow the search even more by filtering the results by file name, modification date and size. tough the size field can only be filtered in kilobytes not in megabytes or gigabytes which is a shame. while testing Undelete Plus i found that it could indeed recover recently deleted files but you got to keep in mind that if some time has passed the recovery might be impossible or the file will be unusable after it has been recovered.
Undelete Plus comes with multi language support and doesn’t need installation to run so you can carry it with you all the time making this is a very handy tool. Available for all versions of Windows.

Get it at http://undelete-plus.com/

Recover keys for games that have been installed in Windows using Game Key Revealer

Overview:

Game Key Revealer, reveals the CD-Key and Serials for installed games on computer. If you lost legal CD-Keys or Serials of your purchased games, you can find them with Game Key Revealer.

Features:

– Displays over 500 games
– Save to Text or Word (Word XP/2003/2007 only)
– Print
– Displays for 64bit-Edition releases

Review:

Losing the CD/DVD key of your favorite game because you lost the box and didn’t save the key somewhere can be awful since there is no easy way to recover it. Game Key Revealer can prevent this by searching keys for games that are installed in Windows and save them in a text or word document. However if you lost the game box and you don’t have installed the game in your PC you are totally screwed so use Game Key Revealer before you loose your stuff.
Because i don’t have any games that use game keys in my system i couldn’t test Game Key Revealer properly but according to the creator it supports over 500 games by the most popular developers. So give Game Key Revealer a try in order to backup your game keys. Available for all versions of Windows.

Get it at http://cakirbey.googlepages.com/

Recover your software keys with SoftKey Revealer

Overview:

SoftKey Revealer, reveals the CD-Key and Serials for installed softwares on computer. It also saves your money and time, free and easy to use.

Features:

– Displays over 700 software products
– Save to Text or Word (Word XP/2003/2007 only)
– Print
– Displays for 64bit-Edition releases

Review:

If you visited my blog a couple of hours earlier you might have seen the post where i have talked about Game Key Revealer, well SoftKey Revealer is basically the same as Game Key Revealer except for software. With it you can see all the keys of the programs that you have installed in Windows and save them into a text file. It was able to sucessfuly show the key for the only commercial program that i have in Windows XP which is great! SoftKey Revealer supports over 700 software products so your favorite programs may be supported, i can’t be sure for certain tough. SoftKey Revealer is a good way of saving your software keys in case you loose them. Available for all Windows versions.

Get it at http://cakirbey.googlepages.com/softkeyrevealer

Get detailed information about your PC and run benchmarks with PC Wizard

Overview:

PC WIZARD 2008 is also an utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, Cache performance, RAM performance, Hard Disk performance, CD/DVD-ROM performance, Removable/FLASH Media performance, Video performance, MP3 compression performance.

Features:

• Can save, print, e-mail a report
• Can save a TXT, RTF, HTML, PDF or CSV report
• Can export any graphics as BMP file
• Can export text and graphic with the clipboard
• Web update Wizard
• Communicate with Motherboard Monitor
• Dump (Hardware registers, System BIOS, video BIOS …)

Review:

PC Wizard is an utility for the detailed gathering of information about your PC. It can show both hardware and software information about your system like for example your motherboard model, brand of the CPU, multimedia codecs,Etc. There is also a wide variety of Benchmarking tools in which you can test your machine with tests for the CPU,RAM,hard drive,Etc. The results of these test can be compared with the results of various types of computers in order to check how strong or weak your PC is compared to them.
PC Wizard is fully portable so you can carry it in your pendrive and just works as it should. Available for all versions of Windows.

Get it at http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php