Comodo IceDragon 26.0.0.2

Comodo IceDragon is a Firefox-based web browser that delivers great security and blistering browsing speeds. Upon downloading IceDragon, you are given the option to set your internet connection to use Comodo's SecureDNS service, which provides you with even faster page loading speeds.

IceDragon is fully compatible with all Firefox plugins and extensions so you can still have all the functionality of Mozilla's Firefox browser but with Comodo's superior privacy and security features. One such feature is the SiteInspector, which will scan a web page and check whether it is malicious before you actually visit the page. Once the scan is finished, you are given a full report of the site's safety, domain registration details, administration contacts and a history of all malicious scans that have been performed on the website.

Getting started with IceDragon is quick and easy. Once you are up and running you will notice the look and design is very similar to Firefox, with the addition of IceDragon's blue dragon logo. If you are looking for a fast and secure browser, then you certainly won't be disappointed with Comodo IceDragon.

Comodo IceDragon's main features include:

• Websites load faster than if you continue to use the DNS server provided by your ISP
• SiteInspector's link scanning feature allows you to check whether a web page is malicious before you actually visit that page
• SecureDNS provides a malware domain filtering feature
• SecureDNS references a real-time block list (RBL) of harmful websites
• Social media button means you can easily share your web-finds on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Photoshine Mini 4.0

Photoshine is a photo editing and manipulation tool to easily create collages, frames and magazine style layouts with fancy effects such as sticking your favorite photograph on a cup or flower, or decorating it with a pink picture frame. Photoshine has 9 theme categories: Baby, Dream, Festival, Frame, Girl, Love, Magazine, Simulation and Other. The free version includes 230 templates while the full version comes with a whooping 680 templates. Creating a framed picture or funny effect is easy. After opening the picture in Photoshine you simply select a template to use with it. You can then fine tune it in through moving and rotating the picture within the template, for example to precisely position it within a mirror frame. You can add additional photos to the same template to create a collage. Photoshine also lets you change the color to black and white, sepia or a line drawing effect.

Paint.NET 4.0 Beta 5

Paint.NET is an image and photo manipulation application.

Every feature and user interface element was designed to be immediately intuitive and quickly learnable without assistance. In order to handle multiple images easily, Paint.NET uses a tabbed document interface. The tabs display a live thumbnail of the image instead of a text description. This makes navigation very simple and fast.

Usually only found on expensive or complicated professional software, layers form the basis for a rich image composition experience. You may think of them as a stack of transparency slides that, when viewed together at the same time, form one image.

Many special effects are included for enhancing and perfecting your images. Everything from blurring, sharpening, red-eye removal, distortion, noise, and embossing are included. Also included is our unique 3D Rotate/Zoom effect that makes it very easy to add perspective and tilting.

Adjustments are also included which help you tweak an image's brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, curves, and levels. You can also convert an image to black and white, or sepia-toned.

DesktopCal 2.0.4.2888

Did you know that you could integrate some applications onto your desktop and use them directly from there? One application that helps you extend the functionality of your desktop is DesktopCal, a free desktop calendar that will help you manage your days with relative ease. It is a full-featured calendar that includes such details as anniversaries and festivals.

Features:

• Recording events and reminders directly from the desktop
• Setting different background colors for different days
• Moving data to different devices
• Printing calendar pages with wallpaper
• Available in several languages

Using DesktopCal

DesktopCal has a simple user interface that makes it easy for you to handle its various features. We could customize the interface of our application as we wanted. Some of the things we could change included transparency level, background color, gaps between cells and font.

As its name indicates, DesktopCal appears directly on the desktop, but it allows you to view other things on the desktop. You can adjust the transparency to the level you are comfortable with.

When we wanted to record something, we double-clicked on the relevant date and the cell changed into a text editor where we could directly type what we wanted. We also changed the cell´s color to make it easier to view the information.

The ability to record things directly on the desktop makes it easy and fast to save required details. You also do not need to worry about forgetting an event simply because the program where you recorded it is either closed or minimized: a simple glance at the desktop allows you to see the recorded events.

In addition to displaying the entire monthly calendar, DesktopCal shows the current date and day at the top of its interface. On the top left part of the interface are buttons that allow you to change the application´s appearance or the month displayed. Right-clicking on the hovering toolbox opens a context menu that gives quick access to the application´s features.

The icon on the system tray provides more options to control the application. Some of the ways in which you can change DesktopCal include:

• Displaying week numbers
• Showing floating months
• Resizing the application interface to cover either the entire or part of the desktop
• Changing the sizes of particular cells
• Changing the numbers of columns and rows

We also had the option to use the background color on cells or choose images to display, which could be tiled, centered, stretched or made to fill the entire interface. We could also choose the number of minutes we wanted to elapse before the pictures changed.

Conclusion

DesktopCal is an intuitive free desktop calendar that makes it easy to manage schedules, to-do lists and appointments. You can customize the application to blend in with your desktop or contrast it as you wish. If you do not want the calendar to appear on the desktop for some time, you can disable it from the floating toolbox. However, it does not hinder you from manipulating your desktop.

Dev-C++

From Bloodshed Software:

Dev-C++ is a full-featured Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the C/C++ programming language. It uses Mingw port of GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) as its compiler. It creates native Win32 executables, either console or GUI. Dev-C++ can also be used in combination with Cygwin.

Dev-C++ is Free Software (also referred as Open Source), and is written in Delphi.

Read more: Dev-C++

Process Hacker 2.31

Process Hacker is a powerful process explorer that provides more functions than the stock Windows Task Manager. You can use it to monitor system resources, detect malware and even debug software to ensure your computer functions well. The free application displays all network connections, services and processes running on a computer using color codes to categorize them for fast and easy identification.

Features:

• Comprehensive and highlighted overview of system activity
• Displays process information using statistics and graphs for fast tracking of resource hogs
• Displays programs with active network connections
• Provides disk access information in real time
• Gives the ability to control, create and edit services
• Displays detailed stack traces with WOW64, kernel-mode and .NET support
• Allows copying of data using Ctrl+C
• Shows symbolic access marks
• Customizable

Using Process Hacker

Since Process Hacker is a portable process explorer, we can use it on different computers without multiple installs. We also found it relatively easy to use although it requires some understanding of resource usage and system processes among others. Color coding helped us to quickly identify related running processes. In addition to providing general guidance, the color codes also provide specific process peculiarities, such as own processes, new objects and debugged processes. The codes also help to detect malware by tagging dangerous processes. The notification system can help in preventing malicious files from executing without your knowledge.

We got more information about the processes by hovering over their names. The details included the services they were using, disk file and command line.

We used the application to suspend some running applications and terminated others altogether. We also provided relevant information so we could run some processes with different user accounts. We could toggle between system resource graphs to view them either concurrently or zoom in to see more details about one graph.

The Disk Tab displayed read/write access details broken down according to the processes that invoked them. The process details listed may be somewhat intimidating to a novice. The process window displays all running processes, including the items that parent processes initiated, in a tree format. The details include the usernames the processes belong to, PID number, a short description and overall footprint on system resources.

Although the process explorer provides plenty of details, it uses a clean interface that hides away most of the details until you want to see them. It also takes a short time to learn how to interpret the details.

Sublime Text 2.0.2

Sublime Text 2 is a super fast and feature packed text and development editor. If you are going to be coding regularly you want to try this amazing editor (IDE). Following some of the great features that make Sublime Text 2 stand out from other code editors:

• Multiple cursors: Once you have discovered multiple cursors you won't want to work without them anymore. As the name suggests they let you write or edit in multiple places in a document at the same time.
• Vintage mode: Vim keyboard shortcuts will work just like in the original Vim editor. To use them, all you need to do is to enable vintage mode.
• Lightning fast: This is the fastest code editor you will find right now.
• Command pallet: A great feature that allows you to reach about all functions of the editor via the keyboard. You will hardly use your mouse and thus code more efficiently.
• Plugin collection: A hugely active community creates plugins for almost any task in Sublime Text 2. This includes syntax highlighting and code snippets for a large number of languages, for example Javascript, PHP, CSS, HTML, Python, LESS, XML and C++ to name just a few.
• Package control: This add-on let's you install plugins within seconds directly from the editor.

Baidu Antivirus 2013 3.4.2.34811

There are many free antivirus programs, some of which merely give a false sense of security. How do you know the right PC security software to choose? A number of factors can help you out, and Baidu antivirus incorporates all the important factors.

Baidu Antivirus Features

• Multiple Antivirus Engine: The program intelligently selects the right antivirus automatically to help in detecting and removing 99 percent of threats
• Realtime System Defense helps to protect the computer at all times
• Cloud Security provides ultrafast response to the latest threats
• Proactive Defense provides quick response from the cloud to help in blocking viruses
• Local virus databases help in detecting viruses localized to particular areas
• Free antivirus that provides free upgrades and other free services

Installation

Baidu antivirus installed fast on our system and automatically updated to the latest version soon after installation. The program recommended that we scan our PC immediately after the installation, which we did.

Using Baidu Antivirus

We decided to perform a full scan as we performed other tasks. It is recommended that you perform a full scan on a weekly basis and quick scan daily. The program offers the option to auto process and shut down the computer after scanning. However, we chose the manual process option. The program then displayed scan results, which included elapsed time, items scanned, threats detected and threats removed. It also provided a link to the quarantine.

Benefits

Lightweight: The installed program took 54.77MB while others take more than 100MB.

Resource-friendly: We could perform other tasks as the antivirus scanned our computer in the background without noticing any lag in performance. Many so-called antivirus programs do not only slow down computers but also fail to detect some threats.

Efficient: Baidu antivirus fights all types of infections, including malware, Trojans, worms, malicious websites and phishing. It combines conventional scanning, including USB protection, with cloud security.

Fast: Compared to some antivirus programs, Baidu scans computers relatively faster.

User-friendly: The relatively few options the software provides make it easy to use. This does not mean it does not perform some important functions. The quarantine option is also good because it allows users to access and scan important files with potential threats.

Settings

Baidu antivirus allows users to change a number of settings that determine how the program works. The possible areas to adjust include general, virus scan, system protection, proactive defense, update, engine option, USB protection and advanced settings. The program also provides the option of giving feedback.

Drawbacks

Although the antivirus has many advantages, some users may not be pleased with a couple of areas:

• No option to exclude files or folders
• No option for scheduling a scan

Conclusion

Baidu is an efficient and simple PC security software that even newbies can use comfortably.

Wise Program Uninstaller 1.41.66

Have you ever struggled to uninstall programs you no longer wanted in your computer? If you have used your computer for a while, then there are high chances that you have installed a variety of programs, some of which you no longer or hardly use. Some programs may prove difficult to uninstall, and even the ones you uninstall often leave traces that slow down your system. This makes it important to have a better uninstaller than the native program that comes with Windows, which is where Wise Program Uninstaller comes in.

Features

Thorough Program Removal: Wise Program Uninstaller can use force uninstall to remove broken and stubborn programs. It uses an advanced program search algorithm to find leftovers that remain after uninstalling programs so they can be removed.

Using Different Methods: This free program uninstaller can use the safe uninstall that the native uninstaller uses to remove programs normally. However, when it becomes difficult to uninstall some programs using this method, it uses forced uninstall to remove the stubborn programs.

Repairing Programs: In spite of its name, Wise Program Uninstaller does not only help in uninstalling programs. You can also use it to repair some programs you want but do not function properly. Some of the programs you can repair include Adobe and Office.

Using Wise Program Uninstaller

The program’s user interface displays only basic metrics and other options, so it does not appear cluttered. On the left of the program window are buttons for:

• Safe Uninstall
• Repair Programs
• Forced Uninstall
• Remove Entries

A larger portion of the window is covered by details of the installed programs, including:

• Name
• Publisher
• Size
• Installation Date
• Version

We were pleased to see the total number of programs installed and the disk space they took displayed below these details. The uninstaller displayed the current version and provided a link for checking updates at the bottom of the window. It also included a menu button next to the minimize button with the search bar located beneath them. Relevant programs started appearing as soon as we started typing names in the search bar.

Once we had uninstalled a program, the uninstaller started analyzing associated files, folders and registry entries. It displayed the results and gave us the option to remove some or all of the entries to clean leftovers. Right-clicking on a program provided the option to open it in the registry editor or perform a Google search. However, only advanced users should use the RegEditor.

BitComet is a p2p file-sharing freeware fully compatible with Bittorrent, which is one of the most popular p2p protocol designed for high-speed distribution of 100MB or GB sized files. BitComet is a powerful, clean, fast, and easy-to-use bittorrent client. It supports simultaneous downloads, download queue, selected downloads in torrent package, fast-resume, chatting, disk cache, speed limits, port mapping, proxy, ip-filter, etc.