Firefox Themes----RedShift V2

The dark theme that spawned an unexpectedly loyal following just grew up and now stands on its own.

Re-coded from the ground up, Shift V2 is the perfect theme for those who like their browsing experience dark yet demand that it remain fully functional and accessible.

Every element of the browser stays true to the dark vision of the Shift theme, while ensuring text and browser elements are all highly visible. New icons and a unique tab presentation introduce a new twist on an old favorite. If you've been looking for a dark theme that truly works, try Shift V2.

Works with:
Firefox 2.0 - 2.0.0.* ALL

Install now (539 KB)

Exact Audio Copy V 0.95 beta 4 (International)

EAC is a new audio grabber for CD-ROM drives. The main differences between most other audio grabbers: It works with a new technology, reading audio CDs almost perfectly. If there are any errors that can't be corrected, it will tell you on which time position the (possible) distortion occurred, so you could easily control it with e.g. the media player.

EAC uses the Windows Audio Compression Manager (ACM Codecs) for direct compression e.g. to MP3 waves. EAC also supports automatic ID3 tagging via freedb or a local Database.

Download

Firefox Themes---Blue Ice

A crisp, simple ice blue theme.

Works with:
Firefox 2.0 - 2.0.0.*ALL.

Install now (819 KB)

Firefox Add-Ons----Download Statusbar

View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.

Works with:
Firefox 1.5 - 2.0.0.*ALL

Install Now (115kb)

SIW 1.66.624

Platform: Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type: freeware
Manufacturer: Gabriel Topala
Size: 1.5MB
Download here

Have you ever ordered a PC and wondered if the components that are supposed to be part of the PC are actually included?

You might be wondering if they have been degraded (perhaps you ordered a DVD burner, only to receive a combo drive) or even enhanced, which is a more likely scenario.

SIW will perform an extensive configuration analysis and diagnostics test on your computer. It offers detailed information about your computer's properties and settings, detailed specifications for CPU, motherboard, chipset, BIOS, CPU, PCI/AGP, USB and internal devices.

However, it goes much further, delivering information on the memory installed, connected monitor, graphics card, installed drives, operating system, installed programs, as well as real-time monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic.

It displays currently active network connections, passwords hidden behind asterisks, installed codecs, and more. The end result can be exported as a report file.

Disk Redactor--Wipe & erase old files

Platform: Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type: freeware
Manufacturer CEZEO software
Size: 368Kb
Download here

Wipe utility that lets you securely erase any old (deleted) files and prevent them from being recovered. All your private sensitive insecurely erased information will be wiped from free unused space on your drives to ensure complete data destruction.

This is necessary because when you delete a file, it is not gone forever, and any file removed from the Recycle Bin can be easily recovered! The Windows delete function does not clear the space where the deleted file has been located but only marks an entry in the directory (folder) as deleted. All data and information about the file still remains on the disk and can be restored!

Old data will be available until another file overwrites it (uses the same space on the disk). The only way to prevent data from being recovered is to overwrite it.

The functions that Disk Redactor performs are wiping all free unused space on your disks, and writing a big file with zeros to overwrite all old (deleted) files on your drive. After using Disk Redactor, all old data will be erased completely without any chances for its recovery.

Use Disk Redactor every time you delete files containing your confidential and sensitive data, otherwise this data can be easily recovered.

SpeedUSB2CdDVD backup utility

Platform Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Squal & Boerbull
Size 900KB
Download here

USB keys are normally used as a medium for backup rather than needing backup themselves. But if they are used for moving important information, this is a necessary step.

SpeedUSB2CdDVD offers a complete backup of a USB key in three or four clicks and can use any kind of optical disc, up to and including Dual Layer DVDs. These are useful given the ever- increasing capacity of these devices and the ease with which they can be lost.

If the disc format used is not big enough, SpeedUSB2CdDVD can split the contents of the USB key. It is also possible to specify a particular folder rather than the entire key.

Backups can be compressed to save space and encrypted to make sure that the information contained within them is not stolen.

YouRipper 2.3

Platform Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Remlap Software
Size 3.1MB
Download here

With the rise of faster broadband, the ability to stream TV and videos across the Internet has resulted in the popularity of websites such as YouTube. However, the problem with these sites is that they only enable you to preview and stream the videos, you can’t download them to your hard drive.

YouRipper is a small, easy to use utility which enables the end-user to download videos from the YouTube website. No fuss, no messing around. Just paste the URL of the YouTube webpage you want to rip into YouRipper and the video, in Flash Movie flv format is downloaded onto the end-users system.

Note that the download will be the same (or lower) quality than the video on the YouTube website.

Foxit PDF Reader 2.0.1419

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Foxit software
Size 1.79MB
Download here

When it comes to PDF readers, the abundance of free and competent titles suggests that the need for anymore is unnecessary. The Foxit PDF Reader is, however, slightly different.

With a download size of less than 1MB, Foxit is an extremely light and speedy PDF reader with an almost non-existent installation process.

This makes it extremely portable; just slip it on a USB key or CD and you can use it anywhere with little fuss.

Unlike many mainstream readers, Foxit is not resident on your PC so it doesn't sap anymore memory than it should. Obviously, this does mean fewer features but the simplicity and portability of the software easily makes up for this shortfall.

Maxthon Standard 1.5.9.80

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Maxthon International Limited
Size 1.87MB
Download here.
Internet Explorer has had a lot of press in the past couple of years, some good, mostly bad. It has been blamed for a lack of updates and poor CSS support, and as a potential security risk.

However, most of this is exaggerated. The engine that drives the code in Internet Explorer is pretty good, it's the user interface that's lacking compared to modern browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Opera.

As the HTML web core is built in to Windows (or at least very hard to remove), there have been a number of attempts to create a replacement for Internet Explorer that takes the existing engine and gives it a brand new interface, with modern features such as tabbed windows, plug-in support, customisable skins and more.

Maxthon is one of the more popular Internet Explorer replacement browsers and is constantly updated.

It can open multiple tabbed web pages within one window, and uses limited system resources to browse the web. It supports mouse gestures and even enables you to browse news RSS feeds in the same window as you browse the web.

Note: although this is a replacement for Internet Explorer, it still requires Internet Explorer (v5 or higher) to be present on your system.

Skype 3.0.0.217

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Skype
Size 19.3MB
Download here.

When it comes to making free calls across the internet using Voice over IP technology, Skype is certainly leading the pack. With almost 26 million people having downloaded the software, Skype is the most used free internet application.

Developed by the people behind the file-sharing service Kazaa, Skype offers free internet telephony with another PC user as long as both have the Skype software.

This is the final release of Skype 3 and there are some cool new features. If you're an existing Skype user, the first thing you'll notice is that the interface has had a makeover. Another key addition is the use of public chats, so you can now start a conversation between a group of people, whether you know those people or they're random users who happen to join your topic of conversation.

There are all sorts of other new features and improvements within Skype 3 and too many to list here. To read about the new features, head over to the Skype website.

Note that this is the official final release of Skype 3 for Windows users.

Five fixes in latest Apple patch
Apple has issued a security update containing five patches for vulnerabilities disclosed during January's Month of Apple Bugs (MoAB) project.

Of the five flaws fixed in the update, only one is rated as a 'high' risk by the US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT).

The high-level risk is a vulnerability in iChat, Apple's instant messaging app, that could allow an attacker to execute code when a user views a specially crafted URL string sent through an instant message.

Three of the five vulnerabilities targeted iChat, including two that could be used to cause an application crash. Each of these vulnerabilities were rated as 'low' by US-CERT.

The remaining two fixes were for components in Mac OS X. A flaw in Finder allowed for arbitrary code execution when a specially crafted disk image was opened. This vulnerability only affected versions 10.4.x, according to Apple.

Another flaw, which targeted the UserNotificationCenter component, could be exploited to elevate user privileges. Both vulnerabilities were rated as 'medium' threats.

This latest round of patches is the second issued by Apple in 2007. The company issued a fix in January for a vulnerability in the Mac and Windows versions of QuickTime that allowed remote code execution.

All of the vulnerabilities patched this year by Apple have been credited to the MoAB project, which aimed to disclose a new vulnerability every day in January.

The project was run by a pair of security researchers to raise awareness of security issues and improve the quality of security software for MacOS X.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 alpha 2

Platform Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Mozilla
Size 6.16MB
Download here.

Some users were disappointed with the release of Mozilla Firefox 2.0. After months of betas, release candidates and previews, the new features weren’t as spectacular as people expected. However, there is only so much you can do to improve a web browser.

With the forthcoming release of Mozilla Firefox 3.0, planned for 2007, the web graphics rendering engine will receive a completely new upgrade. Dubbed ‘ Cairo’, the new graphics rendering engine should improve the output across different platforms, as it’s being developed as an open-standard (see http://wiki.mozilla.org/Cairo). Mozilla Firefox 3.0 will also be based around the forthcoming Gecko 1.9 rendering engine.

With other improvements in the way that pages are ‘painted’ onscreen, improved SVG support and CSS enhancements, the general improvements for Firefox 3.0 are based around the way it will render web pages through the browser.

Note that further improvements and new features will be included within Firefox 3.0 as it is being developed. This 3.0 alpha 2 (dubbed “Gran Paradiso”, rather than Firefox) is an early developer preview.

Mozilla “Gran Paradiso” Alpha 1 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use Mozilla Gran Paradiso Alpha 1.

The product release notes should be referred to before you down

Firetune 1.1.4

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Total Idea
Size 959Kb
Download here.
Firetune is a program for optimising and tweaking Mozilla Firefox for your computer and internet connection.

This process is as easy as selecting whether your computer and connection are fast or slow and Firetune does the rest.

Firetune recommens that you make a backup of your Firefox settings before making any other changes and it can do this for you. It can also restore a backup if you decide that the changes do not work for you.

With the ability to roll back its changes and the fact that it is free, any self respecting Firefox user should give this a go.

CPU-Z 1.39

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer www.CPUID.com
Size 413Kb
Download Here.

When you’re looking for a new computer – whether you’re planning on building your own or purchasing from an existing supplier – you tend to find out as much as you can about current models, peripherals and the components that you need for your machine. This information includes extensive information about the CPU you’re intending to install and the motherboard required to support the CPU.
However, many of us keep our PCs for at least a couple of years. After this team we choose to either upgrade our existing computer or make a new purchase. If we’re upgrading our PC, we need to work out what’s installed on the PC before we can purchase a better CPU and other components, if required. Can you really remember the CPU installed in your computer that you built a couple of years ago?

CPU-Z is a system tool that will enable you to find extensive information about the CPU installed in your computer. I’ll will give you speed info, installed cache details and more. You can also find out information about components that affect your CPU, such as the motherboard revision, installed memory and more.

Winamp 5.33

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Nullsoft
Size 6.3MB

Download Here.

Winamp has always prided itself on being free and it has a steady, loyal following as a result. Version 5 is sure to please its current users, and to win it some converts.

It looks good with a completely new interface, and comes with fairly comprehensive file support. Audio support includes CDA, MIDI, MP1/2/3/4, AAC, OGG, WAV, AIF, WMA and more.

Support for video is added in version 5, and currently this stretches to MPG, M2V, AVI and ASF formats.

It packs a good deal into a fairly slim package, with the player incorporating everything you would expect and more: loop, repeat, ID3 tag support, cross-fading between tracks, 2x CD burning/ripping, internet TV and radio support etc.

It has a media manager, 10-band graphic equaliser, visualisations and a playlist editor. Upgrade to the Pro edition to get full support for ripping/encoding audio into the MP3 format, and integrated CD burning up to 48x speed.

Winamp 5.3 adds a new dashboard and a few minor enhancements.

Comodo Personal Firewall 2.4.18

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Comodo Group Inc
Size 7.6MB
Download here.


Comodo Personal Firewall secures your system against internal attacks such as Trojans, viruses, malicious software and external attacks by hackers.

Safeguard your personal data though a simple user friendly single-click interface offering full immunity to attack. Comodo Personal Firewall helps you connect in a secure way to the internet and global networks.