Gizmo's Tech Support Alert

Antivirus programs provide a good layer of protection from a multitude of viral, Trojan, and rootkit Internet threats. They also can stop virus infestation from cross-media file sharing. Antivirus programs can be used as a secondary preventative Internet security solution inside a firewall.

Fractionally less effective is the free Avast! scanner, although its funky media player style interface is not to everyone's taste. Avast now has built-in anti-rootkit and anti-spyware capabilities. It also has full real-time capabilities, including a web scanner, an e-mail scanner and IM and P2P protection. Avast also requires periodic re-registration, whereas AVG Free does not.  However, Avast does not seem to suffer the signature-file update problems that plague some AVG users.

AVG and Avast are excellent free products that provide a real alternative to the major anti-viruses.

Some slight improvement is possible if you run regular on-demand scans with an additional separate anti-virus product, though this is not necessary.

On-demand scans can be run regularly (at least weekly), to check for viruses and other malware that may have been missed by your main scanner.

If you're not using AntiVir then your best option is to install Antivir Personal Edition without the guard. You can do this when you custom install it. If you are already using AntiVir, there's no real need for an on-demand anti-virus, as the overlap is too great.

A good option for on-demand scanning is the free version of the commercial AV product BitDefender. It's a good product with very good detection rates, but because the free version lacks an email scanner and a resident virus guard, it's only suitable for use as an on-demand scanner, not as your main AV program. There are some other limitations as well. It has an annoying habit of detecting malware products that have been quarantined by other security products, and you can't exclude these areas from subsequent scans. The program itself is using an old version of the engine, so the detection is slightly weaker. And it's only available with a one year non-renewable license.

No other single product class seems to cause as much angst to average users, in their installation and day-to-day use, as Firewalls.

A recent contender is the free version of Online Armor Personal Firewall V2, which has been getting praise for its outstanding leak-test performance and ease of use. We were impressed with the full commercial version, but as we,ve yet to test the cut down free version, we're reluctant to make a recommendation. The feedback we've been getting from users has been very positive.

We no longer recommend the free version of the ZoneAlarm firewall. First, it is a very basic product compared to the commercial ZoneAlarm Pro version. The leak-test performance of the latest free version is extremely poor, whereas the Pro version is excellent. The download also includes the large commercial ZoneAlarm suite, so be careful not to install it. ZA free does have the advantage of working with Vista.

Product Details

Sunbelt-Kerio Personal Firewall
Website: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/
Download link: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/
Author: Sunbelt Software
Current version: 4.5.916
Version date: April 26, 2007
Download file size: 6.27MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000/XP, Vista Support in near future
Additional software required: None
64 Bit capable: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes

Jetico Firewall
Website: http://www.jetico.com/jpfirewall.htm
Download link: http://www.jetico.com/jpfirewall.htm
Author: Jetico, Inc.
Current version: 1.0.1.61
Version date: July 19, 2005
Download file size: 2.7MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
Additional software required: None
64 Bit capable: Yes
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Other relevant information: Free Version has become outdated; No Development or Support seen in the near future to upgrade this version

NetVeda Safety.Net firewall
Website: http://www.netveda.com/consumer/safetynet.htm
Download link: http://www.netveda.com/downloads/index.htm
Author: NetVeda
Current version: 3.8.1
Version date: October 7th, 2007
Download file size: 4.31MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP
Additional software required: None
64 Bit capable: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: No
Other relevant information: Email Address required as registration

ZoneAlarm free firewall
Website: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp
Download link: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
Author: Check Point Software
Current version: 7.0.462.000
Version date: December 14, 2007
Download file size: 205KB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Additional software required: None
64 Bit capable: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Clint Morissette.

Tune-up utilities are needed to keep your computer running fast. There are a variety of tasks tune-up programs can do, such as disk cleaning, disk defragging, registry cleaning and registry defragging. Tune-up utilities are especially useful for people who use resource intensive programs, like most modern computer games.

My top pick is Glary Utilities. The free version offers:

• a disk and registry cleaner
• a process, startup, uninstall and context menu manager
• a memory optimizer
• disk space analysis
• removal of broken shortcuts, duplicate files and empty folders
• erasure of tracks
• shredding, recovery, encryption and splitting of files
• management of Internet Explorer add-ons
• access to some Windows tools.

The shareware version adds scheduling, support and consent for commercial use.

Glary Utilities has the most tools out of these four. It has one-click cleaning for several of the most common tasks and even rivals some commercial products.

A good alternative is Advanced WindowsCare Personal from IObit. The Personal version offers:

• spyware cleaning and immunization
• disk and registry cleaner
  
• startup manager
  
• erasure of browsing history
• system and security tweaks

The Professional version adds some advanced tuning tweaks, scheduling, support and consent for commercial use.

It has less features than Glary Utilities but it also has one-click cleaning and is very simple to use.

Another option is PC Health Optimizer Free Edition. It offers:

• spyware cleaning and real-time protection
• disk and registry cleaner
• privacy cleaner
• disk-checking for errors
• uninstall manager
• file shredder and splitter
• system information
• memory optimizer
• e-mail backup
• registry backup
• management of System Restore Points

The shareware version adds a startup manager, duplicate files finder, tweaks, shutdown scheduler, virus cleaner, parental controls, disk defrag, visual styler, hard drive monitoring, file hiding and undeleting and file backup.

This has the least features - it also does not have one-click cleaning - and is not as good as the other programs.

Currently there is an offer by Computeractive that offers Ashampoo WinOptimizer 4 for free. It offers:

• disk and registry cleaning
• disk defragmenter
• disk analysis
• process manager
• visual styler
• system benchmark
• over 450 tweaks

It seems to be a limited-time offer so download it as soon as possible. To register it into a full version and not a trial, leave "Get full version key" checked during installation, or click Internet, Get Full Version Key within the application after you have installed it.

This is an excellent product and very easy to use. It has one-click cleaning and is the only program out of these four to have a disk defragmenter. However, it will not have updates since this is a special offer. Their latest version is already version 5.

These are impressive free packages and are recommended for non-technical users. With the exception of PC Health Optimizer Free Edition, they have one click operations. The first three products lack in one major area: hard-drive defragmentation. However, IObit also offer an excellent free defrag program called SmartDefrag. If you use this in conjunction with one of the tune-up suites, you'll have a remarkably complete tune-up package.

Those who are more technically inclined will find the lack of fine control in these all-in-one packages frustrating, and it's more likely that you'll be attracted to the use of several specialized packages which offer more settings and better user control. This approach is less convenient than a one-click package that "does it all", but it's more customizable and offers more powerful cleaning functions. And it's also less dangerous, as it will encourage you to stop and think.

There are several different tune-up utility combinations that can be used. Many of you are using some of these utilities already, but for those who aren't, here's our basic "freeware clean-up kit" suggestion:

Disk and Privacy Cleaner:
CCleaner
Sweepi
MRU-Blaster

Disk Defragmenter:
JkDefrag
PageDefrag

Registry Cleaner:
EasyCleaner

These are suggestions only. There are some splendid alternatives in each category, which you can find in the appropriate software categories at this site.

We recommend that you run the disk cleaner and disk defragmenter regularly. Registry cleaning is potentially dangerous and should only be used when your computer does not seem to be functioning normally, e.g. error messages or Blue Screen of Deaths. Do check the settings for each program before you run it, particularly CCleaner (some people find the default settings a little aggressive). Remember that cleaning your PC always involves a small element of risk, so backup your data and create a System Restore Point before you start.

So how often should you tune up your PC? We recommend that you run disk cleaning and disk defragging monthly. After each monthly Windows update is an excellent time to run a clean up. If you install and uninstall a lot of products, you may want to increase this frequency to weekly or even daily.

If you have never tuned up your PC, then you should see a real improvement in speed and responsiveness the first time you run these programs. However, on subsequent runs the improvement may be much less noticeable.

Product Details

Glary Utilities
Website: http://glaryutilities.com/gu.html
Download link: www.download.com/3001-2094_4-10840459.html
Author: Glarysoft
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: No
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Yes
Additional Software Required: None

Advanced WindowsCare Personal
Website: http://www.iobit.com/AdvancedWindowsCarePersonal/index.html
Download link: http://www.download.com/Advanced-WindowsCare-Personal/3000-2086-10407614.html?part=dl-AdvancedW&subj=dl&tag=button
Author: IObit
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Yes
Additional Software Required: None

PC Health Optimizer Free Edition
Website: www.pchealthoptimizer.com/upgrade.php
Download link: www.snapfiles.com/get/pchealthfree.html
Author: Retina-x Studios, Llc
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: All Windows
64 Bit Version Available: Unknown
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: No
Additional Software Required: None

Ashampoo WinOptimizer 4
Website: www2.ashampoo.com/webcache/html/1/product_2_1606__.htm
Download link: www.computeractive.co.uk/vnunet/downloads/2219165/ashampoo-winoptimizer
Author: Ashampoo
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000, XP, Vista
64-Bit Version Available: Unknown
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Unknown
Additional Software Required: None

SmartDefrag
Website: http://www.iobit.com/SmartDefrag/index.html
Download link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5318
Author: IObit
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Yes
Additional Software Required: None

CCleaner
Website: www.ccleaner.com/
Download link: www.ccleaner.com/download
Author: Piriform Ltd.
License: Freeware/Donationware
Operating Systems Supported: Win9x, Me, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: Unknown
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: English, Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech/Slovak, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Serbian Cyrillic, Serbian latin, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish
Additional Software Required: None

Sweepi
Website: www.yooapps.ch/
Download link: www.snapfiles.com/get/sweepi.html
Author: YooApplications
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 98, ME, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: Unknown
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Dutch
Additional Software Required: None
Other Relevant Information: Development seems to have stopped

MRU-Blaster
Website: www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrublaster.html
Download link: www.snapfiles.com/get/mrublaster.html
Author: Javacool Software
License: Freeware/Donationware
Operating Systems Supported: 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP
64 Bit Version Available: Unknown
Portable Version Available: Yes
Other Languages Supported: Unknown
Additional Software Required: None
Other Relevant Information: Development seems to have stopped

JkDefrag
Website: www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/
Download link: www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/index.html
Author: Jeroen Kessels
License: Open Source
Operating Systems Supported: 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 2008
64 Bit Version Available: Yes
Portable Version Available: Yes
Other Languages Supported: Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Italian, Spanish
Additional Software Required: None

PageDefrag
Website: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx
Download link: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx
Author: Mark Russinovich
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: NT, 2000, 2003, XP
64 Bit Version Available: Yes
Portable Version Available: Yes
Other Languages Supported: No
Additional Software Required: None

EasyCleaner
Website: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
Download link: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
Author: Toni Arts
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Yes
Additional Software Required: Windows 95 requires Winsock 2 update, available from http://www.microsoft.com

Related Topics

• Best Free File Cleaner
• Best Free Browser Scrubber
• Best Free Duplicate File Finder
• Best Free Registry Cleaner
• Best Free Disk De-fragmenter
• Best Free Program Uninstaller

This category is maintained by volunteer editor Someone. Registered site visitors can contact Someone by clicking here.

The internet is a dangerous place to be in the 21st century, with many people using increasingly ingenious ways to part you with your hard earned cash, whether it be by exploitation, surreptitiously harvesting your credit card and bank details for their own nefarious purposes, or tempting you to spend money on products and services that you neither need nor want.

During the latter years of the 20th century, and the early years of the 21st, Spybot S&D and AdAware were kings, protecting you from all manner of malware that tried to infect your computer with the sole intention of parting you from your wallet. But as technology improves, so do the malware writers, and the kings of yesterday in terms of protection may no longer be up to the job.

With every new generation of malware, there will be a new generation of software to combat it, and in my own tests, there are none better than SuperAntiSpyware. How can I be so confident? Because to save you the trouble, I went hunting around the seedier side of Hong Kong websites, picking up as many infections as I could find in a 30 minute surfing session, and then seeing how today’s anti-malware software coped, and without a doubt SuperAntiSpyware was the best.

During my surfing session I managed to acquire nearly 200 nasties, and SuperAntiSpyware found 176 of them. Compared with the second best performer, this was an amazingly high figure, but not quite perfect. However, there are more plusses here. Installation was quick and painless, with scanning time at the default settings impressively quick, and the cleanup process effective. However, it was when I cleaned up that the only fly in the ointment appeared. Whilst SAS did clean every infection it found, on the first attempt it left some behind. A second scan and clean cured this.

The final cleanup was done with a full scan, rather than the quick/smart scan used for testing the software reviewed here, though this took three times as long to detect a single additional threat. Nevertheless, nothing else even came close to the detection rate of SAS.

The runner up in my test was MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, which detected 104 threats, though the time taken to detect them was a little longer than SAS. Having said that, scanning again after I let SAS clean up my system, Malwarebyte’s offering still found an additional 28 threats that SAS had failed to detect. Most of these were Trojans, which suggests the two are aimed at slightly different threats. Anti-malware happily removed these with no troubles at all.

Surprisingly, despite being much maligned of late, AdAware 2008 came third in my tests, finding 86 of the original threats and finding 3 that both SAS and Malwarebytes had ignored, suggesting that the former champion isn’t quite prepared to roll over dead just yet.

Perhaps the most disappointing test was A-Squared, which if you ignore the 10 tracking cookies, only detected a paltry 3 threats from the original infection, and none of these were malware as such, but simply mechanisms by which malware may operate. These remained even after cleaning with the previous three products.

More disappointingly, A-Squared gives no real indication of scan times, having just a progress bar which shows 100% complete long before the scan was actually finished.

Both Spybot S&D and Spyware Terminator were ineffective against the infections on my test system, detecting approximately 5 – 8% of the original infections. After cleaning, there was nothing left for these to claim any glory at all, and I find it hard to recommend either.

Prevention is, however, better than cure, and none of the free products already mentioned offer prevention.

Enter stage right Comodo BOClean and Threatfire which both aim to stop malware entering your system in the first place. It’s difficult to assess the effectiveness of both products with any degree of accuracy, though both seem to have a place in our systems.

Employing different methods of protection, Comodo’s software will attempt to monitor changes to your system and block those presenting a threat using, as far as I was able to tell, a heuristic approach. ThreatFire, on the other hand, uses aggressive behavioural analysis to prevent unwanted applications installing.

My own experience suggests that Comodo can be a little resource heavy, and may also introduce instability to some systems, whilst ThreatFire can be a little too aggressive, preventing perfectly safe and legitimate software installing and running. However, there are many more people using both products without difficulty, and both are certainly worth considering as a part of your overall protection.

Being neither a malware scanner, nor prevention, HiJack This is an excellent tool for helping to protect your system from uninvited software, but it isn’t for the faint hearted. HiJack This will analyse your system and offer a comprehensive log of installed software, startup items, registry keys etc. Reading the logs requires a good understanding of the system, though fortunately there are some very helpful forums where some very knowledgeable people are willing to help.

Generally, more is better, and it is well worth installing more than one product. As demonstrated above, some will detect threats that others will miss, and different products will be more effective against different types of threat. However, the best protection is only as good as the user, and you should always exercise common sense when surfing the web and installing software. Only be sure to visit sites and install applications that you trust.

Locating quality freeware burning applications for this review proved to be a challenge, even though there were plenty of contenders. Our short list included:

• AVS Disc Creator
• burnatonce
• Burn to the Brim
• CDBurnerXP
• CDR Tools Front End
• CommandBurner
• DeepBurner Free
• Easy Burning
• Express Burn
• HT Fireman CD/DVD Burner
• IsoRecorder
• Burrn 1.14
• CreateCD
• DVDShrink
• ImgBurn

We were also attracted to two other programs, Burn4Free and Artisan (a.k.a. Sun), but they were packaged with adware and/or spyware and were discarded.

• an intuitive interface
• the ability to author data discs
• create audio CDs playable in a regular CD player
• create bootable discs
• copy discs
• create and burn image files (e.g. ISO)

It passed every test we were able to throw at it: it added to a multi-session disc created on another drive with another burning application, and created a functional slip-streamed Windows XP installation CD! In addition to the core features, CDBurnerXP also has several additional features: customizable boot disc options (lacking in DeepBurner), integrated cover printing utility, integrated audio player and audio, the ability to rip audio CDs to various formats (including MP3 with CDDB lookup), and support for Double layer DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. Those of you who are familiar with Nero will feel right at home, because the interface is very similar.

All up, CDBurnerXP is a good choice for both basic and advanced users. DeepBurner Free is a close second to CDBurnerXP. If you don't author bootable CDs or care about the additional multimedia features, then DeepBurner Free might be the one for you. It has all of the core functionality, but is a much smaller download package and has a smaller installation footprint. It also offers a portable version that can be executed as a stand-alone application from a USB drive.

In addition to these products, there are several free burners that are extremely small and specialize in just one or two features. For example, Burrrn is for authoring audio CDs, CreateCD and CommandBurner offer command line burning capabilities, DVDShrink is designed for creating DVD backups, and ImgBrn and ISO Recorder are for burning images to disc with a couple clicks of the mouse. For the average user, though, CDBurnerXP or DeepBurner Free are the clear winners. Editor's note: many thanks to regular contributor Craig Vollmar for taking the time to prepare this excellent review.

A disk defragmenter is a key element in your toolkit for keeping your PC running optimally. Disk fragmentation occurs through normal everyday use of your PC; over time your system becomes unable to store related data on your disk in a sequential (contiguous) manner, and is therefore forced to "fragment" your files across different physical locations of your hard drive. This fragmentation increases the number of times your hard drive must spin (or "seek"), which slows down the process of reading and writing files. Defragmentation software compresses files and free space back into contiguous blocks.

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/idu/

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Andrew Waters.

For those of you who are average PC users who don't use an anti-trojan scanner, I recommend that you download a2 (a-squared) and scan your PCs weekly. I suspect that you may be surprised at what you'll find. a2 is also pretty good at removing some spyware infections, so bear that in mind the next time you encounter a spyware product that you can't remove with normal anti-spyware products like Ad-Aware.  

a2 (a-squared)
Website:
www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
Author: Emsisoft
Date: 06/30/2008
Version: 3.5.0.25
Download File size: 26MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported:  Windows 98 - Vista 32bit
64 Bit Capable: no
Portable version available: no
Other languages supported: yes
Additional Software Required: None

Trojan Hunter

If you're unfamiliar with the Windows registry,  it's not advisable that you use a registry cleaner. The risks are just too high, as compared to the possible gains. 

The registry is what keeps your computer running; it tells the computer what to do when certain events happen. However, as you use your computer, a lot of unwanted and unnecessary information is written into the registry, and this usually occurs because you've installed and uninstalled programs or updated versions of existing programs.  This gradual accumulation of unneeded or incorrect information will, over time, slow the speed of your computer.

A registry cleaner tries to get rid of this unwanted data and restore your PC to full speed. The problem is that the cleaning process is less than perect. In particular, there is always a small risk that the registry cleaner may incorrectly remove data that is actually needed. In the worst case scenario, your PC may become unusable as a result.

That's why it's absolutely essential that you backup your registry before using a registry cleaner. For most users the easiest way to do this is to create a system checkpoint.  An even better way is to use a drive-imaging program to create a snapshot of Windows, which you can use for system recovery if needed.  As an added layer of protection, that may actually be more effective than System Restore, consider using the excellent ERUNT utility that Gizmo mentioned as the Tip of the Month in issue #136 of the newsletter.

This ever-present risk of problems is why the "best" registry cleaner is the one that causes the fewest problems, rather than the one that finds the greatest number of registry errors.

EasyCleaner is our top recommendation.  Historically, it has proven that it doesn't create problems, and it periodically updates its list of "registry values" that must not be cleaned under any circumstance. It also detects and deletes duplicate files and cleans up all your temporary files to provide more usable disk space, but this should be viewed as a bonus rather the primary function of the product.

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is another option, but it lacks many of EasyCleaner's features. Despite this fact, it has a reasonably good track record.

Another option is a program called RegSeeker, but we've determined that it has caused numerous problems, so we're reluctant to recommend it.

Product Details

EasyCleaner
Website: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
Download Link: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
Author: Toni Helenius
Current Version: 2.0.8.306
Download File Size: 2.81 MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems: Windows 95-Vista
Additional Software Required: Windows 95 Only - Winsock 2 Update from microsoft.com
Other Languages: Many, see website for details
Other Information: None

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
Website: http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm
Download Link: 5 Download Sites accessible from Website.
Author: Eusing Software
Current Version: 1.6
Download File Size: 890.8 KB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems: Windows 95-Vista
Additional Software Required: None
Other Languages: Many, see website for details
Other Information: None
 

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Dean.

My first choice here is CCleaner, a product that started off as pretty basic but has continued to improve to the point where it is now very close to the best in its class regardless of price. It's very effective in freeing up disk space by removing unused and temporary files, cookies, Recycle bin entries, Windows hot-fix files, old prefetch data, history and cache files in many applications such as Internet Explorer and Firefox and much more. Additionally, it will check the Windows Registry for invalid entries.

There are some minuses: first, the installation settings are quite aggressive so do check them carefully. Second, the product installation, by default, includes the installation of the Yahoo Toolbar, so if you don't want it make sure you uncheck that option. Finally, I wouldn't trust this product to do your Registry cleaning; that's a job for a specialist utility. Similarly, if your aim is to remove all your surfing traces rather than just to clean up your disk, I'd be inclined to use a specialist cache cleaner.

However, if simply freeing up disk space is your objective then CCleaner is hard to beat.

A good companion to CCleaner is Empty Temp Folders. It's not as complete a product as CCleaner and it's been a while since it was last updated, but I find that it always manages to clean more temporary files than CCleaner. That's why I suggest you use both.

Another cleaner with a solid following is Steven Gould's CleanUP!.  It's compact, well designed and very well maintained and is a real alternative to CCleaner. In use I've had a couple instances which caused problems on my test PC, but this may have been specific to my setup. Certainly the feedback I get from users has been uniformly excellent.

In a related category is PC Decrapifier. Its job is to remove unwanted trial versions of programs and services that come preinstalled on new PCs. You can remove all this stuff manually, but PC Decrapifier does this automatically. It can't remove every bit of junk from every computer, but the list of products it will remove is quite impressive.

CCleaner
Website: http://www.ccleaner.com/
Download link: http://www.ccleaner.com/download
Author: Piriform Ltd.
Current version: 2.0.8.588
Version date: May 29, 2008
License: Freeware
Download Filesize: 2,846KB
Operating Systems Supported: Win9x/Me/NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Albanian, Arabic, Bosanski, Bulgarian, Català, Cesky, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dansk, Deutsch, Español, Français, Galego, Greek, Hebrew, Italiano, Japanese, Korean, Lietuviu, Macedonian, Magyar, Nederlands, Norwegian, Polski, Português, Português (do Brasil), Romana, Russian, Serbian Cyrillic, Serbian Latin, Slovensky, Suomi, Svenska, Türkçe
Other relevant information: None

Empty Temp Folders
Website: http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp/
Download link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1575.html
Author: Finn Ekberg Christiansen
Current version: 2.8.3
Version date: August 2001
License: Freeware
Download Filesize: 651KB
Operating Systems Supported: Win9x/Me/NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None.
Other relevant information: None

CleanUp!
Website: http://cleanup.stevengould.org/
Download link: http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/download.html
Author: Steven R. Gould
Current version: 4.5.2
Version date: June 26, 2006
License: Freeware
Download Filesize: 332KB
Operating Systems Supported: Win9x/Me/NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: None

PC Decrapifier
Website: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home
Download link: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/download
Author: Jason York
Current version: 1.9.1
Version date: April 30, 2008
License: Free for Personal use. Commercial License available.
Download Filesize: 672KB
Operating Systems Supported: XP/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information:

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/apps

OpenDisc offers for free a wonderful collection of just about every application software product you need to run a PC, including the latest version of OpenOffice. Many of these freebies substitute admirably for expensive commercial products. There is Abi Word as an alternative to MS Word, OpenOffice for MS Office XP, Thunderbird for Outlook, The Gimp for Adobe Photoshop, 7-zip for WinZip and many many more. If you then add to this collection some of the other utilities from my "46 Best-ever Utilities" collection, you'll have all the software you'll ever need without spending a cent. There is also a reasonably active blog and forum.

This is an extraordinary collection of software. Do note, though, that the full ISO download is 555MB. (If you have a slow connection you can purchase the CD for as little as $1.99. -- unverified 02/05/2008).
They've recently taken to highlighting featured software and providing links to the product developers' sites, so you can now download just individual programs.

The folks at Ubuntu Linux are giving away free CDs containing most of the programs on the Open CD together with the latest version of Ubuntu.  https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ They will send you the full Ubuntu installation CDs, plus a live CD which will run Ubuntu directly from the CD. You can order as many CDs as you want and you don't even have to pay the mailing costs! When you get your CDs, read this simple introduction to Linux before starting:   http://www.paulstamatiou.com/2005/10/24/how-to-ubuntu-linux-for-novices/

Lupo PenSuite is a completely free suite of portable programs and games (no need to be installed).
Optimized to be loaded on a pendrive, this suite works perfectly well on any hard disk. It includes over a hundred programs and lots of games, classified into several categories, such as:

• Internet (Firefox, Thunderbird, Skype, uTorrent, Filezilla...)
• Multimedia (VideoLAN, XMplay, Audacity, mp3DirectCut, DeepBurner...)
• Graphics (IrfanView, PhotoFiltre, The Gimp, FastStone Capture...)
• Security (CCleaner, TrueCrypt, Keepass, CyberShredder...)
• System (SIW, DTaskManager...)
• Office (AbiWord, Notepad++, Foxit Reader, EssentialPIM...)

Many users prefer the free Open Office, rather than the expensive Microsoft Office.

Product Details

OpenDisc
Website: http://theopendisc.com/programs/
Download link:http://theopendisc.com/programs/
Author: OpenDisc
Version: 7.1
Date: 09/27/2007
Download file size: 555MB (iso)
License: Free
Operating systems supported: Windows Linux Solaris Mac
64 Bit version available: No, but many of these 32 bit programs will run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: Unknown
Other languages supported: None
Additional software required: No

Lupo PenSuite
Website: http://lupo-pensuite.en.softonic.com/
Download link: http://lupo-pensuite.en.softonic.com/
Author: Softonic
Version: 6.53
Date: 03/26/2008
Download file size: 148.3MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
64 Bit version available: Some of these programs will not run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: Yes
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No

Open Office
Website: http://www.openoffice.org/
Download link:http://www.openoffice.org/
Author: OpenOffice
Version: 2.40
Date: Unknown
Download file size: 127MB
License: Free
Operating systems supported: Windows Linux Solaris Mac
64 Bit version available: No, but this 32 bit program will run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: Unknown
Other languages supported: Many - see here: http://download.openoffice.org/other.html#en-US
Additional software required: No
Other relevant information: Available on 3-cds (includes clipart & full documentation) for a small shipping charge. See here: http://distribution.openoffice.org/cdrom/index.html#cdrom
 

Related Topics

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Jack Miller. Registered site vistors can contact Jack by clicking here
 

In the past you needed to use several separate programs to play MP3 files, streaming media from Real, Mpeg files, Quicktime movies, CDs and DVD discs.  But with the advent of Microsoft's Windows Media Player (WMP), all of these media types could be played in one player. Over a period of time, however, WMP for XP and Vista has become bloated and isn't compatible with all of the available file formats.  Then along came WinAmp, which began as an mp3 player but now plays almost everything, although it uses a lot of system resources and may contain adware if you aren't careful on the installation.  With the ever-increasing popularity of iPods, iTunes has become more prevalent on many PCs, but it also uses a lot of resources and is processor intensive.  So I've done some major research to find alternative media players capable of playing all of these media formats.  I was impressed, because what I found not only replaced but also exceeded the functionality of WMP, WinAmp and iTunes.  The products that I've reviewed here are capable of playing multiple types of media files, including various digital audio and video formats, CDs, and DVDs. 

NOTE:  Some of these programs may require additional codecs for expanded functionality.  For more information about codecs, including what they do, legal issues and download links, see the article, "Understanding Codecs".

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Joe Bennett. Registered site visitors can contact Joe by clicking here.

Product Specifications:

Media Player Classic:
Website:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli2/
Download Link:  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205650
Author:  Gabest
Current version:  6.4.9.1
Version date: 04-Apr-2008
Download file size:  2.12 MB
License:   Free - GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating systems supported:  Windows 95-Vista
Additional required software:  None
64 bit version available:  No, this program will not run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available:  Program is Portable
Non-English languages supported:  None
Other relevant information: 

• No installation required. 
• Can be run from a flash drive. 
• "Understanding Codecs" can be downloaded here:  http://www.techsupportalert.com/dr/understanding-codecs.htm
• Additional software to enhance Media Player Classic can be found here:

1. ffdshow:  http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm
2. Real Alternative:  http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
3. QuickTime Alternative: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
4. WinAmp Alternative: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Winamp-Alternative-Download-23376....

VLC Media Player:
Website:  http://www.videolan.org/
Download link:  http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Author:  The VideoLAN Team
Current version:  0.8.6h
Version date:  07-Jun-2008
Download file size:  8.96 MB
License:  Free - GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating systems supported:  Windows 98-Vista, OS x, Various Linux distros
Additional Related software:  None
64 Bit version available:  Unknown
Portable version available:  Yes - Available here
Non-English languages supported:  None
Other relevant information:  None

GOM Player:
Website:  http://www.gomplayer.com/main.html
Download link:  http://www.gomplayer.com/download.html
Author:  Gretech Corp.
Current version:  2.1.9.3754
Version date:  28-Mar-2008
Download file size:  4.48 MB
License:  Free - GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating systems supported:  Windows 98SE-Vista
64 Bit version available:  No, but this 32 bit program will run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available:  No
Additional related software:  None
Other relevant information:  None

Related Topics:

• Best Free CD/DVD Burning Software
• Best Free Audio/Video Format Conversion Program
• Best Free Video Editor
• Best Free Streaming Media Recorder
• Best Free Audio Editing Software
• Best Free Screen Session Recorder

This is one of those software categories where the quantity and quality of free programs is at least equal to that of commercial ones, so the selection isn't easy, and personal convenience will unavoidably appear as a main factor for this review.

And there's also the question of what exactly we mean by an "image viewer". With so many contenders that offer loads of features like editing, filtering, batch processing, organizing, publishing and the rest, that name may be a bit too restrictive, as we always tend to demand some additional editing features apart from the basic viewing and browsing functions (these are sine qua non, in my opinion). Thus many imaging applications overlap categories, and the differences for our review should be based mainly on the aspects of access speed, zooming capabilities, and other tasks not directly related to extensive image editing. Though I know many users will prefer all-in-one programs, I feel that they don't fit into this category, and feature bloat precludes their recommendation.

There are several good choices here, and the first of these is the classic IrfanView. Irfan is a first-class product, but one for which I have mixed feelings. It's an amazingly capable application and very fast at displaying images, something I consider essential for a viewer. Some additional features (its resizing algorithm, for instance) are excellent and even rank above a big fish like Photoshop. But although other users just love it, it just doesn't work the way I'd like it to: wheel zooming, for instance, requires a press of the Ctrl key, and I don't see the point in having a separate module for thumbnails. This, however, may be exactly what other users prefer, and the same applies to the interface, which looks a bit too simple to me.

A product I feel more comfortable with is XNView. Like Irfan, it's very versatile; it can read and display nearly 400 types of graphic files, and convert any of these to more than 50 formats. It displays images very quickly, and these may be viewed full screen, as slideshows or as thumbnails. It's quite capable at processing images, too; you can adjust brightness and color, apply filters or effects, crop and resize, and more. These operations can also be carried out from a batch file, which makes XNView ideal for converting large digital images to smaller sizes for use on the web or in emails. It supports drag and drop, has many plug-ins, is available in 44 languages and has full cross-platform support, including Mac. XNView has a lot of similarities to IrfanView; so many in fact, that it comes perilously close to plagiarism. Put positively, one may say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; however, the developers of IrfanView must feel more than a little miffed. XNView is free for non-commercial use, and supports all Windows versions plus many other platforms.

My third choice is FastStone Image Viewer. This is a speed demon with a zippiness in displaying images that's reminiscent of the old ACDSee before it suffered feature bloat. But this zippiness disappears when it deals with larger files (>20Mb, depending on the format) and both Irfan and XN perform much better in this field. It also has good basic image editing facilities, great slide show capabilities and an interface which is a delight to work with. It supports all major graphic formats and popular digital camera RAW formats as well. Much to like here.

FastStone has a "little brother" called FastStone MaxView which is essentially the same program, but it's limited to the viewer and a few features.

IrfanView
Website: http://www.irfanview.com/
Download link: http://www.irfanview.com/
Author: Irfan Skiljan
Current version: 4.10
Version date: November 21, 2007
License: Freeware for private use
Download File size: 1.10Mb
Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Multi language support
Other relevant information: Extensive plugins available
Layers are not supported

FastStone Image Viewer
Website: http://www.faststone.org/
Download link: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm
Author: FastStone Soft
Current version: 3.5
Version date: January 15, 2008
License: Freeware for private use
Download File size: 4.24Mb, portable 4.18Mb
Operating Systems Supported: 98/2000/Me/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Multi language support only in version 3.2 and older: Chinese(Simp & Trad), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish
Other relevant information: Supports dual-monitor configurations
Tutorial available: 3.7MB

About this Category

This section is dedicated to software specifically targeting Windows Vista. These are mainly tools and utilities offering ways to make life with Vista easier, more effective or are providing extended possibilities for individual customization. Considering the variety of functionalities I am not trying to compare or rank them here but will offer a selection of what I found useful and valuable.

Productivity Tools

Vista Sidebar Gadgets - With Windows Vista Microsoft introduced the Windows Sidebar. Even though I did not like it at first, after investing some time in configuring it and even develop some of my own Gadgets I wouldn't want to live without it anymore. The Windows Sidebar is a metering and info platform, similar to Sysmetrix or Rainlendar. It displays a wide variety of information through so-called Gadgets. You can add, remove and arrange such Gadgets to your liking. Some basic Gadgets come with the Sidebar but there are hundreds more out there from many different authors. I found it worthwhile to browse through the immense collection that Microsoft is providing to the Sidebar users here: http://vista.gallery.microsoft.com/vista/SideBar.aspx?mkt=en-us. And if you are not too unfamiliar with XML, HTML and some image work you can easily modify each Gadget to your liking or create your own. You will find documenation about that there as well. All Gadgets are free. The downside of the Sidebar, more precisely each Gadget, is its footprint in your memory. If you have enough of the latter you probably don't have to worry about that but it is useful to check when adding a new Gadget how much space it eats up.
 

Start++ - After accquiring Lookout a few years back Microsoft beefed up the Windows Search functionality quite some bit. Well integrated in Windows Vista I am still amazed how helpful the results are when trying to locate some old e-Mails and other information. Start++ makes the Search experience even better. It hooks into the Start Menu Search module and lets you define your own shortcuts for searching inside and outside of your computer. Some useful predefined shortcuts, e.g. "g" for Google demonstrate very convincingly the power of this little tool. But not only the textual Google results can be displayed in the Search result box, even graphical objects like weather forecasts are quickly displayed by just typing in "weather" (see screenshots here). Besides the command shortcuts you can also define others to launch any gadget or script you like. Start++ is really a useful helper for your productivity.
 

System Tools

TweakUAC – Quite a few users complained about the annoyance of Windows Vista's User Access Control (UAC). Despite the increased security, it is quite a drag that with UAC switched on you have to confirm a Yes/No prompt on many operations you perform in Windows Vista. You have probably seen the Mac advertisement that specifically picked up this "feature". If you decide that you do not need UAC it can be switched off, however, doing this manually involves a couple of steps and clicks. You will most probably prefer to use TweakUAC. It lets you quickly turn UAC (User Account Control) on or off, or make UAC operate in quiet mode.
 

Tweak VI – TotalIdea brought out this amazing utility for tweaking and customizing Windows Vista. Lucky for us, the Basic Edition is absolutely free and is already packed with features and settings to play around with. Both, optimization and customization of specifically Windows Vista is the main target of Tweak VI. The free Basic Edition contains hundreds of settings in the areas of CPU, Disk, Memory, Cache, Vista features, Desktop, Internet settings, and many more. Even specific tweaks for Firefox are included. Tweak VI's concept bases on plugins that provide the different tweaking modules. One optional plugin to download during setup comes with the free Basic Edition, the EasyBCD plugin for customizing the Vista boot configuration. Should you purchase the full product you can download and use more addl. plugins. Tweak VI offers to save and restore restore points and module snapshots for each plugin, which is absolutely imperative for a tweaking tool. A nice touch is that you can name your restore points so you can identify them later, should you have to choose from several ones to restore. Tweak VI is a must have for Vista tweakers. 

MzVista Force - MzVista Force is a Vista tweaking utility. It allows you to change a good range of features that may improve your system's speed and efficiency. You'll notice that "Backup-Restore" includes a Registry backup option. It is strongly recommended that you use this before tweaking your system, so you can return to the current state if things don't go as expected. Other facilities include Performance tweaks, Windows tweaks, Internet optimization, Registry optimization, Startup Manager, and a Services Manager. If you're not sure about a particular feature, the Help usually provides adequate information. I did not like the design though and I feel that there is a lot of room for improvement. I am using a 1900 resolution, thus, a bigger font, and some of the buttons and captions disapear at the window edge. The colorful background makes it even harder to read. The way all the many settings are organized is another downside affecting the usability. I hope we will see improvements in those areas in the next releases.
 

VistaBootPRO – The Vista Boot Configuration Data (BCD) controls how Vista boots. Although it's perfectly possible to edit the BCD from the command prompt, VistaBootPRO makes it much easier. Use the built-in backup option first, to make sure your current BCD is preserved. This program makes it dead-easy to install a second Operating System (And I know there are many out there wishing their XP back.). Astonishingly, it also allows you to permanently disable the driver signing requirements of Vista 64 Bit. Apart from making it easy to test unsigned drivers, this feature opens a whole new world of possibilities. (Disabling driver signing feature may not work if you've installed Vista SP1.)

Sysinternals Toolbox – The Sysinternals tools by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell is a collection of very valuable and helpful system utilities targeting a wide variety of Windows information and configuration issues. The tools are in fact that good that Microsoft acquired Sysinternals (incl. Mark and Bryce) in July, 2006. You can find a few of the single tools here at Techsupportalert also in other categories. When I started working and playing around with Vista, quite a few of the Sysinternal tools were very helpful to me, e.g. the Process Explorer or the Autoruns viewer. However, the downside of the Sysinternals tools is that they do not come with an installation routine. You need to unpack each executable file yourself and create a shortcut manually. The Sysinternals Toolbox here is a convenient setup package of the most valuable Sysinternals utilities. You start one setup file and you have all of the tools (you can select packages during setup) conveniently installed and accessible through your Start menu. The toolbox is updated regularly based on updates of the tools themselves. The utilities in the setup packages are untouched, this is just a setup routine for installing them easily.
 

Customization Tools

Vista Boot Logo Generator – I always liked it to change my boot logo and login screen backround to give my Windows design an individual touch. Already under XP there were some tools offering their help in that regards. Vista Boot Logo Generator provides this feature for the Vista boot logo. You can create your own 24-bit BMP's in two sizes (800*600 and 1024*768) and the tool will generate the new logo file.

But actually, that is all the tool does. Quite some manual work is still required to make it work. You have to copy that file into a specific system32 folder (depending on your language). In order to do so you have to change the owner of that file and then again change your permissions to overwrite it. Also, you have to make sure that the NOGUIBOOT option is off, using the Windows MSCONFIG tool. For full details, make sure you read the info during the setup of the utility.

Unfortunately even though I did everything and went through all the hassles as described it did not work for me (Vista Home Premium SP1). A couple of users posted similar problems on the programmer's home page as well. It seems that it does not work with SP1.

In the end it is not a utility to my liking since too many manual interaction and knowledge is necessary to make it work (if it works with your Vista version at all). Hopefully future releases will address these issues.
 

LogonStudio Vista – Object Desktop's LogonStudio Vista is much more a convenient utility as the Logo Generator. LogonStudio offers you the option to change the background image of the Windows Vista Logon screen. No manual activities are required, it is all done from within the GUI. It comes with several logon screens to choose from, along with thousands that are available online from other skinning Web sites. It also includes an editor for creating your own logon screen. You can build or modify logon screens by tweaking parameters on a list of elements. This allows you to customize everything from background to letterings to buttons. Thanks to Object Desktop for offering this great tool for free.
 

VistaGlazz - VistaGlazz is a simple yet important application when you love customizing your Vista looks. It enables you to easily modify your Windows Vista installation to use custom styles and modify your Aero style to use the Glass effect on maximized windows. For reasons I cannot fully understand did Microsoft disable the usage of unsigned visual styles in Windows Vista. However, by overwriting a few system files this restriction is gone and you can use any visual style out there. That is exactly what this little program does. And when you take some time browsing the usual skinning sites you will be amazed how excellent those skin designers are. Usually all these skins and visual styles are donwloadable for free. VistaGlazz makes it possible to use them. It works with SP1 as well. My top customization tool for Vista.
 

Vista Shortcut Manager – The name is a little misleading here since this tool just allows you to manage the shortcut overlay image of your icons. Usually this is a little arrow in the lower left corner of an icon, you have surely seen that on your desktop. The well designed tool offers to either replace the overlay image with a different one (two transparent icon files come with the tool, you can also use your own creation) or to not use an overlay image at all. I personally do not see any sense in disabling it (since it indicates that this icon links to a shortcut and not to the real executable), but customizing the overly image is an interesting idea. After you made your choice you need to logoff and back on to make your changes visible. The Logoff function is offered by the tool after saving your changes. However, I am getting an exception error when I use the built in logoff feature, but the changes were applied. The utility also offers to disable the “ - Shortcut” extension when creating new shortcuts.
 

You might also want to read the great article "How to make Vista run faster" by Briard.

Product Details

TweakUAC
Website: http://www.tweak-uac.com/what-is-tweak-uac/
Download link: http://www.tweak-uac.com/download/
Author: WinAbility Corporation
Version: 1.0
Date: 19/05/2006
Download file size: 85 KB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Vista
64 Bit version available: No, but this 32 bit program runs in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: Unknown
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No

Start++
Website: http://brandontools.com/content/StartPlusPlus.aspx
Download link: http://brandontools.com/files/folders/startplusplus/entry33.aspx
Author: BrandonTools
Version: 0.8.1
Date: 25.Apr.2008
Download file size: 1.3 MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Vista
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: Unknown
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No

Tweak VI
Website: http://www.totalidea.com/content/tweakvi/tweakvi-index.php
Download link: http://dl1.totalidea.com/files/public/tweakvi-basic-sfx.exe
Author: TOTALidea
Version: 1.0
Date: 16/06/2008
Download file size: 12 MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Vista
64 Bit version available: Yes, supports 32 bit and 64 bit
Portable version available: No
Other languages supported: Dansk, Deutsch, English, Espanol, Francais, Italiano, Nederlands, Russian
Additional software required: No

MzVista Force
Website: http://mztweak.bravehost.com/
Download link: http://mztweak.bravehost.com/MzVista.html
Author: Michael Zacharias
Version: 1.8
Date: Unknown
Download file size: 916 KB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Vista
64 Bit version available: No, but this 32 bit program runs in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: Unknown
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No

VistaBootPRO
Website: http://www.vistabootpro.org/
Download link: http://www.vistabootpro.org/#bodycontent
Author: PROnetworks Betas and Windows Support Teams
Version: 3.3
Date: 04/27/2007
Download file size: 1.59 MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: All flavors of Windows
64 Bit version available: No, but this 32 bit program runs in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: Unknown
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: MS .NET 2.0 Framework

Sysinternals Toolbox
Website: http://www.lewe.com/
Download link: http://www.lewe.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=115&Itemid=45
Author: Sysinternals tools by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell (Microsoft), Setup Routine by Lewe.com
Version: 1.9
Date: 01.Jun.2008
Download file size: 3.8 MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: All flavors of Windows
64 Bit version available: No, but this 32 bit program runs in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: No
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No

Vista Boot Logo Generator
Website: http://www.computa.co.uk/staff/dan/?p=18
Download link: http://www.computa.co.uk/staff/dan/?p=18<