This is first part of a series of articles I intend to write about those small, free yet incredibly usefull softwares. I will start of with three of my favourites.

1. Unlocker : This is truely a must have software. I am sure that everyone has had the misfortune of encountering error messages like “Error Deleting File or Folder : It is being used by another person or program” while trying to modify/delete a file. The can be extremely frustrating, especially if you can’t recognize the process that is causing this trouble. This is where Unlocker comes into the picture. Unlocker is a tiny shell extension that integrates itself with the context menu.Unlocker can identify the process which is locking the file and unlock it, and most of the time you wont even need to kill/end the trouble causing process. Click on the image to view it in full size.

Recent versions also include Unlocker assistant. Unlocker assistant stays in the system tray, and when you encounter some locked file it automatically Unlocks it.
Apart from unlocking a file, it can also directly delete, rename or move the file.

2. TrIDNet : TrIDNet is an utility designed to identify file types from their binary signatures. It comes in handy as sometimes while downloading the extension of the file is lost (eg. while downloading email attachments or youtube videos using keepvid.com). I tested it with 10 different file formats : doc, pdf, txt, srt, flv, adr, avi, mp4, tiff, exe. It managed to succesfully detect all of them. Check the forums if you want to integrate TrIDNet with the context menu.This software can come in handy if you want to quickly and easily hide/disguise files without using any expensive software. All you need to do is to change the extension of the file you want to hide to something else (dont use a common format). When you neeed to access the file use Trid to get the original format.

3. Belarc Advisor : Belarc Advisor is a free system inventory creator. There are scores of similar programs. However, the reason I prefer
is it creates an inventory of not only your hardware but also software. Its hardware monitor itself is reasonably detailed.
However, according to me the most usefull functionality provided by the software is related to Microsoft Security Hotfixes. It list’s all installed hotfixes as well as the hotfixes I am missing. It also creates a list of all the software installed. For the softwares I have purchased it lists the serial number/license key. It also displays your CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmark score ( Screenshot ).

Edited to Add (24rth May) : Please be careful about what you do with the report that is generated by Belarc Advisor. If you decide to upload the report on the web don’t forget to delete the license keys included in it. More information is available here.

That’s all for now. Hopefully you will find these applications usefull.

FrontMotion Login is a software that replaces your dry and boring default Windows Login window with a more interactive and cool looking one. What makes it stand out from other such software is the fact that it makes use of Macromedia Flash. Thus the login windows are animated and interactive.
FMLogin provides 6 English and 1 Chinese theme out of the box. Click on the thumbnails below for a preview.

Luna Green

Bubble OS Blue

While using FMLogin I didn’t notice any large slowdowns as far as startup and shutdown is concerned. However, this depends largely on the theme. Heavy themes can cause some slowdowns.By default, FMLogin replaces the associates itself with the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Del, and presents a menu instead of opening the task manager directly. I found this annoying (unfortunately this is also the default behaviour in Windows Vista). However, it can be disabled very easily. It fully supports Startup/Shutdown, Standby, Hibernate, Logon/Logoff and Fast User Switching. It also retains the support for inserting Legal Notice Caption and Legal Notice promt, which are little known features in Windows buried deep in the registry.
A part from replacing logons another useful function that FMLogin provides is the ability to lock the screen while you are away from your pc. FMLogin is a really nifty software, however its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. While the use of Flash makes it possible to add great effects, it also makes creating new themes more difficult. In fact there are just a handful of skins available. To make matters worse there is no central repository for storing skins so often users make skins, upload them at free uploading services which gets deleted and lost with time.Overall, this is one impressive software.

My Rating : 7/10
Price : Free for personal use
Visit Official Site

WindowFX is a unique desktop customization software.The previous version of WindowFX was released more than two and a half years ago. In spite of it’s uniqueness it’s previous versions had failed to become popular, and for a couple of years no one heard anything more about WindowFx from Stardock.
So what is different this time ? Will WindowFX succeed ?

First let us analyse the possible reasons of failure of WindowsFX v2. Allthough WindowFX makes your desktop look super cool, it comes at a price. WIndowFX does require some processing power. Back in 2002, most people didn’t have more than 128-256MB ram ,PIII were still very much in use and most people were without a graphics card. Hence, most users simply couldn’t afford to have Windows FX running on their system. However in the past few years RAM has become dirt cheap and processors have become more powerful. Entry level Graphics cards are available for a few thousand rupees. Hence, excluding the hardcore gamers most people can now afford to have programs like WindowsFX on their system.
Let us have a look at some of the features which will be present in WindowsFX v3.
? Window Transitions : WindowFX began as a software that added nifty transition effects for various functions in WIndows. This is still it’s main function. Windows transition effects occur when you minimize and restore windows.WindowsFx v3 provides 17 transition effects out of the box. You can set the length of the transition effects to suite your taste.
? Menu Animation : Just as the name suggest, this will add transition effects to menus. It worked flawlessly with all the applications I tried it on. 21 menu transition effects are provided out of the box. Again you can configure the length of the animation.
? First Appear Animation : These animations are shown when a new window is opened or closed. Advanced options allows you to disable this animation effect for windows smaller than a defined size. There are 21 animations provided out of the box.
? Shadows : Windows Xp already has shadow effect but compared to other visually appealing operating systems like OS X, it is pretty average. WindowFx provides 11 different shadow effects, including one which is similar to the shadow effect in mac. The shadows are alpha blended and looks crisp. One feature that I would like to see in the future versions is the ability to increase/decrease shadow size. Currently you can only change colour.
? Taskbar Preview : This is something that will be included in Windows Vista ( Screenshot taken from Paul Thurrott’s Review ). WindowFX shows a thumbnail preview of the window when you hover your cursor over the taskbar entry ( Screenshot ). It also works if the program has it’s icon in the system tray ( eg. Yahoo messenger and Winamp ). However, the main aim of WindowFX is to make your desktop look cool. But the thumbnail preview that pops up looks rather ugly. I prefer the way Visualtasktips works.
? Drag Animation : This comes into effect when you drag a window. Again you can choose any one of the 7 animations that WindowFX provides. I did not like most of the effects, and found them a bit annoying. The only one which I found to be somewhat decent is “Make the Window semi-transparent” while dragging option. This option also allows you to set the transparency level.
? Others : WindowFX also improves upon the Alt+Tab WindowSwitching feature in WIndows XP.Other features include adding transparency to windows taskbar as well as any application. Another interesting feature is “Minimize to size”. This would reduce the size of windows to a desired size instead of minimizing it when you click on the minimize button.Another option worth mentioning is the random transition effect.WindowFX can select a transition effect at random, thus surprising you every time.

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A war has erupted between the spammers and a private company known as Bluesecurity. Bluesecurity develops a free software known as Bluefrog that aims to get rid of spammers by counter-attacking them. Conventional approach to tackling spam is to flag it and delete it. Bluefrog takes a more proactive approach. Once a message is marked as Spam the software will automatically post opt-out requests on the sites advertised by spam using contact information available on the site. Thus if someone sends a large number of spams about a pirticular product that website will be flooded with opt-out request. Thus Bluefrog spams the spammers! Some people consider this as immoral and illegal. Bluesecurity’s arguement is that, “Active Deterrence is an ethical solution to spam as it allows the members of the Blue Community to complain about spam in a safe and automated manner. The number of complaints posted by the Community is exactly equal to the number of spam messages received. Merchants and spammers are warned in advance and can easily avoid receiving complaints by complying with the Registry”. To me it is an apt way to teaching the spammers a lesson. Spammers can’t be convinced by sweet words and persuation. Blue Frog provides a way to fight back.

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This offer is valid only for today.Dont miss it.
Grab it from http://www.divx.com/anniversaryoffer/
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Here is another limited time freebee for you.
Linspire is giving away a free copy of Linspire Five-0 till September 6th.
Linspire is a paid linux distro which claims to be the easiest desktop linux.
Grab your free copy from here.The download for the OS is free but there is a catch.You need to pay for the Linspire CNR(Click N Run) service.If you choose not to buy CNR then you can continue to use Linspire but you won’t be able to use their one click software installer.It would be just like any other Linux.However Linspire comes pre-loaded with a wide variety of softwares that set it apart.

N.B. : It looks like the Linspire servers are getting hammered.It is showing “Currently all of our servers are busy.” message currently.

Lynda.com is giving away free 24 acces to it’s online video video library.You can download as much as you can.

Here is a brief list of tutorials available

Adobe-Photoshop,Illustrator,InDesign,GoLive,Acrobat,VersionCue, PhotoshopElements,AfterEffects,PremierePro.
Alias-Mya
Apple-DVDStudioPro,FinalCutPro,GarageBand,iLife,iDVD,iMovie,iPhoto,iTunes, Keynote,Mac OS,Motion,QuickTime.
Corel-CorelDRAW,Painter,Paint Shop Pro,WordPerfect.
Discreet-3ds Max.
EI Technology Group-Amorphium Pro.
FileMaker-FileMaker Pro.
Google-Blogger,Search Engines.
Macromedia-Dreamweaver,Flash,ActionScript,Fireworks,Freehand,Studio MX,Director,ColdFusion,UltraDev.
Microsoft-Access,Excel,FrontPage,InternetExplorer,MovieMaker,Office2003,Outlook, PowerPoint,Publisher,Visio,Windows XP,Word.
Quark-QuarkXPress.
Software Showcase-Xcelsius.
Animation-Character Animation in Discreet 3ds max 6,Photoshop Rollovers Animation & More,Animation Principles.
Design Principles-Color,Typography,Interactive Design.
Digital Photography-Sharing Digital Photographs: The Future of Memories,Photoshop CS2 Essential Training,Enhancing Digital Photography with Adobe Photoshop,Photoshop Elements 3 Essential Training,Introduction to Digital Photography,iPhoto 5 Essential Training,Learning iLife: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD.
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WebDevelopment-ASP,Blogging,Cold Fusion,CSS,HTML,JavaScript,Perl,PHP,XHTML.

This is one heck of an offer,dont miss it. Grab it while it lasts.

Click here to register a free account.

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More than a year ago Google stirred the internet and revolutionised it by introducing Gmail! People instantly started believing that whatever Google would do would turn into gold. And ever since then Google has gone into frenzy. They have expanded at a tremendous rate, announcing new services every now and then.
3 days ago an article by NYTIMES hinting the launch of a Google IM got the whole world interested. People have been demanding a Google IM for quite a long time now, and indeed this Public demand may have played a major role in goggle’s decision to venture into this new arena.
Since it’s launch yesterday, Google Talk has been downloaded by thousands, but does it live up to it’s expectation?

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