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Free: Virtual CD utility
Mounting ISO files virtually
The following tool for Windows XP allows image files to be mounted virtually as CD-ROM devices. This tool is provided here for your convenience, and is unsupported by Microsoft Product Support Services.
Desktop on Demand: Nice, but worth the cost?
Published: Thursday, March 13, 2008 5:10:27 PM
Headline: Desktop on Demand: Nice, but worth the cost?
Back in prehistory (or January, thereabouts) we talked a bit about webOSes, and the migration of Ewedrive to Desktop on Demand. This week we got a chance to play around with Desktop on Demand in more depth.
Desktop on Demand (DOD) is a true networked OS. It’s a Linux based system, with a clean, clear GNOME interface. There is online storage, and a good mix of open source apps. Our little issue about using a browser to access a webOS to surf the web in its browser has been addressed in an innovative way: launcher clients.
Yes, DOD offers clients to launch the service. Truthfully, we heard this and got a little annoyed. But trust us when we say that this is actually a freakin’ huge advantage over the old time webOS set ups. The clients are available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. They are small, and can be installed on a flash drive. If you want to keep one on a hard drive on a given computer, it runs from the downloaded location. Very easy, very unoffensive — very personal, and very secure.
When the desktop opens, it doesn’t open in a browser. Maybe this shouldn’t sit better with us, but for some strange reason, it just does. It feels much more natural. There is less clutter and we could forget that we were using a completely different operating system underneath it all.
Creative Docs – Free Alternative To Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw
Published: Friday, March 14, 2008 6:01:03 AM
Headline: Creative Docs – Free Alternative To Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw
Creative Docs .NET is a versatile vector drawing software on the lines of Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw – the software is completely free for non-commercial use and also supports Windows Vista.
Though available without charge, Creative Docs offers tons of goodies seen only in commercial software – you can draw text along a curved path, merge shapes using boolean operations, convert text into Bezier curves, color gradients, etc.
Creative Docs can also be used for creating optical illusions, drawing flow charts or for writing manuals like you would do inside Microsoft Word. The finished document / graphic can be saved in image formats or as a PDF document.
CreativeDocs.NET | Download Files | Blog | Thanks Greg.
Free Download of the day.
Photoscape is the fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos.
Key Features
- Viewer: View your folders photos, slideshow
- Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
- Batch editor: Batch editing multiple photos
- Page: Make one photo by merging multiple photos at the page frame
- Combine: Make one photo by attaching multiple photos vertically or horizontally
- Animated GIF: Make one animation photo with multiple photos
- Print: Print portrait shot, carte de visite, passport photo
- Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
- Color Picker: Zoom in screen on images, search and pick the color
- Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
- Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
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We are always upgrading Photoscape.
Share Large Files Instantly with EatLime [File Sharing]
Brilliant new file sharing web site EatLime expedites online file sharing by allowing your friends to begin downloading the file as soon as you start uploading it, meaning you don’t have to wait for the file to finish uploading before they begin downloading. You can share files up to 1GB with a free registration or up to 100MB with no registration. In testing EatLime, I found that eventually—once my download caught up with my upload—I was essentially downloading in real-time from the upload, which is fantastic. If you’ve ever shared large files online, you know what a pain it can be in terms of time. EatLime could cut a significant chunk out of the time it takes to share files online.
Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker 3.17
Create your own CD/DVD labels and CD jewel cases with the ultimate in ease and flexibility! If you’re sick of guessing which songs are on which CD, get the CD label software that automatically puts your track list on your CD/DVD label! Chock full of custom art for holidays and special occasions like Christmas, Valentines, birthdays, vacations, weddings and more! Automatically imports your track information from Acoustica MP3 CD Burner, iTunes, WinAmp, Easy CD Creator or any other popular playlist or previously burnt CD! Print on standard paper, stock sticker labels, CD jewel case templates or print directly on a CD or DVD*! Automatically import your iTunes play lists! Buy it now for just $21.95!
What’s new in Version 3?
Version 3 now supports HP LightScribe direct labeling drives!Acoustica is a certified HP LightScribe software partner.
Today’s Downloads.-From ZDNet
Info Get it Here
Price: FreeSystem requirements: Windows 95 or later
It uncovers Office product IDs and reveals Dell service tags and finds product keys for a handful of other programs, like Adobe Acrobat and TechSmith SnagIt (another of my favorites). If you look through the included config file you’ll see dozens of names and version numbers for familiar programs.
Allway Sync
What is Allway Sync™?
Allway Sync is free file and folder synchronization software for Windows.
Allway Sync uses innovative synchronization algorithms to synchronize your data between desktop PCs, laptops, USB drives and more. Allway Sync combines bulletproof reliability with an extremely easy-to-use interface.
FeedDemon
Looking for a great way to view and manage your RSS feeds from your desktop? Look no further than FeedDemon, the most popular Windows RSS reader. Bring the power of RSS right to your Windows desktop with FeedDemon.
Get your news and information instantly.
Customize the way you read and organize feeds.
Download podcasts to your iPod or Windows Media Player
Open Office 2007 files with older Office versions
Brief Description
Is Windows Vista SP1 a big deal?
Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:13:09 AM
Headline: Is Windows Vista SP1 a big deal?
At this very moment, the OEM partners of Microsoft are busy creating new images of Windows Vista SP1 to be pre-installed in all new PC’s. Microsoft has gone RTM (release to manufacturing) with Windows Vista SP1.
Is it a big deal? Not really. A service pack doesn’t pack the same punch anymore. Let me explain. In the stone ages, where Internet access wasn’t prevalent, a service pack for let’s say Window NT Server was a godsend. It had all the security fixes and enhancements rolled up together, and were necessary for new deployments. But today you no longer have to wait for a service pack to get the most important updates. With the Internet, you can download them and deploy them instantly (after testing of course).
With Vista, you could actually roll out the new operating system without ever applying SP1 at this point in time. This is because almost all companies are connected to the Internet, and Microsoft has been delivering Vista bugs & security fixes for over a year. You are already getting the updates on a regular basis. Additionally, you also get driver and software updates from Microsoft through its Automatic Windows Update services. Basically, as you continue to download updates, fixes, hardware & software, and driver updates, Vista is getting stronger, day-by-day, month-by-month. With Windows Vista SP1, Microsoft took feedback from the Customer Experience Improvement Program, online crash analysis, and Windows error reporting to really learn what the major issues are with Vista and the applications that run on the platform.
Here is a high level of what will be included in Windows Vista SP1:
- With SP1, you will now be able to copy and move files on your PC, home network, and corporate network much faster than pre-SP1. According to Microsoft, you could see as much as 50% improvement.
- A Windows Vista SP1 computer will awake faster from sleep mode than pre- SP1.
- SP1 will rollup all bugs, security fixes, hot fixes, and anything else that was released via Windows Update.
- SP1 includes support for emerging hardware and standards such as Wireless N, exFat files system, Secure Digital, DirectX 10.1, etc.
- Microsoft will realign the service packs of Windows Vista with Windows Server 2008. In the future, service packs will be released for both
- Vista and Server 2008 since they share the same kernel.
- SP1 will contain BitLocker drive encryption support for non-system disks.
- SP1 will contain improvements to local printing from Terminal Services.
- SP1 adds support for x64 EFI network boot.
- Disk Defragmenter has a user interface to choose which volume will be automatically defragmented.
- SP1 adds support to enable new types of Windows Media Center Extenders, such as digital televisions and networked DVD players, to connect to Windows Media Center PCs.
- SP1 adds support for creating a single DVD media that boots on PCs with either BIOS or EFI.
- SP1 adds support for SD Advanced DMA (ADMA) on compliant SD standard host controllers. This new transfer mechanism, which is expected to be supported in SD controllers soon, will improve transfer performance and decrease CPU utilization.
- SP1 adds support for Direct3D 10.1, an update to Direct3D 10 that extends the API to support new hardware features, enabling 3D application and game developers to make more complete and efficient use of the upcoming generations of graphics hardware.
- SP1 adds support for new UEFI (unified extensible firmware interface) industry standard PC firmware for 64-bit systems with functional parity with legacy BIOS firmware, which allows Vista SP1 to install to GPT format disks, boot and resume from hibernate using UEFI firmware.
- SP1 improves the time to read large images by approximately 50%.
- SP1 improves the performance of browsing network file shares by consuming less bandwidth.
For a more detailed list, please download, Windows Vista SP guides. As far as deployment is concerned, when downloading and installing SP1, you will have three download methods. They are:
- Express
- Standalone
- Slipstream
The Express installation will require an Internet connection but minimizes the download size by sending only the changes needed for a specific computer. The standalone installation is about 1 GB in size and allows you to install Windows SP1 without an Internet connection. Finally, the Slipstream version will come with a new the operating system. You will be able to install Windows Vista on a new machine with SP1 already included.
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