gimpguy

Software Reviews by gimpguy

The reviews and opinions below are posted by SnapFiles visitors. They do not necessarily reflect our opinion, and they are solely based upon the experience of individual users.

Windows Media Creation Tool

Ms finally flubbed 2 in a row

While the standard has been one good release, one bad, this time I feel that Windows 10 was definitely horrid and not worth saying it's better than 8. From the start it wouldn't identify my keyboard, actually, 3 keyboards unless I put a generic HID device. My Razor gaming headphones kept disconnecting and would not get sound (stop, unplug, plug back in) only way to get them to work. I had major graphic issues AMD, getting that to work, Mail synchronization was horrid, would not allow me logon to pc without password (I'm the only one using it, I don't want a password) nothing to steal off my pc either. If I test something I need it to boot directly to desktop, no darn password. There were numerous driver issues aside from stated, numerous other issues aside from stated, just no room to type it all in here. That said, back to Windows 7 I went and was extremely disappointed, was hoping for the next great OS I would be using, instead I feel like it was a torn down 8 with a different start menu. Well even 8 allowed me to use some things like a keyboard and headphones, and that's not saying much. My PC isn't brand new but enough that everything is supported and beyond so no excuses MS, you did a bad job on this OS, hope a major 10-2 update happens to make it usable and I may reconsider. The look and interface were good but that's all. Price: Free

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Advanced SystemCare Free

Just wow

At one time I praised this software, now I despise it. It's been a long time since I've used it and when I installed all I saw were adverts for purchasing it's other products, get pro version, etc... I can't say it installed anything out of the ordinary or any major system integration,just a typical install as far as that goes. I did use the IObit uninstaller though, to uninstall the system care and itself. With little to no features unless paid for now and the absolute UI nightmare this has become, I can't even recommend it any more. I've changed my comment on here and my rating. Price: Free

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Opera

Been great

I gave up on Firefox due to many issues and have been with Opera for a few months now. So far it's been completely awesome and flawless and all the PC issues I had due to a simple browser, Firefox, are gone now and as long as Opera remains a great stable browser, I will stick with it. It's always been a great browser but I was a Firefox fan for years, unfortunately it's changed and not for the better and I now wish I would have switched to Opera years ago. Opera is what Firefox was, or should be now, perhaps even much better. Price: Free

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Firefox Browser

Bye bye

I have been a Firefox user for years, until this year anyway. Noticing months back how my browsing was slowed, had crashes, games not functioning through Internet correctly, I went through multiple scenarios to fix this only to find that uninstalling Firefox fixed the issue. That really took me by surprise. (No there were no infections, etc...) This wasn't limited to my PC, many people in my home and outside of my home were having issues too. After waiting for fixes, etc... something has changed with Firefox and it hasn't gotten better. I have switched to a different open source browser now and everything has been great. This has been ongoing for months with Firefox and I've had enough, it was time to move on to a browser that isn't getting intrusive to the system. Price: Free

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Privacy Eraser

Works great

The interface is pretty cool, sort of futuristic but not to the point of ridiculous or ugly. Still easy to get around. Seems to do a great job of cleaning, a couple others didn't pick up anything more after using it so that's a plus. There are enough cleaning features but not too many which is good. I do miss having a feature to uninstall applications with it though which I've grown accustom to with some others. While a great freebie it still seems to lack against some others so I can't say I would honestly use it over a couple of other major cleaners but it's decent. In time it may replace my current one but not right now. Price: Free

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BitKiller

Does the job

I tested some recovery software on a drive I used BitKiller on and it didn't find anything that was shredded so it does a decent job but there are many others that do the same so it was nothing "spectacular" I guess. Still a good software and free. Testing other methods are very time consuming and for most home users, well, I wouldn't think they would need to go beyond basic overwrite. Price: Free

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SIV System Information Viewer

Details, details

Yes the interface is a technical type view by all means, it's not flashy whatsoever but this has so many details along with the menus at the bottom, if you want to know what's what, there probably isn't another out there that will give you all this information like SIV does. It may take a moment to start up but it's worth it. It would be a chapter just to list and explain the menus so I suggest using it and see for yourself just how much this will show you about your PC, IP info, etc... Nice work! Price: Free

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Easy Context Menu

Easy just as it's title

Doesn't get much easier than to check some boxes and set up what you want or use a lot in the context menu. So easy to have device manager and others in the context menu for easy access. While this can be done other ways, why bother when it lays it all out for you? Price: Free

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Zemana AntiLogger Free

Simple and works

Well I did the same tests as Snapfiles and all good here. The program is simple as stated and works. Haven't yet had one issue with it slowing my typing or getting in the way of anything I've thrown at it while typing. Nice to have. Price: Free

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JPEG Saver

Really nice

Plenty of effects for your screensaver, some are OK some are really great like the fold up. Has most options that any screensaver needs, time of display, things of that nature. While I haven't used a screensaver since the days of CRT burn, this one actually made me want to use it again just for fun or to simply view my photos in a fun way. It runs very smoothly and as far as screensaver software goes, this is definitely one of the better ones. Great work. Price: Free

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Metal Player

Change of mind

I think I jumped the gun on this review prior so here's a new one. Encountered many bugs with this but here are just a few... 1.If not using from the shortcut on desktop using instead the taskbar pin, will come up blank unable to use it. 2.Switching sound devices like plugging in headphones gives a play list error, unable to read. 3.Unable to play flac unless you convert to .mp3 in same folder, keeping original flacs in there, then will play the flac files, very odd. 4. When using Photoshop for example while playing MP, some things like lighting effects will cause MP to stop, using other programs I get the same thing, will cause MP to pause or stop. Very odd. 5. When you hit the play button on highlighted track, instead of playing that track, you get an option to open a file. Only method is double click song. Hmmm. Play button only works on paused song. Some things that I thought should obviously be added but aren't... 1. Skip to next track or previous track button.
2. Play the highlighted song with play button.
3. Put the options in one place, not all over the place like view EQ etc...
4. More sorting options.
5. Repeat play on single song.
So while at first I was completely happy with this, it's become quite tedious to use, mainly with all the odd issues which I have no more room for in here. I will still keep watch on this in hopes things get fixed in the near future. Price: Free

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Freemore Audio Video Suite

Quantity not quality in this case

Just because it has 50 features doesn't mean it's good and this is a prime example. Converting .mp3 or any format to any other format, for me, produces a squeek at the beginning of each converted sound file, plus takes down the quality of the music and lowering the volume by quite a bit. I tested it at least 15 times and yikes, the outcome regardless of settings were the same. Big 0 in the music converting part. PDF or image files, regardless of settings are noticeably choppy compared to the originals. Join and cut, no matter what I tried to join, it would give me errors, I gave up after 15 minutes of the darn error box. Audio editor, gave it a run , trying to get the effects to stay, failed and after a while's effort, gave up. Sound recorder, error device, error device, error device, this is after trying 3 different mics, head sets and other recording devices that I KNOW work and use. I'm not the only one in the house that tried this and everyone who did had the same experience, no thank you, keep this one, I don't want it, was a waste of my time. Price: Free

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AV Audio Editor

Just ... wow

Ok. So here we have a software that is supposed to do something. Most of the given effects come with my very own sound drivers, everything else seems non existent. What's the point in throwing this out to people, sure doesn't want to make me purchase or use anything by this maker. Don't waste your time there are numerous others that do FAR more than this will.. for free. Price: Free

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Clipboard Master

Still not liking it

I thought I'd give this another go around and it didn't ... well... go anywhere. I thought this long after it would be different well it wasn't, still buggy as heck, slowed Firefox browsing, very choppy, couldn't get windows of this program to close just more annoying to use than anything. The whole layout and thought is fine, the programming is failure. This was my last attempt at using this and will no longer try it. Price: Free

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Reor

Reor isn't adding up

It's an OK calculator with decent calculation options, however, it's a very small calculator and the only way I could find to resize it was to set my screen resolution very low otherwise if you are running 1680x1050 or higher like me, it remains a fairly small work area. The sound on wouldn't be bad but it creates a popping sound when used and is annoying. I also noticed it's not quite so fast when you do fast button pushing on the num pad on the keyboard. It seems to lag a number behind which can goof up your thinking that you've typed in something or not. The cause it seems is the sound on option. Turning that off solved it. For someone else this may be a nifty, small calculator but for my use, it needs improvement. Price: Free

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Ashampoo Burning Studio Free

Still great

Been using since before 2008 and still going. The latest version is very stable and I've had no issues with it at all. With burn, backup, convert, and all very easy to manage burning techniques, for FREE it's hard to ask for more and haven't had to. I think Ashampoo puts out awesome products for free and always take a chance to thank them for it. As far as the poster below, I would look at what happened on your end with the disc opening automatically, not the software. It would have been better to not choose open with in Windows Auto Play option since Ashampoo won't open a blank disk unless a user chooses it MANUALLY in Auto Play. Ouch, yeah. So simply go to control panel, Auto play, and in the options you can set a disc to not open. Cured. Again, haven't had the need to use anything else for most common burning needs. I highly recommend it. Price: Free

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Screencast Capture Lite

Could be a great recorder but...

...It has some issues. 1. It shows F9 and F10 in the system tray on the icon as if these keys were to work for recording, which they don't. The only option is to click record, from green, to red, then finally click again and it gets a white spot and says recording. Down it a bit and make it either record or not or at least make the hotkeys work. 2. If you have the main window up on the desktop and maximize, it will create an infinite mirror and crash the pc sucking up your graphics until dead. It should give some options like to keep it running in tray minimized along with hotkeys as mentioned above. 3. It takes a bit to get it to record sometimes, have to keep clicking, like it's stalled. I have a good pc setup that I do a lot of graphics work on and that includes other screen recorders and they never stall on me. That being said, it has superb recording. The playback is just like looking at the original monitor which is impressive. It also has good video conversion without a hiccup. It's also free which is another plus. All in all, if these few issues get fixed in the future, this WILL be my primary recording software without a doubt. I have paid for recorders that don't record as good at the speed this does so I truly hope to see improvements in the future. Price: Free

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Weather Beetle

A bit under the weather

For all intents and purposes, it's free and will show you some details. The UI is a bit rugged and I think when adding a location, it should apply to all the features. As with the radar, I had to choose the location I'm at again manually to see it, thinking prior the radar simply wasn't working but a bit of reading goes a long way. Stating it's very "matter of fact" was right on and explains it perfectly. I think it has a lot of potential so I will be keeping an eye on this one but currently, it's just as easy to book mark the Weather Channel. Not a horrible app by any means but yes, needs a lot of improvement, especially in the loading department, very slow, freeze ups, etc... Again, hopefully it progresses into something better. Price: Free

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WatchMe

Great

This is exactly what I needed for testing loading installing or copying times. Plenty of basic options and not over done with cluttered useless options. Personally I don't see the need for a count "down" unless it could do something like shut off a program etc... so this works just fine. Great work. Price: Free

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KidLogger

Works great, but...

With being free, able to copy whatever is typed in, places visited, can send multiple methods of notification through email, voice record, screen shots, it really is a great free logger to see what's going on when you aren't there. The one issue I do have is that the log files can be deleted, viewed and messed with by going to the program folder which really doesn't make for a secure logging. You can password the app before it opens to you but again, it all means nothing when you can access the log files directly anyway. That is what knocked it down 2 stars for me. If they can lock up the log file so it cannot be viewed by folder browsing, then a definite 5. Price: Free

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Save.me

Ok for small snippets

While this program had so much going for it, it truly lacks in the one thing it's supposed to do, save things. I have tried, even with max file size to save more than one line of text at a time with no result. The database doesn't show what you saved unless you click around the active window to get the snippets to show. Why I have no idea. I found it to be far too clunky for what it does. There are others that are free and save what you copy, not just a line here and there and have greater options. So compared to most other clipboard utilities, while this may look fancy it's not even close to what I'd use every day. Price: Free

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ScreenToGif

Good for small projects, real small

The good.. It's free, small, portable will capture to gif. The bad... The capture only lasts a few seconds and shuts off. Enlarging it beyond very basic dimensions to a larger scale will cause a Net framework memory crash. Cannot interact with capture source behind the capture window. Capture times are very limited to seconds of capture capability unless you keep hitting the record button which in turn seems to get rid of anything that wasn't saved previously. So in general, If you want a very small quick gif capture, it'll work but it seriously lacks in many areas. Price: Free

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Unchecky

Almost perfect

I say almost perfect because it does, as stated by Snapfiles, miss some things, HOWEVER, this is so great for people I help all the time and accidentally install every third party software under the sun. I will be suggesting this for every user I know and yeah will be a great contributor in keeping computers cleaned up. The idea is a great one, hope to see improvements in the near future in catching 3rd party crap. Great work. Price: Free

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CoolTweak

Couple of questionable issues

Ok, understanding this is BETA, I still have an issue with having to be able to send anonymous information to them when I don't want to, or having to have updates installed when I want them to or not. They say these options are disabled because it's mandatory with the beta so they can find issues. Now, I've been using software since oh... 1997 and never once did I see a beta that forced either one of those options. I find that a bit questionable sorry. Aside from that I found the interface messy and over blown, could have been much less confusing and easier to set what you want. I have others that do the same and are a lot more user friendly. I gave it a 3 "being nice" since it's BETA and in the works and time will tell if there are improvements but note to author or authors... anything I'm forced to keep checked, beta or not, I consider a security risk, sorry that's just the way it is. Price: Free

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InternetOff

Decent

First off , it does disable the internet. I tested a few things before posting review. 1. Will not allow you to enable your adapter by going into "change adapter settings" a plus. 2. Password works, even upon reboot, does not allow your connection to be turned on. Another plus. 3. Timer works fine. Some things that would improve this are a hot key combination, log file from attempts to turn on internet, and perhaps a float dot red or green showing status if turned on or off on desktop just for quick viewing sake. Other than that, for people like me who test and use all sorts of software, I disable my connection quite often so this is very handy. Price: Free

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LockHunter

Excellent

With it's ability to integrate into explorer menu and it's unlocking options it's easily one of the best if not the best unlocking tools I've ever used. You can also choose to unlock upon restart which is quite handy in many situations. Definitely a 5 all the way. Price: Free

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Movie Scanner

Decent

While it's good at showing you the information of the videos, it's also very limited. No sorting by size or title, no exporting list that I saw, no middle wheel scrolling, no saving the list. That said, it's free. What would make this an A+ freebie would be the list I mentioned above. A preview feature would be nice as well but again, it's free so I wouldn't ask too much of it. Still nice to view the info won't hurt to check it out. Price: Free

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RGS-CardMaster

Very nice

First of all, it's easy to use, create a new card, enter information, etc... Second, it can open email to that contact email on the card automatically so they are already entered into the address when email opens, very nice. It has plenty of information space and picture along with notes and other features. Has a backup feature as well which is great. My one issue with this (and it's not a big issue) is the image you use for that contact may look pretty choppy depending on the image size. I would suggest they either put in a specific size for best clarity of picture or better scaling. Again, not a big deal but would be nice. Aside from that, yes, it's free and it's great. I will definitely be using this from now on and will be putting all my contacts in it. Great work on this and definitely a 5 star. Price: Free

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Rufus

Excellent

It's free, small footprint, no install. Works great for formatting, finding bad blocks and most of all, for installing an .iso image. Tried it with XP, Windows 7 and Ubuntu, all booted and ran perfectly. Installs .iso's very quickly and solid. Can't say enough about this, a must have. Price: Free

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FreeVimager

Great free viewer

Definitely a fast, easy to use portable image viewer that isn't too packed but yet has plenty of options for basic photo viewing needs. A five star all the way! Price: Free

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Sound Valley

Not bad but...

I am trying to figure out what's so special about this software, I found nothing. It has a few sounds to listen to like a storm, etc... but it's very limited in it's options and really, just plays a few sound files. There are others that do much more and have the same sounds plus more, even customizable. This held no real interest for me except that it's free and plays a few good sounds. Price: Free

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WinContig

Fast and thorough

Can't say much that hasn't been said but it is light, portable, does a great and thorough job. Has a cleanup and disk check, x64 version, a must carry around on portable device. Price: Free

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CountryTraceRoute

It's ok

It has basic information, colored hops so if a hop isn't what it's supposed to be, for example it's yellow instead of green, shows you what country it from and ms. Again, basic but fast and works. Price: Free

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WhoisConnectedSniffer

Finds the connected

Easy to use, has html report view and definitely finds everyone connected to your network. Doesn't come with Winpcap, better download it and install it first if you don't already have it, else the monitoring options may be grayed out. Small, simple, no install free. Price: Free

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Clementine Music Player

Excellent

I wasn't sure what to expect with the previous rating but I found this to be extremely easy to use with many options at the same time. I won't go over what's been already mentioned by Snapfiles but will touch base on some other things like the sound quality. I was a bit impressed with the equalizer sound and unlike others, I will actually use the equalizer which isn't distorting my sound at all. There are some odd effects you can add while playing music like rain, kittens, etc... which the only ones that work are the first two sound effect filters, not sure why. It's very easy to scan your library and to add songs, rate, tag, pretty much everything you could need out of a player in my opinion. I have no issues with CD lock up and works well so not sure what's going on there. All in all a great software. Price: Free

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Cyotec CopyTools

Great

The interface is extremely easy to use and understand and doesn't over complicate the copy process. The options are enough to satisfy any home user. You can copy directly, overwrite, set a schedule to copy, chose to copy on shut down or start up. You can choose which folders or files to copy from a directory which is a big plus. The copying is very fast and stable. Everything you need in a great file copying software and free. Five Star! Price: Free

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OmidSoft Email Converter

Not worth my effort

There are a few reasons I rated this so low... 1. It only converts one email at a time 2. Can do this without the use of the converter, albeit one by one again. 3. Other free converters that batch process .eml 4. Doesn't have .pdf options like others Price: Free

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SuperSimple Video Converter

Works fast and as promised

While so many out there and yes, this is another video conversion utility, it is free, works well, supports many formats and I feel for many standard users this is what they are looking for. Price: Free

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Fliqlo

It's free

It works, it's a clock, it's a screensaver. Price: Free

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Tresorit

Eh it's ok?

First of all, don't expect an accessible cloud storage, not happening so if you go on the internet expecting to access your files from anywhere, you will be disappointed, all parties must have this installed. If you delete information it goes to a hidden trash bin, if you lose info, recovering it is unclear as some have said it will sync, others no. Either way I've tried it but I really don't care for it so much. It's too quirky for me and I will simply keep my own stuff or even use Skydrive for now. With improvement I'm sure it'll be decent but right now, no thanks. Price: Free Trial ($12.50)

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Free OCR to Word

Wow

Ive tried other free and paid for OCR types including One Note in office and I have to say, this really did a great job. A few errors expected as with any ocr but this was extremely easy to use, friendly interface, and just works. Great job on this and FREE. Price: Free

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Fotografix

Very basic

Well, it's small, basic and has OK options. I found it more tedious user wise than it would be worth to carry around and use and the filters don't work very well. Eh it's free and may fit someone's usage but not close to what I would use. Price: Free

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TagScanner

Thorough

While as stated, documentation lacking, I personally have used tag editors a lot so it was no problem getting around it but could be a potential nightmare for unfamiliar users. It is very thorough and many manual options but it was a bit funny while trying to edit tag information, like it didn't want to take whether I saved or not, 3rd time around it would work. Dunno why. There is no install and it's very fast and works well finding everything in a directory. I do think the interface could use some work but all in all, it's very nice, free and small download. Price: Free

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iBrowse

Easy to use

While I love how fast this is, the easy enough interface, the drag and drop, it's not a replacement for Itunes or other just to be clear. For backing up and modifying it's great. Price: Free

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MediaPortal

Really nice

While open source it has a paid for "better than paid for" feel and use. The interface isn't tough to use but may take some reading to get used to using plugins, etc... It loads everything flawlessly and looks great. This will be a great addition to my PC I use for media purposes, tv, dvd, things of that nature and will remain a permanent software on that computer. Great work on this. Price: Free

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sTabLauncher

Decent

I was a bit surprised at how well this was actually put together. It took a bit of getting used to but once you do it's easy to set up tabs and such. I wish you could simply add a tab from right click but have to go into options to do so. Cannot set user folder from desktop within tab directly. Nice to be able to change color, skins, icons, etc... very customizable and out of the way. It still may not be what I keep as a main but it's very nice in my opinion. Price: Free

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Double Commander

Works

Definitely has a lot of options easy to use but I'm still not convinced it stacks up to others yet will use it a while longer but all in all, it's still a 5 and you won't be disappointed in any case. I do like the comparison feature of directories that's a plus, and it copies files over very quickly. Price: Free

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Lockscreen Pro

So far best ive used

Well this is the best lock screen program I've used and it definitely has some nice options and what I really like, locks upon boot where others sorely lacked. USB works too, easy to configure. Definitely a 5. Price: Free

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Spyglass

Good navigation but warning

It has some basic writing when you first install and drag a folder into it, it's a quick explanation of how to work it , just click Got It! and it's gone. It scans folders very quickly and has good navigation, if you want to hi-light and area just click on left column in the list and there you go, no need to clutter the map with names then. Works for me. The duplicate scan can take longer depending on the size of the folder but all in all it's very easy to use and get around. WARNING I accidentally clicked the delete permanently and guess what, no warning or question it truly does just delete permanently. Luckily for me I try this on pre made folders with nonsense content first. This could lead to someone to accidentally delete something important and I feel they need to at least set up an "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO PERMANENTLY DELETE THIS?" pop up. It's just too easy to click it accidentally like I said. With that fixed I'd give this an easy 5. Price: Free

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NxFilter

All in one

While you can do things individually by other means, this will meet your needs in a nifty web page type layout. Explaining this in any detail would be impossible here and Snapfiles covered it nicely in the description. I will say though, for help, go right to the site. I personally couldn't find any help from the program itself. I did figure out that the default password is Admin and from there had access and changed my password immediately. Again, go to the site itself for help if need be. This is something I will have on all my PCs now but warn, it's not for the less technically inclined, you WILL have to do some learning otherwise this will do nothing for you, as stated, some network background needed. Great freebie will suggest to everyone I know. Price: Free

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Software Reviews by gimpguy

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