wildgoosespeeder

Software Reviews by wildgoosespeeder

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.

IcoFX

What happened? It used to be free...

This is my outdated review: I used to use something else but it wasn't very feature rich. I was looking for something way more advanced that can do 48x48 as well as 32x32 and 16x16 without paying for it. IcoFX does it for me. All features that were present in what I was using before are present in IcoFX. I wouldn't use any other icon maker. - 5 Stars This is my updated review: What happened to you IcoFX? What made you so awesome was that you could do all sorts of amazing things for free. Now you want me to pay 59?! You just lost a fan. - 1 Star Price: Free Trial ($29.99)

review details

Mp3Tag

The best batch ID3 tag editor for free?!

Any Windows OS sucks at editing ID3 tags of MP3s. You would have to go through each folder to batch edit ID3 tags. On occasion I would get a "disk read error" message and have no clue why when trying to apply the new tags. Here comes Mp3Tag to the rescue! When viewing the ID3 tag with Mp3Tag, it turns out that it was an invalid/corrupt/malformed ID3 tag (giving a substring of "!BAD" for the ID3 tag version column). With Mp3Tag you can wipe the tags completely. That did the trick and Windows could write the tags to the MP3s again. Why do that anyway? Mp3Tag is way better at editing tags. In combination with den4b's ReNamer program (also freeware), I was able to use the file name without the extension of multiple MP3s and take that string and add it to the ID3 title tag with just a few simple clicks! That was a time saver! It's true what they say: The best things in life are free! Price: Free

review details

Skype

It's good but...

Skype is a good IM client but some things are done very stupidly. I'm used to the Windows Live Messenger interface or way of doing things and the default is to have the chat and buddy list all in one window. Usually I'm chatting with only one person so why do I need to see the buddy list while I chat? At least there is an option have the chat window break off of the buddy list. I'm not too fond of any sort of skinning so it's a good thing Skype has the option to use the Windows theme you are using. Automatic updates are a pain. I like my programs to alert me only when there is an update and I can install when I want but Skype installs updates for me. There is no way to change this setting and I remember Skype having this ability with previous versions. When I first install Skype I tell it to only install the IM client and not install Skype Toolbars. When the automatic update happens, it installs Skype with its default options and there is the toolbar I didn't want. Now I need to uninstall the toolbars which thankfully is a separate installation. Overall this is OK for the novice user but for me I would like to have options. Price: Free

review details

SpeedyFox

It doesn't do a whole lot...

Firefox is still just as slow as when you first install it as it is after you use this utility. I don't care. I prefer Internet Explorer 8 anyway. Internet Explorer 8 is fast after tweaking it because Microsoft knows it's own OS and knows how to make their programs run fast on it. Price: Free

review details

XPS Removal Tool

Yup it removes that stupid printer

Who uses the Microsoft XPS Document Writer or the XPS file format? It's just an annoying printer that creates files that tries to rival the PDF document format. I didn't want this let alone know about it and yet Windows thinks I needed it. Good thing this tool removes it. The only problem with this application is that after removal, it advertises it's own PDF printer by asking you if you want to install it. Saying yes gives you a prompt to save the download and no does nothing. It still feels the need to take you to the download page even if you say no. How annoying. Sorry I'm taken by PDFCreator. Price: Free

review details

Revo Uninstaller Pro

Stick with the free version

VS Revo Group has gone off-track with their program. Firstly, why have a V1 download and a V2 download? Why not just have the V2 download only and when the free trial is over, only disable the new Pro features? Secondly, I don't like their tabbed interface. There should be an option to disable that. Thirdly, the uninstall screen doesn't refresh when you rename the uninstall entry using the open registry key feature unlike V1. Sometimes when I install programs, I don't like how they name their uninstall entries and I rename it using this feature. There are some things that I like about this improved V2 version. It remembers the leftover scan mode you selected unlike the V1 version. It also finally adds cleaner support for Firefox and Chrome but it still has support for Netscape. Seriously, drop that browser and add Safari. We are almost there with the perfect uninstall utility. All it needs is the improvements mentioned. I would recommend the V1 free version for right now until VS Revo Group get back on-track. Price: Free Trial ($39.25)

review details

ExifCleaner

This program works, but...

This program works and removes all Exif data as expected really easily. The only flaw with this program is that it is shareware. I am not paying 15 just for a program that does one thing well. Any freeware utility in general can do more than what this program does and that is really rather sad. Since this program is shareware, I'll pass up on this. If this were freeware, I would highly recommend this to many people to protect their privacy uploading pictures to Facebook or something. Don't get me wrong. Some shareware programs are worth buying if they contain a boatload of useful features but this utility is not worth buying. Price: Free Trial ($15.95)

review details

LAlarm

Interesting software that needs improvement

What a clever piece of software! The alarm was so loud it nearly gave me a heart attack when I was testing this to see how this works for myself. Ha ha. Well there are some things that need some improvement. When setting the options, you need to either reboot your computer or logout and login again. Why can't it use updated options right away? I found out that you can't terminate the program when you really don't need to use it under normal circumstances. Well I found out if you use Task Manager (ctrl+alt+delete) and go to processes and terminate "LAlarmSub.exe" and then start that same process again, you really don't need to reboot your computer or logout and login again. Another problem is you need a Gmail account to receive text messages on your phone. I don't want a Gmail account. Either I'm not fully understanding how this feature works or this feature needs to be redesigned to be much easier. Price: Free

review details

Opera

Better than Firefox and Google Chrome

I had to defy Microsoft and Internet Explorer 8, I`d go with Opera instead of the popular web browsers Firefox and Google Chrome. There are some things that suck but most can be fixed. Here`s what can be fixed: That red button in the top-left corner I hate. I can get rid of that. The menus are hidden by default. I can bring that back. The back and forward buttons don`t have navigation history. I can customize the interface by swapping the default back and forward buttons with ones that have the drop-down navigation history. Here`s what can`t be fixed: The startup is a little slow. The marquee HTML tag when changing scroll direction with JavaScript seems to do something that is hard to explain with words. You just have to see what I mean by trying this browser and compare it with Internet Explorer 8 or something. Overall this is a good alternative browser. Price: Free

review details

Apple Safari

This is a joke

Just like iTunes and anything Apple releases, Safari sucks. Yeah that`s right, most things from Apple suck but that`s not what I`m here to talk about. The way I feel about Google Chrome is about how I feel about Safari. Just like iTunes, it takes forever to install but at least it doesn`t install a bunch of services and startup entries without your permission. Also the install file is bloated. I prefer Internet Explorer if that wasn`t obvious in my other browser reviews and what makes Safari suck more is no navigation history for the back and forward buttons. I did hear if you right-click the back or forward buttons it will bring up the navigation history but this only applies to Firefox 4 and Google Chrome. What it comes down to is Safari is the worst of the popular browsers, according to W3Schools when it comes to what the popular browsers are. Price: Free

review details

K-Lite Codec Pack (Full)

Fixed some of my games that use video

Well I had two games that weren`t functioning as intended. One caused my computer to lock up and the other opened up this black useless window. After installing all the codecs in K-Lite Codec Pack, my games function as intended. No more computer lock ups or useless black windows. Another thing to note is the K-Lite Codec Pack can expand what Windows Media Player can play, especially on Windows Media Player 11 and below. It adds formats that Windows Media Player cannot support on it`s own! If Windows Media Player cannot play DVDs because it needs a codec, isn`t it obvious what to use to fix the problem? Just make sure you select the Cyberlink codec for DVDs! I`m sure this will fix other games and programs that use video so I highly recommend this! Price: Free

review details

Iobit Game Booster 3

v1 was good, v2 what were they thinking?

What the heck happened to the easy interface of V1? The interface is harder to use. Now all of a sudden you are slamming me with crap to make Game Booster better by buying into it? No! Yes all the features of V1 are still free in V2 but this is FREEWARE! I would recommend Game Booster but not V2. Sorry IObit. You have just lost your luster with this piece of crap. V1 gets 5 stars, V2 gets 2 stars. Price: Free

review details

IconViewer

Handy little tool

The interface is nice and clean for a tab add-on in the file properties window. It`s very easy to find the icon you want; any color mode or size it will work as long as it exists. It would be nice to export to other image types. Just one problem and that is this doesn`t work on shortcuts (*.lnk) to applications or libraries. Price: Free

review details

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Bloated

I'm sure this has been said 100s of times but yes, this is bloatware. It is plagued by slow startup, adding an unnecessary startup entry "reader_sl.exe" (Adobe Reader Speed Launcher), adding a plug-in I never use in my web browser, and having an oversized installation executable. Use CCleaner to tell that startup entry to buzz off. It's just a reader (with a save feature for entering data in data fields). No need for it to be bigger than necessary. I`ll pass. Price: Free

review details

PDF-XChange Viewer

I feel freer

Seeing this is the highest rated by users and SnapFiles staff, I strongly agree with all of them! All problems I mentioned in my Adobe Reader review are fixed with this 3rd party PDF reader. The startup is fast, no unnecessary startup entries, disable web browser plug-in installation, and having a moderately sized installation executable. Drop Adobe Reader and get PDF-XChange Viewer! Price: Free

review details

MediaMonkey

This feels right

The interface feels similar to iTunes and has iPod sync support. I think it's a hybrid of both iTunes and Winamp, meaning it takes the good features of iTunes, takes the plug-in support that Winamp has, and removes all the bloat! I prefer not to use skins so good thing this program can use the current system theme you are using. My only complaint is there is no repeat single track button or feature. Even the most basic of media players have one somewhere. I had to Google for a plug-in that will do just that which is stupid. Also this player would really benefit if it had video playback support. Otherwise this works as a great iTunes substitute. Price: Free

review details

ManyCam

Some interesting software here

This is some interesting software here. I can't see a practical use for it but it's a great thing to do for fun. No you don't really need a green screen to put a custom background behind you. It uses some kind of comparison algorithm that works pretty decently with a few flaws here and there but what do you expect if you don't have a green screen? Price: Free

review details

IZArc

Nearly perfect

This program is a must for file compression and archiving. The interface is easy and customizable. I only have two problems with this program. The first problem is that it's not a file manager like other archiving tools or even like Windows Explorer. This program only opens archives. Just by looking at the interface, it fools you into thinking it could be a file manager but really isn't. The next problem is creating new archives. It opens a save dialog of where you want to save your archive and then brings you to what you want to add to it and what type of archive it should be. I can't help it should be the other way around or should just be one window. These problems are minor though. IZArc is a must have. Price: Free

review details

Google Chrome

No, no, no...

Where to begin... The first thing about this program is its installation. The first time installing this it installed it on my account in the "Documents and Settings" folder (Windows XP) or "Users" folder (Windows Vista/7). I had to go Google for an installer (ironic) that would place it in the "Program Files" folder where it should be. Next it puts all these Google Update things in the Services, Startup, and Tasks ("C:Windows asks"). Just delete or disable them. Thank you CCleaner! I will update when I feel like it, not when Google feels like it. When I finally open Google Chrome the one thing that all other browsers have is a menu bar and Google Chrome doesn't have one. Google in general tries to do everything but does almost everything poorly. The only really good thing they do is being a search engine. Google Chrome is overhyped and needs way more work in my opinion for me to recommend this to others. Price: Free

review details

LEGO Digital Designer

Fun

Never did I expect SnapFiles to have in their database a fun kids application. It's a pretty fun building tool. I am a grown man living my childhood through this application. It's more of an interesting application for adults but I recommend it for kids. Price: Free

review details

Winamp Full

Not perfect, but the best out there.

Well it's definitely better than other media players out there but it still has it's faults as I've noticed throughout the years I used it. This program wants you to pay for the full version. The benefits of that is maximum audio ripping and burning speeds. To me it's not worth it. I can find freeware that can do this. This media player should be completely free. No DVD player support and this plays all other known media formats, audio and video. Also if I were in charge of coding this media player, I would completely redesign it removing unneeded features and adding some much more needed features. Price: Free

review details

VLC Media Player

This is a great media player

This is a great media player. I originally got this because the CyberLink PowerDVD software was getting more and more bloated with each new version and it keeps messing with the audio driver's volume control. VLC Media Player doesn't do that. One handy feature is the volume control on the window. It can amplify soft media. Great for DVDs. Why are DVDs so soft anyway? The only problem with this is pausing the media. The sound has this delay before it pauses. Then when you resume, the sound picks up with the same delay time. It's very noticeable with videos. This should be fixed somehow. All media players I used before don't do that. This minor problem is tolerable however. Price: Free

review details

Visual Subst

Not feature rich but otherwise interesting

This software just allows you to create drives that appear in My Computer from existing folders. The buttons don't have any tool tips when you hover your mouse over the buttons for what they actually do so you just do things blindly. This program is interesting but otherwise I wouldn't recommend this for regular use. Price: Free Trial ($19.95)

review details

iTunes

Bloatware

First off, iTunes takes forever to install. Second, it adds all these startup and service entries: Apple Mobile Device, Bonjour Service, iPod Service, QuickTime Task, and iTunesHelper. It just slows down my computer at startup. Good thing I can get rid of the startup entries with CCleaner and disable the services. I don't even own an iPod or iPhone. When I add my mp3s to the library, it checks for gapless playback and album artwork. I just want to be able to have easy access to play any mp3 I want. This program loads very slowly. This program is compatible with Windows Live Messenger's "Show what I'm listening to" feature but there is no way to customize what displays there. Every version that comes out I hope that Apple puts that feature in there but no such luck. Price: Free

review details

CDBurnerXP

Easy data cd/dvd burning

I use this software for mostly data burning to a CD/DVD. One feature I like is saving to ISO and that is the equivalent of burning your documents to a CD/DVD (data CD/DVD). I haven't tried the other features of CDBurnerXP but I'm sure they will prove useful in the future. Price: Free

review details

DVD Flick

Easy DVD creation!

I've tried all sorts of software to create DVDs but this one does it the best. The menu creation is automatic, plain, and simple but at least you can easily navigate them. My favorite feature is the ISO creation. You can test drive the ISO before burning to DVD using DAEMON Tools or something. Highly recommended software! Price: Free

review details

Recuva

Lifesaver!

My mom got a new computer a little while ago and when I attached her old HDD of her old computer to her new computer, she was salvaging files from it. When doing so, she thought she permanently deleted her e-mails from Outlook Express. She started to panic. She had a lot of valuable e-mails. That's when I remembered Recuva and boy did it recover all of her e-mails, and in perfect condition. She got her life back thanks to Recuva! Highly recommended for anyone who needs to recover something valuable! Price: Free

review details

FlashGet

Great for all internet connections types!

In the days of dial-up, this tool was great for big downloads. Dial-up connections would frequently disconnect. If you had big downloads, you had to be lucky to get the file fully downloaded. Then FlashGet came around to give us some help with resuming the download later or broken downloads. FlashGet benefits not just dial-up users but any Internet user. If you have big files that must be downloaded, why risk downloading without the ability to resume paused or broken downloads? Use FlashGet for safety and to save you loads of time if your connection has halted! Price: Free

review details

Easy Graphic Converter

Gets the job done

I've been using this program for a couple of years now and it gets the job done. The only problem I have with it is every time it's done with a conversion, it pops-up with a question asking if I want to save a report of the conversion. Why? Other than that this is a good program. It does work on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Price: Free

review details

FileZilla

Trusted and easy FTP transfer

FileZilla makes FTP simple. I do have one problem with this program and that is the default interface is more complicated than it needs to be. Good thing it's customizable. I don't need the directory trees for both the local site and remote site panes. Also I don't need the message log. Those things just clutter up the display. Otherwise this program is the best for all your FTP needs. Price: Free

review details

ReNamer Lite

Does the job with little effort!

From time to time I have had a lot of files to rename or even change the extension for and this tool is a time saver! I used to use Extension Changer which a small window that isn't very user-friendly and you have to drag the selected files from the Windows Explorer window to the Extension Changer window. Until I found this I immediately switched. Why can't Microsoft give us this ability that this software can? Price: Free

review details

SpyBHORemover

Great way to remove BHOs

BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) aren't so helpful for web browsing with Internet Explorer since BHOs slows Internet Explorer down, well at least mine. Internet Explorer offers no way to remove them through its settings. Good thing I found this utility. The only improvement I would offer to the author is when you move BHOs from the Installed BHO List to the Removed BHO List, there should be an easy way to permanently remove the BHO. They offer a way on their website to do that by going though the registry which is more difficult than it has to be. All that's really needed is a button on the software window itself. Price: Free

review details

Glary Utilities Free

How did i miss this?

How did I miss this awesome freeware? Why is freeware better than shareware in so many cases? I originally downloaded this for registry cleaning but once I checked out all the other utilities this software comes with, it just exceeded my expectations. Someone on one of the boards I go to recommended me this software. I now recommend this as well. Price: Free

review details

IE Tweaker

I just had to try it...

Internet Explorer's default settings really are a pain so finding ways to fix the issues that Internet Explorer does not provide settings for is not easy. The only useful thing about this program is the repair section. I tried the other settings and for some reason the options of the right-click menu on the command bar of Internet Explorer are disabled. I don't know how to enable it again. I contacted the support team of this program and they couldn't help me fix my problem. Use this program at your own risk. Price: Free

review details

CCleaner

I'm amazed!

The Windows Disk Cleanup utility is slow and doesn`t clean much junk files off of the hard disk drive. CCleaner is faster and cleans more junk files off of the hard disk drive. CCleaner has given me GBs of hard disk drive space back! The registry cleaner fixed those invalid entries! I highly recommend this program! Price: Free

review details

XMPlay

A great small winamp substitute

All I can say is that it is a great Winamp substitute plus more. Have any PopCap Games and just want to listen to the music? This program is for you. I've always wanted to do that. Plus XMPlay has the same plug-in support that Winamp has so if XMPlay doesn't have what Winamp does have, placing the Winamp plug-in in the same directory as XMPlay will work. XMPlay can only do audio so hopefully it will do video as well as audio for future releases. Price: Free

review details

CamStudio

Small but powerful

For years I've been wanting to screen capture with no audio/video syncing errors or stuttering frames. This program is the best! For what ever reason YouTube members when they do screen capture they use HyperCam 2. Yes it is what I'm looking for when it comes to screen capture but there is that annoying "Unregistered HyperCam 2" text that it puts on every video you record. I'm not willing to pay. Too bad those YouTube members didn't know about CamStudio! One thing that doesn't need to be a feature is SWF support. That's just me. Another thing that needs improvement is fixing a region to capture video from. Drawing the capture frame once and entering numbers to tweak the frame size forces you to do guess work of where you want to capture and how much area you want to capture. Not exactly user friendly. This should be fixed by dragging/resizing something resembling a frame and you press the OK button when done tweaking the capture frame. Price: Free

review details

Firefox Browser

I don`t get it

I read pcs800's review and couldn't agree more. I just don't get it. You need plug-ins to be able to compare it to what Internet Explorer can do on it's own. I can program in JavaScript and one JavaScript I made runs in Internet Explorer as intended. Run it in Firefox and we get a different result! The JavaScript was adding two numbers but Firefox thought I was trying to piece together two string values. 1+1=11? I don't think so. I had to fix it using an algebraic way. 1-(-1)=2. That fixed it. Cool people use Firefox. Cool people follow fads and don't question them. I'm not cool. I'm questioning Firefox. Why do people think it is so much better than Internet Explorer? So what if you can use different skins? Looks don't determine how good a program is. It's the functionality. I know some looks are good but there needs to be balance. People claim Firefox loads faster than Internet Explorer. It doesn't for my computer. Price: Free

review details

TweakUI

My favorite Windows XP powertoy!

All I have to say is wow! Why did Microsoft not give you these tweak options in the first place? This is a great tool to be able to tweak things you thought you could not tweak at all. Highly recommended for advanced Windows XP users! Price: Free

review details

Revo Uninstaller

The best uninstall utility but not perfect

Not only does it run the uninstall application for the program you want to uninstall, it scans the computer for leftover files and registry entries from the uninstall! It was always a pain to search for all that manually. This tool is also great for cleaning up your hard drive and startup entries. The Junk Files Cleaner feature the first time running it found tens of thousands of junk files. It gave me a few GBs of space back once cleared. It also has great cleaners for web browsers, Microsoft Office, and the Windows OS itself. One thing that could be improved is adding web browser cleaners for the major web browsers for only Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari and drop Netscape. Netscape is a dead web browser. Another improvement is uninstallations that require reboot. I don't want to mess with the leftover information scan with the required reboot. After reboot Revo Uninstaller can`t continue the leftover information scan. This needs to be fixed somehow. Price: Free

review details

ieSpell

The easy way to check spelling in IE

This tool is great when going on forums or anywhere that has text boxes to fill out when using Internet Explorer. No more need to copy and paste text from Internet Explorer into a Microsoft Word document to check spelling. This works for all current Internet Explorer versions as of this time this review is posted. I don't go to the menu bar to select the check spelling option but rather I right-click the text box I want to check spelling on and select the check spelling option that way. If a webpage has multiple text boxes, ieSpell will check spelling on all those text boxes. This plug-in also has the ability to look up highlighted words' definitions which could come in handy. This review is ieSpell checked! Price: Free

review details

BlueScreenView

Without this blue screens are pointless

Over the years I have gotten several blue screens. Once you reboot the computer, you cannot fix the problem yourself because you cannot remember the blue screen details and cannot see the blue screen snapshot but rather rely on Microsoft's crash reporting tool which really cannot help you. It gave you suggestions on what to do but nothing specific to the blue screen. BlueScreenView allows you to look at the blue screen details of what caused the blue screen and can even replicate the blue screen you just saw making it better than Microsoft's crash reporting tool. You do not have to remember a thing. Just select the blue screen from the list and you can know the details of the blue screen. Knowing exactly what caused the blue screen, you can search for fixes online. Price: Free

review details

IECookiesView

Great if you want to delete specific cookies

I have cookies I don't want to delete. Internet Explorer only has the option to delete all cookies. This simple utility you can select the cookies you want to delete and press shift+delete. The reason for the shift is because pressing the delete key doesn't get rid of the cookies but rather it is like the equivalent of placing files in the Recycle Bin. Another problem is checking vs. selecting. Checked cookies you can delete but selected ones you cannot. It would be easier to select cookies without the need of check boxes. Price: Free

review details

FlashCookiesView

Easy utility

I always wanted to be able to delete settings stored by Flash files. This utility can do just that. Price: Free

review details

7-Zip

Better and free compared to others

This is the best compression archiving tool I have ever used! WinZip and WinRAR suck and you have to pay for them! 7-Zip is free and can do a whole lot more! The only thing that this program needs is an indication on how many files are in an archive or directory. Price: Free

review details

Agent Ransack

Better than Windows Vista/7 search!

All I have to say is that it's better than the slow Windows Vista/7 Search in Windows Explorer. The only thing that should be a feature is selecting a file type by a pull down menu just like in the Windows XP search function of Windows Explorer, if applicable. Price: Free

review details

Ultimate Windows Tweaker (Vista)

Good way to make Vista/7 work better

This is a good utility that will help make Windows Vista/7 run so much better. There is one problem with this program and that is everytime I want to apply changes, not OK them, it wants me to reboot. This message should be saved until I exit the program if I applied changes. Price: Free

review details

Autoplay Repair

What a fix!

For years I had invalid, broken, and unwanted autoplay options on my Windows XP. This handy tool fixed it all! I can also add my own entries! I highly recommend this program! Price: Free

review details

EaseUS Partition Master

No need to reboot the computer!

Windows XP Disk Management is very lacking compared to the Windows Vista/7 Disk Management (Administrative Tools > Computer Management). I tried various third party partitioning tools but they all required a computer reboot to apply changes. EASEUS Partition Master doesn't need to do that! You change the size of the partition and it will resize it without a reboot! Also adding partitions is easy! The interface needs to be fixed up a little bit but everything else is OK. Price: Free

review details

Software Reviews by wildgoosespeeder

Check out these featured downloads...