If you have Windows XP and a broadband connection to the net, you can back up your files online at Mozy.com. If you're backing up 2GB or less, it's free.
Mozy is a new service (currently in beta) that lets you do your backups via the Internet. Yes, many services like this already exist, but they're expensive: Old-guard company Xdrive costs $10 a month for 5GB of space. Mozy gives you 2GB of space for free, 5GB for $1.95 a month, and 30GB for $4.95 a month.
To get started with Mozy, you register and download a small application that stays running on your PC. The Mozy app scans your computer for files you might want to back up, and you can tweak the types you want. (I'm backing up word processing documents but not music, for example.) If you need more control over files and folders, you can drill deeper into advanced options to select backups on a file-by-file basis. Your data is encrypted on Mozy's site.
Comodo Personal Firewall 2.0, A Really Good & Free Firewall
System Requirements * Windows 2000 / Windows XP SP2 * Internet Explorer Version 5.1 or above * 64 MB available RAM * 32 MB of available free hard disk space
HDDScan 2.7 has been released. HDDScan is a Freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics, which supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire hard disks, flash cards. The program can scan the surface, view SMART attributes, adjust AAM, APM (Power Management), etc. New features include: ability to pause scanning, view defect lists and start/stop spindle on SCSI drives, control AAM, APM and S.M.A.R.T by using command line parameters.
There have been hacks for a while now to allow people to install the Windows Vista sidebar by assembling files from various sources but I just stumbled across a single executable package that MSTN put together.
Nero has released "reference quality" encoding software said to be fully compatible with the latest MPEG-4 audio standards (LC-AAC, HE-AAC, HE-AAC v2), and is offering a free Windows version for noncommercial use. Additionally, the company says its licensable digital audio technology includes an optimised codec for devices running Windows CE, among other embedded OSes.
According to Nero, the new "3GPP-compatible" audio encoder's compression ratios can be selected on a file-by-file basis, from 2.5:1 for highest audio quality, to a maximum compression level that can squeeze the contents of up to 58 CDs into a single CD. An entire audio album can be saved in a single .mp4 file with advanced content management, including support for CD-audio index maps, embedded album art, and ReplayGain, the company says. Additionally, the new MPEG-4 audio codec supports sampling rates from 8 to 96 kHz and bit rates to 320 kBit/s per channel with constant, average, variable, or double-pass coding modes, making it compatible with virtually any audio source, according to the company.
The Windows version of the codec runs from the command line without a graphical interface. It accepts .WAV files in PCM wave format as input and provides .MP4 files in MPEG-4/3GPP format as output, according to Nero. The command line also supports a variety of quality and bitrate values as parameters. Nero Recode 2, the Windows CE decoder, accepts MPEG-4/3GPP files as input, and outputs a PCM wave stream compatibile with DirectX 9.0a or later, according to the company. Nero Digital Audio for Windows is available as a free download, for noncommercial uses, here.
Designed for both beginners and advanced users, VistaBootPRO can be used to make "cosmetic" changes to the Windows Vista boot Menu such as changing the name of the Operating Systems shown in the boot menu and make advanced "functional" changes like adding an Operating System to the boot menu and repairing the Windows Vista boot configuration data. Advanced settings include backing up and exporting your boot loader configuration and modifying various details for the entries.
For those who have had to use the command prompt based bcdedit.exe in the past, you will be impressed with the ease of use and functionality that VistaBootPRO provides.
System Requirements: Windows 2k, 2k Server, XP, 2003 Server, Vista, or Longhorn Server. All systems must have .NET 2.0 Framework File size: 1.41 mb
VLC media player is a highly portable free multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, WMV, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
File size: 7.2MB (download), 10.2Mb (installed) System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP (Note: Win 95/98/Me are not officially supported) License: Free / Open Source (GPL)
Magic Photo is a easy to use windoze photo editor. If you want to edit photo, just use this photo editor. You can easily blend your digital photo onto another image to create special effects, or just to make your photo interesting and pretty.