Software Reviews

by D_Spider

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

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP/Vista

Excellent freeware

IcoFX version 1.5

Interface: 5
Features: 4
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

If there were a rating for features-per-megabyte, this little icon editor would have a very high one. It can do batch processing. You can make your own filters (the settings for the built-in filters are accessible as models, so all that's required is patience). By reading the Help File, you can figure out how to use selections to achieve what's normally accomplished by using layers. Its resizing algorithm is good. IcoFX works fine with 32-bit color depth. If you want maximum functionality, use your big image editor's sophisticated features, save as a 32-bit PNG, open that with IcoFX and make an ICO with several images inside it (even Photoshop needs its icon-plugin). Or just use IcoFX until you *know* what additional features you want in an icon editor. They're unlikely to be free, and in the meantime you've made your own icons and transformed others and had fun. That's a great deal.

Review date: Aug 07, 2007

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Wonderful, excellent!

ShellExView version 1.16

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

It even has a convenient "search" function. It does what all the other reviewers have noted, and one thing they haven't: you can disable the context-menu entries of useful programs that rely on the context menu (Recase, CROA, etc.) until you want to use them. Then re-enable, get rid of all the ugly capital letters, for instance, and return the right-click menu to its cleaned-up, shortened state. (If ShellExView doesn't list the shell extension you want to disable, check out NirSoft's companion utility, "Shell Menu View" [shmnview].) It's amazing how nice it feels not to have to look at an interminable list of annoyances every time you right-click!

Review date: Jun 18, 2007

Freeware
2000/XP

So far, it's great!

AVS DVD Player version 2.4.1.121

Interface: 5
Features: 4
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

I wanted a free, dependable, no-adware-etc DVD player. The developers of AVS DVD Player have evidently listened to users' comments, since this latest version works on my computer with none of the problems earlier reviews have mentioned. And they're polite: it doesn't automatically associate itself with a zillion file types or take over the computer's context-menus! On my computer it works better than PowerDVD v5. Given its 3-star rating and user-review cautions, this DVD player was a very pleasant surprise. Great freeware!

Review date: Jun 17, 2007

Free Trial ($30.00)
2000/XP

A versatile, fast, stable launcher

LaunchBar Commander version 1.56.02

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

It'd be 99% ideal if it supported multiple monitors, and 100% if its 25 skins were more varied in background color. It's easy to configure (drag and drop), can hold almost limitless items in multi-layers, includes its own icons and options to use those in Windows' shell, or in your other DLLs and EXEs, or your own ("large" = 32x32, "small" = 16x16, though other-sized icons are displayed as these sizes). Its shortcuts can execute programs, scripts, plugins, internal and external links, or display menus, submenus, the contents of folders, or special things like what you've chosen from the Control-Panel applets. My taskbar is on my secondary monitor, so the menus pop up there, but the floating or auto-hiding windows appear on the primary and won't be moved over. (Minor glitch: it says "Menu Commander" in Windows list of installed programs.) I've searched, and I haven't yet found a free launcher that's better.

Review date: Jun 17, 2007

Freeware
Win (All)

At first it may look a little weird...

Jarte version 2.6

Interface: 3
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

If you don't want or need a monster "office"-type word processor, Jarte will do just fine. It makes rich-text documents easily, imports pictures, does page-numbering, headers, footers, italics, boldface, multiple fonts, whatever size characters you like, highlighting, colors, etc. The interface is idiosyncratic, but it is easy to use and practical. Support from the author is generous and excellent. I've made some 30-pages-long documents with it; it's not just for short things. It's stable. I think it's the best small, free word processor available.

Review date: Jun 17, 2007

Freeware
Win (All)

It's unfair competition for SychBack SE

SyncBack version 3.2.14

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

I'm sure the pay-for program has extra features, but for an individual with a home computer the freeware SyncBack is more than adequate. Two suggestions for users: (1) Don't be put off by the "Advanced" tabs--the options they provide are perfectly clear, easy to implement, and very useful. (2) The complications users have encountered using SyncBack and Windows Task Scheduler can be avoided simply by doing backups "live"--after all, you have to be there to disconnect the drive you've backed up to when the backup is done (or else the backed-up data isn't safe); and, after you configure the way SyncBack works (the profiles) and do your first backup, subsequent ones go very, very fast. This is an impressive, excellent backup program!

Review date: Jun 08, 2007

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

Alas, it makes some errors

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner version 1.5

Interface: 3
Features: 3
Ease of use: 3
Value: 3
Overall:

... that I know are errors: unused file extensions (which are in use), some paths, etc. I ran it several times, but I didn't let it clean anything until I checked the registry to be sure the path (for instance) was wrong. Other cleaners make errors, too, so I'm not singling out Eusing Free Registry Cleaner. And I have to admit I was impressed by its finding remnants of MSIE 4 (how long ago was that?) uninstall files in my very recently installed XPproSP2 registry. Overall, EFRC is okay, but I can't bring myself to trust it.

Review date: Jun 08, 2007

Freeware
Win (All)

When they get the bugs out...

Registry Explorer version 1.4.4

Interface: 4
Features: 2
Ease of use: 2
Value: 2
Overall:

Registry Explorer seems like a great idea, but my experience with it was disappointing. First, it was a challenge to get the desktop icon off the desktop since it's not really a shortcut but is somehow integrated into Control Panel. Then, it behaved quirkily - I wanted to stop a program from starting up automatically, and as I navigated in the registry toward "...Windows Current Version Run" and clicked on the "+" in front of Current Version, Registry Explorer simply closed itself; I just couldn't get past that "+" sign. Later, it actually crashed-- didn't just close without doing any harm but left me wondering if it had made changes before it stopped responding. When I rebooted and tried again, same thing. So I uninstalled it. There are more dependable, less-anxiety-producing, free, registry-editing programs available.

Review date: May 21, 2007

Freeware
Win (All)

For thumbnails and...

Easy Thumbnails version 2.9

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

Easy Thumbnails is *very* easy to use, and it produces excellent results. It's also a really good image resizer-- any size, almost, to any other size, and for other formats than JGP. And the several resizing algorithms make possible some quite subtle effects. (The "best" algorithm depends on what kind of image--colors, contrast, etc--you use it on.) Simply excellent!

Review date: Apr 19, 2007

Freeware
Win (All)

All this in 70 k?

Win32Pad version 1.5.10.2

Interface: 4
Features: 4
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

Win32Pad's developer deserves some kind of achievement award! Unless one wants and needs *significantly* more features and is willing to "pay" for them with more resource use and a lot more intrusiveness (context-menu items, entries throughout the registry, etc.), this text editor more than suffices. It's a great replacement for NotePad, and even on a small pen drive you'll hardly notice it's there... till it does what you want it to do.

Review date: Apr 08, 2007

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Which features do you want?

Notepad SX version 1.2

Interface: 4
Features: 4
Ease of use: 4
Value: 4
Overall:

Notepad SX doesn't number lines, but it has some offsetting other features. Overall, it's the equal of the other listed text editors of the same size, and probably better than the others that got three-star ratings. If I could make use of its differentiating features, I'd use it.

Review date: Apr 08, 2007

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

And it's for free?

Copernic Desktop Search version 2.02

Interface: 4
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

Copernic indexed 275,000+ "keywords" in my computer--I have a lot of texts, images, and audio files--and not only did that much more quickly than I expected but it also finishes searches as close to "instantly" as makes no difference to me. Now I'm batch-converting my Paint-Shop-Pro image files to compressed JPEGs so that Copernic Desktop Search can show me thumbnails of them (and I know from the "E" in those extensions that they're just copies, not JPGs I've made for Web pages). A side effect of this is that Windows Explorer can now "see" those images, too --but I didn't begin the project till I'd found how good Copernic is. Its search-within-texts, showing the words without having to open the files, is excellent, too. I'd tried Windows Live Search, and Copernic is faster and (I think) much better. Now I can go looking in my files instead of looking for a search tool!

Review date: Apr 08, 2007

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Powerful and usable

Audacity version 1.2.6

Interface: 4
Features: 5
Ease of use: 4
Value: 5
Overall:

I've used Audacity to convert WAVs into high bit-rate MP3s, to record off vinyl LPs, to adjust volume (amplitude), and to play with some sound files "creatively." It's a good, stable application, and I prefer it to NTi's wave editor (which I paid for). With version 1.2.3 there is a problem with memory management-- trying to convert edited WAVs to MP3s, I got "out of memory" errors (with XPpro and 1GB RAM?); the easy workaround is to close Audacity after finishing one file, before starting another (XP will take care of RAM use, then). And newer versions may have fixed this problem (I just haven't done any monster files recently); even if not, restarting the application between files is a small price to pay for such an otherwise versatile and dependable [and free!] audio editor.

Review date: Apr 08, 2007

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Others are better

QuickFill by BB version 1.0.0

Interface: 2
Features: 3
Ease of use: 1
Value: 2
Overall:

I was predisposed favorably because of another of BB's utilities, but this one was too cumbersome to configure and promised to be too much trouble to use. The "boilerplate" or "template" features of Yankee Clipper, ArsClip, Clipomatic, et al. are far more convenient, and the main point of these is to save keystrokes and mouseclicks, right?

Review date: Apr 08, 2007

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

Within its limits, wonderful

Extension Changer version 0.5

Interface: 5
Features: 3
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

All this utility does is change file extensions, quickly and easily. It does not do anything weird to your computer. So, if you need to change some extensions, here's a nice, small, simple, free--and safe!--utility to use.

Review date: Apr 02, 2007

Freeware
2000/XP/Vista

Overall, excellent!

CCleaner version 1.27.260

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

You can use it just to clear cookies and temp files after you're done surfing, and you can use it for regular clean-ups of the junk various applications leave on your hard drive, and you can use it to change "46D89-0" to "modem" in your list of installed programs (and to uninstall), and you can use it to get rid of useless stuff in your registry. Except for the last, CCleaner is foolproof and easy to use. As a registry cleaner, it's perhaps too easy to use, and not proof against one's own ignorance. So don't let it fix registry-things you don't understand, and CCleaner will become one of your must-have tools.

Review date: Apr 29, 2006

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Fun and easy to use

Cartoonist version 1.1

Interface: 5
Features: 4
Ease of use: 5
Value: 3
Overall:

A good graphics program's smudge tool can do more than Cartoonist, but not so easily. With the smudge tool, you'd set the size/shape of the selection area, the opacity percentage, the hardness of the area's border, and begin; then, more likely than not, you'd change some settings, and continue; then.... With Cartoonist, all you do is set the size of the selection area with a slider on the main window and get to work. Suppose your selection area covers the end of a person's nose; you depress the mouse button and drag (your person now looks like Pinocchio). Don't like it? --undo; like it? --save. It's that easy. Besides photos and caricatures, Cartoonist can "erase" or disguise distracting elements, make clouds and waves dramatic, etc. I'd like some larger selection circles, and I'd love variable rectangles, but Cartoonist's ease of use and excellent interface don't need improvement at all.

Review date: Apr 29, 2006

Free Trial ($19.00)
98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

Certainly worth a try...

STOIK Deformer version 2.0

Interface: 1
Features: 4
Ease of use: 4
Value: 3
Overall:

My chief negative response is to the fact that the tools are "small," "medium," and "large," with no adjustments possible. But someone else may find this uncomplicated instead of limiting. If you want to do funny, neat, and sometimes striking things to your photos and images without having to learn the details of a more conventional image editor and proceed step by step, Deformer may be just what you want. It's like a sophisticated image editor with on/off switches, or a graphics-effects wizard that takes care of the details for you.

Review date: Apr 05, 2006

Free Trial ($24.95)
Win (All)

Stable, flexible, easy to use

Kirby Alarm version 2.1

Interface: 4
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

Kirby Alarm is just about the perfect scheduler / reminder program. It is extremely stable--I've used it for almost two years and it hasn't crashed once (the only bug I know of is that it disables "Show Windows' Contents While Dragging," and this is already fixed in the current beta). It allows you to schedule programs and reminders in virtually every way possible: daily, yearly, the-nth-day-of-the-month, every-x-minutes (for graphics applications without autosave, I use a little sound to remind me). Setting up the schedule is easy, thanks to a very clear interface and useful error messages that tell you which checkbox you've missed. I use Kirby Alarm for all my computer maintenance: it opens the right program at the right time and reminds me to check for updates the night before, great! I wish some applications I've paid for worked this well.

Review date: Oct 23, 2005

Freeware
Win 98

If you download files, download test-run!

Test-Run version 2.12

Interface: 3
Features: 4
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

For pre-XP operating systems, Test-Run is a necessity and a blessing. It copies your registry; you switch on Test-Run, and your computer uses the copy; you install a cool game, play it a little, and your system crashes, or freezes, or loads up with junk. So you calmly say, "too bad," and you uninstall the game, and then you use Test-Run to switch back to your real, unaffected, still-okay registry: no damage done. Or you get a new utility, it doesn't work out, you uninstall it and switch back: Test-Run makes uninstalling literal: no little snippets left behind. If only I had Test-Run when I first began to download things and try them out.... how many BSODs would I have *not* seen! This is a small program, and its "testing" wallpaper is certainly unglamorous, but it's "System Restore" plus "ERUNT" for older computers. Get it. Read the documentation carefully and more than once. And discover the fun that new programs should be.

Review date: May 10, 2005

Freeware
2000/XP/2003/Vista

Easy to learn, excellent features

FreeCommander version 2004.10b

Interface: 4
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

I had tried other dual-pane Explorer substitutes, but they seemed to me no better than running two instances of Windows Explorer. Then I found freeCommander, and it suits me perfectly. The view-as-thumbnails (up to 150x150 big) convinced me to try-it-out/learn-it seriously, because it supports Paint Shop Pro images as well as bmp, gif, jpg, png, most icon files, etc. Now I don't have to open a graphics application just to check on the location of a photo or icon. FreeCommander also opens zip (& other compressed) files, re-cases a folder's files (either whole filename or just extension), and is just plain useful. The author deserves a lot of credit for packing in features yet leaving the UI nice and clean. The PSP thumbnails and freeCommander's stability combine to make the application better, actually, than I'd hoped when I downloaded it.

Review date: May 10, 2005

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

As a registry searcher, super...

RegSeeker version 1.35

Interface: 5
Features: 3
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

As a registry cleaner, it's excellent if used with care. Check the box (lower left) and it saves the items you deleted; these are easy to relocate and restore. But it does make mistakes, occasionally suggesting that a registry extension or 'open with' entry is obsolete when in fact it isn't. So, *read* the info about the suggested deletions and, if in doubt, don't delete them. (It has a neat 'ignore' list for entries that it keeps flagging but that you don't want to delete--or see every time you use the cleaner.) As long as you're cautious, this is an invaluable tool. It's fast and thorough; its interface is clean and clear; and for a free program, its range of features is generous.

Review date: May 07, 2005

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

A great little program!

DriveZ version 1.0.18

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

DriveZ needs more stars! It does what it claims admirably (using hardly any resources, causing no system errors). It makes text lists on one's clipboard. You choose a folder; DriveZ shows its contents; you can remove file extensions, then click the big button ("Make a list..."), and the list appears in the UI window and on your clipboard. Or you can make a list of the (sub)folder names. Other options: a checkbox for MP3 files, and a place ("Mask:") where you can filter file types (so you can list just the EXEs or GIFs in your folder). It's just the thing for making indexes of CDs.

Review date: May 03, 2005

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP/2003

One that works

DeepBurner version 1.5

Interface: 3
Features: 4
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

After months of problems with a paid-for, big, complicated program, I found DeepBurner. I've used it for making data CDs (so far), and it simply does the job. I had to spend a little time figuring out the interface, but once I did, it is superbly simple and easy to use. It also has no problems with the Sony CDR discs that other burners would not burn on. I'm happy.

Review date: Apr 01, 2005

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Amazingly free

Redfield Plugins

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

I downloaded the whole package, which contains freeware, and some shareware, filters. They are powerful, versatile, and many other good things. The interface is the best I've found (with freeware filters, anyway), and the help files are really helpful. The "sample" files (textures) at Redfield's web site are many and high-quality. If I were a graphics pro, I'd buy the shareware filters without hesitation; since I'm an amateur, I just use what's in the download and silently thank Redfield when I do.

Review date: Dec 08, 2004

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP/2003

Real html, real easy

Alleycode HTML Editor version 2.0

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

Alleycode has a set of tabbed wizards, so you have most common-to-most-formats tags, etc. ready to insert, or those specific to tables, or to CSS, or to PHP. It's all set up to show you your pages in Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Opera. Alleycode's interface really is intuitive, and it very quickly becomes familiar. I'd been using TextPad for my web pages, and I still use it for .txt, but I wanted an editor that would automate a bit more of the HTML-specific tasks; then I used CuteHTML happily until its lack of updatedness began to bother me; and then I found Alleycode. It doesn't re-position elements like alt text so I can no longer recognize image links, it doesn't crash my computer, it's free, and it even has tutorials. I wish I'd found it sooner.

Review date: Sep 17, 2004

Freeware
Win (All)

Simple and best

AnalogX MaxMem version 1.01

Interface: 5
Features: 5
Ease of use: 5
Value: 5
Overall:

Running Win98se, I used to have memory problems, and I tried out at least a dozen "memory tools" over a period of weeks. MaxMem is the best, and not just among freeware: it's simple to use, easy to configure, small in size and in system-resource use, and it does *not* have any bugs (unlike most others). I can run my main graphics programs (sometimes two at once) and then open and close my font manager, on-screen ruler, color-matcher, etc., and Windows doesn't hold on to memory and lock up the way it used to. MaxMem is simply invaluable.

Review date: Aug 12, 2004