Software Reviews

by Griffin

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
2000/XP/Vista

Nice. I love it.

Volumouse version 1.53

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

Setup still not ideal, but easy enough if you just take a minute to look at options pulldowns and decide how you want to adjust volume (ie. with which keys/mouse or combo). In my case I set it up to use alt-scroll to adjust volume and on the second line, I selected hotkeys and set it up to use f9 and f10 for up down volume. Nice. I love it. Many thanks to Nirsoft (developer).

Review date: Mar 03, 2008

Freeware
Win (All)

Outstanding downloader!

Orbit Downloader version 2.6.3

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

It has (most of) the features and functions I wanted, runs smoothly and nice integration with IE, and SlimBrowser. Best downloader I have found and only one I have kept for the IE platform. It is a bit rude in that it tries to put itself in the startup menu on every run (regardless of options setting), as far as I can tell. Not terrible, but not necessary either (I use the right click menu in IE/SlimBrowser to invoke, so I don't need a tray icon.

Review date: Feb 29, 2008

Freeware
Win (All)

Works great once you get it setup.

Synergy version 1.3.1

Interface: 3
Features: 5
Ease of use: 2
Value: 5
Overall:

The homepage of this app has info to help with setup. But, I had an undocumented problem. I ran Synergy for years with an early D-Link router in my network. Later changed to a new D-Link N-type router (DIR-625). Suddenly Synergy rarely could connect the two computers without reseting the router. I eventually found additional undocumented setup requirements for Windows. First I had to assign fixed IP addresses to the computers involved (using the router DCHP settings). Second, I put those IP addresses in a windows table called "hosts" found in the folder C:windowssystem32driversetc". Google for "synergy hate d-link cybertechhelp" and read that article for details on exactly what I did. This solution may solve connection problems on other routers as well. (Notice - no Synergy settings had to be changed, only router and Windows Settings). Now Synergy connects instantly every time and works as it should. Great program.

Review date: Feb 22, 2008

Freeware
2000/XP

Doesn't work consistently.

iVol version 3.4c

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

I tried to use it with the shift-scroll option. Frequently, I would do shift-scroll and nothing would happen. If I closed IVOL and then restarted it, the shift scroll would work again. I didn't take the time to try to find out what circumstances caused it to stop working, but it did so consistently on my system.

Review date: Jan 09, 2008

Freeware
2000/XP/2003/Vista

Indespensible for testing a suspect drive.

HD Tune version 2.53

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

Finds bad sectors when chkdsk says the drive passes. The bad sectors are there - chkdsk, for all its good points, somehow doesn't report them. It has helped explain mysterious system behavior that I originally thought was spyware, but was in fact partially unusable sectors corrupting operating system code. By the way the reviewer who states that it "does not fix bad sectors" is correct. But, since bad sectors are hardware errors, no program can fix them. When found, one should do a full backup and replace the bad (failing) drive. See the author's website for more info, including a table of drive access speeds for many drives (1000+). Get this. It is simple and does its job well. Great value!

Review date: Oct 24, 2007

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP/Vista

I had problems with bugs and bad documentation

GreenBrowser version 3.4.0629

Interface: 3
Features: 4
Ease of use: 2
Value: 2
Overall:

I have been using Slimbrowser for a while, but decided to try Greenbrowser after reading the reviews. I had problems with bugs in the interface - in the options menu, clicking on either the Tabs option or the Mouse option caused an exception (program abend). So, I was unable to set the options as I wanted them. Also, the documentation is terrible (single web page with sketchy translation from the Chinese). Finally, when trying to sign up for the author's forum to report bugs, the images of the numbers one has to type for validation did not show (even after enabling cookies). On Slimbrowser the page showed fine. Over all I'd give this one a C+ after all the problems and bad documentation. I give Maxthon and Avant a B+ and Slimbrowser an A-.

Review date: Jul 04, 2006

Freeware
2000/XP/Vista

Best in class. outstanding!

CCleaner (Slim) version 1.26.218

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

Does many things. Does them all well. Very professional interface and functionality. Look no further.

Review date: Feb 04, 2006

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Nice, simple download manager.

WackGet version 1.22

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

Generally found it far more useful than the other DL managers I tried. Their complexity added nothing useful for me. I loved being able to drag links into the DL mgr window to DL. Could have a few more features for me. Control-click did not work for PDF's (maybe works for others?). I would like to be able to (optionally) select the DL folder for each new DL I drag to the window. Nice program, though. Excellent at what it does and fast.

Review date: Feb 04, 2006

Freeware
Win (All)

Does the job for many webpages.

WebMon version 1.0.10

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

Works well for most (simple) webpages. Webpages with advertising or which display the time, for example can be a problem. One solution is to limit Webmon's area on the webpage to be watched (via start and endpoints based on fixed text). Sometimes that is not practical. Like I said, much of the time that is not a problem. So for about 80% of what I might like to watch, this is a great solution. Well written software. Good options. Nice interface.

Review date: Nov 16, 2005

Freeware
2000/XP/2003/Vista

Fixed my paperport wheel scrolling!

KatMouse version 1.01

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

Before installing this software, Paperport 8.0 would not scroll with the wheel on 2 of my 3 pc's. No idea why. Now it does. Wonderful! Additionally, I really like clicking the middle wheel to change focus between open windows. Many thanks to the author!

Review date: Aug 26, 2005

Freeware
Win XP

For the right users this is great stuff!

Windows Defender version BETA Build 1.0.615

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

This is insanely great software for the technically adept. Closes a lot of doors when run with Real-Time protection. Gives you lots of options to find that last critter and kill it when using Advanced Tools in conjunction with Safe Mode. It is worth the CPU cycles if you have a college student who is likely to use unsafe practices on the web. It is also worth using for experts to stop some of those pesky bits of spyware that just keep re-inserting themselves into the Startup and BHO areas. Does it miss some adware - no doubt, none of the scanners are perfect, but this one is topnotch.

Review date: Aug 17, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Can't handle large folders. no uninstall !

Secure Copy version 2.3

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

Tried to copy a 250mb folder over a network. Nothing happened - just showed complete immediately. Worked ok with a small folder. I did not particularly like the interface. If you allow it to add itself to your context menu, there is no uninstall (I used XP's System Restore function to do away with it.)

Review date: Apr 14, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Great!

OverDisk version beta preview

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

I compared Overdisk to another freeware named JDiskReport. I liked Overdisk far better. Much, much faster in initial scanning. Some very nice options in the menus. I found the graphics less pretty but maybe more powerful. I like JDiskReport, just like Overdisk a lot more.

Review date: Mar 25, 2005

Freeware
2000/XP/2003/Vista

Maturing rapidly, but i prefer maxthon.

Mozilla Firefox version 1.01

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

This browser is improving quickly. Lots of nice features. Most users will probably be happy. In my case, I prefer Maxthon (uses the IE engine). Avant comes in a close second and then the rest of the pack, including Firefox. If you haven't tried Maxthon and Avant, they are worth comparing to FF. One feature that is really important to me is that all three browsers use the same Favorites, so if you add a new Favorite to one, it shows up in the other automatically. Firefox does not do this.

Review date: Mar 22, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Great! maybe better than avant!

Maxthon version 1.2.000

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

I like both this browser and Avant. They both share IE bookmarks - which means all three browsers will have the same favorites without the user having to think about it. Avant was the second tabbed browser I tried (the first was Firefox, which I did not like). Maxthon and Avant are neck and neck in my opinion. They overlap in most areas. Each does a couple of things better than the other. Overall, I like Maxthon better. You should probably try both and make your own decision. Both will require some configuration of options for most people to get just right (for example Maxthon had an annoyingly loud pop when blocking popups, which I replaced with a different wave file). If you decide to try just one, go with Maxthon.

Review date: Mar 22, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Logs computer activity - text and screen capture

User Logger version 2.9

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

There are a couple of options for how you might use this program. The one I use is the text logger. This logs to a text file the name of the active window every so many minutes. You set the number of minutes. It is also possible to set the interval sub-minute (see help file). I like this because it tells me upon review of the file how I have been using my time all day. You can also capture a screen image every so many minutes. I found this to be more than I needed. Of course this program could be used for nefarious purposes, or to monitor your child's computer activity (which some might say is also nefarious). But it is nice for my purposes also (to monitor my own activity). Interface is lacking one key feature, ease of bringing up the program to stop logging or reconfigure. You have to use the task mgr to kill the prog and then restart it. Otherwise interface is good. Also has a paid mode with more options.

Review date: Mar 22, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Best in class. outstanding!

Weather Pulse version 2.04.3

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

Better than Weatherbug and no ads to deal either. Only problem is finding the right font to show in taskbar. On my 1024x768 laptop screen I found Arial Narrow Bold 10 to be the best. Took a lot of time - so try this font first. Otherwise, pretty intuitive. I love the "hourly forecast" option, the multiple cities option, the 10 day forecast, and the weather alerts. It is not completely obvious, but the radar that you see is configurable and a little searching in the pull down menus is needed to find just the right one to default for each city. Great software! I had to configure the options to be satisfied (for one thing, its noisy initially) ... 1. General Tab, check all but "Delay 10 secs" and "Metric", 2. Sounds - disable (nothing checked), 3. Tray Icon - Only check "Transparent" & "Degree Symbol" 4. Tray Tooltip - your choices 5. Weather Alerts - Only "Show Tray Icon" chked, 6. I left the rest unchanged.

Review date: Mar 10, 2005

Free Trial ($12.95)
Win (All)

Best of class

Auction Sentry version 2.2.1

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

I have been using Auction Sentry for years. Every time eBay makes a site change which affects the pages Auction Sentry accesses (which seems like it is monthly at times), Dan keeps the program up to date. Usually, the download for the new program (which is automatic and quick) happens within hours of eBay's change. A great, stable, and reliable program. Sits in your system tray and monitors auctions you are interested in and places your bid for you in the last seconds of the auction. (I like this because, human nature being what it is, if I bid $100 for something and you have 5 days to think about it, you might bid $105. With sniping, everybody bids their highest price at the last minute and whoever wanted to pay the most wins. No time to think about it and convince yourself to overpay is actually one of the advantages of doing it this way.) It amazes me that Dan charges no upgrade fees even though he has to change this program several times a year.

Review date: Mar 10, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

I love this clock!

ClocX version 1.4

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

Sits on my desktop all the time. I love the "Bahnhof" style (lots of styles to choose from). I make it semi-transparent and "click through" on WinXP. That allows me to see the couple of folders on the desktop that sit behind it and click on those folders like normal (as though the clock wasn't there). You can always access it through the systray icon (since you can't touch it with Click through turned on). Lots of different faces. Make your own skins if you like. Great.

Review date: Mar 10, 2005

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Useful. more power than i need.

MyUninstaller version 1.30

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

I just wanted to get rid of a number of programs that show up more than once in the Windows Uninstall app - but without uninstalling them. For example - my Sound drivers were showing up twice, but I did not want to uninstall the older one, just in case it might affect the newer one. With this program, you can just remove it from the list of programs without actually uninstalling it. (Of course if you do want to uninstall it later, then you would have to find the actual uninstall prog for the app on your own). Lots of other options and info you never knew about your system, but nothing else that was of particular interest to me. Very nice program in all respects though.

Review date: Mar 10, 2005

Free Trial ($29.99)
98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

Insanely great!

PTFB Pro version 2.2.0.0

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

I am using an earlier freeware version (may be available on the company's website). I would not want to live without it. Have been using it for years. For example, when I download data into Quicken, seems there 4 buttons to push. I have PTFB set to push them all for me. Same when reconciling in Quicken, there is one button I always want to push. There are many other progs where I always push the same button. PTFB lives in my system tray and pushes the buttons for me. PROGRAM OPTIONS include, 1. configure number of secs delay pushing the button for each window (in case you want a brief delay to poss. make a diff choice), 2. Only push the button if all the text in the window matches exactly, or only if certain text matches (but not the rest), or ignore all text in the window and just match the title bar & buttons, 3. Drag and drop interface - just open PTFB from the system tray and drag the "hand" icon to the button you want to push. Simple and great.

Review date: Mar 10, 2005

Freeware
Win XP

Interesting results

FontFrenzy version 1.0 Build 74

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

On WinXP on a fairly new system, I noticed I had about 450 fonts. I copied the files from the Fonts folder to a backup and then ran FontFrenzy' option to "defrenzy" back to the WinXP fonts only. Ended up with about 130 fonts, which surprised me. Many of them have strange names with "@"s at the beginning or Arabic in their names. Anyway, then I installed Office 2003 with all fonts selected (seems there are two groups in Office). Ended up back at 350 fonts (Office added about 200). So I did drop about 100 fonts. ADDED FEATURES of the program were not tested by me, but it seems like it can backup and restore groups of fonts. But I don't want to spend a lot of time managing my fonts, just wanted a "core" collection without a lot of added stuff. Seems reliable.

Review date: Mar 10, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Works

TreeComp version 3.7

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

Does the job of comparing two folders, which is all I wanted it to do.

Review date: Mar 10, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Very very fast.

Agent Ransack version 1.7.3 (build 332)

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

Windows XP Search is way slowwww in finding files. Agent Ransack is very very fast. I haven't tried many of the features, but the speed is what I wanted and it has it. You can execute it by right-clicking any folder and selecting Agent Ransack. There are a couple of limitations that I see right away. 1-You cannot "open the containing folder" for a file. You can open the file for edit. You can drag and drop the file somewhere (which copies it). 2- If you cut and past the file to move it, Agent Ransack does not immediately update it's list to show the new location. You can however perform all right click type operations on the files found. All in all, I find the limitations minor in exchange for the speed.

Review date: Mar 07, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Very nicely done. lots of added power .

Avant Browser version 10.0 Build 151

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

Has a direct simple feel to it. Nice icons. I was primarily after the tabbed interface. Easily configurable. Found a few options that I had to turn on or off to get it just like I wanted. (ie. changed the popup settings to not show the blocked URL and to a different sound, moved toolbars around a little, dragged tabs from bottom to top of screen, a couple of other little things). Lots of enhancements to IE if you want them. Otherwise not intrusive. Oh, and one REALLY NICE SURPRISE, favorites are the same as IE favorites. Change/add a favorite to one program and it is also in the other program! So, you can pop back and forth and still have the same favorites in each program. (Maybe all the browsers using the IE engine do this - I don't know). Seems rock solid so far under WinXP (2 days).

Review date: Mar 07, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Perfect for backing up and syncing two pcs.

SyncBack version 3.2.7.0

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

I use this for backing up selected files and syncing files between laptops and PCs over the network using a shared drive. Setup is easy and direct. Novices may have to think a bit if unfamiliar with this type of software. There are unavoidably decisions to make (ie. do I want to always overwrite, or do I want to sync replacing older files on both systems?). The defaults settings are well done. (Insanely) great software. Just what I was looking for.

Review date: Mar 07, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

First look - outstanding!

TrayDevil version 1.4.1

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

Has a lot more functions than the description on Snapfiles lists. It's unique function is to minimize any window to the system tray with a CNTL+LEFT-CLICK. But in addition you can set a window to Always on Top. You can show a Calendar Icon in the system Tray with the day number. You can hide the tray clock(thus saving the real estate). You can Restart, Shutdown, Hibernate, Standby, or Lock the PC. And More. Yet it has a simple interface. Easy to set and use. Most functions can also be set to a hotkey combo. So you could set CNTL-ALT-H to "Hibernate". Very cool. Just installed, so no long term info, but it appears very stable on WinXP.

Review date: Mar 03, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Can't manipulate files once you find them.

Instant File Name Search version 1.2

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

You can open a file (ie. double click to execute), but otherwise you cannot manipulate the list of files it finds. If you don't have a need to delete, copy, rename, etc., then this tool might be for you.

Review date: Jan 19, 2005

Freeware
Win (All)

Might prove useful for encrypting folders.

SiFEU version 0.9

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

Allows you to right click a folder and encrypt the folder and all subfolders. That is the only superior feature I saw when compared to AxCrypt. In all other respects I found AxCrypt equal or superior. I also noticed that many of the pop-up boxes in SiFEU are not translated into English (still in Swedish). Overall it is ok and has a reasonably nice interface (drag and drop single files, or right click folder to do entire folder). Yet,I wanted to right click single files to encrypt and AxCrypt does that nicely.

Review date: Nov 30, 2004

Freeware
98/ME/2000/XP

Somehow feels cumbersome.

SecExFile Home version 1.1

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

I wasn't pleased. The good, does multiple files at once if wanted. Right click menu access. Looks nice. The bad: Too many screens. Requires too long a password (12 chars). Doesn't uninstall completely (left the right click menu in Win XP - had to use System Restore to go back to a checkpoint to get rid of it). I recommend AxCrypt instead (freeware). Better for my purposes anyway.

Review date: Nov 30, 2004

Freeware
2000/XP/Vista

Best i've found for my purposes

AxCrypt version 1.5.4.2

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

Tried several others, this is the one. Allows you to open a file with the password and yet leaves it encrypted so no need to re-encrypt unless you change it. Nice. Easy right click interface to encrypt. Will remember a standard encrypting password if you like. All the features I need to encrypt a file or two now and again.

Review date: Nov 30, 2004

Freeware
Win (All)

A very worthwhile addition to your systray

Tray Commander Lite version 1.2

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

Excellent program. I wanted to keep a list of frequently used folders handy in the systray. This is just the ticket. Also useful for frequently used programs, shutdown-logoff, open/close CD tray, and making screenshots. Very appealing interface. Drag and drop customization to add shortcuts or folders. Icons look nice. Just the right mix of functionality. Get it.

Review date: Nov 20, 2004

Tray Commander Lite

&premieretext;

Spytech SpyAgent

A powerful monitoring solution to record PC activity, including keystrokes, email and more.

Demo Builder

Create interactive Flash movies and tutorials to show how applications and systems work