topbarfade

Software Reviews

by Rustyboy

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.

LightBox Free Image Editor
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/2003/Vista

qleft  Very easy to get decent results  qright

LightBox Free Image Editor version 1.01c
  • Interface: 2
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 4
  • Overall: 3

Getting good results is quite easy with Lightbox, it has quite an impressive array of functions, a lot of them one click away. The interface is just okay though, but it is the end results that count. Thankfully, the annoying popup tips can be turned off. Overall, a good program for doing quick and easy improvements to pictures.

    Review date: Jul 24, 2008

XMPlay
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Xmplay flies.  qright

XMPlay version 3.4
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

I like XMPlay because it is small (~300k) and does what it is supposed to do well. The default skin is a bit cheesy for my liking but there are many others to choose from and/or download. I used to use a media player for mp3s as well as video but found they took a while to start up. Now I use separate programs as sometimes the all-in-one approach is not necessarily the best. XMPlay flies.

    Review date: Jul 04, 2008

Tux Paint
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Great for kids  qright

Tux Paint version 0.9.20
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

TuxPaint is fantastic for kids as it has a large variety of things to play around with and even has audio feedback on a lot of tools. For example, choose a stamp of a chicken and you will hear a chicken. Younger kids will enjoy exploring this, my [autistic] 9yo loves it. It is easy for them to navigate, too, with functions laid out in a logical and straightforward way.

    Review date: Jul 02, 2008

Star Downloader Free
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Easy to use  qright

Star Downloader Free version 1.45
  • Interface: 2
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 4

I have tried other downloaders and while they are good, they tend to be overkill for my needs. Star Downloader allows me to schedule download times and has a "download basket", a dropbox icon on the desktop that accepts dropped links. These are the two major features in my opinion and along with blistering download speeds, makes Star Downloader a great program. The only downside is that the interface is a bit plain Jane.

    Review date: Jun 29, 2008

IrfanView
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Light on resources yet powerful  qright

IrfanView version 4.10
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

One meg download, uses little ram compared to a lot of the others, has an impressive range of features (and many extensions via plugins). The only downside for me is the way the thumbnail window displays separately. An integrated one would have been better. Brilliant for creating a slide show or converting/resizing/altering/renaming a heap of image files at once. I have been using Irfanview for about a squillion years. Well, almost.

    Review date: Jun 29, 2008

PopTray
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Shame about yahoo  qright

PopTray version 3.03
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 3
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 4

Poptray is great, especially having rules that let you delete emails on the server before downloading them. The downside to Poptray is the inability to access some webmail providers (Yahoo for example) without installing yet another program (such as ypops).

    Review date: Jun 25, 2008

7-Zip
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Lean and mean  qright

7-Zip version 4.42
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

If you want a no-nonsense compression tool this is it. I used to use another freeware compression tool (which was very good) until I found it choked on larger files. 7-zip handles large files beautifully. It may not have the eye candy of some other programs, but it doesn't have the bloat either.

    Review date: Jun 25, 2008

FreeCommander
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/2003/Vista

qleft  The best dual paned file manager  qright

FreeCommander version 2008.06
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

It has so-o-o many features including the new ftp transfers, multiple renames, etc. It's amazing as I continually find nifty features that I have overlooked or not read about (Quickview [ctrl-Q on a selected file to view it] comes to mind here). Nothing else comes close.

    Review date: Jun 25, 2008

Avira AntiVir Personal
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/Vista

qleft  Very good, if a little annoying  qright

Avira AntiVir Personal version 8.1.00.295
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 4

Good: It's free, it has effective virus recognition, it is not a memory hog, the database is updated frequently. Not so good: It nags every time the database updates, sometimes the update servers are borked and updates will not run for a day or so.

    Review date: Jun 25, 2008

iTunes
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/Vista

qleft  Bloatware for noobs  qright

iTunes version 7.6.2
  • Interface: 3
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 1
  • Value: 3
  • Overall: 2

If you are an absolute beginner and want to be lead by the nose then this software was made with you in mind. If you have a little experience and just want to drag and drop mp3s and make your own playlists then steer well clear of iTunes - it is like driving and parking a huge truck when going to the supermarket on a Saturday morning - it can be done but it is not necessarily a pleasant experience. If you don't want other software installed also avoid iTunes as it puts Quicktime and Bonjour on your computer whether you like it or not. After you install iTunes, check your Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del) to see services running and eating up your memory even when iTunes is not running. So, for absolute beginners, yes. Anyone else, no.

    Review date: Apr 19, 2008

cam2pc - Freeware
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

qleft  Almost perfect  qright

cam2pc - Freeware version 4.6.1
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

Perfect for getting pics from your camera to your computer. The only bug I found is where it reverts to the default directory naming convention, meaning I have to adjust this every time I download pictures. Other than that, a fantastic piece of freeware.

    Review date: Jan 18, 2008

POP Peeper
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Almost perfect  qright

POP Peeper version 3.0.1
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 4

This is a very nice little program. It even allows you to download attachments from webmail accounts (yahoo, etc) without having to fire up your browser and wait for pages of ads. When the next version comes out with filtering/rules, it will be perfect.

    Review date: Dec 30, 2006

Demo Builder

Demo Builder

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

VisualCron

VisualCron

An advanced task scheduler to schedule task based on user defined triggers and events.

Folder Lock

Folder Lock

Create a password protected folder to store all your sensitive files and documents.