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Software Reviews

by balkaster

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.

Koyote Free Movies To DVD
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/2003

qleft  Not perfect, but pretty good  qright

Koyote Free Movies To DVD version 1.0
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 3
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 4
  • Overall: 4

Having tried Sothink Movie DVD Maker, I wasn't expecting much from another freeware video DVD burner. Koyote is every bit as easy as Sothink was supposed to be, but actually produces viable DVDs. Koyote adds files in the order you select them, but the only way to reorder them is to remove them from the list and reload them, which can be a bit of a nuisance if you change your mind. DVDs produced with Sothink could be played back on the creating PC but not in a DVD player; Koyote's DVDs playback fine on a DVD player but have no audio on a PC. Frankly I prefer the latter problem to the former. Despite what SnapFiles says, Koyote DOES create chapters from individual files. Koyote's biggest problems are lack of documentation, some of the settings are hard to see, and it doesn't convert the framerate properly when converting from PAL to NTSC, resulting in rapid motion and higher pitched sound. I'll use a separate NTSC/PAL converter the next time.

    Review date: Oct 26, 2007

ClocX
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Keep looking  qright

ClocX version 1.4
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 2
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 1
  • Overall: 2

Okay, so the bitmap backgrounds are pretty, the anti-aliased hands move well and don't gulp resources, the config dialog is thoughtfully well laid out and doesn't suffer from the egregious spelling errors, invented terminology and misplaced buttons that are so common in freeware these days. But the "transparency" doesn't work in all versions of Windows, and unless you have XP you're probably getting a red grid instead of a transparent background on non-rectangular bitmaps or a bloody red splotch where a drop shadow is supposed to be. There are so many freeware clocks out there that do everything else well AND get the transparency right. Try Beatnik, Rainmeter, The Clock, QuickClock or any of the others out there; they're all free, all do the basics and some of them do much more. And they all got the transparency right.

    Review date: Sep 17, 2006

PopTray
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Indispensible  qright

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

Been using this for years, and I don't know how I got along without it. Provides an extra layer of security against known and suspected spammers and potential viruses/trojans/worms by allowing you to see messages before you download them (it can't see attachments or parse scripts or markup language, so you can view message content without fear of launching malware). Well-designed, well-thought out, fast and reliable. It does tend to be a bit of a resource hog if you leave it always open to check many accounts (as in "more than three"), but that's a minor complaint. Stands in in a pinch when I don't want to load my full-fledged mail client. I tried three or four mail checkers before this, and this is the best. Everyone should give this a try.

    Review date: Jan 08, 2006

SmartBar XP
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Dangerous  qright

SmartBar XP version 0.990 (BETA 4.9)
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 1
  • Value: 1
  • Overall: 2

Load Smartbar XP and see all the cool functionality it has! Watch your GDI resources shrink from 91 to zero in twenty seconds! Thrill as your system freezes forcing you to turn the machine off because ctrl+alt+delete doesn't even respond! Smartbar crashed eight times in the hour after I had it installed. It looks nice but the name says it all: it's designed for XP, and if you're using an earlier version of Windows you're out of luck. Thanks to the authors for thinking of the rest of us (none of the other Longhorn/Vista style sidebars will even load in non-XP Windows), but this doesn't work. If you really need this kind of functionality (it's cool looking, but none of it is necessary), wait for Vista and upgrade.

    Review date: Jan 08, 2006

MediaMenu
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Can't recommend  qright

MediaMenu version 1.40
  • Interface: 1
  • Features: 3
  • Ease of use: 2
  • Value: 1
  • Overall: 1

MediaMenu produces a nice LOOKING configurable menu that simply doesn't work as described. Documentation is poor, and implies that files linked to the menu will launch in the system default viewer for the file type, but apparently this is not true. An ancient and obsolete version of Windows Media Player is included, and apparently that is the only way that media files linked to the menu can be run, although there is nothing in the documentation to indicate this and sending files to this player requires different syntax. Upon burning the result to a CD with an autorun.inf file, the program failed to autorun and none of the links worked except the additional and exit links. A second attempt produced the same result. I now have two CDs with a bunch of useless padding thanks to MediaMenu.

    Review date: Jan 02, 2006

Cascade DTP
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Fast, reliable, but interface needs work  qright

Cascade DTP version 4.0.20
  • Interface: 1
  • Features: 3
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 3
  • Overall: 3

Cascade is quick, light on resource use, and reliable, but the GUI violates a number of common usability rules that users will find confusing and frustrating. Menu bars should produce menus of actions, toolbars should display buttons for frequently used actions. There is what appears to be a menu bar, but there are no menus; selecting an item produces an action. The items in the bar are randomly placed, forcing the user to scan the whole thing to find what she wants (ex: where we expect to find a File menu, we instead see "Exit"). Numerical values in some dialogs can only be set using spin controls; it would be faster and easier to enter the value into a text box. Image boxes cannot be deleted despite tooltips and Help stating otherwise. A dialog prompts you to save a file before closing even if you have just saved it. Most changes are automatically applied, but text changes are applied by a button hidden among a disorganized mass of buttons. Otherwise nice, but too basic.

    Review date: Dec 14, 2005

evolvEd Text Editor
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Interesting but needs futher development  qright

evolvEd Text Editor version 1.12
  • Interface: 3
  • Features: 3
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 1
  • Overall: 2

I agree with the previous reviewer's comments. EvolvEd is nice looking and has great keyboard support for entering HTML tags. The feature to add your own menu items is also very nice. It's great looking as well. Unfortunately, it has a few major bugs that haven't been addressed in the last three updates. Selecting "New Document" from the File menu opens a new instance instead of replacing the current window. The new instance has no toolbar or line numbering even though these are on by default in the Preferences dialog. Opening the Preferences dialog to turn these back on in the new instance causes the original instance to fail to respond to further activity. Attempting to open any document in EvolvEd via the "Send To" context menu causes the editor to crash if already open and fail to launch (with error messages) if not already open. After such a crash, EvolveEd cannot be relaunched, it must be uninstalled and reinstalled.

    Review date: Dec 10, 2005

Sound Capture
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Useless  qright

Sound Capture version 1.0
  • Interface: 3
  • Features: 1
  • Ease of use: 1
  • Value: 1
  • Overall: 2

I'm sure this would be a great little app if the end user had exactly the same hardware and settings as the author. Unfortunately, I don't, and all I get are tiny MP3s containing single tracks of zero seconds length. There are instructions for using command line switches to view and change the settings, but these simply cause the DOS window to close after a second or scroll by in a flash -- far too short a time for the human eye to read anything. Not only can't I see the current settings, I have no hope of changing them. Complete waste of time.

    Review date: Jan 26, 2005

FastStone Image Viewer
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

qleft  Very nice  qright

FastStone Image Viewer version 1.0
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 4
  • Overall: 4

I was looking for a replacement for ... ACDSee that I had been using. This is it. Very similar in layout, it doesn't have quite the features of ACDSee (file move/copy and renaming tools and bookmarks are noticeably absent, and it can't handle multimedia files), but its editing tools are much more robust. Very useful as a viewing/editing/file management suite. Contrary to another user's opinion, it will never replace IrfanView: FastStone is simply not as fast as IrfanView, and uses considerably more system resources; IrfanView can use most common graphics filters and FastStone cannot.

    Review date: Oct 15, 2004

HTMLGate FREE
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Unusable  qright

HTMLGate FREE version 12.2
  • Interface: 2
  • Features: 2
  • Ease of use: 1
  • Value: 1
  • Overall: 1

It requires that EVERY other app be shutdown before install, including the systray (??!). Install crashed each time I tried to install until I had ONLY explorer running. This is absurd. Then, after a fresh boot, I launched HTMLGate Free only to have it crash immediately, throwing up three error messages that couldn't be dismissed and which prevented Windows from responding to CTRL+ALT+Delete. My only option was to kill the power. After a complete uninstall, shutting everything down again (absurd) and reinstalling, I got exactly the same behavior again. Needless to say, HTMLGate is no longer welcome on my machine.

    Review date: Oct 06, 2004

Sygate Personal Firewall
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  No problems here  qright

Sygate Personal Firewall version 5.5
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

I was going to try ZoneAlarm until I read that it has a conflict with Norton Antivirus. I am very happy with Sygate. Incredibly easy to setup, everything is logged, it always tells you what's going on. As for the two negative reviews below, there was a bug in an earlier version (apparently fixed now) that would sometimes prevent an upgrade from installing correctly. A second attempt would pick up where the first one left off, and complete the process (as for uninstalling, try using the Add/Remove Programs control panel, that's what it's there for). As for "updating signature files," all data is updated when you install an upgrade -- the freeware version doesn't simply replace data files, you have to install an updated version of the program. Small price to pay for quality software that's free.

    Review date: Oct 03, 2004

Keynote
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Beautiful.  qright

Keynote version 1.6.5
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

I've used a number of info managers/notetaking databases/PIMs over the years (including HJ Treepad, GoldenSection Notes, ShadowNotes, NetPad), and although all were useful they were all lacking in some respect. All such products tend to have unique features and strengths, requiring that you have a couple in your system to handle different tasks. But as an all-around workhorse, Keynote is the one. I've now been using Keynote for about three years. The option to organize notes in a tree hierarchy, in a tabbed interface, or BOTH (how powerful is that!) provides incredible flexibility. I'm still impressed with the plugin architecture, and the text styles and whiteboard features. The only negative thing I can think to say about it is it doesn't capture web pages accurately, but then no product I've tried does (minor gripe).

    Review date: Oct 02, 2004

DeepBurner
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP/2003

qleft  Get this.  qright

DeepBurner version 1.1.4.143
  • Interface: 3
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

I grabbed this as an emergency replacement for CDBurner XP Pro (see my comments there) and I love it. The interface feels a little unprofessional, but it's easy to navigate (eye candy isn't everything). I had been using commercial products before this, and while DeepBurner doesn't have quite as many features it does have all the important ones. Dialogs and feedback during the burning process are more useful and provide more (and better) information than the major commercial burners. The only cons are that it's difficult to navigate between the various panes when all are maximized, the large project icons take up a little too much room, and the numbers in the info pane of the disk capacity meter aren't explained (probably something to do with true data size and slack space, and the bar graph is more than sufficient anyway). Very nice.

    Review date: Oct 02, 2004

KlipFolio
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Needs a little more development  qright

KlipFolio version 2.5
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 3
  • Value: 2
  • Overall: 3

It's very handy and attractive, and doesn't use an inordinate amount of resources. The compact and customizable interface is its biggest plus. But it doesn't use standard RSS/XML feeds, instead using a proprietary format in the form of plugins available only from the developer's website. The database of these plugins is poorly organized, requiring page after page of scrolling to find what you want. The search engine doesn't work properly, failing to return results for plugins that are actually present. KlipFolio itself breaks frequently (failing to update some or all of the feeds, losing feed histories, launching with errors or failing to launch), requiring a complete uninstall and reinstall followed by a reinstall of all feeds (if you can find them again). As pretty as it is, the poor database organization and frequent breaking aren't worth it IMO.

    Review date: Oct 02, 2004

CDBurnerXP
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/Vista

qleft  Move along, nothing to see here  qright

CDBurnerXP version 2.2.9
  • Interface: 2
  • Features: 2
  • Ease of use: 1
  • Value: 1
  • Overall: 1

I chose to install this as a replacement for Roxio, which has become a disaster in its later versions. After install, attempting to access the preferences dialog caused CDBurnerXP Pro to crash. The author told me to upgrade to solve the problem, although I was using the latest version at the time. It then refused to recognize the presence of my burner until I REINSTALLED ROXIO. After I finally got it working, it incorrectly determined that 286 Mb of files exceeded the capacity of a 700 Mb disk. Then it claimed write errors with every disk in a 50 disk spindle. It's a huge resource hog, driving available system resources down to less than 10%, and using over 90% of 384 Mb RAM. I won't even go into the confusingly similar toolbar buttons and missing (or invisible) titlebar. I have since replaced it with another software product. And there wasn't anything wrong with any of those 50 disks.

    Review date: Sep 14, 2004

Abilon
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Nice, but...  qright

Abilon version 2.0 b163
  • Interface: 2
  • Features: 3
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 2
  • Overall: 2

I have to agree with the review by lucifer (see below). It is fairly simple to figure out (through trial and error) how to ADD feeds, but it is impossible to DELETE unwanted feeds. Attempting to do so creates what should have been a single dialog, but one which has been fractured into many smaller dialogs: one for what would have been the dialog title bar, one for the dialog text, one for each button and one for each button label. The text in these individual panels runs out of each panel, and the buttons do not work. So you can't actually delete anything, and the many fractured pseudo-dialogs are not dismissable without ending the program. Because all settings are saved to the registry including all feed info, there are no config files that could be edited to fix the situation. Also, if you do a system restore or other registry backup restoration, your current feed settings (including which feeds you've subscribed to) are lost. Pretty sad.

    Review date: Jul 13, 2004

Folder Lock

Folder Lock

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

Demo Builder

Demo Builder

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

AceSpy

AceSpy

Keep track of everything that is done on your computer.