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Software Reviews

by mikemac4344

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.

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

qleft  Does the job with no fuss  qright

DeepBurner version 1.8
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

I've tested this program burning disk images (iso files), audio (mp3 to CD), regular data CDs and data DVDs. I tested with HP and LiteOn burners. It prints CD labels and there is a function to create an image including a bootable one. I did not try these. For what it does, it's faster and easier than Nero in my opinion. In burning mp3's to audio, it's more reliable than the WMP Nero 7 plug-in (I burned some variable-bit-rate encoded mp3's with the Nero plug-in and got a lot of "skips" -- DeepBurner was flawless on the same media). The program does not have some extras of commercial programs such as audio normalization or video tools. Also, you apparently must have administrative privileges to use the program. The interface feels amateurish but is functional; on the burn dialog, I had to expand the window to see the Burn button. Though I have a paid version of Nero, I prefer DeepBurner for most of my CD and DVD burning.

    Review date: Jul 19, 2007

Undelete Plus
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/2003/Vista

qleft  Excellent  qright

Undelete Plus version 2.9
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

The program is simple to use but provides powerful tools. Still, take 3 minutes and scan the help file -- especially if you are unfamiliar with how files are stored on your disk. Select a drive and press Start Scan. If there are a lot of deleted files, it'll take a while. (Do not save ANYTHING to the drive. Be sure to install to a separate drive. You should close all other programs to minimize the chances of disk activity.) The results are sortable and you can filter the results to omit those files not recoverable. As the author points out, a file marked as a very good chance of being recoverable may still not be recovered -- it is not possible to know. There is a very powerful Clean Disk feature which is not mentioned in the Help file (or on the product's Web site as far as I could see). Use it to clean out fragments of previously deleted files -- this will make future searches much faster.Superbly crafted program. Free but the author accepts donations.

    Review date: Jul 19, 2007

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

qleft  Best in class  qright

FastStone Image Viewer version 3.2
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

First, this is semi-freeware. After several months it'll pop up a screen asking if you want to donate any amount. You have the option of declining (but shouldn't). The program is slightly slow when loading a directory with hundreds of photos. You get not only a nice thumbnail but quick stats and a bigger preview when you click or arrow to the pic. Drag and drop to maintain your album. Press Enter or double-click a pic and you get into the real power--spend some time exploring. Press 2 for double size. 3 for triple size. Move your cursor to each edge of the screen for menus of things you can do. The crop and resize tools are sensational. Other effects are mostly very good to superb. Red-eye removal was okay. I wish some of the effects were on a right-mouse click but at least there are keyboard shortcuts. The more I use this program, the more I love it.

    Review date: Jun 07, 2007

TrueCrypt
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/2003/Vista

qleft  You can't beat it with a stick  qright

TrueCrypt version 4.2a
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 2
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

You need to walk through the tutorial to be confident of how to use the program. Be sure not to create a file on a compressed drive. Awesome power and rock-solid security. Unless you are trying to protect nuclear secrets from the bad guys, most of the default settings are just fine. This is the best there is.

    Review date: Jun 07, 2007

Spyware Terminator
  • Freeware
  • Win2000/XP/Vista

qleft  Better if you are have some computer savvy  qright

Spyware Terminator version 1.9.2
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 4
  • Ease of use: 3
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 4

First the good: the EULA is more than fair; the program installed easily and cleanly; the update facility worked well; the scan was reasonably fast and reasonably accurate and categorized them by tab; when I said "Delete" on the tracking cookies it suggested I Quarantine them first...I like that. The bad: I let it install the browser toolbar helper and told it NOT to change my default search engine. The Google Toolbar later notified me it had blocked an attempt to change my default search engine. Not nice. The search found two programs it wasn't sure of...that's fine. One it identified only by its CLSID...I had to Google it to determine that it was safe. I doubt some less-savvy users would know to do that. At little less than intuitive: I selected both programs and pressed the Move To button. Then I was given the option to Ignore Once or Move To Safe List. All in all a good program. I didn't test the real-time engine.

    Review date: Jun 07, 2007

Auto Movie Creator

Auto Movie Creator

Create movies using video clips, photo images, and music files.

Demo Builder

Demo Builder

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

RoboTask

RoboTask

A powerful, yet easy-to-use tool to automate any series of tasks you can do on your computer.