Toolbox for Windows 8 puts you in control of Modern UI
The Windows 8 Modern UI looks great at first, but start using it and you’ll soon notice a problem. No matter how large your display, there’s no longer any way to view and access more than two apps at any one time. The old ability to organize windows more or less as you like simply no longer applies in the app world.
If this feels like a step backwards to you, though, help is at hand in the shape of Toolbox for Windows 8, an interesting free app that provides 9 tools of its own, and allows you to arrange and use up to 6 of them on the screen at any one time.
Launch ISO images from the desktop, no disc burning required
ISO images are a very convenient way to distribute software, but testing them is more of a hassle, especially if they’re bootable, as normally you’ll have to burn them to disc, first.
But it may not always have to be this way, particularly if you grab a copy of Qemu Simple Boot. As with just a little work the program can boot the image (ISO, IMA or IMG formats are supported) in a window on your own desktop, no disc required.
Auslogics Disk Defrag Pro 4.2 supports Windows 8
Auslogics has announced the availability of Disk Defrag Pro 4.2, the latest release of its comprehensive defrag tool, and top of the new features list has to be the build’s full compatibility with all editions of the newly released Windows 8.
Elsewhere, the program provides more details on any SSD drives you might have installed, now including a single verdict (“SSD is in satisfactory condition”) to give you an immediate idea of their state. Small practical enhancements to Disk Defrag Pro include the ability to maximize the Profile Settings window, for a better overview of your options.
Media Preview displays video thumbnails
Windows Explorer’s ability to display a thumbnail for a file can be a very useful way to see what it contains. But this often fails to work properly with videos, where typically you’ll be left with some general icon representing the file type, or perhaps a black frame which tells you precisely nothing at all.
You may be able to at least partly resolve this problem by installing the appropriate codecs, and making sure they’re configured correctly. But if that’s not working for you, then it could be simpler to install Media Preview, which handles all the usual complications almost entirely automatically.
JogoBox finds thousands of free games
If you’re a keen gamer, looking for new challenges, then of course there are plenty of free offerings available online. But which sites or services are the best for you? It might take a while to find out.
And so it could be easier to install JogoBox, a single tool which makes it easy to find and play thousands of free games, no registration required.
Batchrun gets the job done without the command line
Batch files can be a great way to automate common PC maintenance tasks, but to get the most out them you’ll need an in-depth knowledge of the various Windows command line tools. Otherwise you may not even know that there’s a way to launch programs in a minimized window, for instance, let alone exactly how to do it.
If you’re not really interested in wading through endless discussion of command line switches in the manuals, though, the free Batchrun offers a simpler, GUI-based route to basic PC scripting.
Use roomeon to plan interior designs
Whether you’re just rearranging the furniture, or ripping out everything and starting again, being able to visualize your interior design projects before you begin can save you a great deal of time and hassle.
There have always been CAD-like tools to help you do this, but they tend to be expensive, and tricky to use. So we were very interested to hear about roomeon 3D-planner, a free (for personal use) design tool which claims to combine a very lengthy feature list with drag-and-drop simplicity.
O&O DiskImage 7 Professional review
From malware to hardware failure, bugs to human error, there are many potential dangers just waiting to trash your most valuable data. Which is why it’s generally a very good idea to back up your system, from time to time.
And while there are many possible backup software options, we’ve always had a personal preference for the simplicity of disk imaging tools, the latest example of which is O&O DiskImage 7 Professional.
Phototheca is the cat's meow
If your digital photo collection is something of a mess, leaving you rarely able to find the images you need, then you’re not alone. The standard Windows tools just aren’t up to the task of managing large numbers of photos, leaving many people looking for third-party tools to help them restore order.
There are at least plenty of free photo managers competing for your attention, though, and the latest contender is Lunarship Software’s Phototheca, an interesting tool with a range of useful features.
SmartDeblur is an amazing photo tool
Just about every photo editor includes a simple “sharpen” function, which analyses the pixels of an image in an attempt to reduce blur and recover a little detail. But although the standard sharpening technology is fast and easy to use, it only really works with mild blurring; if your image is seriously blurry then you’ll probably get nowhere at all.
The solution? Forget basic sharpening, to deal with significant blurring you need a far more powerful tool. And SmartDeblur is an excellent free candidate.
Edit, resize, watermark and share photos from Windows Explorer
Editing lots of digital photos in a single session is generally a tedious and time-consuming business, as most image editors still assume you’ll only ever want to carry out actions on one picture at a time.
Fortunately there are plenty of third-party batch processing tools around who are trying to fill this functionality gap, and COOLTWEAK is the latest, allowing you to resize, watermark or share multiple images (on Facebook, Picasa and Twitter) directly from the right-click Explorer menu.
O&O Software releases Migration Kit for Windows 8 -- get it NOW!
O&O Software has announced the availability of the Migration Kit for Windows 8, a bundle of two packages which aims to simplify the process of upgrading to the new operating system. At the heart of the Migration Kit is Laplink PCmover Professional, which can transfer your data, applications and settings from a Windows XP, Vista or 7 PC to Windows 8 (either on a separate PC, or in place).
The other major kit component is a copy of O&O DiskImage Professional 6.8.1, ideal for creating a backup image of your original system configuration before you start.
Who's doing what on your PC? LastActivityView can show you
NirSoft has announced the availability of LastActivityView, a new tool which displays details of recent user actions and events on almost any PC (it runs on Windows 2000-8, both 32 and 64-bit editions). And while that doesn’t sound too exciting, wait – it turns out to be surprisingly useful.
The program logs the applications you’ve launched recently, for instance. The files you’ve opened or saved (from the standard Windows Open and Save dialogs, anyway). The folders and files you’ve opened in Explorer, the software you’ve installed, and the networks you’ve accessed. It also details your system startups and shutdowns, user logons and logoffs, software hangs, blue-screen crashes and more.
Has malware trashed IE settings? Try Browser Repair Tool
When your PC is infected by malware then of course you’ll want to remove it immediately, but that won’t necessarily be the end of your problems. Malware will often change key browser or Windows settings to suit its needs, and restoring these can take a very long time.
Or you could just use Anvisoft’s free Browser Repair Tool, which claims it can fix everything you need with just a single click.
Laplink PCmover Professional 8 review
Migrating to a new PC is often a complex, time-consuming business. There will be applications to reinstall, CDs and registration keys to find. And then endless hours of reconfiguration as you try to get everything working just the way it did before. Fortunately this is an area where Laplink have always presented a number of effective alternatives, though. And their latest offering, Laplink PCmover Professional 8, aims to migrate all your data, applications and settings from one system to another, while you (for the most part) just sit back and watch.
The program has its limitations, of course. This new version is capable of moving your installed applications to a Windows 8 PC, for instance, but if some of them aren’t compatible with the new system then that won’t help you very much. If you’re moving to Windows 8, though, and you’ve lots of compatible applications you need to migrate, then the program could still be worth the money. But, does it work? It was time to find out.
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