Quickly search 50-plus torrent sites with Bit Che
Finding a particular torrent isn't always easy, and you might have to visit several search engines before you spot the one you need.
Bit Che is a free PC program which offers an interesting alternative, quickly running searches on 50-plus torrent sites in a single operation.
Enjoy crisper, cleaner videos with SmoothVideo Project
Trying out a new video player might get you a better interface, wider format support, more tools and extras. But the core video quality will be essentially the same, just a faithful rendering of your source footage.
SmoothVideo Project (SVP) goes a step further by using frame interpolation to perhaps double your video frame rate, delivering noticeably smoother, crisper pictures.
WordPress 4.0 adds content previews, expanding editor
WordPress.org has launched WordPress 4.0, named “Benny” in honor of the “King of Swing” Benny Goodman.
The new release doesn’t stand out in quite the way that Goodman did -- WordPress.org plays it down, in fact, saying “4.0 is just another number for us after 3.9 and before 4.1″ -- but there are still some worthwhile new features here.
Access 500-plus file hosting services with File & Image Uploader
Finding a new file hosting site sounds easy in theory -- there’s certainly no shortage of options -- but it can take some thought. Just tracking down key details like the maximum file size or how long files are kept often takes longer than you expect.
All this research is important if you're hosting mission-critical work documents, of course, or anything similarly important: you need to be sure you’re making the right choices.
Troubleshoot network problems with NetAdapter Repair All in One
If your network isn’t running smoothly then Windows provides a lengthy list of tools which might be able to help. Unfortunately you’ll need to find them, first, and they’re so scattered around -- a console application here, a deeply nested Control Panel dialog there -- that even experts might find that takes a while.
NetAdapter Repair All in One tries to simplify this by providing easy access to a stack of network details and functions from a single straightforward interface.
Web security scanner Netsparker gets a thorough testing
Web security specialist and Microsoft MVP Troy Hunt has published a detailed review of the web security scanner Netsparker.
Hunt tested the application by pointing it at a test site with "about 50 serious security vulnerabilities" and checking exactly what it managed to uncover.
Wise System Monitor tracks software, hardware and network traffic
Popular PC tools developer Wise Cleaner has released a public beta of its latest utility, Wise System Monitor.
The new addition is a desktop gadget which tracks and displays CPU usage, upload and download speeds, RAM consumption, CPU temperature and more.
Curly downloads files from the command line -- and checks for malware
When you’re working at the Windows command line it might sometimes be useful to download a file, but the standard tools don’t make this particularly easy.
If you’re looking for something simpler then Curly could be ideal. It’s a console-based downloader, free, portable and amazingly small (under 28KB), yet somehow it still manages to squeeze in one or two surprising extras.
EXIF ReGenerate fixes hundreds of image time stamps with a click
Take a picture with a digital camera and it’ll normally be tagged with the date and time, often useful later when searching or organizing your images.
If the camera clock is wrong, though, all your photos will have the wrong EXIF time stamp, and they’ll stay that way until someone notices.
Find out more about your favorite artists with Song Buddy
Some music players are smart. Not only will they play your tracks, but they'll try to tell you more about them, perhaps downloading and displaying the lyrics.
Windows Media Player and iTunes aren't quite so clever, but that's where Song Buddy comes in. This free app for Windows, iPhone, iPad and Mac detects the "now playing" artist and displays other releases, concerts, images, a biography, links and more.
Instantly generate sketched characters with DrawWiz
DrawWiz is an easy-to-use app, Windows and Mac program which instantly generates professional sketches of female cartoon characters.
There's no artistic ability required, fortunately. The app provides hundreds of pre-drawn elements -- situations, face shapes, hair styles, eyes, nose, mouth -- and all you have to do is pick the ones you need.
Quickly retouch your portraits with Free Photo Blemish Remover
High resolution digital photos are great for most purposes, but can be a little cruel for portrait shots, where every skin imperfection is suddenly blown up in extreme detail.
Some photo editors have "beautifying" modules to help clean such problems, or you can often fix them yourself with a little painting or clone work. Free Photo Blemish Remover is another option, a specialist tool which can remove image imperfections with a click.
WinLogOnView lists user logons for your PC
If your PC has several user accounts then you might occasionally like to know when they're being accessed, perhaps to confirm that your children are only using the computer at particular times.
You could install some heavy duty system monitoring package, or maybe enable a few Family Safety restrictions for that account. But NirSoft's WinLogOnView is a much simpler option which could provide everything you need in a tiny, portable package.
Voralent’s Antelope compresses JPGs and PNGs with a click
Earlier this year we looked at Voralent’s JPGMini and PNGMini, easy-to-use tools which reduced JPG and PNG file sizes without affecting image quality.
The developer has now released a replacement, Antelope, which handles JPG and PNG files, and supports both lossless and lossy compression.
Display your external IP address on the desktop with Mr.IP
Discovering your external IP address is generally very easy. Just visit a site like WhatIsMyIP and it'll give you the IP address, location, ISP, and a whole lot more.
If you need speedy access to this address all the time, though, it might be simpler to use Mr.IP, a tiny free tool which permanently displays your internet -- or external -- IP on the desktop.
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