Convert digital images to color ASCII art with Image2ASCII
Image2ASCII is an open-source Windows application which converts digital pictures to stylized ASCII art. The program is tiny, and arrives as a stand-alone executable. There’s no installation required, simply download and run it.
Image2ASCII’s interface follows its own rules. It has a couple of boxes for the loaded and converted images, and a bunch of icons, without captions or tooltips, which you have to figure out for yourself.
Find suspect processes, files and settings with ESET SysInspector
ESET SysInspector (32-bit) is a powerful tool for examining the low-level details of a PC, and perhaps spotting malicious files, poorly configured settings and other issues that might be causing you problems.
The program has been around for a long time, but we’ve not looked at it for several years, and as ESET issued a rare update recently we decided to see what it could do on a test Windows 10 laptop.
Dipiscan is a professional, customizable network scanner
Dipiscan is a professional network scanner, fast, capable, and with a huge number of configuration options. The package is easy enough for anyone to use. Launch it, click Analyze to scan your current network (no need to enter an IP address range, it figures out sensible defaults for itself), and the process is completed within seconds.
A table displays details on every detected network device: reply time, NetBIOS name, DNS name, domain and user, MAC address, adapter manufacturer, and maybe the operating system, device description, available shares and more.
LXtory shares screenshots to Imgur, Gyazo, Puush, Dropbox, Google Drive and FTP
LXtory is an open-source tool for capture screenshots, saving the results locally or uploading them to Imgur or other sites. It’s a familiar idea, and the program interface didn’t impress us, either. Calling it "unfinished" would be a compliment -- it’s so basic that it barely looks started.
Despite its lack of visual appeal, LXtory does have some interesting features. There’s support for capturing the complete desktop, specific windows or a chosen window. It also captures windows using Direct3D, and can record what happens in a selected area as an animated GIF.
Build your own video surveillance system with ContaCam
The freeware video surveillance system ContaCam has been helping PC users monitor their video feeds since 2010, and it’s grown to be one of the most capable and configurable systems around. We haven’t checked out the program for a while, but after the recent release of ContaCam 7.0, we grabbed a copy and took a closer look.
The program has always had wide device support -- webcams, WDM and DV devices and IP cameras -- and the latest release improves that further. ContaCam 7.0 now features native RTSP camera support, and is able to record audio from a custom source.
Draw, paint and optimize your pictures with NPS Image Editor
NPS Image Editor is an unusual freeware tool which aims to provide the simplicity of Microsoft Paint with far more functionality, including custom brushes, filters and transparency control.
The program looks much like a stripped-back version of Paint.NET, no surprise as it was also a Paint-inspired project: tiny drawing toolbar on the left, palette on the right, menu bar at the top, details of the current image on the status bar.
Detect, block and even undo ransomware damage with AppCheck
AppCheck Anti-Ransomware is a free-for-personal-use Windows application which aims to detect ransomware-type behavior and blocks any threat it finds.
The program includes an unusual file protection component which automatically backs up at-risk files before they can be encrypted, enabling AppCheck to undo most damage. These backups are held in a special driver-protected "RansomShelter", ensuring they can’t be encrypted as well.
QuickLook is a speedy, simple file previewer
QuickLook is an open-source Windows version of the OS X "Quick Look" file preview feature.
There’s no installation required. Run QuickLook, select a file in Explorer, hit the space bar and a window appears with a preview.
Find out who shut down your PC and when, with Shutdown Logger
Security developer NoVirusThanks has released Shutdown Logger, a free Windows service-based application which records details about every shutdown event.
The package logs the time and date of each shutdown, the system uptime to that point, and the names of any logged-in user accounts.
FreeDriveC is a simpler, safer drive cleanup app
As you’ll guess from the name, FreeDriveC is yet another Windows application for freeing up space on your system drive. We’ve seen more than enough of these already, and we’ll bet you have, too.
But wait -- FreeDriveC isn’t all about emptying your TEMP folders or wiping browser history. Instead it’s more like a simple Control Panel applet, providing easy access to relevant Windows tools.
Two ways to check your PC is patched against EternalBlue
Exploits linked to leaked NSA hacking tools have been causing havoc recently, with the WannaCry ransomware infecting more than 300,000 systems.
WannaCry made use of the previously unknown SMB exploit EternalBlue, but the leak included details of several others. Microsoft has released patches, but are they in place on all your PCs?
Stop users copying PDF text with PDF Anti-Copy
PDF Anti-Copy is a free tool which protects PDF content by preventing users selecting or copying its text. There are similar programs available, but they typically work by applying the standard PDF security restrictions. This can easily removed with the right software.
PDF Anti-Copy takes a more unusual approach, using GhostScript and its -dNoOutputFonts switch to essentially replace the text with vector graphics. The page looks the same, but the text selection options stop working because the text has gone.
Find website accessibility issues with Koa11y
Koa11y is a cross-platform tool for detecting accessibility issues in any web page you specify. Problems detected include missing image Alt attributes, color contrast issues, missing titles, lengthy ALTs, poorly designed forms, and anything else that doesn’t play nicely with accessibility software and APIs.
We downloaded a copy of the Windows version. It’s a portable program, no installation required, we just unzipped the download and launched Koa11y.exe.
Webcamoid is a one-stop webcam capture and recording suite
Webcamoid is a surprisingly versatile open-source webcam suite for Windows, Linux and Mac. Launch the program and it looks very simple. The image from the default webcam is displayed, there’s a small transparent toolbar at the bottom of the screen, and nothing else at all.
The toolbar seems basic, at least initially. There’s a Camera icon, clicking it takes a snapshot of the current screen and offers to save it as a PNG. Useful, but nothing special.
Manage Windows 10 privacy settings with Privacy Repairer
Privacy Repairer is a portable tool for viewing and managing Windows 10 telemetry and privacy settings.
There’s now almost a whole sub-genre of software doing more or less the same thing, but Privacy Repairer has more than enough extra power and detail to justify its tiny download.
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