Recording music straight from Internet radio stations has never gotten the attention it deserves, as it offers an easy and convenient way of adding music to a collection.

Audials One is not only about music and recording Internet radio but it is a large part of the application. It offers a lot more than that, including unique features that make it a lot easier to find that one song that you have been wanting to have in your collection. How does Internet media recording, audio and video conversions and music collection organization sound?

Audials One Review

Audials One will scan the selected folder for music if the selection has been made during installation. The music is added to the database of the program so that it can be managed in the Organizer. Music is also listed on the right side of the interface with the ability to play and browse it directly there.

The two panes can be detached from each other, so that only the music player remains visible on the screen. That’s handy during recordings of music as the recordings are automatic and require no user interaction.

All recorded songs are automatically added to the playlist of the most recent songs with options to play, cut or remove files. Even better, Audials One automatically adds mp3 tags and cover art to the music if available.

The Radio tab is the default selection on startup. This screen can be used to record multiple radio stations at once. Radio stations can be selected by genre, e.g. Rock > Metal, Top 40 Charts or from one of the favorites lists that can be created by the user of the application.

The easiest way to download new music is to select a genre at the top, make a selection of the radio stations that should be recorded simultaneously (default 16) and start the recording by clicking on Start recording. A quick no-limits test on a 50 Mbit Internet connection allowed the recording of music from more than 80 stations simultaneously.

Audials One will automatically pull a list of radio stations from its database and start the recording of those stations. It is possible to switch to a bandwidth limit instead which is easier to handle for most users. Users on slow Internet connections may need to reduce the number of simultaneous recordings to avoid corrupt files.

Jobs can be created to record a certain number of tracks based on songs, data downloaded, total duration of songs or time of the day.

There is also an option to automatically convert music into mp3 format if the radio station streams it in a different format.

Lastly, it is possible to configure filters in the options. Filters range from preventing the saving of incomplete songs on the computer (or defining how much at the end and beginning may be missing), filtering radio station jingles, duplicates that are already in the database (unless they are of higher quality) and a so called hatelist that can be used to block specific artists or tracks so that they never get recorded.

Users who configure favorites have a far better option to customize the recording. It is possible to create multiple favorites, for instance for different genres. Favorites can be added and configured in the Manage Stations window. The very same window offers to manage all radio stations in the database, and offers an option to update the station listing and add stations manually to the application.

The station manager offers several filtering options. Stations can furthermore be sorted by various parameters including country, format or bitrate.

A right-click on a station displays options to record that radio station immediately, add it to the ban list, schedule recordings for that radio station, and to add it to the currently selected favorites. A link to the stations website is provided as well if available.

Audials One comes with a search that offers the user an option to find a specific song on radios or websites. The search is partly powered by plugins with the option to add new ones manually. The program links to a user forum of Audials One where users post their plugins. Preinstalled plugins include Amazon, Aol, Veoh, Youtube and Yahoo Music.

The results are excellent, especially with Youtube included in the mix. The converter will automatically convert selected songs into mp3 format, or another one of the available formats (like aac). Users may need to switch the conversion options from the default mp3 wmv to all to mp3, otherwise they end up with a video track if the source is video.

The search is an excellent option to find and download specific music from the Internet.

Another interesting related option is the ability to create wishlists which can then be fulfilled in the program. Fulfilled means that Audials One will search for the selected songs and download them if found. It is basically a batch version of the search feature with additional community features (e.g. to upload the wishlist).

Audials One supports podcasts and users can add podcast subscriptions to the application. A large selection of podcasts is available in the podcast directory. Users can pick a language, select if they want audio, video or audio and video podcasts. A right-click on a podcasts offers to subscribe, or auto subscribe to podcasts. The latter option starts the recording right away.

That’s still not everything offered by the program. The converter is used to convert files to the right format. One interesting option here is the ability to convert audio and video files from media as well. Audials One uses records the DVD while it is playing on the screen. Some countries have laws that prevent users from circumventing copy protections. This way the recording stays legal in those countries. The same is true for audiobooks, the second available option. Audials One can furthermore scan for files with DRM (digital rights management) and record them so that they become available without DRM.

It is naturally also possible to convert selected files that are stored on the local computer system.

Audials One offers two additional modules. The first is the capture module which can be used to record Internet media, the screen or sound.

The music organizer displays the current music collection. It offers options to search, reorganize and tag music. It is furthermore possible to sync music with another device easily.

Users should pay a visit to the program’s options. They find highly configurable settings here. Important are for instance the audio quality settings for recordings, the output folders and network settings.

Audials One Installation

The installation of the software is straightforward. It is possible to install it on a hard drive or on an USB storage device. Users will also see a prompt with an option to integrate the existing music collection into the application. That can be done during installation, or later on in the program as well. The import may take some time depending on the size of the local music collection. The actual scan of the selected folder is started on the first run if the integration option is activated during installation.

Verdict

Downloading music, lots of music, was never that easy. I have seen a lot of programs in the past that made it possible to download music from the Internet but not one was as sophisticated as Audials One. The ability to search for music, the automatic conversions, plugin system, creation of different favorite groups and the customization surrounding the recording of multiple Internet stations at once is superb. The software is ideal for users who want to grow their music collection, and for collectors who have a hard time finding music that they have been looking for a long time.

Giveaway

RapidSolution Software gave us ten Audials One licenses for this giveaway. The software retails for $79.90 and is currently available for $59.90. Users who are interested in the software can download a trial version directly from the developer’s site.

Please answer the following question for a chance to win one of the ten Audials One licenses: How big is your music collection on your computer?

Kaspersky Pure information are available on the software’s main website at Kaspersky. Before we delve into the review it may be a good idea to compare the program to Kaspersky Antivirus and Kaspersky Internet Security.

The product comparison chart is available here. In short: Kaspersky Pure’s unique features are a password manager and disaster recovery backup. In addition, it offers feature enhanced versions of the home network security, PC security tuneup and digital identity protection modules:

• Digital Identity Protection: Ensures safe shopping and banking online; protects your personal data (e.g. credit card numbers, etc.) from online theft
• Password Manager: Stores and encrypts your personal usernames and passwords in one secure location; automatically logs you in to your favorite websites and auto-complete forms. Includes portable version that allows carrying your passwords with you on an USB stick.
• Disaster recovery (backup): Automatically backs up data, which can be restored in the event of a loss, and select backup media
• PC Security Tune-up: Scans your operating system and programs for vulnerabilities; tunes up system settings for better security; recovers and repairs a virus-damaged/infected system with the help of a Rescue Disc (CD)
• Home Network Security: Guards your home network with the help of a two-way firewall; blocks external security threats, such as malicious programs, files, scripts that can cause damage to your computer and data; increases security of your Wi-Fi connections

Kaspersky Pure Review

The main interface of Kaspersky Pure consists of three different areas. The top area links to the program settings and displays a security state assessment (e.g. your computer security is at risk) with a fix it now button. The main area that links to program modules and provides information about them and the footer with license information and help.

A click on Fix it now is probably the first thing that most users will do. This opens a new window listing all computer protection problems.

One interesting option here is to hide messages. This is for instance useful if a module is disabled that is not needed. The computer shows up as protected if all issues have been resolved or problems have been hidden.

A click on an entry in the main area leads directly to that modules page in Kaspersky Pure. The three main modules at the top offer Quick Tasks which display links to specific tasks directly in the main interface. The Computer Protection Quick Tasks for instance link to pausing the protection, running a full scan or running an update.

Backup and Restore is one of the options that is only available in Kaspersky Pure. The user can create backup tasks that backup selected data on the system. One interesting feature here is that it is possible to select folders and all files in that folder, or specific file categories like images, financial documents, documents or audio / video files with options to create custom categories so that specific file types or groups of files are backed up when that category is selected.

Kaspersky Pure supports backups on removable drives, local and network drives and ftp servers. Backups can be password protected for additional security. It is furthermore possible to save an unlimited number of file versions or restrict the number of file versions or storage period for file versions. Backups can be run according to a schedule or only on manual user request.

Kaspersky Pure offers other interesting features like encrypted storage containers to store data safely, a password manager that can be used with Pure or as a portable version. The authorization method can be a password, USB or Bluetooth device or no authorization at all (which is obviously not recommended).

Previously I have criticized security software companies who added extensions and plugins to web browsers during installation without asking the user to do so. Kaspersky has changed that behavior. The password manager for instance offers extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Thunderbird. These only get installed if the user activates and configures the password manager in the program.

The password manager recommends to disable the internal password manager of the application and offers extensive importing options from web browsers, Roboform or KeePass.

Many modules are only activated when the user initiates it. That’s excellent as it reduces the clutter in the application and impact on other programs on the computer.

Kaspersky Pure Verdict

The security program introduces several excellent changes to previous versions. Especially the ability to activate programs on demand only and the installation of extensions on request are features that need to be mentioned again.

Kaspersky Pure adds well thought out modules to the application, a powerful backup, password manager and data encryption. The program used roughly 70 Megabytes of ram while running on the computer, an acceptable figure, especially since it does not use lots of cpu cycles when it is running.

Kaspersky Pure is the right software for users who want an all in one security solution that includes data backup and disaster recovery. The only minor gripe that I have with it is the inability to remove modules from the main screen. Parental controls are for instance displayed prominently, even if they are not used at all.

Kaspersky Pure Installation

The installation of Kaspersky Pure offers options to customize the software program. Users who want to do that need to check the Custom Installation option on the welcome screen. Computer users who prefer the full package without customizing the security software can simply click next without checking the box.

The second decision that users have to make during installation of Pure is whether they want to join the Kaspersky Security Network. If they do Kaspersky Pure will automatically submit information and files / part of files to Kaspersky for further analysis.

Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) is an online service infrastructure that helps to protect the users, speeds up the product’s response to new malware, and minimizes false positives. Quality of these services depends on quantity of participants of KSN.

Users who have selected custom installation in the first screen can now remove modules from the installation. They may for instance want to remove parental controls from the software if they live without children or minors.

The installation does not take long and an activation screen is displayed in the end. Users with a Kaspersky Pure license can enter the license to fully activate the software, everyone else can opt for a trial of the software that offers all features of the product and expires after 30 days.

One interesting option is the ability to password protect Kaspersky Pure with a admin password. This can be helpful to prevent unauthorized attempts to disable or modify settings.

The installation wizard displays additional options to the user afterwards. Users need to select a protection mode. The options are to let Kaspersky Pure make most of the decisions (which means less prompts for user input), or make the decisions individually which means more control and prompts obviously.

Kaspersky Pure displays a prompt right after installation that reminds the user to update the program databases to install the latest virus definition files and modules.

A free trial version of Kaspersky Pure is available at the Kaspersky website.

Giveaway

Kaspersky donated ten licenses of Kaspersky Pure for the giveaway. The software retails at $99.95 and is good for installation on up to three PCs. For a chance to win a license you need to do the following:

Post your current security setup in the comments here at Ghacks.

We would like to know what you are currently using to protect your computer system. Winners will be randomly selected amongst all commenters who post their setup in the comments. This year we are going to announce the winners in the Ghacks forum, so make sure you check the forum, more specifically in this thread. You may also find information on next day’s software there. Good luck to all participants.

We review the programs that are given to us thoroughly so that you can get an impression of it. Links to developer pages help you further in that decision.

Some companies have already confirmed their participation in the giveaway, among them some participants of last year’s event but also new companies to mix it up a notch.

We are still looking to fill the last spots. If you know a company that would like to participate let us know in the comments, or use the contact form at the top for a direct approach.

We are also keen to read your suggestions. Should we try and contact other companies to get them to participate? If so which company, which product and why?

The Giveaway starts on December 1. A good way to keep track of the postings is to either subscribe to one of our RSS feeds, email newsletter or the Ghacks Christmas Giveaway feed.

The interface of Media Converter Ultimate does not throw the user of with lots of switches and other confusing elements that can irritate inexperienced users. The essential options are displayed in the main menu. This includes adding videos or loading DVD contents.

Videos can be added individually or by selecting a folder which will add all videos that are stored in that folder.

Several interface elements become active after videos have been added to the list of files to convert. Each video will be listed with its source file name, duration and destination file name. A right-click opens a context menu with options to rename or remove the videos. Some actions are inactive but become available if subtitles or multiple audio tracks are supported by the selected video formats.

Each video can be previewed using the small media player on the right.

The settings in the footer area become available after videos have been added to the program. These settings are valid for all videos that are added to the queue which should not be a problem for most users. Some users on the other hand might like more flexibility here so that videos could be converted into different formats in one process.

The video format (and audio format if available) can be selected in this step. A click on the down arrow next to the audio and video file pulldown menu will open a large list of formats and devices the videos can be converted into.

Supported Formats

• DVD: DVD Folder, IFO Files, ISO File
• Standard Video: M4V, AVI, MP4, MPG, MPEG, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, RM, RMVB, DAT, MOV, FLV, MKV, DV, NUT, H.264, NSV, VOB, DVR-MS
• HD Video: HD AVI(VC-1, MPEG-4), MTS/M2TS/TS/TRP(AVHD H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2 HD), HD WMV(VC-1, WMV HD), HD MKV(H.264), HD MOV(H.264), HD MPG(MPEG-2 HD), HD MP4(H.264, Xvid)
• Audio: M4A, M4B, M4P, M4R, MP3, M4A, MP2, MPA, WMA, AAC, AC3, MKA, OGG, AIFF, RA, RAM, WAV, APE, FLAC, AA, AAX

That’s a comfortable way of displaying the available choices. Users do not have to worry about resolutions, bitrates and other advanced parameters at this point. If their device is in the list they can select it and are ready to convert the videos without having to worry about those advanced parameters.

Supported devices:

• iPod, iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod shuffle, iPod touch, iPod Touch 3G
• iPhone, iPhone 3G, Apple TV
• PSP, PS3
• Xbox, Xbox 360
• Android MPEG-4(*.mp4), HTC T-Mobile G1, HTC G2 Magic, HTC Hero, HTC Tattoo, HTC DROID ERIS, T-MOBILE myTouch 3G, SamSung i7500, Motorola CLIQ, Motorola droid
• BlackBerry Storm 9630/9550/9530, BlackBerry 8800/8830/8820, BlackBerry Bold 9700/9000
• BlackBerry Curve 8900/ 8530/ 8520/ 8300/ 8310/ 8320/ 8330/ 8350i
• BlackBerry Pearl Flip8220/ Flip8230/ 8100/ 8110/ 8120/ 8130
• General 3GP mobile phone, BlackBerry, etc.
• General MP4 players: Archos, Creative Zen,Zune, Zune HD, iRiver, etc.
• Window Mobile device: Pocket PC, Smart Phone, PDA, etc.

Advanced users on the other hand can make use of the Settings button to change those parameters. This includes video and audio parameters like the frame rate, bit rate or video and audio encoder.

A click on the Start button will start the media conversion. Media Converter Ultimate uses multi-threading and all cores of multi-core cpus to speed up the conversions.

Converted videos can be moved to connected devices from within the program after all conversions have finished. That’s helpful for users who convert videos that they want to view on those devices.

It is furthermore possible to burn videos to disk. Media Converter Ultimate can created DVD templates and convert the selected videos into a format that is compatible with DVD video before they get burned to DVD.

DRM Removing

This feature was not tested due to a lack of files with DRM. It can, according to the developer, deal with several DRM formats that are used by iTunes, BBC iPlayer, Audible Audiobook and Windows Media.

Whether the “Fair Use” of iTunes’ .m4p music .m4v video .m4b audiobook, or the “Play for Sure” of Windows Media protected .wma .wmv files, or even BBC iPlayer WMV, Audible Audiobook AA, now DRM will be no longer the sham to deprive our fair usage rights, Media Converter Ultimate will disable DRM license easily.

Christmas Giveaway

We have ten licenses of Daniusoft Media Converter Ultimate that we can give away. Leave a comment for a chance to win one of the licenses.

Raju is giving away Axialis screensaver Producer at his blog, check it out.

Many USB devices are listed as USB Mass Storage Device in Windows which makes it extremely difficulty to distinguish between those devices.

The above screenshot visualizes the problems that many users have when trying to disconnect one of their devices from the PC system. It would help if Windows would offer the option to hide certain devices that a user does not want to disconnect from the computer but that option is not given as well.

USB Safely Remove deals with that problem and many more that users experience when dealing with USB devices. One major change is that the software program will display the actual names of the devices instead of USB Mass Storage Device which makes it much easier to identify the right device. Even better; It also displays a drive icon in the dialog so that items can be visually distinguished as well.

But USB Safely Remove provides access to additional options besides the very handy USB identification. Computer users can rename devices and change the device icons which might be helpful if multiple devices of the same type or of the same developer are connected to a PC. It can also hide devices so that they do not appear in the removal dialog window at all, great for storage devices that should keep the connection at all times.

Users who prefer to use the computer keyboard can utilize keyboard shortcuts to browse a drive’s contents, stop a device or activate a device again that has not been removed from the system yet. Available are one global shortcut and device specific shortcuts.

Sometimes USB devices cannot be disconnected from the PC which can usually be attributed to a process that is locking a file on the USB drive (e.g. a program that has been executed on the USB drive). USB Safely Remove will provide extensive information about the processes and files that prevent that the USB device can be stopped.

Five Options are provided in the cannot stop device window:

• To know what processes prevent the device from being stopped
• To stop the device again – the program tries ejecting the device once again. You have to close all listed processes or files opened by them beforehand.
• To forcibly stop the device – the program closes all files opened by the listed processes on the device, leaving all the processes running and tries stopping the device again.
• To close the processes and stop the device again – the program closes all listed processes and tries stopping the device again.
• To know what files opened the process – just press “+” sign before file name and you will find out what certain files opened the process

Another interesting option that USB Safely Remove offers is the ability to run programs after connecting a device, before or after stopping the device and after removing it from the system.

This offers a lot of possibilities like running the encryption software True-Crypt when a device gets connected, a data backup or file synchronization before the device gets stopped.

Other features of USB Safely Remove include:

• Command Line tool to work with the program from the command line
• Automatically hide empty drives
• Ejecting memory cards
• Returning devices back after they have been stopped without physically reconnecting the device first.

Christmas Giveaway

We have 20 licenses of USB Safely Remove. Just leave a comment below which will automatically include you in the draw.

Raju us giving away 10 WinRar licenses.

FastPictureViewer can help you save time. Its aim is to be your first choice for a quick first-pass culling/review of (very) large quantities of images. Once your rough selection is made and you have copied/tagged the images you want to keep, FastPictureViewer has done its job and your usual workflow (Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture NX, DPP, IDimager, IMatch, whatever…) picks up from there as usual. Slashing the initial review time in three is typical, thanks to the speed of everything FastPictureViewer does, viewing, rating, copying, all is virtually instantaneous vs. 1 second here, 2 seconds there, thousands of times, with all competing solutions.

One feature of the photo viewer becomes apparent right after startup: It is incredible fast. It does not really matter if the program is being used to view a handful of images or thousands as the amount of images does not seem to have an impact on the speed of the program. Now we have not tested it with 50+ Megabyte photos but the program loaded our five Megabyte photos as fast as some smaller images that we had lying around.

The photo viewer supports Unicode and international characters which makes it ideal for viewing photos that use non-Latin characters in their file or folder names.

FastPictureViewer Professional displays several objects on the screen besides the active photo. Those are a rating object to quickly rate the active photo, exif information about the mode, focal, ISO and megapixels used to take the photo, a histogram and an external editors object that can be used to quickly load the photo into a photo editor.

All of those information and on screen objects can be disabled if they are not needed. Photos can be scrolled in multiple ways including the mouse wheel, the computer keyboard and by clicking on the thumbnail image of a photo in the thumbnail stripe on top which is only displayed if the mouse is in that area of the program.

The left and right mouse button can be used to zoom into the photo. Holding the button makes it possible to move around in the photo.

The professional version of FastPictureViewer supports a wide variety of image and photo formats, among them all popular formats like jpg, png or tiff but also hd photo, various RAW formats like CR2, CRW, NRW or NEF.

FastPictureViewer Professional offers extensive options to enable or disable features, improve the performance or quality and to configure other settings like the slideshow, plugins or automatic updates.

• Color Management: FastPictureViewer fully supports color management, including support for custom-profiled monitors. A specific profile, to be used when converting the images for display, can be selected in the program options. Is is important to note that FastPictureViewer converts the image data directly from the source color space (the image file) to the destination color space (as specified by the monitor profile) without an intermediate sRGB step
• Image Bookmarking: FastPictureViewer supports 10 “quick bookmarks” accessible from the keyboard or a popup menu. Press Ctrl+Alt+1 to set bookmark 1 at the current image’s location, then later on press Alt+1 to quickly jump back to it.
• Network Support: Network Shares browsing is enabled
• Multi-Monitor support: FastPictureViewer is fully multi-monitor aware and can be displayed on any monitor in a multi-monitor setu
• High-DPI Monitors: FastPictureViewer fully supports 96, 120, 144, 192, 250 dpi screen resolution and beyond (tested up to 480 dpi).
• Adobe XMP and Windows 7, Windows Vista metadata: The program can optionally create/update Adobe XMP sidecar files and optionally write embedded XMP and Windows 7, Windows Vista metadata within JPEG (JFIF), HD Photo / JPEG XR and TIFF containers.
• Keyboard shortcuts: The program supports a wide variety of shortcuts that can speed up the workflow tremendously.

The developer of FastPictureViewer has created three support pages that showcase the advantages of the program for professional photographers, imaging professionals and photography enthusiasts which are the starting point for in depth information.

A video review of the program is available below.

Christmas Giveaway:

We are giving away an unlimited amount of licenses for the next 24 hours. You can download the 32-bit or 64-bit edition of FastPictureViewer below. The program is pre-registered so all that you need to do is to install it between December 21, 12:00 CET and December 22, 12:00 CET.

• FastPictureViewer Pro 32-bit
• FastPictureViewer Pro 64-bit

Users who download the version after the 24 hour period can use the program as a fully working Pro trial until January 31, 2010. It will automatically revert back to a free version after that data.

Raju is giving away licenses for USB Safely Remove.

There are two Ghacks T-Shirts that have been created in the past, a red and black version. The red t-shirt shows six geeks with their hardware while the black t-shirt is a collage of things that geeks love.

Both shirts are high-quality shirts, not the usual “see-through” ones that are common these days.

# 100% cotton (doesn’t feel like cardboard)
# 10.2 ounce crewneck T
# Double needle cover seamed neck, taped neck and shoulders, double needle sleeve and bottom.
# Pre-shrunk

You can take a closer look at both t-shirts at our official merchandise store and even order one if you do not believe in your chances ;)

We are giving away ten t-shirts in this giveaway (which we actually have to pay with our own money). Just leave a comment below for a chance to win a t-shirt. We will contact ten random commenters at the end of the giveaway asking for their shipping address, t-shirt color and size. The shipment can take a long time depending on the location in the world the t-shirt gets shipped to.

Good luck everyone.

Raju is giving away Hide IP VPN accounts, check it out.

Installation

Sandboxie is compatible with lots of 32-bit Windows operating systems including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. A 64-bit edition is not planned but 64-bit Windows 7 operating systems can run Sandboxie in Windows XP mode.

Installation itself takes less than a minute and ends with the display of the Sandboxie Control interface which is used to run and configure Sandboxie.

Sandboxie review

The Sandboxie interface consists of a menu bar on top and a larger area that lists the configured sandboxes. These sandboxes can either display the programs that have been started in a sandbox or the files and folders that are currently accessible in those sandboxes.

New programs can be launched in sandboxes in numerous ways including the Sandbox menu at the top of Sandboxie control or a right-click on the program icon in the Windows system tray (there are automated ways but more about that later). Another handy option is that programs can be launched in a sandbox with a right-click in Windows Explorer which is for example handy when installing new software.

The default web browser and email program can be started from the shortcuts offered in the Sandboxie menu. Other programs can be launched by browsing for them using the file browser or the start menu which is displayed in a minimalistic menu if the option is selected by the user.

Every sandboxed program window will displays a # at the beginning of the window which indicates to the user that the program is running in a sandboxed environment. The Is Window Sandboxed option in the File menu can also be used to check if a specific window is running sandboxed.

Data that is created in a sandbox stays in the sandbox. This can be temporary files, cookies, documents that are created or saved files from the Internet. It would not be very practical if there was not a way to exchange files between the sandbox and the rest of the computer system.

Sandboxie provides two options on how to deal with those files.

• Explore Contents: It is possible to launch a Windows Explorer window that gets access to the sandboxed files. This can be done by right-clicking a sandbox and selecting Explorer Contents. The same option is also available in the top menu under each sandbox entry.
• Quick Recovery: Quick Recovery, when executed by the user, automatically scans specific folders (My Documents, Desktop and Favorites) for files that have been created. These files can be recovered by the user to the same folder (of the normal system) or to any folder. There is also an option to add another folder to the list so that its contents are scanned as well.
• Immediate Recovery: An automated version of Quick Recovery which will automatically display a dialog if a new file has been discovered in one of the monitored folders.

Programs in a sandbox can be terminated by closing their program window, right-clicking them in the sandboxie control window. There is another option to close all programs at once that are running in the sandbox.

Each sandbox comes with its own custom set of options. All start with the same options at the beginning and can be customized by the user of the computer system.

This ranges from appearance changes (display a border around sandboxed windows instead of the # indicator), recovery options to add or remove monitored folders, force programs to start in the sandbox which will automatically launch selected programs in a sandboxed environment whenever they are started, restrictions (Internet access, hardware access..) and Resource access (files, registry, IPC, COM..)

And then there are application specific options that make it a little bit easier to work with Sandboxie. Observant users might have noticed that it can be difficulty to run specific programs that require write access like a desktop email client that wants to add the new emails to the mailbox. Sandboxie by default would prevent those write operations. That’s where the application specific settings come into play. Sandboxie provides those settings for web browsers, email readers, pdf and printing, security and privacy, download managers and many more. A lot of programs are listed in that menu from Internet browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox to security programs like Kaspersky Internet Security or Norton Internet Security to Adobe Acrobat, Evernote and 7-zip.

An option to configure additional custom program rights is provided as well.

Verdict

Sandboxie is an indispensable program that protects a computer system effectively from harm. It is ideal for users who test new applications regularly, download files, spend lots of time on the Internet or simply want to protect their privacy by preventing write operations of temporary data to the computer system.

Christmas Giveaway

We have ten licenses of Sandboxie to give away. Please leave a comment and explain why you would like to win a license.

Raju is handing out licenses of JV16 Powertools 2009 today.

Binary groups allow users to post files with their posts while textual groups do not. The main difference between forums and the Usenet is the decentralized system of the Usenet. There is no administrator or central server in the Usenet, everything is handled by independent servers that exchange data with each other.

Usenet access is provided by so called Usenet providers. Back in the days a lot of Internet Service Providers offered Usenet access but today there are only a few that do. Most stopped offering Usenet access due to the costs involved to operate or lease the infrastructure.

Public Usenet servers exist but they tend to come and go and are not as reliable as they need to be to be a good alternative.

The only other choice are Usenet Service Providers like Giganews. Giganews is respected in the Usenet community for its quality service. They might not be the cheapest provider around but they make more than up for it by providing their users with the best quality possible.

Users who are evaluating Usenet providers need to consider several factors beyond the monthly charges that they have to pay for the access. The most important factors are:

• Traffic Limits: How many Gigabytes can be downloaded per month?
• Connection Limits: How many simultaneous connections are allowed?
• Encryption: Does the Usenet Provider offer encryption?
• Data Retention: For how long are the Usenet articles stored on the servers?
• Speed Limits: What’s the average and maximum speed that users get?
• Completion: Are the files that are uploaded complete?
• Censorship: Are the newsgroups uncensored?

Giganews, as a top provider, is offering some of the best – if not the best – values.

• Traffic Limits: Up to unlimited traffic
• Connection Limits: Up to 50 simultaneous connections
• Encryption: 256 AES encryption offered
• Data Retention: 498 days of binary articles are stored by Giganews and almost 3000 days of textual articles
• Speed Limits: 50 Mbit+ (this is the limit of our test connection to the Internet, it may very well be even faster than that). Giganews operates servers in the United States, Asia and Europe to provide users with faster access times to the servers.
• Completion: One of the best completion rates in the industry. Completion rate is greater than 99% (rest can be usually handled with so called parity files)
• Censorship: Giganews provides access to over 109,000 uncensored newsgroups.

What you need:

The requirements that are needed to access the Usenet are one of the main reasons that it has not reached mainstream yet:

• Usenet Access: Access to a Usenet server is needed obviously. We recommend Giganews but there are other providers out there as well.
• Usenet Client: Several mail and chat programs offer access to the textual groups but the binary groups require a client that is able to handle those. One of those clients is Newsbin Pro which we have reviewed in last Christmas’ Giveaway. It is a commercial software but there are free alternatives like Alt.Binz available as well

Usenet Preview:

If you do not know what you get then you’d probably do not want to pay for access to the Usenet. There are several options on how to get a preview. Option one is to make use of the free trial option that Giganews offers.

Another option is to use a Usenet search engine like Binsearch to search for files that are of interest.

Personal Experience:

I have been accessing the Usenet for more than ten years and was switching Usenet providers constantly back in the beginning because they did not offer what they advertised. That is, until I signed up for Giganews for the first time which I have been now for several years.

I never – and I really mean never – had connection, retention or speed problems other than the occasional ten minute period when your Internet Provider drops your Internet connection and you get a new IP.

The release of the Giganews Accelerator made my life a lot easier as it was now possible to download the compressed headers which bumped the speed to 4-10 times the value that uncompressed headers where delivered.

I know one thing and that is that I will stick with Giganews for as long as they continue to provide this excellent service.

Christmas Giveaway

We have a very special offer today. Giganews was nice enough to provide us with three free one-year accounts.

1 Diamond account
1 Silver account
1 Bronze account

Please leave a comment below to be included in the draw. Let us know about your Usenet experience.

Raju is giving away Disk Rescue 2009 licenses, make sure to check out his giveaway as well.

Symantec’s Norton suite has seen dramatic improvements in the last two years. The two most notable changes are a concentration on lower resource usage which was already noticeable in last year’s Norton Internet Security but becomes even more apparent in this year’s. Additional improvements are the new behavioral detection engine Quorum which uses a cloud based reputation system to identify threats and offers faster response times to new or mutating malware threats and additions to Norton Insight which has now been split to the four areas Download Insight for better control of file downloads, System Insight for system diagnosis, File Insight for file analysis and Threat Insight.

Here is a quick overview of what Norton Internet Security 2010 offers:

• Anti Virus
• Anti Rootkit
• Bot Protection
• AntiSpam
• Norton™ Safe Web
• Smart Firewall
• Network Monitoring
• Spyware Protection
• Identity Protection
• Parental Controls

Installation

Installation is a breeze. The most important change to installation is that no reboot is required to complete the installation of Norton Internet Security 2010. The installation process itself has also been improved as it now takes less than a minute (a bit more if you use an installer that downloads the components from the Internet) to install the security software on the computer system.

Interface

The interface is easily accessible and gives the user an immediate overview over the protection state of the computer system. Switches are provided in the main interface to switch the state of a specific module to on or off with the interesting option to turn a feature off for a specific time only.

The protection is divided into the three groups computer, network and web each with their own associated security modules, settings, information and options.

Another indicator that Symantec takes performance serious is a cpu meter that is displayed in the main interface. This cpu meter displays the cpu usage of the computer system and that of Norton Internet Security. A click on the provided performance link will lead to a performance monitor that displays the cpu and computer memory usage of the system and Norton Internet Security over time.

Other links in the main interface lead to Norton Tasks which displays a similar performance graph and the background tasks that are configured in Norton Internet Security 2010. Here it is possible to see their impact on the computer system with an option to start any of the background tasks right away.

Application Ratings is a very interesting module that displays Norton Insight information about files and programs of the computer system. It will for instance rate all running processes, startup items, loaded modules and even all files so that it is possible to get a quick overview of the danger of certain files.

Norton Insight uses a trust level, resource usage and Norton Community Usage as indicators for a file’s rating.

The remaining subscription days and links to the Norton account, help and support and feedback are provided in the main interface as well.

Computer Protection

Computer Protection consists of the four modules Insight protection, antivirus, antispyware and SONAR protection. It contains additional links to running a live update, accessing the history and quarantine, start a scan and to open the settings.

The settings are extensive and contain several optional modules that are not activated by default. It is here for instance possible to enable Microsoft Office Automatic Scan to protect Office documents. Modules can be turned on and off in the settings but there are also advanced options available. This includes configuring exclusions (good for false positives for instance or files that should not be accessed by Norton Internet Security), real-time protection features and scan performance profiles.

• Insight Protection – The Insight Network scan uses the Cloud technology wherein a remote server on the web contains the latest virus definitions.
• Antivirus and Antispyware – Security risks, such as spyware and adware, can compromise your personal information and privacy
• SONAR Protection – Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response (SONAR) provides real-time protection against threats and proactively detects unknown security risks on your computer.

Network Protection

Network Protection consists of the Smart Firewall, Intrusion Prevention and Email protection modules. A settings link is provided here as well that leads to the options for the listed modules. Configuration options for the firewall are divided into several menus. One element that seems to be missing is an overview of all the computer or network connections.

• Smart Firewall – Smart Firewall monitors communications between your computer and the other computers on the Internet.
• Intrusion Prevention – Intrusion Prevention scans all the network traffic that enters and exits your computer and compares this information against a set of attack signatures.
• Email Protection – Email Protection protects your computer against the threats that you might receive through email attachments

Web Protection

This group contains the parental controls, identify safe, browser protection, safe surfing and download intelligence modules.

• Identity Safe – The various features of Identity Safe help you manage your identities and provide additional security while you perform online transactions
• Browser Protection – (Firefox and Internet Explorer only) When you turn on Browser Protection, Norton Internet Security proactively blocks new or unknown malware programs before they attack the computer system.
• Safe Surfing – When you install Norton Internet Security, it adds the Norton Toolbar to Internet Explorer and Firefox.
• Download Intelligence – Download Insight provides information about the reputation of any executable file that you download using the Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 3.0 browsers or later.

Verdict

Norton Internet Security 2010 is an impressive product that has a much lower resource footprint than previous versions of the software. The new performance monitor emphasizes this to give the user hard facts about the performance usage of the security software.

Modules like the application ratings and the new Norton Insight modules make it easier than ever to stay on the safe side.

The settings for each individual module are on the other hand somewhat hidden in the program. It would be more comfortable if links to individual settings would be provided in the main interface.

Christmas Giveaway

We have ten licenses for Norton Internet Security 2010. Please leave a comment for a chance to win one of the licenses. Let us know why you would like to get a license for Norton Internet Security 2010

Raju is giving away DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced, check it out as well.

Paragon Drive Backup 2010 is a backup solution for computers running a Microsoft Windows operating system. It is basically a lighter version of the more expensive Backup & Recovery Suite that is offered for $69.95 at the Paragon website. It is an easy to use backup software that provides everything necessary to perform data backups and restoration.

Download

We are offering the file in cooperation with Paragon via Bittorrent. Users who want to download the 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the program need a Bittorrent client to download the file. A good Bittorrent client for the task is uTorrent which can be downloaded at the developer’s website. All that needs to be done is to download one of the torrent files after installation of the Bittorrent client. A double-click on the torrent should add that torrent to the program interface and start the download immediately.

Please keep the torrent in the program for a while to seed it to other users as well. Thanks a lot!

Users with difficulty can post a comment in this article so that they can receive help downloading the files.

• Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition 32-bit
• Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition 64-bit

Installation

A double-click on the program file after the download will start the setup for the drive backup software. The setup will display the following screen that can be used to get a license for the program:

Everything else should be self explanatory.

Here is the direct link to get a serial for the software.

Paragon Drive Backup 2010 SE Review

Paragon Drive Backup makes use of the usual Paragon software interface that puts the tasks that can be done with the software in the left sidebar and the information of the active task in the main window.

The tasks are divided into Basic Backup / Restore Tasks, Advanced Backup Tasks, Tools and News and Documentation.

The basic backup and restore tasks can be used to perform a smart backup, schedule disk, partition or file backups and restore a previously created backup. Every selection will open a wizard guiding the user through the steps to perform the selected task.

• Smart Backup: Gives the user options to backup partitions, entire hard drives, files, email (Windows Mail and Outlook), documents in the MyDocuments folder or media files that are located in the same folder structure. Backups can be executed right away or scheduled.
• Schedule Backup of Disk or Partition: A faster way to schedule backups of disks and partitions of the computer system.
• Schedule File Backups: A faster way to schedule file backups.
• Restore: Ability to restore backups that have been created in the past.

File backups can be further customized by using so called include and exclude masks that make sure that certain file types or names are included or excluded from the backup. That’s very handy for operations where specific file types need to be backed up, for instance all document formats on drive C.

The advanced backup tasks offer differential partition backups and incremental file backups which can be used to reduce the size requirements of backups. Paragon Drive Backup will automatically use compression technologies to decrease the size of the backup.

The tools section finally can be used to create recovery media so that the data can be recovered even if the operating system fails to load. Most users might want to start with this option to be able to restore the backups if the OS should fail.

One interesting option provided by Paragon Drive Backup 2010 is the archive integrity checker which can verify the integrity of previously created backups.

Drive Backup can create a backup capsule on a connected hard drive that will then be used to store the backups that are performed by the software.

Other features of Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition:

• Paragon Hot Processing, Microsoft VSS Support – Ensures that all files and folders are copied even if Windows is running.
• Selective Restore – Restore only files needed
• Support for Ext3/4FS, Apple HFS+ file systems

Verdict

Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition is an easy to use backup solution for the Windows operating system. It is relatively easy to use and configure thanks to the wizards that are displayed whenever a task is created.

Christmas Giveaway

You can grab a license of the backup software by downloading the setup files via Bittorrent. The option to create a new license will be given once the setup of the backup application has started. Make sure you download the right version (32-bit or 64-bit offered).

Paragon is offering support during the giveaway at Twitter. Anyone who runs into installation or usage problems can contact them during that time to sort things out.

Raju is giving away Antamedia Print Manager licenses, check out his blog for a chance to win those.

The main difference between Returnil Virtual System 2010 and sandboxing solutions is that Returnil will create a clone of the operating system that gets loaded instead of the original one. This clone can run all applications and files that are installed on the system. They are however run in an isolated environment which means that the original operating system is not affected by malicious software, viruses and other threats.

Installation of Returnil Virtual System is thankfully not a complicated process. The user should however make sure that the computer system offers the minimum system requirements so that the software can be installed and operated properly. The most important spec is the hard drive capacity for the installation which Returnil suggests to be 16 Gigabytes but at least twice the available computer memory)

The program itself is compatible with several Microsoft operating systems including Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows Server 2008. Another change to last year’s offer is the 64-bit support that is now available for all supported operating systems.

The first step after the required system reboot at the end of the installation should lead into the program’s options; Specifically into the System Safe menu.

Returnil will by default forfeit any changes made to the clone system on system shutdown or reboot. This is great for security as it ensures that the system will always be free from malware and problems as it reverts back to its original state. It is sometimes on the other hand necessary to make changes to the system and this is why the option to save all changes is provided in that menu.

Please note that it is still possible to download files or documents for instance as they can be copied to an USB storage device or another system partition. There is even a workaround to store them on the system partition which can be found in the helpful faq of Returnil.

System Safe is the virtual clone mode of the operating system. It can be turned on in the menu of the same name and does not require a restart for that operation. A restart is however required once the user decides to go leave the clone and continue working with the default operating system.

Returnil are offering to create a virtual hard drive that can be mounted when in System Safe mode. This is beneficial on computer systems without another partition because it ensures that the data can be safed to the virtual drive (remember data cannot be safed that easily to the drive the operating system resides on). It is possible to configre Returnil to always boot the computer system into System Safe mode which can be an interesting option for multiple usage scenarios (e.g. public computer systems).

A file manager is provided in safe mode to access the files of the original hard drive. This comes in handy when a specific document or file needs to be accessed while in safe mode. Returnil Virtual System 2010 Home Lux ships with a Virus Guard that protects both the standard and virtual system from virus attacks. It provides real-time protection against threats with the possibility to turn the virus protection off in case another antivirus program is installed on the computer system that should be used instead.

Verdict

Virtualization is a great way of protecting the computer system from threats. Returnil Virtual System 2010 Home Lux offers a safe environment that seems ideal for public computers, lending computers to other users, family computers and even business environments.

Ghacks Giveaway

We have an unlimited number of licenses for Returnil Virtual System 2010 Home Lux. If you want to license visit this giveaway page and enter an email address. After you verify the email you will receive a second email with the license code and instructions to download and use Returnil.

Raju has licenses for Winautomation Professional, make sure to check out his giveaway as well.

Bulk Image Downloader will automatically download the page, scan it for media references and add those found to the queue. This process works with most websites out there be it Flickr (full image download support), Youtube, Facebook photo galleries, picture posting blogs or Vbulletin forums.

The image downloader works regardless of the way the images are posted or the software that is used to power the website. One of the interesting features is that Bulk Image Downloader can recognize many so called image file hosts that are used to host the full versions of the images and photos.

Most image downloaders will download the thumbnail images only if pointed at the website containing those thumbnails. Bulk Image Downloader will however calculate the address of the full image from the information provided by the thumbnail and add that real image to the download queue instead of the thumbnail even if the target website is an html page and not the image.

Some of the image hosts that are supported are Imagevenue, Imagefap, Imageshack, Megaupload or Photobucket.

Even better is the fact that the program provides access to an advanced configuration that allows experienced users to add their own regular expressions to add new file hosts or edit existing ones.

The advanced configuration does contain general configuration settings besides the ability to maintain an ignore list, include list, redirect list and JavaScript sites with regular expressions.

It is here that users can add or remove the program’s web browser integration, cache settings, automatic deletion of images below a certain file size and program folders for the queue, retry batch folder and log file.

The standard configuration settings are directly accessible in the second tab of the program. It can be used to change the number of download threads, web browser integration, from which browser cookies should be loaded (for sites requiring authentication), if downloads should be resumed and after how many retries the individual downloads and page downloads should be stopped.

Images that are recognized by Bulk Image Downloader can be displayed as text links or small, medium or large thumbnails before downloading the full sized pictures. This is an excellent opportunity to check the images before they are downloaded which can for instance be used to remove selected ones from the download queue.

One of the most powerful features of Bulk Image Downloader has been added to the beta of Bulk Image Downloader 3. The program now supports page ranges in the url. Lets say you encounter a website or forum that contains lots of pages that each contain images, e.g. www.example.com/page1/, www.example.com/page10/ and so on.

Bulk Image Downloader 3 supports brackets to download all pages and photos from those pages. To download the pages 1 to 10 from the above website one would simply add the url www.example.com/page[1-10]/ to the address list in the image downloader.

Each page will be downloaded and processed individually by Bulk Image Downloader and every image or video found will be added to the download queue.

Bulk Image Downloader offers web browser integration for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Google Chrome (in the latest beta). If the option is enabled a Bid right-click submenu becomes available that can be used to send the active page to the image downloader. Another option that has been recently added is the ability to drag and drop pages into the program’s interface. Cookies from that browser will be used if those options are used.

Verdict

Bulk Image Downloader is an incredible program. It works out of the box and the developer’s are making sure that it stays that way. It is definitely one of the easiest and most convenient image downloaders – if not the easiest and most convenient – that is currently available on the Internet.

New features are added all the time and the devs are very responsive to customer suggestions.

Christmas Giveaway

We have ten licenses of this awesome program. If you want one leave a comment and let us know why you would like to have it.

Raju is giving away licenses for Axialis Iconworkshop Professional today, make sure you check it out.

http://techpp.com/2009/12/14/techpp-mega-christmas-giveaway-axialis-iconworkshop-professional/

Instead of transferring several four Megabyte photos from the last holiday, family event or party one could reduce the resolution of the photo to reduce its file size so that it can be transferred and viewed easier.

FILEminimizer Pictures is a photo compression software that has been created for exactly that purpose. The software can batch process photos that are loaded into its interface by the user. It can for instance be used to reduce the size of all photos that have been transferred from a digital camera to the computer.

The supported image formats that can be loaded into the software are JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG, BMP and EMF. The program will automatically display all loaded photos in a queue in its main interface. A second queue is displayed that displays the target directory for the optimized images and their names.

FILEminimizer Pictures by default renames the pictures and saves them in the same directory as the original photos. The text that is added to the filename can be edited by the user in the options. It is here also possible to make the program replace the original files instead.

Available are four compression settings of which one can be customized by the user. The three standard compression settings are web / e-mail compression, standard compression and low / print compression. The names refer to the intended usage with standard compression selected by default.
The screen resolution and JPEG quality can be selected manually if custom compression is selected.

A click on the optimize files button will start the image optimization which can reduce the size of an image by up to 96%. The program did convert photos with a size of about 2 Megabytes into images with a size of less than 100 Kilobytes using standard compression making this ideal before transferring them over the Internet or a network.

The resulting photos do have a lower screen resolution but the image quality is still excellent. FILEminimzer Pictures managed to reduce the size of 129 photos by 260 Megabytes, that is an reduction of 2 Megabytes per photo. The resulting images all had a size of about 0.10 Megabytes which meant that about 13 Megabytes would be transferred over a network or Internet if the compressed photos would be transferred opposed to 273 Megabytes for the original photos.

FILEminimizer Pictures can add an entry to the context menu of Windows Explorer so that it becomes more comfortable to send photos to the program from the default file browser in Windows. The program is ideal for anyone who either wants to reduce the size of the images and photos on a computer system or transfers photos and images over a network or Internet regularly. The program is very easy to use and is therefor suitable for all computer experience levels.

Christmas Giveaway:

We have 15 licenses for the latest version of FILEminimizer Pictures. Just leave a comment below for a chance to win a license.

Raju is giving away licenses for Codeweaver’s Crossover today. Make sure to check it out if you are a Mac or Linux user.

The main interface of the program is divided into a profile and photos section. The program uses conversion profiles to convert the photos and images that are loaded into it. About a dozen profiles are already available after installation ranging from converting photos to jpeg thumbnails, true color png images or black and white tiff images.

Each profile consists of a set of operations, a target image format, a folder where the converted images are saved and file name manipulations. The option to create new profiles and alter existing ones is a very powerful way of configuring photo converting operations that need to be processed regularly. All it actually takes to convert photos with a specific profile would be to load the photos, select the profile and hit the start button in the software.

The most powerful part are the operations that can be added to each profile. It is possible to add one or multiple operations to the profile which ranges from resizing and rotating images to adding watermarks, color effects or profiles, page filters or brightness and contrast changes.

The strength of this is the ability to use multiple image converting and manipulation operations. It is for example possible to reduce all loaded photos by 50%, add a watermark image to the lower left using alpha blend and remove meta tags if those are stored in the original photos.

The program comes with a preview option to preview the profiles before they are saved and used.

Image Converter Plus supports batch conversion of images that are loaded into the interface. It is actually possible to load images or folders containing images into the application. The photo tab will display all photos and images that have been loaded into the program. Each image conversion can be previewed individually before all images are converted using the settings of the selected profile.

Another interesting option for professional use is command line support so that the program can be used in batch files.

Verdict

Image Converter Plus is a very powerful image converter that supports lots of image formats and operations that can enhance, change and convert images into an output format the user wants it to be in. The use of profiles make the image conversions less time consuming after the first initial configuration.

Christmas Giveaway

We have seven licenses of this powerful image converter. Please let us know what you would like to use the program for for a chance to win one of the licenses.

Raju is giving away licenses for Codeweaver’s Crossover today. Make sure to check it out if you are a Mac or Linux user.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The installation itself offers a smooth user experience with customization offered to advanced users who can block various modules (like the parental controls or the virtual keyboard) from being installed on the computer.

One interesting aspect of the installation is that it does not require a reboot in the end which still is a requirement of many security programs.

The main interface of the security program is divided into a left sidebar, several header and footer links as well as the main area that will display varying contents depending on the sidebar menu that has been selected by the user.

The first stop that advanced users should make is to the settings of the program. It is in here possible to configure the various modules and functions that are offered by Kaspersky Internet Security 2010.

Users who have not customized their installation can for instance disable features of the program that they do not need. It does not make sense for example to use parental controls on a one-user system or for users who solely rely on Gmail for their emails to activate the local anti-spam protection. It is however generally suggested to keep most modules enabled to ensure that the system is properly protected.

The settings can be easily adjusted or customized extensively. One prime example would be the file anti-virus module. A slider changes the security level of that module from the default setting (optimal protection) to maximum protection settings for hostile environments or minimum protection for best performance.

The settings button opens a new menu where the user can customize the settings of the selected protection mode further. It is for instance possible to change the type of the scan, disable heuristic analysis, scan only new or changed files or include archives and installation packages in the scan.

Users who might have tampered a bit to much with the settings can use the build in restore option to restore the settings to their defaults. The most interesting aspect of the settings from a user’s perspective is the level of customization that Kaspersky is offering. The software can easily be configured to protect the computer system of the user exactly how that user wants it to. Inexperienced users on the other hand can rest assured that the default settings are optimized for most computer systems.

The main interface is divided into a sidebar with five menu buttons, a header and footer with various links and the main area pane that changes depending on the user’s sidebar selection.

My Protection

My Protection displays the protection status of the computer system. It links to a new tabbed window that displays the various protection modules that Kaspersky is offering and their status giving the user an overview over the status of each module. The window is divided into the three tabs Files and private data, System and applications and Online activity.

My Security Zone

Displays a log of application activities on the computer system. Applications are divided into trusted, low and high restricted as well as untrusted. Application lists (like those currently running or started on system startup) can be displayed by clicking on the Application Activity link in the menu.

Here it is possible to terminate applications, change their trust level and to configure specific rules for those applications. Those settings again are very extensive ranging form allowing or disallowing the application to read, write, delete or create file and system Registry information over specific rights like starting or stopping processes to network rules to allow or disallow specific (or total) network activity.

One interesting option in this window is the ability to display the programs that have been started in the last week or this month for an overview of all those programs and the option to create rules for some of them.

The My Security Zone menu contains additional options including the newly integrated Safe Run mode. Safe Run offers to run specific programs in a sandbox so that they will have not access to the core operating system and its files and settings.

Scan My Computer

This menu can be used to manually scan the computer system in various ways. Options included are to perform a full or quick scan, an objects scan or a vulnerability scan.

My Update Center

Will display if the databases are up to date. It is possible to check for an update manually or to roll back to a previous database version in case of corruption.

Security+

Can be used to create a rescue disk, run a privacy cleaner, parental controls and the virtual keyboard.

Verdict

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 comes with several additional features like the safe run mode. It is an all-in-one security software suited for users of all experience levels but especially for advanced users who like to customize their security solution.

Christmas Giveaway

We are giving away ten Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 licenses. Leave a comment below and let us know about your current security setup for a chance to win one of those licenses.

Perfect Image 12 comes with all the tools needed to perform data backups and data recovery. The main interface displays a sidebar menu with the tasks and options provided by the program and a main area with information about the various hard drives on startup.

The sidebar is divided into the categories Basic and Advanced Backup Tasks, Restore Tasks, Tools and News and Documentation. Each category can be minimized to safe screen estate.

The Basic Backup Task category contains links to backing up a disk or partition, scheduling a backup or backing up files. A click on any of those will open a Backup Wizard that is guiding the user through the backup creation process.

The screenshot above shows the first page of the disk and partition backup wizard. One useful feature is that Perfect Image will estimate the resulting image size which can be very helpful to determine the storage capacities that are needed to store the backup.

Advanced settings like changing the compression level of the backup image, splitting large backup into files, password protecting backups or excluding files or folders from the backup are accessible by making a checkmark in the change backup settings option on the same page.

The backup data can be saved to a local or network drive or burned to CD or DVD. The File backup wizard comes with additional comfortable options to use so called include masks to select specific file types from the selected folders that should be backed up. Four default masks are available including photos, video, audio and readable (documents) files. It is possible to create new include masks for specific needs, e.g. programming files.

Another option are exclude masks that can block certain file types from being included in the backup; Again with the option to create custom filters.

The Advanced Backup Tools offer differential and incremental backups on top of the basic backup options. Differential backups contain only the files and folders that have changed since the last backup. This reduces the size of the backup and the time it takes to create it. Basically a cumulative backup of all changes since the last backup.

Incremental backups on the other hand will only backup files that have not been backed up before.

Here are additional features of Perfect Image:

Perfect Image Features

• Secure Partition – You can create a special secure partition on your hard disk to store disk backup images.
• Real-time Hard Disk Image Backup – Using different hard disk imaging modes, Perfect Image is able to backup any file system you use. For Windows’ partitions you can create complete system backup images with no need to reboot Windows or close any application
• Hard Disk Cloning – You can easily clone your old hard disk to deploy a new one, eliminating tiresome and time consuming operating system and application installation and adjustments.
• USB Recovery Media Builder – The Recovery Media Builder allows the user to create bootable recovery media on a USB flash drive, then boot the PC and perform any operations directly from flash drive in case of operating system corruption or boot problems.
• Blu-ray Disk Backup Support – Burn your backup archives to Blu-ray discs. A single layer disc can store 25 GB, more than five times the capacity of a single layer DVD.
• Verify Image Integrity – Verify the integrity of a backup.
• Create Recovery Disks – Create a recovery disk to restore a backup independently from the operating system.
• Restore Individual Files – Restore individual files from backups.

A list of features is available at the Perfect Image website.

Perfect Image 12 is a sophisticated backup software for the Windows operating system.

Partition Commander Review

Partition Commander 11 is the second program in this giveaway. It is – as the name suggests – a partitioning program for the Windows operating system that comes with additional cloning, migration and backup tools.

The main purpose of Partition Commander is to create, resize, delete and merge partitions in the Windows operating system. Some possible applications include dividing a large hard drive into two smaller partitions or reclaiming unused disk space after deleting a partition that is no longer needed.

What makes this product interesting however are the additional options that are provided. It can for instance be used to migrate data to a new hard disk that can be of the same or a different size than the original (the size needs to be larger obviously than the size of the old hard drive).

Other interesting and helpful options provided by Partition Commander include:

• System Back-Up & Restore – Partition Commander 11 now includes the ability to create a complete backup of your system before applying any modification/creation of a partition.
• Boot Manager & OS Installation Wizard – It’s never been so easy to install a new Operating System on your PC. Partition Commander 11 guides you through the entire process, even if one or multiple operating systems are already running on your PC.
• Mac OSX Boot Camp support – Partition Commander allows you to resize the partitions between the Mac OSX partition, and the Windows on

Partition Commander 11 is an easy to use partition manager that comes with several additional options and tools that aid the user in specific tasks that are related to hard drives (like migrating, cloning or installing a new operating system). Advanced users can switch to an advanced view that provides access to additional configuration options.

Christmas Giveway:

We have five licenses for Partition Commander 11 Personal and Perfect Image 12. Just leave a comment and let us know what you are currently using to partition and / or backup files.

Raju is giving away Sothink SWF to Video Converter licenses today, make sure to visit his giveaway as well.

The installation of a-squared Anti-Malware requires the creation of an account and a somewhat extensive configuration. It is here that various security modules, notification settings and auto update settings are configured. These settings can be later edited in the program’s interface.

The program interface displays a left sidebar and a main area that changes depending on the selection in the sidebar. The security software always starts with the Security Status which displays the status of the background guards, the program version, last update, license information and the time and date of the last scan.

Each background guard can be configured and activated (or deactivated) in this menu. A-squared Anti-Malware uses five background guards of which two are used for scheduled scans and automatic updates. The three other guards are used to scan files on execution, use heuristics to detect unknown malware and surf protection to protect the user from Internet threats.

Where a-squared Anti-Malware really shines are the configuration options for those background guards. The Malware-IDS guard for instance uses heuristics to monitor malicious activity. The configuration of this module allows the user to configure exactly what the intrusion detection system should monitor. It is for instance possible to disable keylogger or hosts file monitoring. This would make sense if another program was installed that would already monitor those areas.

Those in depth configuration settings are available in other modules as well. The computer user can configure the surf protection guard to block, alert or don’t block various threats and hosts on the Internet from ad or tracking hosts to phishing and fraudulent hosts; Each with their own action defined. This is a powerful way of protecting the computer from web surfing threats.

Another example of this is the on execution scanner which can be configured extensively. It is for example possible to configure application rules to monitor, block or allow specific applications, use the a-Squared community as a guideline to allow or block programs from being executed and even activate paranoid mode which will display a lot of alerts to the user.

Scans are scheduled by default but can be executed manually all the time. Four types of scans are available that range form a quick scan to a deep and custom scan. A quick scan will only scan the active programs and some other locations and files while a deep scan will scan all files on the hard drive. This obviously has an impact on the time it takes to complete the scan.

A-squared Anti-Malware comes with an additional program called a-squared HiJackFree which can be used to display information about processes, ports, autoruns, services, hosts, Windows Explorer add-ons and ActiveX components. The program is available for free at the Emsi Software website and can be very helpful in aiding a manual analysis of specific files.

A 30-day trial of a-squared Anti-Malware 4.5 can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is also possible to download a free version of the security program which does lack the realtime protection.

Christmas Giveaway

We have ten licenses for a-squared Anti-Malware 4.5 to give away. Please let us know which security software you are using currently.

Raju is giving away Returnil Virtual System 2010 Home Lux, make sure to check it out as well.

WinRAR offers an option to integrate tightly into the Windows operating system during installation. This includes a very handy Windows Explorer entry which can be used to unpack or pack files directly in Windows Explorer.

The WinRAR interface has been streamlined for ease of use. The professionally looking theme can be changed easily to one of the other themes that are offered on the WinRAR website.

The interface itself can be divided into an header that contains the menu and program icons that lead to the most important functions of the file compression software and the file browser which displays files and contents of archives.

A right-click on any file in the file browser opens a context menu with several options ranging from viewing, renaming or deleting files to repairing archives or setting passwords.

Some of the functions are also available directly in the header like the ability to test the archive or view a specific file in an archive. The Wizard comes in handy for first time users as it directs the user through the process of creating or unpacking archives in the program.

Other direct options include performing a virus scan of the files contained in an archive or folder. WinRAR tries to discover installed virus scanners automatically which can then be selected from a pulldown menu. The user does have the option to browse the computer for a specific virus scanner and use that to scan the files which is handy for portable virus scanners or those that are not recognized by the automatic scan.

It is furthermore possible to add comments to archives and make them self extracting. The latter option can be handy in situations if no file compression software is installed on the target system or if the user of the target system wants (or requires) the easiest way of unpacking archived files (which self extracting archives are as they can be extracted with a simple double-click).

The Tools menu contains several advanced options like the tool to convert archives into rar or zip format. This is actually a very handy solution to convert multiple archives (that might have been compressed with different file compression algorithms) into a standard format like rar or zip. An option to add all archives of a specific format to that menu would be very handy. As of now it is only possible to add archives manually to the list.

Advanced users will like the amount of options that are provided during archive creation. The six-tabbed interface comes with so many options that it might look intimidating to some users although it is possible to simply click on the OK button to create the archive. Those users who look at the options provided on the other hand will find handy ones including the ability to change the compression level, splitting the files into several archives, adding a recovery record to the archive, setting passwords (that use the 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm), wiping files after archive creation, storing full or relative paths or sending the archive by email.

WinRAR features

• WinRAR provides complete support for RAR and ZIP archives and is able to unpack CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, 7Z, Z archives.
• WinRAR offers a graphic interactive interface utilizing mouse and menus as well as the command line interface.
• WinRAR is easier to use than many other archivers with the inclusion of a special “Wizard” mode which allows instant access to the basic archiving functions through a simple question and answer procedure. This avoids confusion in the early stages of use.
• WinRAR offers you the benefit of industry strength archive encryption using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a key of 128 bits.
• WinRAR supports files and archives up to 8,589 billion gigabytes in size. The number of archived files is, for all practical purposes, unlimited.
• WinRAR offers the ability to create selfextracting and multivolume archives.
• Recovery record and recovery volumes allow to reconstruct even physically damaged archives.

Verdict:

WinRAR is a powerful file compression program for the Windows operating system that is suited for both inexperienced and advanced users. Especially advanced options like batch converting archives, adding recovery information to archives or the command line options make WinRAR a prime choice for all archiving needs. Interested users can download a trial version at the WinRAR download page.

Christmas Giveaway

Readers who leave a comment get the chance to win a WinRAR licenses. We have ten licenses for WinRAR 3.90 in this giveaway. Please tell us why you use WinRAR, if you use it, or why you don’t use WinRAR, if you don’t use it. We will select the best 10 insightful comments as our winners, regardless whether they use WinRAR or not.

Raju is giving away licenses for Speedbit Video Accerlerator today, be sure to check out his giveaway as well.

Good video converters should support the most common video formats, create high quality outputs and offer an interface that is suited for inexperienced and advanced users alike. DVDFast Video Converter PRO is such a program.

The program supports a dozens of popular HD and SD video formats:

• Input Video formats:HD Video: HD AVI, HD H.264 / AVC, AVCHD (.MTS, .M2TS), HD Quick Time, HD MPEG-2 TS, HD MP4, HD WMV; SD Video: AVI, ASF, AVC, DIVX, FLV, H264, MP4, MOV, MPEG1/2, RM, RMVB, VOB, WMV, XVID, 3GP, 3G2
• Output: AVI, WMV, FLV, MP4, MPEG, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, PDA, 3GP, Zune, Music, XviD, DivX, JPG, BMP

But support is only one aspect as it should also be easy to create quality outputs without lots of background knowledge in video terminology.

DVDFast Video Converter PRO can convert one or multiple input formats into output formats with just a few clicks. All the user needs to do is to pick the videos that should be converted from the local hard drive. Those videos will then be listed with information and a preview option in the interface.

The videos will be converted to avi by default which can be changed to another support format or device. This ranges from formats like mp4, mpeg or flv to device specific formats for the iPod, iPhone, PSP, Apple TV or Zune.

Everything is in reach with just a click of the mouse. A click on the start button will start the video conversion into the selected format. The standard settings are usually all that is needed to create a quality output of the selected videos. It cannot really get much easier than this.

Experienced users on the other hand have the option to use some of the advanced controls to change audio and video settings to fine tune the output even further.

This ranges from changing the start and end time of the output video and the folder for the output to advanced video and audio settings. It is here for instance possible to change the bitrate and frame rate of the video, select a different format if available (e.g. divx or xvid for avi output files), the video resolution, aspect ratio or that the high quality engine should be used to convert the video.

All of these options are accessible from the very same menu. It is therefor very comfortable to tweak those settings if necessary.

Another option that is provided is the ability to rename files with the help of renaming templates. Those templates use variables like #name or #resolution that can be used to name the output files. This is another helpful option especially when converting multiple videos at once with DVDFast Video Converter PRO.

The conversion speed depends largely on the speed of the computer system but also on the input and output videos. It can generally be said that the conversion is speedy as the video converter makes use of multi-threaded encoding techniques.

DVDFast Video Converter PRO is a very convenient video converter for the Windows operating system.

Christmas Giveaway

We are giving away 1000 licenses of DVDFast Video Converter Pro. All you need to do is to visit the giveaway page and enter the required information to receive a license.

Raju is giving away Tuneup Gold licenses.