EULA Analyzer
EULA’s, which are the End User license Agreements that pop up during any software installation, are so long winded and ambiguous in meaning that most people skip right over them. I don’t blame anyone for not reading his or her EULA because it’s about as much fun as a trip to the dentist and way more bewildering. Perusing over the equivalent of 10 pages of legal… Continue reading
Atmosphere Lite
Finally the same great atmosphere taste with none of the guilt!
Atmosphere Lite is a sound scheme program that has a couple of potentially cool uses and an incredible amount of flexibility. What I mean by “Sound Scheme” creator is that with this program you can create background sounds, for example I’m sitting in my office typing away while listening to a woodland soundscape complete… Continue reading
Weekly Download: Windows Startup List
Everybody wants their system to operate responsively, boot quickly, and run applications immediately with no errors. Pruning your Startup List can be one of the greatest ways to help your system run without the burden of unnecessary programs.
Startup items are the programs that run when the PC first starts, using up system resources (usually unnecessarily). A couple of examples would be QuickTime… Continue reading
Irfan Photo Viewer
Here and even at home, I’m constantly working with groups of images. Looking through folders and working with one picture from here and one from there can take some time. I usually copy the ones I want and paste them into a new folder, just to keep everything conveniently organized.
From here I usually do some simple editing: a little cropping, image resizing, and maybe even applying… Continue reading
Download of the Week: Dawn Address Book Converter
We get a lot of emails around here concerning every possible aspect of email. This is understandable, since everyone uses it, including folks who aren’t exactly the biggest Nerds at the SciFi Convention, if you know what I mean. Email has become a staple in our modern everyday lifestyle.
Two of the commonest questions are how to save the address book and… Continue reading
Download of the Week: Sunbird
One thing I’ve always liked about Outlook was the built-in Calendar. Unfortunately, I don’t really use Outlook anymore. Doctor appointments, birthdays, special events… I miss ‘em all. Heck, Christmas sneaks up on me every year. I need help; it’s only a matter of time before my lack of organization becomes a matter of life and death. I’m not joking. If I forget another anniversary, my… Continue reading
Weekly Download: EPrompter
Anyone with more than one email address will find today’s Download of the week to be very useful, which includes just about everybody I know.
ePrompter is by specific terms an “Email Retrieval and Notification Program”. Think of it as an email “Aggregator”, like a news aggregator or an RSS feed. Both of these programs will go to designated URL’s and “Get” or “Harvest” whatever information… Continue reading
Weekly Security Tip: Flash Drive Protection
Yes, you read correctly. This week’s Download and Security Tip go together, but they’ll make more sense in this order. Next week, the schedule will return to usual.
Yesterday, I showcased a couple of applications that run directly form a flash drive (Memory card, MP3 player, or thumb drive). Don’t have one of these little guys yet? We sometimes have really good deals on… Continue reading
Thumb drives, mp3 players, and digital players cameras are becoming exponentially more popular by the day. It seems like everyone has at least one of these items, if not two. Today I’m going to show you some tricks you can do with this Flash Memory technology that I think are going to amaze you, at least a little.
Flash Memory is usually small removable memory storage devices, also called solid… Continue reading
Download of the Week: Autostitch
A panorama image, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is made by piecing together multiple images that shows the viewer that is either wider or taller than your normal field of vision. For instance, if you wanted to take a picture of a clear horizon from atop some vantage point then you would take a series of pictures as close to the same horizontal/vertical… Continue reading
OK, this is probably about the simplest program we’ve ever recommended here at WorldStart – and by far the easiest I’ve ever wrote 
The windows clipboard is one of the handiest little utilities ever conceived – but at the same time it can leak your sensitive information and slow down your computer if you have a large file copied to it.
So, I was thinking… Continue reading
If you’re like me (and for your sake, I hope you’re not), you change the oil in your car– oh, I don’t know– every three or four years. By the time I take my car in, the oil has gone through some mysterious chemical change to what I non-affectionately call “Black Peanut Butter”. To make a long story short, I’m not a car person. My car maintenance philosophy is “don’t… Continue reading
Some of you may remember the MSN Desktop Search Toolbar Beta version as the download of the week on June 3, 2005. This great and much-needed addition (in my opinion, at least) to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer really brought the browser up to speed. Well, if you like the Search bar’s tabbed browsing and other features, then you should be happy to know that the official version of… Continue reading
If you have installed Windows XP, then you know that half the battle is keeping the system up-to-date with service packs and patches. This can actually take longer than the install. In fact, if you use a dial-up connection, it can take longer than a holiday weekend. This can be a real “time sucker”.
If people call you to fix their PC, you may find yourself installing Windows from time… Continue reading
I tried to run a program like this that I came across about 6 months ago. The features sounded great, but I felt that it fell short in execution forcing me to abandon it for a more promising application. Though I can’t remember that program’s name, I of course remember its function. It was a download manager.
I found myself thinking, “A download manager, what do I need that for?”… Continue reading
It never fails: every time I set out undertake some graphic or video project the format of some essential piece of media (audio, image, or video file) is never in the format I need. It just seems like I have one oddball format that I always have to deal with. Often it’s a format that I don’t even have a program to open, yet alone that has the ability to… Continue reading
This week’s download is an image morphing application that can take two, three, or more images “morph” them from one to another. For instance you can take a picture of your dog, cat, and bird and after you perform the “morph” building process the three images will twist, meld, and ultimately transform form image-to-image.
The files you create with the Squirlz Morphing Tool can be saved in a number of… Continue reading
Who says newer is always better? Sometimes the older versions of programs just seem to work better. Maybe you finally got the hang of the old version when they totally revamp the interface of a new program. Maybe you liked the way things were laid out in the prior version of a particular program. Maybe the new version of some commonly used program has issues
This download isn’t anything too fancy, but it doesn’t need to be—it’s a load screen changer called Bootskin. Startdock, the company that brought us CursorXP, is also responsible for this one and together they really get your Windows XP looking absolutely unique. Bootskin is a small program that allows you to change your Windows Startup image (the picture you see while Windows is loading).
The program couldn’t be easier to… Continue reading
Windows XP cursors (aka pointers—yes, the words ARE interchangeable now though it has not always been so) are about as exciting as talcum powder, I’ve been looking at the same white arrow since my relationship with PC’s began (I did have a short flirtation with a blinking square). Don’t know if any of you recall from one or two of my earlier articles, but one of my biggest issues with… Continue reading
It really is a small world after all, and with Google’s new program it’s gonna seem a lot smaller. Google Earth is a program that lets you cruise around this big blue ball without leaving your PC.
Google Earth is basically a virtual globe, but this is a far cry from any globe you’ve probably ever seen—it’s right out of a Sci-Fi movie. With Google Earth the… Continue reading
I don’t know if I could count the number of times Steve has found me playing online poker at work. He must not be a card player because it really seems to upset him, every time he notices I’m playing some Texas hold’em he gets all made and goes on and on about work or something. I don’t know, it’s hard to play when Steve’s talking to me, it’s really… Continue reading
Well it’s about time, Microsoft. I can’t speak for everybody but I believe that tabbed browsing is one of the best things to happen to browsers since pop-up stoppers. Once I got used to using tabbed browsing there was no looking back and no reason to as far as I’m concerned. I think that the introduction of tabbed browsing with Opera and FireFox set a new standard for what users… Continue reading
Where do I begin? This free download is a recommendation from Shawn (part of the creative force here at Worldstart). It’s a 3D rendering/animation program, he informed me, but he was a little concerned that it may be a little much for the average reader. Not having a ton of exposure to this type of program I ignored Shawn’s concern since I was eager to try my hands at this… Continue reading
I’ve done file-sharing programs before—some primarily handle a particular type of file such as Hello the image sharing program, or Grouper used for sending huge files back and forth. Well this download is also a file-sharing program, and like the others, this has its own features and attributes, some of which are quite impressive.
With Foldershare version 2.3.3 you can share, download and even synchronize folders… Continue reading
Deskman is a desktop lockdown program that features a stunning assortment of options to give you complete control over your desktop environment.
So what exactly is a “Desktop Lockdown” program? In a nutshell, this is a program that allows you to tweak your desktop environment in ways that Windows does not readily offer. An example of such a setting would be the ability to remove the Run box from the… Continue reading
Here’s a neat little program from 3M, the makers of genuine Post-It notes. It’s is a virtual embodiment of their physical sticky notes and is like having Post-It notes on your PC, but with some really cool futures.
Here’s a small list of what the program can do:
* Create your own notes with pictures and hyperlinks
* Stick notes on your computer desktop as a… Continue reading
