Many of the software that you download from the net may come with Trojans or other side effects that you may not know about. If you are not sure whether the software is from a trusted source, it is better to try it out in a virtualization environment so that any changes made can be easily reverted without any permanent damage.

The program is simple and easy to use. Just install the program and run it. Just click the ‘Start Timefreeze’ button and it will then create a virtual copy of the system while keeping your current system in constant state. The changes made can be undone by simply restarting the computer or you can even save the changes if you want. Apart from it, you can also use it to protect selected files and folders so that they are protected from any Trojan and viruses.

The program is very useful. It is a freeware and works on Windows XP/Vista and Windows 7.

Windows Vista/7 creates shadow copies of the file from time to time. This enables us to retrieve the older versions of the files in case on any alteration or deletion. This service is enabled in all the version of Windows Vista/7 but only Ultimate, Business and Enterprise editions allows us to access those files. Shadow Explorer gives us access to those files. You can access the files and save the files that you want. The program is easy to use. Install the program and run it as an admin. On the screen, select the available point-in-time Shadow Copies of the drives. Then you can select the files/folders that you wish to save.

The program is by no means a replacement for backup. It just lets you access the shadow copies of the file and retrieve them. The program is a freeware and works on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

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The program is simple to use. Just install the program and it will appear in the system tray and you can configure it from there. You can set the time interval for the photos to keep updating. The position of the images on the desktop can also be configured. You can also configure the program to download photos from Flickr based on certain keywords or from some users. It can even open the Flickr page of the image if you want to get more details regarding it.

The program is a freeware and works XP, Vista and Windows 7. It requires .Net Framework.

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The program is quite easy to setup and it runs as a windows service. You can define the schedule or timings for different days that you want it to follow. What makes it truly ‘smart’ is that you can also define certain conditions which will prevent the computer from hibernating or shutting down. You can set the values for network activity or CPU usage or even processes that should postpone the hibernate process. On a LAN, it can even check if certain machines are online and can hibernate when they have gone offline. However, the program will not be able to wake up the PC if it has been hibernated by Windows.

The program is a freeware and runs on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. It requires .Net Framework 3.5 or higher.

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DiffPDF offers three modes of comparison which are words, characters and appearance. The program has a simple interface which is very easy to use. Just specify the files which you want to check and hit the compare button. It will then highlight the changes it finds. The textual comparison mode compares each file for any text changes while the visual comparison mode can check for diagram, image changes or whether the formatting or font of any paragraph is same or different. The comparison results can also be saved to a separate file along with the changes highlighter. If the two files are identical, the program will report the same. You can also specify if you want to compare the files based on page range. It also has a character comparison mode which can detect changes character by character.

The program is a freeware and works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

The program has got a simple interface. Just start the program and select the mp3 file that you want to edit. You can also drag and drop the files into the gui. You can then either use it to save the selected portion, cut the selected portion. It can also be used to change the volume, add fade and normalize effects to the mp3 files. The program also has cue sheet support which can be used for splitting large files. It also comes with a built in recorder which can be used to record audio input. The program also supports batch processing of files.

Some of its features include

• mp3 recording with ACM or Lame encoder
• Fast mp3 visualisation and easy navigation
• Supports Layer 2 (dvd/dvb audio)
• ID3v1.1 tag editor · ID3v2 tag keeping
• Cue Sheet support
• Auto cue (track dividing by time values)
• Track splitting with filename and tag creation
• Trim · Crop · Fast play · Loop play
• VU meter, bitrate visualisation

As the program does not do any re-encoding, it is very fast. The program is a freeware and runs on all the version of Windows.

Whenever you try to install a new software into the system, it asks to close all the running programs. Manually closing all the programs one by one can be a time consuming process. SmartClose automatically closes all the running programs, disables the screensaver and other processes. SmartClose can also restore all the programs back when you want. The program provides a wizard like interface using which you can create a system snapshot and close all the programs or you can restore a previously taken system snapshot. You can select the tasks that the wizard should perform like closing all the programs, stopping windows services, disabling the screensaver etc.

SmartClose also displays a list of the Protected program that it will not close as it is critical to the functioning of the operating system. You can also add any program to the protected list and SmartClose will not close it. Similarly with the restore, wizard, you can select the programs that you wish to start. If the program cannot be closed, SmartClose can also kill the program using SmartKill. You can enable/disable this in the setting option.

The program is easy to use. I have tried it a few times and it manages to close and restore most of the programs. It may give you some issues with some of the program. It is a freeware and works on all the version of windows.

The program will install a virtual printer driver using which you can convert any printable document or image into PDF format. You simply need to print the document using ‘PDF24’ printer driver and then you can view or save the pdf that is generated. The program also comes with a GUI which you can also use. You can simply select the document that you want to convert. You can select multiple documents to create a single PDF or you can also extract pages from multiple files. You can also created secure, digitally signed PDF documents using this. The program gives you a lot of configurable options like choosing the quality of PDF document, adding watermark, password protecting the document, setting the resolution etc.

The program is very useful and comes with a lot of features which you would not find in any freeware. The program works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.