Sumatra PDF Viewer

Sumatra PDF Viewer is a lightweight, open source PDF viewer for Windows. Though it has a very simple interface and small feature set, it has two features that other PDF viewers lack:

• a very small memory footprint, and;
• a very rapid start time.

It loads PDF files pretty quickly and allows you to page through them easily and zoom in and out. There are options to view a single page, or facing pages two at a time. It will also show a bookmarks side bar if the document includes that info and the interface supports a wide range of languages. Finally it is also portable.

Final Score: 5 out of 5

BonkEnc

BonkEnc is a both free and most excellent audio converter and CD ripper that you would be well advised to get your mitts on.

I’ve been using it for quite a while now and it’s reliable and very easy to use. It will convert between a range of audio file formats including MP3, MP4, OGG, FLAC and AAC. And conversion is the main use that I put it to, converting high bit rate audio files that I’ve bought to a lower bit rate (and smaller size) for playback on my Sansa Fuze.

It has also become my CD ripper of choice as it uses less memory than a full-blown music manager and seems to do a quicker job of ripping CD tracks to my hard drive. It also works very well with the CDDB database to retrieve and accurately append tag information to each track.

As well as that, it offers a whole range of other useful features such as:

• automatic creation of cue sheets and playlists;
• encoding to a single file;
• filename patterns to ensure your audio files are automatically organised into the correct folders by artist, year, album, etc;
• support for plug-ins, and;
• a multi-language interface.

All of which is packaged into an easy to use interface.

As I mentioned, I’ve been using BonkEnc for some time now and I think it is very good indeed. I’ve had no problems with it or the audio files it has output (either converted or ripped). So I can happily recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable audio converter and CD ripper.

BonkEnc is also available in portable form so you can install it on a USB stick (using PortableApps.com) and take it’s conversion and ripping powers on the road with you.

Final Score: 5 out of 5

Launchy

Launchy is described on it’s home page as follows:

Launchy is a free windows and linux utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

This is an absolutely spot on introduction to the application because, as that advert keeps telling us, “it does exactly what it says on the tin!”

I’ve been using Launchy for a long time now, on both my home PC and the ones I use at work, and it has become my automatic first choice when I want to launch anything from a command prompt to a word processor.

With a few key presses I can be launching an application much more quickly than by using the traditional Windows Start button, All Program Files, etc. route. The index within Launchy responds very quickly and provides a list of options matching your first couple of key presses. If you’ve already used Launchy a few times then it recognises previously used application entries very quickly and will display your most commonly used application beginning with “c” (for instance) very quickly.

Launchy is very configurable, allowing you to select your own shortcut key combination to launch it. You can centre it, make it opaque, fade it in and out, skin it, specify the types of items to be catalogued for launching and you can enhance it with plug-ins. That said, I haven’t really made much use of the plug-ins that are available but there’s a great collection of skins available both from the Launchy Forum and from deviantART.

When I first started using Launchy I had doubts about how responsive a keyboard-based application launcher would be as I’d only used point-and-click toolbar style launchers in the past. Now that approach is a thing of the past because Launchy has been such a revelation.

Unlike those point-and-click types, Launchy is completely unobtrusive if set to activate by a keyboard shortcut – it doesn’t use much memory and pops up instantly when activated. It also disappears instantly when you’re done with it or if you move focus away from it, unless you’ve set the rather cool fade out option.

As if all that isn’t enough, it is also portable and can be run from a USB stick!

I suggest you download it from www.launchy.net and give it a try. Immediately.

Final Score: 5 out of 5

Battle For Wesnoth

I mentioned Battle For Wesnoth recently on my main blog, saying that it’s a “great fun and dangerously addictive” turn-based strategy game set in a fantasy world of magic, elves, orcs, etc. It is also a free game and, as such, deserving of a mention on this site.

Battle For Wesnoth can be run on multiple platforms (Linux, MacOS and Windows) and can you can download either a stable release or the current development version. I suggest you go with the stable release in order to avoid any potential problems that might either put you off the game or spoil your enjoyment of it. At time of writing I’m using the current stable release (version 1.6.4) for Windows and you should bear that in mind for the rest of this review.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the smartest next step is to run the tutorial and read the online Getting Started guide. The tutorial shows you the game basics – movement, recruiting allies, combat – and introduces you to a couple of key characters. It’s a pretty straightforward task to master the game-play which has been kept fairly simple. This is very important as you’ll find that to succeed in the game you need to focus on tactics, strategy and development of the characters the make up your band of followers.

Each character has different abilities determined by their attributes, the terrain they are operating in and the time of day. Yes, you need to pay a lot of attention to the time of day in game as this can have a big impact on how well your characters perform!

Much thought also must be given to how you will move your characters around the game space, as characters can travel different distances during each turn. Keep an eye on the position and possible moves of your opponents characters too otherwise you may find yourself surrounded then overwhelmed when battle begins.

It will take a lot of time and experimentation to get the right tactical balance as you work your way through the scenarios available within Battle For Wesnoth. You will lose the occasional campaign and you will suffer the grief of losing characters who have risen through the experience levels to gain a special place in your heart. But do not loose heart because there are many campaigns to enjoy as standard and there are more to download as add-ons making this a game with a long shelf-life indeed.

As well as being able to download add-ons the game includes a map editor so you can create your own campaigns. You can easily change the game language and configure a range of other settings via the Preferences dialogue. Should you suddenly find you’ve been up half the night immersed in a campaign you can save your game before grabbing a few hours sleep and picking up where you left off. There’s also a Multiplayer option so you can play against your mates over a network or the interweb. What more could you ask for?

Well, as you can see the game has great graphics and take my word that it also has lots of cool sound effects which enhance the whole experience. Horses neigh and gallop, swords clang, bowstrings hum, and magical spells warble. So this is not one to play in the office!

Overall, Battle For Wesnoth is a brilliant game which is all the sweeter for being free. In fact it easily stands comparison with the turn-based fantasy games that you can buy in the shops. I thoroughly recommend it and suggest that you head for www.wesnoth.org and download it for yourself. I know it is a 200Mb+ download but that really isn’t all that much these days – it’s not that much bigger than an album download but will perhaps hold your interest for longer!

Final Score: 5 out of 5!

ClamWin Free Antivirus

I’ve been happily using the free version of AVG Antivirus for a number of years. However, I’ve become increasingly concerned about the amount of memory it uses and about how slow it makes my PC run when performing on-access scanning. Recently my current installation started bombarding me with pop-up windows informing me that it was time to upgrade so I visited the AVG web site to check out what the latest version had to offer. In addition to the standard antivirus protection I noticed that anti-spyware and something called Safe Search have been added. Mmm, I thought, that will push up the amount of memory and processing required to an even more unacceptable level. Time to find an alternative antivirus application.

Enter ClamWin!

Clamwin is a free and open source antivirus appliction for Windows based on ClamAV, which is an antivirus program for UNIX.

The first thing you need to know about ClamWin is that it does not feature on-access scanning of files, i.e. real-time protection – at least not yet. Some may see this as a problem but if you’re careful it need not be.

In my experience as an IT professional most virus infections result from opening files that, on reflection, you’d never have touched with a barge pole normally. So if you take the time to pause for a moment before opening that email attachment or file you downloaded from the interweb you will dramatically reduce the likelihood of your PC becoming infected. If you couple this care and attention with frequently scheduled ClamWin scans of those parts of a Windows installation most likely to be infected by a virus (the Windows directory itself and the Documents & Settings folders) you reduce the chance of infection to more or less zero. Of course you also have to be sure to scan all other areas of your system regularly too, as well as making sure that you keep your antivirus definition database up to date (ClamWin very thoughtfully does this for you). All too often I’ve found myself removing viruses from PCs where the virus definitions were 6 months or more out-of-date!

Anyway, to the ClamWin program itself…

Once installed ClamWin runs as system tray entry which has a very small memory footprint. This tray entry allows you to configure ClamWin and to open the main ClamWin interface, manually download updates, view scan and update reports, schedule virus scans, check for version updates and visit the ClamWin web site. In addition to this the program adds a Scan with ClamWin Free Antivirus extension to the right-click menu within Windows Explorer. This is very useful as it allows you to invoke a manual scan of any suspicious files before you open them. Whilst this is perhaps not as elegant as a real-time scan it certainly uses less memory and makes your PC run more efficiently.

I recommend that you set up a schedule of virus scans that will process the Windows directory and the Documents & Settings folders once a day, and a full system scan at least once a week. Though I should stress that that is what works for me – you may need to schedule more scans depending on how you use your system.

You can also instruct ClamWin to scan email attachements (both incoming and outgoing). It can be configured to exclude file types that you specify from scans and you can also limit the size of files that will be scanned (e.g. by telling the program not to scan files that are larger than, say, 100Mb). There is also an option to adjust the priority assigned to virus scans and to send an email alert if a virus is detected. All of which makes ClamWin a pretty powerful package despite the lack of a price tag.

As a result of moving to ClamWin, I have noticed an improvement in the performance of my PC – applications load and run faster now that they are not being scanned each time they are accessed – and I’m also experiencing quicker boot times. And even when ClamWin is conducting a scan in the background there is no noticeable impact on the performance of my PC.

The ClamWin site indicates that they are working on an on-access component which will be available in a later version but I now wonder whether I’ll find that feature necessary at all. That said, there are many others who would prefer that an on-access scanner be included, or at least that they have the option to turn one on/off as requirements dictate. That’s why the current incarnation of ClamWin falls slightly short of a perfect score. However, it remains an antivirus program with a very bright future.

Final Score: 4 out of 5