DiskCryptor is an open source whole disk encryption software.  It can be used to encrypt either a whole hard drive or its individual partitions, including the system partition.

What is the big deal about DiskCryptor?

This program is a useful encryption solution designed to allow users encrypt or mount all the partitions. Some of the main features of this program are: Support for encryption algorithm AES, Twofish, Serpent, including their combinations- Transparent encryption of disk partitions, Full support for dynamic disks and Support for disk devices with large sector size (important for hardware RAID operation); Broad choice in configuration of booting an encrypted OS. Support for various multi-boot options- Full compatibility with third party boot loaders, Encryption of system and bootable partitions with pre-boot authentication, Option to place boot loader on external medium and to authenticate using the key medium; Support for hotkeys and optional command-line interface (CLI).

The publisher of this program, ntldr, has added a few changes to this version. These changes include: Added workaround for AES-NI support on Hyper-V, Added internal self-tests for PKDBF2 and XTS engines, Fixed bug with data loss with some cases on VIA-PadLock, Fixed regression with SSD detection on Windows XP and Fixed bug with no FS creation when formatting from GUI.

Downsides?

None that I know of.

To know more about this program, please go to DiskCryptor.

Whole lots of tasks are required before you are ready with your PDF documents to get them uploaded on the internet. Starting from merging of several PDF documents into one to maneuvering the pages of a document are highly essential or should we say an obligatory requirement. To give you a hand in these PDF operations we present you Apex PDF Merger Program 2.3.8.2. This invention of Apex is a terrific answer to all your problems which you might counter all the time with PDFs like Joining, Splitting, Deleting and various other tasks. Working with this application is much easier than any of the similar utilities for the intuitive graphical user interface it has which brings in self explanatory options and trimmed buttons.

Let’s now count the feature this PDF merging program has. Leave aside merging several simple PDFs into a single document; it can also do the same function with password protected files. If merging is not perfect, it will allow you to split the same PDF effectively and carryout the merging operation again. The application permits in merging and splitting of PDFs in either in fixed pages or selected pages. All these maneuvering functions can also be done on quite a lot of PDFs together with the batch feature it includes. Pages that remains blank in between a document is deleted by it plus further aids in altering the Meta information of a PDF document like Author’s name, Title, Subject and keyword. The application is standalone which implies whether Adobe Acrobat is installed in your system or not, it can conveniently do its task.

Apex PDF Merger Program successfully gets installed as you will follow the few required steps and works well with entire version of MS Windows OS.

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Want to update your MS Windows computer but have no internet access? Then go for WSUS Offline Update.

What is the real deal about WSUS Offline Update?

WSUS Offline Update allows you to safely and quickly update any computer running Microsoft Windows safely without an Internet connection. It also allows you to easily download patches and updates for your Windows and Office without going through the whole procedure on Microsoft’s Windows Update website. So it helps to keep your windows computer updated even when you don’t have access to Microsoft Windows Update website.

Tortsen Wittrock, the publisher of this program, has added a lot of changes to this version. These changes include: Support added for Windows 8 and Server 2012, AddCustomLanguageSupport.cmd {lng}, Support added for Remote Desktop Connection 8.0 client (kb2592687) on Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2 (x86/x64) systems, ISO filters improved to mutually exclude .NET Framework 4.0/4.5 installation packages, Linux scripts reviewed and enhanced to support Windows 8 / Server 2012 targets and Removed obsolete “trailing colon” restriction for environment variable TEMP from UpdateGenerator script amongst several other changes.

Downsides?

This is a very good program for keeping your Windows Computer updated even when you do not have access to MS Windows Update site or internet access.

To familiarize yourself with this program, please go to Wsusoffline.

Bored with all the plain looking PDF files you have stacked in your system and not feeling like reading them anymore? Well we got an explanation which gives you an option to transform the entire look of the PDFs in more exiting flipping books. And that is through Free Page Turning Book Maker 2.5 you can attain lovely flash books from your PDF documents. Not only for personal use but also if you wish to get e-magazines, e-Catalogs or various publishable documents converted in to forms which could be read like a real book, this application can certainly come handy. As you will get the PDFs converted into Flipping books, they are bound to attract viewers quickly and more and more people will be able to read the items connected over the internet.

Free Page Turning Book Maker comes for free and you can convert unlimited number of PDFs into page turning books without paying any penny. From the preservation of layouts, contents and all other aspect, you can be very sure with it. So you can find tables, images, hyperlinks etc. exactly the same way in the flipping books as it is available on the PDF document. While delivering the output format it offers choosing of several number of output format which includes HTML, mobile version for readable in iDevices and mobile phones and in to ZIP or EXE or burn them on CDs and DVDs. This brilliant converting tool also can enhance the overall look of the flip books by inputting background image and background color. The possibility of making the flip-books more interesting even rises with its ability to put background sound into it.

Free Page Turning Book Maker will enable you to obtain the turning books in just three steps plus with all the free upgrades you are certain to get can make the outputs even better.

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If you want an application that allows you to convert your videos into any format that you can play anywhere, the go get MakeMKV for Windows.

What is the big deal about MakeMKV for Windows?

MakeMKV for Windows is a transcoder( a format converter). It allows you to convert your videos into free and patents-unencumbered format that can be played everywhere. It helps to convert videos from patented and usually encrypted disc into a set of MKV files, while preserving most of the original content. The MKV format can store multiple video/audio tracks with all meta-information and preserve chapters. There are several players that can play MKV files on almost all platforms, and there are tools to convert MKV files to many formats, including DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Also MakeMKV can stream decrypted video without intermediate conversion to wide range of players, so you may watch Blu-ray and DVD discs with your favorite player on your favorite OS or on your favorite device.

Some of the main functionalities of this program include: Reads DVD and Blu-ray discs, Reads Blu-ray discs protected with latest versions of AACS and BD+, Preserves all video and audio tracks, including HD audio, Preserves chapters information and Fast conversion – converts as fast as your drive can read data among several other functions.
Guinpin Soft Inc, the publisher of this program, has added these few new changes to this version:
Improved handling for DVD discs with mastering errors and many miscellaneous improvements. Other versions of this program are MakeMKV for Mac OS X.

Downsides?

It is not quite easy to understand. But unlike several other programs in its category, it can create MKV without having to extract first. It also has a quick, multi-audio stream.

To know more about this program, please visit MakeMKV.com.

This is a very powerful open source defrag tool for Windows NT.

What is the big deal about UltraDefrag?

The defragmentation is very fast because it is done by kernel mode driver. It has 3 interfaces: graphical, console and native. The graphical user interface is very cool because it represents your file system visually as a color coded cluster map. Users that prefer going through the command line will find its console interface very helpful. It allows you to run UltraDefrag from the task scheduler and scripts.

Some of the key features of this program are: driver features – Currently FAT, exFAT and NTFS are supported, Defragmentation of files and folders including system files and file system meta files and Filtering of files to process by name, fragment count and size; new GUI features are Graphical display of the drives cluster map, The current progress and all important information are displayed in the drives list and Color coding of the usage of the cluster map. It new command line tool has the following features are Useful for automation through scheduled tasks or batch scripts and Integrated into Explorer’s context menu.

Downsides?

A nice update on a cute little program. Does the defrag work real good.

To learn more about this program, please visit Ultradefrag.

Need an application that will help to monitor and control your child’s online activities? Get HomeGuard.

What does HomeGuard really do?

It is a powerful parental control and activity monitoring tool for family and child safety online and offline. Upon installation on your computer, HomeGuard will quietly and automatically block all pornographic and inappropriate content online and record detailed website activity including time of visit and time spent on each website. Every website visited, program started, chat message sent and received, keystrokes typed, etc will be recorded in addition to activity based screen shots displayed in gallery view for quickly flipping through many shots and full view for focusing on specific shots.

It can also show warnings to users when blocking an activity and can send you notifications by Email when blocking. Plus individual programs usage time limiting and internet usage time limiting. It is absolutely impossible to tamper with, it cannot be bypassed using proxy servers and it cannot be closed or uninstalled unless the administrative password (provided during installation) is used.

Some of the features of this program includes: automatic filtering of web content and websites,  built in keylogger, time and activity based screenshots capturing, chat and email monitoring and filtering, program/games blocking and time restrictions, Internet and computer usage time restrictions, email notifications and more.

Any downsides?

Completely blocks out all adult content from your computer. A very good program to have if you care about the viewing content of your family.

To learn more about this amazing software, please do visit Veridium.net

Need an application for editing, processing and recording sounds, wav and mp3 files? Why not check out Wavosaur

What is the big deal about this program?

Wavosaur is a freeware sound editor, audio editor, wav editor software for editing, processing and recording sounds, wav and mp3 files. It has all the features you need to edit audio files (cut, copy, paste, etc.) produce music loops, analyze, record, batch convert. Not only odes it support WAV formats, it also supports MP3, AIF, OGG and others.

It is a very portable application and does not require any installation. It does not interfere with your Windows registry keys. Its user interface is very plain and easy to navigate. It offers you several effects to choose from. It is very light on system resources. Some of the main features of this program are: Multiple Document Interface for working with many files in one session, Many processing options: mute, channel convert (stereo-mono, mono-stereo), insert silence, change volume, normalize level, fade in/out, invert/flip, undo and so on, Accurate waveform representation, fast zoom in/out, clean easy to use interface Right mouse to scroll/display context menu. It also has a skinable editor look.

Wavosaur team, the publisher of this program, has added a few changes to this version: New memory manager: different type of curves (channel, buffer size) are displayed, Windowing, data size, et FFT buffer size are configurable in a new dialog, New high performance filter added: with new dialog box for customizations of frequency, type and precision and Band pass and notch recursive filter with new dialog box for property choice.

Downsides?

The publisher should do something about its plain interface. Apart from that, it is one of the best tools for editing audio files.

To learn more about this program, please go to Wavosaur.

EmEditor is a professional lightweight, text editor for Windows.

What is the deal with EmEditor?

It supports Unicode (which allows for multi-language support). It also supports JavaScript or VBScript macros, syntax highlighting (including embedded scripts in HTML, ASP, and PHP files), drag-and-drop, and menu and keyboard customizations. This version of EmEditor not only offers support for JavaScript and VBScript, for the text editing macros, but also PerlScript, PHPScript, Python, Ruby, and other languages as long as script engines you want to use are installed.

It allows you to quickly and easily open or edit very huge files with the aid of a large file controller and it is optimized for speed and reliability. Some of the key features of this program include: JavaScript or VBScript macros, text encoding support (automatic encoding detection, Byte Order Mark support, file reload with a different encoding, detection of encoding errors), plug-ins, syntax highlighting (including embedded scripts in HTML, ASP, and PHP files), drag-and-drop, and menu and keyboard customizations.

Emurasoft, Inc., the author of this program has added a few changes to this version: they have improved “Find in Files” in very large files and adjusted the default Ruby auto indent regular expressions.

Downsides?

This is a very impressive software.  This powerful text editor has several features that make it very good for editing large files.

To find out more about this program, please do visit Emeditor.

aTunes is a robust, full-featured audio player and audio manager that allows you to listen to your favorite songs, edit tags, organize music and rip Audio CDs.

What is it about this program?

This program can be executed on different platforms because it is designed using Java programming, using Swing. Thus it is a very portable piece of software. Presently, it supports mp3, ogg, wma, wav, flac, mp4 and radio streaming. It also has ripping and encoding tools.

Some of the main features of this program include: Mp3, Ogg player, Reads Ogg, ID3v1, ID3v1.1 and ID3v2 tags, Show pictures of song: pictures inside ID3v2 tag, or in the same folder. Load / save play list in m3u format. Navigate through songs sorted by tag information or by folder. Filters for fast find what you want. Songs, albums or artists can be marked as favorites, and viewed through a special view. They also added full view with all controls and multiple window view amongst several other changes.

aTunes Team, the authors of this program, have added a few changes to this version: Error when importing folders after canceling repository load was fixed, Add random songs fails if repository not loaded or empty was fixed, Disabled rounded corners with Substance as seem to cause problems with early 1.6.0 virtual machines (3.0.1 fix not working) was fixed and Problem when importing files from a Windows system folder with no childs was also fixed.

Downsides?

It is a very good alternative to iTunes.

To know more about this program, go to Atunes.