Searching for a solution for creating sites that are compliant and standard? Check out TopStyle.

What is the big deal about this program?

It is user-friendly and packed full with features that make designing and customizing your stylesheets a breeze. It creates cross-browser style sheets by alerting you of problems as you work. It has a very powerful style checker validates against multiple CSS implementations, alerting you of both invalid entries in your style sheets, and also to bugs in popular browsers that may affect their display.

With this program, you can edit your HTML, XHTML and CSS in a single program. It allows you to Preview CSS while you write it, Style Checker to validate style sheets against multiple browsers, Style Upgrade tool to quickly replace all outdated HTML code and Site Reports to see at-a-glance where styles are used in your site.

Some of the key features of this program include: HTML, xHTML and CSS Editing in a Single Program, Easy Navigation Between Documents, Element and Attribute Validation as You Type, Style Checker:  Style Upgrade, Site Reports, Full Screen Preview, and Integration with W3C HTML Validation.

Downsides?

None yet. This is a very powerful CSS editor.

If you want to know more about this program, please visit TopStyle4.

Need a defrag tool to defrag your files and boost your system speed? Get Puran Defrag.

What is the big deal about Puran Defrag?

It helps to defrag files, upgrades your hard disk performance and thus overall system speed. In addition it results in low wear and tear of hard disk and therefore increases its life. It is easy to use and is programmed to run automatically in the background. It can be programmed as a “set-and-forget” tool that will keep your disks clean and your system fast through regular background maintenance.

Puran also defragments your PC’s boot sectors for faster start-up, and its Intelligent Optimizer boosts your system’s speed, according to the developers. It can also defragment selected files or folders only and make exclusions by file and folder or wild card. There’s even a command line option for advanced users. Unlike recent Windows editions, Puran’s interface has a cluster map field. It is attractive and legible. It is a freeware that significantly improves the built-in capabilities of Windows.

Some of the main features of this program include: directories consolidation for speed boost, optimization by freeing space, automatic defragmentation for worry free defrag, boot time defragmentation for system files like MFT, low priority defrag for work while defrag experience, individual file or folder Defrag for selective defrag, GUI and Console Command Line Defrag Supported, restart or shutdown After Boot Time Defragmentation, file or folder Exclusion or exclusion by wildcard facility.

Downsides?

This is a solid piece of defrag tool.

If you want to know more about this program, please go to PuranSoftware.

Are you missing your Start button on your Windows 8? There is an application that can help you restore it?

What is the deal with this program?

This application helps to bring back the Start menu back to your Windows 8 without compromising productivity. It is light weight, very fast and easy to install. You can customize the Start menu behaviors, font, icon sizes, color, style, and which shortcuts you want Start8 to display. Documents, Music, and Pictures folders are back to where they belong (pre-Windows 8) and so is the search bar. This program gives you wider control over the Start menu.

Computer users who have for long depended on the Start button to navigate through their programs and files will appreciate Start8 bringing the familiar features and functionality back to the latest Windows operating system while adding enhancements just for Windows 8. You can now quickly access your applications, devices, music, videos and documents the way you always have with Start 8.

Some of the features of this program include: a Windows 7-style Start menu with Windows 8 enhancements; search for Windows 8-style (Modern UI) apps; pin desktop and Metro apps; boot directly to the Windows 8 desktop; or make the Windows 8 Start screen accessible from the Start menu.

Downsides?

None at all! This is a perfect utility as is. Now I can have my start button back. Good work from the authors.

To know more about this program, please visit Stardock

PasteCopy.NET is a free portable Windows Clipboard Manager with multilingual support. It’s fully automated and has a (auto-) resizable preview pane.

What is the big deal about this program?

It enlarges the capacity of Windows Clipboard and lets you organize csv (Comma separated values), html, rtf (Rich Text Format), text, unicode- text & images into customizable categories. With a simple click of the mouse, the supported formats can be previewed and copied to the Windows Clipboard. It is very light (780KB) and is very portable- can be run from a USB memory stick. It does not require any installation and leaves no traces on your computer. It is 100% feeware.

Sundrytools, the author of this program, has added quite a few changes to this version: Export/Print/Remove Selection, Convert Image Files (Copy images from path), Treeview Context-Menu (Open URL/Export & Set AutoPaste Category), Edit Catalog option; “Set as Default Auto-Paste Catalog”, Auto exit on USB removal and Option to Play sound on AutoPaste.

System requirement: Windows 98/ME/2000 SP3/2003/2008/XP SP2/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8 Operating Systems.

Any downsides?

.NET run time environments are usually very slow and bloated.

To know more about this program, please visit SundryTools.

This application supports Unicode as well as Flexible Syntax coloring editor; and is one of few tools that has a couple of other useful features even as an open source. With a file map that shows the overall file differences in a location pane; I doubt if you would find as many open source or freeware tools this good.

What is WinMerge?

WinMerge is a tool/application for visual difference display and merging; and is highly useful for both files and directories. It has Unicode support, Flexible syntax coloring editor, and Windows Shell integration. Other wonderful features include; Regexp filtering for filenames and lines, Side-by-side line difference and in-line word difference visualization, a file map shows the overall file differences in a location pane.

WinMerge’s user interface is translated into several languages; which gives makes it a great tool for lots of people. Some of the supported languages include the following; Greek, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Swedish, and Turkish.

WinMerge is a program that has been running for a long time, and has been described as one of the most popular open source tools for syntax coloring editing. One of the most interesting aspects of the application is the inclusion of a file map that displays the overall file differences in a location pane.

Downsides

Users might have to stick with stable releases of WinMerge as experimental versions or releases are prone to several issues that bother on instability.

Want to check it out? Visit: http://winmerge.org/

The fact that we can do a lot of things with our computers these days than in the past makes things more interesting. Today, you can do virtually everything you want to do on your PC just by downloading a couple of applications. Interestingly, these applications are either available as freeware or as shareware. RegShot is one of those fascinating applications that you can download for free while getting the best value.

What is RegShot?

RegShot is a small registry compare utility that allows you to quickly take a snapshop of your registry and then compare it with a second one- done after doing system changes or installing a new application. The changes report can be produced in text or HTML format and contains a list of all modifications that have taken place between snapshot1 and snapshot2. RegShot also lets you specify folders (with sub folders) to be scanned for changes as well.

RegShot is small, and very useful, and the fact that it allows for a comparison between two instances or programs without being connected makes it one of the applications to watch out of for. It is so easy to understand that even a newbie won’t spend more than a couple of minutes before getting used to it.

Any downside?

RegShot has no downside; and the fact that it is an open source makes it a program to watch out for.

Want to check it out? Visit Regshot’s page on SourceForge.

This one  is an application a lot of researchers would certainly love to have on their computers. It simply allows you to extract forensic data from your computer at an absolutely faster rate than usual. Now it is even more advanced with the addition and updates of some of its features.

What is OSForensics?

With some of the latest and highly advanced features that have newly being added to this program; users are in for great times when it comes to extracting data from their computers because that is precisely what OSForensics is all about. It allows you to extract forensic data from computers, quicker and easier than ever.

OSForensics enables you to discover important forensic data faster with high performance file searches and indexing. You can also identify suspicious files and activities with hash matching, drive signature comparisons, and look into emails, memory, and binary data.

Latest changes made to OSForensics include the following; addition of Snapshots category to case management for exports from the web browser module, and addition of extra URL Meta data to web Snapshots (viewable from case item properties window). A couple of fixes have also being made to this version that include the following; fixed index search bug causing variant words like “testing” instead of “test” to not be found, and fixed index search bug causing exact phrases using quote characters do not return any search results.

Downsides

OSForensics is a bit too technical and difficult to start working with, which may pose some minor challenges for a newbie.

Want to check it out? Visit osForensics.

Day to day schedules can be very difficult to arrange in a way that won’t affect business and personal lives. Businesses and individuals fail to hit their set objectives simply because they find it difficult to properly manage their limited time. That is why you need a program like DayMate.

What is DayMate?

DayMate (formerly Remind!) is a versatile intuitive day planner that is professionally designed to allow you create and schedule reminders than can pop up messages with optional sound effects; start applications or open documents; and shut down, reboot, or power down your system.

DayMate can also check for new e-mail, dial phone numbers, synchronize system time via the Internet, send messages, and open a specified Web site. You can create single or recurring events, color-code different item types, set reminders for upcoming events, and more. A drag and drop feature allows you to easily reschedule an event or change its duration.

A couple of updates and changes have been made to this version. Some of these changes include the following; Gantt charts, task completion percentage, task status, improved clock rendering, improved holidays handling, and a couple of other minor changes and fixes.

Any downsides?

DayMate is a nice application that costs only a little amount in terms of download. However, the application is limited to one user per license.

Want to check it out? Visit CrystalOffice.com for more info.

There seems to be no end in sight to the browser war as we keep seeing release of various applications with advanced and easy to use features. Users are spoilt for choice when it comes to making a choice of a browser to use; and that sounds like a great idea. Opera (32) for Windows seems to fit perfectly in the category of browsers that has a lot to offer its users.

What is the big deal with the latest release of the Opera?

With million of downloads already recorded; Opera is a browser that offers some of the best features when it comes to surfing the internet. It offers latest and advanced internet surfing at a speed that can be regarded as highly encouraging when compared with browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome.

Some of the features you can find in Opera browser include the following; speed dial, search shortcuts, and trash can. Perhaps, one of the most encouraging features of this browser when compared to Google Chrome is its lightweight. The browser consumes less space compared to a couple of other browsers; and loads pretty fast as well.

Downsides

This particular version of Opera (32-bit) for Windows has a couple of inconsistencies that can be very annoying sometimes. A few users have also complained about how the speed of the browser has slowed down over the years.

Want to check it out? Visit Opera.com.

Are you a project manager and you need a program that will help you to planning and managing your projects more effectively and on schedule? Then get RationalPlan Project Management Software.

What is the big deal about this program?

This program assists project managers in developing plans, allocating resources, tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workload. It is a very useful utility for project planning, estimate project costs and manage budgets, project scheduling and project tracking.

It is designed to help you easily manage your projects and shared resources, get resources and finances under control, bring project’s critical issues to your attention and track project evolution in terms of completion, time and costs. It can also break down your project, build schedules, allocate resources and manage budgets, enjoy our free Project Viewer, and can undo/redo on multiple levels.

Stand By Soft, the author of this program, has added a few changes to this version. These changes include: Timesheet view displays only the resources working in the current project, In Leveling panel the resources are displayed according to applied task filters, Added a percentage work load chart for resources, Ubuntu operating system integration, and Added a new report for task cost distribution.

Downsides?

This is one nice piece of application for project managers.

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