DVDInfoPro is a very simple yet very useful application which is a must for every PC owners with a DVD burner (who doesn’t?). This application will inform the user everything about the hardware as well as the inserted disk. Additional tools for the hardware also come with this simple installation. Tools such as speed test or configuring the bitsetting function for your DVD burner are found in DVDInfoPro HD.

As of this writing DVDInfoPro HD is already on its fifth version. The update version has added tons of information and tools for the user. In this update, not only will DVD tools be available for the user, information on Blu-Ray Disks and HD-DVD is also available. If you already have a Blu-Ray Disk Player on computer, brag on and understand your hardware better with this application. Of course, regular CDs can also be analyzed of the application.

This application will really work wonders especially when you’re concerned with quality of the video and music that you acquired. The media grade of the movies in disks is not necessarily correct and this application will set the records straight.

What’s even better with this application is the ability to analyze the memory requirements of your computer before it could run your hardware. This will give you the chance to understand your computer along with the DVD writer and make the necessary adjustments to optimize your hardware.

Give it a try, visit http://www.dvdinfopro.com/

The Dude network monitor can significantly improve the management of your network environment. It automatically scans all devices within specified subnets and monitors services of your devices and alerts you in case some service has problems. It also draws and layout a map of your networks.

It supports SNMP, ICMP, DNS and TCP monitoring for devices that support it. You will definitely love the fact that it supports remote Dude server and local client and it’s free of charge.

Want to see for yourself? Go to http://www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php

Even though Windows Vista has a lot of flaws in terms of functions and features, the graphics are undoubtedly a sight to behold. If you have a very powerful processor, you’ll be able to experience the Microsoft’s “Aero” enabled interface. Among the simple yet stunning changes in Vista is the desktop experience of a thumbnail view of the tabbed function that is running in your computer.

But you don’t have to switch to Vista just to experience that cool thumbnail view. Visual ToolTip is a free application developed by Chris’n'Soft that could be easily installed in your computer. Basically, this provides thumbnail previews of the running application. This application is lightweight but it does provide a Vista-like experience in your desktop or more specifically, in your taskbar. Once installed, the settings will pop-up which will give you the chance the change the preview settings.

Since XP doesn’t have the configurations of Vista, the application does have limitations. Visual ToolTip will not show the status of the application in real time. Instead it will create a snap shot of the current state of the application every time your pointer runs through it.

Aside from the thumbnail preview, Visual ToolTip also has a program launcher which could change your standard windows program launcher.

Check it out http://www.chrisnsoft.com/visual-tooltip/

We used to have USB flash drives for portable file storage only. Today, our flash drives could be installed with a bunch of portable applications that could be launched right from the flash drives. These applications offer security and customization so that you don’t need to scrutinize other persons desktop. All of these could be done from a lightweight application…until we found Tiny USB Office.

Tiny USB Office is a set of office productivity applications that could be launched right out of the USB flash drives. Sure you already have that but get this: the whole office suite will only take up to 2.4MB in storage. That’s smaller than the 3-minute song released in MP3.

At 2.4MB, don’t expect it would have the same whoopla with MS Office applications or OpenOffice.org set of office applications, but still offers a good set of productivity applications. The closest thing that you could create to an office document is the application called Kpad wherein .rtf files are created and the Spread32 is a small application that’s fully compatible with MS Excel. Along with these useful applications, Tiny USB Office has an MSN Messenger clone (PixaMSN), PDF creator (PDF Producer), FTP client (FTP Wanderer) and other useful applications. All of these applications could be launched from Qsel program launcher which is also part of the office suite.

So don’t throw away your 128MB USB Flash Drives yet, this free office suite will really help the traveler in you.

Check it out here - http://www.xtort.net/office-and-productivity/floppy-office/

Radio Stream Player helps you to stream/listen to online radio stations from the internet without having to open an internet browser or run a bloated player. It has a language translation system which makes you access station list in English, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish, French, German and Portuguese languages. It has a small and easy to use GUI and a minimal CPU and RAM footprint.

The latest version was released on April 22, 2008 and it has the following changes:

Added:

• Much better support for importing old station files;
• Automatic detection of missing translation / station files will not automatically download the missing files

Changed:

• More improvements to scaling of Windows;
• Automatic updates will now only check once per day

Fixed:

• Issues related to parsing .pls files

Want to see for yourself? Go to http://www.thexsoft.com/index.php?page=radio-stream-player

If you’ve been looking for a powerful tool that can enable you to watch your Internet Tv shows and videos easily, then this might be the thing for you. It’s called Micro.

Micro allows you to download and watch your internet TV shows and Videos in one powerful application just like you watch your TV. It lets you watch big, high resolution videos one after another. It helps you to avoid tedious web videos and it’s so easy to use. Micro has a built-in Channel Guide in which new channels arrive daily. The latest version of Micro for Windows was released last week.

Interested? Go to http://www.getmiro.com/

History Sweeper helps to ensure that the history of activities you performed on your PC is automatically wiped off after you are done. It is not just enough to delete files and cookies after working on your PC because your activity remains on the PC unseen. Also, while on the internet, you may have downloaded intrusive devices like cookies, bugs and spyware, which may strike at anytime on your PC. These bring up privacy and security questions.

History sweeper protects your activities, remove intrusive devices and save your storage spaces, thereby increasing your privacy and security online. The latest version of this software was released on April 22, 2008.

Want to know more? Visit http://www.itcompany.com/sweeper.htm

Want to keep your digital photos safe? Hide Photos provide a secure container which is protected by a password. It is easily accessible with an Explorer-like interface. It displays thumbnail preview of protected photos in full color and it arranges your collection in such a way which facilitates quick search by using tags and comments.

The latest version, Hide Photos 1.3 Build 805 was released on April 21, 2008 and it has the following changes:

• Added: ability to deny access to the storage when some idle time passed
• Added: menu item “Tools-Hide to tray” with the F12 shortcut key to quickly hide program to tray
• Fixed: RAW files adding/viewing/loading accelerated

Want to know more? Visit http://hidephotos.com/

Clip Plus as your Windows companion is an accessible and easy to use system. It automatically grabs and save text, images and objects as they are copied to the Windows Clipboard, working alongside with regular Windows Clipboard. This allows the text, images and objects available for saving, reuse and printing. A tray icon provides quick access to the program and an indicator which indicates whether you are in capture or pause modes.

Clip Plus enables you to open the main display where your clipped items are stored and to create and save group items and save individual items. Text and graphics can be printed.

This latest version of this program was released on April 21, 2008 and it has the following changes:

• Clip Plus now compatible with Vista Aero visual improvements
• Added Office 2007 themes support
• Added fully-customizable toolbars and menus
• Removed panes flickering

You can check it out for yourself on http://www.crystaloffice.com/clipplus

If you’ve been looking for an IP monitoring software that can do the job and do it really well, you may not have to look any further, thanks to WatchYourIP.

WatchYourIP as the name implies is a tool for watching your IP, monitoring changes with ease. It is the IP monitoring software that will watch your Local and Public IP addresses and monitor them for changes. The cool thing about this software is that it can be configured to email a list of users in the event of a change. So you can send out custom email messages to provide your users the correct and accurate info.

Still not sure if this is what you need, check out its features:

• Monitors Local and Public IP addresses
• Customizable timer
• Customizable color interface
• Customizable email - make it say exactly what you want
• Start up when Windows starts up
• Minimize to system tray - to better keep your taskbar organized and clean

Want to try it out? Go to http://www.capp-ware.com/watchyourip/