LC ISO Creator is a freeware tool for creating ISO disk images.

First of all, if you need an explanation of what an ISO image is, well it could be described as something like a zipped archive file that contains all that you have on a CD or DVD, so it’s can come in handy for backing up your CD/DVD media. You can find a more detailed explanation here.

It’s basically a single file that is an exact copy of your disc. This can be kept as a backup of the disc. It can also be mounted and ran as a virtual disc using programs such as one I previously reviewed here.

LC ISO Creator downloads as an exe file, and it requires no installation. You just run the file, and it scans your computer for optical drives. Then insert the disc you wish to make an image of, choose the appropriate drive, and choose ‘create iso’. You’ll be asked to choose an output file location to create the newly created ISO. It’s as simple as that really, does one thing simply and does it well!

Think this could be useful for you? You can download it here.

Sooner or later a time comes when most of us need to convert a file between formats for one reason or another, usually because your particular program doesn’t support a particular format. Rather than hunting around for a file conversion program, there now exists quite a few sites for online file conversion and Youconvertit is certainly one of the better ones.

You have the option to choose between a very large variety of file formats. These include audio, document, image, video and archive file types. What’s cool about this particular service apart from the large range of file formats supported, is that you can add up to five files at a time for conversion. You can even add a url that links to a file online which you’d like to convert. It also provides an option for sending files to a recipients email address (again, up to five at a time).

As a slightly unrelated bonus but in keeping with the theme of conversion, they also offer unit conversion (distance,weight, etc)

It’s a site worth bookmarking, whether you find yourself needing to convert between file types regularly or just once in a while!

Check it out here.

Universal Extractor is a neat little tool to extract files from archives. The most common File archive file formats you’re likely to find online are zip and rar, but there’s also many others too. This program lives up to its name by being able to extract them all.

Here are some of the more common formats it can handle: .7z, .exe, .bin, .cue, .tar.gz, .img, .deb, .rpm, .cab, .rar, .dll, .jar, .xpi. For the full list of all the formats it supports (quite a lot!) click here.

It’s a useful tool for peaking inside installer package files to see whats exactly in them before installing.

So this is a useful tool for people such as programmers and IT people who might be working with several different archive types from time to time.

More info and download available at the homepage here.

PeaZip has recently released its newest version of compression software in both the standard and portable options. Designed to save you space and improve the performance of your computer, this handy new program allows you to compress, span, and encrypt almost any file.
 
As a utility program, PeaZip could not be more helpful. It does everything it says it does, and then some. First off, PeaZip supports most of the mainstream file types so you won’t have to search for multiple programs or a specific file type. Secondly, the latest version of the program has added a simpler toolbar to make the process of compression much easier. Lastly, since the functionality of the program is obviously not a problem, the designers have decided to allow you to change the skins and designs of your program while it is running. It’s just one more feature added to an already stellar program.
 
Beyond all of the great features this program has to offer in itself, there are also multiple versions and setup options which many other programs do not offer. You can purchase PeaZip for any Windows or Linux operating system. Then you can choose which kind of installation you wish, whether that be standard, portable, or RPM.
 
In any case, the program has earned very high ratings, and it is only getting better by the minute. To download your free version of PeaZip, check out: http://peazip.sourceforge.net/

When it comes right down to it, executable files are a bit different from the other file formats you typically come across. Those are the files labelled with a .exe extension and are the ones that you click on to launch most of the different programs. Executable files are also important in that they help installation programs launch in a method that is easy and user friendly for most people, because having to manually decode and install a program yourself can be a real pain; especially if you aren’t really computer savvy.

One of the big problems with .exe files right from the start however has been the fact that it is difficult to pack them without either sacrificing the compression ratio or alternatively the quality of the .exe file. Decompression speed has also been a concern in the past and when a program such as UPX (Ultimate Packer for eXecutables) comes along that is able to deal with all three, you know that it is a rate program indeed.

UPX is free and portable and has the ability to achieve amazing compression ratio results for a wide range of different executable formats. It is an oldie but goodie in terms of the packing software market and now that it is free you can get your hands on this incredibly powerful tool quite easily.

More information is available at http://upx.sourceforge.net/

There are a number of different places that a person can go to nowadays in order to read a comic online and indeed with all of the different pages available in JPEG format, you can tell right away that the people that are ultimately interested in the idea of reading the comic online would most likely have a hard time doing so. Opening up different pictures when you finish the preceding one is an annoying process and a number of the existing programs are way too general in order to make sense when reading the comic itself. A program specific to the needs of online comic readers is needed and indeed this is where the CDisplay Comic Reader 1.8 comes in.

The CDisplay Comic Reader 1.8 is a program that was written specifically to ease the burdens of people previously trying to read comics where every page was in JPEG format on a person’s hard drive. It was because of this niche that the software was made and indeed people that have used it can testify to how fantastic a piece of software it really is. It is simply a reader, so the software does not take up either much space on your hard drive or tie up much space in your system resources.  Ultimately, what the CDisplay Comic Reader 1.8 happens to be is just a fantastically simple solution to a problem affecting thousands.

More information can be found at http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay.html

If you’ve been looking for a great archiver that supports most compressed and encoded files, then this is the way to go. PowerArchiver is a great archive utility for Windows and it provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools. The cool thing about this software is that it does all these through an easy to use interface that seamlessly integrates with Windows Explorer.

Incase you are wondering what kind of stuff this tool supports , here you go; PowerArchiver supports ZIP, 7-ZIP, CAB, LHA (LZH), TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, BH, RAR, ARJ, ARC, ACE, ZOO, GZ, BZIP2, XXE, MIME, UUE and yENC file formats. An internal viewer displays TXT, RTF, and more than 18 image formats.

PowerArchiver creates and works with unlimited size ZIP archives with enhanced ZIP format speed and compression.

That’s not all. You will love the Password Manager that helps store your frequently used passwords. You can also encrypt your archives using 5 different methods including 256-bit AES. What about back ups? This software backs up your work with PowerArchiver’s Auto-Backup tool and FTP support. And so much more

If you are not a native English speaker not to worry other editions of this cool software are available in German and French.

In the latest version, PowerArchiver 2007 10.2 Beta 1 the significant changes include:

• New Ribbon Interface;
• Configuration Screen on startup for selecting classic or Ribbon interface.

For more info and trial download go to http://www.powerarchiver.com/