Antivir Antivirus software is an antivirus product developed by Avira and it has been on the market for quite some time now. Around 2008, the program became more popular because of its much improved detection rates. This version is free for personal and non-commercial use.

A major change in user interface from older versions is the combination of black and gray in its background which made it a dark themed antivirus. Functions were organized in menus and submenus which makes its interface very clean. Another thing about its interface is that it allows you to multitask for example, when you perform system scan; the scan progress appears at another window so you can scan your computer for viruses while exploring other functions of the program. Its average size main window and small size window for scan and update progress are also an asset of this program.

When the program detects a threat to your security, a pop-up window will appear indicating the type of threat being detected and the possible action to have to make to eradicate the threat. Having this function saves you a lot of hardware resources since you don’t need to scan too regularly. Antivir will simply monitor the applications you are using and respond if a threat is found. (more…)

CD’s and DVD’s are the most convenient storage medium for installers because of its large storage capacity and cheap price. Also CD’s and DVD’s are easy to reproduce especially when you ‘re copying free installers and distributing it to your friends and colleagues. All you need is your CD/DVD ROM and a program that allows you to create an image of the installer, then burn this image file onto an empty disc. It seems there’s no other program in the market today that handles image files as well as that PowerISO.

PowerISO 4.7 offers basic features for manipulating image files like create, edit, and compress. There are also advanced features available like encrypt, and the ability to mount image files to a virtual drive. The program is compatible with the majority of image file formats available today like ISO and BIN. The program is very easy to use since it provides a drag and drop environment and allows copy and paste from clipboard. You can also create bootable ISO or extract information from a bootable ISO using the program. Its also capable of converting other image formats to standard ISO format. Another useful feature is compression of image files to save space from your hard disk. Its encryption feature is very useful in protecting your image files from being opened by others.

Though CD burning software already has the feature to create an image file from a disc, PowerISO offers much more robust image processing abilities. In fact, it’s one of the best image file processing tools available in the market today because of its unique features that competitors fail to provide.

Current version of PowerISO is at 4.7. PowerISO is commercial software from http://www.poweriso.com with a price of $29.95 but a trial version is available for free download for those who want to evaluate the product first before purchasing.

More info is available at PowerISO

Hard disk management, (and specifically partitioning) is a very important task to be done to your computer to maintain good performance and to avoid loss of data. Its a good idea to divide (partition) your hard drive so that you have separate areas for your operating system and to store your data. This means if you have to format and reinstall your operating system, you can avoid data loss. This task together with other hard disk management tasks can all be performed using Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2010 Suite.

The program integrates multiple tools intended for hard-disk related tasks like creating and formatting hard disk partitions, disk defragmenting etc. It includes partitioning tools allowing you to create, format, resize, or delete partitions of your hard drive in the form of an easy to follow installation wizard.

Backing up data is also possible using the Smart Backup Wizard tool integrated in the program. You can backup your entire hard disk by creating an image, or just emails and other selected files in just a few clicks. So Paragon Hard Disk Manager is very convenient to use in backing up your files even though it only offers basic back up.

Using the program, you can even transfer your Windows operating system to another hard drive and resize your current partition. A Wipe tool can be used to delete free spaces or the entire hard drive to ensure that important data can’t be retrieved. If you have multiple operating systems, Boot Manager will manage the installation and performance of multiple operating systems.

There are still more functions that Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2010 suite contains. Depending on your needs, this might be the right software for you. It is compatible with the current version of Windows (XP, VISTA, 7) and requires 1GB of free disk space.

Further information from the website.

Photo images are the most precious images you can have. Capturing happy moments with family and friends is such a nice thing to be able to do nowadays. But what if your photos got accidentally deleted by you or by someone using your camera? DiskInternals Flash Recovery is the program you need to solve such problems.

Flash recovery retrieves your formatted, deleted, and lost photos from your camera flash card. The program has a very simple user interface. You choose the connected flash memory you want to scan for your pictures and the program shows you the thumbnails of the pictures and other images it found. Bad news for trial users since the trial version only allows scan function but you’re not allowed to recover files. You have to buy the full version to recover your pictures.

DiskInternals Flash recovery supports a variety of image formats like jpeg, png, gif and many more. Also the program supports RAW photo formats like CRW, CR2, TIFF and other formats that latest cameras support. This program is very convenient and easy to use. No configurations are needed, just follow instructions from the photo recovery wizard. Latest version of DiskInternals Flash Recovery can recover several video formats like avi, wmv, mpg, mpeg etc. which add to the program’s advantages.

Disk Internals Flash Recovery is the program that every photographer and those who loves to take pictures should have. Accidental deletion of pictures happens anytime so it’s good to have something like this as a recovery plan.

Check it out here.