There are very few programs released for free that are genuine high powered programs. While there are many free programs that have one specific function that is extremely useful, the age we live in now lends itself to high powered programs being sold as proprietary software. Thankfully, there are exceptions to this rule and XnView for Windows is most definitely one of the pieces of software that are an exception to the rule. With all of the different features that it has in the area of graphics manipulation, XnView can most definitely be referred to as a high powered piece of software.

Simply put, XnView allows you to view files from over 400 different graphics formats (most people don’t even know that there are that many graphics formats in existence) and it allows you to convert many of those formats to file types that are more acceptable in today’s world (i.e. formats such as .jpg or .gif). In total, XnView is capable of the creation of 52 different graphics formats and you can also create slide show presentations through XnView as well. You can do almost anything that you would need to do in the area of graphics conversion and manipulation from a file type perspective in XnView, making it one of the free high powered programs out there.

More information is available at http://www.xnview.com/

The Lite version of the Web Forum Reader is actually a very smartly toned down version of the full Web Forum Reader with a number of different features that allows you to still enjoy the main purpose of the software without having to pay for it as in the case of the full version (the full version is shareware). Unlike many other Lite programs which just turn out to be cripple ware, the Web Forum Reader Lite has the basics of the reader program in place and therefore it allows you the basic functionality that is at the core of what makes the Web Forum Reader such a good program.

Simply put, you can use this piece of software to read forums on the internet. You simply plug in the usernames and the passwords as well as the URLs for all your favourite forums and you can follow along with different discussions regarding everything that you want. You can also get the program to hide everything that you have read and display an amalgamation of files from different forums that you haven’t read, allowing you to save a lot of time in your checking up on the forums of the day.

More information about this free version of the Web Forum Reader can be found by visiting http://www.chemtable.com/WebForumReader.htm

While there are many index photo software packages out there, MyPhotoIndex has to be one of the more impressive ones. This can be deduced by taking into account not only the fact that it is a free piece of software, but also the fact that you can use it as an electronic photo album in order to catalogue and organize all of the pictures that you take, upload or download. All in all, the full photo album functionality is available with this particular piece of software and that is something that has been proven to anyone that takes the time to explore and use this piece of software.

MyPhotoIndex’s focus as a software package is in the tagging and cataloguing of images and there is a lot of support and functionality provided by the program in these two areas. This means that you can not only use it to catalogue and organize your photos to be displayed on screen in the actual software, but you can also tag the actual files so that organizing them in the folders they appear in is easy as well. This is particularly useful if you want to send photos to other people or if you want specific files to be available to you for use online. Not many other photo album programs have this type of functionality and even fewer free ones are able to boast about it.

More information about MyPhotoIndex can be found at http://www.myphotoindex.com/

One of the great things about Mozilla is that after creating their world class Firefox browser, they took that engine and then transposed it onto a number of the other areas of internet software. First was Thunderbird, their online e-mail client that was released as competition to Outlook and then finally they ended up releasing Songbird, which is the piece of software being discussed here.

Songbird, simply put, is an online music player that operates on the same engine that Firefox uses. It allows you to play any .mp3 file that is available on the internet without leaving the actual page that you are on. You can also use it to view web pages and create dynamic play lists from those websites. Essentially, you can use Songbird to make your internet music life a lot easier. If you’re the type of person that loves listening to or watching online videos and you want to get the songs from those videos and song websites without having to waste too much time in the process, then Songbird is most definitely the piece of software for you.

More information about Songbird is available at http://www.songbirdnest.com/

Have you considered analyzing and benchmarking your computer system? Well, Fresh Diagnose is actually designed to analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware like hard disk performance, mainboard/motherboard information, CPU performance, video system information and so much more. A new version has been recently released.

It’s a utility that scans your system and gives a complete report about your computer’s hardware and software.

The latest version of this tool, Fresh Dioagnose 7.78 was released recently with the main feature change being:

•   Windows upgrade and HotFixes module

Want to try it out? Check http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdiag.html

Want to keep an eye on your favourite websites easily? Check out this software, it should do the job, it’s called Website Watcher.

WebSite-Watcher checks an unlimited number of web-sites for updates and changes with a minimum of time and online-costs. When changes in a website are detected, it saves the last two versions to your hard disk and highlights all changes in the text.

This program will save definitely save you hours daily. The fact that you can monitor different websites easily with this tool to check for changes means that you get to save yourself quality time which would have been spent going to each site manually just to see if anything has changed.

Want to check it out? Go to check out the trail version at http://www.aignes.com/

Apollo DVD copy, a hi-tech tool for copying DVD collection to DVD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW, has an in-built DVD burning engine and DVD video compression engine that provides you with the true DVD copy of your DVD collections within 20-40 minutes without reduction in quality. The copies produced by this tool can be run on both your PC and home DVD player.

With Apollo DVD copy, you can also copy DVDs to hard drive folders for editing or burning later.

One cool thing about this software is its high compatibility.

• It supports both NTSC and PAL Movies
• It supports DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW.
• It also supports a lot of the popular SCSI,IDE,USB DVD burners/recorders on the market.

Want to know more?

Visit http://www.xtodvd.com/dvdcopy.htm

If like me you spend more time on the “puter” than you’d like to count then the software is something you should check out. It’s called Eyes Dropper.

It basically reminds you about rest-time and by so doing help save your eyesight. Does that sound ridiculous? Well, not really if you take your time to think about it. Staying glued to your pc all day is definitely not good for your eyesight, I should know, I wear thick lenses.

Now this software allows you to customize the duration of your work time and length of breaks. During the break you may exercise your eyes, look away or look at distant objects either in your office or outside, take a stroll outside your office. Sounds simple, right? But it’s very effective. Just one problem, I don’t agree with $20 price, this should be a freeware not shareware. But then give the trial version a shot and be the judge.

You can check it out http://duodimension.com/eyes_care_child_health/eyesdropper_1_overview.htm

In the “eat what you can lay your hands on” crazy world we find ourselves in today, a tool like this comes highly recommended. What tool am I talking about? Nutritional Facts.

Nutrition Facts provides detailed nutritional analysis on over 7500 foods. It has a simple interface which resembles the standard nutrition label found on most food items. Foods can easily be searched and quantities changed to adjust the nutritional data. This is definitely a good resource for those on diets and for those who should be. The tool uses a database that is based on the United States’ nutrition database.

That being said I think everyone, “diet conscious” and “diet unconscious” people alike should check this out, after all you are what you eat. You with me?

Check it out here http://silvertriad.com/

Analyzing the time you spend working on your computer is a facility provided by WorkTime. It accounts for the programs you run and the time you spend running them. It is launched on the Windows Start and it displays various information such as: total working time, working time for a period, time spent running a program or user-defined program group such as Games, Internet, Work etc.

With WorkTime you can carry out comparative analysis of time spent with different programs/program groups and all reports are printable. WorkTime supports multiple users; it has a multi-language interface and provides an alarm and countdown timer. It also reminds you to take regular breaks to prevent computer-related injuries.

Want to check it out?

Visit www.nestersoft.com/worktime/