Have you have ever tried to delete some files or a folder full of files and recieved that annoying message telling you that a file cannot be deleted as it is in use or locked? Chances are you have, in that case, this is a handy little program to have around.

You simply right click on the file that refuses to co-operate and select *unlock* from the right click context menu. This will gives you several (easy to understand) options such as Kill process, Unlock, Unlock all, etc.

This is one of those tiny little programs that you won’t need to use very often , but when you do, it’ll save you valuable time and frustration. It does exactly what it claims to do, no more, no less! Its freeware and you can download it right here.

Extracting data from an audio CD should be easy. It’s all digital data, right? What you copy onto your hard drive is an exact bit for bit copy of what was on the original CD. Wrong.

This is why sometimes copies sound muffled or distorted. Audio CDs, while digital, are still a very different standard from data CDs and getting an exact copy of the data isn’t quite as simple,technically speaking, as you might think.

For casual use there are any number of tools to extract tracks from audio CDs, but this is the tool for those who want the best.

Check out the website for a full list of features, more info, and the download.

DeKnop (“The button” in dutch, in case you were wondering) is a freeware graphics editor that lets you create buttons for your web site. This makes it extremely easy as you don’t need any particular graphic designing knowledge.

Its interface provides a step by step way to create simple buttons for your web page, and why not being particularly advanced looking, it could still be useful for people who want basic buttons on their website for web links, navigation, etc.

Some of its features include automatic up/down effects for use in mouse over java scripts,gradients, ability to save button images as PNG, JPG, BMP or GIF(non LZW) format. DeKnop also supports projects, allowing you to save your work and continue on it later or reuse it for other jobs.

You can check it out here.

Artweaver is a ‘natural painting program’ allowing you to create art with simulations of real life materials, it has a fair amount of potential.There are a few natural painting programs available, but usually they are rather limited. Most image editing application are geared towards post-image manipulation, rather than creating your image from scratch.Artweaver is an application aimed at artists capable of painting through a pen tablet or directly on to their screen, using a mouse. It has a wide range of brushes and the brush simulation is as realistic as possible, with chalk, charcoal, pencils and other brushes included.

As well as its natural painting, it will enable you to make sketches from existing photos and also add effects to images. It will enable you to import from a wide range of image formats. Its freeware and available here.

If you like this, you might also wanna check out my earlier review of a similar program here.

Good news for solitaire fans! Check out this high quality collection of over four hundred solitaire games. It’s called SolSuite 2007 7.1.

SolSuite 2007 is a high-quality collection of 468 solitaire games. You’ll find all your favorite solitaire games here: Spider, Klondike, FreeCell, Pyramid, Golf, Busy Aces, Canfield, Forty Thieves, Four Seasons, Carpet, Flower Garden, Rouge et Noir, Monte Carlo and original solitaires that you cannot find elsewhere.

SolSuite has been around for a couple of years now and each new update or version has been coming out better and better. This latest version is really cool. It has over 400 games and lots of customizable options. The fact that it’s easy to install and it has great graphics makes it a must have for all solitaire fans.

Want to check it out? CLICK HERE!

Here is a cool billing and invoicing software for you, it is called kBilling. kBilling is a billing & invoicing software that helps you create, print and email invoices, create recurring billing cycles, and manage customers and contacts easily.

One thing I really love about kBilling is the fact that it was made with the user’s needs in mind. It has an easy to us interface that will allow you to make your own invoices without having any detailed knowledge of accounting.

It doesn’t matter what you need to do, tracking your customers, maintaining their balances, including your logo on invoices, managing payments of different types; kBilling will help you get it done easily.

The publishers, K Software are so sure of their software that they are offering it free for you for 30 whole days. So you don’t have to pay a dime until you are sure of how good it is.

Go check it out! CLICK HERE!

Here is a software that is very useful for classrooms and network groups.

AB Tutor Control was designed in response to requests from teachers and trainers who need to interact effortlessly with their students on an individual, group or full classroom basis using a very simple and reliable user interface.

The fact that no prior experience of computer-based training or networking is required makes this software very easy to use. The software enables a tutor or network administrator to control a number of student workstations in a computer training room – or remote location – from a tutor workstation. Classroom groups can be created by network managers to maintain security on large networks.

This software is also very useful for network administrators and help support staff. Want to try it out; It’s a shareware with a 30 day time out trial version.

CLICK HERE for more info and trial download.

In need of a software that can help you create pictures in form of texts and small images? Then you might want to check out Image Constructor.

Image Constructor helps you to create pictures in form of texts and small images over some background with picture or gradient fill and import them to graphical files. This software is really useful in making web graphics; structural diagrams; flow-charts; presentation materials; beautiful pictures etc.

I love the fact that Image Constructor is built with simplicity in mind. So there are no special requirements for this software, this means you should be able to enjoy it fully no matter what kind of system you are using.

Check it out: http://www.easyanimationtools.com/products/imageconstructor/

Here is a nice software that comes highly recommended; GB-PVR.

GB-PVR is a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) allowing you to schedule TV recordings, view and pause live TV. The cool thing about GB-PVR is that it’s more than a PVR; it also acts as a media center allowing you to watch movies, listen to music, view pictures and listen to FM radio. It also supports multiple tuners, allowing you to record multiple channels at one time.

The recent version, GB-PVR 0.99.5 has these changes incorporated into it,

• Improvements to scheduling logic for multi-tuner setups
• Added support for Maltese plugins. If enabled in config app, then it’ll load MultiDec plugins from MDPlugins directory
• Improvements to the start up time for timeshift mode, and the time to change channels. (PC improvements, not relevent to MVP) To take full advantage of this, you’ll probably want to set you ‘LiveTV Pre-play delay’ to ‘0’
• Added support for Vista, though I’d recommend doing a clean install if you decide to upgrade a machine to vista that was previous running an earlier version of windows with GB-PVR
• Fixed a bug that could occur with badly behaved BDA devices that continue send a small amount of data from frequencies they were previously tuned to (for example, Compro devices)
• Fixed a couple of bugs with the DVB EPG (now supports PSI pointer_field used in some countries to squeeze more data in)
• Improvements to H.264 support (BBC HDTV trial etc). You’ll need to have an H.264 decoder installed. For playback of recordings, you’ll also need HDTV Pump installed: http://dvbportal.dyn1.de/download.ph…etup-1.0.7.zip

And lots more.

Check it out; http://www.gbpvr.com/

PersonalBrain is an alternative file and data management interface. It allows you to organize local and Internet data in associative links modeled after your thought processes.It is very similar to the idea of mind maps.

After you install it, you get the choice to run a wizard that will help you get used to how this thing works. I recommend doing this because the interface takes a little while to get used to. The interface is a little unclear at first, but you’ll get used to it if you stick with it for a while.

It could be useful for researching into stuff, and collecting your thoughts visually and clearly, especially for anyone familiar with the technique of making mind maps to organize your thoughts and ideas. You can download the trial and read more information here.