OpenOffice 3.1 has been around quite sometime and now there is an updated version 3.2 just released on Feb 11th, 2010. Many companies like Oracle (earlier Sun), Red Hat, IBM etc have worked on this community driven Office Software suit. Great features and extra stability have been introduced post OpenOffice 3.0.  Here is our review on OpenOffice Calc, a worthy alternative to the most popular Spreadsheet software, Microsoft Excel.

Popularity: 48% [?]

We all know the danger of loosing data and loosing data happens easily like hard disk break up, a virus attack, accidental deletion of files and various other calamities. Though the value of the date is price less, we are not ready yet to pay for expensive backup software that backs up our expensive data. In the earlier post we had reviewed online services available to backup your data. In this post we review some open source back up software that will come to use for those of you who don’t want to spend too much in buying backup software. Here are 4 open source backup software for Windows system that one must try before buying commercially available backup software.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Sometimes, you need to protect sensitive data from others opening it. Sometimes, friends have this annoying habit of opening files on your laptop or something that might embarrass you. Even company confidential files need to be protected. This will be helpful incase you lose your laptop or something. So, there are so many reasons to encrypt files, folders or even the entire partition for that matter. There are so many utilities. Most famous of them is AxCrypt. We’ve been using it for quite sometime. It is tried and tested by more than 1.5 million across the globe. AxCrypt is Open Source and Free. Very simple to install and use. It integrates seamlessly with Windows to compress, encrypt, decrypt, store, send and work with individual files.

Popularity: 43% [?]

What is Mind Mapping?

Quoting Wikipedia :

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

An illustration of a Mind Map on Happiness (Source: http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk)

Popularity: 84% [?]

How many instant messaging programs are there? Dozens, upon dozens but the real problem is managing them all. We all have multiple email addresses and use many web portals and email services. Even those that deny it, will likely have at least 2 email accounts. One for your ISP, and at least one for work, or your cell phone even. At the very minimum, we have 2.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Wondershare Spyware Removal removes spyware, trojan virus and other malware to protect your system.

• Own library of 400,000 virus signatures to ensure competence of spyware, trojan virus, etc. scan and removal
• Proactive defense enables you to defend newest unknown threats
• Rootkit removal to remove stubborn Rootkit trojan virus and spyware

Wondershare Spyware Removal accurately identifies and forcefully removes spyware as well as trojan virus and other malware on your computer.

It is equipped with an advanced scan engine and a huge library of 400,000 pieces of virus signatures. The formidable identification ability enables accurate and potent trojan virus and spyware removal much easier.

Popularity: 42% [?]

Have you ever been in the situation where you want to preview something that you’ve done in Photoshop and accidentally you don’t have Photoshop installed at the moment? Maybe it could be on your friend’s PC, and you just wanted to show him your latest work or design or wallpaper made in Photoshop.

Sometimes you just forget to make flat image in JPEG format, sometimes you just save the file as it is in PSD and at the moment when you realize that on other PC you don’t have Photoshop installed, it’s too late…

Well there is one easy and quick fix that will let you preview images in PSD file format, even if you don’t have Adobe Photoshop installed on that PC.

It will enable you to see the image in Windows Explorer, like you see thumbnails of other known formats like JPEG or PNG, except this will work for PSD too!

There are two ways to do this little trick. I’ll show you both and then you choose which way is easier to you.

Popularity: 2% [?]

If you want to boost your system performance and speed things up, you definitely have to try this famous and award-winning software.

You can download System Mechanic 9 for free, with 6 months licence. This is part of a promotional offer by Iolo and Computer Active magazine.
(Below are the instructions for download)

System Mechanic 9 is currently one of the bestselling applications for system speed-up, and it has over 22 million users.

It has been awarded with Editor’s Choice Award by:

CNET, PC Utilities, LAPTOP Magazine, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and many more, but I can’t write them all down because the list would be pretty big.

The original price of System Mechanic 9 (standard edition) is $39.95 but with this promotional offer, it’s yours for free.

Popularity: 73% [?]

Here’s a great freebie for you. I don’t know whether you heard it or not, but the new version of Zone Alarm has been released on November 24. And it is now available free for download.

It is kind of strange though, that the official announcement of the release hasn’t yet spread fully over the net. Even the link to download the latest version of ZoneAlarm on their official website leads to a page at Download.com where you can download only version 8 (I hope they will fix that soon).

It seems that the news about the new version of ZoneAlarm doesn’t seem to have got past the ZoneAlarm forum…Yet. But who cares. You can download it right now and enjoy the internet security that this famous firewall provides.

So what are the major changes and add-ons in the latest version of ZoneAlarm (9.1)?

1. One of the most important things is that this version of ZoneAlarm is now fully compatible with Windows 7. That means you can relax and don’t need to worry whether it will crash your system or cause any conflicts with other installed software on your computer (which could, yet again, lead to system failure).

2. There is a new browser security toolbar included with installation. This is helpful if you happen to go to some malicious website that tries to install some kind of malware on your pc. But I also think this browser toolbar will suck in additional RAM memory and if you have many add-ons installed (Firefox anybody?), then it could become pretty messy. (but only for those with less RAM capacity)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Kaxaml!

Kaxaml is a lightweight XAML editor that gives you a “split view” so you can see both your XAML and your rendered content (kind of like XamlPad but without the gigabyte of SDK). Kaxaml is a hobby and was created to be shared, so it’s free! Feel free to download and try it out. If you don’t like it, it cleans up nicely.

If you’re having problems with the installer or if you’re just a do-it-yourself kind of individual, you can download the files you need as a zip.

Popularity: 4% [?]

If you want to make Windows 7 Ribbon and add it in your application, give Visual Ribbon Creator a shot. It is developed for VC++ programmers only. Ribbon is a great feature in Windows 7 and deserves an appreciation.

This tool generates Ribbon code, DLL, and Code Snippers for sample usage. It requires Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 and Windows 7 SDK. The app creates standard Windows 7 Ribbon using Win32 only and is very different than Visual Studio 2010 editor which creates MFC/Office Ribbon.

Please note that you should use this tool only and only if you are doing Win32/x64 directly.

Popularity: 2% [?]

You must be looking for a good password manager for Windows 7 since there is no such build-in tool. I have been using Secure Password Storage for a few weeks, but the functionality is limited, the choices too are limited, and the app as a whole is sometimes quite slow and buggy.

Today, I stumbled on Password Provider, a secure desktop password manager with tons of functionalities packed into a simple-to-use app. You can create, store, and access unlimited number of logon/passwords and other important information.

Popularity: 1% [?]