|
|
VampGirl's Software Reviews : Page Five
27/05/2001
Sonique: The Ultimate Audio Player
Sonique 1.9 by Team Sonique (a division of Lycos, Inc) is an excellent freeware audio player which supports MP3, MP2, WMA, S3M, MOD, IT, XM, WAV, CD Audio and (my favourite) Ogg Vorbis formats. The user interface is fully customisable: Sonique has many different skins available and supports some fantastic audiovisual plugins which look utterly amazing in full-screen visual mode.
The program also includes a full-featured playlist editor, complete audio controls including a 20-band equaliser, balance, pitch etc and much more.
In my opinion, Sonique is, without doubt, the best sounding audio player available at the moment (and I've tried ALL the others) and can be downloaded from the official website by clicking on the button below.
13/05/2001
RegCleaner: Registry Maintenance Utility
Frequent installation and removal of shareware and game demos can leave behind information in the registry that is no longer valid. In time this can severely slow down registry access and affect your computer's performance.
RegCleaner by Juoni Vuorio is an excellent freeware program designed to enable you to delete these obsolete registry entries. You are able to display every program listed in the registry and, in one easy click, remove them completely. The program also allows you to search for specific program entries, save the listings in a text document and create secure backups of your registry (just in case you do something stupid). It will even recognise any new registry entries every time the program is run.
This power-user's tool is far more efficient than Microsoft's RegClean, has an incredibly simple interface and therefore should be used with extreme care. This sub-500k program will work with Win95/98/NT/ME and 2000 and is available to download from Juoni Vuorio's website by clicking on the button below.
06/05/2001
ZoneAlarm: Personal Firewall
If your computer stays connected to the Internet for any length of time then you really should consider setting up a personal firewall. ZoneAlarm by ZoneLabs Inc is the best firewall that I have found and is entirely free for personal and non-profit use.
The program supports modem, ISDN, Cable and DSL connections and allows you to select one of three security levels for protection of your computer. The strongest of these is 'Stealth Mode' which renders you completely invisible to other Internet users who may be attempting to hack into your computer.
ZoneAlarm has a pop-up window which appears whenever an event occurs showing the offending IP number and options to recieve further information. It can also be configured by the user to allow only selected programs, such as ICQ, to access the Internet. This is particularly useful as this function can be used to prevent software such as advert-based freeware (or even Trojans you may have inadvertantly installed) from sending personal information from your computer. There is also an option for detailed logging of all Internet activity. ZoneAlarm has a system tray icon and even has a convenient menu with an essential 'Panic Button' feature allowing you to immediately 'lock up' your Internet connection in one easy, fast, click.
"More than 9 million PC users have downloaded ZoneAlarm...so should you"
Click the Download button to visit the ZoneLabs website.
VampGirl's Previous Software Reviews| Page One | IrfanView : Image Viewer
First Page 2000 : HTML Editor
Web Ferret : Search Utility | | Page Two | Divide by Zero Fonts : Font Package
Swish : Flash Creator
NetAnts : Download Manager | | Page Three | Add/Remove Programs : April Fool's prank
Spectroscope : Colour Picker
Font Glancer : Font Viewer | | Page Four | InoculateIT Personal Edition : Virus Checker
Internet Surfer : MDI Browser
Wingrab : Image Capture program | | Page Five | Sonique : The Ultimate Audio Player
RegCleaner : Registry Maintenance Utility
ZoneAlarm : Personal Firewall |
| Page Six | Sequoia View : Disk Browsing Utility
Ad-Aware : 'Spyware' Removal Utility
Xteq X-Setup : Windows System Tweaker |
| Page Seven | AnalogX : Website
Eraser : Secure File Wiping Utility
Kyodai Mahjongg : Tile Removal Game |
| Page Eight | Metapad : Notepad Replacement
Cacheman : Windows Optimising Utility
Opera : Web Browser
Trillian : Ultimate Chat Client
|
| Page Nine | SmartFTP : File Transfer Program
Rough Draft : Word Processor
|
| Page Ten | Yahoo Messenger 5.0 : Chat Client
Tetris 4000 : Stupidly Addictive Game
|
All Image copyrights acknowledged. |
