Top Ten Software
I can't avoid being a damned program downloader. One of my daily pleasures is searching the web for new software and download it, then testing it and get it or discard it. Such a passion has some drawbacks (my computer sometimes groans in desperation at such an internal mess of files) but also an obvious good consequence: I know that I'm using the software that suits me best. I've collected here the ten Windowsprograms I couldn't live without, with a little explanation of what they do, why are so good and where can be downloaded. Please note this link is still under construction —I've just posted the first five entries (the list order doesn't imply actual assessment. These programs are like one's own children — you love them all the same).
MSIE Cache Explorer
ClipMate
CompuPic
Agent Newsreader
GetRight
MSIE Cache Explorer
When you surf the Internet, the pages you visit get stored ("cached") in your hard drive for later use of your browser. But what if it's you, and not the browser, who wants to make use of them, say to read them placidly and inexpensively offline? It's then when MSIE Cache Explorer comes to the rescue! With it, you can easily see the pages you visited while connected, exactly in the same way you saw them online —with all their graphics and animations. Even more, you can save them to any location, and still have all hyperlinks in the page working properly. So, if you've visited a website with many interconnected pages, you can save them to a folder in your hard drive and surf the site as if you were in the Internet. Also, you can delete the pages you are no longer interested in, making room in your disk for new ones. This version is for the Internet Explorer browser, but there's a version for Netscape as well. A highly recommended tool.
Name: MSIE Cache Explorer
Packed size: 140 Kb.
Status: Shareware, 30 days free, US$ 20
Homepage: http://www.mwso.com
ClipMate
Back to the time of Windows 3.1, I always wondered why the guys at Microsoft had made such a poor job with the clipboard. Well, yes, you can copy and paste, but why to limit it to an item each time? Imagine that translated to real life: you go to the supermarket, get a can of tuna, come back home, leave it the kitchen cupboard, go again to the supermarket, get some fresh vegetables, come back home, drop them, go to the supermarket again, ... and so on. After all this painful years, you could have expected Windows 98 would have an enhanced version of the clipboard, couldn't you? Not at all. The clipboard is exactly the same crippled tool. Fortunately, ClipMate is available to completely replace (and forget) the Windows clipboard.ClipMate is to Windows what a van is to people buying in the supermarket: a way to store items until they're properly unloaded. With ClipMate, you can copy as many items as you want, and have them as long as you want. Then you can paste them, individually, wherever you want —even if you close the program, or if you shut down Windows.
Name: ClipMate
Packed size: 816 Kb.
Status: Shareware, 30 days free, US$ 25
Homepage: http://www.thornsoft.com
CompuPic
Are you frustrated with those gigantic programs like PhotoShop or Corel PhotoPaint, with their infinite confusing menus and their huge consumption of memory and resources? Most of the time, you just want to view and preview your images, not to make artwork in them! If so, get CompuPic —it's small, fast and easy to use. CompuPic makes thumbnails (small representations) of all your graphic images ("pics") and store them (so they aren't generated each time, as other programs do). To see an image, you simply click on its thumbnail. Then, you can make some basic operations, like changing its color depth or resolution, enlarging or shrinking it, and so on. One nice feature is the ability to make graphic indexes out of a variety of pics.
Name: CPIC32
Packed size: 730 Kb.
Status: Shareware, US$ 39.95
Homepage: http://www.photodex.com
Agent Newsreader
Back to the first days of the computer-mediated communication, the newsgroups (those BBS-like forums of discussion) were perhaps the core of the Internet. With few people logging in around, it was a great idea to gather them in groups of interest and make every posted message available for all to read and reply. Although the News have lost their key role to the web, the number of newsgroups hasn't ceased to grow —there are more than 22000 right now, so it's not difficult to find one that suits your personal interests. Such a flow of communication is well worth to catch and contribute, and Agent Newsreader is the best program to do it, in my opinion. It's an offline newsreader —that means you can connect, retrieve the headers (i.e., the subject of the messages), go offline, mark them to get the body (i.e., the actual message) and go online to retrieve the bodies. It does much more, of course, and does it in a straightforward and easy way.
Name: Forté Agent
Packed size: 1.955 Kb.
Status: There are two versions. Free Agent is freeware. Agent is a commercial product (I don't remember the exact price: between US$30 and US$50). Agent includes all the features of Free Agent plus a multilingual spelling checker, email functionality, address book, folders, kill and watch filters, sorting, customizable toolbars, and the ability to manage views.
Homepage: http://www.forteinc.com
GetRight
I recommend downloading and using all programs reviewed here, but get this one before the others! GetRightis an intelligent downloader which will save you the pain of losing a file being downloaded when it's almost done. With GetRight, you can cancel and resume the downloading as many times as you want. Imagine the file you're interested in is a huge 12 Mb one, and try downloading it directly from the browser —you'll have to allow yourself for at least 4 hours of continuous connection and begin preaching. GetRight would make things easier and painless, since it'll resume the downloading exactly when was left, so you can have the file in four sessions of an hour each. Since I began using it up today (May 21 1998) I've downloaded 287.29 Mb and it has saved me from re-download a total of 153.50 Mb. This is an essential tool for any Internet surfer and downloader.
Name: GetRight
Packed size: 649 Kb.
Status: Shareware, 30 days free, US$17.50
Homepage: http://www.headlightsw.com
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