6 Free Utilities to Find Duplicate Photos on your Computer

1. Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder

Duplicate images can take up a lot of space on your hard drive, but identifying and deleting them can be a major hassle. Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder promises to make this process easier, and it does, to some extent.

Depending on the number of duplicates you have, this may or may not be the program for you.

The program's interface is attractive and intuitive. Users simply select the folders they want to scan for duplicates and then click the Start Search button. Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder scanned our hard drive quickly and then displayed the results as a list of file names, with duplicates listed side by side.

A preview pane let us visually compare each set of images, and a similarity rating let us know exactly how similar the program found the images to be. This part of the program worked great; it was fast, and the results were thorough and accurate. The problem came when it was time to start deleting images. There's no way to delete them in batches, and if you're working with a large number of duplicates, it can get quite tedious to delete them one at a time.

That said, those who don't mind deleting each duplicate individually will find little to complain about with Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder; the program works great otherwise. We also liked the fact that it supports JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP images. A Help file would have been nice, but it's not really necessary; anyone with basic computer literacy will be able to figure it out without problems.

Main Features

* It has extremely simple user interface

* Finds similar or exact duplicate photos

* Search through the following image types: JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, and TIFF

* Able to compare pictures that was resized or pictures with corrected colors (black and white photos etc.)

* Add multiple folders or drives for scanning

* Works with network drives and removable devices (USB etc.)

* Support moving and deleting of duplicate photos

Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Server 2008/7/8

Review (CNet): http://download.cnet.com/Awesome-Duplicate-Photo-Finder/3000-2193_4-75206819.html

Website: http://www.duplicate-finder.com/photo.html

Downloading Page: http://www.duplicate-finder.com/photo-download.html

2. ShootShifter

ShootShifter presents photos in chronological order on a graphical timeline. Date changes can then be applied with several tools to individual photos or even complete folders of images. E.g. it’s possible to directly enter new dates, or to simply drag the images around on the timeline, etc.

One of the cameras was set to a wrong date? The time was off? No problem!

With the new full screen preview and 100% loupe it’s possible to get a great overview over the images and to already here get rid of the least successful ones. At the end the images can be renamed with standardized filenames using the user-configurable naming templates.

Operating System: Mac

Website: http://www.maczentrisch.de/shootShifter/

iTunes page: https://itunes.apple.com/app/shootshifter/id521567274

3. VisiPics

VisiPics does more than just look for identical files, it goes beyond checksums to look for similar pictures and does it all with a simple user interface. First, you select the root folder or folders to find and catalogue all of your pictures. It then applies five image comparison filters in order to measure how close pairs of images on the hard drive are.

Visipic is a program that is considerably faster than any other commercial product and has an interface that let you do other things while Visipics automatically finds your duplicated images. It will detect two different resolution files of the same picture as a duplicate, or the same picture saved in different formats, or duplicates where only minor cosmetic changes have taken place.

All detected duplicates are shown side by side with pertinent information such as file name, type and size being displayed. Its auto-select mode let you choose if you want to keep the higher resolution picture, space-saving filetype, smaller filesize or all of the above. If you are insecure over what you really want to delete you can manually select the images you don't want to keep and delete them yourself.

Main Features

*Faster than most commercial software

* Uses dualcore processors

* Highly efficient results with adjustable similarity levels

* Easy to use Interface, preview your duplicates easily and pick the ones to delete with a simple click

* Starts to display the results while scanning, you don't have to wait to delete your duplicates

* Smart Auto-Select mode, to save time while deleting pictures

Website: http://www.visipics.info/

Download page: http://www.visipics.info/index.php?title=Download

4. Similar Image Finder

Find and remove duplicate images on your PC even if they are not exactly the same.

Main Features

* You can search for similar images in multiple folders.

* You can specify if the search will include sub-folders or not.

* You can specify the minimum similarity ratio.

* You can specify the speed of search.

* You can specify image file formats to search.

* You can choose the original file according to the file size, creation date or pixel size.

* You can use the application in the languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian.

Website: http://www.similarimagefinder.com/

5. Duplicate Photo Cleaner

Duplicate Photo Cleaner is a powerful tool that helps you find and remove duplicate photos from your PC. With this program you can easily organize your photo collection and remove duplicates or similar images.

Duplicate Photo Cleaner is completely safe to use.

Duplicate Photo Cleaner is very easy to use. It lets you find and delete duplicate photos or similar images in just a couple of mouse clicks. The program can compare pictures that were resized or edited because its algorithm works just like the human eye.

Duplicate Photo Cleaner supports all major image types, including JPG, BMP, GIF, and PNG.

Website: http://www.duplicatephotocleaner.com/

6. Duplicate Images Finder

This application can search through your images collection and find duplicates not only by file name or size, but also by visual similarity. 

Website: http://duplifinder.codeplex.com/

Open Broadcaster Software – Professional Screencasting Utility

One of the biggest trends in gaming over the last few years has been screencasting—broadcasting your screen online in real-time as you play. Whether you're a pro or just getting started, it's a great way to get feedback. To get started with screencasting, try Open Broadcaster Software. It's got all the tools you'll need to stream anything, including full-screen games, windowed games, and even your desktop.

What is OBS?

Open Broadcaster Software is free and open source software for recording and live streaming. Source code is available to everyone to contribute and improve. Both 32 and 64 bit versions are available and it's absolutely free.

The application offers support for various streaming services, such as Twitch, iNSTAGIB.tv, DailyMotion, CashPlay, YouTube, CyberGame and Hitbox. It can help you record videos from various sources; you can integrate image slideshows, texts, game captures and webcam streams in the output, as well as record a running application on your desktop.

You can easily change the order of the sources, adjust their position on the screen (center, align left or right etc.), remove or rename a source. The preview function enables you to take a look at the generated video before proceeding to actually broadcasting it online.

The application features video and audio encoding options, allowing you to set the quality balance, the maximum bitrate and customize the buffer size. Additionally, you can change the streaming resolution and choose the monitor to stream from, adjust the FPS rate and customize the streaming delay.

Other options are related to configuring the microphone settings (mute / unmute, auxiliary boost, time offset, push-to-talk and more), changing the audio-video options (modifying the keyframe interval, using custom x264 encoder settings, customizing the global audio time offset, using microphone QPC timestamp).

Settings profiles can be created and saved for later loading and the application can be instructed to automatically reconnect to the target server.

Screenshots

Program review (Softpedia): http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Other-Internet-Related/Open-Broadcaster-Software.shtml

Developers’ website: http://obsproject.com/

Direct download (installer): http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/obsproject/OBS_0_591b_Installer.exe

Direct download (portable version): http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/obsproject/OBS_0_591b.zip

Detailed tutorial: http://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/1262922-open-broadcaster-software

DxO Optics Pro 6 Elite Edition for Free (time-limited offer)

Enhance your photos with DxO Optics Pro 6 Elite Edition: remove noise, optimize exposure and contrast, magnify colors, and boost details, regardless of shooting conditions.

To get your free license of DxO Optics Pro 6 Elite Edition, please act on the promotional offer before end of the calendar year - before December, 31st 2013.

Regular cost: $199

Please make sure to enter valid contact information, because your activation code will be sent to this address.

Giveaway page: http://www.dxo.com/intl/advancedphotoshop

Download (windows): http://download-center.dxo.com/v6/Win/DxO_OpticsPro6_Setup.exe

Download (Mac): http://download-center.dxo.com/v6/Mac/DxO_OpticsPro6.dmg

Supported equipment: http://media.dxo.com/campaigns/2013-09-digital-photographer/dxo-optics-pro-6-supported-equipment.pdf

Conditions:

* Your license key can be simultaneously activated on 2 computers, Mac or PC.    

* Please note that your free license is not upgradeable.

Free Windows 8.1, Microsoft Office 2013, and VisualStudio for Students

OnTheHub Network offers student unprecedented freebies: Windows 8.1, Microsoft Office 2013 Professional, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2013, and some other valuable utilities.

An DreamSpark Account is required to download. You need to sign up through your school. Note that not all colleges are supported for these freebies, but you may be lucky one.

Windows 8.1 Giveaway page: http://onthehub.com/download/free-software/windows-8/

MS Office 2013 Giveaway page: http://onthehub.com/download/free-software/microsoft-office-2013/

Visual Studio 2013 Giveaway page: http://onthehub.com/download/free-software/visual-studio-2013/

VMWare Giveaway page: http://onthehub.com/download/software-discounts/vmware

TIBCO Spotfire S+ 8.2 page: http://onthehub.com/download/free-software/tibco

Free iPhone Transfer from Xilisoft (time-limited offer)

Xilisoft iPhone Transfer is a smart tool for synchronizing your iPhone to your computer. It's the ideal iPhone manager to backup music and video to your computer, match your iPhone contents to iTunes and seamlessly copy files from computer to your iPhone. Read and export photos and videos shot by the device as well.

The iPhone Transfer tool now supports the latest iOS 7. Import and export your computer files to your iPhone for viewing and playing, you can also deal with your files via iTunes 11.0. Besides the music, video and file synchronization, you can even treat your iPhone as a portable hard disk when Xilisoft iPhone Transfer software is installed.

Main Features:

* Fully support all iPad/iPhone/iPod, latest iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPad Air, iOS 7 and iTunes 11

* App transfer and App document management

* Backup iPhone contents to computer

* Back up messages to computer

* Export computer files to iPhone

* Synchronize iPhone music with iTunes library

* Treat iPhone as a portable hard disk

* Manage images by creating and editing photo albums

* Read and export photos and videos shot by the device

* Support several iOS devices simultaneously

* Provide multiple view modes for music, movies, photos, etc

* Transfer playlist to iTunes directly

* Support shortcut keys for operation

Screenshot:

Regular price: $29.95.

How to get it free?

For limited time, Xilisoft offers iPhone Transfer utility for free for their fans. Simply share the giveaway page to your Facebook, then you can get free iPhone Transfer immediately.

Website: http://www.xilisoft.com/iphone-transfer.html

Giveaway page: http://www.xilisoft.com/christmas-offers-2013.html

Offer expires: December 31, 2013

Free Capture One 6 Express – Professional Software for Pictures Editing (time-limited offer)

Capture One Express has the essential, easy-to-use photo editing tools in one powerful package and gives you the power to achieve the ultimate image quality from your raw files.

The software is offered for free for all subscribers of Photography for Beginners and Digital Camera Magazine. This voucher will give you a 100% discount on Capture One Express 6. You will get confirmation mail where you can find information on the license key and link for downloading.

Please do not abuse the system by claiming multiple copies of the software.

Main Features:

* Superior image quality

* Extensive camera support

* High performance editing

* Complete photography workflow

* Batch processing

Support:

Capture One supports raw formats from more than 250 cameras and digital backs. Capture One’s tailor-made camera profiles are renowned for providing ultimate image quality for top cameras from Nikon, Canon, Sony, Leica, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, Pentax, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Fujifilm, and Epson as well as digital backs from Mamiya, Leaf and Phase One.

Screenshots:

Regular cost: $99

Giveaway page: http://www.phaseone.com/pfb

Voucher Code: PFB2013

Download page: http://www.phaseone.com/en/Downloads/Capture-One-6.aspx

Free BlazeVideo Video Converter Pro for Mac (time-limited offer)

While most of the 2013 holidays freebies are for Windows users, Mac fans may also benefit from the promotional giveaways. I would like to present a Christmas giveaway with BlazeVideo Video Converter Pro for Mac. As a leading video converter for Mac, it is capable of converting most videos to popular formats like MKV, MPEG, ASF, AVI, Divx, MOV, FLV, MP4, WMV, WebM, Xvid and more. This Christmas gift is good at converting and enhancing nearly all HD/SD videos on Mac screen to make them playable on iPhone 5S/5C, iPad Air, iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 10.1, HTC One, Google new Nexus 7, etc. for playback on iPhone, iPad, iPod, PSP, Android/Windows cell phone, etc.

Main Features:

A fast video conversion utility that enables you to edit and convert videos and movies

* Convert 10X faster than other competing Mac video converters.

* Convert nearly all HD/SD videos on Mac Operating System.

* Converted videos supported by iPhone, iPad, iPod, PSP, Android/Windows phone, etc.

* Clip/merge/crop videos, insert watermarks/subtitles in videos, etc.

* Add subtitle to videos.

* Watermark videos with text or picture/logo

Regular price: $39.95

License Key: LVLPCERWU67

Giveaway page: http://www.blazevideo.com/promotion/

Direct download: http://www.blazevideo.com/download/promo/BlazeVideo_Video_Converter_Pro_for_Mac.rar

Free Amigabit Disk Defrag Holidays Giveaway (time-limited offer)

Amigabit Disk Defrag is professional high-quality utility to defragment your Hard Drive for the best computer performance. It is especially important for the older PCs with more outdated Operating Systems.

The utility will thoroughly scan your hard disk with 1-click defrag option, analyze, defrag and optimize your hard disk automatically. It will also help you to detect and remove large unneeded files to free up valuable disk space

You may schedule Disk Defragmentation on your own timeline, when you are not using your computer.

Main Features:

* Quick and Optimized Disk Defragmentation

You may follow up with simple and straightforward 1-click option for your hard disk or multiple disks, when you are in a hurry or do not have much time, or you do not consider yourself a computer expert. By this operation, you will be able to merge scattered pieces of free space into a contiguous block, avoiding fragmentation of newly created files.

* Single or Multiple Disk Defragmentation

You can defragment multiple disks or select individual disk for defragmentation, or preset to skip some huge files during the disk defragmentation. Those features will offer you an effective way to save your time instead of defragmenting the all disks on whole computer every time.

* Schedule Disk Defragmentation

It's never so easier to defrag disks timely. Schedule your computer to defrag disk at night, early in the morning, or any time when you are not at PC. Just tell your computer when you need defrag disks (once, every day, or every week), get a faster computer even in your sleep.

* Shut down Computer after Disk Defragmentation

Enable your computer to shut itself down automatically when the defragmentation process is complete. Free up your hand when you want to keep the disk defragmentation while you're going away.

* Find out Large Files on Hard Disks

Scan & find out the larger files than your expect (the top 10, 50, 100, 200 or 1000 biggest files) on hard disks. You will be able to handle those files manually without risk of losing valuable data due to the automatic maintenance operations. You may view files details, check access to destination folder, delete from computer to Recycle Bin, or move to other locations.

Website: http://www.amigabit.com/disk-defrag/

Promotion page: http://www.amigabit.com/promotion/

Download: http://www.amigabit.com/download/amigabitdiskdefrag.exe

Amigabit Disk Defrag License Code: 6A3GM46SQJ98

Regular price: $29.95

Limitations:

* No free upgrades

* Activate before Dec. 20.

MP3 Toolkit Christmas Giveaway (time-limited offer)

MP3 Toolkit is a powerful Windows app includes MP3 converter, CD ripper, tag editor, MP3 cutter, MP3 merger and MP3 recorder for users who want to handle MP3 files easier.

Besides standard MP3 format, MP3 Toolkit supports most of popular audio & video formats like WMA, WMV, MP4, WAV, OGG, FLV, MOV, M4P, M4A and more, also supports high quality audio like FLAC and APE. With MP3 Toolkit, you are able to convert, cut, merge, rip and record MP3.

You can use MP3 Toolkit to convert audio for mobile devices, make ringtones, fix tag information, rip Audio CD, record sound or merge audio pieces to a complete MP3 file.

Main Features:

* MP3 Converter

You can convert audio file formats between standard MP3 audio and WMA, WAV, OGG, AAC and more. It can also extract the audio stream from popular video formats like MP4, FLV, AVI, etc.

* CD to MP3 Ripper

The audio CD contains audio tracks (.cda) files which cannot be copied to use directly. CD to MP3 Ripper will help you to rip the audio from CD to MP3, WMA, APE or WAV for common players.

* MP3 Tag Editor

With this program you will be able to edit MP3 tag information in batch mode. It supports all ID3v1 and ID3v2 versions. Also, the editor will allow you to edit album photos and lyrics.

* MP3 Merger

Got some cool audio parts to combine? MP3 Merger can merge & combine your several FLAC, MP3, OGG and WAV audio files to a complete single audio file.

*MP3 Cutter

Using MP3 Cutter to make ringtones is a good choice. It can cut a specific time audio piece from a song. It also has the ability to cut a part of music from a video file, or a movie.

* MP3 Recorder

It allows you to record any sound from your microphone directly to standard MP3 format, and no length limitation. If your sound card supports analog, you can record the stream audio also.

Original Price: $29.95.

Developer website: http://www.mp3toolkit.com/index.html

Giveaway Page: http://www.mp3toolkit.com/giveaway.html

Direct Download: http://www.mp3toolkit.com/down/mp3toolkit.exe

Giveaway Serial Key: MP3T201288692759 

Giveaway expiration date: December 25, 2013

Aomei Partition Assistant Pro For Free (time-limited offer)

Christmas and New Year time is a traditional season for exchanging gifts. Therefore, I will post more professional software giveaways in coming days. For those, who despise using illegally cracked software, but still reluctant to spend money on the professional utilities, here is the best chance to grab legally full-featured professional software copies for FREE.

Aomei Partition Assistant Pro is stable, professionally designed, and full-featured partition management software, which can handle all operations on partitions. If you are fixing the problems that system disk is out of space, the original partition is not proper, migrate OS to Solid State Drive, or create more partition or resize the original partition, Aomei Partition Assistant Pro is a very good choice for you.

Main Features:

* Resize/Move Partition

* Merge Partitions

* Split Partition

* Allocate Free Space

* Create/Delete/Format Partition

* Copy Disk/Partition

* Windows to go Creator

* Align Partition

* Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic

* Built-in a Dynamic Disk Manager, support for resizing dynamic volume etc.

Normally $36, this handy utility includes a "Windows to go" feature for creating a bootable Windows flash drive. Under conditions of the exclusive Giveaway for CNET Marketplace Blog, it is free for a limited time.

Developer’s Website: http://www.disk-partition.com/partition-manager-pro-edition.html

Giveaway Website: http://www.disk-partition.com/specials/cnet.html

Direct Downloading link: http://www.aomeisoftware.com/download/giveaway/pa/PAPro3rd5.5.exe

License Code: AOPR-Q2H81-71FN2-78XYL

Regular price: $36.

Offer is valid by December 15^th, 2013.

Free Video Rotator Xmas Giveaway (time-limited offer)

Here is one more Christmas gift for you.

Video Rotator is a Windows application for rotating video clips 90 degree clockwise, anticlockwise, horizontal mirror or upside-down. The program supports more than 15 popular video input formats includes AVI, MPG, FLV, MP4, WMV, MOV and 3GP etc. The program supports batch mode so that users are able to rotate & flip videos in bulk. 

Simply drag'n drop your video(s) onto the application and you're ready to go.

Giveaway Serial Key: VR8374D12CB

Giveaway is active till December 25^th, 2013. Regular price: $30.

Website: http://www.videorotator.com/index.html

Giveaway page: http://www.videorotator.com/giveaway.html

Direct Download: http://www.videorotator.com/down/videorotator.exe

O&O DiskImage 7 Professional for Free (time-limited offer)

O&O DiskImage 7 Professional is well-performing, easy-to-operate utility, contained in a single, small control panel. You have four options on the start page, offering full and incremental system image copies, file backup, and restoration of an image.

O&O DiskImage 7 also images single partitions and drives as well as files and directories. A simple scheduler is included for your backup jobs, which enables automatic daily or weekly copying at specified times. Backups can be full, incremental or differential.

O&O DiskImage 7 also allows you to take what’s known as a “forensic” drive image. This ensures all data – including previously deleted or even corrupt data – is preserved in the drive image, allowing you to run data recovery tools on the disk image instead of the original drive. Set up these options via the Edit > Imaging Options screen.

One of the biggest advantages of O&O DiskImage 7 is in its ability not only to reconstruct lost data but also to restore a system image onto entirely different computer hardware in the event of a system crash. This is done by way of a boot medium (CD or USB Stick) based on Windows PE, which brings back the normal work environment after a disaster fast and easily.

The standard cost of the software is about $50, however, developer is giving away licenses free of charge for limited time of the Holidays Season.

Following these simple steps, you will get totally legal, fully functional software copy:

1. Download the installation file (choose 32-bit or 64-bit version as per your Windows OS):

http://www.oo-software.com/en/download/archive/index.html?product=OODI7PRO

2. Visit the software giveaway promotion page:

http://www.oo-software.com/de/special/ctp864

The page is in German only, so if you browser will not translate it for you, here is the proper translation: Register here for your free full version of O & O DiskImage Professional Edition 7! Once we have received the registration, the registration code and the download of O & O DiskImage Professional Edition 7 to the specified e-mail addresses will be sent.

Enter your email address, where the registration data will be received. It is always recommended not to use your primary email address for such purposes, since you may be getting a promotional email once awhile in exchange for your gift. Use secondary or even time-limited temporary email addresses instead.

3. Check email and record software registration data:
* Name: (your email address)
* Company: (your email address)
* Serial number:

4. Install the software and unlock with the data obtained from developer. And don’t worry, the software you will install, will be in English interface.

Freeware Resume Builder

Just today, I posted 10 Free Online Services to create professional resume on my Web Freebies Blog, so I decided to continue the topic from freeware viewpoint. If you despise the online services and consider them not totally safe, you may download freeware resume builder software to your computer and start here.

Free Resume Builder makes it easy to organize and create resumes in seven, easy-to-follow steps. The resume it gives you is well formatted and will include all the necessary details you need. It is OK, if you do not need customization, since the software does not give you opportunities to tweak formatting details out of the standard proposed approach.

Free Resume Builder gives you a step-by-step guide to completing your resume, which is really easy to follow and navigate. It won't let you advance until you've inserted enough information in each category. It has all the expected categories like experience, school history and even a slot for an objective.

Once you're done filling out your information, you can export it as a PDF or a DOC file. The software offers a basic quick solution for creating a functional professionally looking resume.

WARNING: The download comes with a custom installer and a few optional extra programs and toolbars. It is recommended to proceed thoughtfully through the installation and declined all the optional toolbars and software.  

CNET Review: http://download.cnet.com/Free-Resume-Builder/3000-18484_4-75875646.html

Website: http://buildmyresumefree.com/

Direct Download: http://buildmyresumefree.com/download/resumebuilder.exe

Your Computer is Safe with ToolWiz Time Freeze

Have you ever experienced critical situation, when you let your kids play with your computer, and you left really sorry thereafter, when you found that the undesirable changes are made to the computer configuration? Or you have to perform really challenging tasks on your PC, and you are not sure the changes will not be too dangerous?

That’s it! You do not need to worry anymore, since ToolWiz Time Freeze freeware will allow you to get back to the reference point on your computer status anytime, guaranteed. The solution is better and safer that the one offered by the questionable Windows built-in utility, allowing rolling back to the previous dates, since this utility is not very reliable.

ToolWiz Time Freeze is effective Instant System Restore software to keep your computer system safe and protect your computer from undesired changes. The program is flexible, and you can also add any file/folder to the special exclusion list, if you sure you want to keep the changes on them. Basically, the software clones your system, creating fully working copies that you can use normally (or as you wish) without risking your "real" system. It puts the actual system under secure protection and creates a virtual environment for system partition, on which you then run applications and surf the internet. It provides higher-level security to computer protection, and greatly improves the efficiency of virtual systems.

You just reboot the computer to restore your system to the previous state.

Main features:

* Protects your files and folders from unwanted changes and provides password protection;

* Keeps System Safe from threats of virus, spyware, worm, Trojan, etc.;

* Enter Virtual System with a single click, no need to reboot computer; easy switch between virtual & real system.

* Easy System Restore and Recovery to remove unwanted changes;

* Adding files to the Folder Exclusion Feature;

* No change MBR.

* It is free for anyone, for any purposes.

Operating Systems Supported:

* Microsoft Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit)

* Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)

* Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)

* Microsoft Windows XP (32-bit)

Website: http://www.toolwiz.com/products/toolwiz-time-freeze/

Direct Download: http://www.toolwiz.com/download.php?action=ToolWizTimeFreeze

QTranslate - convenient free translator for Windows

QTranslate is a freeware in-text translator utility for Windows (Windows 8/7/Vista/XP), helping you to read posts, study and enhance your knowledge of foreign languages. The operation is simple and straight-forward: you select the text you want to translate and then press the hot key (Ctrl+Q to show translation in the popup window or Double Ctrl click to show the translation in the main window). The program also has the ability to speak text (Ctrl+E) and perform a dictionary search (Win+Q). Also, you have an option to open the main program window and type text manually or copy from another source.

Note! The program translates a text by using online translation services, so you need an Internet connection.

The current version supports the following translation services:

• Google Translate
• Microsoft Translator
• Promt
• Babylon
• SDL FreeTranslation.com
• Яндекс перевод
• youdao

The program has two modes of translation by mouse selection (click on the program icon in the system tray to turn this mode on):

• Show icon (Select text in any program, the program icon will appear near the cursor. Click on the icon, the popup window with the translation of the selected text will appear);
• Show translation (Select text in any program and the popup window with the translation of the selected text will appear immediately).

The main features:

• Translate text in any application that supports text selection (Google Chrome, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Acrobat Reader, Skype, IE and etc.);
• Search in online dictionaries;
• Back translation;
• Replace the selected text with its translation;
• Instant translation;
• Spell checking;
• Text to speech synthesis;
• Word suggestion/autocomplete;
• History of translations;
• Virtual keyboard.

Screenshots:

Developers’ website: http://quest-app.appspot.com/home

Direct download link (portable version): http://quest-app.appspot.com/QTranslate.5.2.0.zip

Direct download link (installer): http://quest-app.appspot.com/QTranslate.5.2.0.exe

Tixati – Freeware Premium Torrents Client

There are numerous reviews considering new Bittorrent Client Tixati as the best on the market P2P agent. It combines all the features you may need with simple and straightforward interface, easy to understand and operate. That is 100% freeware, with no spyware or ads.

Main features:

* Simple and easy to use

* Ultra-fast downloading algorithms

* DHT, PEX, and Magnet Link support

* Easy and quick install - no java, no .net

* Super-efficient peer selection and choking

* RC4 connection encryption for added security

* Detailed bandwidth management and charting

* UDP Peer Connections and NAT router hole-punching

* Advanced features such as RSS, IP Filtering, Event Scheduler

*Windows and Linux Native Versions Available

Website: http://www.tixati.com/

Downloading page: http://www.tixati.com/download/

Direct Download for Windows (portable version): http://www.tixati.com/download/tixati-1.96-1.portable.zip

5 free privacy utilities to hide folders on your Windows PC

Almost every computer user keeps files that are personal, private and confidential, or important to be preserved as undeletable. It is especially important if you have a shared computer, which can be accessed by other family members, roommates, friends, or coworkers.

You may have files that are inappropriate for kids or other family members, or files with valuable information that can be stolen. Such files and folders need security protection so that intruders or unauthorized users cannot access, read, view, copy, move or delete them.

The important information will also be hidden from unauthorized access if your computer is lost or stolen.

In this post, we will present 5 freeware utilities, which will allow you to hide folders on your computer without been expert in PC security.

Note that these utilities are mostly recommended for home and personal use, while top secret commercial information may need to be secured with more elaborated encryption.

Wise Folder Hider

Wise Folder Hider is a freeware designed to hide your personal folder(s) or file(s) in your PC or in removable devices, when you are able to protect your privacy with passwords through easy steps.

Main features:

* Wise Folder Hider is a completely freeware with all functions operational, updates and basic technical supports available to all users.

* Only with a few simple clicks can you hide your private and sensitive data like docs, photos, videos, folders, etc.

* Mechanism of Two-Tier-Passwords makes the hiding safe enough: one password to log in and the other one to hide and unhide the data.

* You can simply drag and drop a file/folder into Wise Folder Hider. This feature is available in Win8/7/Vista OS (only when UAC is disabled) and XP OS.

* You can hide files/folders by right-click without opening Wise Folder Hider. You will be able to access/unhide these files or folders when you log in WFH.

* Wise Folder Hider can hide the entire Flash Drive as well as the folders and files in it.

Developers’ website: http://www.wisecleaner.com/wisefolderhider.html

Free Folder Hider

Free Folder Hider can hide and password-protect your files, folders, pictures, and documents in seconds.

Note that this program only hides the folders, and does not encrypt the files, so you do not need to worry about lost files because of forgetting the password or Windows system crash.

Main features:

* There are two ways to hide a folder. Click the "Add to..." button at program main form, and then choose the folder you want to hide. Or, you can choose and hide a folder from Windows Explorer.

* The hidden folders information are stored in the "Private Folders list", you can hide and unhide them.

* You can batch hide or unhide all folders in the "Private Folders list".

* If a folder is no longer need to be hidden, you can remove it from the "Private Folders list".

* If you need to format the hard disk or reinstall the Windows system, please remember to first unhide all hidden folders.

Developers’ website: http://www.freefolderhider.com/

My Lockbox

My Lockbox enables you to hide, lock and password protect almost any folder on your computer.

Main features:

* Extremely easy in use;

* Clear and convenient user interface available in more than 10 different languages;

* Hotkey combinations for basic actions;

* Instant data protection with no limits on size of the protected data;

* Password protection for locked data and program uninstall;

* Free edition limitation: protects one folder with unlimited number of subfolders. Professional edition protects unlimited number of folders;

* Supports all modern Windows operating systems (XP, Vista, 7, 8) including 64-bit editions;

Instant and safe online password recovery;

* Trusted processes feature lets backup, antivirus or similar software to backup or scan your protected folder;

* Protects folders even in Windows safe mode;

* Renaming upper-level folder would not reveal protected files;

Developers’ website: http://fspro.net/my-lockbox/

WinMend Folder Hidden

WinMend Folder Hidden is a free file/folder hiding tool. While ensuring the absolute system safety, this application can quickly hide files and folders on local partitions and/or on removable devices. The hidden files/folders will be safely hidden whether the drive is accessed in another operating system on the same computer or reinstalled on another computer. You can set a password for this application. Hidden data can be displayed and unhidden only when the user enters the valid password. The data is completely invisible to other programs or on other operating systems.

Developers’ website: http://www.winmend.com/folder-hidden/

Hide Folders

Hide Folders is robust and powerful Windows application for hiding folders with private data. Hidden folders cannot be accessed, viewed, searched or deleted. Other users will not be aware of their existence. There are no limits on number of folders to hide or on the file types, names, extensions or characters. Hide Folders is released under GNU General Public License and is free for personal and commercial use.

Main features:

* Securely hide folders with your confidential data

* Works on Windows XP and Windows Vista, supports NTFS, FAT32 and FAT file system.

* Password protection - folders can be unhidden only after entering a password within the program.

* Hidden folders cannot be uncovered by deinstalling the program.

* Unlimited number of folders can be hidden.

* Folders are hidden even in Windows safe mode.

Developers’ website: http://www.hidefolders.org/

Simple and user-friendly DVD to AVI converter (including protected disks encryption)

bitRipper is FREE DVD to AVI conversion software that allows you to back-up your DVD's as AVI files on the hard drive. It can be used for simple and straightforward one-click ripping and allows to applied advanced features for conversion if needed. You can choose whether to use default configuration values or to set them manually.

There are all necessary settings available:

* Video and audio codecs configuration

* Video resolution and aspect ratio

* Sound track language and sound value normalization

* Variety of actions to be performed after the copying process is completed

* Includes 3rd party decryption module for CSS protected DVDs

Big advantage of bitRipper that it does not require a lot of hard drive space to copy all DVD content to the before converting to AVI, as the process is real-time on-the-fly, while copying data and writing it to AVI file is performed at the same time.

bitRipper was a commercial application, and it just recently became a freeware. However, it possesses the commercial quality of operations and has multiple features, usually not included in other free utilities:

* Ability to control the ripping process system priority

* Internal video bitrate calculator to fine-tune the compression level

* Authorization support for protected discs

* Episodical discs support (multiple DVD tracks containing multiple parts)

* Support of the most of video export formats including AVI, MPEG, DivX.

Website: http://www.bitripper.com/index.html

Direct download: http://www.bitripper.com/download.html

Note that the registration code is included on the page for your convenience to unlock all features.

Freeware who those who like free music but hate torrents

For the music lovers who really despise the file-sharing services, and even the idea itself, the Songr might be considered a valid competitive solution. It is a cloud music player that streams and downloads music from multiple web services, including Grooveshark, Prostopleer, MusicSearch, YouTube and many others, aggregating results from 16 mp3 search engines. Mp3 files are downloaded from web servers and are not shared with other people during or after the download.

Main Features:

* Full album search

* Multi-language interface.

* Download HQ/HD YouTube videos and optionally extracts the audio track as mp3

* It grays out low bitrate preview-only and mp3s

* Intelligent sorting: Songr tries to display high quality mp3s on the top of the list

* Double clicking a mp3 file opens it directly in Windows Media Player

* It makes possible to discover the name of a song by typing some words in the Search by lyrics panel and listen to a preview of the song

* Automatic updates check, to get more search engine connectors

* Automatic mode

* Links to buy music from Amazon and Rhapsody

* Spell checker

* Log file

* Freeware, without ads or restrictions

* Portable version is available.

Notes:

After playing a bit with the default version, I noticed several bugs, making it not very attractive. Switching to the Songr 1 helped to understand the program potential better. Switching between interfaces can be done anytime. Choose File in top menu and select Songr 1 or Songr 2, if and when you decide to come back to the latest GUI.

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/getsongr/home

Direct Download (portable): http://www.xamasoft.com/downloads/Songr-2-Portable.zip

Browse without annoying toolbars and add-ons

Sometimes, installing new software, we are rushing through the installation process and clicking on all “OK” buttons without reading fine print. And later we note with surprise that our home page has changed, new toolbars installed, and for some reason the speed of the browser loading and general operations substantially declined.

You can definitely go to the Settings page and start recovering from the unwanted changes step by step. But if you do not feel comfortable with such operations, you may get assistance from Auslogics Browser Care freeware.

Auslogics Browser Care lets you sort through all add-ons and toolbars installed in your web browsers, remove unsafe or simply unneeded ones and choose useful items you want to keep.

With Browser Care you can view and manage all your installed browsers in one place. This includes the list of all plugins for each browser along with their status and safety rating, as well as the webpage and search engine that are set as default. If your home page has been hijacked, this tool lets you change it to the page you'd like to start your browsing sessions with. If you've never used the search window in your browser because it is linked to a search engine you don't like, Browser Care lets you set your favorite search engine as default in all your browsers for faster and more convenient searches. Never find the time to clear browser cache? This tool lets you easily sweep out temporary internet files from all your installed browsers.

Browsers currently supported: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome.

Website: http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/browser-care

Direct Download: http://downloads.auslogics.com/en/browser-care/browser-care-setup.exe

KCleaner – free alternative junk remover to CCleaner

You are probably familiar with CCleaner (so called Crap Cleaner) – freeware utility, helping you to keep the computer at the best performance ability. The utility is free and quite popular among users. I use it once a while as well and frankly quite satisfied with its performance in general. But lately there came several users reports that the new utility KCleaner, developed by KCSoftwares, works better to remove the unneeded files from your Hard Drive, optimizing and speeding up its performance.

Main features:

* Very efficient junk cleaner (targets various residual, cache, and temp files), picking up significantly more junk than CCleaner.

*Automatic scheduling mode is available.

* Displays how many files are to be cleaned, and how much space will be freed.

* Simple and straightforward interface. For non-expert mode, operation is performed with single click.

*Super-secure deletion process is available, so there will be guaranteed data removal with no chances for forensic recovery.

* Software is fast and easy on resources, with portable option available.

*Free for all purposes.

Screenshots:

Website: http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?kcleaner

Direct download (portable version): http://www.kcsoftwares.com/files/kcleaner.zip

Why Matroska (MKV), and not AVI?

I got question from one of the readers to explain what Matroska format is, and how it is different from AVI, you used to, while playing compressed video files. And also, how to convert files to MKV format.

Matroska (MKV) is not entirely new video format on the Web of multimedia, however, until recently, it was not well known to the users, except for countries of the former Soviet Union (MKV was developed in Belorussia). Due to its certain advantages over AVI, it fast gains global popularity.

What is MKV?

MKV stands for "Matroska Video". Matroska is a container file format, capable of holding unlimited number of video, audio and subtitile tracks, along with any metadata. Practically this means that it is possible to put entire movie with multiple sound and subtitle tracks, chapters information and movie thumbnail into single file. Being open and patent-free Matroska gained broad support recently and quickly becomes de-facto standard for storing movies.

Why MKV

Matroska file format (and Matroska video in particular) has a number of advantages:

1. MKV is open and free. No one holds patents or licenses and anyone can implement it freely. As a result nearly every software player and many hardware devices support it. The best software players out there (VLC, MPlayer) have full MKV support and are absolutely free.

2. MKV files do not have evil features attached.

* You can play them on any capable hardware. No need for HDCP-certified video card or any "trusted" environment.

* You can copy them to your laptop and watch anytime, even if your laptop lacks DVD or Blu-ray drive, or any drive whatsoever.

* One file is one title. If you don't want to watch dozen trailers before the movie, you don't have to. And fast forward button always works, too.

* There are no restrictions where to play the file. There are no region-based restrictions. You have control over the content you've paid for.

3. MKV files are easy to change. Want to remove unneeded audio track from the file? Thought about converting MPEG-2 video into H264 to make the file 5 times smaller? All of it can be easily done with free software.

4. MKV files are compact. For exactly the same content MKV files are about 10% smaller than DVD files and roughly 40% smaller than Blu-ray files.

Why MKV is better than AVI?

The AVI container was originally introduced by Microsoft in the early 90s, and was designed as a very flexible A/V container format for the video and audio compression formats of those days. It is necessary to understand that AVI is only one (but important) part of a complete multimedia framework called 'Video For Windows' (VfW), offering programmers not only a container but also a complete set of API commands to be able to program their own video and audio codecs, using either the VfW or the ACM interface.

Unfortunately this VfW framework cannot support many of the more advanced features that modern audio and video compression formats will offer, such as Variable Bitrate audio encoding (VBR), or Variable Framerate video encoding (VFR). Although AVI was extended with an additional standard called 'Open DML AVI' in the mid/late 90s, overcoming most of its very annoying limitations like the 2 GB file size limit, there is still no proper and spec compliant way to support modern compression formats like the excellent, opensource Ogg Vorbis audio compression format.

Matroska has overcome all those limitations and can support all known audio and video compression formats by design. To make sure it will also be capable of coping with the future standards it is based on a very flexible underlying framework called EBML, allowing to add more functional features to the container format without breaking backwards compatibility with older software utilities and files.

Free software to Convert to MKV

MakeMKV is your one-click solution to convert video that you own into free and patents-unencumbered format that can be played everywhere. MakeMKV is a format converter, otherwise called "transcoder". It converts the video clips from proprietary (and usually encrypted) disc into a set of MKV files, preserving most information but not changing it in any way. The MKV format can store multiple video/audio tracks with all meta-information and preserve chapters. There are many players that can play MKV files nearly on all platforms, and there are tools to convert MKV files to many formats, including DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Additionally MakeMKV can instantly stream decrypted video without intermediate conversion to wide range of players, so you may watch Blu-ray and DVD discs with your favorite player on your favorite OS or on your favorite device.

* Reads DVD and Blu-ray discs

* Reads Blu-ray discs protected with latest versions of AACS and BD+

* Preserves all video and audio tracks, including HD audio

* Preserves chapters information

* Preserves all meta-information (track language, audio type)

* Fast conversion - converts as fast as your drive can read data.

* No additional software is required for conversion or decryption.

* Available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux

* Functionality to open DVD discs is free and will always stay free.

* All features (including Blu-ray decryption and processing) are free during BETA.

Website: http://www.makemkv.com/

Downloading Page: http://www.makemkv.com/download/

General information about MKV: http://matroska.org/

SMPlayer – Media Player with Strong Ambitions

SMPlayer is a free multi-platform media player with built-in codecs that can play virtually any video and audio format, available on the market, with additional plug-ins installation. SMPlayer provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for the award-winning MPlayer, which is known for its performance and reliability. But apart from providing access for the most common and useful options of MPlayer, SMPlayer adds additional capabilities like the possibility to play Youtube videos or download subtitles.

One of the prominent features of SMPlayer that it is able to remember settings of all files you play. That allows to re-open the movie you watched before and it will be resumed at the same point you left it, and with the same settings: audio track, subtitles, volume...

SMPlayer includes many advanced features like video and audio filters, change of the playback speed, adjustment of audio and subtitles delay, video equalizer... and many more.

SMPlayer is free and open source software under the GPL license, so its use is allowed both in private and commercial purposes.

Screenshots:

Website: http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/

Downloading page: http://www.fosshub.com/SMPlayer.html

Greenshot –Professional and Free Screen Capture Utility

“Free” and “Professional” are two software definitions which rarely go hand-by-hand… Especially when “Free” should be extended to all purposes, including commercial…

 It took me several days to find software, which may fit my needs. I was looking for screen capture utility, which on top of the usual requirements (like being features-rich, fast, easy to use, and portable) will be free to use for all purposes, including business purposes. This requirement is mandatory, since I am planning to use this utility in the office.

After checking more than 10 different programs, I finally decided to give a priority to Greenshot. Time will tell, was my choice justified or not. So far, I can support the statement of one of the online program’s reviewers: “Greenshot is so easy to use, it will have you wondering why you'd ever pay for a screen capture utility”.

What is Greenshot?

Greenshot is a light-weight screenshot software tool for Windows with the following key features:

* Quickly create screenshots of a selected region, window or full screen; you can even capture complete (scrolling) web pages from Internet Explorer.

* Easily annotate, highlight or obfuscate parts of the screenshot with image editor.

* Export the screenshot in various ways: save to file, send to printer, copy to clipboard, attach to e-mail, send Office programs or upload to photo sites like Flickr or Picasa, and others.

*  There is a portable version, requiring the computer to have the Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 or later installed. Otherwise, you can also use installer version.

* Greenshot is free in terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). You may use this program free of charge for private as well as commercial purposes.

Being easy to understand and configurable, Greenshot is an efficient tool for project managers, software developers, technical writers, testers and anyone else creating screenshots.

Screenshots

Website: http://getgreenshot.org/

Direct Download (Installer): http://sourceforge.net/projects/greenshot/files/Greenshot/Greenshot%201.1/Greenshot-INSTALLER-1.1.5.2643.exe

Direct Download (Portable): http://sourceforge.net/projects/greenshot/files/Greenshot/Greenshot%201.1/Greenshot-NO-INSTALLER-1.1.5.2643.zip