Review Chairmans Industry Comments (12/04) The Computer Buffet

Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (12/04)

The Computer Buffet

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org

USE GOOGLE. If you have a problem reaching any of the items on the buffet, use Google to find their current web address

XP SERVICE PAK 2. Still wondering about whether to install it? Perhaps you did and have encountered problems ever since. The most thorough and authoritative info that covers all the bases on SP2 is written by noted computer columnist, Scott Finnie. It is covered in great detail at www.desktoppipeline.com/howto/49900718 and at www.scotsnewsletter.com/best_of/xpsp2links.htm

USING XP SP2 FIREWALL. In a word, don't! Zone Alarm 5 (Zonelabs.com) is free and is a better and more sophisticated firewall. If you have Zone Alarm, turn off the SP2 firewall by going to Start> All programs> Accessories> System Tools. The procedure is intuitive and easy to follow from there.

CAM2PC - Freeware 4.4.3. Cam2PC is a solution for digital camera owners that helps you transfer pictures to the PC and provides image viewing and management features. It also makes transfer of images from your camera easier by automatically creating folders and sub-folders based on date or description. It can optionally rename the files as well, either by date, ad incremental numbers and more. Once the images are transferred, it can immediately start a (full-screen) slideshow, open the built-in image browser, open the folder etc. Additional features include favorite folders, EXIF reader, RAW viewer, image rotation, conversion and resize and more. www.nabocorp.com/cam2pc/index.php

BAZOOKA? ADWARE AND SPYWARE SCANNER is freeware that detects a multitude of spyware, adware, trojan, keylogger, foistware and trackware components; sources of irritation that antivirus software does not deal with. The scanning process will only take about two seconds and tell you how to uninstall the potentially unwanted applications using simple step-by-step instructions or put you in contact with the vendor for the most up-to-date and safe uninstall instructions. Spyware and adware is often bundled with software such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, Imesh, Xolox, Gnutella and a myriad of other programs, and in many cases installed without your knowledge. Some send information about your surfing habits to ad companies, which target you with popup ads that fit your preferences.http://www.kephyr.com/

GOOGLE OFFERS DESKTOP SEARCH BETA. Drawing a line in the sand and offering an interesting contrast with Microsoft's ever-delayed desktop search feature, Google recently unveiled a beta version of Google Desktop Search. The tool runs locally but requires a Web browser and appears to look and act just like its Web-based cousin. However, Google Desktop Search searches through your local files and email and provides familiar Google-like search results. The way the tool works is kind of obvious when you think about it. Best of all, you can search locally and on the Web at the same time. You can download Google Desktop Search from the Google Desktop Web site. http://desktop.google.com

On the plus side, it is a great way to easily find something on your PC no matter where it may be hidden. On the negative, it takes up a few hundred megs of hard drive space, and although it does not transmit any of your contents back to Google, others using your computer my be able to root out your personal info.

DOGGIE SHOPPING. Man's best friend is a beloved companion of a huge number of people. No, I?m not talking about money; I'm talking about dogs. These animals can really prove to be a true friend to many, and they are oftentimes more spoiled than an individual's children. If the desire for a slobbering mammal (aren't you already married to him?) has come into your life, it's time to go dog shopping. With this decision comes a lot of responsibility, and figuring out everything that is required can be a real bother. To get some solid facts, visit the Dog Breed Info Center. dogbreedinfo.com

INSTANT MESSENGER 2 is a free cross-platform instant messenger that offers connectivity for AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN, and Yahoo, allowing you to stay in touch with all your friends, regardless of which IM network they are using. It supports file transfers, chat, online status, audio and video conferencing, file sharing and more. IM2 is just as easy to use as your regular instant messenger, just add or import (Trillian) your existing accounts, and you are ready to go. www.im2.com

ACCESS MANAGER provides fast, easy and secure storage for all your passwords. You can organize passwords into types and categories for easy access and keep notes, web site links and e-mail addresses with each password.

Email addresses or web site URLs can be automatically launched from within the program. The program is easy to use and uses a clean MS Outlook style interface and can be protected with a master password. Also included is an option to generate random passwords, search functions, printing of password lists and more. Very nice! Free for personal use. www.accessmanager.co.uk/

VIDEO PILOT is a free video editing tool, that allows you to improve the quality and color balance of your AVI, MPG, MPEG video files. It offers a simple point and click approach to replace colors, correct white and black values and to remove color cast.

Colors can be replaced from a color palette or by selection from another frame or video. The program does not require any specific knowledge, and includes demo examples that demonstrate how to use the software. www. colorpilot.com/video.html UNANSWERED QUESTIONS? Call Allexperts .com, it is a web site that has over 3,100 volunteers waiting to answer your question in over 35 main categories, with many subdivisions. The subject areas are as diverse as fixing appliances, to buying a computer, to television shows, military history, or travel. The variety of topics is truly amazing and eclectic, and is very easy to use. Whether you are looking for the best outdoors and recreation advice, information on a job or career, and even information on what to do with kids. Best of all it is FREE!! No charge, not a penny, nothing, nada. There is even a chance for you to apply to become one of their volunteers if you choose to apply. So if you are stuck for an answer to a nagging question, head on over to this site.

FALSE CONFIDENCE? A survey conducted by Internet service provider America Online found that 20 percent of home computers were infected by a virus or worm, and that various forms of snooping programs such as spyware and adware are on a whopping 80 percent of systems. Despite that, more than two thirds of home users think they are safe from online threats. Surely, pigs can fly!

PHOTOWORKS DIGITAL PARTNER is a free, straightforward approach to managing, editing, and e-mailing your images, featuring an incredibly easy-to-use interface. You can also choose to pay if you want PhotoWorks to send you high-quality prints of your photos, but all other functions are free. When all you want is red-eye correction and simple cropping capabilities, this app is a no-brainer in the image management category. photoworks.com

ULEAD PHOTO EXPLORER (freeware version) is a free older version of the Ulead Photo Explorer product that works well for photo management and simple editing. The great advantages of this app for my huge folder of summer images are that it lets you arrange photos in chronological order and has batch-renaming capabilities.

FREE WORD PROCESSOR. OpenOffice.org is both an open-source product and a project. The product is a multiplatform office productivity suite. It includes desktop applications such as a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation manager, and a drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to those of other office suites. OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office

Localizations of OpenOffice.org are available in 27 languages, with more being constantly added by the community. OpenOffice.org runs on Solaris, Linux (including PPC Linux), and Windows. Written in C++ and with documented APIs licensed under the LGPL and SISSL open-source protocols, OpenOffice.org allows any knowledgeable developer to benefit from the source. OpenOffice.org 1.1.3 is primarily a bug fixes release with no new features. Best of all, it?s still free. http://www.openoffice.org/

MICROSOFT WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 10 is free and features a new Auto Sync feature that lets any of 70 supported devices sync automatically or manually with your PC. If you?re using a high-capacity portable music player, this can mean that every track ripped or downloaded to your PC can leave the PC with you. Tagging and ratings-based organization make it easier to find the tracks you like best.

Windows Media Player CD supports burning from within the player, and you can also burn Windows Media Audio and MP3 files. The program supports Napster, MusicMatch, Music Now, and Wal-Mart Music, so you can seamlessly buy music online. www.microsoft.com/downloads

WINDOWS STARTUP INSPECTOR. Free startup programs control. Windows Startup Inspector lets you view and optionally disable programs that are currently set to start automatically with Windows. In addition to the details that are extracted from the registry, it can also consult an online database that can provide additional information in plain English (if available). In addition, it displays a user rating that indicates whether other users find the particular entry to be of any use. The program is easy to use and comes with an attractive interface - it is designed to list and either disable or enable startup entries; it does not provide options to modify them or add new ones. www.windowsstartup.com/

DIGIBOOKSHELF 11.1.10.29 is a free virtual photo album. It enables you to display and manage photos in a virtual album, using a virtual bookshelf interface. The photos are displayed as thumbnails and you can add text and sound comments to each image. When you click on a thumbnail, you can view the image in actual size. The program is very easy to use and comes with a unique interface that allows simple drag and drop to create new albums. DigiBookShelf can be used like a real-life photo album, complete with flipping pages that are enhanced with sound effects. You can customize the look of your photo album collection, select from different page layouts, design the look and feel of each album, import from your memory card and more. There are also commercial version available with additional features (image editing, CD output etc.) but the free version will work just fine, if you are looking for a neat way to organize and annotate your pictures. http://www.digibook.com/en/

FRESH DIAGNOSE 6.80. Free system information and benchmarking. Fresh Diagnose can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard information, and many more.

Informational features include scanning your system and give you a complete report about computer s hardware and software, including mainboard, video system buses, peripheral and, network information. Benchmark features include testing system performance such as processor, hard disk, multimedia, memory and comparing your PC with other systems. User friendly interface and well featured. Requires free email registration. www. freshdevices.com/

XNVIEW 1.74 is a free multi-format image viewer program for viewing and converting your graphics files. It supports more than 200 graphics formats and offers many additional features. You can apply filters and effects to your images, import from a twain source (scanner, camera) or use the thumbnail picture browser to explore your image collection. Xnview?s strongest feature is the support for a huge amount of file formats, and the option to convert among them. It also offers many other features, including customizable screen layout, screen capture, slide show and much more. You can also create web pages from your images, create contact sheets, generate file listings and manage your file by move and copy. Xnview is a well established and feature packed imaging tool. www.xnview.com

AM-DEADLINK is a free utility that detects broken links and duplicate entries in your browser s bookmarks. If a Bookmark has become unavailable you can choose to delete it. The program comes with an internal preview browser that allows you to take a quick look at your bookmarked sites from within the program. In addition, you can backup your entire collection to a ZIP file, download Favicons, export your Favorites, and more. AM-Deadlink works with Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape, and it can also check links in CSV files. www.aignes.com/deadlink.htm

123 FREE SOLITAIRE 2004 card games collection includes 12 solitaire card games: Spider Solitaire One Suit, Spider Solitaire Two Suits, FreeCell, Klondike, Carpet, Eighteens, Travelers, Grandfather?s Clock, La Belle Lucie, Pyramid, Spider and Royal Rendezvous. 123 Free Solitaire 2004 features a winning layout, fast game play, rich sounds, extensive options, and quality help. Each solitaire has more than 9 trillion possible games to play, so the game remains fresh no matter how many times you play.

Under Windows XP, 123 Free Solitaire 2004 is fully skinnable with XP themes and visual styles. Version 5.20 adds a new game: Spider. www.123freesolitaire.com

REMEMBER THE OLD RADIO DAYS when the picture was in your head? I mean the days of Jack Armstrong (the all-American boy), The Shadow, Green Hornet, and Little Orphan Annie. You can bring it all back in downloads from http://www.radiolovers.com/ If it don?t sound familiar, tear up your AARP card.

CABLENUT V4.08 CableNut is a free tool for optimizing and speeding up your Internet Connection. It offers a way to tweak any option you may want to. You can load ?CableNut Custom Setting? files that are included with the program to tweak your Internet connection. You can make your own ?CableNut Custom Setting? files, save them for later use, or distribute them to anyone with the CableNut program. Dialup, Cable, DSL, and Satellite connections are supported out of the box. If you don?t have one of the supported connection types don?t worry you can visit the site, and ask the CableNut team for help. Best of all it is freeware. It won?t haggle you with annoying advertisments, banners, time limits, or restrictions. This software will support any connection type, and it does work with Windows XP! www.student.ipfw.edu/~gottjl01/

PROCESSLIBRARY.COM: FREE PROCESS INFORMATION. In the recesses of your computer, 20-30 invisible processes run silently in the background. Some hog system resources, turning your PC into a sluggish computer. Worse yet, other useless processes harbour spyware and Trojans - violating your privacy and giving hackers free reign on your computer. ProcessLibrary.com is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to know the exact purpose of every single process.

QWIK-FIX PRO is free and uses Active System Hardening to protect Windows desktops and servers against new threats by blocking the underlying vulnerabilities exploited by worms and viruses. Qwik-Fix Pro protects from hundreds of specific worms and viruses and safeguards PCs from falling victim to the next worm or virus before vendor security patches become available. Qwik-Fix Pro users were protected in advance from Sasser, MSBlaster, SoBig.F, and even the recent Scob and download.ject worms.

Don't Be Exposed. Qwik-Fix Pro reduces or eliminates the window of exposure to exploits of new vulnerabilities. By blocking the root cause of entire classes of Windows vulnerabilities, Qwik-Fix Pro protects you before vendors announce new vulnerabilities and issue patches, giving you time to test and deploy patches on your schedule. www.pivx.com/qwikfix.asp

STARTUP CONTROL PANEL is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It?s simple to use, is very small and won?t burden your system. Startup Control Panel is compatible with all modern versions of Windows, including Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP. www.mlin.net/StartupCPL .shtml

CHRONIC PAIN? If you or someone you know suffers from chronic pain, there?s an organization that can help. It's called The National Pain Foundation. Learn traditional and alternative methods to treat pain from arthritis, fibromyalgia and other conditions. http://www.painconnection.org/

HOW TO KEEP WINDOWS IN TIP-TOP SHAPE

Our computer angel and eminent guru, Kim Komando, reminds us that Windows (especially XP and 2000) works pretty well, but it needs some maintenance. It includes two tools that should be used monthly, at minimum. They are Check Disk (or ScanDisk) and Disk Defragmenter.

Check Disk is included in Windows XP and 2000. It searches the hard drive for problems, then fixes them. To run it, click Start>My Computer. Right click the hard drive (probably C:) and click Properties. Select the Tools tab. Click Check Now and select both boxes. Click Start. You must reboot the computer to make it run.

ScanDisk is part of Windows 98 and ME. Click Start>Programs> Accessories>System Tools>ScanDisk. Select Thorough and Automatically Fix Errors, and click Start.

Disk Defragmenter is a part of all four Windows versions. Click Start>All Programs or Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter. In Windows XP, click the drive you want to defragment, then click Defragment. In Windows 98 and ME, click OK.

In Windows 2000, click Defragment. You can make your computer do these tasks while you?re sleeping with Windows Task Scheduler

WHAT TIME IS IT? For the official time at any moment in any state or US territory, visit http://www.nist.time.gov/

MS WORD GRAMMAR CHECKER. One of the good things about using Word 2002, as well as other versions of Word and other word processing applications, is that the software can automatically check your spelling and grammar. For example, you can configure Word to check for sentence fragmentation and run-on sentences. In any case, you do have the ability to control the grammar checking within Word. To customize the grammar settings:

Within Word, click Options from the Tools menu.

Select the Spelling and Grammar tab.

Click the Settings button.

Use the drop down arrows to select the options you want to use for commas, punctuation within quotation marks, and spaces between sentences.

Under the Grammar heading, place a check beside the options that you want the grammar checker to check for. Conversely, you can remove a check beside any option to have the grammar checker ignore it.

Under the Styles heading, place a check beside those styles you want the grammar checker to check.

Click OK.

MY ESSENTIAL TOOLS is a great list of free utilities compiled by computer guru, Ray Trygstad . It's well worth your perusal:

AD-AWARE SE PERSONAL. Pulls the plug on adware and spyware; scans your system including removable drives for the most common types of advertising spyware and safely removes offending software. www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

ADOBE ACROBAT READER. Free software for viewing and printing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files on all major hardware and operating system platforms. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Aida32 Enterprise Edition. A professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program running on Win32 platforms. www.aida32.hu/aida32.php

ANTIVIR. An anti-virus solution offering effective protection against computer viruses; totally free for individual and private use on a single PC-workstation. http://www.free-av.com/

AUDACITY 1.2.0. A free audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files, and more. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

AVAST! VIRUS CLEANER A free virus & worm removal tool, avast! Virus Cleaner is available free for every user. http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_cleaner.html

BELARC ADVISOR A free personal PC Audit tool, it builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes, and displays the results in your Web browser. www.belarc.com/free_download.html

BKREPLACEEM 2.0 A freeware string-replacing utility for Windows; a multi-file, multi-line, multi-instance text search-and-replace program; very powerful. www.orbit.org/replace/

CD BURNER XP 2.2.8 A freeware CD/DVD-Writer program that can write CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. www.cdburnerxp.se/index.php

CUTEPDF WRITER Creating a PDF with this free software couldn?t be easier. All you have to do is select Print from any application, choose CutePDF Printer, and the software saves your new PDF to your hard drive. Requires installation of a PostScript interpreter such as GhostScriptPSconverter. www.acrosoftware.com/

DAEMON TOOLS Allows you to mount ISO images of CDs and DVDs as virtual CD-ROM drives. www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/portal/portal.php

DIA 0.94 A diagram creation program designed to be much like the commercial Windows program ?Visio?. www.gnome.org/projects/dia/

DIVX 5.1.1 Installs the latest DivX video codec for Windows Media Player as well as a very capable stand-alone DivX video player. DivX 5.1.1 is freeware; DivX Player 2.5.2 is adware. http://www.divx.com/

Filezilla is a fast graphical FTP client for Windows with a lot of features including support for secure FTP. http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

FLASKMPEG. A free, easy to use video conversion software utility which converts digital video in the MPEG format to other formats. www.flaskmpeg.net/

FLASHPLAYER 7. Tool for viewing rich Internet content and applications in the popular Flash format. www.macromedia .com/software/flashplayer/

GIMP 2.0.4. The GNU Image Manipulation Program, a freely distributed graphics editing application. http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/

GOOGLE TOOLBAR. Increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web and takes only seconds to install. http://toolbar.google.com/

HMAILSERVER 3.2.4 A free, open source e-mail server for Microsoft Windows with support for virtual domains, distribution lists, ClamAV, aliases, distributed domains and much more. www.hmailserver.com/

IRFANVIEW 3.92 A very fast, small, compact and innovative freeware graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP. www.irfanview.com/

KERIO PERSONAL FIREWALL 4. A standard bi-directional stateful packet inspection firewall. www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html

MOZILLA FIREFOX 1.0 A redesign of the Mozilla browser component designed to be cross-platform and written to be as small and fast as possible while retaining full functionality. www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

MOZILLA THUNDERBIRD 0.7 E-mail and newsgroup client with IMAP/POP support, support for HTML mail, labels, quick search, smart addressbook, return receipts, advanced message filtering, LDAP address completion, import tools, powerful search, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts. www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

MYSQL 4.0 The world?s most widely used open source database; extremely fast and easy to customize. www.mysql.com/

OPENOFFICE.ORG 1.1. The leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through an XML-based file format; opens most major formats such as MS Office almost flawlessly and saves to PDF and Flash; has comprehensive help and spellchecking in 15 languages. www.openoffice.org/

PDFEDIT995 6.73. Create PDF files from any application by simply selecting the print command; preview documents, combine files, change page orientation, add ?Confidential? stamps, create PDF stationery, adjust image resolution, summarize documents, convert PDFs to several image file formats, create batch print jobs from Microsoft Office applications, and choose from several file-naming methods. www.software995.com/

PHOTOCOPIER / DOWNLOAD/INSTALL PHOTOCOPIER .EXE. Combine your scanner and a printer into a photocopy machine: put a document on your scanner?s glass, start Photocopier, press the Copy button and after a few moments your printer produces a copy of the document. www.nicocuppen.com/cphome.html

PIXIA 3.0BE / DOWNLOAD/INSTALL PIXIA30BE.EXE. Pixia is a painting tool created exclusively for full color graphics. Originally written in Japanese (this is the English version) so user interface is sometimes a little quirky. http://park18.wakwak .com/~pixia/

PTFONTS (KAREN?S FONT EXPLORER). Can print a complete specimen (sample of all characters in normal, bold, italic and bold + italic) for any single font, or for all fonts supported by a device. Requires Visual Basic 6 Runtime. www.karenware .com/powertools/ptfonts.asp

QUICKTIME. An easy-to-use application for playing, interacting with, or viewing any video, audio, VR, or graphics file that is compatible with QuickTime, which includes MPEG-4, the new standard for digital media. www.apple.com/quicktime/products/

RAGTIME SOLO. Free professional business publishing software. You don?t create text or tables; you create documents. www.ragtime-online.com/

REALONE PLAYER V2 GOLD. Free version of RealOne Player lets you play the latest media formats. http://home.real.com/

SAMSPADE 1.14. Sam Spade for Windows is a network query tool which does ping, traceroute, dig, NSlookup and much more. www.samspade.org/

SIMPLEOCR / DOWNLOAD/INSTALL SIMPLEOCR .EXE. Use this free application to easily and accurately scan and convert paper documents into editable electronic text for use in any application including Word and WordPerfect, with optical character recognition up to 99% accurate. www.simpleocr.com/

SMARTFTP. Allows you to transfer files across the Internet; it features an Explorer-like interface that is fully customizable and supports drag-and-drop functions. www.smartftp.com/

SPACE MONGER. A tool for keeping track of the free space on your computer. Just open it and select what hard drive you want to examine, and it provides a to-scale representation of your hard drive's contents. www.werkema.com/software/spacemonger.html SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY 1.3. Tool to detect, remove and block spyware of different kinds from your computer. http://security.kolla.de/

STARTUP CONTROL PANEL. A control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

SWSHELL. A genuinely useful Windows shell extension; from the Windows context menu (seen when you right-click on a file), SwShell allows you to open any file with notepad, to search for particular string within files, to set the file date and time, and to set file attributes. www.sw4you.com/swshell.php3

TIGHTVNC 1.2.9. A free remote control package which allows you to see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer. www.tightvnc.com/

TREEPAD LITE. TreePad is an award-winning Personal Information Manager (PIM) / Database and Word Processor. www.treepad.com/

TRILLIAN. Trillian is a skinnable, interoperable instant messaging client. Grab the best IM client available on the Internet today! www.trillian.cc/products/overview_basic.php

TUGZIP 3. A Windows freeware archiving utility; through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration it supports ZIP, 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, BZ2, CAB, CPIO, DEB, GCA, GZ, IMP, LHA (LZH), LIB, RAR, RPM, SQX, TAR, TGZ, TBZ, TAZ, YZ1 and ZOO archives as well as BIN, C2D, IMG, ISO and NRG disc-images, and will create 7-ZIP, BZ2, CAB, LHA (LZH), SQX, TAR, TGZ, YZ1 and ZIP archives. www.tugzip.com/

WINAMP 5.01. Full-featured MP3 and media player. www.winamp.com/

XATSHOW. Freeware Edition includes everything you need to compress your existing photos to make stunning slide shows and screen savers. www.xat.com/xatshow/

XPLORER lite / Download/Install xplorer2_ lite_ setup.exe. All the shell goodies from Windows Explorer with none of the hassle, plus all the features you would expect from a powerful dual-pane file manager. www.netez.com/xplorer2/x2lite.htm

X-SETUP PRO 6.5 / Download/Install dcXSP-Setup-EN.exe X-Setup Pro is the most complete ?hacker? ever available: nearly 1500 hidden Windows, Internet Expolorer and Microsoft Office functions can be controlled with some simple button clicks. www.x-setup.net/

ZIPGENIUS 5.51. The file compression utility you were searching for: free and easy to use, and it supports more than 20 formats of compressed archives, inlcuded RAR, ARJ, ACE, CAB, SQX and the excellent 7-zip; also includes an FTP Client application and the ability to create self-extracting (exe) zip files. It also accepts plug-ins. www.zipgenius.it/index_eng.htm :

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Copyright 2004. This article is from the December 2004 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/

The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.

See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.