I Love Free Software

Control Various Media Players Easily with Media Player Hotkeys
Preview PDF Files Without Opening: PDFPreview
Free P2P File Sharing Client: TurboWire
5 Free To Do Apps For Android
Disable Updates of Installed Programs System Wide with Update Freezer
Free Software To Record Blood Pressure
Watch YouTube Videos in Firefox Sidebar with Sidebar addon
Create Encrypted Virtual Drive to Secure Files: Klonsoft LockDisk

Control Various Media Players Easily with Media Player Hotkeys

Posted: 16 Jun 2012 03:30 PM PDT

Media Player Hotkeys (MPH) is a simple plugin which helps you to multitask while you use other applications along with the media player. It is available for free and is far more efficient than any other option available. This software is specially designed to control various media players. At the time you use Windows Media Player along with other applications on your computer, Media Player Hotkey would help you switch across programs and manage them with ease. It helps you to add global keyboard software which allows you to control your Media player even when it is not in focus. With Media Player Hotkey, you can control all the audio and video settings for your player as well. Some of the actions of the Media Player Hotkey are Play, Stop, Pause, increasing or decreasing the Volume, Show Pop-up menu, etc. You can set as many hotkeys for different types of actions.

Installing Media Player Hotkeys

Installation of this program is as simple as it could be. By visiting here you can download the software and it wont take much time to get downloaded on your system. When you are on the site just click on the Download option and the .rar file gets downloaded. Once the zipped file is there just open it and click on the MPH icon and start using the software. If you are interested to try other simple hotkey apps, you can try ActiveHotkeys, HotKeyMan and Signo.

How to control various media players using Media Player Hotkeys

Media Player Hotkeys is a very flexible hotkey system and you can even use the mouse button or the mouse wheel to use it. It supports around 19 files which include Media Player Classic, Quintessential Media Player, VLC, KMPlayer, Winamp, Windows Media Player and more

It is quite hard to mute or make other changes in the media player while it's playing. But Media Player Hotkeys makes the job simple to set up the commands and use them as per your requirements.

The best part about these commands is that you can use them along with other applications. When you download the Hotkeys software you can start using it as soon as the installation process is finished.

After you open the software a small window pops up where you are presented with numerous options on the right and at the top. In order for you to start using the software you need to highlight the Hotkeys tab, then select the media player action from the dropdown list present on the right. After this click on the Add Hotkey and to add the key as per your requirements. While you set up a hotkey just make sure that the other program doesn't require it and click on accept to complete the set up. You need to repeat the steps 2-3 until you have completed setting all the hotkeys.

When you complete setting up the hot keys just select the best option suitable to you. You can either select "Start with Windows" if you want it to run all the time or select "minimize to tray" to keep it out of sight. Media Player Hotkeys is a great software for those who want to do things using shortcuts.

Control Various Media Players Easily with Media Player Hotkeys was originally published at I Love Free Software

Preview PDF Files Without Opening: PDFPreview

Posted: 16 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT

PDFPreview for Windows 7 is a free software to preview PDF files without opening them. For those of us who work extensively with PDF documents face the hassle of having to open the file every time we want to check what it contains. A preview function would be extremely helpful, just like with pictures. Thankfully, it seems like some people have answered these prayers. There is now a program which does just that so that we can view the documents without having to open them.

Features of this software to preview PDF files:

Light – The software is not very heavy on resources, meaning that it does not slow the computer. Regular operation time might be decreased, but it's imperceptible.
High quality rendering – The software renders the PDFs in quite high quality so that the contents can be read without the file being opened. This is quite a handy feature, especially when one is working on multiple PDF files at once.
Fast – The preview functionality works quite quickly. It takes no more time to preview than a high resolution JPEG image and is better for it. If it took much longer, then the point of the preview functionality would be lost.
Version Support – The software supports all versions of PDF files, including the ones from much earlier. This backward compatibility is a nice addition, making it accessible to older PDFs too.
64-bit optimization – The program is designed to run best on a 64-bit version of Windows. It runs perfectly well on 32-bit versions as well, but optimum performance is available only on Windows 7
Language support – The program can render previews in 86 languages including Hebrew and Arabic fonts.

You can also check out Quick PDF tools reviewed by us.

Downloading and installation

The software isn't very large, just over 3 MB in size. For the size, it offers decent functionality and downloading isn't an issue at all. Installation is over in just a few steps and hardly takes any time. An added installation that needs to be done is the previewHandler. This changes the icon and gives a mini preview of the file. Unfortunately, this feature did not work on the system that was used to test the program.

Interface and working

The software delivers on most counts considering it's a new program and is quite small in size. It doesn't have an interface to speak of, but the preview functionality can be seen in the thumbnails. Renderings are pretty good. One of the glitches faced during testing of this program was that the icons did not change like the program said it was supposed to. Considering that the program is optimized for use on 64-bit operating systems and the test system was running a 32-bit version, this is a glitch that can probably be overlooked or atleast ignored until the testing is done on a 64-bit system. The program seems to work quite smoothly and never hangs the system or lugs resources. The lightness of resource use is one of the biggest positives about the program.

Verdict

The program can be recommended for those who work extensively with PDF files, but is not an absolute necessity otherwise. Download PDFPreview free.

Preview PDF Files Without Opening: PDFPreview was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free P2P File Sharing Client: TurboWire

Posted: 16 Jun 2012 12:30 PM PDT

TurboWire is considered as a good P2P file sharing client that can make your download process very simple and comfortable compared to other software. With the use of TurboWire, you can make a very precised search by entering specific data for the artist, title, track, album, genre, length, and year. This is a very resourceful multi-platform Gnutella client. It comes with some exciting features like groups, auto-connect, multiple searches, browse host, connection control, efficient filtering, and library management. It is suitable for savvy users as well as beginners. The software has been built on Java that means it can be used in Mac, Windows and Linux platform.

Installing TurboWire

The installation process takes around 15-20 minutes to complete. You need to click here and Download the Free Version. As soon as the .exe file is downloaded in your system click on next in the pop-up menu that appears on the screen. You just need to go through the step by step process and click on the next button while the installation is on. The software opts to change your default search engine and the homepage. If you don't want to make these changes then remove the tick from set download energy as my default page and from set download engine as my default search engine. If you are still looking for a simple p2p file sharing client, you can try Sharest, Cabos P2p, and Shareaza.

In the next menu you get to select the desired drive where you want to install it and click on Next button. After this the installation is about one or two steps away from completion.

User Interface of this P2P file sharing client

This file sharing software successfully manages the visual and functional aspects. The interface is pretty stylish and very easy to use. It has everything you expect to have in a Peer to Peer Gnutella client. It connects you with huge amount of user communities and provides a gigantic database for your files. TurboWire comes with an excellent interface which looks to be well thought and simple to operate. The cancelled downloads get automatically removed and you get to share different files directly with some known IP addresses.

It comes with a connection monitor that enables you to easily handle the incoming searches from your shared folder. You can also track the files that are uploaded from your personal machine.

Using TurboWire

The main window consists of three large tabs namely:

Search
Monitor
Library

Search – With the help of the search tab you can find all types of files that you require. If you want you can also specify your search by using the audio, images, video, documents, programs tab. At the bottom of the software you can see three options namely keyword, what's new and direct connects. With the help of keyword option you can use any specific word and start your search. The what's new option will look for all the new files available online. The third option i.e. the Direct Connect will let you search the files in a machine by entering their IP.

Monitor – With the help of the monitor tab you mainly browse through your incoming searches and look at the condition of the files being downloaded.

Library – Library will help you have a look at the files being saved and shared. You can open the desired files from the place they have been saved.

TurboWire has a built-in media player so you can launch all the downloaded audio and video files after they are complete. People using DC clients will be surprised by TurboWire. Before this the DC Clients were not able to complete a search and follow the next on shortly. But with TurboWire you can easily go ahead with all types of search.

No related posts.

Free P2P File Sharing Client: TurboWire was originally published at I Love Free Software

5 Free To Do Apps For Android

Posted: 16 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT

Here, are 5 free To Do apps for Android. Almost all the Android phones and devices have reminder option to set the reminder for any activity or task to perform. Google Play Store has many To Do apps with multiple features and types. You can install any of them and make your life easy by remembering each and every task to perform.

For this, we will discuss about some To Do apps for Android which include Astrid Task app; one of the most popular one in Google Play Store, Any.Do To Do List app; one of my favorite To Do app, Task List app; the simplest To Do app, and much more.

Apart from below 5 listed apps, you can also take a look on Android Tasks N Todos app and What2Do app for Android reviewed by us.

Astrid Task/To-do List:

Astrid Task/To-do List is a free Android To Do app to maintain to do list on Android. Before getting started with Astrid Task app, you need to connect the app through your Google account or Astrid.com. After getting connected, you can easily launch the app and start listing To Do's in the app. You just need to enter the title name of the task, set the date and time of the task, enter notes (if required) and you are done with. You can also set the reminder for each task listed.

Apart from listing To Do's in the app, you can even assign the task to any contact number or any email address. The app automatically sends a notification to the email or contact number that the task has been assigned by xyz via Astrid. The task sent to the contact or email contains a request to complete the task. He/she can then reply when the task will be completed by the assigned person. Apart from all these there are many other settings and options to manage your To Do's in an easy way on Android.

Any.Do To Do List/Task List:

Any.Do To Do List is a free Android app to create To Do list on Android. Any.Do is one of the popular apps in Google Play Store. You can easily create To Do list for today, tomorrow, this week, and later. After creating the task list, you can sync the app with your friends. You can also set the reminder to each activity listed in the app, so as to force the app make you remind for To Do's on each day. Reminder is for the users who skip to open or check the activities to do on a particular day.

Set priority to the selected activities so as to complete them as soon as possible. The good part of the app is its shake option. You can shake and clear all the completed task in the app. I truly liked the app to manage all my To Do's in a simple and better way on Android. Earlier also, we have reviewed about Any.Do To List app for Android.

Taskos To Do List/Task List:

Taskos To Do List is a free Android app to create To Do list on Android with ease. The app works same as Any.Do To Do List app as discussed above. On launching the app, you can directly start creating To Do list on your Android phone. You just need to enter the title of the task and you are done with. After creating the task, you can set the priority of To Do's in the app. All the priorities are identified by different colors in the app. You can even set the reminder on each activity listed in To Do list. If you want to share the task, you can do that too with Taskos To Do list app. To mark a task as complete, just swipe to right on the task and it will be marked as complete in the app.

GTasks: To Do List/Task List:

GTasks is a free Android app create task list or To Do list with Google account sync. You can sync the app with your Google account and manage your To Do's with ease on Android. The app imports all the To Do's saved in your Google account. With GTasks app, you can create To Do list for today, tomorrow, and later. You can also set the reminder for each activity, so that the app reminds you for each activity on the date and time set for the activity. Also, if the activity is very urgent to do, then mark it as "urgent". To mark any task as complete, you need to check mark the box which is on the left of each activity of the list.

Task List – To Do List:

Task List is a free Android To Do app to create To Do list on Android. Task List app is one of the simplest app to create To Do list with simple options on Android. You just have to launch the app on your Android phone, press the options menu button and then add a new task. Enter the details of the task and you are done with. Along with creating To Do list, you can also set reminder for each activity in the list. Also set the priority for each activity in the list. Swipe on the task to mark it as complete. Long press on the task to delete or edit it. You can even create a new task list with a specific name of your choice.

From all of these To Do apps above, Any.Do is my favorite To Do app which is normally use on my Android phone. Let me know in comments if you have any other favorite to do app for Android.

No related posts.

5 Free To Do Apps For Android was originally published at I Love Free Software

Disable Updates of Installed Programs System Wide with Update Freezer

Posted: 16 Jun 2012 09:30 AM PDT

Update Freezer is a software that can change settings of various different programs in order to disable automatic updating features which majority of popular programs have these days, which can sometimes be very annoying. Annoyance is not the only reason why some would decide to disable updating, there are situations when updating can be even problematic for work that people are doing on their computers, having Update Freezer installed on your computer can help make update management a little bit more easier.

Depending on which software you have installed on your computer, some options might not be available for update editing when you first start Update Freezer. On the image above we can see that Skype is not installed, and therefore it is marked as N/A, while all the other program are there and can be managed with the help of Update Freezer. List of supported programs would be:

Google (basically all Google programs, Chrome, Talk, Earth, Picasa)
Adobe (again practically everything Adobe, Acrobat, AIR, Flash, CS)
Java
Firefox
Windows (the entire system, but also Microsoft programs like Office)
Skype

Software that do the opposite: Sumo, R-Updater, Filehippo.

Disabling software updates and how can it be useful?

When it comes to reasons for disabling updates of a certain program, they change from user to user. For example let’s imagine that someone does not have access to broadband connections, or they do have access to high-speed internet but are limited with traffic by their ISP. If you have a lot of programs installed with automatic updating turned on all of them, you can never know when an update will activate itself and put a strain on your internet connection, or start spending traffic.

If you run Update Freezer you can have a clear overview of which applications exactly have automatic updating enabled, and then you can simply switch off the ones that you don’t want updated by clicking on the Disabled button, see image above. It’s not very hard to use Update Freezer, and if you want to revert options to what they were before you used Update Freezer you can click on the Restore All button in the top right corner of the application and everything will be returned to the way that it was.

Disable Firefox updating to preserve plugin compatibility

Mozilla has changed the version numbering of new Firefox releases and now practically every new version of Firefox that comes out has new version number, latest one of which would be 13. Various companies have complained that with this new rapid release method, they cannot keep upgrading Firefox to the newest versions, because it takes time, especially if the company is big. With Update Freezer this can be done easily, with just a few clicks, and there’s no need for going though the options and doing it manually. While you’re changing options for Firefox, you can also switch off updates for any of the other software that’s installed on the machine and that way keep custom made plugins running, without getting that nasty messages like, “plugin can’t be installed on insert_program_name_and_version_number_here”. All in all, a great tool, use it if you want to manage updates more easily.

Disable Updates of Installed Programs System Wide with Update Freezer was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Software To Record Blood Pressure

Posted: 16 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Here, are 4 free software to record blood pressure. Blood pressure recorder software are really very helpful in making you aware about changes in your blood pressure level from time to time. Diseases associated with blood pressure are mainly caused due to stress and hyper tension which finally leads to premature death. However, these free software to record blood pressure prevent you from being a victim of blood pressure diseases by showing you the changes in the blood pressure level. So with a regular check on your blood pressure level, you can take precautions against high blood pressure and live a healthy life ahead.

Health Monitor

Health Monitor is a free health based software using which you can record Blood pressure, Cholesterol, pulse, weight and more. Health Monitor, the name itself suggests that this free software helps you in monitoring health. For using this tool you need to enter the readings or numeric values of blood pressure, pulse rate, cholesterol, etc and leave the rest to this smart health monitoring tool. With the help of this tool, you can record and view health reports associated with Blood pressure, pulse, Cholesterol, etc in graphs. Graphical reports helps you to easily analyse the changes taking place in these body elements. This tool is capable and efficient enough to automatically calculate body mass index on inserting the weight. Check out this tool for free.

Read more about Health Monitor or try it out here.

My Daily Readings

My Daily Readings is a another free software which helps you to record blood pressure, blood sugar, weight, pulse rate. Using this tool you can record daily readings of blood pressure, blood sugar, pulse rate, etc in order to track changes taking place in your health condition. In addition, you can add comments as per your observation in your recordings. This free software comes with a automatic sorting of the stored reports on the basis of date and time. My Daily Readings allows you to even print the Health reports recorded on this free health monitoring software.

Read more about My Daily Readings or simply try it here.

Blood Pressure Recorder

Blood Pressure Recorder is a free and easy to use software to record blood pressure on daily basis. The interface is suitable even for the beginners, so for using this you need to simply add the measurement that you take on daily basis for your Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate. This software records and saves the added measurement and you can even generate graphical reports of your blood pressure data. Graphical presentation of your blood pressure reports lets you easily analyse changes taking place in your health from time to time.

Read more about Blood Pressure Recorder or try it here.

Blood Pressure Tracker

Blood Pressure Tracker is another free blood pressure recording software that lets you record and save blood pressure reports generated on daily basis. The interface is pretty cool and includes a record, calendar and graph for your blood pressure records. With the help of this software, you can generate and view graphs for 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, 1 year and even for a maximum of 5 years. This smart blood pressure recorder comes with option to save the blood pressure records into text or CSV file. You can even load any CSV file of blood pressure records into this software with a single click. The good part is that, it even allows you to type-in the text comments while you enter the readings.

Read more about Blood Pressure Tracker or simply try it here.

No related posts.

Free Software To Record Blood Pressure was originally published at I Love Free Software

Watch YouTube Videos in Firefox Sidebar with Sidebar addon

Posted: 16 Jun 2012 06:30 AM PDT

YouTube Watch in Sidebar is a Firefox addon which will add a sidebar to your favorite web browser where you can watch YouTube videos while browsing other websites. It’s a useful thing to have in these modern times when multitasking is necessity and if you are not doing 10 things at once, you’re getting no where.

If you think that watching YouTube videos in a sidebar is not something that is feasible, then wait until you hear how easy it is to watch a video in one tab, and browse social networks in the other, or doing something a bit more serious, like doing research. True you might not be able to watch the video, but we rarely ever do watch videos. If you have a TV running next to the computer, for example, are you watching the television screen or are you on the computer and only glancing at the TV when you think that something interesting is on? The same thing is true when it comes to YouTube Watch in Sidebar.

Check out other similar software: Quick Play, Free Media Player, Tubaldr

Installation and activation of YouTube videos in sidebar

Since this is a Firefox addon, there’s probably no need to explain how you can install it. Simply click on the Download link below and click yes when prompted if you want to add a plugin. When it comes to plugin activation, to actually seeing it in action, you’re gonna have to click on View >> Sidebar and then select YouTube Watch in Sidebar, but make sure that you do this when you have a YouTube video that you’re interested in viewing from within the sidebar open in a tab.

After you click on the option to activate the YouTube in Sidebar addon, it will appear on the left side and immediately start playing the video which you had opened while activating the sidebar.

Now that you have a running YouTube video in the sidebar, what next? Can you leave the YouTube page where the video was located? Of course you can, if you couldn’t then there would be very little sense in having this YouTube in sidebar Firefox addon installed. On the image below you can see that we have opened up Google and the video kept on playing in the sidebar.

The best thing about this addon is the fact that you don’t have to stay in the same tab in order to watch videos in the sidebar, you can open and move to other tabs and browse websites there.

Only drawback that we managed to find is that once that you want to load a new video in the sidebar, you have to repeat step one, reactivate the sidebar, once that you find the video which you want to change to. Opening videos like this could be a little bit problematic when you are switching between videos, it would be better if you could leave one tab on YouTube and just switch videos in it, maybe this feature can be added in future versions, but for now, if you’re not switching between videos often, Watch YouTube in Sidebar is the addon that you need.

Watch YouTube Videos in Firefox Sidebar with Sidebar addon was originally published at I Love Free Software

Create Encrypted Virtual Drive to Secure Files: Klonsoft LockDisk

Posted: 16 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT

Klonsoft Lock Disk is a free software that can be used as a file security software for creating encrypted virtual drive. You can even lock, encrypt or hide files, pictures, folders, and documents. You can use it to password protect your documents as well, whereby it carries out all its functions in a very quick time. The best part of using this software is that it is totally portable as you can protect your files which you have on your, USB flash drives, CD-RWs, or the portable hard disks. The basic function of the software is creating volumes which can only be accessed by using a password and the files and folders remain invisible after you have encrypted them.

Installing this file security Software

The installation process is as simple as it could be. Visit the download site here and download the software on your computer. After the download gets completed just run the setup process which takes seconds and gets installed on your computer. So after the installation get completed you are ready to use the software. People interested to try some more file security software can also try Secure Bin, Veneer and Wise Folder Hider.

Using this Software to Create Encrypted Virtual Drive

The first window that comes up when you open the software would make you think it was the same windows explorer which you have been using. Moreover observing it closely you would see some options at the top and two blank windows at the bottom.

To get started or encrypt a file you need to follow the steps below:

The first step is to create a new volume where you want the encrypted files to be. In order to do so you need to click on new.

Browse the place where you wish to create the volume. Enter the name which you wish to assign to the volume created and click on ok. You would be brought to the Create Volume menu where you have to set the volume size and the password you wish to assign to them.

This creates the Volume where you would be encrypting the files or the folders. After you complete the above process you would see a new drive appearing on the left of the main window.
Now you could start encrypting your files and saving them in this virtual drive. You just need to drag the files to the right of the main window and it would be encrypted. However the first time you wish to drag a file inside you would be asked to format this virtual drive in order to proceed. You may delete the original files as these files are now safe and secure which could only be accessed with a password and the Local Drive.

You can close the file and the next time you try to open the software you would be asked for the password which you had assigned. So you would have no concerns whatsoever regarding the protection of your files and folders.

Lock Disk Advantage

Some of the advantages which you get while you use the LockDisk application are:

It blocks the coworkers, peepers, viruses, Kids, Spywares and protects from almost all online and offline threats.
It is very easy to use which makes it much convenient for the regular users to use and protect their files effectively.

No related posts.

Create Encrypted Virtual Drive to Secure Files: Klonsoft LockDisk was originally published at I Love Free Software

Posted in:

starspot

Twitter

Sunday, June 17, 2012