Welcome to my site, you will find some programs created by me, plus a selection of freeware that I have tested and consider to be of good quality.
Don't forget to look below for the latest freeware reviews.
News and reviews -- last updated 26/July/08
Very Important Notice (over there >>>>)


Free online Flash game -- Totem Destroyer.

Totem Destroyer (surely that should be Totem Saver) is a skill/puzzle game. Your task is to remove the specified number of blocks, without allowing the totem (the gold idol) to touch the floor, or fall from a great height.
The game has twentyfive levels of increasing difficulty. Your progress through the game is saved and you can return to any level you have unlocked.

There are three types of blocks, normal, slippery and indestructible. Only the first two types can be removed, by clicking on them.
The game is entertaining and moderately difficult, with some levels requiring several attempts, a little puzzling, some quick clicking and a dash of luck.

Note: You will need Flash enabled in your browser and loading time is approx ten minutes on a 56K connection.

http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/totem_destroyer

Updated 09/July/08
Free edition -- Easeus Partition Manager personal v1.6.4

It can be very useful to partition a large hard drive, if only to reduce the amount of time required by your antivirus software, to scan everything on your hard drive.
For example I store about 17GB of software, music, pictures etc. But because I have my drive split into three partitions, my antivirus only needs to scan my 8.5GB "C" Windows drive, which is naturally much faster than scanning the entire 25.5GB of data.
There are other benefits, creating a image of the "C" drive is quicker and uses less strorage, defragmenting can be quicker and stored data is safer, if Windows throws a wobbly.

Easeus Partition Manager is a very good free partition manager. Amongst other features, it enables you to create, delete, resize, move and format partitions.

I successfully reduced the size of partition "E", created a new logical partition "F", formatted to Fat32. Then deleted "F" and added the unallocated space back onto "E".
The software is very easy to use and experienced partitioners will hardly need the very good help file.
Easeus, reboots the computer to apply changes and then Windows insists on rebooting every time as well, which gets a little wearing, but everything does progress smoothly.
Only Fat and NTFS file systems are recognized, Linux formats are ignored, but this isn't a great problem, as most Linux distros come with their own partitioning software.

A useful feature is the ability to password protect Easeus, which prevents anyone you share the computer with, from fiddling with the partitions.
There is also the option to create a bootable floppy, or CD, which contains a basic version of the partition manager.

Easeus Partition Manager is very good and easily a match for Acronis Partition manager, which I usually use. It doesn't have all the features of the open source software GParted, but it is a much smaller download and its easy to use interface and useful range of features, make it a winner in my opinion.

Free -- Download size 4.53MB -- Win 2000 Pro SP4, XP

http://www.partition-tool.com/

WARNING. Like all partitioning software, this program can damage your computer if used incorrectly, do not use it unless you know what you are doing and have taken sensible precautions. I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your computer.

Update 07/July/08
Web site -- Fred Langa: What comes next?

Some readers might remember Fred Langas excellent computer help and advice column, the Langalist.
Sadly, some time ago Fred Langa merged the Langlist with Windows Secrets, (which isn't a patch on the Langalist) and then seemed to vanish.

Well I was looking at Windows Secrets the other day and decided to Google for Fred Langa, as I thought he might have restarted the Langalist. He hasn't, but he has got an interesting new blog, covering lots of subjects and with the odd article about computers.
You can find it here: http://fredlanga.blogspot.com/

Update 05/July/08
Editorial.

It has been almost a month since my last update. I got a bit bored with the computer and with the nice sunny summer weather, the web site has been neglected.
Hopefully I will get back into the habit of regularly adding content again, so don't write off the site as permantly abandoned just yet.
Rob.

Freeware game -- Vibrant.

Vibrant is a puzzle platformer. To escape the world of Vibrant, you must guide your character (a block with legs) through fifteen varied levels.

I'm not going to describe much of the game features, as it would spoil the game. But the levels are quite logical (even if they don't initially seem to be) and clues are often given in the level comments.
To complete each level, you must touch the purple star, if there is more than one purple star, you need to touch the correct one.

Vibrant lacks any presentation, or help file, but it is a bit different and kept me entertained for ten minutes.

Freeware -- Download size 5.6MB -- Win ME, XP, 2000, Vista

http://www.yoyogames.com/games/launch/42188

Update 07/June/08
Freeware game -- Rox v1.4

Rox is a primarily a puzzle game, but does require speed and dexterity on some levels.
You control a toothy character called Thresher, who munches his way through levels, looking for unids, once he has collected all the unids, he can exit the level via the portal.
Along the way Thresher has to negotiate falling rocks, explosives, spider like creatures and annoying gnats. There are also one way conduits, switches, keys and a discharger.
Thresher does get some help, with a selection of powerups, invulnerability (my favorite), freeze, missiles and explosives.

The graphics are pretty good, with some nice animations and effects, although I did find everything a bit on the dark side for my taste and found myself getting closer and closer to the screen (getting old).
The background music tracks (4 included, more on the web site) are quite catchy and there is the option to set the volume.

There are 69 levels in the standard game and there are hundreds of fan made levels available on the web site, simply unzip the level file and drop the .clvl file into the levels folder, then select your new levels using the "collection" option in the menu.
An easy to use level editor is included with the game, if you are inspired to try your hand at creating your own levels.

It takes a while to learn all the features of Rox. But once you have mastered useful techniques, such as pressing space and an arrow key to eat a nearby object without moving, the game becomes very interesting.
There is an excellent help file, which is accessible in-game, by pressing F1.

Rox is a very polished and entertaining (if somewhat frustrating) game and with the addition of fan levels will provide days, weeks (months, years!) of fun.

Freeware -- Download size 11.1MB -- Win 98, ME, 2000, XP.

http://www.bd-fans.com/RoX.html

Update 01/June/08
Free CD/DVD burning software -- Romeo Lite v2.3.0.71

Romeo Lite is a (very) cut down version of the full Romeo burning sofware and can only produce data discs. The main interface is very simple, just drag and drop files, or folders to the window. Or you can use the file selection window.

After you have made your selection, use the burn button to open the burning window, where you can choose whether to make your disc multi-session, or add to a previous session. You have the option to erase (quick, or full) rewritable discs, before burning.

I liked Romeo Lite, it's quick and fuss free and maintains the folder structure on burned discs.
There is a downloadable help file for the full program on the authors web site, which gives information on the data burning options, but the mouse over hints should provide enough help for most people.
If like me, almost all your burning is data discs, you might find Romeo Lite to be a good choice.
Note: A command line version is also included, for those people who like that sort of thing.

Free -- Download size 2.61MB -- Win 2000, XP, Vista

http://www.romeoburner.com/
Note: You will find the Lite version in the downloads section

Update 06/May/08
Free CD/DVD burning software -- ImgBurn v2.4.1.

ImgBurn, as the name suggests, is focused primarily on creating, reading and burning image files (ISO, BIN etc). But it can also burn data discs, audio CDs (from a wide variety of file formats) and DVD video discs.
The initial interface, with just six options is very simple, but this hides a plethora of options and settings, which appear on the secondary interfaces.

Note: To reduce image file size, this is a simplified graphical representation of the program window.

ImgBurn isn't the easiest burner to use and it doesn't follow the standard layout of most burning software. But it is remarkably powerful for its size and offers a lot of control for keen burners.

There is no built in help file, but there is an online help forum with comprehensive guides, describing the various burning features and after some study, I had no problems performing basic data and audio burns.
However, ImgBurn does not appear to support multi-session data discs, which limits its appeal for me (I may be mistaken, but I eventually got fed up of wading through the reams of information on the forum) and creating audio discs is a convoluted process.

Overall, ImgBurn is an impressively featured burner, when working with image files and advanced users will appreciate the control it gives you.
But for burning standard data and audio discs, there are simpler and better choices of freeware.

Free - Download size 1.8MB - Win 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista

http://www.imgburn.com/

Update 30/April/08
Freeware game -- Block Manoeuvers v2.0

Block Manoeuvers is a puzzle game. Your task is to complete all fifty levels by collecting the strawberries (if there are any) and reaching the exit.
To accomplish this task, you can push blocks and boulders out of the way and use them to bridge water, or as numbered keys in later levels. There are also pop up walls, rolling balls of flame and flamethrowers.

Level 29 completed, that was a lot of block pushing.

The graphics are very basic and a bit too small for my tastes, but they do the job. Sound effects are minimal, which is sensible with a puzzle game and the background music tracks are quite good (you get more tracks, as you progress through the game).

The help file is very basic, but there are additional comments as new objects are introduced. Your progress is auto saved and you can skip levels by pressing "S".

The games learning curve is perhaps a little too long and the puzzles don't become taxing until around the twentieth level (depends how good you are at puzzles). But the later levels are varied and challenging and gave the grey cells a good workout.

Freeware -- Download size 3.02MB -- Win 2000, XP, Vista

http://www.geocities.com/shooeymooey/index.html

Update 23/April/08
Freeware antimalware software -- Spybot Search & Destroy v1.5.2

I was updating the entry for AVG Anti-Spyware (formerly Ewido), when I realised that I don't list Spybot S&D, which is odd, because I have used it for years, so I thought that I'd better give it a review.

Spybot S&D is one of the longest established anti-spyware programs. It has two modes, default and advanced and I would advise using advanced mode, as it has lots of useful extras.
The main feature is a manual drive scanner which scans for and (hopefully) fixes spyware problems. The results window can be split in two, so that the right hand pane shows additional information on any possible threats.

The immunize feature adds potentially dangerous web sites, to the restricted zone in Internet Explorer, preventing them from running possibly malicious code, through IE. Known tracking cookies are also blocked. Immunize also helps to protect the Opera browser, from bad plugins and cookies.

Spybot has a good selection of tools, the most useful being the Secure Shredder and System Startup, which lists all the programs that start with Windows. System Startup often gives a description of the program, but I would advise double checking an item using Google, before disabling or deleting it.

Spybot has some real time (resident) protection, in the form of SDHelper for Internet Explorer, which blocks bad downloads and TeaTimer which monitors the processes that your computer runs and keeps a watch over some sections of the registry.
I use SDHelper, but not TeaTimer, as RegProt protects my registry and I'm not convinced that continuously monitoring running processes for spyware is necessary (depends how paranoid you are ).

Updating is straightforward and you can select which items you wish to download. Note that if you update the immunize database, you have to manually immunize again, never really understood why it isn't automatic.
Spybot used to have a problem with updates failing, but since its recent major overhaul, it seems to be better and I've had no recent problems. If the update does fail, just select a different update location and try again.

Spybot is my favorite antispyware software and the only antispyware application that I always keep on my computer. Its reliability, reasonably accurate detections, useful selection of tools and comprehensive help file, combine to make it an excellent program.

Freeware -- Win 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista.

Note: Spybot also has an "easter egg" (a good one for a change), you can read about it here: misc.htm

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

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