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We install and uninstall a lot of software, so it's no surprise that our Start menu gets cluttered with broken shortcuts pretty regularly. Thus we were the perfect test subject for Broken Shortcut Fixer, a program that claims to locate broken shortcuts, repair them if possible, and delete them if not. Although Broken Shortcut Fixer didn't knock our socks off, it did seem to do its job as described--at least part of it.

The program's interface is plain and easy to navigate; from a drop-down menu you select the drive you want to scan, and then it'… Read more

What is it about match-three puzzle games that makes them so irresistible? You know the ones: you link three or more objects of the same color together in order to clear them from the board and earn points. We don't know why these games are so entertaining, but they certainly keep us playing for way longer than we mean to. Jewel Up is a fun variation on this type of puzzle, with three game modes and a variety of options for customization. If you enjoy match-three games, we think you'll like Jewel Up quite a bit.

The object … Read more

Screen captures can be incredibly useful, whether you're trying to share an error message with tech support or want to save a ridiculous comment exchange on Facebook. There are plenty of utilities to help you do this, too, ranging from the bare-bones to the highly customizable. ScreenGrab falls somewhere in the middle of this spectrum; we've definitely seen screen capture utilities with more features, but ScreenGrab still brings quite a bit to the table.

The program's interface is plain, just a rectangle with some drop-downs, radio buttons, and check boxes. You can set ScreenGrab to capture either … Read more

It seems that many people on the Internet have no qualms about "borrowing" other people's work and either failing to attribute it properly or outright claiming it as their own. Photographers and other artists who wish to share their work online are well advised to use watermarks to ensure that their name is never separated from their creations. Scaling Watermark is a simple program that can brand your images with watermarks that can be read at both full size and thumbnail size. It's not as fancy as some other watermark programs we've seen, but we … Read more

Dogs, cats, small children, and computer keyboards: as they say on "Sesame Street," three of these things belong together. Obviously, PC keyboards are the odd man out in this group, but how can they all get along together in a world (your living room, for instance) in which three out of four respondents think "software" means plush toys? The answer may be as simple as KeyboardLock, a free tool from Booring that locks and unlocks your keyboard and mouse when you enter a password. Say you want to watch a movie on your laptop with pets … Read more

Cutting and pasting text is a pretty utilitarian task, but did you know it can also be a form of social networking? Pastebin is a Web site that allows users to store copied text online both for their own future use and, optionally, for others to view. Users can even follow each other and view a running stream of pastes from their friends. Pastebin Desktop is a program that lets users upload text directly to Pastebin without going to the Web site. If Pastebin is something that you make frequent use of, the desktop application is a handy thing to … Read more

Sometimes the most basic programs turn out to be surprisingly useful. Free Desktop Timer is a simple utility that allows you to create multiple timers on your desktop. This is one of those kinds of things that you might not even know you need until you try it.

Once installed, Free Desktop Timer appears as an icon in the system tray, ensuring that it's always handy when you need it. The program's interface is attractive, with eight different nice-looking skins to choose from. Arrows on the interface above and below the second, minute, and hour spaces let you … Read more

Fish are a popular theme for screensavers; the computer screen lends itself well to aquarium-like graphics, and screensaver developers have taken full advantage of that fact. We like this trend, too; these screensavers bring some of the beauty and relaxation of aquariums to your desk without the hassle of cleaning tanks and adjusting pH levels. Free Desktop Fish Screensaver is one of many such programs, and it didn't do much to impress us. It's not awful, but there are many similar programs out there that we like better.

The program installs easily and appeared in our Display Properties … Read more

Spring is our favorite season and we happen to love butterflies, so we were excited about trying Free 3D Butterfly Screensaver. Unfortunately, the program did not live up to our expectations. Functional problems and poor graphics plague this disappointing program.

Our first beef with Free 3D Butterfly Screensaver was that it didn't automatically install itself in the proper directory for screensavers as most similar programs do. We had to move the file to its proper place in order to get it to show up among the options in our Display Properties menu. We were also able to access it … Read more