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Sketchy performance

This free tool performs one function and one function only: it lets users adjust the transparency of any active window. But for such a simple task, we found its performance sketchy at best.

Windows Alpha Blender settings can be accessed by right-clicking on the taskbar icon and selecting the Properties option. The sparse menu that appears offers vague instructions. There is some guidance for adjusting the transparency, which requires using two hotkey combinations. There is also a slide bar for adjusting the transparency level. Once we selected our transparency level, we used the hotkey combinations to turn the transparency action … Read more

Quickly download FLV files

This handy Firefox add-on lets you quickly download your favorite FLV files as you browse the Web, but we would have liked some way to use this toolbar's wasted space.

Clipta Toolbar with Downloader introduces a slim toolbar to your Firefox browser that makes it easy to quickly browse and download videos at the same time, but there's still too much wasted space for our tastes. The toolbar houses a search field that uses Clipta's own search capabilities, a button that displays featured videos, and another button that shows the number of videos captured during a single … Read more

For frequent Google-oids

Google's all-in-one search application for Windows Mobile phones is a handy sliver of an application that brings Google search, Google mail, maps, and a flurry of Google's other online services to your fingertips. On Windows Mobile phones, Google Mobile App installs as a Home Screen plug-in, from which you'll be able to type a term into the search bar or scroll through icons to launch a Google service on your mobile browser, like Gmail, Picasa Web albums, and Google Docs.

If you don't choose to install the plug-in, or if your phone has a custom screen, … Read more

Sled on

The iPhone and iPod Touch version of the cult classic Flash game "Line Rider" is every bit as enjoyable on the slim, slick phone as it is online. The nearly identical controls let you draw a track for Bosh the sledder to ride once you press Play. An eraser tool and infinite undoes make it easy to adjust a deadly pitch, and the flag button helps you mark a new starting place for your rider, so you don't have to start at the beginning each time you test a length of track.

Creating a route can be … Read more

New scareware sends you to fake Download.com reviews

Last week, BleepingComputer.com reported on how to remove a new variant of an old scareware. This new nasty, known most commonly as Antivirus2010 or Anti-Virus-1, points you to spoofed versions of Download.com, ZDNet, PCMag.com, and other software sites, demanding that you download their program to clean your computer. Of course, it does nothing of the sort, merely perpetuating the infection.

However, the manner and methods Anti-Virus-1 uses to get you there are extremely clever. The infection part of the malware does whatever it's been designed to do, so you can see that you've been infected … Read more

Slow to prevent file recovery

As its name suggests, Prevent Restore keeps others from restoring deleted files by filling in unused sectors on your hard drive. It worked as promised, but it took a long time to do its job.

Each time we tried to access the program through the desktop icon, we received an error message. We were able to bypass it and move on to the user interface, but it was a mark against the program. Prevent Restore comes with a wizard that makes it especially easy to get started. First, it asked us to select which disk we wanted to run the … Read more

Top-notch file encryption

Encrypting files doesn't get any easier than with PixelCryptor, which has the unique approach of using pixel data from selected images to encrypt files and folders.

The professionally designed user interface is extremely easy to navigate. Users are presented with four menu options that are displayed as icons: About, Encode Files, Decode Files, and Help. Clicking the encode button introduced a wizard-like window that walked us through the encryption process. We named our encoded file, added files and folders, selected an image to use for the encryption, and chose a destination for the encrypted file. Users also have the … Read more

Cluttered interface mars performance

AnVir Task Manager Free offers users a one-stop shop for managing your system's running processes and applications. While it certainly delivers the information it promises, it could really benefit from a more streamlined interface design.

Users will need to spend a little time taking in AnVir's user interface, because at first glance it's a bit overwhelming. It uses tabs to distinguish system categories, such as startup, applications, processes, and services. Command buttons at the top of the window give you the ability to kill processes, block processes, free memory, and select a parent process. The bottom of … Read more