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The publisher of this utility claims that you can save any flash file with one click of the mouse. After testing it for ourselves, we had to make sure they were referring to the same program we tested, because we couldn't get it work at all.

Flashgrabber had an extremely confusing user interface that was half in German and half in English. It contained a blank, white window at the top, and a window at the bottom for displaying flash files in the browser cache. Not knowing where to go next, we clicked on the Help file, only to … Read more

Activ for Vista is a free program that claims to monitor your system's processes, DLLs, and Registry. Thanks to an unintuitive user interface and lack of user guidance, we never got very far with this program.

The user interface is too plain and too vague. There are three check boxes on the left side of the small window for settings: Process Start/Stop, DLL (Image) Load, and Registry. On the right side of the window are the file creation options. Not knowing where to go next, we checked off our monitor settings and clicked the Apply button. Nothing happened. … Read more

This free, affiliate-marketing-themed toolbar offers a few helpful Web site links, but beyond that, it doesn't offer users anything different from the hundreds of other toolbars out there.

The toolbar offers all the basics: pop-up blocker, e-mail notification, weather forecast, and the ability to customize the interface by adding and removing buttons for your favorite applications and gadgets. The radio feature played without a glitch, and we were able to add our own stations to an already long list of stations. The one differentiating feature on this toolbar is the drop-down menu of links to various affiliate marketing sites, … Read more

Besides a really bad name and a few home-based business links, Multiplestreamsofprofit_toolbar.exe doesn't offer users anything that stands out from the thousands of other toolbars out there.

Multiplestreamsofprofit_toolbar.exe offers all the basics: pop-up blocker, e-mail notification, weather forecast, and the ability to customize the interface by adding and removing buttons for your favorite applications and gadgets. We will say that the radio played without a glitch, and we were able to add our own stations to an already long list of stations, but a functioning radio isn't enough to make this toolbar stand out. The one … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Panasonic's camera group isn't happy with its U.S. market share and is working on a new marketing plan to improve it, executives said Tuesday at a photography show.

"In looking at the U.S., we have not positioned the Lumix brand to our satisfaction," said Panasonic Executive Vice President Robert Perry at a press event at the Photo Marketing Association show here.

The company has No. 1 digital camera share in France and routinely is first or second in various other areas, but it's working to fix its sales problem in the United States, he said. Specifically, the company has begun a market review, he said.

"Over the coming months, we will see many changes," trying to win the hearts and minds of buyers and trying to fire up the resellers "whom we need to get behind the product and support it and make sure they communicate our value proposition," Perry said. … Read more

This free, poker-inspired toolbar is one of the blandest we've seen. It fails to offer users even the most basic of toolbar features.

Mega-Poker.Net Toolbar offers a plain user interface that stretches across your browser window. A large button with what appears to be the toolbar name (you'll need a magnifying glass to read it), features a drop-down menu with options to customize the interface. But don't get too excited; you can only change the toolbar color or remove the default buttons that you don't want. You can't add your favorite applications or gadgets, … Read more

As its tongue-in-cheek name implies, this free toolbar is for users who want or need to clear their browsing tracks. While we would have liked to have seen more customization options, Perv Bar's solid performance more than made up for it lack of extras.

Perv Bar fits a very slim toolbar into your IE window. It contains a search field, and a button to block pop-ups, which worked each and every time. The Privacy Utility button is where it's at, with options to clear not only your browsing history, recycle bin, and cookies, but also to clear your … Read more

In the 18th century, the epistolary novel was all the rage in France and England. Now, it seems, the tit-for-tat style of opposing letters has become a preferred method of dialogue between Iowa Senator Charles Grassley and Microsoft.

In late February, Grassley urged Microsoft to rethink the use of "H-1B or other work visa program employees over qualified American workers." Grassley issued his letter after Microsoft announced its first across-the-board layoffs.

"I encourage Microsoft to ensure that Americans are given priority in job retention. Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them … Read more

Looking at the same desktop background every day gets boring. Sure, you can wade through your digital photos, or hunt down the perfect image online, but that image will just suffer the same fate. Perhaps you've been building a collection of great backgrounds for years, but you're still manually selecting a picture every other day. This is where Auto-wallpapers comes in. Its straight-forward--if slightly cluttered--interface will allow you to easily gather up all your special pictures and automatically switch between them at just about any interval between every 72 hours to every second.

Mostly, the features are all … Read more