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A MOT test is a U.K. Ministry of Transport vehicle inspection. It's thorough, so any rigorous checkup is apt to be called a "MOT test." Computer MOT from Dizzy Solutions is a free utility that automatically cleans your system, scans it for spyware and adware, and performs a variety of maintenance and tune-up operations. It uses two of the most-popular freeware utilities, CCleaner and Spybot, plus built-in Windows utilities like the disk defragmentation tool and CheckDisk. And when we say automatic, we mean "automatic" as in "no manual options" and no stopping … Read more

Glaryutilities' Disk SpeedUp is a free standalone utility that analyzes, defragments, and optimizes your disk drives or individual folders. It offers manual and automatic defrag options as well as automatic shutdown after defragmenting finishes.

Like many system utilities, Disk SpeedUp has a colorful interface with large, clearly labeled buttons and tabs labeled Defrag Show and Settings. The Defrag Show tab showed our two disk drives and their capacity, free space, status, and percentage of fragmentation. In the middle was a standard defrag map, while at the bottom of the interface, Disk SpeedUp displayed tabs with our three partitions, each with … Read more

Filmmaker Ken Burns revolutionized historical documentaries by using subtle motion with sound overlays to bring life to old still photographs. Developer Jens Gopfert's PhotoFilmStrip uses what he calls the "Ken Burns" effect. This free slideshow maker actually creates movies out of your still images in three steps: select images, set motion paths, and create a video that can be saved in several high-quality formats, including full HD. You can also add music or other audio tracks and add comments in image subtitle fields.

PhotoFilmStrip's clean interface opened with a How to Start page that let us … Read more

The Photo Viewer is like many built-in Windows tools: it does a fine job, but it has room for improvement. ImageGlass is a lightweight, versatile image viewing application that is designed to take the place of Photo Viewer in Windows 7 and Vista, especially those installations that may have trouble displaying PNG and GIF files in Photo Viewer. ImageGlass loads images faster than Photo Viewer, thanks to a feature that uses RAM to preload the next image. It also lets you quickly resize and reorient images in the main display.

With a blank main window and an icon-based toolbar, ImageGlass … Read more

We admit that hearing the term "meta-analysis" always leads us to imagine Groucho saying, "I never met a nalysis I didn't like," but the technique of combining the results of several studies to achieve a more accurate overview of the subject is nothing funny to statisticians. MIX 2.0 Lite is a free add-on for Microsoft Excel that performs professional-level meta-analyses from Excel's ribbon. It offers more than 20 built-in datasets taken from published methods, plus a data wizard that cites book and page number for users who want to look it up themselves. … Read more

AMD's Fusion series of APU processors first grabbed our attention at the beginning of 2011 for their impressive showing in 11.6-inch ultraportable laptops like the HP Pavilion dm1z, offering great performance and battery life for a good price. The E and C-series APUs representing the entry-level and thin-and-light side of the laptop and desktop universe have been updated, with memory and graphics enhancements and a promised gain in resting battery life.

AMD claims 12 hours of resting battery life on a charge on the C-series APUs, and 10.5 hours on the new E-series. Of course, our battery … Read more

There's an endless supply of Web-based tools that can convert just about any measurement from one unit to another. If you need to convert really obscure units, though, or need a conversion tool on a regular basis, try Unit Conversion Professional from Inventive Design. It's a free Flash-based tool that converts more than 800 pairs of units in 32 categories. It also includes a calculator and a library of scientific formulas.

Unit Conversion Professional's dialog-style interface opens with its menu page, which offers two scrolling lists, View Formulas and Convert Units. The conversion units are categorized from … Read more

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE (Verizon) has the same thin, iPad 2-like design as the Wi-Fi-only version of the tablet. So the question is, are blazingly fast 4G speeds worth being stuck in a two-year commitment?

Sure, you could forgo the contract and pay extra for the tablet, but in that case you might as well plop down cash for the Wi-Fi only Tab 10.1.

No, if you're interested in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE (Verizon), then you're obviously interested in your tablet always being connected. Well, depending on Verizon's … Read more

The old saying that "time is money" is especially true for freelancers. That's why it's important to keep an accurate account of all the time spent on specific projects. As its name suggests, TimeSheet offers a simple way to track billable time on one or more projects. It's definitely one that we'll be keeping around while we work.

The program's user interface is pretty basic, but in a good way. An online Help feature is available, but we didn't need it to jump right in and start recording our time. We entered … Read more