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Major Share's CPU-M Benchmark is a free program that runs benchmarking tests on your CPU and RAM and displays detailed test results in an easy-to-read interface. You can also post your results online to share and compare. That's all this tool does, but it's enough to have so much useful technical data in one place. Most users won't need CPU-M Benchmark's detailed reports; at least, not beyond basic performance data. But technicians and geeks will find lot of useful information.

CPU-M Benchmark's compact, dialog-based user interface looks a lot like the system data and … Read more

With energy costs perpetually rising, you don't have to be all that green to want to reduce your energy use and expenditures. Energy Cost Calculator from AB-Tools is freeware that calculates how much energy your appliances use, and how much it's costing you. It's easy to use, but you'll need to know your electric utility rates, usage habits, and appliance types for the program to calculate your energy costs. Energy Cost Calculator's database includes many examples, and you can add new ones, too.

Energy Cost Calculator's compact interface opened with an optional tool tip … Read more

ThGCube is a desktop enhancement that lets you create a slideshow of images displayed in a cube or other animated format. It's a nice idea and has a surprising number of features, but in practice we weren't too crazy about it.

ThGCube offers six options for displaying images: the cube, a star shape, horizontal and vertical wheels, and horizontal and vertical lines. Some of these are kind of hard to describe, but all involve animated 3D displays of your images. Our first beef with ThGCube was the large watermark displayed on the unregistered version. We have nothing against … Read more

If it's time to organize those years of photographs, or just the dozens from your last vacation, you can get a professional-looking slideshow with Bolide Slideshow Creator, a free tool designed to made it easy to create your own quality slideshow presentations.

The tool has a very straightforward interface. Putting together a slideshow presentation is a simple matter of drag and drop; just pick the photos and background music from among your collection. We liked the option to add comments to the photos and the number of transition effects you can choose from to make the presentation more visually … Read more

Cloudmark Desktop One is an antispam tool for small and medium businesses, but it's free for personal use. It protects your e-mail account from spam, phishing, and viruses. It automatically configures itself to your e-mail account, but it works independently to protect you from threats even when your e-mail client is closed. It supports Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird with its optional integrated toolbar, and Gmail, Yahoo, Lycos, Hotmail, FastMail, and AOL without the toolbar. It offers separate downloads for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Vista, and 7. We tried the 64-bit version in … Read more

If you are one of those who want to have a workspace dedicated to specific types of activities, then nSpaces from Bytesignals is definitely the app for you. It helps you set up virtual desktops tailor-made for whatever purpose you choose.

The free virtual desktop application, once installed, requires a little bit of work configuring the different desktops you want to add. However, once this step is done, using the app is quite easy. You can switch desktops by assigning hot keys or launching the Switcher and choosing the desktop you want to use from there. There is also the … Read more

How do you feel about global domination? Answer 1: "Ick." Answer 2: "I'm fine with that, as long as it's me doing the dominating." If you chose Answer 2, you'll probably enjoy Absolute Risk, a classic Word Domination Risk game from Developersland. Chances are good you're already familiar with the basics of this free strategy game, which involves moving armies to conquer territories and continents: We have a clue that it's based on a classic board game with something of a monopoly on the Risk market. But while you need to … Read more

Speed-reading programs are older than computer programs, but they're a natural when teamed up as software. Speed Reading III is a simple, free tool that tests your reading speed but not your comprehension. It's designed to help you increase your reading speed and concentration, which can boost comprehension. The basic idea isn't to try to read every word as fast as you can but to focus on a midpoint and see how well you understand the message.

Speed Reading III opens with a plain and simple interface containing a text message that describes the basics of reading … Read more

So you'd like to be able to illustrate your reports and documents with top-quality charts and diagrams. You've got MS Paint, or maybe something better. You open a new document and...yikes. It's not as easy as it looks, and you end up trying to draw straight lines with your mouse. Why not try creating diagrams in Pencil? This free, open-source diagramming and GUI prototyping tool has a huge range of stencils and preconfigured elements to drag and drop into an intuitive interface. Pencil works as a Firefox add-on or a standalone tool using XULRunner, which is … Read more