Software Reviews: business and educational--Freeware Utilities for Your Flash Drive from SnapFiles.com

Cyber News and Reviews is a monthly column published since 1995 for parents, teachers and small business and home business owners offering articles on some of the best computer products available. I cover business software, education, entertainment with freeware and shareware, and some hardware too. Over the years, I've reviewed computer programs from Microsoft, Knowledge Adventure (Davidson) and others. When my kids were young, they couldn't wait for the software to arrive and have fun testing the games and lessons with me. And, in the past few years they've contributed some of their own reviews with opinions. The best advice on software is from the children who use it. Also, many of the business programs reviewed are useful for home business and small business owners. HB

Freeware Utilities for Your Flash Drive from SnapFiles.com®

By Howard Berenbon

If you haven’t jumped into the USB Flash drive rage, then now is the time to buy a few. Prices have been dropping like hotcakes and to date, you can buy a 2 GB drive for about $20 at any of your local electronic or office supply chains. So, if you don’t have one or two, I’ll wait while you pick one up.

Okay, that should be enough time, and I hope you found a good deal on the drive and have it installed (installation if fairly automatic). So, now that you have a Flash drive in hand, you’ll be happy to know that people are creating some great utilities to add to that drive. And, a great software site called SnapFiles.com® (originally Webattack.com) has a ton of programs you can use. Here are some of the latest and greatest Windows compatible utilities for that neat little USB storage device. And if you’re interested, just click on the title to download.

Free Utilities

WinAudit - perform a detailed audit of the hardware and software configuration of your computer.

Reach-a-Mail - a portable email client that can be carried on a USB drive and used to check your email, download messages, and more.

GreatNews - an RSS feed reader that optimized for fast and efficient reading of your favorite web feeds.

YamiPod - manage the content of your iPod without the need to have iTunes installed. You can copy mp3 and AAC files plus a lot more.

IZArc2Go - a portable version of IZArc, a full featured archiving tool that you can use to open and create compressed files in many different formats.

PStart - a portable start menu that can be installed on a USB drive or your local PC and for quick access to programs and documents.

Foxit PDF Reader - an alternative to Adobe Reader allowing you to view and print PDF files. Unlike Adobe Reader, it opens PDF files very fast

RoboForm2Go - a secure password manager and form filler. It stores all your login information and can run directly from a USB drive.

KeePass Password Safe - a secure password manager that allows you to store your sensitive login information in an encrypted database.

Dr.Web CureIt - a standalone anti-virus and anti-spyware scanner that scans your PC for viruses, trojans, adware, spyware, hack tools, and more.

Omziff - a standalone encryption and security utility, that allows you to encrypt/decrypt a file, using several well known encryption algorithms.

eTextReader - enables you to read the plain text files provided by Project Gutenberg in a book-like manner.

UK Kalender - a straightforward calendar and ToDo application with a solid set of features and an easy to use interface.

Qm - The Quick Mailer - a tiny program for sending quick e-mail messages without having to load your main email client program.

TreePad Lite - an intuitive and powerful personal database program, PIM and personal data search engine.

SmartSniff - a TCP/IP packet capture program that allows you to inspect network traffic that passes through your network adapter.

Business Software Reviewed & Educational Software Reviews since 1995 - Anti-spyware and virus detection and protection programs