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Highlight & Draw Anywhere Over Desktop & Open Windows With Epic Pen

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Epic Pen is an open-source desktop application for Windows that’s designed with one purpose in mind: to let you draw anything, anywhere, on any window. While a tool like this might seem limited in terms of functionality, but it’s not quite so and can be genuinely useful under a myriad of usage scenarios. For instance, you can use it during presentations or screencasts for marking and reviewing ideas or pointing to different objects on the screen, even if they are spread across different apps or the desktop. That said, the application can also come in handy for arc-tracking, annotation, and freehand drawing motion. Epic Pen enables you to draw with an ink pen or highlighter tool on the desktop and also provides an eraser tool to revert changes at any time. You can hide and unhide the drawing on the fly. Likewise, the application also lets you use hotkeys to switch between the available drawing tools. Read More

Edit Images & View Them In Sync On Multiple PCs Over LAN With Nomacs

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There has never been a shortage of image viewers on Windows as well as other major desktop platforms; hop on to any software repository on the internet and you will find plenty of options for viewing your photos. So, do we really need another one? Perhaps yes. Especially when image viewers like Nomacs  come packaged with an umpteen number of features, the offer becomes even more enticing. On the surface, it looks exactly like any other image viewer, but deep down you will find a slew of handy tools that are likely to make Nomacs one of your favorite apps. The application supports almost all the major image formats out there (Including RAW), and lets you easily view and edit pictures in JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, TIF, XPM, PGM, CR2, NEF, RW2, PSD and DNG formats, among a handful of others. A rather unusual feature is Nomacs' ability to sync the image view across multiple PCs over your local network, which really sets it apart from other similar tools. Read More

How To Send Video Messages To Your Offline Contacts In Skype

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Voicemail lets you deflect calls when you’re busy in order to be able to access the recorded messages later. If you've ever thought of having that very same feature in Skype - the leading app for making voice and video calls over the internet, we have some great news for you. Skype has just added the feature and you can now send video messages to your Skype contacts even when they’re offline. On free accounts, a video message can be 3 minutes long, but with a premium account, users can send video messages of any length. The video messages can be sent from both desktop and mobile apps of the service, and can be recorded by front facing or regular back cameras on mobile devices. Read More

Add Paoramic Camera Motion To Time-Lapse Videos With Panolapse

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If you’ve ever seen those nature documentaries on Discovery Channel or National Geographic, you don't really need any explanation about time-lapse videos. Just how they fast-forward time to capture all those plants growing and sun moving in and out of sight in seconds is simply jaw-dropping. With wide adoption of DSLR cameras, time-lapse photography has become quite famous over the past few years. Beside professional cameras specifically designed with this option, there's a variety of smartphone and desktop apps developed to help all types of users with creating time-lapses. So, how about creating them using a bit of your time and a free desktop tool called Panolapse? It’s a free app available for Window as well as Mac OS X for creating time lapse videos with virtual camera motion. Read More

Encode Secret Messages As BMP Images With Text to Color For Windows

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We should all know by now that transferring sensitive personal data such as credit card information, social security number, bank account details or even your Facebook account credentials through email, cloud storage or similar services has never been the ideally safe method for the task. Even though some of these file sharing channels provide ‘military grade’ protection against many kinds of hacking and cracking, it’s much safer if you rather choose to manually encrypt your text using many of the third-party apps available free of cost, before transferring them over any of these mediums. Although there’s no carved-in-stone guarantee that those ciphers will be absolutely unbreakable, having an extra layer of protection does make sense. One amazingly simple, yet highly effective app for doing that is Text to Color that allows you to encode your secret messages into a BMP image file. Read More

HotShots Is A Windows Screenshot Utility With Rich Annotation Options

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We've covered a large variety of screenshot tools in the past, including the likes of some really great ones such as Greenshot and Shotty. Though if you're looking for a screenshot app for Windows that can let you annotate the captured images as well as upload them to a host of image sharing sites, try taking HotShots for a spin. This open-source application is designed with many features in mind and sports a decent UI along with an intuitive, tried and tested design. HotShots doesn't bring any new idea to the table, but takes the best ones out of existing screenshot tools and combine them to create a nifty application that can come in handy in a number of situations that need you to take and post screenshots to explain various complex tasks. Read More

Create & Edit Animated GIFs And Apply Custom Effects To Each Frame

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Animated GIFs are now more than just a moving sequence of still images; they're considered a fun medium of expression used in social media, forums and comment threads around the web. As much as avid web surfers - specifically active social media users and forum buffs - love good animated GIFs, they also love creating their own. Some extract them from movies and TV shows, while others create something fun out of their favorite images. Beneton Movie GIF is a Windows application that meant for editing and creating GIF files. It boasts a comprehensive set of static and dynamic effects, and sports an intuitive editing workspace for creating GIFs from still images. Read More

Replace Any Windows System File The Easy Way Using Sysmate

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You cannot replace or modify DLL system files in Windows without taking their ownership first. And even if you do manage to take ownership of certain core system files, they still cannot be easily replaced or moved due to the Windows File Protection (WFP) security feature built into the operating system. A ‘Destination Folder Access Denied’ error is usually encountered by the user upon trying to replace such file(s). WFP not only ensures the integrity of such files, but also protects core modules from being corrupted or modified without explicit user knowledge. Back in 2010, we covered a Windows app named Windows Se7en File Replacer that can replace and restore system files with just a single click. SysMate – System File Walker is another similar tool designed for the same purpose. Read on for more details about its usage and design. Read More

View A History Of PC Shutdown Times & Session Durations With Nirsoft TurnedOnTimesView

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Is it better to shutdown your PC on regular basis? This is one of those questions that I often come across on various Internet forums. A certain school of thought is that Windows has a limited number of shutdown cycles, so if you tend to power it off every now and then, chances are Windows' performance will deteriorate over time. But since I've never faced any such issue by shutting down my PC every night, I'd call it nothing more than an escalated myth. If you want to monitor how many times have you turned your PC on and off, Nirsoft – one of the most popular Windows applications developer – has unveiled a new application called TurnedOnTimesView, which allows you to monitor and log Windows' power state to detect time periods during which you pulled the plug. Read More

YNote Classic Is A Text & Code Editor With Macros, Multiple Tabs & Panels

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We’ve covered quite a few really good text editors in the past. ModernNote, for example, is a feature-rich Windows 8 modern UI app with quite a minimal design, and NeechPad is a great a overhaul of Windows’ native Notepad app. Continuing this lineage of worthy text editors is YNote Classic, a Windows app with tabbed and multiple documents view, intelligent syntax editing, auto-indent, auto-completion and code-folding – features that aren't found in many minimal text editors. The app has the potential to become your next go-to text editor, especially since it can highlight any language using Regular Expressions, as well as handle files with hundreds of thousands of lines of code quite adeptly, thanks to its File Binding Mode. Read More

Create Mouse-Chasing Screencasts With Audio & Add Effects To Them

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Recording on-screen activity of computer has never been a difficult task. You can download numerous free and paid apps that allow you to quickly capture or record screencasts. We have also covered plenty of such tools for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms such as Screen Video Recorder, Adobe Presenter Video Express and Kazam Screencaster, among many others. The one that we're about to discuss today is a Windows screen recorder that not only lets you capture screencasts, but also allows you to overlay various filter effects on them, in addition to recording audio. Screen Recorder Free sports a decent design and effective features for capturing screencasts according to your requirements. It lets you record a selected window, a particular screen area, a specified region around the mouse cursor, or the entire screen. Read More

Convert EXE Installers To MSI With Optional Command Line Parameters

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Windows application installers come in two file types; EXE and MSI. EXE is commonly used in all types of executable files including many app installers. MSI, on the other hand, is the standard format for installing Windows programs, based on the official Window Installer by Microsoft. They may look similar on the surface, and in fact, both work quite good for their purpose, deep down you will find quite a bit of differences between them. MSI performs a cleaner installation, which makes it easy to remove the program and all its traces from the appropriate locations. The EXE format often automatically checks if a computer is capable of running certain program or not and if it does, it automatically executes the included MSI file. If you have got some installation packages that you want to convert from EXE to MSI, give Exe To Msi Converter Free a shot. Boasting a decent and easily understandable interface, the program does the simple thing it's advertised for, and does it exactly as it should. It also allows users to add command-line arguments for the resulting MSI file prior to conversion. Read More

8Smoker Pro Bundles Tons Of Windows 8 Performance & Security Tweaks

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It’s been over 9 months since Microsoft introduced Windows 8 to consumers. The time in between went by fairly quickly, during which loads of third-party tools and apps were developed to bring both aesthetic as well as performance refinements to the new OS, despite it being already quite smooth and snappy out of the box. 8Smoker Pro is a new Windows 8 app designed to boost the operating system’s performance in a lot of aspects. Although it looks very simple on the surface, the application carries many tweaks and performance enhancements that can optimize Windows 8 via implementing backend changes to the registry. It’s a one-click optimization tool, though not something to tinker with if you're not sure what you wanna do. Read on for more details. Read More

Kidzy Is A Configurable, Child-Safe Web Browser For Concerned Parents

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Internet is a source of practically infinite knowledge and entertainment for all and sundry. Even our children can take great benefit out of it if used in the right manner and for the right purpose. But the fear of exposure to inappropriate content like pornography, online harassment, child predators etc. tend to worry people and keep them from allowing their children to use the internet unsupervised. Kidzy is a full-screen internet browser that can be employed to let small children browse the web in a secure and safe environment that isn't offered by mainstream web browsers like Firefox and Chrome. The application’s parental control features aren't very flexible, but they do ensure that your kids only get to surf the web pages that you have explicitly allowed them to. Read More

Easily Add, Delete & Edit PATH Variable Entries With Path Manager

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In Windows, PATH is an environment variable that lists directories where the operating system basically looks for executable files when provided a command to execute. For instance, when you type in 'calc' in the Run dialog or in a Command Prompt window without even specifying its own path, it still opens because its location i.e. C:\Windows\System32 is a part of the PATH variable. Even though Windows lets you view and edit PATH (right-click Computer > Properties > Advance System Settings > Environment Variables), the process itself can confuse a lot of users and take time to get there every time you want to make changes to the variable. An easier way would be to use applications like Path Manager. This is an open-source Windows tool that makes viewing and editing Path variables a tad bit easier. The simple interface of the app displays everything in an easy understandable manner. And moreover, you can do it in just a few easy steps. Besides just displaying PATH, it also displays validity of its entries. Read More

Reg Is A Windows Registry Editor Alternative With Bookmarks & Better Search

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Windows Registry is a central database that carries information regarding configuration settings for user profiles, applications, system settings and utilities, device drivers etc. in a single, well sorted and organized information hive. All versions of Windows are shipped with the Registry. Even though it’s quite genuinely useful, the native Registry Editor tool does feels fairly lacking when it comes to its limited features; it seems quite tedious to browse and doesn't offer a way to quickly jump to a certain registry key or location. The open source program Reg has come forward to solve this nuisance. It not only allows you to quickly hop to your desired registry key, but also lets you bookmark registry locations, and offers a few additional features. Read More

Batch-Download Facebook Videos On Windows For Offline Viewing

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Facebook can be an awesome platform for viewing and sharing different videos from around the web, but sometimes you like a video enough to want to view it again and again. Signing in to Facebook every time you want to view the video can become a bit tedious. In such a scenario, you’d want to download the video to your computer and enjoy it offline, as you would other videos stored on your computer. AVGO Free Facebook Video Downloader is a Windows app that makes that very convenient; grab any clip you want, and copy it to your hard drive! Read More

Bing Translator App Now Available For Windows 8 & RT

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Bing Translator has been available for Windows Phone for quite a some time now. The app, akin to Google Translator, allows users to translate text to and from about 40 different supported languages. The app has now arrived on Windows 8 and Windows RT. Its simple UI aside, the app boasts plentiful features that make translation a breeze. You can manually enter text for translation, use the app's camera translation feature to see translation of printed foreign text in augmented reality and quickly translate text from other Windows Store apps using the Share menu. It’s not just the best translator app, but one of the best apps to hit the Windows Store. Read on for further details. Read More

Silver Key Offers Quick File Encryption & App-Independent Decryption

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The internet is to the online community what a forest is to the traveler: full of spectacular sights and sounds, but occasionally wearying. Exchanging sensitive data is one such cause for concern. Encryption is the way to go, but how do you send private files to people without them having to install or learn frustrating decrypting software? Try the one-click Silver Key to unlock that problem; with its 256-bit encryption key and reputable AES cipher, you can quickly secure any number of files right from Windows Explorer. Parcels can be made as self-extracting EXE files as well, meaning the recipients won't need Silver Key installed to extract them. What’s more, Silver Key can even run from a USB drive! Read More

DI Radio Player Is An Internet Radio Streaming App On A Diet

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Radio apps come in a variety of shapes and sizes for almost every mobile and desktop platform. But how many of them actually offer a way to access multiple radio broadcasters under one interface? Not many I guess. Should you have been looking for one, try DI Radio Player – a desktop application for Windows that gives you access to four renowned radio broadcasting services and allows you to access their radio channels. The list of services includes Digitally Imported, JazzRadio, RockRadio and SKY.FM. You can explore and listen to thousands of radio stations, music genres & artists, and switch between the supported services on the fly. The application even allows you to log in to these online radio services from within the app, and boasts features like user-customizable hotkeys, visualizers and a software equalizer. Read More