Open your PDF files faster with Free Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7. In the past, you've had to download a huge PDF reader from another software company, go through a lengthy installation process and wait for an annoying splash window to disappear just to open a PDF document.

Adobe Reader is a real pain in the hindquarters. It's monstrously large, slow to load, and includes many features most users will hardly ever need. Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 kills the bloat and throws in some useful features, such as multimedia support and content-sharing options, while still allowing you to quickly access your PDFs.

The interface mimics Adobe's, so you won't have to change your reading habits. The small program starts surprisingly fast compared with Adobe. You might need to fiddle a bit to get it to work with your Internet browser, but you can find help on Foxit's support forums. It's a nice touch that it opens PDFs from the Internet in their own Foxit window, instead of sucking resources from within the browser.

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Free Video Converter: Any Video Converter Freeware

Free Video Converter features:

Input formats:

avi, asf, mov, rm, rmvb, flv, mkv, mpg, 3gp, m4v, vob, YouTube videos and more

Output formats:

avi, mp4, wmv, swf, flv, mkv, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, mpg (PAL or NTSC), mp3, wma, ogg, aac, wave, m4a

• Supports video trimming to convert any part you need of the original videos.

• Supports video merging to merge video clips into a single file.

• Includes a batch converter to quickly convert multiple movies and auto-shotdown functions for batch conversion.

• Completely customizable video and audio parameters.
• Download and convert online videos from YouTube, Google and NicoVideo in one step with YouTube video quality specifying support.

• Supports up to 18 languages for people around the world.

• Absolutely free - nothing to buy!

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Bypass error message with Unlocker

Ever had such an annoying message given by Windows?

It has many other flavors:

Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

Unlocker is the solution!
1. Simply right click the folder or file and select Unlocker

2. If the folder or file is locked, a window listing of lockers will appear

3. Simply click Unlock All and you are done!

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Use Security Inspector tool to check for security settings

This article is outdated and Norton haven update its site. Will update again if there are any new updates.

Security Inspector is a tool that you can use to check your computer’s security settings and configure them according to your personal preferences. Security Inspector checks the following:

• Whether your browser settings are set to a secure level
• Whether Norton Internet Security is configured to protect installed IM clients (for example whether IM scanning is on, if you’ve got a relevant IM client installed)
• Whether any attempts have been made to modify your hosts file (for example redirecting your local host entry)
• Whether your computer has insecure shared folder settings (for example if there are global shares – C$ D$ etc, enabled, system folders are shared, hidden shares, etc.) – SI can close undesirable shares
• Displays a list of user accounts that have more rights (admin privileges) than they need
• Checks for windows services that should be configured to start manually rather than automatically, and services that should be configured not to start. The “fix” operation will only allow the user to change each service to start (or not start) according to our recommendation.
• Whether your machine has Windows user accounts with weak passwords.

Security Inspector requires a working copy of Norton Internet Security 2009 installed on your computer. If you do not have a copy of Norton Internet Security 2009, you may purchase a copy here.

You can grab a 6 months Norton Internet Security offer here if the offer haven expiry. (Scroll down to the 6 months trials).

If the above offer is expiry, you can go to the official website here to download 1 month free trial.

Click here to download Security Inspector tool if you already had Norton Internet Security installed in your computer.

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Use Norton user account control (UAC) instead of Vista UAC

User Account Control (UAC) is a security feature of Microsoft Windows Vista that changes the architecture of the access token creation process and prevents users from logging on with full administrative rights.

While the intent of this feature may have been enhanced security, all too often users need administrative rights for routine tasks like installing/updating programs and changing operating system settings. Additionally, many software applications need the appropriate access to run properly. This leads to poor user experiences because UAC always prompts the user on every administrative task. The prompts are slow to display and appear frequently without warning. Also, UAC prompts are confusing and do not provide users with any recommendations. This actually raises security concerns because prompting the user for every action with the intent that the user misses nothing is a false security model. The more a user is prompted, the more likely it is that he or she will dismiss the prompt without reading it.

The net effect is that many users find the UAC security clearance/prompting process annoying, especially those who are a given computer’s sole user and are running the latest Norton Internet Security software.

The Norton User Account Control tool will replace parts of the Windows Vista UAC system. It will utilize the UAC security feature from the Windows Vista architecture, while simultaneously improving user-friendliness significantly. The tool prompts recommendations based on an assessment on the user-action i.e. the signature information of the executable. The tool also has a “remember me” feature that allows users to suppress future prompts from the same action.

The goal of this tool is eventually build a white-list (as well as black-list) database on various administrative actions, and to enable users to make smart decisions without unnecessary prompts, using prompts only as a last resort. The prompt will provide users with as much information as possible, as well as recommendations on the action requested. The Norton User Account Control tool will collect user input as well as information about the application that causes UAC prompts. This data will be processed to help build and improve the comprehensiveness and robustness of the white list.

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Optimize the usage and performance of the laptop's battery with BatteryCare!

BatteryCare is a software created to optimize the usage and performance of the modern laptop's battery.

It monitors the battery's discharge cycles and helps increasing it's autonomy and improving its lifetime.

Features

• Battery's discharge cycles monitoring

  The advanced algorithm accurately records when a complete discharge cycle is performed.

  When the configured number of discharge cycles is reached, a notification balloon pops up to remind that a full discharge is required.

• Complete battery information

  It calculates the statistical remaining time in laptops that don't support the battery time left information and only list the charge percentage.

  Shows all the detailed information about the battery, such as wear level, capacities, consumption, manufacturer, etc.

• Notification area information

  In battery mode, the notification icon shows the remaining time and percentage of battery

• Automatic power plans switching

  Depending on the power source of the computer, BatteryCare can automatically select the power plan you prefer.

• Control over Windows Aero and demanding Services

  Automatically disable the graphics accelerated theme in Windows Vista and/or demanding services that degrade battery lifetime.
  Once the laptop stops running on batteries, the theme is re-enabled and the stopped services are restored.

• Auto-updates

  No need to trouble in downloading new installers, when a new version is available, the program updates itself.

• Lightweight in the system

  Given the concern about the battery optimization, BatteryCare does not interfere with the system performance. It requires only a mere 0,1% of Processor and Memory resources.

More screenshots are available here.

You might be interested in how to prolong battery lifespan.

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Protect your privacy with Tor

Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.

Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.

Why we need Tor

Using Tor protects you against a common form of Internet surveillance known as "traffic analysis." Traffic analysis can be used to infer who is talking to whom over a public network. Knowing the source and destination of your Internet traffic allows others to track your behavior and interests. This can impact your checkbook if, for example, an e-commerce site uses price discrimination based on your country or institution of origin. It can even threaten your job and physical safety by revealing who and where you are. For example, if you're travelling abroad and you connect to your employer's computers to check or send mail, you can inadvertently reveal your national origin and professional affiliation to anyone observing the network, even if the connection is encrypted.

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