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Legroom's Universal Extractor is a free extraction tool designed to let you decompress and extract files from virtually any archive, including some you probably haven't heard of before. What it can't do is create archives; the developers are quite clear that Universal Extractor isn't meant to take the place of utilities like 7Zip or WinRar. Instead, it bundles together a variety of useful backend utilities. It's a great addition to your Windows toolkit, and great to have around when you need it, even if that's not very often.

Universal Extractor has a user interface … Read more

Spybot - Search & Destroy Portable is a free security program that scans for and removes malicious or unwanted adware, malware, spyware, and other threats on any compatible Windows PC without requiring you to install it. That's because it's been portable-ized by PortableApps. Its download contains everything you need to run Spybot without the program making any changes to your PC, beyond purging junk, that is.

Spybot's portable application installer (.paf) can save the program's executable to virtually any directory, including a USB thumbdrive. Spybot's interface consists of a two-paned main window and a navigation … Read more

Do you use more than one Skype account? One developer grew frustrated with the limitations of trying to use his multiple Skype accounts on one machine in one session, so he wrote Skype Launcher, a simple piece of freeware that automatically signs in to multiple Skype accounts with a single click. It automatically detects accounts that are already signed in to Skype and only launches offline accounts.

Skype Launcher opened with the Skype Launcher Configuration utility, to which we added our Skype accounts by entering each account's name and password in a pop-up. A check box let us choose … Read more

Progress in upgrading math's tools has been uneven: blackboards have become whiteboards, but calculators and software have come up short in trying to replicate the speed and simplicity of pencil and paper. Math-o-mir is the result of the surprisingly difficult effort to develop a software-based equation editor to meet that need. It's a free tool with one goal, to make writing and editing mathematical equations as easy and natural as scribbling on a pad. It's not a math engine, design tool, or image editor, though it uses some of the same concepts, such as freehand drawing and … Read more

Fish are a popular theme for screensavers; the computer screen lends itself well to aquarium-like graphics, and screensaver developers have taken full advantage of that fact. We like this trend, too; these screensavers bring some of the beauty and relaxation of aquariums to your desk without the hassle of cleaning tanks and adjusting pH levels. Free Desktop Fish Screensaver is one of many such programs, and it didn't do much to impress us. It's not awful, but there are many similar programs out there that we like better.

The program installs easily and appeared in our Display Properties … Read more

While the casual movie fan might be content to keep her or his movie collection on a shelf and pay little attention to it, true film buffs tend to be a bit more proactive when it comes to organization. GrieeX Movie Archive Program is a database that lets people keep track of the movies they own and import a variety of related information from the Internet, too. We like the premise of the program, but in practice, it leaves a lot to be desired.

The program's interface is plain and fairly easy to navigate, although some of its features … Read more

Do you find yourself constantly flipping back and forth between Facebook and whatever it is you're supposed to be doing? In about as much time as it takes to say, "There has got to be a better way," you can download and install Facebook Toolbar from MSBit. This free Firefox add-on places a new toolbar in your browser that contains everything you need right at the top of whatever browser window you're in.

We installed the Facebook Toolbar and restarted Firefox, and then opened the add-on manager to view Facebook Toolbar's options. These involve selecting … Read more

Developer Dave's Ultimate Football Results is a free Google Chrome extension that fetches results from the most popular soccer leagues from multiple BBC Sport pages and displays them in one page in Chrome. It's the fastest way to check the latest results for your team, league, or association.

Ultimate Football Results is compact and, like most Chrome extensions, installs almost instantaneously. It placed a soccer ball icon in Chrome's address bar; we clicked it to access the extension's setup options. This involved selecting feeds for four tabs, each with four separate frames containing a drop-down list … Read more

Calendar and to-do list applications are incredibly common, so a program of this type has to be really special to stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately, SimBust Calendar Manager Lite doesn't do much to distinguish itself. The program works just fine, but there's nothing about it that really impressed us.

The program's interface is plain and a little dated, with standard-issue menus and icons across the top. The main pane displays a calendar view. Another pane displays a to-do list, and a third lists folders that to-do items are stored in. The only thing remotely useful or … Read more