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2.5

Start-up program control

Startup Delayer helps users avoid a slow system start by giving them control over programs that automatically load when Windows boots up.

This program provides a simple interface to work with. The screen is dominated by the list of programs your computer opens when starting Windows. Above this list is a short row of icons that allow you to add and remove programs and organize the time they are opened.

Adding a program is as simple as locating it in the file tree and then assigning it a specific time to open after Windows has begun. From there it is … Read more

Prevents Web access

Mask Surf Lite's claim to fame is that it offers users privacy while browsing the Web by providing a false IP address. However, when we put it to the test, it completely blocked us from browsing altogether.

We had to click the program's desktop shortcut several times before it appeared in our Taskbar. On several occasions, the Taskbar icon failed to appear at all. Eventually, right-clicking on the icon introduced options for changing the false IP address, as well as for performing a privacy test. Both features directed us to Web pages that weren't available. When we … Read more

Lackluster performance

1 Click Boost is a diagnostic program that is supposed to quickly optimize your system's performance. However, when we put it to the test, we found no discernible difference in our system's memory and Internet connection speeds.

The user interface is colorful and easy to navigate. Menu shortcuts at the top of the window organize the program's functions into categories: Internet, Memory, Process, and Cache. Within each function are tune-up options. For example, under the Internet function, we could choose to enable automatic discovery and acknowledge optimization. Thankfully, the program does include an extensive Help file to … Read more

Access your datebook anytime

Daisho provides you with a datebook you can access anytime from any computer. This highly detailed calendar and organizational system has an impressive collection of options for busy people, however it is somewhat time-intensive to master.

Users who are familiar with Microsoft's Outlook program will find many of Daisho's features familiar. Traditional options that make choreographing daily life easier are here, such as setting up meetings, reminding users about important phone calls, e-mailing meeting reminders, and managing a contact list.

This free 30-day trial also provides some interesting details that many casual users may not find useful, but … Read more

Hitachi makes new eco-friendly hard drive

Hitachi on Wednesday joined the crowd of green-storage vendors with its fourth generation of the CinemaStar hard-drive family.

The new drive features Hitachi's EcoTrac Classification. This means it's halogen-free and has very low power consumption. The new CinemaStar features a read/write power specification of 1.4W--a reduction of 22 percent compared to previous models.

Other that that, this is a 2.5-inch (laptop) SATA hard drive that has the spinning speed of 5,400 rpm, which is popular though slower than the 7,200 rpm of some higher-end drives.

According to Hitachi, its new CinemaStar hard drive … Read more

Average archiver yields good compression

The misleadingly named PIM is an adequate, but uninspiring archiving tool amid a sea of more capable multifunction utilities. However, what this program lacks in features, it makes up for in the power of its compression algorithm. It doesn't offer much in the way of an interface, relying on window menu items or an incomplete set of shortcut keys to access its functions.

PIM delivers on its promise of creating smaller compressed files (compared with a ZIP file), using its proprietary format, and it opened ZIP files as expected. Its minimal options/settings window lets you easily associate the … Read more

Super Talent to release budget solid-state drives

Two weeks after announcing two new high-speed solid-state drives (SSD), Super Talent Technology on Tuesday announced it will release the MasterDrive LX as a budget solid-state drive later this week.

The MasterDrive LX comes in 64GB and 128GB versions and will cost about $179 and $300, respectively. Both drives are SATA-II and use NAND flash technology. They will be compatible with computers that support the ever-popular 2.5-inch SATA hard drive.

The low prices do come with a shortcoming: the throughput speed. The new MasterDrive LX drives are significantly slower than other SSDs; it's even slower than some regular … Read more

Toshiba announces faster 1.8-inch hard drive

Two weeks after releasing the largest capacity 1.8-inch hard drive, Toshiba announced on Thursday its MKxx29GSG series of this small form factor storage device that's finally catching up with the regular 2.5-inch laptop hard drives in terms of speed and storage space.

For a long time, 1.8-inch hard drives' performance was limited to 4,200rpm and the old-school ATA interface, making them significantly slower than the currently popular 2.5-inch hard drives that spin at 5,400rpm (or even faster at 7,200rpm) and use the SATA standard. That discrimination has ended now with Toshiba's … Read more

Super Talent offers two new solid-state drives

Tuesday, Super Talent Technology introduced two "dangerously fast" solid-state hard drives, the MasterDrive OX and the MasterDrive PX.

The budget MasterDrive OX uses multilevel cell NAND flash and has data speeds of up to 150MB per second in sequential read and 100B per second in sequential write, according to the company. The MasterDrive OX comes in capacities up to 128GB and has a 1-year warranty.

The higher-end MasterDrive PX, on other hand, uses single-level cell NAND flash and focuses on the reliability and endurance, rather than capacity. It, too, is supposed to have lightning-fast sequential read and write … Read more