My Telegraph column today notes the passing of “Shareware Report,” which has appeared in this blog for a couple of years, and in the newspaper for a dozen years. Bill & Dave, the local guys who did the report, which had an accompanying radio show for years, are moving on for personal reasons.
If they were [...]

How we’ve missed reviewing this little gem over the years we’ll never know. It’s been on our systems since 2003, and has been staring puppy-eyed at us all these years like Dave waiting by the door to be let out.
If you need to record screen and audio activity for later posting [...]

To see past Shareware Report posts, click here.
A few years ago Microsoft would have us believe that they had a new and improved operating system. Instead, they delivered the half-baked Vista (can you say “Bob, Too?”).  If you fell for their bogus claims and brought the new OS, you’re in the minority. [...]

To see past Shareware Report posts, click here.
When you spend considerable time at the computer, you risk developing repetitive-stress injury, carpal-tunnel syndrome, arthritis, neck and back problems, and other fun conditions. If you use the computer to work and play, you need to leave it regularly. Get some exercise, for Jiminy [...]

This Sumo stands for Software Update Monitor, and boy does it ever monitor your software.

Install this freeware, and it will scan your system for installed applications and notify you whether updates are available, be they minor, major, or current. Sumo displays your version and the available update, and will even link to the site where the update is available.

As more applications move to the Web, we’re seeing more things we can do online rather than on our client systems. Slideshare allows us to post presentations and documents online, and we can add audio to create a full-fledge webinar.”

The fine folks who’ve given you CCleaner and Defraggler (both of which we’ve given thumbs up) have come to your rescue with Recuva! (We even like its New England accent.) Recuva is a file-recovery freebie that scrubs your drive to retrieve whatever you might’ve lost, even files lost to crashes, malware, or viruses.

Blue-collar scholars that we are–hey, we’re not just all good looks and charisma, you know–we’re always searching for and researching citations for our many scholarly papers.

This utility does it all, from protecting your data anytime with a single click, to restoring your lost files easily when disaster strikes. We especially liked the backup “live: documents feature. Now there’s no need to close your programs to back up files.

When it comes to video-editing software, we can be a bit leery. After all, many formats exist, and we often find it difficult to convert, splice, edit, and burn the video to DVD. Usually, we rely on commercial packages like Nero to do all this, but we’re willing to accept Free Studio as workable alternative, especially because we don’t have to pay for licenses for our several computers here in The Shareware Report Labs.

How many times have you wished you could copy all of the filenames in a directory into a text file, a email message, or even a spreadsheet? Well, if you’re a geek like us, the answer to that question is: several times a week. Until we found Karen’s Directory Printer, we used a screen capture [...]

Based on various gem games, Esmelon reproduces all of the bright and beautiful joy that embodies the magic of Christmas. We’ll admit that it is addictive, but the developers go as far as boasting the therapeutic value of Christmas Gems: “Travel far away from your day-to-day problems.”

WhiteSmoke, which uses Natural Language Processing to take our writing to a professional level. At the core of WhiteSmoke are the highly advanced grammar and text enrichment engines. WhiteSmoke technology detects and corrects even the most troublesome grammar errors. You know, the ones that go undetected by other leading programs. It suggests relevant synonyms, adverbs and adjectives that often enhance our writing.

Microsoft has made available a workable, easy-to-use learning system for educators, LCDS (Learning Content Development System), a free, form-based utility that teachers can use to create e-learning content.

Whenever we can’t sleep — which is hardly ever — we drive to the Scryber Labs and fire up Hamumu’s spooky game, Sleepless Hollow.  With Halloween right around the corner, it’ll send a chill down your spine.  It reminds us of the old days when we played Hugo until we were too [...]