Smart Defrag
Smart Defrag
There are plenty of downloadable defrag utilities to choose from, but it’s hard to beat the ease of use and helpful extras in IOBit’s Smart Defrag.
With this utility you can quickly analyze your hard drive to check the level of defragmentation before committing to a scan. The interface shows you different colored blocks representing fragmented files, frequently used files, and more, with a helpful key to show what each colored block represents.
When you’re ready to pull the trigger, you can choose from a straight defragmentation (fastest), or have Smart Defrag perform either a fast or “deep” optimization after defragmentation. Our test machine has a rather full hard drive, so even using the fast optimization took close to 40 minutes. Depending on your hard drive and level of defragmentation, your mileage may vary.
In addition to the solid defragmentation tools, you can have Smart Defrag automatically defrag the files you use the most without significantly slowing down your system. Even while performing a full defragmention and optimization run, the program barely uses as much as 25MB of RAM, and with just the auto-defrag running continually, it uses about half that amount.
Smart Defrag offers a few extras, including a scheduler so you can set it up to only defrag during downtime on your computer. You can set it to run scans on bootup or even have the app shut down your computer when it’s done defragging selected hard drives or partitions.
It’s important to note that Smart Defrag is not as essential for those running Windows 7 because the OS defrags continually on it’s own. But if you run external drives connected to a Windows 7 computer, this utility will still come in handy for keeping them running smoothly.
Overall, if you want a quick and solid defrag utility to make your computer run more smoothly, with added options for scheduling and other extras, you should definitely download this program. Both beginner and advanced users will have no trouble operating this solid utility.
Switch Off
Switch Off
This handy program is a PC timer that can shut down, log off, or force your computer to hibernate. It works either as a countdown timer, or set up like an alarm clock. When the proper time is reached, SwitchOff shuts down all open applications and performs its task. You can configure it to operate daily, weekly, or for a single occurrence. The interface is basic, but well organized. It features a small memory footprint and stable operation. A simple Web interface allows you to operate it from anywhere on the Internet. You can set it to operate minimized on the desktop or as a Windows service. Anyone needing a PC timer will find this program a useful addition to their system.
Traffic Travis
Traffic Travis
Traffic Travis provides a simple set of tools for monitoring the popularity and potential viewings for a particular Web site. With great instructions and an easy layout, this is a fantastic Internet research tool.
The program’s interface is impressively professional, with top-notch graphic design, intuitive navigation, and helpful tutorial videos that clarify every point. Traffic Travis provides four distinct functions that allow you to collect data and do research on your selected Web site. The first one searches for popular keywords and competition, and another shows your site’s ranking amongst the top four search engines. Yet another tracks point-and-click advertisements, and the fourth grades your own site for its search engine optimization. These four combined into a single easy-to-use overview of a particular Web site, one that is particularly rich in useful data. It’s easy to imagine this program being especially helpful to the online endeavors of self-promoters and Internet marketers. Traffic Travis is so focused on its core functionality that it basically neglects any extras or special features. This isn’t a problem, but given its performance and usefulness, we’d have liked the ability to go directly online to view competitors’ sites when they’re listed. Nevertheless, this is an eye-opening tool that provides an impressive collection of data.
Traffic Travis is freeware, but it requires a free online registration. It comes as a compressed file. By providing some exciting Web data in an easy-to-use environment, this program succeeds admirably, and we highly recommend it.
Freemake Video Downloader
Freemake Video Downloader
Freemake Video Downloader is a free video tool which downloads online videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vevo, ComedyCentral, Dailymotion, MTV, Vimeo, plus forty similar websites more. Freemake Video Downloader grabs online videos in any format available, extract original audio tracks without any quality loss, or convert videos in batch to a certain video/audio format like AVI, MP3, MKV, or for portable devices, such as iPod, iPhone, iPad, PSP and Android.
What’s new in this version:
- Added one-click download mode: batch settings for input video quality, action, and destination
- Simplified link processing
- Added the ability to block adult sites downloading with a password (parental control)
- Improved interface responsiveness
- Added the ability to pause/resume file downloading
- Several interface improvements
- Several minor changes and bug fixes
Rapid Typing Tutor
Rapid Typing Tutor
Rapid Typing Tutor may be a good program to help novice typists improve, but experienced typists looking to increase their speed may be frustrated by the program’s interface.
The program contains a series of lessons that scroll across the screen as the user types. Users can choose from lessons consisting of letters, syllables, capital letters, digits and symbols, or text. As each lesson scrolls across, a keyboard diagram shows an outline of hands moving to the appropriate key. Users type through each lesson and are then shown their scores on speed, accuracy, and arrhythmic input. The main problem with the interface is that experienced typists tend to scan ahead in the text they’re typing from, focusing on words or phrases rather than individual letters. Rapid Typing Tutor allows users to see no more than a few characters ahead. And since the speed of the scroll depends on the speed of the typist, those who are already fairly quick may find that the blur of text flying across the screen is hard to process visually. Users who are just getting familiar with the keyboard layout likely won’t be bothered by this, but they may grow increasingly frustrated as their speed increases.
In general the interface could be more intuitive, but most users should be able to figure it out. Users can create lessons, but it doesn’t seem possible to cut and paste text from elsewhere into a new lesson, which is disappointing. Installation and uninstallation are trouble-free. For free software without limitations, this program is a boon to aspiring typists. More advanced keyboardists may wish to look elsewhere.