SkinStudio 6.4

Create your own Windows graphical user interface with SkinStudio. With SkinStudio, you can design your own title bars, Start menu, push buttons, scrollbars and virtually every other visual element of Windows XP or Windows Vista. Then save your creations and apply with Stardock WindowBlinds to give Windows a whole new experience.

Version 6.4 adds support for glass menu bars on Windows Vista, and support for different mouseover images on the right hand side of the Start Men

Tired of Windows' look and feel? SkinStudio lets you change it down to the last detail. Everything is fair game: window borders and titles, buttons, window elements (check boxes, sliders, progress bars), logoff dialogs, the animations you see when copying files, the taskbar--and that's just a partial list. Start from scratch or edit ready-made themes you find on the Web (though the demo won't let you incorporate elements from other people's themes). The straightforward interface encourages experimentation. After changing an attribute of a visual element, you can immediately view the result. With its wealth of features, SkinStudio probably isn't the best option for newbies who just want to tweak a couple features of a premade theme, but it's a great choice for desktop doctors who want to perform major Windows surgery.
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Zoom Player Standard 5.02

Zoom Player can be compared to a game of chess, it can be learned by a 4-year old in minutes, but it may take a lifetime to explore its feature rich yet unbloated capabilities.

Zoom Player supports every format imaginable (AVI, DIVX, XVID, MPEG, Flac Audio, Monkey Audio, Matroska, Windows Media, OGM, RealMedia, QuickTime, Flash and more), updated on a regular basis (new stable beta releases every few weeks), every feature is fully documented, supports all the latest playback technologies (Multi Monitor, VMR9, P2P Video Preview) and sports one of the most active support forums you can imagine. Designed for use as an every day media player and all the way up to a Home Theater PC control center. Special TV Viewing features allowing easy remote control of your media playing experience. From Newbie to Guru, Zoom Player is for you. Version 5.02 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

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CounterSpy 3.1.2710

CounterSpy 3.1 continues the strong series of releases for this basic yet powerful antispwyare software. The program makes it simple to schedule and customize spyware scans or run scans on demand, while also offering an adjustable level of real-time protection. Installation is quick and easy. A configuration wizard walks users through the basic settings options for the program, including necessary proxy info, the frequency of risk-definition update checks, the level of real-time protection, and the initial scan schedule. Oddly enough, the default scan is 1 a.m. and can't be edited in the wizard.

In addition to the standard Quick Scan and the full computer Deep Scan, CounterSpy has a fully customizable option that lets you specify which areas of your machine are scanned and what the scan is looking for. CounterSpy also throws in a few extra tools, including a file eraser, a history cleaner, and a useful process exploring tool that provides quick access to system information like running processes, hosts file, LSPs, Downloaded ActiveX controls, start-up programs, and browser helper objects (when bad, they're called browser hijackers).

CounterSpy claims that the latest release has faster scans and uses less system resources, so it's worth looking at both. Based on our limited testing, scan times seem a bit faster than comparable programs, but not the type of instant satisfaction. The options for customizing the area of your scan and how the scan works are impressive. As for resources, while deep scanning, the CounterSpy Service used about 30MB of internal memory, while the user interface took up about half that. The Service did occasionally jump up in RAM usage and CPU, but we managed to use Outlook, Photoshop, and Firefox with no snags while the full scan was running.

All in all, the feature set, the fully functioning 15-day trial, the smart design, and the strong stability and performance are all major factors that contribute to the top rating for this antispyware app.

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Advanced System Optimizer 2.01.4

From Systweak :

ASO2 includes more than 30 tools for supercharging your PC's performance, and more than 200 tweaks for customizing Windows and improving its performance. New features include a spyware detective, an e-mail checker, an icon manager, a fast e-mailer, and a comprehensive backup tool for Outlook and for files and folders. You can back up the registry and restore it if it's damaged by a virus attack. The system cleaner removes junk and obsolete files from the system, including files often missed by the system uninstaller as well as by defrag and ScanDisk programs. The registry cleaner ensures that invalid information is removed, and the registry defragger helps you get maximum speed from your computer.

Advanced System Optimizer's privacy protector keeps prying eyes out of your system. By removing cookies, the Web history, and the recent documents history, the program ensures your sensitive information can't be retrieved by others. Version 2.01.4 fixed the installer, which had a problem in Windows 98 and Me.

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