James Hunt scours the internet for the best
freeware, shareware and paid-for application releases
Welcome again to the latest installment of
The Download Directory. Each month, you'll find us scouring the internet in the
hope of bringing to light the latest application releases, software updates and
browser plug-ins that you don't know you can't live without. We cover
everything from freeware to shareware to budget-price commercial software, and
review everything from giant, multi-application office suites to the tiniest
system tray applets. As long as you can download it, we'll take a look at it.
This month, our investigations have
uncovered KeyboardLock, an interface-freezing security application; Skip Metro
Suite, a Windows 8 tweaking utility that gets rid of the Metro start screen;
SugarSync, a powerful Dropbox clone and file sync manager; and iSpring Free, a
PowerPoint plug-in that allows you to convert presentations into Flash. As well
as all that, we also have a quick look at the latest beta versions to be
released this month to help you keep track of the new releases which are coming
your way soon.
KeyboardLock 1.2.4295
Release Type: Freeware
Official Site: www.amberfish.net
Pros: Simple design, easy to understand.
Cons: The manual restart requirement runs
counter to its purpose.
Rating: 3/5
If you have young children or a
particularly bothersome feline knocking around your house, you'll know how
annoying it is to leave your computer only to return and find that your latest
piece of work has been obliviously deleted by a cat in search of a warm resting
place, or that a fresh and unusable admin password has somehow been set by
someone too young to talk.
KeyboardLock is the solution to this
problem. When you're away from your PC, it locks both your keyboard and mouse
so that no one, whether baby, cat, friend or partner can jump in and start
causing trouble.
KeyboardLock
The system works very simply, with short,
easy-to-remember passwords built in ('cake' to lock, 'dart' to unlock) although
you can change these to anything you like in the future. Rather than requiring
you to press a combination of keys or manually suspend access, the program
detects what you type and when it recognizes the crucial lock phrase, it blocks
the PC's input devices and captures their events until such time as it's
unlocked You can move the mouse, but nothing else, until the relevant unlock
key is entered.
Admittedly, it's not foolproof, and it
isn't intended to be a massive security measure, but just a quick way to enable
and disable input while you're not at your machine. You might wonder why you
can't just use the Windows lock function, and there are a couple of reasons
that this is slightly more appropriate. For a start, you can still see what's
on the screen, so if you're using it to watch video or listen to music, they
won't stop, and no one will be under any illusion that the computer's in use.
Secondly, it's that little bit faster than having to log back on, because
nothing else gets suspended, only the input devices.
There is one slightly odd quirk with the
design, and that's the fact that after you've used it once, you have to
'restart' the monitoring process. Whether there's a good reason that it can't
be a continuous service, we don't know, but the lack of automation adds extra
time where it's supposed to be saving it.
Similarly, it's possible (though unlikely)
that if your password is set to a common word or left on the default, someone
else using your machine might accidentally type it in, which has the potential
to confuse them no end.
Still, it's reasonably well designed, a
gloriously small 60KB in size, and it's not impossible to imagine legitimate
uses for it. If you've had problems with people (or pets) getting at your
machine when you'd rather they didn't, maybe it's worth a look.
Skip Metro Suite 1.0.0
Release Type: Freeware
Official Site: www.winaero.com
Pros: Clever and useful attempt at removing
Windows 8 annoyances.
Cons: It's not actually
doing very much under the hood.
Rating: 3/5
If you've used Windows 8, you'll know that
Microsoft really doesn't want you to skip the new Metro-tiled start-up screen
that has replaced the traditional desktop as your point of entry to Windows.
Over the months since Windows 8 betas became public, its developers have tried
their hardest to squash any hacks, tweaks or exploits that allowed users to get
past it. After all, if users won't behave themselves, everyone knows it's the
job of developers to force them to!
Skip
Metro Suite
If you're the sort of person who likes
their desktop how it is, Skip Metro Suite can at least give you some control
over it if and when you decide to move to Windows 8. The application itself has
three main options, all of which can be toggled on and off with a single click.
The first and most prominent feature is
that it can boot your Windows installation straight to the classic desktop
after logging on. This is inarguably the reason 99% of people will use it, and
for now, it's perfect at doing so.
However, the secondary functions are also
enjoyable. One of these disabled the task-switching hot-spot in the top left of
the screen, while the second removes the two hotspots in the right corner of the
screen, which enable the charms bar. You're still capable of accessing the
functions using the keyboard shortcuts, but the removal of the hotspots gives
you a more Windows 7-like experience overall.
Skip Metro Suite isn't quite as clever as
it might initially seem - all it really does is automatically call the 'show
desktop' API function as soon as Windows loads, but it does get that meddlesome
Metro screen out of the way And there's a beauty in its simplicity, because
it's doing nothing that actually qualifies as invasive, so there's a good
chance that Microsoft might leave it alone, rather than attempt to disable it.
It is, quite simply, the best chance you
have for the foreseeable future of being able to use Windows 8 without being
forced to look at the Metro screen. If (and hopefully, when) Microsoft realizes
that not everyone wants Metro in their faces, the program will be virtually
obsolete. But until that day, some people will find it essential.
