Monday, April 29, 2002		Downloads of the week

This is an additional hard disk-based cache for CD ROM drive. It works under Windows-XP/2000 only. 100xCD Cache speeds up your CD-ROM drive by caching frequently accessed data to your local hard drive. Every time an application attempts to read data from a CD-ROM drive, 100xCD intercepts and analyses this activity. If the application attempts to read the same data for a number of times (many multimedia application tend to do so), 100xCD then puts this frequently accessed data chunk to its cache on a local hard drive. Next time the application will read this data chunk directly from the hard drive. Unlike system-provided RAM-based CD-ROM cache, 100xCD’s cache can be very big (up to 1000GB) and hold data for unlimited amount of time. To install double-click the downloaded file to start the setup. Follow the on screen instructions to set up 100xCD on your computer. After setup has installed the software on your computer you should reboot the system in order to run 100xCD. Minimum system requirements for 100xCD Cache 2.7 are: Windows 2000/XP, Pentium-66, CD-ROM drive, 32MB RAM, 128 MB hard disk space (1GB and more recommended), 640x480 desktop resolution, A monitor, keyboard and a mouse. The software consists of two main parts: cache engine and ControlCenter tool. Cache engine is doing all the actual works while ControlCenter tool is used for interaction with cache engine. Download is available from www.100xcd.com

Desktop Architect

Desktop Architect is one of the best theme management programs for Windows 95/98/NT/2000. It makes using, creating, and distributing themes easy! Through its intuitive interface and wide range of support, Desktop Architect lets you personalise your desktop in no time. Desktop Architect has several unique features. It boasts of full support for Windows themes. It reads and writes themes in Windows 95/98/NT/2000 formats. It also provides expanded support for additional theme items. It can provide a full preview of every theme element. You can preview all theme elements in Desktop Architect, including wallpaper, icons, cursors, sounds, animated logo previews, Web view items, and screen savers. Besides it has support for additional icons. This feature allows you to change most Windows system icons, including folders, devices, printers, file associations, and much more. Desktop Architect even imports popular third party icon theme formats. The Theme Package Wizard lets you distribute your themes as a self-installing package or as zip files. The Theme Install Wizard makes it easy to install themes you downloaded from the Internet. It automatically finds the theme files and installs them to the right locations on your system. This can be downloaded from this site: http://pages.prodigy.net/i-pedro2/Download/da.zip. In case you are not interested in creating themes, you can still use this program to give your desktop the Win XP look. All that you have to do is to download another freeware called Windows XP Theme Version 2. It is available here at www.desktoparchitect.com

FileZilla is a powerful FTP-client for Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP. It has been designed for easy use and for support for as much features as possible while still being fast and reliable. The main features of FileZilla are: Ability to resume Uploads/Downloads (if the server supports it), Custom Commands, Site Manager , Keep Alive system , Timeout detection , Firewall support , SOCKS4/5 Proxy support, Upload/Download Queue , Drag & Drop and Multi-language support. To connect to a FTP server, enter the address of the server into the host field of the Quickconnect bar. Enter the port of the server into the port field if it is not 21 (default). If a username / password is required, enter it in the corresponding fields. Click on Quickconnect or press Enter to connect to the server. After a successful connection attempt, a list of files and folders appears on the right side of the main window. The current folder is listed in the edit field on the top. You can change the current folder by double-clicking a folder of by entering the folder name into the edit field and pressing enter. You may also right-click the file and folder list and select Open from the context menu to change the current folder. You will notice a folder called ".." displayed in all directories. This folder allows you to go up to the parent directory of the current folder. Navigating on your machine works almost like navigating on the server. There’s only one addition: The folders on your machine are arranged in a tree for a faster navigation. Select a tree item to change to that folder. You can upload or download a file by double-clicking on it. To add files to the queue so that they will be transferred later, select them and click Add to Queue from the popup menu. You may also drag the files directly into the queue. Download from www.sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla

As implied by its name, Kana Reminder is a program that can be used to set a reminder. With this helpful utility, an alarm can be set to be triggered at a specified time. But, Kana Reminder is not only a reminder. It can also be used to run another program at a specified time; so in short, it can be used to schedule a task. Here are some features of the nifty little application: Can be set to remind on hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis, can be set to run a program when the reminder time is triggered, has built in shutdown, reboot, and log off routine to be used to schedule a shutdown, reboot, or log off, if a file associates with a program, the Reminder can be use to launch that file. For example, you can specify a WinAMP playlist file. When the reminder time is triggered, because the file associates with WinAMP, it will run WinAMP and play the songs on the list, can be set to remind again within specified time, can run automatically with Windows, the triggered reminder window can be set to pop up automatically, and to auto dismiss within specified time interval, the triggered reminder window can be set to always on top, the reminder data can be secured by giving a password, can be activated using hotkey and it has a configurable reminder sound. It can run on Windows 9x, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. Kana Reminder places an icon on Windows notification area (the area next to the clock). When Windows Explorer crashes, all icons on that area usually disappear. Kana Reminder can place back its icon on the area when the crash occurs. Download from http://kana.webhop.net

— Raman Mohan