Here are six more of the year's best free software utilities

SLOAN RANGER

Here are six more of the year's best free software utilities

VistaTweaker is the first good freeware to adjust the settings in Windows Vista

WANDA SLOAN

Happy New Year, and wasn't 2007 a great year for free utilities and helping software? Well, I sure thought it was, anyhow. I still have a (thankfully short) list of programs I hope to put in the AppShot column.

In last week's Post Database I reviewed seven of the best AppShots - the best of the best I think you could call it.

Now we'll wind up the reviews with the rest of the dozen best AppShots of 2007.

Folder Scout is a terrific utility which sets up so you no longer have to get around your computer the way Microsoft wants you to, you know: Click on My Computer. Click on a drive letter. Click on a folder, then a sub-folder, then a sub-sub folder....

Folder Scout places itself in the "start every time" place so that it is always available via a Hot Key.

The first time you start it, the program will immediately detect all drives you have, and give you a "Quick Jump" menu to get to them with a click. But first, follow instructions to Catalog your system. This takes a couple of minutes at most on the average machine.

Once Folder Scout knows all the folders on your machine, you are only a few keystrokes away from any of them, at any time.

I have to mention the programmer of this fine software, Pablo Portela Miguelez of Seville, who brought his brand new bride to Bangkok this last September for their honeymoon - and then went right back to Spain to work on a new version of the program, although there is no word on how delighted the new Senora Portela was about that.

The couple live, virtually speaking, at http://www.folderscout.com

VDesktops is a sweet little utility which allows you to load, unload and switch "virtual desktops" on your Windows computer quickly and pretty well painlessly.

Deskloops provides a representation of all your running software on a carousel. You can rotate the programs, or click on the one you want at the top.

Virtual desktops are generally best suited for power users, but are useful to anyone with a large number of tasks, each requiring a program or utility to be open on the Windows desktop.

After you start the program, you will need to bring an application to the front with your mouse, then hit the Windows key and the number "1" simultaneously to add the program to Desktop 1. Repeat this idea for other programs for Desktop 1, and to add other programs for Desktops 2 and 3. Desktop 0 is your original desktop, showing everything.

It's actually a lot simpler than it sounds, and the learning curve is brief. ins- tructions, explanation and the quick download are available from the nice folks at Donation Coder, tinyurl.com/y647x2

Deskloops solves roughly the same problem, differently. This far flashier software organises your open windows in a continuous loop. Work on a program, twirl the Deskloops to the next one you want, and so on. Mac users will realise it is a take on their program switcher.

It's ever so well thought out. It takes just a moment to rearrange all your open windows in a never-ending, horizontal loop. Take a look at http://www.xilokit.com/deskloops

Kruptos The word comes from the Greek krupto, meaning hidden, or secret. The software is one of the neatest file encryption tools yet, providing true, one-click encryption, decryption and file deletion. It is more than adequate to keep most snoops out of your business.

Once Kruptos is set up, You can literally encrypt a file at a click. You can then - and this is the good stuff - open the file, work on it and automagically re-encrypt it with another click.

If that's not enough, you can encrypt sensitive files and send them off to friends and colleagues securely via email or websites. They will not need Kruptos to decrypt them. The program is at http://www.kruptos2.co.uk

VistaTweaker is the first good freeware to adjust the settings in Windows Vista. As a bonus, it also works on XP, although of course it does not provide Vista-only features such as pretty Aero windows and some security features.

More than other operating systems, Vista actually needs a simple way to get at the personal settings. That's because Microsoft, in the name of security or protecting the children or whatever they're calling it has included a lot of "features" designed to slow you down, and it is quite successful at this project, too.

Once Folder Scout quickly indexes your computer drives (background) any folder on the machine is just a few keystrokes away.

How lovely, then, to see the first tick box on the first of seven pages of possible VistaTweaker adjustments:

Disable UAC. The program lives at http://www.ajuaonline.com

Here is a real, actual, true fact: Post Database has never been so much as threatened with legal action for short-changing its extremely valuable readers.

One reason is that our readers are not that kind of people. The other reason is we always give more than we promised.

Last week and again at the top of this column I promised to summarise a dozen reviews from 2007. Will I stop at 12? Will I heck! You wanted a dozen, I now give you a baker's dozen, because there is nothing unlucky about 13.

PDF-XChange proved that 10 million lemmings can be wrong. A couple of years ago I ditched the bloated, arrogant Abode Acrobat Reader to show me PDFs, and installed the geeks' favourite Foxit. In 2007, I binned Foxit.

PDF-XChange is fast, and does exactly what you want from a PDF reader, which is to say it reads PDFs and shows them to you on the screen. It can handle many at a time in a single tabbed window, and it can remember what you looked at for quite a long time - and resume right where you last left off.

PDF-XChange Viewer is perhaps a second or two slower than Foxit getting started, but after that, it is easier to use, more informative and much, much simpler to search, clip information, load previous documents and find your way around. Leave sticky notes to yourself anywhere.

Here's the part that convinced me: Typewriter mode in this excellent software makes a form out of any PDF document. You can type into fields even where the form markers didn't want you to.

You can look at it and download it at http://www.docu-track.com

We will have lots more help, information and links for you in 2008. May it be a happy and prosperous year for you and yours.

Email: wandas@post.com