Download Software Review

Workflow Management Software

randi — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:17:34 +0000

Workflow Management is a closely integrated feature of infoRouter. Then, the workflow management module will help you manage your documents and business processes more effectively than ever. If you use infoRouter, you will be allowed to create complex workflow scenarios to streamline your business processes. You will be also able to automate a business process, where a generated document will be passed from one user to the other via email notifications and task assignments. Each user in the path of the defined workflow will be able to perform a variety of tasks such as review a document, edit attached documents, add attachments, fill forms, and much more before passing the batch to the next person or persons in the path.

In addition, you may create recurring workflows to manage procedures subject to ISO Document Control or address regulatory compliance requirements where documents are passed around automatically and are reviewed by the defined users until the document is either rejected or approved. All workflow steps and tasks are closely monitored and recorded for audit purposes. Then, the audit logs may be quickly accessed and presented to the correct parties in cases such as e-discovery. Users with appropriate access can track these documents and also their current workflow statuses.

BP Logix is a company focused on providing a business process management software solution that incorporates collaboration and managing information flow at its core. Its Process Director contains powerful workflow management software capable of managing critical business processes. Then, the workflow system is a key component of the lean BPM offering that is designed to automate an organization’s existing processes, without changing the way employees do business. The workflow software was designed for business users. As a result, it will enable organizations to easily model their review and approval process, automate routing, monitor results and satisfy content management needs.

The workflow management engine also provides a 100% web-based interface that enables users to graphically model and build their processes—without requiring either development or advanced IT resources. The BP Logix workflow engine will allow documents, forms and tasks to be automatically routed in accordance with defined business processes. The workflow software aligns business processes with the goals and capabilities of the people and applications involved in their execution, uniting business and technology.

There are automated workflows which enable organizations to capture their business processes, ensuring that forms and documents are created, reviewed, approved and published according to company policies and procedures. With BP Logix workflow, the graphical workflows can be created by business users without requiring the assistance of IT. The workflow management system integrates with existing user directories, such as Active Directory, LDAP, allowing users and groups to be assigned as participants in an automated process. The users assigned workflow tasks are automatically notified via email and presented with a concise and easy-to-understand web page relevant to the task or activity requested. They do not require specific knowledge about the overall process. It is because requests are automatically routed to the appropriate users as tasks are completed.

Moreover, integration with rules engine enables business analysts to define rules and conditions that control the routing and assignment of users. Workflow management software has some benefits. It provides standardized document and task handling through business process automation, standardized document life cycle management, proper tracking and auditing of business processes and document handling and increased content quality.

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LibreOffice 3.4.2 : Personal Productivity Freeware

randi — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:02:36 +0000

Office is a pricey piece of software. When it comes to creating documents, spreadsheets, databases, and presentations, MS Office is the suite that comes to mind. LibreOffice is a comprehensive, professional-quality productivity suite that you can download and install for free. There is a large base of satisfied LibreOffice users worldwide, and it is available in more than 30 languages and for all major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse, etc.

The Document Foundation on Monday announced the release of version 3.4.2 of its LibreOffice productivity software suite, which not only offers a raft of improvements but is also the first version of the suite to be declared enterprise-ready. LibreOffice 3.4.2 fixes the majority of the most-important bugs identified by users in the previous version, and can be deployed for production needs by most enterprises.

LibreOffice is a feature-packed and mature desktop productivity package with some really great advantages :

It’s free – no worry about license costs or annual fees.
No language barriers – it’s available in a large number of languages, with more being added continually.
LGPL public license – you can use it, customize it, hack it and copy it with free user support and developer support from our active worldwide community and our large and experienced developer team.
LibreOffice is a free software community-driven project: development is open to new talent and new ideas, and our software is tested and used daily by a large and devoted user community; you, too, can get involved and influence its future development.

LibreOffice opens with a main menu that let us select which application we wanted to use: Base, Calc, Draw, Impress, Math, and Writer. Each application’s interface will look very familiar to you if you’ve used MS Office products. We started with LibreOffice Writer, the suite’s word-processing application. We typed up a document and formatted it without any issues. The application saves documents as .odt files by default, which cannot be opened by MS Word. But to solve any compatibility issues, it does allow you to save it as a .doc file. We proceeded to check out Calc and Impress, the suite’s spreadsheet and presentation programs. Like Writer, each program introduced a familiar interface. We were able to bypass the default .ods and .odp file types to MS file types and open them without any issues.

The Math and Draw applications were just icing on top of the cake of this capable suite of tools. Should you need it, each application includes a link that takes you to the Web site for support. LibreOffice installs and uninstalls cleanly. Its tools work just as well as their pricey competitor’s, and it’s free.

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Workspace Macro Pro

randi — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:49:23 +0000

Workspace Macro is a standalone macro recorder which was developed by Tethys Solutions. This is designed to understand and capture user moves and replay repetitive keystrokes and clicks. Workspace Macro is provided in two versions: Workspace Macro recorder and Workspace Macro Pro. The Workspace Macro recorder does not require programming skills to operate it. It also includes several multistep macros, scheduled macros and ready-made macros for complex network and maintenance tasks. The Workspace Macro recorder was first introduced in July, 2003 and the most current version of Workspace Macro is version 4.6. On the other hand, Workspace Macro Pro was introduced in 2004. It has the most current version 6.5.

The Workspace Macro Pro is a reliable and user-friendly Windows automation software and macro recorder. It has some benefits. They are Macro Program & Windows automation software, intelligent macro software to record, replay, edit & schedule keyboard & mouse macros. It can automate repetitive tasks involving any Windows application or Internet. There is no programming required. It is superior and easy-to-use macro editing. There are Pre-defined macro templates to automate common tasks. Workspace Macro Pro will also run your macros at ‘Turbo’ speed. Other features are Reliability and Accuracy Guarantee. It has a simple 3-step process: New, Save, and Run. Then, you will get you started with this macro program. You can also run many pre-defined automation templates like automate computer maintenance, automated FTP upload/download, Auto shutdown, Excel Data transfer & many more. Just follow the wizard to automate common tasks in minutes.

This Workspace Macro Pro has everything that Workspace Macro recorder has. This macro software offers ability to edit and optimize recorded macros, faster Turbo speed option, macro templates, award winning macro editor and much more. The easy macro editing helps you streamline and optimize your recorded macros. Moreover, Features Turbo speed option to run your macros faster. The macro software also has pre-defined macro automation templates. Follow the wizard to automate many tasks in just minutes. There are many powerful ‘Repeat’ options allow you to replay Windows automation macros repeatedly at pre-defined intervals. The task scheduler allows you to schedule macros at any time, any day of the week or many other scheduling options. It can define keyboard shortcut or a hotkey and launch your Windows macro from anywhere instantly. Then, this Workspace Macro Pro is supported by Windows Automation software with macro management capabilities like macro status, macro run-time and more.

Furthermore, all the recorded Windows macro are stored on your local computer. Thereby, you have to ensure your privacy and security. You can also protect macros with powerful password encryption. Using it is also exceptionally easy. You can run the program, and it records all of your subsequent actions, not just keystrokes, but mouse movements as well. Then, tell the program to stop when you want to stop recording your actions, and you can save what you have just done as a macro. You can run the macro manually, or create schedules for it to run automatically. The business will particularly find this program useful, because it lets you automate complex tasks, for example, automated data entry. In conclusion, its trial is not limited by time, but by number of uses. You can use the macro function, either saving or running, 40 times, at which point you will be given the option to buy the program.

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Create Flash Slide Shows with Photo Flash Maker Free 5.38

randi — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:47:15 +0000

As its name suggests, Photo Flash Maker Free offers to help you create your own Flash slideshows. With this freeware, you can Create flash slideshows with photos and music, in only a few steps. Photo Flash Maker (free version) provides user-friendly interface, ready-for-use flash templates and effects, and more features. This program’s easy-to-use interface and fun themes will appeal to a variety of users. MP3, WMA, WAV songs or CD sound track can be added to the slideshow. You can enable audio streaming if the flash is designed for website. Each photo in the slideshow can Link to a target page or pop-out window.

The program opens with a helpful wizard that walks you through the process of adding photos, creating a theme, and publishing the slideshow. But the regular user interface is just as easy to figure out. Tabs divide the interface into three areas: Photo, Theme, and Publish. Under the Photo tab, we browsed for our photos using the tree menu. Our selected photos appeared in the bottom of the window, where we were able to move them around to the order we wanted, as well as flip, rotate, and add text to the individual images.

The Theme tab let us select a theme from a fairly large variety of fun, colorful themes. Unfortunately, you have to upgrade to the professional version to access the Professional, 3D, and Web Album themes, but there’s plenty to choose from in the free version. Once our theme was selected, we were then able to browse for and add music to our slideshow. Finally, the Publish tab let us choose our output option–Create Flash File Only, Create Gift/Presentation CD/DVD, and Create Flash Files and Upload to Go2Album and select our output settings. And like that, our Flash slideshow was created.

You can upload the PFM-created slideshows to our free web album Go2Album, and then add the slideshows to your personal website, eBay, MySpace, Blogger, LiveSpace, Friendster and many other social websites/blogs.

Should you need it, help is available through a Help link that takes you to the program’s Web site. Overall, we found Photo Flash Maker Free an easy to use, fun program for creating Flash slideshows.

Photo Flash Maker Free installs a desktop icon without permission, and leaves a folder behind upon removal.

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Trojan Remover 6.5.2

randi — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:15:16 +0000

As a system worm, Trojan horses on your computer are definitely a pain in the neck. They can fall into several categories and are classified depending on the way they breach the systems and the damage they cause. Then, there are remote access trojans, data sending trojans, destructive trojans, FTP trojans, security software disabler trojans and DOS trojans. Trojan Remover is a worm removal tool which examines the system files, including Windows Registry and will determine the programs and files that are loaded at boot time. Trojan Remover was written to aid in the removal of Trojan and Internet Worms when standard antivirus software has either failed to detect the problem or is unable to effectively eliminate it. For protecting your computer against this type of malware, Simply Super Software has developed Trojan Remover, a software that promises to remove the trojan threats on our PCs. This application has already celebrated its 6.5.2 “birthday” and brought two new additions to the software and one change.

This software is from now on endowed with new heuristic detection routines like Adware, VirtuMonde and Loaderadv Malware downloaders. It can also be capable of scanning all scheduled tasks during the on-boot FastScan and the normal scan for active malware. The software is developed by Simply Super Software and the installation file will take just a little over 4MB of your hard disk space. The price you have to pay, if you decide to purchase the application, is now about $29. You can get to the core of the software. The interface is different from what you may have been used to when running similar software and you will see what I mean after installing the program.

If you are going to scan for active malware, running processes or downloaded program files, the scan will begin immediately, with no menu or some other dialog box popping. For the latter action, the user is also prompted with alerts each time the software detects a program, no matter if it is OK or infected. The available options are to continue to allow the file to load as normal, prevent the file from loading by moving and renaming it and excluding the file from future scans. There is no action will be taken. Each such alert will also include some additional info on the detected program or application, but only if this is available for Trojan Remover like the company name, description of the file, the version of the file, its size, the date of creation, and many more.

This allows you to decide if the file is harmful or not. Some other options in the menu are enabling or disabling logging or running processes, warnings on running antivirus programs, and so on. In the Utilities section you can also check online for updates of the software, reset Windows HOSTS file and Update Policies.

In addition, Trojan Remover has a database of 23328 malware signatures up to now and it will also provide you with the database and the names of the malware (not necessarily Trojans) as well as some details (not in all the cases) on it. All users can search the database for a certain malware by its name, port used or both. The software’s malware database is impressive and it is easy to use. If you are interested to purchase it, you will benefit from free updates and upgrades for life.

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Ghost Mouse 3.0 : Automate of Mouse Clicks

randi — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:26:22 +0000

GhostMouse is a handy utility designed to enable you to record the actions you perform with your mouse and playback them at a later time. It saves the recordings as script files for later use. You may, however, ask yourself when or where you could put your recorded clicks to work. Version 3.0 added Windows 7 and 64-bit systems compatibility, and simplified the interface. It is as simple as a music player, it has a convenient graphical interface to customize the configuration, and no need for programming experience.

GhostMouse’s has three-button interface, you can record a script to replay a set of actions. Unlike other programs designed to record and replicate user actions, this one is limited to mouse-related tasks. More robust programs will handle typed text and other keyboard actions. Still, the program worked as promised and even had a few settings and other features. You could, for example, call the GhostMouse app from the command line or upon startup and run a saved script. Using one of the two available user options, you could then choose to close GhostMouse after playback (the other setting governs playback speed).

One potentially useful feature is the ability to click Play during a recording session, thereby enabling you to create an endless loop of your mouse clicks. To exit the loop, users just have to deliver a Pause command (Ctrl+Alt.), then exit the application. The original purpose of GhostMouse is a mystery.

One downloader describes using it to create a continuous click stream to convince a Web server that a real user is viewing the site. GhostMouse may also fill an esoteric need of remote system administrators. In any case, it seems that an application that records both mouse clicks and keyboard strokes would be more likely to satisfy whatever automation needs you have. If, however, you see a need for what GhostMouse offers, you won’t have to pay a thing to use it.

GhostMouse features :

Compact and easy to use
Windows automation software
Record all mouse and keyboard events
Convenient settings interface
Using recorded files anytime, anywhere
Does not require any programming knowledge

If you know how to use a CD player, you will be a master at using GhostMouse, a tiny program that lets you record and play back a series of mouse movements, including right clicks and drag-and-drop actions. It’s simple, but it does something useful when you need it.

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Worm Remover to Protect Computer System

randi — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 04:04:41 +0000

Worms and viruses can ruin the computer system. Moreover, internet worms are the most common type of virus infecting computers today. They spread across networks using email, Internet chat, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks and other methods. The names they are given are usually derived from some text within the worm program code, or within the message the worm sends. The examples of Internet worms include Bagle, Blaster, Mimail, MyDoom, Netsky, Sasser, Sircam, Sober and Sobig. However, sometimes a worm may be given different names by different anti-virus companies. Through the Internet, worms can spread so rapidly that they may often go undetected by anti-virus software because the updates that would enable the software to detect the worm have not yet been developed or downloaded. Because of this, it is advisable to use an anti-virus product that updates frequently which cuts the delay between a virus appearing and the updates arriving to a minimum.

Free anti-virus products may only update once or twice a week. It leaves your computer vulnerable during the critical period when a new worm is most active. Even using the best anti-virus, it is good to train the virus detector between your ears to recognize potential worms. It can also avoid being tricked into activating them. But it’s easy to be fooled, with the end result that you have a worm on your computer sending copies of itself to every address known to you. Besides, an Internet worm has a number of common characteristics

It spreads across the Internet using email, instant messaging or peer-to-peer file sharing networks. First, it uses a trick which is known as “social engineering” to get you to open the email or run the file, which installs the worm on your computer and activates it. Then, it may install one or several files on your computer, often masquerading as system files, or with randomly generated names to make removal more difficult. It also installs entries in the system registry and other places to ensure that the worm is activated whenever you use your computer.

The safest and most effective way to disinfect a computer that could infected by an Internet worm is to use a dedicated worm remover. The worm remover tools are provided, free of charge, by several of the anti-virus software developers. Even if you have an anti-virus product on your computer that detects the worm, it should be safer to remove it using one of these dedicated removal tools. One example is Avast! Virus Cleaner. It provides a very easy way to remove a worm virus from your computer. Disable the on-access virus checking of your existing anti-virus, and disable Windows System Restore and then start Virus Cleaner running. The Virus Cleaner will first check to see if a worm is running, and terminate the process if necessary. It will then scan the hard disk looking for known worm files. If any are found, any registry entries that point to these files will be removed. Then, the files themselves will be deleted and any temporary but harmless files created by the worm will also be deleted. If any worm files could not be removed because they were in use, the computer will be restarted. So, the files will be deleted.

Information Assurance Training prepares people for a career in information security.

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DVD Flick : Powerful DVD Authoring Tool

randi — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:45:44 +0000

DVD Flick is a free and open source DVD authoring program. With this, you can take all your favorite videos stored in your computer and it will turn them all to a DVD so that you can play all your favorite videos on your DVD player. DVD Flick also allows you to create menus and subtitles for DVD so that you can easily navigate or browse for any clip. It also allows you to add additional custom audio tracks along with the video clips.

DVD Flick comes in handy because it converts PC video files to a proper DVD format, readable by all standard devices. The final file size is much bigger than the original, for example: a 600mb requires a whole DVD. The conversion process is also very slow, but you can leave the program working while you use other applications, as you can select the priority your system gives to the conversion software. The final result will be an audio_ts and a video_ts folder, which is the standard for all DVDs and you can also chose to create an iso file which can be burned again at a later date. It would have been good to have the possibility to add subtitles but unfortunately this feature is missing.

DVD Flick features :

It allows you to burn any video into a DVD
It supports 45 file formats, 60 video codecs and 40 audio codecs
You can add menus and subtitles
After encoding, you can burn your project into the disc
It has a user friendly and easy to use interface
It has no adware or spyware

This program works amazingly and you will not encounter any limitations or difficulty while working with it. It is an open source product which is completely free of cost.

If you are patient enough, DVD Flick is the perfect solution for burning your holiday movie to DVD, meaning that whatever DVD player your friends or family have, they’ll have no escape from your not quite Oscar winning production.

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Computer Worm Virus

randi — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:34:57 +0000

Nowadays, computer viruses and worms are a threat to many servers. Viruses can infect PC and uses different means to spread. Computer worms are also known as internet viruses as they use the internet as a medium to replicate and spread. A worm will replicate fast, but many times do not require infecting another file or embedding its code in them. Then, a worm that replicates it self by spreading through emails is known as an email worm. The worm also infects a PC and spreads using the address book on the infected user’s PC. This causes the reach of the worm global and devastating.

The modern malicious software or malware is complex and is becoming increasingly hybrid. There are Trojan virus worms, Trojan worms and many more. Searching for a list of all computer viruses worms and Trojans will help you distinguish between worms and a virus and also identify a new internet worm. For many years, a computer worm virus or internet worms have turned out to be the most destructive malware so far. A worm virus can be defined as malicious software that replicates on its own. Worm viruses spread on networks and cause the same damage a virus does.

The major distinction between computer virus and worms are that worms attack networks where as a virus can attack only a stand alone PC. A virus depends on humans as a means to spread. On the other hand, a worm replicates and spreads on its own using loopholes in the network. People who are connected to a network are most likely to get worms. There are many worms that find loop holes in the intranets and hence affect major networks. On a stand alone computer like the ones at home the same process is used Email which is a major means of the worm spreading. If your email client is infected, then all the members in your address book are potentially vulnerable.

Chats and instant messaging software can also be vulnerable. Another term of infection is a backdoor entry. It is because an infection uses a weakness in the TCP/IP protocol that is used for transmission on the network. Since people connect to the internet they are vulnerable. Then, the major problem is the network configuration on individual machines. The facility within P2P networks is a P2P shared folder and this is exploited by worms. Some worms like the Spida can also attempt remote log in and cause a denial of service attack.

The removal of computer worms is an important thing to be concerned if a PC has been infected. It can be specific with instructions given how to remove worms from the computer and how to prevent infection. Then, these are usually issued when the danger of the worm is large and no antivirus definitions are readily available. Antivirus and other removal tools are the best solution to this threat. Moreover, antivirus sites offer removal tools for specific worms and viruses. If you know what is infecting your system or network, you can download the code from these sites. The firewalls are good but some worms have penetrated this defense. In addition, configuration of your firewall can be done by going to some good sites for it.

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Free Amortization Calculator for Small Business

randi — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:12:43 +0000

An amortization schedule is a table detailing each periodic payment on an amortizing loan (typically a mortgage), as generated by an amortization calculator. Amortization refers to the process of paying off a debt (often from a loan or mortgage) over time through regular payments. A portion of each payment is for interest while the remaining amount is applied towards the principal balance. The percentage of interest versus principal in each payment is determined in an amortization schedule.

Thankfully, there are many freely available websites and calculators that create amortization schedules automatically. The downside to this is people are less informed on the mathematical calculations involved in creating the schedule. We provide the step-by-step calculations below for a simple fixed-rate mortgage.

Let’s say you are purchasing a new home for $280,000 with a $30,000 down payment. Your bank agrees to provide you with a $250,000 mortgage at a fixed interest rate of 5% for 30 years. What is your monthly payment? How much money are you paying towards interest and principal each month? Let’s find out.

Determine the total number of payments

In this example, you have to make one payment per month for 30 years. This means you will make 360 payments over the course of the mortgage (12 x 30 = 360).

Determining a monthly payment

If there were no interest rate, determining your monthly rate would be simple: divide the loan amount by the number of payments ($250,000 / 360 = $694.44). Obviously the bank has to make money so the mortgage comes with a 5% interest rate.

It is important to note the 5% is an annual interest rate. Since all the following calculations are based on a monthly payment schedule, the annual rate needs to be converted to a monthly rate. The monthly interest rate would be 0.416% (5% / 12 = 0.416%).

Determining the total interest

We can now calculate the total cost of the loan since you will make 360 payments of $1,342.05. The total cost is approximately $483,139 (actually $483,139.46 if you don’t round the monthly payment to two decimals). Subtracting away the original loan amount ($250,000) leaves us with the amount of interest: approximately $233,139. So even though the interest rate is only 5%, you almost pay as much in interest as the purchase price!

While a portion of every payment is applied towards both the interest and the principal balance of the loan, the exact amount applied to principal each time varies (with the remainder going to interest). An amortization schedule reveals the specific monetary amount put towards interest, as well as the specific amount put towards the principal balance, with each payment. Initially, a large portion of each payment is devoted to interest. As the loan matures, larger portions go towards paying down the principal.

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