Women's News and Views on Life, Love and Leisure in the Real World
Our Regular
Features:
Hi! Welcome to The gURLz Gazette Freebie Finder!
Issue 5, Vol 2, June/July 2002.
Hello Everyone!
Ready for more freebies? Our editor Robin has taken the reigns
of this article temporarily, and has found some fun stuff for you all.
Anything I list here has been tested on my own personal computer
and to the best of my knowledge has NO Viruses. Its always a good idea to virus-scan anything you download, though, just in case anything has gotten corrupted on the web server.
* Also, please note I can not be responsible for any content you may find offensive on anyone else's websites, some of the screensaver sites I will mention here have savers which might not be suitable for all family members, parental guidance while cruising these sites is probably a good idea.
* Note: Any programs included are all "Windows" programs,
(min. req. Pentium 2, with 64 mb RAM)
unless otherwise specified. ~ Robin ~
Acez Jumpstart Screensaver I was out looking for an Instant Launch utility to start my screensaver instantly, very handy when you are surfing the net and your boss walks in... :-) One click on the Acez Jumpstart 'happy face' icon in your taskbar and your screensaver starts immediately, no more waiting 10 minutes for it to kick in. Acez Jumpstart screensaver works like a charm, and can also easily be disabled if you do not want it to run in your tray all the time. Its 100% freeware too. You will also find many great little screensavers on their site. I personally have been using their 'Spring Wildflowers' and 'A Bit Of Irish' ones. There is also a nice American Flag one which is also 100% free, available on their site. (The site is 'Family-safe' as far as I was able to tell in my travels there.)
AVG Antivirus Software This excellent FREE version of Anti-Virus software has really impressed me. I am running it on my system now, and it has successfully detected viruses when I first installed it, that my other previous 2 softwares did not detect. There is a free version as well as a Pay-For version available. I find the free one very adequate. You can even schedule the software to auto-download updates to the antivirus signature files every other day or whenever you want. (I recommend updating your A/V signature files every 2nd day for optimum protection) It's easy to install and configure too.
Candy is Dandy Game You may have heard of a game on MSN or POGO called Bejewelled or Sweet Tooth... this is the same game, only completely FREE. :-) Candy is Dandy comes with 3 different graphic sets for the playing area, and you can download other graphics sets as well (I downloaded their CAT graphics... cats are dandy too) A very addictive and fun little game!
Photocopier by Nico Cuppen Turn your scanner and printer into a photocopier with this free, easy to use program. No more scanning and saving to gif or jpg then having to import the resulting image into a graphics program to print it out, simply open Photocopier, scan the page you want to print out and it just prints it out. Very simple. This is the freeware version, there is also a pay-for version available, but I have found the free one to work very adequately.
Electric! Screensaver This is one groovy free screensaver! Fantastic, bright, colorful waves entrance the viewer completely. You can even have a message placed into the saver, easy to configure. Totally psychedelic...I have had this one on my system for quite sometime, and occasionly run it just to watch the show. :-) The website (as well as it's 'Read Me' file) tells you anything you need to know, but I will include it's ZIP file here so you can just directly download it. You will need to save it to a new folder, unzip it there, and then copy the file called electric!.scr to your Windows directory where all your other screensavers reside.
(usually it's just in the ' C:\Windows ' directory) Enjoy!
Ephemera V1.2 Fractal Screensaver This is really cool screensaver! Random Fractal images are drawn on your screen, I have yet to see the same one twice. Fascinating to watch and completely free to use and even to register!
Screensavers Lots and lots of screensavers here to choose from, (*Please note: some MAY not be suitable for all family members as I noted a few which featured "babes") Lots of Space, Nature and Cartoon savers on this site. I have downloaded several and find them to work well and not have any viruses.
HellFire Screensaver (Shareware) Had to include this screensaver, despite it being only Shareware... This one is really cool, and I think if you try it, you might just like it enough to register it... Hard to describe other than it turns your screen into a blazing cosy fireplace. :-)
Editor's Picks!
Our Editor would like to add these free downloads for you also. These are in ZIP format, so they will have to be UNZIPPED before you can install them. (Need an Unzip utility? Get the free Evaluation version of WINZIP 8 here.)
Galaxy 20 Screensaver
This puts Windows 'Flying Through Space' screensaver to shame. It's a beautiful colorful fractal space screensaver which is 100% free. (It's 'Read Me' file even says I can distribute it freely, so here you are...Enjoy!) This is what I have running on my machine right now, and I can sit and watch it for hours! You can even set it to be password protected. Once you unzip the file, it will create a folder called Galaxy20. Inside that folder will be the EXE file, just double click that to install. Easy!
(5 Star rating - Editor)
Cybermind Game
Remember that old game called Mastermind? The one where you have to guess which order your opponent has placed 4 or 5 colored pegs on a board and you had 20 chances to guess right? Well, this is the electronic equivilant to that game. Cybermind is also 100% free to distribute, and is very addicting to play. Download the ZIP file (above) and unzip it. It will create a folder called cmind10. Inside that folder is CyberMind.exe - Simply double click that file to play the game. It does not even need to actually "install", it will just open and be ready to play. If you want to create a shortcut to the game on your desktop, explore for the folder on your hard drive, right-click on the CyberMind.exe file and select "Send To Desktop (create Shortcut)" then, all you'll have to do to play is double-click the icon that you will then have on your desktop. Lots of fun to play!
(5 Star rating - Editor)
Until next time,
Take care, - Robin (on behalf of Rose)
