www.google.com/history

While this is part of the Google Account series of posts, it’s probably more likely a feature that many users will wish to disable, especially those with privacy concerns. On the other hand, many people will probably find it interesting and useful at times as well. In a nutshell, Google Web History basically logs all of your Google searches for the past 2 years (you must be logged in to your Google Account) and let’s you look through these logs. It also uses that information to provide you with some extra features such as displaying your search trends and tailoring your future search results according to your tastes. It will even recommend you links it thinks you will like.

For anyone concerned with privacy and security, the above YouTube clip is from Google and shows how you can stop the service, as well as deleting individual search history items or your entire web history if you wish. Although the probably biggest risk of other people seeing your Google Web History is them knowing your log-in details, so always remember to log-out on public computers and use good passwords.

This article is part of a series showing you stuff you can do with your Google Account.

www.bootdisk.com

This is a really handy site with a huge range of different boot disks available to download. Now not everyone needs this sort of thing but for those who do, they’ll find boot disks for DOS, Windows9X/Me/NT/2K/XP, different Linux variations, driver free disks for anyone who is flashing their BIOS and more. There is also some good guides (including how to boot from a CD) and links to handy sites for drivers and DLL files. They also have a utilities page that links to a whole heap of different system utilities.

DVD Decrypter is a great program for backing up video DVDs to your hard drive. The download is less than 1MB but there is no official site anymore, you can find plenty of mirrors on Google but here is a good one - www.dvddecrypter.org.uk

Features include;

• Decrypt copy-protected movies
• Burn decrypted DVDs to blank discs
• Change the region settings on DVD files
• The ability to backup to an ISO image (which you can use with Alcohol 52%)
• Stream ripping and more!

It is starting to age (the last release was in 2005) but it’s still holds up as an excellent program. A more detailed guide for using DVD Decrypter can be found here at the doom9 site

zamzar.com

I’m a big fan of webware and Zamzar.com is a tremendously useful website that’s allows you to convert files into different formats, all online and all for free. It supports a huge number of formats including different media formats for images, sound and video plus other files like Office documents (2007 & earlier versions) as well as zip, tar, rar and other archive files. It even does half-decent PDF to DOC conversion.

The process couldn’t be simpler. You just browse for the file you want to convert, select the format you want it to turn into and enter your email address. Once you hit the convert button, the file will upload and moments later you will receive an email with the converted file attached.

You can also add a bookmark that you can click anytime you are on a site that has a file you want to convert, a YouTube video for example, so you can just click your bookmark and it will search the page for any files that can be downloaded and converted.

There are a couple of issues to be considered though. Zamzar is still in Beta and the site does have some pop-up ads (most of which the Firefox pop-up blocker will take care of). Those are minor issues though and the ability to convert files without have to download and install specific software more than makes up for them.

nliteos.com

nLite is a great application for anyone running Windows or planning to install it anytime soon. It basically lets you cut out all the parts of Windows you don’t need so you can run a leaner, faster version of Windows. You can slipstream service packs and also include specific drivers as part of your installation, so you don’t have to add them post-install. You can also integrate additional programs that will be installed as part of the Windows install process (check out the nLite forums for Application Add-ons).

Other parts of the Windows installation process you can customise include pre-adding a CD key and location & language settings, to make your installs completely unattended, meaning you can just boot from the nLite CD you create and leave it alone until Windows is up and running for you. There is a massive amount of other settings and tweaks you can make and the program comes with a pre-loaded “safe” setting so you can get the hang of using nLite before you really trim down your Windows to the bare essentials.

Notable tweaks and options include ;

• removing Internet Explorer (so you can just run the web browser of you choice, such as Firefox)
• removing unused languages and keyboard layouts
• removing the annoying ‘error reporting’ that usually appears when an application crashes
• the ability to control what services run by default
• get rid of unwanted utilities such as the Internet Connection Wizard and Desktop Cleanup

…plus a laundry list of other feature

If you run Vista, there is a different version for that called vLite (http://www.vlite.net).

www.primopdf.com

While there are other free PDF conversion programs out there, most of them are lacking one important feature (especially for business use) and that’s the ability to make secure PDF files for free. This is exactly what PrimoPDF is for, it not only allows you to create PDF files but let’s you secure them as well. Security options include being able to stop others from editing your documents, removing pages or even prevent them from printing. These options are very important for protecting your files from plagiarism and manipulation, as well as letting you keep your electronic archives secure (for legal requirements).

PrimoPDF is able to do a lot more than other free programs like CutePDF. The list of features also includes;

• Different quality settings for your PDF files (with clear explanations of each setting)
• Add extra information in your files such as Author, Title, Keywords etc.
• Able to add to existing PDF files, so you can combine multiple documents into a single file
• Can automatically attach your PDF to an email, ready to send
• Automatic updating

In regards to performance, the initial PDF conversion screen can take a few seconds to load up, otherwise performance is fine. PrimoPDF runs on Windows (98/NT/2000/XP/Vista) and the download is around 11MB. PrimoPDF does requires the .NET 2.0 Framework, if you don’t have it already you can download it automatically during setup (but this can be slow, it’s probably better to download & install it directly, it’s available at Microsoft.com)

infrarecorder.sourceforge.net

When it comes to CD/DVD burning software, Nero is probably the most well known software but there are plenty of free Nero alternatives to choose from. InfraRecorder is a free alternative to Nero and other commercial burning applications that will burn both CDs and DVDs with enough features to make it a complete burning solution for almost everyone. You can make data discs (including multi-session burns), music CDs and video DVDs (including dual-layer burning if you’re drive supports it). It also supports rewritable discs and will burn image files easily (ISO and BIN/CUE).

The interface is simple and straightforward, allowing you to create and save projects and get disc information quickly. InfraRecorder runs on Windows only and is also available in a portable version, so you can always have a CD burning application handy. The download is around 3 MB in total and is also open-source (available from the official download page or it’s SourceForge project page).

The latest version of the award-winning Firefox web browser is set for release, on June 17th 2008 the official release of Firefox 3 will be available to download. Firefox is a great alternative to Internet Explorer and Firefox 3 promises more great new features to make your browsing experience easier, safer and faster! Firefox is already packed with great features like tabbed browsing, great security, easy customization and a massive amount of add-ons available, Firefox 3 adds one-click bookmarking, the smart location bar, enhanced security, improved add-on management and more!

To celebrate the release of Firefox 3, spreadfirefox.com are encouraging people to download Firefox 3 within its first 24 hours of release in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads within 24 hours. Just click on the Download Day banner and you can sign-up to be notified when Firefox 3 is available to download or head to the official Firefox site anytime after the release to download it direct.

AVG Download Page
(This link should take you directly to the download page)

The fantastic free anti-virus program AVG has just come out with a major update. This latest update brings AVG up to version 8 and brings with it an updated interface plus a few new features. This freeware now helps protect your PC from SpyWare even more with it’s new SafeSearch feature, which provides extra information in your Google searches letting you know which sites are safe and warning you about the ones that are potentially dangerous with unobtrusive icons next to your search results (ofcourse you can turn this feature off if you’d like).

You also get the same great features you are used to from AVG like great virus protection, automatic updates, a scan scheduler & more. So anyone who is already using AVG, make sure you update to version 8 and for anyone in need of a new anti-virus program, now is a good time to switch to AVG.

theprodukkt.com/

.kkreiger is a free FPS (first person shooter) game and while it is a few years old now, what’s most amazing about this game is that it is only 96KB in size! The tiny size of the game is due to the use of procedurally generated content which basically means that things like in-game textures and models aren’t stored like a regular game but are made “on the fly” while you play the game, cool stuff indeed!

The game itself is still in beta form (although it has been for a long time now) and is a fairly basic FPS. You get a few different guns along the way and there are a bunch of enemies to take down as well, some easy while others need the heavy firepower to finish off. While .kkreiger doesn’t last too long, you’ll be able to download and install it by the time you finish reading this and anyone who has an interest in this sort of technology will appreciate what .kkreiger has achieved.