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Track users' activities with Silent Keylogger Free Edition

Keystroke loggers are programs that log every key that is pressed on your system as well as every mouse click and other activities, usually secretly in the background. They're common in corporate and private networks where security and liability far outweigh privacy, but they're also useful for seeing who's been doing what on the family PC. Silent Keylogger Free Edition is a free version of a premium tool. It logs keystrokes, monitors applications and Internet use, and captures screenshots. The freeware sacrifices password protection, encryption, invisible mode, and other security-related features as well as some network and … Read more

Western Digital disk info tool

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows is a simple, free tool from Western Digital that displays the model, serial number, partitions, capacity, and S.M.A.R.T. data of any Western Digital hard disk drives that support Data Lifeguard that are attached to your system. It can also test your disks and display the results.

We extracted and clicked the executable file, and the program quickly opened and scanned our system, displaying our three WD physical drives in the upper view and the logical drives by letter in the lower view. We could initiate a test or view S.M.… Read more

XPS tool

XPS files, where XPS stands for XML Paper Specification, define the layout, printing specifications, and other factors about a document. They're similar to PDFs, but are based on XML. Windows has a built-in XPS Viewer that opens automatically when you click an XPS file, but it's pretty basic. XPS Annotator is a free, full-featured, standalone XPS file viewer, document annotator, XPS-to-image converter, properties adder and editor, and digital document signing tool. It has familiar operations such as zoom, search, save, copy, and print to a variety of output options. It supports hyperlinks, too.

XPS Annotator is a compact … Read more

Free Registry Cleaner

Registry optimizing tools tend to fall into two categories: those that defragment the registry by removing blank spaces and those that make changes to the registry, deleting unnecessary, invalid, or problematic entries. Registry Life from ChemTable Software combines both in one free application. Like other registry cleaners, Registry Life is best used with caution. It's much more forgiving than most such tools, though. Used wisely, it can keep your system working smoothly.

Registry Life's interface sports two main items, Registry Logical Structure and Registry Physical Structure, and a menu of basic controls and settings in the left-hand panel. … Read more

Gaming-specific resource manager

Game Booster is an easy-to-use program that shuts down unnecessary system processes in order to improve the performance of resource-thirsty games. With an intuitive interface that makes it easy to switch between gaming mode and normal mode, Game Booster is a simple but powerful program.

Game Booster's interface is basic, with a list of 24 noncritical processes that can be shut down during gaming. Check boxes allow users to select specific processes. It is true that you have to take a leap of faith with some of these; if you're not extremely computer savvy, you may have no … Read more

Lacks a backup feature

It requires very little skill to use this system cleanup tool, but that's not necessarily a good thing when you're dealing with the Registry. Ashampoo Magical Optimizer is so easy to use because it removes most of the control from the user.

The colorful interface gives you the option of automatic or manual optimization. What you won't find is a way to back up your files beforehand. This safety net is a standard feature for most Registry cleaners, and one we want in place before any files get deleted. You can select the kinds of files you … Read more