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Powerful memory optimizer

If you run a lot of computer games or other memory-hogging apps, you'll want to check out this toolbox for managing your system's memory usage. Setting thresholds for compressing or releasing memory is made simple with Memory Booster Gold, as is setting up a key combination to release memory on the fly.

Memory Booster Gold launches an attractive, user-friendly interface that's easy to understand and navigate. Although it offers many features, the well-designed interface isn't cluttered. We liked the liberal use of slide bars, which provide a solid visual for users to understand the levels of … Read more

Simple and effective

If Windows Explorer is a bit clunky or slow for what you need to do each day, this lite-featured widget may help speed your productivity with its built-in file compression options and ease of use.

MiniFM launches a nicely designed interface similar to a three-paned e-mail client and resembling older versions of Windows Explorer. A few command buttons along its top toolbar offer handy features, but most of this free file manager's functionality is accessed through mouse clicks.

This utility performed very well in our tests. We liked that we could select from three compression formats--ZIP, bzip, and gzip--just … Read more

Free but helpful

Tracking how your system uses its resources can help you determine what may be limiting your system's performance. This free utility monitors 29 resources--including CPU, memory, network, and HDD usages--so you can pinpoint where your system needs optimizing.

Moo0 SystemMonitor launches a vertical bar you can drag anywhere on your desktop. You can specify its transparency or modify as a toolbar button through a right-click menu. Resizing the bar by turning the middle scroll button of the mouse made viewing and hiding the bar easier. Its color coding--light green for satisfactory or optimal usage, red for spikes and resource … Read more

Easy screen captures

If you need many screen captures, this tool makes it easy to grab them, but you may run into a barrier with the trial period. It's 30 days (which is adequate) or three sessions (which is brief), whichever comes first. We had a few other quibbles that left us unwilling to part from the reliable, old, built-in PrintScreen.

Screenshot Master installs a small icon in your system tray. Using this tool is very easy, because you just click the icon to make it work or to access its setup menu. The menu launches a well-designed configuration dialog box that … Read more

Quick app access

Declutter your desktop by removing shortcut icons and organizing them with this app instead. Shortcut Bar reduces the number of clicks to access Start menu apps and its ease of use makes the transition from desktop clutter to simple app management a snap.

Shortcut Bar launches a compact-but-functional tabbed interface that you can set for Always In Front display for ease of access. Setting up tabs according to user-defined app categories is a simple matter. We liked the simplicity of adding a category tab, configuring the utility's settings, and adding a shortcut to a tab simply by dragging and … Read more

On-the-fly encryption

As the need for greater security grows--even for home users--finding intuitive but robust solutions becomes more important. R-Crypto Disk Security fits the bill nicely for the average user. This nicely designed app provides encryption on the fly as you save data, and decryption as you open data, by creating password-protected virtual storage disks.

R-Crypto Disk Security launches a handsome interface that clearly means business, but is easy to navigate. Its features are clearly defined by the task categories listed in the navigation bar on the left and the large function pane on the right side of its window. Setting up … Read more

Needs a better algorithm

At the end of the day, Gwabbit's Outlook add-on application is a good idea that doesn't work as well as it should. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. When in top form, Gwabbit added contacts' names, titles, phone numbers, and Web sites to the Outlook address book using information gleaned from an incoming e-mail. When it failed, Gwabbit didn't recognize anything apart from the contact's name and e-mail address, which Outlook can also do. It then prompted us to fill in the rest by scrolling through the e-mail in a separate window … Read more

Auto battery maker Ener1 eyes grid storage

NEW YORK--Ener1, which manufactures lithium ion batteries for electric cars, is testing energy storage systems for the power grid, the company's CEO said on Tuesday.

Ener1's roots are in the automotive industry and its Indianapolis-based EnerDel division already has agreements to supply battery packs to a handful of auto companies, including Think and another automaker in Europe.

The company is also expanding into different markets, including the military and utility-grade storage, said Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer at the Jefferies Global Clean Technology Conference here.

Ener1 is working with a few utilities that work in its Midwestern region on … Read more