recently I had been lookin for such a free utility that will help me convert my pdf files to word documents because I wasn't able to edit the files and I needed to change them for my own purpose, until I fell upon this utility on Keith's site which gave me this free utility to convert my pdfs to word docs.
The PDF to Word converter is a browser based web service which will allow you to quickly and easily create editable DOC/RTF files, making it a cinch to re-use PDF content in applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, OpenOffice, and WordPerfect.

Features:

• It’s entirely free.
• It retains the text formatting, including all the bold & italics, hyperlinks and more
• It maintains proper paragraph formatting and justification
• Adds the proper header and footers to the word document.

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Desktop Takeover enables you to easily customize your desktop by embedding photos anywhere on your screen. You can design your desktop layout by simply dragging pictures into the desired position and resize them to your preference. In addition to static photo displays, you can also create picture channels that will rotate through a selection or folder of images. Your custom desktop designs can be saved and also shared with other users. If you choose to register a free user account, the program will also provide access to online picture albums and live webcam channels that can be added to your desktop.

• visually add photos to wallpaper backgrounds by simple drag-and-drop - no image editing required.
  
  
• embed pictures not only from your computer, but also from on-line albums and webcams
  
  
• set up rotations for the whole background or individual pictures, each rotation with its own delay interval
  
  
• export and share wallpaper designs so others do not need to design wallpaper layouts in order to enjoy them.
  
  
• display satelite weather conditions, real-time location of ISS, and other interesting images
  
  
• excellent muti-monitor support: each monitor can have its own wallpaper layout

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A couple of weeks back I wrote about a software MINIMIZE that minimized your running application windows as a thumbnail on your desktop. But the software worked only for windows XP. But I have found a similiar software for windows Vista users also.
The software is called THUMBWIN.



When you hit the minimize tab on any program in Windows, your application will disappear into the taskbar. But if you've got more than a few applications hiding out in your taskbar, it can be kind of tough to find the program you're looking for.

ThumbWin gives your minimized windows a bit more visual information. Once you install and run this tiny application, any time you minimize a window, a thumbnail will be created on your desktop. You can click the thumbnail to maximize a window, or click the close button on a thumbnail to exit a program.

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Have you ever felt a need to view the contents of a zipped folder without ever extracting it? Can you do that?
I found a very handy application that lets you view images in zip files without extracting them. It’s called Inzomia Viewer.

 But let me tell you that
With the Inzomia viewer you can view images in compressed zip files just as you would any image.
To view a zip file, drop it on the playlist or open it from the 'add file/add dir' button. If you add a folder all images in the folder including images in zip files in the folder will be added.

Zip files are a convinient way to keep image series together.
Download Inzomia Viewer

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Have you ever tried to copy a file from a CD or DVD that has been scratched? If so you might have received an error message stating that the file could not be copied because it is corrupt, but there might still be hope if you really need to access the contents.
Copy Cat 2.0 is a free application designed for recovering files from media that has been partially damaged. As long as you can see the file in Windows Explorer this program can attempt to copy it over. What makes this special is that when it comes across an unreadable area it will skip over it and try to copy the remaining portion of the file. Windows Explorer, on the other hand, will stop copying the file once it receives an error.
The great thing about the program is that it works for more than just CD’s or DVD’s. You can actually use it with hard drives, USB drives, floppy disks, and just about anything else you can store data on.
Get Copy Cat 2.0 for Windows

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In the computers of people like us-I mean to say students or software professionals and maybe other people too,there are loads of softwares installed and it becomes quite a hectic job to update those softwares.

But Techie Buzz gives us links of some software utilities that updates our softwares very easily.

Here is a list of 7 utilities/tools that will help you keep your softwares and applications updated with ease.

UpdateStar

UpdateStar is the program that lets you stay up-to-date with all of your personal software you are using on your computer. You can use UpdateStar to look for available updates and manage all of your installations, install updates or uninstall programs on your computer.

Download UpdateStar | UpdateStar Homepage

FileHippo Update Checker

FileHippo Update Checker will scan your computer for installed software, check the versions and then send this information to FileHippo.com to see if there are any newer releases. These are then neatly displayed in your browser for you to download.

Download FileHippo Update Checker | Update Checker Homepage

Update Notifier

The Update Notifier is a small utility that scans your computer for installed software and displays a list of updates. Also you can see the latest updates for applications from your Watch List. Update Notifier does not require any installation and runs out of the box.

Download Update Notifier | Update Notifier Homepage

SUMo – Software Update Monitor

SUMo (Software Update Monitor) will allow you to keep your PC up-to-date by using the most recent version of your favorite software. Unlike build-in auto update features, SUMo tells you if updates are available before you need to use your software.

Download SUMo | SUMo Homepage

AppSnap

AppSnap is an application that simplifies installation of software. It automatically figures out the latest version, downloads the installer and then installs the software in one seamless step. AppSnap is primarily designed for Windows which does not have any decent package manager such as APT and RPM as in the Linux world.

Download AppSnap | AppSnap Homepage

Appget

Appget is a version-control-program. Appget will show you a list of your installed Applications. When an update is available for one of them, it will be shown in Appget. There you can update the specific applications in seconds.

Download Appget | Appget Homepage

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How many times have you deleted important files permanently or emptied recycle bin, and then had a sinking feeling? I bet we all have done that at one time or other. And I’ve done that today at work.

But before hitting the panic button, I Googled few minutes and recovered the deleted files. There are many number of free applications that recover the deleted files. But here are the four notable applications that do the job very easily

1. Undelete Plus

Out of all the freeware application that recovers deleted files, Undelete Plus is my choice. The user interface is very simple and straight forward. The excellent grouping and filters provided in the left side panel allows us to easily locate the beloved file to recover.

Download and Install Undelete Plus

2. Restoration

Restoration is an easy to use application that does not even required installation. You can download it and launch the executable file to scan and recover the deleted files.

Download Restoration

3. PC Inspector File Recovery

Even though the user interface of PC Inspector File Recovery is not straight forward and friendly, it is very powerful in detecting and recovering the deleted files. After scanning the drive it presents the deleted files organised as folder structure for easy navigation. From the tree structure you can navigate and choose the deleted file/folder and click on the save icon ( the second icon in the left panel) to recover them.

Download and Install PC Inspector File Recovery

4. Recuva

Recuva pronounced as “Recover” has a step by step wizard user interface to guide the users to locate and recover the deleted files. The basic mode interface is very simple that shows the list of deleted files that can be recovered. When you switch to advanced mode you get options to view information of the delete files and re launch the scanning operation.

Download and Install Recuva

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Ever thought of the situtation when your motherboard cd is lost? It is very horrible without drivers, particularly for older systems whose drivers are not available on the internet. That’s why you have a great need of backing up all drivers. For that lets use a great software Driver Genius.

Driver genius is a very good, powerful, easy to use driver manager software for windows which can be used to backup your hardware drivers, restore them and also update them.

The speciality of this software is that it can not just take backup of drivers, it can also compress it into a zip archive, auto extracting archive or even the best option according to me is the auto installer archive. The auto installer archive is the type I recommend you the most, as the restoring process is done just within few clicks. Even a computer newbie can restore drivers using auto installer archive. The other type of backups need driver genius to restore all drivers. Even without this software, it is possible, you just need to select driver location choosing option while installing new hardware, which again may be non friendly for a newbie.

The software detects the installed hardware devices and provides option for backing up third party drivers [currently used drivers], windows original drivers, disconnected device drivers. Of these, to backup windows original drivers is a job of no use. And disconnected devices may be your choice depending on the device.

To backup data, I recommend these settings:

1. Auto installer type.
2. Backup of non windows drivers in use [currently used drivers].

This is one of the most recommended softwares for all.

Apart from these main features, it also has some outstanding features like searching and updating drivers which may be very useful in case if you have lost the driver cd. It can also be used to uninstall drivers which are of no need.[techpavan.com]

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I have always wanted this kind of software. I have thousands of mp3 songs packed in various partitions of my hard disk. I have collected these songs from several places and keep them storing, but the problem while augmenting my collection is that I am never sure whether I have copied the set of songs before or not, so I just copy them irrespective of the fact that they may be already present. The consequence is that my limited 40GB hard disk space is almost full leaving me with no more space to store anything else.
That is why I always wanted a software that could compare the contents of two folders and remove the duplicate elements.


File Comparator is a program which compares any files by their contents. This utility allow you to quickly compare contents of any files in specified folders, and allow to show files which contain same data.

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Taskbar Shuffle :

Taskbar Shuffle is an application that allows you to rearrange the taskbar buttons by simply dragging them around.
No hotkey, no extra steps, drag and drop the programs on your Windows taskbar by simply... well, dragging and dropping them! Neat concept, huh?
No need to get all nervous when an application crashes or if you need to reboot; you can reorder your programs exactly as they were anytime by just dragging and dropping them directly within your Windows taskbar!
Once you download, install, and run Taskbar Shuffle, left-click and drag the programs/buttons on your Windows taskbar to rearrange them. It's that easy, if you need any help, post to the forum or contact me. As of version 2.1, you can shuffle your tray icons as well, but that requires you to hold a hotkey (CTRL by default).


[DOWNLOAD]      

Pitaschio :         

Pitaschio is an easy-to-use application which makes it convenient to use Microsoft Windows.

Some features:

Stick window to other windows when moving and resizing
Restrict window position to inside of the screen
Minimize window to system tray
Use small icons in the desktop
Disable Windows key, Insert key, Alt key etc.
Lock mouse or keyboard while you are cleaning keyboard or mouse
Take statistics about mouse and keyboard
Calculate Moon's age



[DOWNLOAD]

Defraggler :

From Piriform, the company that brought you CCleaner and Recuva... they now bring you a file defragmentation tool... Defraggler!

It differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it, select the file and defragment in seconds. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation tool!

• Defrag Individual Files
  
• Compact and Portable
  
• Vista Support
  
• Locate Files on the Drive
  
• Freeware

[DOWNLOAD]

WinDirStat :

WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows (all current variants). WinDirStat reads the whole directory tree once and then presents it in three useful views: the directory list, which resembles the tree view of the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file/subtree size; the treemap, which shows the whole contents of the directory tree straight away; and the extension list, which serves as a legend and shows statistics about the file types.




[DOWNLOAD]

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A normal problem that we face is that we can't buy all the softwares that we would like to use as they cost too much. So,we use their trial versions that expire after a fixed period of time.But what do you do when they expire -format your system to use them again or buy it eventually??
Well here is a solution to your problem that makes you use your trial versions indefinitely without formatting your system.Here is a list of some softwares that uninstall the expired softwares completely without leaving any trace so that you can install the trial version again for reuse.

Altiris Software Virtualization Solution:Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) is a new way to use software. By placing applications and data into managed units called Virtual Software Packages (VSP's), SVS allows you to instantly activate, deactivate, or reset applications, to completely avoid conflicts between applications, and to remove them cleanly without altering the base Windows installation.


Once installed on a system, SVS runs continually. If you install a program under it, SVS grabs all changes to the Registry and file system (including added and deleted files) that the installer makes and puts them in what Altiris calls a layer. Thereafter, the virtualization software directs file and Registry calls to the layer or to the base system as appropriate. The SVS-installed app looks perfectly normal, but disappears without a trace when you deactivate the layer. You can turn the app on and off like a light switch.
Sandboxie: When you run a program on your computer, data flows from the hard disk to the program via read operations. The data is then processed and displayed, and finally flows back from the progam to the hard disk via write operations.

Sandboxie changes the rules such that write operations do not make it back to your hard disk.

• Intercept changes to both your files and registry settings, making it virtually impossible for any software to reach outside the sandbox.
• Traps cached browser items into the sandbox as a by-product of normal operation, so when you throw away the sandbox, all the history records and other side-effects of your browsing disappear as well.

Total Uninstall: Total Uninstall helps monitor any changes made to your system during the installation of a new application.
It allows you to perform a complete uninstall without having to rely on the supplied Add/Remove program which can leave files or changes behind.
Total Uninstall creates a snapshot of your system prior to installing a new application. It then takes an additional snapshot after the installation has completed. It then compares the two snapshots and displays all changes in a graphical tree view, marking all registry values and/or files that have been added, changed or deleted. Total Uninstall saves these changes and if you decide to uninstall the application, it will reverse the changes to the previous state. Any other computer activity during this period that makes changes to the file system and/or registry will also be monitored.

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Here are some cool desktop enhancements and their downloads that Makeuseof.com suggests:

• Animated Desktop
• Volumouse
• CusorFX
• RealDesktop

Animated Desktop :

Want to use your motion screensaver as a wallpaper? Using Animated Desktop you can emulate the functionality of Vista Ultimate DreamScene (video screensaver) both on WindowsXPand Vista Home edition. If you’re planning on getting it, I highly recommend to use it together with the previously mentioned Objectdock.

The software includes a tool for creating your own animated themes as well. You can also set the regular wallpaper, join different wallpaper themes together into collections and make them change in accordance with time. The software supports numerous graphic formats.

Volumouse :

Volumouse is a unique and handy utility, that allows you to adjust your speaker volume by using your mouse wheel. In order to preserve other functionalities of your mouse wheel, the program offers several combinations, so that volume adjusting will only be used when for example an additional keyboard key is pressed. We liked the option best, which would automatically use the mouse wheel for volume adjustment when you move your pointer over the taskbar - anywhere else on the screen, the mousewheel has the standard functionality. There are various combinations available, including an option that will only use the mouse wheel for volume if Media Player is in the foreground.

CursorFX :

CursorFX is a program that lets you use and create incredibly cool looking Windows mouse cursors.

It does this by taking advantage of the new visual effects features of Windows XP and Windows Vista.

CursorFX users can create and use cursors that look and feel far superior to anything you've ever seen before! Best of all, it's really easy to create your own super-charged cursors! It integrates into the standard Mouse interface of Windows and is easy to turn on and off as you need.

CursorFX is a replacement for Stardock's immensely popular cursor skinning program called CursorXP.

RealDesktop :

RealDesktop is a whole new way to use your computers desktop. Instead of the old flat desktop, this makes your desktop a 3D room, where all your icons are flat cubes. The funny thing is that you can take up your icons and throw them around and into each other and see the icons fly around. You can also select more icons and move them at the same time. It’s very nice to play around with when you are bored.

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