It’s an odd choice for a publisher to give up interface space to advertise other company’s products, but it might be worthwhile if this freeware app to check and repair hard-drive errors offered more than Windows’ built-in tool: Chkdsk.

CheckDrive’s sleek, graphic-laden interface is more advertising than information. Two large panes offer ads for other companies’ products. The remainder of the interface displays a graphic rendition of the hard drive that looks much like the old video game Breakout. Gold bricks turn green as the program checks the drive. The three-stage check resembles the process used by the Windows command Chkdsk, and we didn’t find it any faster or more informative. In fact, the Windows command actually presents more information as it checks the drive. The app doesn’t list problems or even the number of errors found. It simply flashes a message that errors were found and asks users to press a button to start repair.

Oddly, testers reported that the repair process often failed with the message that CheckDisk could not lock the drive. It was easy enough to click to repair the drive at next boot, but, again, that’s no improvement over Chkdsk.

The other downside is that CheckDrive used considerably more overhead to run than similar drive-repair tools or even Chkdsk. Novices might appreciate this simple tool, but advanced users will almost certainly want to stick with the command-line program Chkdsk.

The post Download CheckDrive Free for Windows appeared first on software.muycloud.com.

Smideo puts your digital snapshots, videos, and tunes together into seamless video presentations. You can add narration, screenshots and screencasts, and even YouTube videos to your productions. You can use Smideo to create presentations for work or school, family events, auditions, and invitations, or jazz up your photo albums with music and video. Smideo 2013 is an all-new release that adds full HD video capabilities, improved text titles and subtitles, and the ability to burn discs in any format that your DVD burner supports. Smideo 2013 is free to try for 30 days, though you must purchase the full version to enable HD video and unlimited video length.

Smideo’s large and colorful icons are grouped by category in shaded areas on a white background: Video, Options and Updates, and Info and Help (including a Manual). Clicking “Create Project” in the main window prompts Smideo to start a project by offering to download free images and MP3s. Starting with my own files, I quickly moved on to a screen describing the five steps for creating a Smideo: 1) adding media, 2) cutting video into smaller parts, 3) arranging the order of the parts, 4) adding audio tracks, and 5) choosing a file name, video resolution, and any optional effects.

The first step has five options for adding media: file, folder, YouTube, Flickr, or a screencast capture. Each step includes instructions and a preview option. The combination of tree view, thumbnails, and drag-and-drop for sorting and arranging Image or Text files or sequencing video clips provides users with multiple production possibilities. Clicking “Add All” or “Randomly” offer quick shortcuts for automated photo selection. The Audio screen has a sequencer with timeline and thumbnails for synchronizing audio tracks. Smideo saves projects as AVI files that you can play almost anywhere or easily convert.

Smideo 2013 lets users create a high-quality video from snapshots and other random clips and bits. Adding the HD options requires a purchase of the full version.

Editors’ note: This is a review of the trial version of Smideo 2013.

The post Download Smideo Free for Windows appeared first on software.muycloud.com.

Though we could have done without the cheesy animation on the user interface, we appreciated that this system optimization program has a fully functional trial version. And after testing it for ourselves, we liked what it had to offer.

WashandGo has a very easy-to-navigate user interface that will appeal to novice and advanced users alike. It uses tabs and command buttons for removing unwanted files and cleaning your browsing tracks. After clicking the Start Optimized Clean button, the program immediately went to work, scanning our computer. An animated dog appeared in the window that was more of a distraction than anything else, but it didn’t impact the functionality. WashandGo quickly displayed details of unwanted registry files, temporary directories and folders, and our cache, and we were able to check off on the files that we wanted to exclude from the cleanup. Once we clicked the Clean button, we expected to receive a message that restricted us from cleaning files, but that wasn’t the case. The program successfully cleaned all of our problem files.

The one drawback to this program is its short trial period. It comes with a 10-day trial period; although, if you choose to register, it will bump it up an extra 20 days. A built-in Help feature come with the program, but you’ll need Adobe Reader to view it. Thanks to this program’s ease of use, we highly recommend it as a worthy optimization program for all users.

The post Download WashandGo Free for Windows appeared first on software.muycloud.com.