Until Windows Vista was released, Microsoft's operating systems always had a task manager that missed some features needed by a lot of users, so a lot of alternatives were developed. Even now, such applications exceed the capabilities of the built in task manager that comes with Vista, but do they really worth the price? Of course I can't answer this question when talking about an entire category of programs, but I'll try to do this for a single one, so my pick now is called Process Control Master and comes from a producer called CareWindows Corp.


Setup

CareWindows Process Control Master is a rather strange program when talking about its current version. While the official site says the latest release is 4.1.1.1, the About screen of the program shows 1.0.0.0 as the version number. Well, let's move on and see what else can we get for $19.99... or 7 days/12 trial runs for free.

Before checking the interface and features, as usual, I must tell you that the 2.6MB setup package was downloaded really slow from the official site, but probably it was a rush hour on the network, so I can't blame anyone. As you can see in the screenshots above, the setup program already has signs that the interface of this program has some eye candy...


Interface

...and eye candy's what you get, indeed! Process Control Master looks great, its main window is well organized and very easy to use, and I can say without any doubt that this is the best looking process manager that I have used so far. Other than that... you just have to look and see, because there's not much to say about the main window - you get a menu bar, a toolbar , a side panel and five tabs.


Features

After installing the program, my problems started. I got stuck into a couple of errors once, twice, and when I got tired of trying, I installed the program on my other computer. No problems here! Since both systems use Windows XP Professional, I can't really figure out what went wrong first time, but since I managed to get the program up and running, let's see what can be done with it!

Behind Process Control Master's good looks there are some interesting features, and the ones I consider to be really useful are somehow inspired by firewalls or antiviruses. Of course I am talking about the Blacklist and Whitelist. The story is very simple - you add unwanted processes to the Blacklist, and safe ones into the Whitelist.

Inside the first tab, you can simply kill unwanted processes with a single click, while the Whitelist allows you to kill all other running processes, except the ones inside it. Even better, you can add "autokill" to a process from the blacklist, and when it opens, the program will kill it automatically.

Other than the above, there's nothing special, just a well done task manager, better than Windows XP's one and about the same with Vista's one, except the features I mentioned above. These being said, let's draw the conclusions!


The Good

This program looks very good and has most features one would expect from its task manager. The Blacklist and Whitelist are two excellent additions, and the documentation is also very good.

The Bad

Unfortunately, I think that Process Control Master needs to have more to offer so I can consider buying it.

Conclusion

As I see things now, CareWindows' product we had here today is a very good program to try, but also one that I would think twice before spending my money on it. I am not talking about my error when trying to run it for the first time, the only thing I have in mind is the features-price ratio, which needs to be improved.

Developer: CareWindows Corp
Price: $19.99
Trial Link: Download

Since it seems I didn't pay enough attention to a feature that's very important for the users, as it can be seen in the comment below, I'm getting back to this review for a while to make things right. Now, let's complete the chain of time-saving features that are closely related to the Favorites part...

I mentioned Favorites because Internet Explorer and other Web browsers made this feature notorious, and file managers started to use it too, after a while. XYplorer has Favorites, as well as a Hotlist, both aimed at users looking to achieve things as quick as possible, but the Catalog is another time-saving weapon of this program, so let's check it out!

To display the Catalog, you can go to the Window menu and check the option simply called Show Catalog, but the easiest way to display and hide the Catalog pane is to use the F8 keyboard shortcut. When the Catalog is displayed below the Tree for the first time, it's empty, but you can easily start adding items to it.

While most file managers are limited to managing files and folders, XYplorer's Catalog can also store Web pages, and all items you store here can be easily customized. Anyway, apart from the one-click approach to file navigation offered by the Catalog, the best part is that I just discovered a revolutionary file copy/move solution, since you can simply drag and drop items into the Catalog, about the same way as it is possible in classic file managers that use two panes!

One of the few things that I don't really like about the Catalog is that new items can't be added using drag and drop operations, but I understand that this may interfere with the operation described above, so I can't complain. After all, moving files is something that occurs more often than adding new items to the Catalog...

Regarding the support part, I didn't have the chance to test the speed of response yet, but I must confess the built-in Help system and the online documentation are absolutely amazing, so if you really want to switch to this program, all you need is the desire to study and become an XYplorer (e)Xpert.

As my last words for now, all I can say is that I hardly wait the next version to become available, so I am going to start using this trial as an alternative to the "great classics" until my 30 days trial period run out.

If you missed the previous article about XYplorer, you can read it here.

As computer parts become more and more powerful, their energy requirements grow too, and as a direct consequence of this fact, their cooling requirements also increase. Since only a few people consider investing in high-end cooling systems, having a program able to monitor the temperatures and voltages inside your computer is an interesting alternative for the rest of us, and today's choice is called SensorsView Pro, an extremely "hot" program coming from a software company called STV Software.


Setup

Released two days ago, the last version of SensorsView Pro is labeled 3.1, and works with Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. The shareware version I have here can be used for as long as 21 days without any other limitation.

The setup package of this program has 1.8MB in size and is very easy to install, as you can see in the screenshots above. In fact, I was expecting for some input from my part to be needed during the setup process, but this program installed itself without asking any questions about my mainboard or the type of sensors it uses.


Interface

What you can see in the screenshot to the left is the window that pops up when you double click the system tray icon displaying the temperature of your CPU, but the system tray can also host the icon of the application or another temperature indicator. The history window looks different, missing the skin applied to the Sensors View window I just mentioned. Anyway, since system monitoring tools are more about checking your system's status and sending alerts than looking great, let's move on and see what can be done with this program...


Features

The best part of this program is that - at least in my case - I didn't have to select anything manually, because it automatically detected the sensors from my mainboard, and did this the right way. The only problem with the detection part is that I have two network connections, a local one, and the PPPOE connection to the Internet, and I wasn't able to find any way to set the one I want to monitor. While I was transferring over 2MB/s on the LAN and about 500KB/s from the Internet, SensorsView Pro was showing a load of 1% on my network interface, and a transfer rate of 20KB/s...

Another small issue is that no matter what I do with my hard drive, the program keeps showing a 0% HDD usage value, which is pretty strange, but at least the voltage indicators work great, as well as the CPU and memory usage meters.

You can set alerts for every temperature threshold or fan speed, and the options available range from a simple notification or playing a sound to sending an email, running a certain file/command or, the final solution, turning off your computer automatically.

The appeareance of the program can be customized, and there's also possible to save alarm logs and even logs for further investigations, if something goes wrong and you're not near your computer when it happens.

Since this is about everything I can tell you about this useful system utility, the time has come to draw the conclusions, as usual.


The Good

SensorsView Pro is a program that looks good, has support for a wide range of motherboards and additional temperature sensors from hard drives and video cards and working with it should be very easy even for beginners.

The Bad

The hard drive usage and network load indicators don't seem to work as they should, and the price of the program is a bit spicy, considering its features and that suites like Sandra or EVEREST are only a bit more expensive, and come with hardware monitoring features and a wide range of additional capabilities.

Conclusion

SensorsView Pro was a pleasant surprise for me, unlike its price. Anyway, since the trial period lasts 21 days and there's no functional limitation, you should definitely give this piece of code a try, and maybe you'll consider that paying $24.95 for your hardware's safety is not too much, after all.

Developer: STV Software
Price: $24.95
Trial Link: Download

I know that most people consider WinRar or WinZip to be enough for their archiving needs, but I always enjoy discovering new archivers, especially because this is a software category that delivered me enough pleasant surprises so far. Today's find is called Ana's Archiver and, to my amazement, this is much more than just an archiver, but let's take things one at a time...


Setup

Ana's Archiver currently reached version 2, and since the producer advises us to use KittyXplorer instead unless we need Ana's special features, I guess that development of this product has ceased, of will get less attention from now on.

Anyway, the trial version available for download on the official site has some minor limitations, and to purchase the program you'll have to pay $19.95 for a single machine license, but a $59.95 multi machine USB licensing option is also possible.

Ana's Archiver is available for download as a MSI package that weighs only 1.2MB , so downloading it shouldn't be a problem, but... to download the program, you have to use a valid email address that you're required to enter on the official site to receive the download link. Once you get over the waiting part (it didn't take more than 5 minutes for me to receive the message containing the download link), everything's as easy as expected.


Interface

As you can see in the screenshot to the left, Ana's Archiver has a well organized interface that grants you quick access to its impressive amount of features, but the overall look of the program leaves space for a lot of improvements. For example, the color combinations are not well chosen, some icons are extremely ugly and the fonts used inside various windows are not always the right ones. Anyway, since the features are the strongest part of this program, let's move on and see what we have here...


Features

One of the first things I check when having a new archiver under my scope is the amount of file formats supported, and I must confess that Ana's Archiver disappointed me. The only formats supported are ZIP and its own archive format, A2 Archive Format, files using this format having the A2R extension.

While the Create Archive screen has some really ugly icons and a very bad color combination, just the same as other windows that open when you perform a new operation in this program, it was a pleasure to see that Ana's Archiver can preview images from archives and also includes a quick text editing tool, as well as a basic file wiper.

Additional features of this program allow you to encrypt files using more encryption algorithms, including Blowfish up to 448 bit, convert ZIP to A2R archives, or take advantage of the built in file viewer for images, text or videos. Of course that this is only the top of the pyramid, so if you don't have problems using an immature interface and having limited file format support, this program may be a good choice for you...


The Good

Ana's Archiver is more than just an archiver, being a well done archiving and file manipulation suite with lots of features and easy enough to use by everyone.

The Bad

The ugly interface and very limited archive formats support can lure away many potential users of this program, as well as the producer's advise to grab KittyXplorer instead, if you don't need any advanced features that Ana's Archiver has.

Conclusion

If you need an archiver, I am sure that the well established products from the market will be just fine, but if you want to get advanced enrypting capabilities and a nice collection of additional features, Ana's Archiver may just be your thing. Since the trial version is not very limited, you can easily grab it and give it a spin. Of course, if you like it... or not, please don't forget to share your thoughts with the rest of us!

Developer: MyPlanetSoft.com
Price: $19.95
Trial Link: Download

Most of my friends know that I'm a big supporter of two-panel file managers, and they don't even bother to tell me about different ones, no matter how good are these programs. In time, I finally accepted that some people can't have their tastes changed, allthough they seem to be completely wrong in your eyes. "If you can't beat them, join'em!", you know what they say... so today I'll review one of the best Windows Explorer-like file managers in the wild, according to the general opinion: XYplorer.


Setup

XYplorer's setup package comes in a ZIP archive and it's very small, having about 900KB in size. The full version is priced at $29.50, and you get updates for life once you have purchased it. Even better, the trial period has been extended to 30 days now, while earlier versions were available for only 21 days of free testing. Of course that a nag screen and some minor limitations are present in this trial release, but they won't spoil your experience with XYplorer at all.











Installing the program is very easy, and if you are really in a hurry, you can download one of the two no-install packages available on the official site. Depending on your favorite archiver, you can get a ZIP package or a RAR one, unpack the files to any folder on your hard drive and just run the application.
No matter what you choose, you shouldn't have any problems with this part, so let's move on...


Interface

XYplorer's interface is basically inspired by Windows Explorer, but has a lot of improvements, like tabs and a panel that serves to display file previews and additional information about the currently selected file. This program has a very large number of keyboard shortcuts available that grant you quick access to most operations you could think of, and its interface and display filters are highly customizable. While I can't say that everything is very easy to use (we'll talk about multiple file renaming later), XYplorer's overall look and feel seem to be well chosen for any average Windows user.


Features

I know it may sound strange, but I'll leave file management aside and jump straight to the mass renamer, since I just mentioned it. While working with this program, I noticed that there's no mass renaming tool. Since XYplorer seems like an application carefully done, I said "this is not possible", and thought about it a while. I selected some files, and used the Rename command (F2 on the keyboard). The Batch Rename window appeared, but what you have to do is enter a pattern for renaming your files. Doesn't look like something for beginners, isn't it?

Now, moving quickly from a folder to another is pretty easy, since there are plenty of different ways to do it. First, you have the file tabs, and you can use as many of them as you wish (of course there may be a limit, but I don't see anyone using more than 10-15 tabs at once). Next, there's the Hotlist, that contains the most frequent used locations, but you also get a very good Favorites menu, with quick access to the system folders such as My Computer, Desktop or Windows Folder, as well as customizable locations.











The Info Panel I mentioned already has 6 areas - Properties, Version, Preview, Raw View, Find Files and Report. While the Report area allows you save the current folder list to clipboard, a TXT or CSV file or send it straight to the printer, the file finder tool is excellent, and I must say it's one of the best I've seen so far, easily surpassing Total Commander's file search capabilities.At last, I have to tell you that even video and audio files can be previewed, with some format limitations, of course. Anyway, it's pretty good to know that your file manager can easily play your MP3 or AVI files without having to install any additional plugins, isn't it?


The Good

XYplorer is highly customizable, has an incredible amount of file filters and other settings, while managing to remain pretty easy to use. The trial version is very close to the real thing, so trying it is a pleasure, giving you an accurate preview of the full program, and if you worry about compatibility, then you should know that XYplorer is Vista compatible.

The Bad

The volume control of the audio preview changes the Wave volume of the system, and there's no chance to switch between the Windows Explorer-like interface and a classic two-pane view. Some operations are rather complicated, since the power of this program comes with some expenses in terms of ease of use, after all.

Conclusion

For me, XYplorer can't match Total Commander, but I think that if I spend enough time with it, I can use it to accomplish everything that I am currently doing without losing too much time. Anyway, there's still a problem - while some users may consider that paying 30 bucks for this piece of code is worth it, I would advise my friends to drink one or two beers less and get Total Commander or Frigate.

Developer: Donald Lessau
Price: $29.50
Trial Link: Download