Gizmo's Tech Support Alert

Antivirus programs provide a good layer of protection from a multitude of viral, Trojan, and rootkit Internet threats. They also can stop virus infestation from cross-media file sharing. Antivirus programs can be used as a secondary preventative Internet security solution inside a firewall.

Fractionally less effective is the free Avast! scanner, although its funky media player style interface is not to everyone's taste. Avast now has built-in anti-rootkit and anti-spyware capabilities. It also has full real-time capabilities, including a web scanner, an e-mail scanner and IM and P2P protection. Avast also requires periodic re-registration, whereas AVG Free does not.  However, Avast does not seem to suffer the signature-file update problems that plague some AVG users.

AVG and Avast are excellent free products that provide a real alternative to the major anti-viruses.

Some slight improvement is possible if you run regular on-demand scans with an additional separate anti-virus product, though this is not necessary.

On-demand scans can be run regularly (at least weekly), to check for viruses and other malware that may have been missed by your main scanner.

If you're not using AntiVir then your best option is to install Antivir Personal Edition without the guard. You can do this when you custom install it. If you are already using AntiVir, there's no real need for an on-demand anti-virus, as the overlap is too great.

A good option for on-demand scanning is the free version of the commercial AV product BitDefender. It's a good product with very good detection rates, but because the free version lacks an email scanner and a resident virus guard, it's only suitable for use as an on-demand scanner, not as your main AV program. There are some other limitations as well. It has an annoying habit of detecting malware products that have been quarantined by other security products, and you can't exclude these areas from subsequent scans. The program itself is using an old version of the engine, so the detection is slightly weaker. And it's only available with a one year non-renewable license.

"Caveat"..   Products and links recommended by site visitors in our forum are not necessarily endorsed by this site.  Download at your own risk!

No other single product class seems to cause as much angst to average users, in their installation and day-to-day use, as Firewalls.

A recent contender is the free version of Online Armor Personal Firewall V2, which has been getting praise for its outstanding leak-test performance and ease of use. We were impressed with the full commercial version, but as we,ve yet to test the cut down free version, we're reluctant to make a recommendation. The feedback we've been getting from users has been very positive.

We no longer recommend the free version of the ZoneAlarm firewall. First, it is a very basic product compared to the commercial ZoneAlarm Pro version. The leak-test performance of the latest free version is extremely poor, whereas the Pro version is excellent. The download also includes the large commercial ZoneAlarm suite, so be careful not to install it. ZA free does have the advantage of working with Vista.

Product Details

Sunbelt-Kerio Personal Firewall
Website: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/
Download link: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/
Author: Sunbelt Software
Current version: 4.5.916
Version date: April 26, 2007
Download file size: 6.27MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000/XP, Vista
Additional software required: None
64 Bit capable: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes

Jetico Firewall
Website: http://www.jetico.com/jpfirewall.htm
Download link: http://www.jetico.com/jpfirewall.htm
Author: Jetico, Inc.
Current version: 1.0.1.61
Version date: July 19, 2005
Download file size: 2.7MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
Additional software required: None
64 Bit capable: Yes
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Other relevant information: Free Version has become outdated; No Development or Support seen in the near future to upgrade this version

NetVeda Safety.Net firewall
Website: http://www.netveda.com/consumer/safetynet.htm
Download link: http://www.netveda.com/downloads/index.htm
Author: NetVeda
Current version: 3.8.1
Version date: October 7th, 2007
Download file size: 4.31MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP
Additional software required: None
64 Bit capable: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: No
Other relevant information: Email Address required as registration

ZoneAlarm free firewall
Website: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp
Download link: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
Author: Check Point Software
Current version: 7.0.462.000
Version date: December 14, 2007
Download file size: 205KB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Additional software required: None
64 Bit capable: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Clint Morissette.

The internet is a dangerous place to be in the 21st century, with many people using increasingly ingenious ways to part you with your hard earned cash, whether it be by exploitation, surreptitiously harvesting your credit card and bank details for their own nefarious purposes, or tempting you to spend money on products and services that you neither need nor want.

During the latter years of the 20th century, and the early years of the 21st, Spybot S&D and AdAware were kings, protecting you from all manner of malware that tried to infect your computer with the sole intention of parting you from your wallet. But as technology improves, so do the malware writers, and the kings of yesterday in terms of protection may no longer be up to the job.

With every new generation of malware, there will be a new generation of software to combat it, and in my own tests, there are none better than SuperAntiSpyware. How can I be so confident? Because to save you the trouble, I went hunting around the seedier side of Hong Kong websites, picking up as many infections as I could find in a 30 minute surfing session, and then seeing how today’s anti-malware software coped, and without a doubt SuperAntiSpyware was the best.

During my surfing session I managed to acquire nearly 200 nasties, and SuperAntiSpyware found 176 of them. Compared with the second best performer, this was an amazingly high figure, but not quite perfect. However, there are more plusses here. Installation was quick and painless, with scanning time at the default settings impressively quick, and the cleanup process effective. However, it was when I cleaned up that the only fly in the ointment appeared. Whilst SAS did clean every infection it found, on the first attempt it left some behind. A second scan and clean cured this.

The final cleanup was done with a full scan, rather than the quick/smart scan used for testing the software reviewed here, though this took three times as long to detect a single additional threat. Nevertheless, nothing else even came close to the detection rate of SAS.

The runner up in my test was MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, which detected 104 threats, though the time taken to detect them was a little longer than SAS. Having said that, scanning again after I let SAS clean up my system, Malwarebyte’s offering still found an additional 28 threats that SAS had failed to detect. Most of these were Trojans, which suggests the two are aimed at slightly different threats. Anti-malware happily removed these with no troubles at all.

Surprisingly, despite being much maligned of late, AdAware 2008 came third in my tests, finding 86 of the original threats and finding 3 that both SAS and Malwarebytes had ignored, suggesting that the former champion isn’t quite prepared to roll over dead just yet.

Perhaps the most disappointing test was A-Squared, which if you ignore the 10 tracking cookies, only detected a paltry 3 threats from the original infection, and none of these were malware as such, but simply mechanisms by which malware may operate. These remained even after cleaning with the previous three products.

More disappointingly, A-Squared gives no real indication of scan times, having just a progress bar which shows 100% complete long before the scan was actually finished.

Both Spybot S&D and Spyware Terminator were ineffective against the infections on my test system, detecting approximately 5 – 8% of the original infections. After cleaning, there was nothing left for these to claim any glory at all, and I find it hard to recommend either.

Prevention is, however, better than cure, and none of the free products already mentioned offer prevention.

Enter stage right Comodo BOClean and Threatfire which both aim to stop malware entering your system in the first place. It’s difficult to assess the effectiveness of both products with any degree of accuracy, though both seem to have a place in our systems.

Employing different methods of protection, Comodo’s software will attempt to monitor changes to your system and block those presenting a threat using, as far as I was able to tell, a heuristic approach. ThreatFire, on the other hand, uses aggressive behavioural analysis to prevent unwanted applications installing.

My own experience suggests that Comodo can be a little resource heavy, and may also introduce instability to some systems, whilst ThreatFire can be a little too aggressive, preventing perfectly safe and legitimate software installing and running. However, there are many more people using both products without difficulty, and both are certainly worth considering as a part of your overall protection.

Being neither a malware scanner, nor prevention, HiJack This is an excellent tool for helping to protect your system from uninvited software, but it isn’t for the faint hearted. HiJack This will analyse your system and offer a comprehensive log of installed software, startup items, registry keys etc. Reading the logs requires a good understanding of the system, though fortunately there are some very helpful forums where some very knowledgeable people are willing to help.

Generally, more is better, and it is well worth installing more than one product. Some will detect threats that others will miss, and different products will be more effective against different types of threat. However, the best protection is only as good as the user, and you should always exercise common sense when surfing the web and installing software. Only be sure to visit sites and install applications that you trust.

Locating quality freeware burning applications for this review proved to be a challenge, even though there were plenty of contenders. Our short list included:

• AVS Disc Creator
• burnatonce
• Burn to the Brim
• CDBurnerXP
• CDR Tools Front End
• CommandBurner
• DeepBurner Free
• Easy Burning
• Express Burn
• HT Fireman CD/DVD Burner
• IsoRecorder
• Burrn 1.14
• CreateCD
• DVDShrink
• ImgBurn

We were also attracted to two other programs, Burn4Free and Artisan (a.k.a. Sun), but they were packaged with adware and/or spyware and were discarded.

• an intuitive interface
• the ability to author data discs
• create audio CDs playable in a regular CD player
• create bootable discs
• copy discs
• create and burn image files (e.g. ISO)

It passed every test we were able to throw at it: it added to a multi-session disc created on another drive with another burning application, and created a functional slip-streamed Windows XP installation CD! In addition to the core features, CDBurnerXP also has several additional features: customizable boot disc options (lacking in DeepBurner), integrated cover printing utility, integrated audio player and audio, the ability to rip audio CDs to various formats (including MP3 with CDDB lookup), and support for Double layer DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. Those of you who are familiar with Nero will feel right at home, because the interface is very similar.

All up, CDBurnerXP is a good choice for both basic and advanced users. DeepBurner Free is a close second to CDBurnerXP. If you don't author bootable CDs or care about the additional multimedia features, then DeepBurner Free might be the one for you. It has all of the core functionality, but is a much smaller download package and has a smaller installation footprint. It also offers a portable version that can be executed as a stand-alone application from a USB drive.

In addition to these products, there are several free burners that are extremely small and specialize in just one or two features. For example, Burrrn is for authoring audio CDs, CreateCD and CommandBurner offer command line burning capabilities, DVDShrink is designed for creating DVD backups, and ImgBrn and ISO Recorder are for burning images to disc with a couple clicks of the mouse. For the average user, though, CDBurnerXP or DeepBurner Free are the clear winners. Editor's note: many thanks to regular contributor Craig Vollmar for taking the time to prepare this excellent review.

Tune-up utilities are needed to keep your computer running fast. There are a variety of tasks tune-up programs can do, such as disk cleaning, disk defragging, registry cleaning and registry defragging. Tune-up utilities are especially useful for people who use resource intensive programs, like most modern computer games.

My top pick is Glary Utilities. The free version offers:

• a disk and registry cleaner
• a process, startup, uninstall and context menu manager
• a memory optimizer
• disk space analysis
• removal of broken shortcuts, duplicate files and empty folders
• erasure of tracks
• shredding, recovery, encryption and splitting of files
• management of Internet Explorer add-ons
• access to some Windows tools.

The shareware version adds scheduling, support and consent for commercial use.

Glary Utilities has the most tools and has one-click cleaning for several of the most common tasks . Some people have reported problems with using Microsoft Flight Simulator when running the registry cleaner of Glary Utilities.

Another excellent product is Advanced WindowsCare Personal from IObit. The Personal version offers:

• spyware cleaning and immunization
• disk and registry cleaner
  
• startup manager
  
• erasure of browsing history
• system and security tweaks

The Professional version adds some advanced tuning tweaks, scheduling, support and consent for commercial use.

It has one-click cleaning and is very simple to use.

Currently Advanced WindowsCare Personal 3 beta is available. It adds much more features but since it is a beta it could be unstable, so use it at your own risk.

Currently there is an offer by Computeractive that offers Ashampoo WinOptimizer 4 for free. It offers:

• disk and registry cleaning
• disk defragmenter
• disk analysis
• process manager
• visual styler
• system benchmark
• over 450 tweaks

To register it into a full version and not a trial, leave "Get full version key" checked during installation, or click Internet, Get Full Version Key within the application after you have installed it.

This is an excellent product and very easy to use. It has one-click cleaning and also has a disk defragmenter. However, it does not have updates since this is a special offer. Their latest version is currently at version 5.

PC Health Optimizer Free Edition is another option, but it does not have one-click operations and is not as powerful as the other programs mentioned. It can be downloaded here.

These are impressive free packages and are recommended for non-technical users with most of them having one-click operations. They lack in one major area: hard-drive defragmentation. However, IObit also offer an excellent free defrag program called SmartDefrag. If you use this in conjunction with one of the tune-up suites, you'll have a remarkably complete tune-up package.

Remember that cleaning your PC always involves a small element of risk, so backup your data and create a System Restore Point before you start.

Some of these products (Glary Utilities, Advanced WindowsCare Personal and PC Health Optimizer Free Edition) have some form of scanning for spyware. These are not recommended as I believe specialised products are necessary for security. They are are generally safer and have been tested to some degree.

We recommend that you run the tune-up programs monthly. After each monthly Windows update is an excellent time to run a clean up. If you install and uninstall a lot of products, you may want to increase this frequency to weekly or even daily.

If you have never tuned up your PC, then you should see a real improvement in speed and responsiveness the first time you run these programs. However, on subsequent runs the improvement may be much less noticeable.

Product Details

Glary Utilities
Website: http://glaryutilities.com/gu.html
Download link: www.download.com/3001-2094_4-10840459.html
Author: Glarysoft
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: No
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Yes
Additional Software Required: None

Advanced WindowsCare Personal
Website: http://www.iobit.com/AdvancedWindowsCarePersonal/index.html
Download link: http://www.download.com/Advanced-WindowsCare-Personal/3000-2086-10407614.html?part=dl-AdvancedW&subj=dl&tag=button
Author: IObit
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Yes
Additional Software Required: None

Ashampoo WinOptimizer 4
Website: www2.ashampoo.com/webcache/html/1/product_2_1606__.htm
Download link: www.computeractive.co.uk/vnunet/downloads/2219165/ashampoo-winoptimizer
Author: Ashampoo
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000, XP, Vista
64-Bit Version Available: Unknown
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Unknown
Additional Software Required: None

SmartDefrag
Website: http://www.iobit.com/SmartDefrag/index.html
Download link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5318
Author: IObit
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000, XP, Vista
64 Bit Version Available: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Other Languages Supported: Yes
Additional Software Required: None

Related Topics

• Best Free File Cleaner
• Best Free Browser Scrubber
• Best Free Duplicate File Finder
• Best Free Registry Cleaner
• Best Free Disk De-fragmenter
• Best Free Program Uninstaller

This category is maintained by volunteer editor Someone. Registered site visitors can contact Someone by clicking here.

For those of you who are average PC users who don't use an anti-trojan scanner, I recommend that you download a2 (a-squared) and scan your PCs weekly. I suspect that you may be surprised at what you'll find. a2 is also pretty good at removing some spyware infections, so bear that in mind the next time you encounter a spyware product that you can't remove with normal anti-spyware products like Ad-Aware.  

a2 (a-squared)
Website:
www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
Author: Emsisoft
Date: 06/30/2008
Version: 3.5.0.25
Download File size: 26MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported:  Windows 98 - Vista 32bit
64 Bit Capable: no
Portable version available: no
Other languages supported: yes
Additional Software Required: None

Trojan Hunter

“Caveat”.. Products and links recommended by site visitors in our forum are not necessarily endorsed by this site.  Download at your own risk!

A disk defragmenter is a key toolkit element for keeping your PC running optimally. Disk fragmentation occurs through normal everyday use of your PC; over time your system becomes unable to store related data on your disk in a sequential (contiguous) manner, and must "fragment" files across different physical locations on your hard drive. This increases the number of times your hard drive must spin (or "seek"), which slows down the process of reading and writing files. Defragmentation software compresses files and free space back into contiguous blocks.

Our top top recommendation is Diskeeper Lite, an older free version of Executive Software's current commercial Diskeeper product. It's simple to use, has a good graphical interface and performs very well – despite being at version 7 while it's commercial sibling is at version 11. It is possible to update to version 9 of Diskeeper Lite by downloading Intel's large (89MB) Desktop Utilities package available from the Intel site. If you unzip the file you'll find Diskeeper V9 Lite in the folder ../3rdparty/Diskeeper/. Neither the read-me file nor the License Agreement prohibit downloading and using this program on a single computer, so it appears to be a perfectly legitimate way to obtain the program. You can remove Diskeeper's annoying nag screen by following the instructions here. Unfortunately, Diskeeper does not work with Vista.

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/idu/

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Andrew Waters.

Finding an all-in-one media player used to be impossible.  In the past you needed to use several separate programs to play MP3 files, streaming media from Real, Mpeg files, Quicktime movies, CDs and DVD discs, but with the advent of Microsoft's Windows Media Player (WMP), all of these media types could be played in one player.  Over a period of time, however, WMP for XP and Vista has become bloated and isn't compatible with all of the available file formats.  WinAmp, which began as an mp3 player, now plays almost everything, although it uses a lot of system resources and may contain adware if you aren't careful on the installation.  iTunes has become more prevalent on many PCs due to the almost universal reach of the IPod, but it also uses a lot of resources and is processor intensive.  So I've done some major research to find alternative media players capable of playing all of these media formats while still being light on resources.  I was impressed with what I found.  Not only so these programs replace WMP ITunes and WinAmp,  but they also exceeded their functionality.  The products that I've reviewed here are capable of playing multiple types of media files, including various digital audio and video formats, CDs, and DVDs.  They are also easy to install and use and are light on system resources.

NOTE:  Some of these programs may require additional codecs for expanded functionality.  For more information about codecs, including what they do, legal issues and download links, see the article, "Understanding Codecs".

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Joe Bennett. Registered site visitors can contact Joe by clicking here.

Product Specifications:

Media Player Classic:
Website:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli2/
Download Link:  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205650
Author:  Gabest
Current version:  6.4.9.1
Version date: 04-Apr-2008
Download file size:  2.12 MB
License:   Free - GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating systems supported:  Windows 95-Vista
Additional required software:  None
64 bit version available:  No, this program will not run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available:  Program is Portable
Non-English languages supported:  None
Other relevant information: 

• No installation required. 
• Can be run from a flash drive. 
• "Understanding Codecs" can be downloaded here:  http://www.techsupportalert.com/dr/understanding-codecs.htm
• Additional software to enhance Media Player Classic can be found here:

1. ffdshow:  http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm
2. Real Alternative:  http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
3. QuickTime Alternative: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
4. WinAmp Alternative: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Winamp-Alternative-Download-23376.html

VLC Media Player:
Website:  http://www.videolan.org/
Download link:  http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Author:  The VideoLAN Team
Current version:  0.8.6h
Version date:  07-Jun-2008
Download file size:  8.96 MB
License:  Free - GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating systems supported:  Windows 98-Vista, OS x, Various Linux distros
Additional Related software:  None
64 Bit version available:  Unknown
Portable version available:  Yes - Available here
Non-English languages supported:  None
Other relevant information:  None

GOM Player:
Website:  http://www.gomplayer.com/main.html
Download link:  http://www.gomplayer.com/download.html
Author:  Gretech Corp.
Current version:  2.1.9.3754
Version date:  28-Mar-2008
Download file size:  4.48 MB
License:  Free - GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating systems supported:  Windows 98SE-Vista
64 Bit version available:  No, but this 32 bit program will run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available:  No
Additional related software:  None
Other relevant information:  None

Related Topics:

• Best Free CD/DVD Burning Software
• Best Free Audio/Video Format Conversion Program
• Best Free Video Editor
• Best Free Streaming Media Recorder
• Best Free Audio Editing Software
• Best Free Screen Session Recorder

If you're unfamiliar with the Windows registry,  it's not advisable that you use a registry cleaner. The risks are just too high, as compared to the possible gains. 

The registry is what keeps your computer running; it tells the computer what to do when certain events happen. However, as you use your computer, a lot of unwanted and unnecessary information is written into the registry, and this usually occurs because you've installed and uninstalled programs or updated versions of existing programs.  This gradual accumulation of unneeded or incorrect information will, over time, slow the speed of your computer.

A registry cleaner tries to get rid of this unwanted data and restore your PC to full speed. The problem is that the cleaning process is less than perect. In particular, there is always a small risk that the registry cleaner may incorrectly remove data that is actually needed. In the worst case scenario, your PC may become unusable as a result.

That's why it's absolutely essential that you backup your registry before using a registry cleaner. For most users the easiest way to do this is to create a system checkpoint.  An even better way is to use a drive-imaging program to create a snapshot of Windows, which you can use for system recovery if needed.  As an added layer of protection, that may actually be more effective than System Restore, consider using the excellent ERUNT utility that Gizmo mentioned as the Tip of the Month in issue #136 of the newsletter.

This ever-present risk of problems is why the "best" registry cleaner is the one that causes the fewest problems, rather than the one that finds the greatest number of registry errors.

EasyCleaner is our top recommendation.  Historically, it has proven that it doesn't create problems, and it periodically updates its list of "registry values" that must not be cleaned under any circumstance. It also detects and deletes duplicate files and cleans up all your temporary files to provide more usable disk space, but this should be viewed as a bonus rather the primary function of the product.

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is another option, but it lacks many of EasyCleaner's features. Despite this fact, it has a reasonably good track record.

Another option is a program called RegSeeker, but we've determined that it has caused numerous problems, so we're reluctant to recommend it.

Product Details

EasyCleaner
Website: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
Download Link: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
Author: Toni Helenius
Current Version: 2.0.8.306
Download File Size: 2.81 MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems: Windows 95-Vista
Additional Software Required: Windows 95 Only - Winsock 2 Update from microsoft.com
Other Languages: Many, see website for details
Other Information: None

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
Website: http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm
Download Link: 5 Download Sites accessible from Website.
Author: Eusing Software
Current Version: 1.6
Download File Size: 890.8 KB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems: Windows 95-Vista
Additional Software Required: None
Other Languages: Many, see website for details
Other Information: None
 

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Dean.

This is one of those software categories where the quantity and quality of free programs is at least equal to that of commercial ones, so the selection isn't easy, and personal convenience will unavoidably appear as a main factor for this review.

And there's also the question of what exactly we mean by an "image viewer". With so many contenders that offer loads of features like editing, filtering, batch processing, organizing, publishing and the rest, that name may be a bit too restrictive, as we always tend to demand some additional editing features apart from the basic viewing and browsing functions (these are sine qua non, in my opinion). Thus many imaging applications overlap categories, and the differences for our review should be based mainly on the aspects of access speed, zooming capabilities, and other tasks not directly related to extensive image editing. Though I know many users will prefer all-in-one programs, I feel that they don't fit into this category, and feature bloat precludes their recommendation.

There are several good choices here, and the first of these is the classic IrfanView. Irfan is a first-class product, but one for which I have mixed feelings. It's an amazingly capable application and very fast at displaying images, something I consider essential for a viewer. Some additional features (its resizing algorithm, for instance) are excellent and even rank above a big fish like Photoshop. But although other users just love it, it just doesn't work the way I'd like it to: wheel zooming, for instance, requires a press of the Ctrl key, and I don't see the point in having a separate module for thumbnails. This, however, may be exactly what other users prefer, and the same applies to the interface, which looks a bit too simple to me.

A product I feel more comfortable with is XNView. Like Irfan, it's very versatile; it can read and display nearly 400 types of graphic files, and convert any of these to more than 50 formats. It displays images very quickly, and these may be viewed full screen, as slideshows or as thumbnails. It's quite capable at processing images, too; you can adjust brightness and color, apply filters or effects, crop and resize, and more. These operations can also be carried out from a batch file, which makes XNView ideal for converting large digital images to smaller sizes for use on the web or in emails. It supports drag and drop, has many plug-ins, is available in 44 languages and has full cross-platform support, including Mac. XNView has a lot of similarities to IrfanView; so many in fact, that it comes perilously close to plagiarism. Put positively, one may say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; however, the developers of IrfanView must feel more than a little miffed. XNView is free for non-commercial use, and supports all Windows versions plus many other platforms.

My third choice is FastStone Image Viewer. This is a speed demon with a zippiness in displaying images that's reminiscent of the old ACDSee before it suffered feature bloat. But this zippiness disappears when it deals with larger files (>20Mb, depending on the format) and both Irfan and XN perform much better in this field. It also has good basic image editing facilities, great slide show capabilities and an interface which is a delight to work with. It supports all major graphic formats and popular digital camera RAW formats as well. Much to like here.

FastStone has a "little brother" called FastStone MaxView which is essentially the same program, but it's limited to the viewer and a few features.

IrfanView
Website: http://www.irfanview.com/
Download link: http://www.irfanview.com/
Author: Irfan Skiljan
Current version: 4.10
Version date: November 21, 2007
License: Freeware for private use
Download File size: 1.10Mb
Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Multi language support
Other relevant information: Extensive plugins available
Layers are not supported

FastStone Image Viewer
Website: http://www.faststone.org/
Download link: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm
Author: FastStone Soft
Current version: 3.5
Version date: January 15, 2008
License: Freeware for private use
Download File size: 4.24Mb, portable 4.18Mb
Operating Systems Supported: 98/2000/Me/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Multi language support only in version 3.2 and older: Chinese(Simp & Trad), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish
Other relevant information: Supports dual-monitor configurations
Tutorial available: 3.7MB

Related Topics

Best Free Digital Photo Organizer

There are many reasons people have for wanting to surf anonymously, ranging from simple paranoia in terms of protecting personal data, to hiding browsing activities from other users of a computer including parents, spouses, or even other organizations. Whatever your reasons for wanting to use anonymous browsing services, or criticizing others for wanting to use them, I will not debate the political, legal, moral, ethical and other reasons, but simply review the available technology. Be aware that most corporate networks will block the use of anonymous surfing activities at the corporate firewall. Corporate networks and internet links are after all the property of your employer and should never be misused in violation of corporate acceptable use policies, so don’t expect any help here in finding ways to circumvent firewall blocking.

The most obvious anonymous browsing application for most people is in internet cafes, on public terminals, using wireless or even wired access points away from home, or in fact, on any PC including your own, where you don't want to leave traces of your private surfing activities. Some other browsing activity cleaners exist that clear the cache, cookies, history and other traces, some are even available as a standard in most browsers, but anonymous browsing goes a step further. What attracts me is not so much the privacy aspect, but rather the security potential, because all of the anonymizing browser proxy based services create a secure encrypted connection between the PC you are using and the first anonymizing proxy server. This allows you to safely transmit information without little risk of local interception, making it ideal for surfing on open Wi-Fi networks, or in hotels while travelling.

Previously, secure surfing on such networks required the use of private VPN networks, generally an option only available to corporate employees, those with the available money to pay for it and the technically savvy. Now, using any of the Tor or JAP based browsers, any surfer can reap the same sort of security benefits for their browsing. Whatever the reasons anyone may have for using anonymizing browsing, commercial services that offer anonymity are doing well, and a number of both free and subscription based browsing applications and services have become available.

Two dominant services exist which provide the foundation for free, secure anonymous browsing. The JAP network was good enough that the German Police insisted in 2004, that a backdoor be put into the product to allow interception of child pornographers. This was done, but subsequently removed as a result of court action by the JAP development team. The alternative is Tor (The Onion Ring), which is a system that not only allows anonymous browsing but also anonymous P2P, email, IM, and IRC chat. Given the US Navy origin of Tor, the suspicion inevitably arises that this system may have a permanent backdoor, however, the source code is now publicly available so that suspicion can perhaps be set aside. More worrying was a raid by German police in September 2006 involving the seizure of some Tor servers in that country. Again, pedophiles were the supposed target, but who really knows.

OperaTor is my clear first choice, a portable version of Opera with an included and well integrated Tor engine that uses the free Tor network. OperaTor is small and relatively fast, using just 6Mb of memory for it’s Tor engine, 2Mb for the Polipo caching proxy, 3Mb for the OperaTor loader and 18Mb for Opera. In my experience, OperaTor is by far the fastest browser, even with multiple proxies on the Tor network so that the browsing trail is frequently changing for greater security. Some people don't like the fact that OperaTor is not released with source code available (at least not that we have yet located) which may influence the choice in whether to use it or not. I believe that unless a user is proficient in programming, or at least reading the development language of any particular application, this becomes rather irrelevant, unless some amount of comfort or security might be perceived in knowing that source is available and others might be checking it even if the user of the application can not read it personally. Even closed source projects that become popular generally receive enough user and peer scrutiny that most problems would be quickly exposed.

JonDo (previously known as JAP) is my second choice and is in some ways a more flexible option, in that it is simply a Java application that performs the role of a local (PC based) proxy server that redirects browser requests via the JonDo (formerly JAP) network. This allows the user to configure their choice of any browser rather than requiring a change to Opera. Unfortunately, being Java based means that the application becomes somewhat bloated, requiring 54Mb of memory just for the Java JonDo application, as well as another few Mb for the JAP engine, and then whatever additional is required for the web browser of choice. JonDo does have quite a nice GUI display which shows the strength of the anonymity based on the number of anonymizing proxy servers, and takes care of managing the random proxy changes for greater anonymity. A commercial service known as JonDonym has been introduced which uses dedicated servers to provide higher speeds, higher levels of availability and more security along with support for chat, ftp and ssh in addition to web browsing. Another offering from the commercial JonDonym group is JonDoFox, a customized version of Firefox with JonDo code embedded along with other anonymizing optimizations. Unfortunately, JonDo not being a network like Tor is prone to some limitations in terms of the numbers of free servers, and some subsequent downtimes may be more likely with the smaller server base.

Vidalia is my third choice, a close match to JonDo in that it is quite a bit lighter in memory use and generally feels faster, but may not have the same level of anonymizing as JonDo. Vidalia is another integrated package using a combination of Privoxy and a Tor engine to connect to the Tor network, but it offers many new features. As with JonDo, Vidalia behaves as a local proxy for use by any browser, but it also provides configurations allowing it to run either as a simple standalone process or as a Windows service (for security and performance reasons, among others). Vidalia allows the user to participate in the anonymizing process by becoming a Tor Relay to help censored users in a similar way to becoming a BitTorrent relay, and a live realtime facility is available showing a map of the earth with lines representing connections to the Tor server participants. Vidalia uses 24 - 32Mb of memory, with an additional 4Mb used for Privoxy and another 16.5Mb for the Tor engine. One initially confusing aspect of Vidalia is that it provides a configuration access through port 9051, but it is not immediately obvious that Privoxy is listening on port 8118. Browsers using the Vidalia bundle must be configured to use the Privoxy port 8118 as the proxy server, not port 9051. Like JonDo, the Vidalia/Privoxy combination constantly changes proxy servers to mask the trail to provide greater anonymity.

Whatever your preference, both JAP and Tor networks offer a level of secrecy that is better than many commercial systems, though they are not watertight. Expect your surfing to slow down, in some case substantially, because you'll be relayed through a chain of servers, all heavily impacted by BitTorrent users seeking to hide from the RIAA. Note: the latest V5 release of JAP now allows Tor users to use JAP as a software access point to the Tor network.

The XeroBank Browser (previously known as TorPark) provides a new customized version of the Firefox browser configured to work with the free Tor anonymizing service, or with a subscription service for higher speeds using dedicated servers, and other features. Firefox users may feel more comfortable with XeroBank, as it is based on Firefox, but also need not make any changes at all if they make use of either the JonDo or Vidalia bundles to access the Tor engine other than to set the proxy server, and of course, manual cleanup of the cache, cookies and browsing history after use. XeroBank claims to have many advanced features, but for the average user most of these may not be apparent, unless the subscription service is used. While the XeroBank browser is free to use on the Tor network, the XeroBank web site promotes the use of their subscription-based account. During installation, the XeroBank Browser offers the choice of using either the commercial XeroBank Client or the free Tor service. Caution! Some antivirus scanners report trojan infected code in the XeroBank download. Use http://jotti.org to verify all downloads, and use XeroBank and all other applications with caution, but be aware that some of the virus scanners used by jotti.org may also be overly zealous in their reporting of infections. Some claimed virus or trojan infections in various applications are no more than firewall detection, or software product key reporting capabilities mis-diagnosed by the scanner as a potential threat.

 The downside of XeroBank as contrasted with using JonDo or Vidalia, is that you would need to use XeroBank for anonymous browsing and your regular browser for other surfing. Using JonDo or Vidalia, you can use the browser of your choice, and just reconfigure to use the proxy when you want to anonymous surfing. This won't automatically clean out all other personal data (cache, history, cookies etc.) when the application is shut down, which OperaTor and XeroBank do.

A final item for review recently brought to my attention by Peter, one of our visitors, is UltraSurf, which seems to be primarily targeted at people in China wanting to circumvent official government internet censorship. We will not get into the politics or ethics of either the censorship or circumvention of censorship, however the facility exists and may be useful to some people. UltraSurf is a very simple application, a single tiny 281Kb download containing just one executable, u.exe. When running, this little program uses just 7.5Mb of memory and performs the same role of proxy server as other applications, redirecting all browser requests via the UltraSurf proxy servers. While this is an interesting new development claiming to be very sophisticated, it seems on the surface to be rather simplistic, and does not appear to change proxy servers in the same way that JAP and Tor do. Browsing speeds also seemed to be somewhat slower than with either Tor or JAP browsing. The program appeared to be clean on a http://jotti.org virus scan, other than one possible trojan reported by F-Prot, so as with all software, while it appeared to be safe on my tests, test it out and scan it yourself. By default, UltraSurf changes proxy settings and launches Internet Explorer when it starts, but I was able to shut down Explorer and start FireFox and Opera with the proxy reconfigured to use the same port and successfully browse via UltraSurf.

For all anonymizing services, check that you are running in anonymous mode by first browsing to one of many servers which reports your IP address, for example http://www.whatismyip.com/ and take note of your IP address. Reconfigure your browser to make use of the anonymizing service, and reload / refresh the browser and verify that the reported IP address has changed. Some IP reporting servers will also tell you which country, and even which city you now appear to be connecting from.

Most of the services reviewed are able to run directly from a USB flash drive if the executables are simply copied as is from their installation directories. This works really well, just plug your flash drive into any PC with a USB port, launch both the anonymizing proxy software and a browser, set the browser to redirect via the anonymizer and you will be in business. In the case of both OperaTor and XeroBank, all you need to is launch the browser from your flash drive and you will be ready to start browsing.

While some 'LiveCD' applications such as XeroBank Machine and Incognito Live CD have been created and may provide similar functions, they mostly seem to be currently released in various stages of alpha or beta test versions and have bugs or limitations. For example, the XeroBank Machine provides two options. You can either run the xBMachine.exe from a Windows prompt which starts a QEMU virtual machine and then runs a GenToo Linux kernel, or by booting from a "Live CD". This Live CD boots the same customized GenToo Linux environment from CD without any Windows involvement. In simple terms, both xBMachine options simply provide a different "hardened" OS platform to run the Firefox based XeroBank Browser. Is LiveCD really useful? To some people, yes, not to me. It does mean that like SandBoxie, your guest operating system is protected from malicious web sites via your browsing, and when you stop the QEMU virtual machine or reboot the PC from hard disk rather than CD all traces are removed. I am a Unix / Linux geek so I am totally at home with them, but for the average person, I suspect the LiveCD and QEMU based options will provide a confusing level of complexity that will just interfere with their browsing and desire to be safe. Not much can beat truly safe browsing habits, whatever browser or add-on tools you use. xBMachine is a 380Mb zip file download, which unpacked yields a 391Mb ISO image to create a CD as well as another 10Mb or so of the QEMU environment. The QEMU hosted browser uses 292+Mb of memory, requires the ISO image present, and took more than 5 minutes to load and be ready for use on a 1.8Ghz dual core Intel PC with 1Gb or memory. It provides a Linux X-Windows GUI with a profile configuration, a network configuration, xBBrowser, e-mail, Pidgin instant messenger, terminal and an option to configure for the paid subscription network. I don't know about you, but I am not willing to wait 5 or more minutes and have close to 300Mb of disk space tied up in a browser that took another minute or two to load, and then in my case never managed to connect out anyway. For those who feel that having source available makes a better product, go ahead and try to download the XeroBank source. All of the links gave me a 7Mb source zip file which was corrupted and would not open. Would this give you "open source available" feelings of security? I don't think so.

I'm a freeware and open source fan, I can read and write programs, but not when the source file is corrupted, and I am not likely to start poring through tens of thousands of lines of code even if I could unpack the source. Even if it does unpack, how do we know that exact source was used to build the tool, and not another set of customized source with a built in Trojan or spyware? The reality is that we really don't know unless we both inspect the source code and then compile it and compare the distributed executable.

One final comment on anonymizing, your browsing activities will never be 100% secure and guaranteed to be anonymous. It will be very difficult for anyone to trace you while browsing through the Tor network, except as reported in the Tor wiki, "when you access pages that use Java, Javascript, Macromedia Flash and Shockwave, QuickTime, RealAudio, ActiveX controls, and VBScript are all known to be able to access local information about your operating system and local network. These technologies will work over proxies and can tunnel the information back to their source."

Product Details

JonDo
Website: http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html
Download Link: http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/download_en.html
Author: JonDo is a software development within the Project Anonymity in the Internet sponsored by the German Research Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The Project works closely with the Independent Center for Data Privacy Schleswig-Holstein.
Current version: 00.10.003
Version date: -n/a-
License: Freeware
Download File size: 15.8 Mb
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista,
Macintosh, OS/2, Linux/Unix
Additional Software Required: Java (downloadable from http://sun.java.com) Tor is included in the zip file and integrated. After installation use your choice of browser, and for complete privacy remember to clean out the cache, cookies and history when finished.
64 Bit Capable: No specific 64 bit version is available, however it should run without problems on 64 bit environments.
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: German, French, Dutch, Czech and Russian.
Other relevant information: None

OperaTor
Website: http://archetwist.com/en/opera/operator
Download Link: http://archetwist.com/en/opera/operator - direct links are best avoided as new versions make old links redundant.
Author: Arche Twist
Current version: 3.1
Version date: June 3, 2008
License: Freeware
Download file size: 7 Mb
Operating Systems Supported: All Windows
Additional Software Required: None, Tor and Polipo (caching proxy) are included in the zip file and integrated into OperaTor
64 Bit Capable: No specific 64 bit version is available, however it should run without problems on 64 bit environments.
Portable Version Available: Yes, download the zip file and unpack it.
Non-English languages supported: Yes, many.

 Tor
Website: http://www.torproject.org/
Download Link: http://www.torproject.org/download.html
Author: Tor Project
Current version: 0.1.2.19
Version date: January 17, 2008
License: BSD Freeware (information on website)
Download file size: 6.6 Mb
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista,
Mac OS, Linux/Unix
Additional Software Required: None. After installation, use your choice of browser, and for complete privacy remember to clean out the cache, cookies and history when finished.
64 Bit Capable: No specific 64 bit version is available, however it should run without problems on 64 bit environments.
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch, Suomi, during installation with all the same and a number more supported during operation.

UltraSurf
Website: http://ultrareach.com
Download Link: http://ultrareach.com
Author: UltraReach
Current version: 8.9
Version date: July 4, 2008
License: Freeware
Download file size: 201 Kb
Operating Systems Supported: All Windows
Additional Software Required: None, it uses Internet Explorer by default, but you after installation, you can use your choice of browser, and for complete privacy remember to clean out the cache, cookies and history when finished.
64 Bit Capable: No specific 64 bit version is available, however it should run without problems on 64 bit environments.
Portable Version Available: Yes, download the zip file and unpack it.
Non-English languages supported: None

Vidalia
Website: http://vidalia-project.net
Download Link: http://vidalia-project.net
Author: Vidalia development team
Current version: 0.1.6
Version date: July 8, 2008
License: Freeware
Download file size: 7 Mb
Operating Systems Supported: All Windows
Additional Software Required: None, Tor and Privoxy are included in the installation file and integrated. After installation, use your choice of browser, and for complete privacy remember to clean out the cache, cookies and history when finished.
64 Bit Capable: No specific 64 bit version is available, however it should run without problems on 64 bit environments.
Portable Version Available: No, however it can be copied after installation. Privoxy will need to be launched manually, and the location of Tor will need to be changed in the Vidalia configuration if it is copied to a different location that where it was installed.
Non-English languages supported: Yes, Bulgarian, Finnish, French, German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish.

XeroBank Browser
Website: http://www.xerobank.com/xB_browser.html
Download Link: http://update.xerobank.com/distro/XeroBank/xB-Browser_latest.exe
Author: XeroBank
Current version: 2.0.0.14b
Version date: March 4, 2008
License: Freeware, however a subscription service is available which provides additional features and dedicated high speed servers.
Download file size: 10.4 Mb
Operating Systems Supported: Windows NT and Later
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No specific 64 bit version is available, however it has been reported to run without problems on 64 bit environments, but the homepage blog also reports some 64bit problems.
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: One user has reported that 36 different languages are supported, though I have not yet personally verified this statement.

Incognito LiveCD
Website: http://anonymityanywhere.com/incognito/
Download Link:
Author:
Current version:
Version date:
License:
Download file size:
Operating Systems Supported:
Additional Software Required:
64 Bit Capable:
Portable Version Available:
Non-English languages supported:

Related Topics:

• Best Free Web Browser
  
• Best Free Browser Protection Utility
• Best Free Browser Scrubber
• Best Free Route Tracer
• Article: How to improve your security when using a public terminal

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Allan Marillier. Registered site visitors can contact Allan by clicking here.

All of the PDF writers in this review are programs that function by creating a pseudo printer on your system.  When you want to create a PDF document from pretty much any application you just choose to print it to the PDF printer and it creates a PDF document.  The thing that distinguishes one product from another is the number of options and flexibility available.  The one problem with this approach is that you need to have a program that will open the file on your system.  If someone sends you a file created with a program you do not have and you can't open the file then you can't print it and if you can't print it then you can't convert it to a pdf using a pseudo printer technique.  The two online products do not suffer from this problem but are limited only by the file formats recognized by the online vendor.

After eliminating those PDF Writers suggested by readers that were not free, were limited time trials, and basically adware (the product was free but forced the user to endure various ads as a punishment for using it), there were only six candidates left.  These were (alphabetically) Bullzip PDF Writer, CutePDF, doPDF, PDFCreator, PrimoPDF, and TinyPDF.  Which one of these is best?  That really depends on the options you need.  While I have recommended PDFCreator in the past, I have now moved to Bullzip PDF Writer as my personal favorite.  It has more of the options I need and has worked flawless for me.

Key features of Bullzip include:
The ability to password protect your pdf files (only PrimoPDF and PDFCreator also had this ability)
The ability use either 40 or 128 bit encryption on the file (only PDFCreator also had this ability)
The ability to add a watermark (PDF Creator had a limited ability to add watermarks)
The ability to append or prepend files (PrimoPDF and PDFCreator also had this ability)
The ability to choose different levels of output quality (All but CutePDF and TinyPDF had this ability)
The ability to add/change metadata (PrimoPDF and PDFCreator also had this ability)

PDFCreator is still my second choice and has all the features of Bullzip with the exception of a 64 bit version and more limited watermark abilities.  The help files are available only in English, French and German.  However it does have one unique feature among these products.  It comes with both a standalone install and a server install.  In a company setting this gives you the ability to install the printer driver on a server and make it available to all the workstations on the network without doing an install on each one of them.  This may make it a preferred choice in business situations if you don't need the other options that products like Bullzip offer.  The only item PDF Creator failed at was printing a web page to pdf.  I was unable to get consistent output and generally the program produced an error and exited.  This can be a major issue for many users.

Among the very basic pdf Writers are CutePDF Writer and TinyPDF.  These both provide only the most minimal functions and create the pdf file with no options for password, encryption, metadata, or most other optional functions.  On the other hand, they are among the smallest of the downloads.

doPDF is comparable to CutePDF and TinyPDF in terms of features.  It provides a minimal set but does have the ability to choose different levels of output quality which the other two do not.  I can see no reason not to prefer it over the other two unless you often print graphical documents to pdf.  

The most commonly asked question by readers has been about the size of the output file.  Using a large test file without graphics doPDF and tinyPDF created the smallest files at 1.4 megs, CutePDF, and PDFCreator came in at 1.8 megs, and Bullzip came in at 1.9 megabytes.  While CutePDF, PDFCreator and Bullzip were larger they were also set at 600 dpi while the other two did not have the ability to change output and appeared to be 300dpi.   This was not a sufficient difference in output file size to make to make it an important factor for deciding on one over the other.  However, when a substantial amount of graphics were included doPDF produced a much larger file than the others.  TinyPDF and CutePDF both came in at 3.5 megs (at 300dpi), PrimoPDF and Bullzip both came in at 7.8 megs (at 600dpi) and doPDF came in at a whopping 13.3 megs (at 600dpi).  PDFCreator failed to correctly render the page and created failure errors each time it was tried.  

Primo pdf was removed from the list of best software because after downloading the newest version on June 5 from their website I found it totally unacceptable.  The product still does everything it did before but there is a lag of several seconds from the time I selected the printer until the screen with the Primo interface opened.  I even wondered if my computer was hung and was starting to look for the application to stop the process when it finally came up.  With no features that are not also found in Bullzip I decided to delete it from the recommended list.  I should note that on my fastest computer it worked reasonably well but still much slower than all other products.

Although PrimoPDF was removed from the recommendations of best pdf Writer it does have a free online version at http://online.primopdf.com/ that allows you to upload a file and receive it back as a PDF via email.  If you need a pdf conversion only on rare occassion or you are on a computer that does not allow you to install software, or you don't have a program that can read the file, then this is a reasonable option.  Of course there is no opportunity to add passwords, encrypt, or add any of the other features you may need.  It is just a straight pdf file.

The most requested missing feature in all of these products is the ability to delete or reorder pages.  Sorry but you have to go to a paid product to get these features as none of them provide it in the free version.

HP also offers a free online service called CloudPrint.  It is designed to give you the ability to print from a cell phone or PDA.  If you check your email from a cell phone and need to print an attachment you can just send it to this service, which will convert it to a PDF file and send a SMS message to your cell phone with a reference ID.  When you get to a computer with an Internet interface you can login to the CloudPrint service and print the document.  It will also convert and print pictures taken with your cell phone.  While I don't see a need for this service personally, some swear by it, especially those who are constantly on the road seeing clients or between multiple offices.  This was not considered as one of the best PDF Writers only because it does not produce a file that you can save and keep as a PDF on your local drive.  It converts to PDF on the web server and allows you to print it from there.  On the other hand, it does allow you to print documents without having the original program that produced the file.  

If you select a PDF Writer that you like but it does not have some of the features you need you might consider a couple of products that offer the ability to add functions after creating the file.  pdfExchange Viewer is a fast viewer for PDF files that also allows the reader to add annotations to the file.  It can then be saved and printed either with or without the annotations.  PDFTK Builder allows you to add passwords and limit the ability of the reader to print, annotate, copy portions or otherwise use the pdf file other than reading it.  However, it does not have the ability to add encryption.  And lastly, JPDF Tweak allows the addition of watermarks, passwords, and encryption as well as limiting the ability to print or copy the file.  These all work on a pdf file that has already been created and are not used to create one.  Since those are beyond the limited scope of this article I have not included their information in this review but they are easy enough to find with a web search.

Bullzip
Website: http://www.bullzip.com
Download Link: http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php
Author:  Bullzip.com
Current Version: 5.0.0.609
Version Date: May 13, 2008
Download File Size: 3.9 MB
License:  Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Additional Software Required: Ghostscript (download link provided on their website - free under GPL license)
64 Bit Version Available: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English Languages Supported: Too many to list

CutePDF
Website: http://www.cutepdf.com
Download Link: http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp
Author: CutePDF
Current Version: 2.7
Version Date: unknown
Download File Size: 1.55 MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista
Additional Software Required: GhostScript (download link provided on their website - free under GPL license)
64 Bit Version Available: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English Languages Supported:  Unknown, Appears to be English only

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