So what do you do? Well as of the latest Alpha version 0.15, you can build rockets and spaceplanes which you launch and fly yourself into orbit around a fictional earth-like planet called Kerbin with two moons, the Mun and Minmus. The pilots of your creations are the Kerbals, their dream is to go where no Kerbal has gone before.

What makes this game so impressive and fun is that you do build your own creations from scratch. From a list of various components, you drag and drop and reposition them together to create something which you consider airworthy. You then take it to the launch pad or runway and see what it can do. It’s one of the best sandbox games ever made, and it’s only in the Alpha stages.

Building Rockets

When you go to the ‘Vehicle Assembly Building’ you get presented with a construction area and a tabbed window for selecting parts. Each part has attachment points which allow you to connect it to other parts. On the right your parts are broken down and listed into the rocket stages. The program does a pretty good job of working out what you want to separate and when, but sometimes you need things to fire in a different order. This is achieved by dragging and dropping the components (normally rocket engines and separation modules) into new units. The stages are released from top to bottom – Here’s one I made earlier.

Note that to the top-left of the image it says 'Propulsion' above the parts. The icons that are not highlighted above it are the different categories containing further parts.

Once you’ve finished designing a rocket to have fun with, you take it out to the launch pad. Check everything is as you want it, initialise the first stage, and throttle up.

3... 2... 1...

Building Spaceplanes

If rockets are not your thing a similar facility exists to build spaceplanes. Although the idea is to fly to orbit and back you are just as free to fly within the atmosphere as a regular aircraft. Many fans find it even more challenging to build an exceptional aircraft than a rocket.

The design/creation process is very similar to the one used to build rockets. All the parts are available for you to use, and the assembly defaults to horizontal construction.

Building a plane that actually gets off the ground is really challenging. Apparently bolting more engines on doesn't work.

Space, and Orbit

Once you make it into space, everything is actually much easier. Taking off and getting to orbit is the hardest part of the game. If you do manage to escape the atmosphere and enter a stable orbit then you have three choices. They are to perform a de-orbit burn and return to earth, transfer to another gravitational body such as the Mun, or go and build/launch another rocket and leave the current one (perhaps along with others) in eternal orbit. You can always resume control of them later if you wish.

First stage gone, now waiting to reach the highest point of orbit where I will fire the engines again to raise the lowest point above the atmosphere.

The Orbital Map (shown below) is something you can drop in and out of at any point in your flights. It shows all of the active or landed spacecraft, debris, and their orbits. Most importantly it shows you the top and bottom nodes of your orbit, so you can make a good job of getting them high enough, modifying them and so forth.

This is a view from the Orbital map taken after I had completed my final orbital burn over the North pole. To the right of Kerbin/Earth you can see the Mun and it's orbital path.

Is it a game everyone would enjoy?

Perhaps not everyone, but certainly anyone who thinks being able to build a rocket is good fun. Obviously some people are going to be more space-y and flight-minded than others, but there are plenty of tutorials and guides out there telling you what’s going on. You don’t even have to try for space, just enjoy building planes or controllable ballistic missiles.

Where can I get it?

Head over to the Kerbal Space Program Website to give the trial version a go. That version is 0.13 and while it doesn’t contain the spaceplane package or the Minmus moon (0.15), it does let you build rockets to decide if the game is for you. If you like it then the full version is only $15 (~£9.50) and that gets you the current version and all future upgrades.

Final Thoughts

Since I’ve been raving about it throughout this review you’ve probably come to the assumption that I think Kerbal Space Program is a great game, which is spot on. It can be a bit graphicly-intensive at times and so not everybody may be able to run it. If you suspect you can then do, I promise you wont be disappointed.

For the Appstorm rating, I award Kerbal Space Program with 10/10 – I love it. It’s fun, easy, and addictive.

The game is in an Alpha state but is already rock stable, so we can wait for new exciting features to come as development continues.

It’s powerful and comes with a lot of features. Let’s see what you can do with Ultimate Windows Tweaker.

Getting Started

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions for both Windows Vista and Windows 7. It was last updated in January of 2011 to support Internet Explorer 9. Getting started with Ultimate Window Tweaker is a breeze.

Download the Ultimate Windows Tweaker zip file and extract its contents. You do not need to install the application, just simply run it. When you launch the app for the first time you’ll be greeted with information about your system.

Make sure to create a restore point before making any changes so you can revert back to your original settings.

System Information in Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Personalization

The first category for customizing your Windows installation is Personalization. Remember to create a restore point before saving changes.

The Personalization screen allows you to select or deselect features for Windows Explorer, the Start Menu and your Taskbar appearance. I immediately disabled the Aero Shake and Aero Peek features because I am not a fan.

Personalization Screen in Ultimate Windows Tweaker

User Accounts & UAC

The  next section lets you customize your login welcome screen, as well as users and User Account Control. You can enable and disable users, require users to press Control+Alt+Delete before logging in, and customize test and button effects on the welcome screen.

You can also change User Account Control settings if you want to raise or lower the security settings.

User Accounts & UAC Screen in Ultimate Windows Tweaker

System Performance

System Performance settings let you change the waiting time to end services and kill applications, as well as enable or disable system performance tweaks. One really neat feature is to automatically end non-responsive applications instead of being asked what you want to do.

These tweaks are where the optimization for Windows really comes in. You can disable services you don’t use to help keep your system running at top speed.

System Performance in Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Security Settings

In the Security Settings, you can change Administrative restrictions, Windows Explorer settings, restrict Windows applications and change Windows Update settings. You can disable features like the Registry Editor, command prompt, task manager, control panel, and much more. You can lock down your Windows installation so users can’t perform these tasks.

Features like this really help if you are trying to lock a computer down for a guest or a child. Ultimate Windows Tweaker can help you increase parental controls to ensure a user doesn’t change system settings.

Security Settings in Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Network Tweaks

Under Network Tweaks, you can hide your server or workstation, hide your entire network neighborhood, and disable remote desktop sharing. You can also set the entire global network/internet to offline.

The bandwidth optimization is very helpful if you need to configure your bandwidth settings for your internet connection. You can either set them manually, or choose low bandwidth for analog and ISDN, or high bandwidth for cable, DSL and satellite internet.

Network Tweaks in Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Internet Explorer

The features I have used the most are the Internet Explorer tweaks. You can customize your Internet Explorer installation by permanently enabling the menu bar, enabling or disabling the suggested sites, private filtering and more.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker also lets you customize Internet Explorer’s tabs. You can change the settings for when a new tab or pop-up is opened, and how other programs open links in Internet Explorer, as well as disable tabbed browsing completely.

There are also some advanced settings for Internet Explorer, like turning off RSS feed discovery, disabling updates, and enabling smooth scrolling.

Internet Explorer Settings in Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Additional Tweaks

The Additional Tweaks section houses all the miscellaneous settings, including context menu customization. You can enable useful context menu items to drives, files and folders, such as “Take Ownership”, “Search…”, “Copy to Folder” and more.

Some of the other tweaks include removing arrows from shortcut icons, removing the “-Shortcut” suffix on new shortcuts, disabling hibernation and the Windows startup sound. You can also customize how Windows handles the NTFS file system, like disabling encryption and compression, and the self-healing capability.

This section also allows you to modify your Windows registration information. You can change the name of the user and organization and add OEM information.

Additional Tweaks Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Final Thoughts

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a great utility app because it’s free, portable and can customize your Windows installation. The settings at your finger tips allow you to tweak and optimize Windows. It’s available for Windows Vista and Windows 7, 32-bit and 64-bit. The interface is clean, easy to use and understand and fits in perfectly with Windows.

There really isn’t a downside to using this program if you want to tweak and optimize your operating system. Remember to create a restore point before making changes so you can always go back to your previous modifications.

Is Tinygrab just one such application or does it offer something else that gives it an edge over its rivals? Owned by Company 52, what secrets does it hold? Let us find out.

Installation

You need to have the .NET framework 4 in place before you can use this application. Once you have installed the framework, you can go ahead and install the application.Download TinyGrab from www.tinygrab.com.

Don’t look for a wizard or any dialog box to open up when you click the setup file. Double click it and it automatically installs in a flash (at least that’s how it was in my computer).

By the way I have an aversion towards the .NET framework. I dunno why. I guess it must be because I was forced by my teacher to write hundreds of lines of code of visual basic in a notebook and then type it on the computer to get the factorial of a number!

All Set and Good to Go

I opened the application. Out popped a little cloud on the taskbar.Hmm, strange. I waited for a few seconds and pressed printscreen. Nothing.

Confused I opened the preferences (right click on the little cloud) and found out in Configure Hotkeys that The default key combo is Ctrl+Shift+D3 (phew!).

“ Why do they not use the printscreen button?”, I wondered.

I tried to replace it with the printscreen key.

“Nay!”, says the little cloud.

So I finally had to use another simple key combo to replace the default one.

Then I tried again.

“AARGH! You gotta login first!”, shouted the little cloud.

I went to preferences-> account, fished the password from the deepest parts of my memory, typed in the details and voila!

Logged In and Onwards!

You have three options to take screenshots.

• What you see, the full screen option (ctrl+shift+d3)
• What you want, the selection version (ctrl+shift+d4). The mouse pointer changes to cross hairs. Click and drag over the desired area.
• Active window option (ctrl+shift+d5)

You can change the complex key combos by going to preferences ->general-> configure hotkeys.

Replace the complex combo here

File Upload

Screenshots are uploaded automatically. After taking a screenshot, a progress bar is shown near the taskbar when the file is being uploaded (TinyGrab icon is yellow) followed by a notification after the file has been uploaded (TinyGrab icon turns green). You can turn automatic upload off by going to preferences and switching off “Auto Upload Grabs”.

Upload in progress

Cloud turns green. File upload is complete

By default the images are moved to the recycle bin after upload. This option can be changed to move the images to a custom folder. You can do this by going to preferences-> general and changing “After upload perform the following action to”.

If you want to upload the screenshots to your own website you can do so using the inbuilt FTP or SFTP. Configure the settings by going to preferences-> uploading.

The last three options in “uploading” (mobileMe, Amazon S3, Rack Space) are for pro users. (sigh)

Control Panel

Control Panel

You can access your uploaded screenshots via preferences -> account -> online account which will take you to beta.tinygrab where you need to sign in again.

In you go into your tinygrab control panel where all the screenshots you have uploaded are displayed with their respective urls. Tinygrab uses Tinyurl to shorten the urls and as a result they are not few feet long.

Your screenshots can be shared in your Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts. You can either copy and paste the URL or you can click on the image thumbnail in the control panel and then click on the respective website link to allow TinyGrab to do the work for you.

share your screenshots

Other options are the usual account management settings, and ability to separate the screenshots into folders, etc.

What I Don’t Like

The inability to use the Windows Printscreen key in Tinygrab got me wondering, “Why did the people at Company 52 decide to ignore it?”. On a hunch I checked out the Apple keyboard.

Lo, there was no printscreen button.

It seems that Tinygrab was developed with Apple in mind and at the last minute they decided to release a version for Windows. Additionally, the screenshots are automatically saved as png files and there is no option to change the format in the freeware version.

Conclusion

Tinygrab is unique in many ways, from how it works to what it offers. If you come to terms with the application you will find that Company 52 has produced a nice little application that makes sharing screenshots online both easy and fast.

Note: Sometimes you may get a “query failed. time vortex malfunction” error, which in my computer had no adverse effect on the functionality of TinyGrab.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the giveaway. I’m excited to let you know that the winner has now been chosen. Congratulations are in order to:

@toolroomknight

Congratulations again to the lucky winner — please get in touch at windows [at] appstorm [dot] net. Sorry to those who missed out, be sure to check back for more great competitions and giveaways!

As part of our ramp up this year, we are launching a schedule of fortnightly games giveaways and have a stunning array of award-winning games up for grabs! Be sure to follow Windows.AppStorm, and get stuck in, for a chance to enter future giveaways.

By participating in this giveaway, you’ll get a chance at winning a copy of an award winning game hand picked by the editorial staff. Join me after the jump to find out more!

Update: We’re keeping this contest open for one more week considering the enthusiastic response from our readers. All the best, dear readers!

Compared to the initial award winning PC release, the Enhanced Edition features lots of new and exciting content including additional hours of gameplay: New major adventures set in previously unseen locations, expanding the story and introducing new characters, mysteries and monsters.

How to Enter

All you have to do is follow @windowsappstorm on Twitter and click the link below to send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet.

Although the core operating system remained pretty much unchanged, a new user interface codenamed “Metro” lay at the heart of this release. Taking inspiration from the Windows Phone operating system, Metro brings that familiar launcher to the desktop world with tiles representing apps and a whole new look and feel to your computer.

The new Metro experience in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview

I’d better come clean right away – I’m (mainly) a Mac user. I switched a couple of years back (mostly due to a good deal I got on a new MacBook) however I still remain a partial Windows user – some programs I use (especially for my university studies) are Windows-only and I still use a Windows-based system in my workplace.

But don’t think that this article will turn into the typical Apple fanboy piece with chide comments and sly stabs at Windows. Oh no. I merely want to give you my two cents on what I think about the entire Metro experience, coming from an old Windows user.

I still retain, alongside my MacBook, a battered, scratched and dented Samsung laptop with a cooling fan that sounds like a Category 5 hurricane and a bottom that gets so hot during use you could fry up a couple of eggs on it.

When the Consumer Preview came out, I wanted to know exactly what it was like, so I decided to download it and give it a whirl. My first impressions were, “Hey, this is pretty sweet!”. I’ve always seen Windows as more functional than design-orientated (that’s not a fanboy comment, simply my own personal opinion) so with this new, snazzy interface, I was getting excited.

The thing, however, that I really couldn’t fathom out whilst using the CP is – who is this for? The interface, which borrows heavily from Windows Phone, works great on touchscreen devices (swiping left and right, for example) but on a non-touchscreen computer it just seems a bit cumbersome and clunky. I liked the fact you can scroll up and down with the mouse wheel to flick through the screens, but doesn’t this diminish the whole experience slightly?

The interface for Windows 8 was based heavily on that of Windows Phone 7

The built-in apps such as Bing Maps and Weather are a very nice touch (and gives them one up on OS X, where you have stupid microscopic widgets stuck around on your Dashboard) and the lock screen is great as well but, yet again, it’s designed with touchscreens in mind and not normal computers.

I have never owned a touchscreen computer and a quick walk around my local gadget supermarket confirmed that you pay a premium for a laptop with a touchscreen, a couple of hundred euros to be precise, which frankly I wouldn’t want. My laptop screen is dirty enough as it is without loads of my grubby, greasy fingerprints sat all over it.

The new lock screen in Windows 8

Microsoft have certainly been experimenting with touchscreen computers more than other companies (Apple seemed to have concentrated this area on the iPhone and iPad range – there are currently no solid rumours indicating that their Mac range of computers will incorporate touchscreens) and it does seem the way forward – after all, look how popular tablets have become.

But Metro shouldn’t just be for people with touchscreen computers, though. Say that Samsung laptop was my main laptop and I upgraded to Windows 8. I would feel slightly left out because although I have the latest version of Windows (which has been improved in a lot of areas, I must admit), half the features are slightly wasted on me or aren’t as good as they would be had I got the correct hardware.

So while Microsoft deserve to be commended for making a stylish, revolutionary and whole new way of looking at an operating system, I have to wag my finger at them for excluding a large proportion of users from this new experience.

Yes, Windows 8 can be used on any computer as long as the hardware requirements are there, but for such a core and integral part of the operating system (and, most definitely, one of its major selling points) it seems a little too much like a white elephant.

So, is Metro for better or for worse then? Well, unfortunately, it depends on your computer and your preference.

With the amount of build up from ArenaNet over the last few years, fan expectations has been truly massive. Read on to find out if Guild Wars 2 is up to our expectations!

Overview

Whether you have played the first Guild Wars or not, this game will appeal to you. One of the unique factors of Guild Wars is that it does not require monthly subscriptions such as Star Wars – The Old Republic and World Of Warcraft.

You pay one fee at the start with no continual payments. From then on you can play as much as you like with no extra charge. Meaning you are never forced into continue playing, you can stop and come back whenever you desire. Similar to League of Legends, you can buy things in the game store such as extra character slots and experience boosts.

Guild Wars 2 is ultimately a nice crossover between pay-to-play and free-to-play. Do keep in mind that Guild Wars 2 does come with a high price tag of £49.99 for standard and increasing to an unknown price for collectors (expecting to be around £90-100). Compared to the £30 price of the first Guild Wars, this is a big increase. I feel with the extensive overhaul, this price is justified and should not be condemned.

Different to many other free-to-play games Guild Wars is high quality and designed expertly. Many years and lots of money has been invested into this game, and the end result is magical. This game does deliver — even from just the Beta, one can tell so much work has been put in to make this game appealing to a range of audiences.

The game’s graphics totally exceed my expectations, everything from raindrops to buildings have been perfected to the highest detail. ArenaNet has kept the classic style of Guild Wars and amped it up a few levels to make it less cartoon-like and a tad more real.

First Impressions of Beta

The world of Guild Wars 2 is beautiful, I was blown away by the coruscating graphics. Compared to MMO’s of the last few years this is a huge improvement. The fact that it is not a pay-to-play game is unbelievable, personally I would be expecting to pay more for this high standard.

ArenaNet quoted “this would be the game for people that had never played MMO’s before” and they have evidently hit the nail on the head. They’ve successully created a magnificent and magical world which will draw players into the fantasy and keep them captivated.

New professions have been introduced as well as all our old favourites. I feel this is just enough to bring variety to the game and encourage players to create second characters.

Over the weekend I decided to try out every single profession, giving myself a wide view of each type and helping me make my important choice by release date. Overall, Guardian was my favourite as it is similar to a healer, specializing in protective and defensive magic. Every profession brings new things to the table and not one is more exciting than the other. In my opinion, every profession is well balanced to ensure some professions are not overlooked and forgotten.

Gameplay

Choice. You are following your own path completely as there isn’t a generic storyline which everyone follows. After choosing your race, gender, profession and appearance, you will be asked three questions to create your biography. A question concerning profession, personality and background making sure that everyone will start differently as this choice gives the gamer a sense of freedom and ability to control how their character evolves.

This personal storyline helps you to branch off and play whichever way you desire. Unique customization has obviously been key for the developers, with the idea in-mind to show the variety among characters of the same class. This kept me excited all weekend and hopefully this will be expanded even more for the release later this year.

The combat in this game is unique to anything I have seen previously.

The combat in this game is unique to anything I have seen previously. Your equipped weapon decides which skills you have the ability to use. Each weapon will bring a different set of ability’s for the player to utilize. I think this change will be successful as it means for the whole game you have different skills, creating a nice change in the game to keep you on your feet.

Another cool feature of this is every single skill has a different animation, meaning every Elementalist will look vaguely different to the other depending on the equipped weapon. ArenaNet has added a few new features, which bring an element of skill to the game, unlike the regular button mashing of the past MMO’s.

Characters can now jump and evade to add variety whilst in combat. From my experience I could easily distinguish the experienced players from the first timers, showed by their ability to utilize these essential moves. The skill bar allows for a maximum of 10 skills, a key feature of the first Guild Wars which I loved. I think in recent MMO’s when you have been given 40+ skills to a bar it has destroyed a feeling of skill and encouraged spamming. The bar in Guild Wars is set up as follows:

• Slots 1-5, Weapon specific Skills
• Slot 6, Healing Skill
• Slot 7-9, Utility Skills (such as regular buffs)
• Slot 10, Elite Skill

On past MMO’s I have disliked being forced into groups when I don’t need to. Spending hours waiting for groups to show up and complete missions which are just beyond my reach. What I love about this game is that you can stay solo till the maximum level without needing to find a party.

Most content is solo-friendly, although you do have the option to access higher difficulty’s by grouping. ArenaNet also says that “It is our priority to avoid forcing players into the grind-based gameplay”. This was evident whilst playing — I never needed to kill hundreds of foes, the events alone helped me to advance and level during my time.

Other Interesting Features

PVP, in the first Guild Wars installment was disappointing. ArenaNet has surpassed themselves this time to create a user-friendly atmosphere which will keep players entertained for days. Players of any level can enter these matches, and they will equal anyone in the game.

While in the PVP area, all characters will be at the same “power level” and have access to all the same equipment. This is a crossover with SWTOR system as anyone will be able play without massive equality. PVP will take the form of an 8v8 team fighting for control points, teams gain one point for each second on a base, first to 500 points wins the match. A disadvantage which may deter people is that there is no open world PVP. In my opinion, I dislike being overthrown when I’m trying to level. Keeping PVP and PVE completely separate is a good move by ArenaNet as the majority of players will find this more comfortable.

If you have played Guild Wars before you will have heard of the “Hall of Monuments”. For those that are new to the game this was a reward process which allowed you through a points system to gain the ability to extra items when Guild Wars 2 launched. These items are aesthetic, and will not give any advantage to any players during the launch. I hope that ArenaNet do something about this so that ex-players feel like there is a connection between games. Another thing that does crossover with the predecessor is that you can keep your previous character names and guild names. This may make it easier to recognize ex-players and join up once again.

Questing has also been totally revamped in Guild Wars 2. Instead of the normal, run around, pick up quests, run back and pick up more. The game calls them “events” meaning they happen at random times, as you are exploring. This change by ArenaNet works in Guild Wars favour very well. This new technique gives me more freedom to do what I like. I never need to go to a certain place to advance, the game in theory will advance with me.

Little Things Guild Wars Players May Not like

Open world roaming has been introduced into Guild Wars 2. I feel we have been let down by this — the uniqueness of having an area to yourself has vanished. Personally this is what kept me playing Guild Wars in the past, being able to meet up with friends in towns then exploring an area by yourself gave you freedom. You now need to share it other people. Guild Wars have been always unique with the fact it deviated from other games and I would have loved this to be kept the same. This resembles many other MMO’s which have adopted the same strategy. Guild Wars players played for so long because it was unique and different. As we move into a new era, Guild Wars is becoming more like everything else to appeal to a wider audience, forgetting its previous agenda.

No dedicated healers. Throughout every MMO I have played I have always preferred playing a healer as my main character. In Guild Wars 2 they have removed this ability. Instead every profession can heal themselves. This is disappointing as it destroys the regular team setup. Though this different approach may make some people dissatisfied, the majority of players will probably be pleased. During the Beta it was far easier to create teams as we were not looking for a specific profession. This will probably work in the long run, however I think some professions will be stereotyped as the best healer when the game launches.

Players are somewhat stuck to specific worlds (server) during the game. During the first Guild Wars everyone was on the same server, no one was distributed among different zones throughout the game. When the game releases this feature will split up friends as they begin to play. These worlds have been implemented so that “World vs World” conflict can be be achieved. When you log on for the first time, the game will ask you to pick a home world. This determines which world you will represent in the battles. However, this is not set in stone, for 1800 gems you can transfer, this can be done every seven days. Players will also be able to visit other worlds if they have friends there, although you will not be able to fight for them.

Brief Explanation of Professions

• Elementalist, controls the elements of air, fire, earth and water to annihilate enemies. Elementalists are described as a scholar profession meaning they wear light armour.
• Guardian, one of the new additions they use protective and defensive spells to protect the team and themselves. Guardians are really a crossover between soldier wearing heavy armour to stay protected and a healer to keep everything buffed up and alive.
• Necromancer, This profession can summon the dead and utilize the dark arts, Necro’s can also use the dead to buff or heal themselves and others. This is also a scholar profession.
• Mesmer, uses spells to control opponents through the power of illusion, confounding and evoking emotions. Mesmers are also a scholar class.
• Thief, another one of the new professions, thieves are really the assassin of the game. Using stealth to get close to their target and take them down. They also have the ability to set traps. Thieves are an adventurer profession, wearing medium armour
• Engineer, the last of the new professions, engineers employ turret and grenades to take down enemies. As an engineer you will be mostly out of the conflict relying on technology to kill. Engineers are an adventurer class.
• Warrior, warriors are the primary tanks, relying on brute force and strength to keep alive. Warriors have the highest selection of weapons giving good variation for the types of skills and play style. Warriors wear heavy armour.
• Ranger, utilizing the bow and the power of nature to take down foes, rangers are the primary long distance characters. As well as this they can tame a pet to help confuse enemies and take damage, while rangers hit from range. Rangers can also use the stealth ability, although it is much more limited that the thief. Rangers are an adventurer class.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this Beta weekend excited me. I’ve been looking forward to this moment for years and it’s finally arrived. ArenaNet has obviously put a lot of effort into achieving a game which will compete with big MMO’s.

From this perspective this Beta is heading in the right direction with amazing graphics, unique combat methods and a wealth of customization choices kept the game exciting and addictive all weekend. However from a Guild Wars fan boy point of view, I feel Guild Wars 2 has lost its uniqueness from the past.

The magic which it once captured has dispersed and Guild Wars 2 has become more commercial to suit the ever changing MMO world. Key features which attracted players for years have disappeared so developers can suit the mass markets. Although this is understandable, the main priority is always to sell as many copies. A lot more could have been done to accommodate players which have stood by them for years.

All in all this game looks like it’s going to be great, but my only worry is that ex-players may feel the game is lacking in some degree. Whatever happens we’ll just have to wait and see. Maybe with the response from Beta things may change, but this looks bleak.

So what do you think about the Beta Weekend? Let us know in the comments section below and thank you so much for reading.

Daemon tools is one of the strongest contenders and has been around for a few years now. Join me after the jump to find out why it’s so popular.

What is a Disk Emulator?

A disk emulator is a software which lets you create a replica of your CD/DVD and store it directly in your hard drive rather than having to repeatedly access the disk.

This process is called as disk imaging. Usually this is coupled with a virtual drive to mount these images. The logic is to protect your disks from constant wear and tear and manage your various DVD’s right from your PC.

Daemon Tools

Daemon or Disk And Execution MONitor is a virtual drive and disk authoring tool for PC. It lets you clone your discs easily and mount it in a virtual SCSI drive created.

Daemon tools is capable of defeating most of the copy protection mechanisms, especially used while imaging original games. It supports a wide array of file formats including ISO, MDS, MDX and MDF.

Getting Started

Attack of the clones

Once you’re done with the painful installation(rebooting after install, not so cool), it’s pretty straight forward.

One handy feature that grabbed my attention is their pretty nifty image scanner. You can simply scan your hard drive for existing images and add them to your files.

Virtual Drives

Choose your lucky number

I’ve my disc image ready, but how do I read them? The disc image is just a clone of your disc. You still need a drive to read them, in this case a Virtual drive.

With the help of the Virtual Device Manager you can easily set up your drive. Daemon supports DT adapter, IDE Adapter, and SCSI Adapter. I’ll let you google the difference. Once your virtual drive is set up, you can mount your images and access them.

Managing Images

Manage images

Daemon allows you to create custom images from your system files. It also allows you to make changes to your images.

Another impressive feature is the ability to protect images with password and split files. You can also convert your image to any other format you want. You probably will never use this, but you can burn your images directly from Daemon tools.

Usability

Clean UI

Daemon tools sports a minimalistic interface. All the options are available right on the top. The file list is displayed beautifully on the right pane.

If you need to view the description of any file you can pull up the MountSpace panel just by clicking the farther end on right side. The UI is very simple and doesn’t take much time for the users to grasp.

Privacy Concerns

Wrong move

MountSpace is a service that keeps a tab on the stuff you mount with Daemon tools. They publish the user’s IP address along with the file details they just mounted.

On paper, users have the option to block Daemon from collecting any information, but it didn’t seem to work. It created a huge uproar among the community and forced Daemon tools to update their privacy policy.

Pricing and Support

No, we don't sell candy

Daemon tools was a freeware until sometime back, but not anymore. The lite version comes around $20, Pro Standard costs $35 and the Pro advanced will see you pay $45.

They’ve a pretty decent FAQ section and the community is largely friendly. With lifetime free upgrade, I’d happily settle with the Pro Standard version.

Wrapping Up

Daemon tools is an awesome service that helps you in managing you optical disks. It’s sad to see such a wonderful software being associated with software piracy. I’d encourage this to anyone looking for a decent disk authorization software.

Share your experience with Daemon tools with our readers in the discussion below. Thanks for reading.

There’s nothing to stop you from simply hitting the Print Screen key on your keyboard and pasting the image from the clipboard into your favorite image editor, and if you have Windows 7, you could use the Snipping Tool to gain access to a few more options. But if you want complete control over the screen capture process, you might be interested in taking a look at Screenshot Captor.

Download and Getting Started

Head over to the DonationCoder.com web site and click the Software link at the top of the page. Now click the Screenshot Captor link in the Mouser’s Software Zone section of the page.

Screenshot Captor can be downloaded free of charge

Click the Download link to the left of the page and save the setup file to the desktop. Double click the installer and run through the installation in the usual way before launching the program from the desktop shortcut. Click the link that is displayed to return to DonationCoder.com so you can sign up for a free account to get a free serial number for the app.

You'll need to get a free license code to remove the nag screen from the program

Click the sign up at our forum link and fill in the details you’re asked for to create a new account before clicking the Register button. A moment later you’ll receive an email, and you’ll need to click the link it contains to confirm your account.

Register for a free account to obtain your free serial number

You should then pay a visit to the registration page at http://www.donationcoder.com/Keys/ where you should click the Generate license key for Screenshot Captor link. Highlight and copy the license key that is generated, return to the program, click the Enter New License Key Information and then click Paste From Clipboard followed by Accept.

While free, you'll need to get a new code for Screenshot Captor every six months

Configuring Your Preferences

Right click the notification area icon and select the Preferences option from the menu that appears. To save you from having to manually launch Screenshot Captor in future, click the General Settings link to the left and then tick the box labelled Start with Windows; to prevent the program from opening on top of other windows, you should also tick the Start Minimized box.

Configure Screenshot Captor to start with Windows so it is always available

While you have the options dialog open, it’s worth taking a look in the HotKeys and Shortcuts section to the left to familiarize yourself with the keyboard shortcuts you’re going to be using.

In addition to these keyboard shortcuts you can also right click the system tray icon to choose the type of capture you would like, and in the Other Shortcuts section of the Options screen you can select a quick-access capture that will be activated when you left click the same system tray icon.

Keyboard shortcuts can be customized to suit your preferences

If you don’t like any of the keyboard shortcuts, you are free to change them and the lower portion of the dialog enables you to set additional hotkeys for other tasks.

Now move to the Image File Format section and use the drop down menu at the top of the right hand side of the dialog to choose the file format that should be used for your images and if you have select JPG you can then use the Compression Level slider to balance image quality with file size.

While you can choose a default image format, this can be overridden for any capture

The final settings that you might want to change can be found in the Screenshot Folder and Tools section – click the first of the folder buttons to choose where your captures should be saved. When you’re happy with the settings you have chosen, click the Accept button.

Capturing Screenshots

The easiest way to use Screenshot Captor is to simply press the PrtScr button as the program takes over the standard function of this key. The New Screenshot window will appear, showing a small preview of the capture – you can view a large version of the capture by unticking the AutoFit button and maximizing the window.

A preview will be displayed whenever you capture a screenshot

If you would just like to save the image, click the Keep Image and Hide button, but if you would you save the capture with a different name or in a different format to the default you have set, click the Save Image As button.

It is also possible to perform some basic image editing by clicking the Keep Image and Show button. In the window that appears, the Screenshot Panel to the left enables to you select which of your screen captures you would like to work with, while the right hand portion is your workspace.

There are a huge range of image editing options to help you make the most of your captures

The tools available are fairly standard image editing option, and by working with the right hand toolbar and the menus you can perform edits such as cropping, resizing and area highlighting.

Special effects can be used to highlight areas of an image you want to draw attention to

There are plenty of options to explore within Screenshot Captor and there is a handy timer option that can be used to enable you to position windows and menu as you would like them to appear in an image. To activate this option, right click the system tray icon and click the Use Delay option before using a shortcut to capture images.

Capture delay is a useful option that gives you time to arrange on-screen elements

Wrapping Up

This is a very versatile tool and whether you are capturing images for fun or need screenshots for a work project, you have all of the tools you would expect to find in a commercial product in this fantastic free utility.

The Aero visual style has been with for almost six years now and I think it’s safe to say it’s been a love or hate affair. Now with the advent of Windows 8, Microsoft has moved away from the shiny, transulucent affairs that’s Aero glass and is going with a more Metro-ish visual style. If you’re curious, you can read more about it here.

All things considered, how do you feel about this transition? Do you think Aero was fine as it is and shouldn’t have been banished into oblivion? Or do you maybe feel that Metro is the way forward?

So vote away and as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts – simply post a comment below!

Since that time, I’ve never looked back. If I could make it then, when I actually had time to kill watching TV, I figured I could make it without cable for life. Here’s how I managed to do it!

A Little Back Story

Ultimately, I got by borrowing TV series DVDs from friends, checking out movies from the local library, or using the universally free Redbox codes on every credit card I owned. As Internet video began to flow, I at least gained some reprieve via my laptop and services like Hulu or ABC’s flash player, but watching anything on a 13″ screen at your desk is not ideal.

It all started with a severe lacking in sports. Like most red-blooded Americans, my fondness for watching grown men (or women) in flashy uniforms gallivant around a lined playing surface trying to put an inflatable shape into a goal approaches an unhealthy level that should be reserved for my wife or child.

Reasoning that most big games are on network television, I successfully completed a sub-$10 coat-hanger antenna as outlined on YouTube to bring my total number of free, non-cable channels to one. Yes, at the time, the area where I lived had only one over-the-air channel (ABC) available–we’re now up to two with the addition of CBS. The networks only cover the main events, though; something needed to be done for the rest of the sports landscape. I couldn’t continue to invite myself over to a friend’s house to watch weekly college football match-ups or regular season NBA games.

Besides, even friends tend to give you a quizzical look when you explain that you own a 42-inch HDTV but don’t pay for cable and, therefore, need to watch the game on their console TV.

Somewhere in the last few years, I stumbled upon a little app called PlayOn that promised to remedy the situation. Bridging the gap between the Web and TVs via gaming consoles, PlayOn claimed to bring the Internet’s vast expanses of free video content to my television.

What’s PlayOn bring to the table that other media server apps don’t? The app was a media server for video game consoles at heart, but instead of solely relying on the user to provide the video content and then stream it from the computer, PlayOn acted as a sort of middleman for the console and Internet video. It fooled ESPN3, Hulu, and similar Flash video providers that your Xbox or PS3 was actually a computer (this was before the Xbox Live/ESPN3 contractual agreement that helped immensely).

It sounded like a gold mine for cable cutters, but at the time I half-expected it to be served with a cease-and-desist order for its practices. I waited a few months for word to get around and much to my surprise, PlayOn was said to deliver on its claims and wasn’t shut down. After a free trial (and error) period, I begrudgingly paid the $20 one-time fee because it was as close as I could get to cable without paying three-times that every month. It wasn’t a perfect solution but its flakiness was something I could overlook.

PlayOn’s strength is it’s “all-in-one” approach to television content, and its killer feature is the ability to stream free Internet television content to a TV. While some of the channels provided may require a separate subscription—Netflix, HBOGo, Amazon Video On Demand—PlayOn puts them all in one place and adds the content from network sites like ABC, CBS, and Hulu. And this is the free Hulu you’d find on your computer, not the premium Hulu Plus that requires a fee for access.

Using the App

Make sure that PlayOn is "running" in the green box on the general settings tab. If the box is yellow or red, there's a problem with your setup.

Or you can leave it running, but one thing to remember is that PlayOn’s use is affected by the Windows sleep function so if your PC or laptop goes to sleep while streaming a show, the episode will freeze and error out.

You should consider modifying your power settings or using a “no sleep” app when running PlayOn so you don’t have any playback errors.

After you’ve input all your subscription-based channel information on the channels tab and tested your computer for adequate resources in the System Check tab, you’re ready to start streaming.

Click the “General Settings” tab and make sure that under the PlayOn media server area, the current status shows as “running.” Now head over to your game console and fire it up. For the Xbox, the PlayOn app will show up in the Video Library area of the My Xbox screen; for the PS3, it will be under the Videos icon; and for Wii, it will require navigating to www.playon.tvon your Wii Internet channel. You can also use PlayOn with iOS devices, either on a home network or over a cellular data connection.

The System Check tab shows you areas where your setup may be deficient. In the picture, PlayOn is recommending a faster Internet connection and more free hard drive space.

PlayOn supports both free content and subscription-based providers like Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand.

In addition, the number of channels available has expanded immensely, and there is now also a plugin option that allows users to install third-party channels to increase the content even more. Some of these plugins include MTV, Discovery Channel, and others.

Essentially, if a provider has an online flash player to host its full episode content, you can bet that there’s a plugin for it or one in the works. You may have to scour a handful of forums for the one you want, but it’s worth the short search.

The PlayOn site has some brief, but helpful videos for getting your PlayOn install up and running.

Windows for the Win

If PlayOn sounds dreamy to any Mac users out there, let me take a moment to disappoint you. PlayOn is a Windows-only application and any hopes of it becoming universal went out the window with a 2010 blog post on PlayOn’s site essentially saying that developing the app for Mac would not be cost-effective.

That being said, as a Mac user, PlayOn is one of the only reasons I run Windows. Once you set up a Virtualbox Windows installation, it’s easy enough to open it in parallel to OS X when you want to use the PlayOn server setup.

Criticism and Pricing

While I am a PlayOn believer, I cannot promise a seamless experience every time you power up your console. PlayOn is quite dependent on system components and a good Internet connection in order to operate without a hiccup.

That being said, due to my slower DSL line, I’ve never been able to test it above a 6 mb/s speed. Even without the ideal setup, the app is still quite functional; it just may give you grief if you try to rewind a video or skip chapters. I’ve also had some issues resuming an episode later, but these could all just be personal grievances that you may not experience.  

As for pricing, when I first found PlayOn, it was $20 for a one-time fee lifetime license (though that license has been downgraded to “basic”). Nowadays, there are a few options for adding PlayOn to your app collection. Below is a breakdown:  

• Monthly fee: $4.99. This could be preferable if you want to try out the service for longer than the 14-day free trial without making a long-term commitment.
• Annual fee: $39.99. This is cost effective if you like PlayOn but are unsure of its usefulness in the event that technology changes.
• Lifetime license: $79.99. This will include all future upgrades and new features.

If you think this service could help you cut out cable, then the lifetime license is the best deal at roughly the same price as two months of cable service (maybe one month depending on your channel package).

If you end up dissatisfied though, you might regret it.

I recommend using the 14-day free trial to help you decide. There’s no obligation, and it only requires providing your email address.

Conclusion

PlayOn was born of a need to solve a problem. The Internet is awash with free video content from network and cable providers via their personal Web site flash players, but watching quality television shows on a PC or even dealing with the hassle of connecting your laptop to the TV can be less-than-ideal. Since many people already have a gaming console or iOS device, PlayOn can easily help you get that online content to you television.

Combining all of your subscription services with access to free provider programming and the option to supplement with third-party plug-ins gives PlayOn a solid value. So if it piques your interest, I recommend you take a few minutes to download the free trial, slide into a recliner with your game controller, and power up your television experience. There’s nothing to lose and a lot to gain.