K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of VFW/ACM codecs, DirectShow filters and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats.With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even several less common formats.


The K-Lite Codec Pack has a couple of major advantages compared to other codec packs:

• It it always very up-to-date with the newest and/or best components.

• All components have been carefully selected for specific purposes. It is not just a random bunch of stuff thrown together.It is very user-friendly and easy to use.
  

• The installation is fully customizable, meaning that you are able to only install those components that you really want.
  

• For some formats a choice can be made during installation between different filters. This allows you to tweak the pack to your own specific needs and preferences.
  

• Uninstallation removes everything that was installed by the pack. Including all registry keys.
  

• It is extremely easy to make a fully customized unattended installation with the integrated wizard.
  

• It has been very well tested. The pack doesn't contain any conflicting or buggy codecs.

• It tries to avoid potential conflicts with other codecs already installed on your computer.

• The pack is able to detect broken codecs and filters on your system, and helps you to remove them.

• It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies.

• This pack has a huge user base. This means that problems are found and resolved quickly.

• There are different packages. From small to extra-large.

• The pack is suitable for both novice and expert users.

The K-Lite Mega Codec Pack is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista.

The most wonderful feature about this software is that it includes Windows Media Player Classic which is capable of playing all video and audio formats.It is a boon for those with Widescreen Laptops and LCD's as the video can be resized to any size by just using the numpad keys.

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Yes, you read that right Otaku Software has developed a desktop enhancement software called TOPDESK which enables a user to enjoy Windows Flip 3D effect (as seen in Windows Vista Home Premium & Ultimate versions) in Windows XP.

It is a great utility aimed at simplifying your desktop’s overcrowded taskbar window and task-switching. With the press of a single button, one can instantly view thumbnails of all open windows, display thumbnails of windows belonging to the current application, or hide all windows to quickly access the desktop. Top Desk has three different Layouts for arranging the windows in FLIP, SPATIAL and GRID.

FLIP: Windows are show in a 3D list, with the topmost window at the front.

SPATIAL: Windows are tiled according to their on-screen position. TopDesk will attempt to keep windows as close to their original position and size as possible.

GRID: Windows are tiled in a grid according to their position in the window z-order. TopDesk will place the topmost window tile at the top-left of the screen.


The trial version can be used for 14 days before being prompted to purchase the full version. More details can be found at the Company's website.

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CPU-Z is a freeware hardware detection program which gives you comprehensive information about your computer’s components such as CPU, Chipset(Motherboard), RAM, Cache, SPD(Serial Presence Detect), OS and DirectX version. No installation is required for the software. Just unzip the files into a folder the run cpuz.exe. The software is supported by almost all major versions of Windows. The program does not copy any file in any directory, neither writes in the registry. The interface of the software is quite easy to use and can even be used by a novice user. There are total six tabs: CPU, CACHE, MAINBOARD, MEMORY, SPD, ABOUT.

The CPU tab is the first tab and will give you the name of the Processor, Logo, Code name, Package, Technology, Voltage, Instructions Sets, Core Speed, Multiplier, Bus speed, Rated FSB, Cache. The way the processor logo also showed up along with the processor details was really helpful as it can help newbie’s identify their system’s processor easily.

According to its official website, here is a list of the processors supported:

Intel® Pentium™, Pentium™ MMX, Pentium™ Pro, Pentium™ II, Pentium™ III, Pentium™ III-M, Pentium™ 4, Pentium™ 4-M, Pentium™ M, Pentium™ D, Pentium™ XE, Pentium™ Dual Core, Core™ Solo, Core™ Duo, Core™ 2 Duo, Core™ 2 Quad, Core™ 2 Extreme, Celeron™ (P2/P3/P4/PM/CL) and Xeon™ (P2/P3/P4/C2D/C2Q) ; Itanium™, Itanium™ 2 ;

AMD Am5x86, K5, K6, K6-2, K6-III, K6-2+, K6-III+, Athlon(4,XP,MP), Duron, Sempron(K7/K8), Athlon 64, Athlon64 X2, Turion, Opteron, Athlon FX; Phenom

Transmeta Crusoe TM3200, TM5400, TM5500, TM5600, TM5800; VIA C3 (Samuel,Samuel2, Ezra, Ezra-T, Nehemiah), C7, C7-M; Cyrix M1,M2

I have myself tested it on Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz, Pentium 4 1.8 GHz, 2.26 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.0 GHz, Pentium III 800 MHz, Celeron 500 Mhz and even the Cyrix M1.

The CACHE tab displays the L1 Data Cache, L1 Instruction Cache, L2 & L3 Cache. Although I didn’t find this tab much useful as all this info was already mentioned in the CPU tab under Cache.

The MAINBOARD tab showed the name of the Manufacturer, Model number, Chipset, Southbridge & Sensor under the Motherboard option. Under the BIOS option it shows the brand of the bios, its version and release date. Under the Graphic Interface it showed the type of Graphic Card it utilizes i.e. AGP or PCI-e, its Memory and transfer rate.

Here is a list of chipsets supported by it:

Intel i430TX, i440LX, i440FX, i440BX/ZX, i810/E, i815/E/EP/EM, i840, i845, i845E, i845G, i850/E, i845PE/GE, E7205(Granite Bay), E7500, E7520, i852, i855, i865P/PE/G, i875P, i915P/G, i915PM/GM, i925X/XE, i945P/PL/G/GZ, i945PM/GM/GT, i955X/XE, P965, Q965, G965, i975X, 5000X/P/Z, 5400A/B, P35, G33, G31, Q35, Q33, X38, X48, P45

VIA® Apollo VP3, Apollo Pro, Apollo Pro +, Apollo Pro 266, KX133, KT133(A), KT266(A), KT400(A), KT600, P4X266(A), PT880, PT880 Pro, K8T800, K8T890, K8T900, P4M800CE, P4M890, P4M900, CX700/VX700 ;

NVIDIA® nForce, nForce2, nForce3, nForce4, nForce4 SLI Intel Edition, GeForce 6100/6150 (nForce 410/430), nForce 520/550/560/570/590, GeForce 7050/7100/7150, 650i, 680i, 750a/780a, 750i, 780i, 790i ;

ATi® RS350, RS400, RS480/RX480, RS482, RD580/RX580, RS600/RD600, RS690, RS700, RD790 ;
SiS® 645, 645DX, 648, 648FX, 649, 655FX, 655TX, 656, 662, 735, 756, 761GX, 760, 760GX, 755, 755FX, 741, 741GX, 671/FX/DX/MX ;

AMD® AM-751, AM-761, AM-762 (760MP) ;.

Under the MEMORY tab, it displays the type of ram i.e.SD, DDR, DDR2, DDR3; its Size, Channel i.e. whether running in single channel or dual channel mode. RAM timings are also mentioned which are useful mainly to Overclockers.

The SPD tab shows all the information related to the RAM. There is a drop down button for selecting the ram slot alongside which is mentioned the type of ram. Then there is Module size, Bandwidth of RAM, Manufacturer, Serial Number, Manufacturing Date and RAM timings.

The last tab is the ABOUT tab which tells about the version of CPU-Z, Operating System used and DirectX version. Besides one can make a dump of all the information shown in CPU-Z as a text file, html file or a validation file.

There are also special hot keys available:

F5 key saves a screenshot as a bmp file in the CPU-Z directory.

F6 key copies the current page in the clipboard.

F7 key saves the validation cvf file in the current directory.

Besides this the software also comes along with an executable called Latency. Launch the application in order to see the cache latency computation.

Overall, I software is pretty good as it is a freeware, there is no need to install it, takes very little space on the hard disk, supports major devices on the market and is easy to use. And u can run it from a usb drive as well.

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