What we have here is a really solid and concise multi-protocol IM client. Pidgin joins the most important features of various chat networks under a single interface, including file transfers, away messages, buddy icons, custom smilies, and typing notifications. It supports a wide range of protocols: MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Yahoo!, IRC, QQ, MySpaceIM, and many others. But if basic features are not enough for you, there are some interesting plugins to expand Pidgin's functionality such as adding Facebook IM, Twitter protocol, security and privacy, Music tracker and many others. You can see a complete list at Pidgin’s official site. The latest version of this incredible piece of software is 2.5.8 and it is available in more than 70 languages and today I'm going to tell you how it behaves under Microsoft’s latest operating system: Windows 7.

Installation & Run
Once I downloaded the installer file I started the installation and I must admit that I was fairly surprised to find that Pidgin performs a somewhat involved setup process, which entails a lot of steps to be followed and various decisions to be made, but do not worry, options are easy to understand, and in the case you have any doubts, default settings are good enough. Anyway, I assume that this kind of entanglement comes from Pidgin's modular nature (most likely stems from its Linux origins). So, Pidgin installation consists of three sub-processes: Pidgin itself, consisting of Language Selection, Welcome window, License Agreement, Components selection and Location selection; the second process is GTK+ setup for which I had to select its installation location, and finally GNU Aspell setup which is dictionary and spellchecker functionality. Read the rest of this entry »

Winamp is a powerful audio and video player, in fact, this is one of the most famous and widespread players in the market. Winamp is able to play almost all audio and video formats provided you have the proper codecs installed. With a delicate and intuitive graphical interface, Winamp became the leader in multimedia files reproduction. The list of supported formats is simply endless. You can also change its appearance with Winamp's famous Skins, there are thousands of them on the Web and you can download them for free, to bring always a new look for your player so you never get tired of it. So, compatibility, the many plugins and skins available, the versatility and the rest of Winamp qualities make of it a strong candidate to become your favorite media player, but not just at home, with Winamp Remote, you can also enjoy the music stored in your home computer from any PC connected to the Internet. For further reading on Winamp's improvements and novelties, go here, and here for a full review.

Today I'm going to tell you about the results of testing Winamp 5.56 under Microsoft's latest operative system.

Installation & First Run
Installing Winamp and getting it ready to run for the first time was a simple task, not very fast, I may say, since it involved so many steps to follow and several decisions to take, I mean, they were not complicated, but too many of them to my tastes, including options and search bars and some stuff other than Winamp (which I was actually trying to install). Maybe this is the price one has to pay to keep it for free. Read the rest of this entry »

While the time of the VHS is almost over, the DVD has become the universal media format for watching movies. If you are afraid of loosing or damaging your DVD collection, there is a program like CloneDVD which is one of the easiest ways to make copies of original DVDs, provided that they are not CSS protected. CloneDVD is able to carry out all the steps required to copy a DVD, especially when it is necessary to reduce the size to fit a single layer DVD and it performs such actions definitely well, without unnecessary complications. If we take a look at the interface, we can see that it is extremely easy to learn without technical options to worry about, all this thanks to its very well designed wizard. CloneDVD is full of options that help us to reduce the file size without compromising the image quality. For example, you can choose to omit some DVD bonus like foreign subtitles, trailers etc… Copy speed is more than respectable, allowing the copy in the form of ISO file to your hard drive or a recordable DVD in a few moments. Today I'm going to tell you how this handy application behaves under the Windows 7 environment.

Note: CloneDVD does not allow us to clone DVDs which are protected by CSS or other copy protection mechanisms, nevertheless, CloneDVD can be used with tools such as AnyDVD in order to overcome these protections. Anyway it is advisable to burn backup DVDs only from legally owned DVDS and only for its personal use. Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous article I told you how the latest version of Mozilla's most important development, Firefox, behaves when running under the Windows 7 platform, today I'm going to tell about another Mozilla Corporation development: Thunderbird. Having very promising advances and an illustrious history, Thunderbird is the email client from Mozilla. Like Firefox, Thunderbird uses the same interface language called XUL, as well as proposing an architecture specifically designed to bring a clean and intuitive environment, which makes of this a simple and functional e-mail client. Maybe Thunderbird does not offer as many options as other clients; nevertheless, it has some interesting features like powerful mail filters, support for installing themes and extensions, or the ability to customize the toolbar in the main window. Besides, Thunderbird extensions enable us to add specific options and features that will make our experience with this client more personal and interesting. So, I downloaded installed and tried Thunderbird 3.0 beta 2

Note: Before going into the test results I must tell you that this release is not a final version and it is available only for testing purposes; it is highly advisable to use it only for such purposes as you may experience crashes and bugs and it also may lead to data loss. Read the rest of this entry »

VirtualBox is a virtualization software developed by Sun Microsystems since February 2008 when they bought innotek (the original German developing company). Through this application you can install additional operating systems, known as "guest operating systems”, system within another called "host", each with its own virtual environment. For example, one could install different Linux distributions installed on a VirtualBox under Windows XP or vice versa.

Although the only mention of Windows 7 support in VirtualBox's official site is about Seven being guest, today I'm going to test it the other way, this are the results:

Installation & Run
Setup process presented no inconvenience, it was also easy and quick. It did not only work fine but also occupied very little space in my HDD. Read the rest of this entry »

AIMP is a Russian video player not only with a similar name to Winamp, even the interface and operation steps are kind of similarity with it. Luckily, this series of innovation finally brought it more closed to ordinary users, which in turn seize a majority of Winamp users.

Almost all the video formats are supportive in AIMP with few system resource occupations. Additionally, build-in Audio Converter/Recorder and MP3 Tag Editor Functions make watching and searching more convenient.

Currently, the latest official version is AIMP 2.51 Build 330. 35 kinds of languages are available. Total build-in accessories are in one installing package. Various skins are also made into application. Furthermore, users can design his own skin with the official skin editor. For detailed system operated condition, we tested its compatibility and stability under Windows 7 by means of interface, functions and advantages.

Interface
The default interface is quite same with Winamp 2.89, including operation, function keys and button positions. Old users of Winamp definitely feel a familiar feeling when facing it, and are willing to get close to it in a very short time. New users will also get up on various operational steps quickly with the graphic interface and buttons. Read the rest of this entry »

GIMP (stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an incredibly handy piece of freeware, this raster graphics editor is extremely useful when it comes to digital graphics and photographs processing, enhancement and retouching. Most commonly used functionalities include the creation of graphics and logos, clipping and cropping images, size and color adjustments, multiple images combination, undesired image parts removal, photo, and many others. It supports conversion between different image file formats and the generation of .GIF animated pictures.

So, let's take a look at how GIMP works under Windows 7.

Install & Run
If we think of the astonishing features and huge number of functions and capabilities of this program, we may suppose that it will be contained in a large setup file which installation process takes a long time, but as a matter of fact we are very far from reality, let me tell you why, as the first reality we find that GIMP's setup file is only 15MB, and the hole process of installing and running it for the first time is extremely quick and easy. Read the rest of this entry »

O&O Defrag 11 Professional Edition is an extremely handy HDD defrag tool which quickly and securely combines the file fragments and optimizes hard disks under Windows. The most remarkable features of this award winning utility include: comprehensive protection from strong fragmentation through background monitoring and defragmentation, context menu integration for individual directories and files defrag, scheduled defrag, five different defragmentation methods, simple setting up of automatic defragmentation through the O&O OneButtonDefrag, O&O ActivityGuardPro for the least system load and full support of all Windows drives.

Today I'm going to tell you about its compatibility aspects when run under Microsoft's latest operative system.

Installation & Run
During the setup process, O&O Defrag only asked me to decide if I wanted a "Complete" or "Custom" setup type, and after that it took only a few seconds to complete the installation and be ready for its first start. Read the rest of this entry »

There is no doubt, Windows 7, as the next OS from Microsoft, has all the time deserving more attention and support from users and media. We straightly hope there will be more improvements on next OS than previous Vista. It appears Microsoft took our advice this time. According to the testing results of Windows 7 Beta version, we enjoyed, Windows 7 is faster, more reliable, and makes it easier to do what we want. The Windows 7 Era is coming, are you ready for it?

Windows 7 Software Compatibility Testing
Windows 7 final version release needs additional period of time. Currently few software developers have published versions support Windows 7, and more other publishers are waiting for the final version. We are suffering a long wait. A majority of users couldn’t wait to install Windows 7 Beta. Based on the Vista Kernel, Windows 7 includes a series of detailed developments, in which result in any more or less compatibility problem in certain software once running under Windows 7. On this basis, Microsoft launched Application Compatibility Testing worldwide for a better user experience. Hereby, we BrotherSoft, as a leading software downloading website all over the world, at current time set the Windows 7 Software Compatibility Testing, reporting software compatible test results under Windows 7 for users. Further compatibility solutions are also included. Meanwhile, we will sincerely feedback those testing reports to Microsoft Application Compatibility Testing Program.

About The Testing
Famous common software will be selected here, compatibility testing runs on Windows 7 32/64-bit. We use public release Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 for the Compatibility testing. Windows 7 RC version would be in place of testing system for its public release.

The following is about Hardware platform. Read the rest of this entry »