If you’ve ever encountered a blocked startup app in Vista and would like a work-around that can bypass it then read on. This posting will describe how to launch an app on startup as a scheduled task, which will circumvent the startup apps list altogether. Ultimately you will be able to get your app to launch without seeing the notice in the screenshot and without having to shut down Vista’s User Account Control security infrastructure.

Smart Soft’s Free PDF to Word Converter is a free program that offers one-click PDF to Word (DOC) conversions. It performs conversions locally on your desktop (i.e. it is not a web service) and offers excellent fidelity to the original document.

Battlefield Heroes is a third person, online only action game. It’s free-to-play, supported by optional micro transactions, and can only be launched through your web browser. It’s created by EA DICE, the developer behind the famous Battlefield series.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Travis B. Check out his freeware games blog here].

BumpTop is a cool little addition that can make your Windows desktop a little more organized and add a bit of pizazz to the experience. It adds physics and depth to your normal, boring desktop. You can slide files and icons around on the “floor” or pin them to any of the four walls that BumpTop creates. It makes for an impressive desktop and is somewhat comparable to Compiz on Linux, but is there much practical application for it?

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com].

Microsoft has put out two web-based games through their TechNet branch called Server Quest. The games are a compilation of mini-games with a story connecting them all. You play the role of the IT professional, Matt, working for a company called A. Datum. It is aimed toward IT Professionals and computer specialists everywhere and includes humor and trivia that mostly only those with a geeky bent will get. While acting as a thinly veiled promo for a Microsoft TechNet subscription, the game is complete and still provides entertainment value.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com].

Tubemaster Plus Plus (the sequel to previously mentioned Tubmaster Plus) can download media (video/audio) from video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, MySpace, Dailymotion and others, as well as encrypted media from “ani-leeching” websites sites such as Imeen, Pandora and Last.fm. TM++ can also perform on-the-fly format conversions as well as general Video and MP3 searches.

DRoster is what I’d describe as niche software. Not everybody is going to have a use for employee scheduling software, but for those whom do need it, this could be a life saver. I imagine DRoster being a very welcome find for many small businesses or organizations that are burgeoning past the point of being manageable through a simple spreadsheet. Also, I feel it’s nice to be aware of DRoster as it could come in handy for other purposes for those of us who tend to reverse engineer everything and think in work-arounds.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com].

There is an impressive range of excellent freeware Windows enhancements and tweaks. This posting will present forty three excellent additions to Windows that you will like.

Capster is a free, tiny utility that allows you to modify any particular startup program or programs that auto-start with Windows such that they only launch on startup if the Caps Lock key is toggled On or Off.

Suction is a small free utility that can consolidate all files in several directories recursively and deposit them into a single parent directory. It can install an entry in the right-click context menu for quick action on folders.

Double Vision is a freeware program designed for viewing web video (such as YouTube, Netflix, and Fancast) while you work, by providing a semi-transparent player that shows through all other windows and programs that are visible on your desktop.

I recently used created clickmaps of my new Freewaregenius theme in order to shed light on what people were doing on my site. The results were very interesting to me and, I would imagine, they would be interesting to a lot of readers, especially those who have their own sites or blogs. I therefore created this post to share these clickmaps as well as some of the insights that came out of them.