Folder Menu is a free utility that can display a popup-list of favorite folders, files, and program shortcuts via hotkey or by using the middle mouse button. An added function is the ability to browse your files and folders within the popup dialog.

I’ve been looking for a virtual stock market game to play for quite some time. I wanted something like a fantasy football of the stock market. In my search I had only found systems with a paid subscription model. I even found full stock market simulators that were based on fake stocks and made-up companies. Recently I found a free, web-based stock market simulator that actually has the chance to pay you for playing (more on that later); UpDown matched all the things I was looking for and had some other features that made it even more interesting. I always figured it’d be fun and give me some practice for real world investing. Plus in today’s economy, why not play with virtual money instead of risking real money.

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

StorYBook is an interesting application for a specific niche group. It is not an all-out word processor but instead a tool for organizing a novel. Actually any story could be story-boarded with Storybook. As an example, the demo project included with the install uses The Simpsons show.

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

Finally, a new theme. Although I liked the old Lightbreaker theme, I’d been wanting to move away from it for some time. After researching Wordpress themes for quite a long time (free and paid) I finally decided to go with the this one, Arthemia Premium (there is an excellent free version as well, which can be found here).

Songbird is a an open source, multiplatform music player intened to rival players such as iTunes; but does it have much more beyond the basics?

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

PowerTools Lite is a free registry and system cleaning utility based on jv16 PowerTools 2009 utility suite, one of the best available registry cleaning utilities. PowerTools Lite is designed to provide regular or novice users with a safe, effective registry and system cleanup. It removes unnecessary data from the registry, performs a general PC cleanup, and cleans MRU and history data from most applications and from Windows.

Hana Outlook Folder Search (HOFS) is a free Outlook add-on designed to provide instant Outlook folder lookups as well as an in-folder email de-duplication function.

Benubird PDF is a free document management system designed to manage all manner of documents and files in a single, centralized location. It allows you to organize your files and documents within virtual folders (irrespective of where they reside on your hard drive), and to and apply tags to them as well as other metadata. The interface provides for quick and easy filtering and search capabilities. Advanced features include the ability to monitor local folders for changes and to use a set of user-defined rules to update the library of documents/files accordingly.

DriverBackup is a free and easy-to-use Device Drivers’ backup and restore utility that comes with command line options, path formatting and automatic driver restoration. It can easily backup and restore all the currently installed device drives automatically without the need for re-downloading drivers or using CD-ROMs.

PDF to Excel Free is a free web service that is specifically designed to convert PDFs with lots of data tables into Excel files. It will automatically detects data tables, transfer them into Excel format, and recreates their formatting and appearance. Conversion is performed remotely on the site; you will have to upload your file and provide an email address where a link to download the converted file will be emailed back to you.

ActiveHotkeys is a small, free portable app that can scan and display all active hotkey combinations on your system that are being used by various applications.

BB Flashback Express is a free screen recording program that can capture your PC’s screen, sound, and webcam video and supports capturing graphics/animations, including 3D graphics. It offers a high degree of control over your video (output resolution, quality, file size, recording modes, mouse autoscroll, and cursor highlighting effects). Saves resulting files as either FLV’s, AVI’s or SWF’s, and offers the ability to easily upload videos to YouTube or embed them inside a webpage.