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technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 A heavenly duplicates finder for Outlook users, free DVD-playing software for WindowsDec. 18, 2002 By Al Fasoldt Copyright © 2002, Al Fasoldt Copyright © 2002, The Post-Standard Software doesn't have to come from companies that specialize in computer programs. You'll be reminded of this if you try out a new utility that cleans duplicate messages in Outlook. The software comes from the Parish of the Holy Spirit, an Anglican church in Southsea, England. The program, Outlook Duplicates Remover, is marketed as a special kind of freeware. It's "prayerware," according to the Rev. Simon Rundell, assistant curate of the church and author of the software. "I share this in a Christian Spirit," he says, "and hope that if you find it useful then you might spare me and my ministry a prayer or two, and perhaps an e-mail to let me know that you used it and found it useful. I am a Church of England priest who used to be a programmer before giving it all up to serve Christ, so it is nice to keep my hand in." The software worked fine on my main Windows PC, which uses Outlook 2000. It tracks down messages and other items that have the same content and shows you a list. You can delete duplicates from the list. Outlook Duplicates Remover does not work with the "other" Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express. (I'd like to sit down with the person in charge of product naming at Microsoft and scream as loud as I can for two minutes. I've spent countless hours trying to clear up the confusion over these two different programs, and letting go with both lungs would help ease my pain.) You can get the Rev. Rundell's software from what appears to be his own Web storage area, at www.simon.rundell.btinternet.co.uk. All you'll see is a file list. Download the file named ODRsetup4.exe. (The church site was down when I tried it, so I'm giving the address that the Rev. Rundell gives out to current customers.) Another treat for Windows users is the surprise appearance of good, free DVD-playing software. The software is the FusionSoft DVD Player. It's an Open Source program. (This means it's free and can be modified without limit as long as the modifications are also freely changeable.) Software DVD players can be troublesome, but the FusionSoft player worked very well on my Windows 2000 PC. It should work on any reasonably fast Windows PC that has a DVD drive. My Windows 2000 PC is a 450-MHz Pentium II computer, about one-third the speed of typical Windows computers bought in the last year or so, yet I saw no skipping or dropped frames. The FusionSoft Web site was having problems when I tried to go to it a few days ago, so I've giving another address for the download file until the regular site comes back: www.fwnetwork.com/description/fsdvdplayer.html. |