2008/05/11

Get a free one-year subscription to PC Magazine Magazine-subscription service TradePub is offering a free one-year subscription to PC Magazine . All you have to do is complete a form and wait up to 12 weeks for your first issue to arrive (assuming you meet the publisher's "demographic and geographic requirements," that is). What's the catch? Well, you're divulging your personal information, of course, including your e-mail address, but TradePub says simply that "you are giving us permission to contact you via email about your subscription and concerning customer service requests." Sounds pretty harmless. Will you end up receiving newsletters, promotional offers, and the like? It's a definite possibility, but that's what disposable e-mail addresses are for, right? Full disclosure: I'm an occasional contributor to PC Magazine.

2008/05/11

Clean your PC with free CCleaner 2.0 - Time to clean out the junk. I'm not talking about old photos and Word documents, but rather the system-sapping stuff that Windows accumulates over time: temporary system files, unnecessary Registry entries, unwanted Web histories, and the like. Freeware favorite CCleaner promises to kick all that crapola to the curb, leaving your system cleaner and, theoretically, faster. CCleaner scans your machine for temp files and other clutter, then shows you what it found and gives you the option of deleting it all. You can then run a scan of the Registry and let CCleaner wipe out the detritus (this time with a backup, thankfully). The software also includes a rudimentary uninstaller and startup-program manager. The only thing I don't like about CCleaner is the Yahoo toolbar it wants to add to your browser upon installation. Download it right here.