Jon L. Jacobi, Lincoln Spector, Melissa J. Perenson

Billiebong wants to remove a program that lacks an uninstaller, and turned to the

Before you try to manually remove a program, make sure there's no uninstaller. Check the Start menu. If the Start menu contains a submenu for the unwanted program, there's likely a link to the uninstaller there.

You should also check Windows' own list of uninstallers. Select Start (Start>Run in XP), type appwiz.cpl, and press ENTER. You'll find all the uninstallers that Windows knows about in alphabetical order.

The AK-Player 7 software media player is an interesting experience. When launching, it seems to fly into to view from a distance. Possibly from another solar system, given its default skin--UFO doesn't even begin to cover that. It's an impressive display. AK-Player 7 plays video and audio, as well as images, but aside from its animated interface, doesn't stand out from the crowd.

You might not even guess that sci-fi rendered AK-Player 7 was a media player if it weren't for the name.Generally speaking, the AK-Player 7 performed well for me, with excellent picture and audio quality. But there were some bumps. When I dragged and dropped a file whose type the program didn't recognize, it played the previous video rather than warn me that the file type was unsupported. Also, the play button is skinned the reverse of normal--when a video is playing, the play bitmap is displayed, and when the video is paused, the pause bitmap is shown. Normally, the action to be performed by the button is shown--not its state.

Are Android tablets poised to fall in price, again? That’s what it sounds like based on comments by Nvidia vice president Rob Csonger. In a call with investors, Csonger discussed the existence of a reference design for a $199 Android tablet running the company’s Tegra 3 processor. What’s noteworthy here is that, in the five months since Nvidia took the stage at its CES 2012 press conference, the company has lowered the target price of its inexpensive tablet platform from $249 to $199.

That 20 percent price decrease reflects the ongoing price pressures in the non-Apple tablet market, where the Amazon Kindle Fire dominates among 7-inch models, and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 dropped in price by 38 percent compared with last fall’s model. However, neither of those models are performance barn burners, and neither features a quad-core processor with the potential power of Nvidia’s Tegra 3 platform.

SIUC asked the Windows forum about running software intended for Windows XP in Windows 7.

For the most part, it should just work. I've rarely run into programs that run fine in XP but have trouble in Windows 7.

If you're physically transporting data you don't want other people to see, you should be doing it on secure media. And what better than something that hides easily within a pocket? Secure flash drives that are only about the size of a small cigarette lighter feature robust hardware security to make them super secure. You'll pay a premium for the integrated security, but you can't put a price on the peace of mind you get by knowing that your data is locked down.

To get the skinny on the state-of-the-art in secure flash drives, we took five hardware-encrypted drives for test spins. The results? As far as security is concerned, it's all systems go. Three of the units--the Kingston DataTraveler 4000 Managed, the Kanguru Defender 2000, and the CMS CE-Secure Vault FIPS--are certified to Level 2 of the government's FIPS 140-2 security standard. The Imation Defender F200 ratchets that up to Level 3. The Apricorn Aegis Secure Key is being processed for Level 3 certification, though it is not yet certified.

CMS's latest CE-Secure Vault drive offers good USB 2.0 performance, 256-bit AES hardware encryption, and manageability--that is, it will interface with BlockMaster's SafeConsole management software so that businesses can configure a fleet of the units and manage them remotely.

As with many secure flash drives, the pricing for more capacious units skews unnaturally high. While the 4GB version costs $70, the 32GB version is a hefty $230. Still, that's cheaper than Kingston's 32GB DataTraveler 4000 Managed, which is $294. The DT4000-M is slightly cheaper in lower capacities.

Even physically, the Kanguru Defender 2000 secure flash drive more than lives up to its name. It's solid and heavy enough that you could easily pull a David to an attacker's Goliath as a self-defense tactic. Toss in a tactilely pleasing alloy body, and not since Lexar's now-discontinued JumpDrive SAFE S3000 FIPS has there been a drive that can rival worry beads for an in-hand experience.

The Defender 2000 has 256-bit AES hardware encryption and is both tamperproof and waterproof. It’s also FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated, and is being evaluated for Level 3 as well as Common Criteria EAL2+. The security software client for entering passwords and configuring the drive launches from a CD-emulating partition, offers antimalware capabilities, and also supports Linux. Most drives that rely upon software for password entry support only Windows and OS X.

Everyone wants to feel a little James or Jane Bond-ish once in a while. And nothing beats the Imation Defender F200 biometric flash drive when it comes to spylike sex appeal. Pull your flash drive out, slap it in your notebook, swipe your finger across its biometric fingerprint reader it to enable it, and voilà, you're in.

The Defender F200 is not only stylish, it's highly capable. The drive has been validated to Level 3 of the FIPS 140-2 government security guideline--a lengthy and expensive process. The device uses hardware AES 256-bit encryption and may be configured to use the biometric scanner, a password, or both for a double layer of security. You may also specify two separate fingers to be used for validation. Excuse the morbidity, but it's recommended that you use a finger from each hand in case you lose the use of an arm. The F200 Biometric, you see, is designed for with the military in mind.

The Apricorn Aegis Secure Key is the first PIN-secured flash drive we've tested that manages to maintain a svelte profile. It's a tad longer than a standard USB flash drive, but no larger in any other aspect. Despite its relatively diminutive size, the Secure Key's keypad is still relatively easy to enter numbers with, and the unit's aluminum case feels nice in your hand. We tested the 16GB Aegis Secure Key, priced at $125. The company offers 4GB and 8GB models for $65 and $95 respectively.

You unlock the Aegis Secure Key by pressing a key button, entering the PIN via the number keys, and then pressing the key button once more. The green status light blinks steadily, and you have 30 seconds to insert the drive into a USB port. Easy as pie, and removing the drive from the USB port locks it again. Other management actions, such as changing the PIN, are also performed using the keypad, so the unit is truly software-free. Software-free means that you can use the Aegis Secure Key with any operating system or device: Windows, OS X, Linux, tablets, printers, digital media adapters, TVs, and the like.

The Kingston DataTraveler 4000 Managed (DT4000-M) secure flash drive is not for the average user--it must be employed in conjunction with BlockMaster's SafeConsole management software, which you have to purchase separately, or in a package deal from Kingston.

However, for companies looking for complete control and tracking of sensitive data, it's a boon. At the time of writing, pricing started at $57 for the 4GB version ($8 less than next-cheapest model we tested at that capacity); Kingston also has an 8GB model for $75, a 16GB model for $130, and a 32GB model for $294.

MP3 Toolkit is simple and it works, letting you convert audio files to a number of different types, merge multiple files into one, clip files for ringtones or the like, edit tags, rip files from CD, and record using a microphone. There's nothing spectacular about it, unless you're impressed that it's free.

The main launcher for MP3 Toolkit is colorful and easy to use. So are the modules, though selecting multiple items doesn't follow Windows conventions.The suite (MP3 Toolkit is a collection of modules) is easy to use--for the most part. There are small oddities, such as not being able to select multiple items with the shift key. Instead you select folders from within the folder. Not unheard of, but against the normal Windows convention. My only major complaint is the lack of batch editing in the tag editor. It can be extremely handy to grab a bunch of files to specify their genre all at once. MP3 Toolkit doesn't allow this.

Every once in a while, I run across a program that seems too good to be free--but truly is. Wise Registry Cleaner 7 (WRC 7 from here on in) is such a program. Actually, it's a bit more than a registry cleaner. It also defrags the registry and offers quite a few system tweaks under its System Tuneup tab.

Simple, clean, and easy to use, Wise Registry Cleaner 7's interface would be top-notch if it were easier to see what it's going to clean.As a registry cleaner, WRC 7 has performed well for me. It always seems to find more stuff than CCleaner, another effective freebie that also removes other types of file detritus. The program checks ActiveX/Com components, software paths, application paths, shared DLLS, the Start Menu, etc. and removes any invalid entries.