Really Effective

Welcome to the home of Really Effective, producing quality Windows based Freeware software for over ten years.  If you are already familiar with Really Effective and our products please scroll down past this Announcement on the main page for the latest news and release information. The last news item was posted on 20th November 2008.

We pledge that all official Really Effective software contains no Spyware or Ad-ware. All Freeware software contains no nag screens, no expiry dates and no other restrictions. To encourage and ensure further development you can show your appreciation, provide feedback or just say thanks via the Contact Us link that can be found to the right of this page.  For further information on Really Effective products, download details or support please select the appropriate Really Effective product from the list of pages to the right.

Our first product TICK was first released in August 1998 and has been updated frequently since.  TICK is a freeware dial up enhancer that logs all dial up networking calls and has a POP3 mail checker, finger, ping, web notify tools, popup digital display, password database, IP Address finder, context sensitive help and lots more.

Our second product Sound Control was first released in July 1999 and has been updated regularly since.  Sound Control is a freeware replacement Windows Sound Mixer applet that allows you to add hot keys to adjust any combination of your sound mixer volumes.  Support to control Winamp with a series of hot keys, CD Player and an On Screen Display is also included.

An RSS feed of all the items below is available to enable you to keep up-to-date with all the news and latest releases by Really Effective.

Work is continuing on a new release of Sound Control. There will be some new functionality and many bug fixes so more BETA testers are required. If you understand the idea of BETA testing and have some spare time to give a release a try on your configuration and provide feedback please contact us using the details available by clicking on the Contact Us page in the right hand menu. When the BETA is ready to be downloaded you will be emailed with details.

Thanks to some feedback by a user Sound Control can now be used to control volumes in Windows Vista. If you want to use Sound Control on the Windows Vista (or above) platform please read the updated Windows Vista Compatibility Notes article for full details.

It is quite unbelievable that TICK was released to the public 28 August 1998 and Sound Control on 11 July 1999 and both applications are still going strong.

Since their first release there have been over a hundred thousand downloads of both applications and they have been featured in newspapers, magazines and some of the most popular software news sites.  A big thank you to all our users for supporting the applications.

When the applications were initially launched they had a modern user interface, unique features and above all they were completely free.

There have been many similar applications released but considering ten years is a long time in this field the applications have generally survived the passing of time quite well.

An updated version of Sound Control is currently being worked on which features both bug fixes and several minor enhancements and if this release is well received an update for TICK will also be considered.

There is no estimated time of release due to me only having my spare time to work on development but if you wish to BETA test the new version of Sound Control before the general release please Contact Us by email using the details on the Contact Us page quoting your operating system and sound card type.

As more and more people are using Windows Vista this post will be updated with any significant problems (and resolutions) that are reported by users with this operating system.

This is not an exhaustive list and due to several fundamental changes in the Vista operating system it is expected that there may be issues especially with respect to volume adjustment and installation.

Sound Control v2.50 (and above) has been tested on Windows Vista and should greatly improve compatibility so it can therefore become a supported operating system.  TICK is not officially supported or tested using the Windows Vista operating system yet.

Sound Control

Volume Adjustment

Please note that this configuration will be automatically applied when using Sound Control v2.50 and above. If you are using a previous version you need to follow the instructions below.

Windows Vista permits volumes to be adjusted for each application individually. When Sound Control is used the mixers displayed control the volume of sounds made by the Sound Control application and not the general system volume.

Windows Vista provides functionality to tell applications to run in compatibility mode so that new Vista functionality is disabled for specific applications resulting in Sound Control operating as if it was running in Windows XP.

1. Exit Sound Control if it is running
2. Right click on the Start - Programs - Sound Control - Sound Control shortcut
3. Select Properties from the popup menu
4. Choose the Compatibility tab
5. Select Run The Program In Compatibility Mode
6. Select Windows XP SP2 from the dropdown menu
7. Click OK
8. Start Sound Control using the Start - Programs - Sound Control - Sound Control shortcut

When Sound Control starts it will now run as if it was being used on a Windows XP machine. You may find not as many mixers are displayed but at the minimum the main master volume will be listed enabling you to assign hot keys to the main volume control.

TICK

No reported problems

After an extended break, some effort has been spent on a brand new and more modern design for the site.   Unfortunately both Sound Control and TICK have not had an update for quite some time now.  No promises and it depends how involved it becomes but I am hoping to release updates soon starting with Sound Control and if the update is well received it will be followed by a new version of TICK.   The new versions will be made available via the new Current Downloads feature, first as BETA releases to gather and fix any bug reports.  Depending on the general feedback and success of the release it will then be made the official download version.  When a release is made details of the changes will be posted as a new news item.  Please feel free to Contact Us if you have any feedback.

After many years of success I have made the decision that due to personal reasons I have unfortunately decided the current version of TICK and Sound Control will be the last. With regret, this means Vista operating system support will not be implemented. The web site will remain open for the time being and support questions will still be read and answered if time permits. I am not totally discounting future versions but I currently do not have the energy, time, willpower or interest to continue these projects. It has been a difficult past few years and I wish to thank all users for their support and past interest in both TICK and Sound Control. When I think back to 1998 when I made the first public release of TICK (as it is called now) and back to 1999 for the first public release of Sound Control I have received great joy from these projects especially in the early years of development. If you wish to contact us please use the Contact Us facilities. Thank you and goodbye (for now).

Before a piece of software is made available to a wider audience software developers usually release a set of BETA releases that allow the potential audience of the application to provide feedback before the final release is made. This feedback usually includes details of parts of the application that do not function correctly on their specific hardware or details of changes they would like implemented.  BETA releases however by their nature are usually contain problems, are feature incomplete (for example, unable to import previous settings) and may not be compatible with any existing version of the application installed. This generally means BETA releases are not recommended to be installed in a production environment or by inexperienced users.  A more detailed explanation of what a BETA release is and the full software release cycle can be found on Wikipedia.

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