Because of the endless features, and useful UI features, such as mouse-shaking, this is my favorite magnifier. It's not without its problems, and it may be less useful on Windows 7, which has an improved magnifier over even Vista's improved magnifier.

The two biggest problems are a long-standing issue with sometimes consuming ridiculous amounts of CPU when it's off. This is a permanent condition which usually occurs when it's loaded, but sometimes doesn't. I thought it depended upon mouse-shaking being enabled, but it doesn't. Workers Collection has never fixed that problem. The second issue is turning off Aero in some modes. To avoid switching off Aero, I use Corner Tracker with maximum offset. That has issues with not constraining the glass to the current monitor on multi-monitor systems.

Every time this is offered, there are all sorts of ridiculous comments. This has lots of features which the built-in Windows Magnifier, even the Vista one, doesn't. This is designed to not interfere with the mouse features, hotkeys, etc., of the application being magnified. Therefor, it has its own hotkeys, command mode, etc., which you should study in its Help file before complaining that it doesn't do something.

The "what's new" for this version are noted on this page at the top, to the right of the system requirements.

Fubar  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+122)

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The Good
* You can setup the magnifier to work in many different ways for different scenarios.
* Works with hotkeys.
* You can take screenshots of what you magnify.
* Interesting "mouse shaking" feature.
* Useful "auto profile switcher" that can automatically change the magnifies to a different profile when a certain program is running.

The Bad
* No option to hide mouse while using magnifier.
* "Auto profile switcher" does not seem to detect notepad properly.

For final verdict, recommendations, and full review please click here.

Ashraf  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+101)

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#1, Ashraf, as I've often noted, you continue to blame the software when you don't understand what it's doing. If you look at the sample auto-switch profiles for Notepad, you'll see that there are two. One pops up when you use the keyboard within Notepad. The other makes the glass invisible when you use the mouse cursor within Notepad.

Note: when using the Options main dialog, you must click "Save" at the top before exiting if you want the changes to apply. I neglected to mention previously that Magnifying Glass Pro is one of the former GOTD offerings for which I purchased a license.

The other magnifier which I use is Microsoft Sysinternals ZoomIt 4.0, which, in addition to its numerous features, has a neat full-screen LiveZoom mode on Vista and higher, which doesn't interfere with Aero. However, at least on my PC, and also noted by some other people, but not all, ZoomIt has some bugs.

Fubar  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+95)

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Hi all,

PROS:

*** Smooth download/installation/activation on Vista Home Premium X64 OS.

*** Registration information successfully displays/located in the "About Section".

*** Smooth program access without using Run As Administrator rights feature.

*** Nice, simple, clean, intuitive, easy-to-understand, easy-to-navigate GUI,

*** Supports 8 languages (English, German, Dutch, Czech, Spanish, French, Portugese, Russian).

*** Rich, thorough, full-featured, Help Guide located fully within program.

*** Developer contact information (e-mail, website, etc.) located fully within program.

*** Allows for 5 different magnification sizes (1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8)

*** Provides "Run App On Windows Startup" checkbox option.

*** Provides Show Glass After Application Start" checkbox option.

*** Allows user to edit the following items:

+++ Glass Profile Features:(text caret, graph editor, half screen, classical photographer, high contrast vision, full screen glass, web and art designer, Add New, Delete), Glass Preview Checkbox option, transparency option for Windows 2000 and XP OS, Size (pixels), Shape (rectangle, round rectangle, ellipse/circle), Update Glass Interval (rarely, average, often, real-time), Frame Color (entire color-palette pops up for user-selected choice), width (0 to unlimited number), zoom factor (.7 to user-entered range number), follow text editing (caret watch), anti-aliased option (CPU max), Show maginifed cursor option.

+++ Auto Switcher Features (target profiles) - Command Mode (enabled or not), Cool graphical effect (CPU max) or not.

+++ Mouse Shaking Features.

+++ Miscellaneous Features (Copy image to clipboard, What to copy, etc.)

+++ Hot Key Assignments.

+++ Behavior on Vista Options (Aero feature, etc.).

+++ Save Button option allows user to save chosen settings.

ACTUAL PROGRAM OPERATION:

Upon selection of desired settings, and turning the magnifying feature "ON", the magnification function worked well and effectively, as described and as expected. Program operation was smooth.

CONS:

*** No apparent (or easy) way to exit the "magnification function."

*** Upon right-clicking the magnifying glass (to access the program's context menu) and choosing the "exit" option to stop the magnification process, I received an Access Violation error message - after this point, accessing the magnification program again was impossible (i.e., could not enter program). I had to re-start my computer to fix this problem, which it did. Then, to re-create and test this problem a second time, I right-clicked the magnifying glass again to bring up its context menu, and chose the "exit" option. Same Access Violation error happened again. Developer - please fix this fatal error/bug. Thank you. I'll also send a message to the developer about this matter and follow up with everyone via the GOTD forums section.

The workaround for this problem would be to do "Control, Alt, Delete" to bring up the Windows Task Manager to "end the program process." Yes, this is inconvenient, but at least there is a solution to this problem (if you are looking for a program like this.)

SUMMARY:

Despite the one flaw of not being able to exit magnification program via selecting "exit option" from right-click context menu, the program's benefits far outweigh (in my humble opinion) this one flaw. Thus, I give today's GiveAway a thumbs up. Thanks, GOTD and Workers Collection, for today's unique/nice program.

100% Free, Open-Source Option (for those who miss or do not want today's offer):

Virtual Magnifying Glass, v3.3.2 - Compatible with Windows (Vista, XP, 2000, NT, ME, 98, 95), Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X.

Best,
Happy

Happy Person  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+64)

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There's an even simpler way for zooming in on your screen. No programs involved.

Just hold down the Ctrl key and use the scroll on your mouse.

You can zoom in our out with it and don't need to go into your accessories.

Vince  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+58)

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