Given that Windows 8 is only available as a prerelease version it would be hasty to give a final Gearhead rating, but provisionally, RecImg Manager gets a 5 out of 5 for an elegant, effective solution to a common problem, while Microsoft gets a -1,000,000 for not producing something better than a command line tool to do much the same thing with a lot more effort.

And now the really cool part: RecImg Manager is free!

Gibbs is sort of excited in Ventura, Calif. Transmit your joy to gearhead@gibbs.com and follow him on Twitter (@quistuipater) and on Facebook (quistuipater).

in Network World's Software section.