Free 'software'...

[MadPict]

For those interested in running free and open source software or just breaking out of the shackles of MS, the BBC technology website "Click" has some recommendations for computer users...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/

[blueivy]

For those interested in running free and open source software or just breaking out of the shackles of MS, the BBC technology website "Click" has some recommendations for computer users...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/

Just a caveat on Open Office (which is excellent once you get used to it) is that it doesn't (or didn't - I can't get into the site to check just now as it appears to be down!?!?) support Office 2007 formats. That's not of much interest to the vast majority of people as Office 2007 is not as used as 2003 which it DOES support, but it is worth mentioning.

I have recommended many times in the past that home users use Open Office rather than pay £400 for Office Professional (Plus) as it does everything that they need and doesn't cost them a penny (it's also a little easier on the computer resources too).

I've been thinking for a while of asking for people's top 5 freeware apps. So here goes mine:


Cacheman XP (http://www.outertech.com/)- I still am considering buying this, but the free version let's you see at a glance what the CPU and memory (or other things if you change them) are doing on your PC.
Daemon Tools (lite) (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=5) - Allows you to mount ISO images directly and use them as a another CD/DVD drive.
IMGBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/) - let's you burn ISO images to CD/DVD
InfraRecorder (http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/) - allow you to create your own CD/DVD's a little like Nero. If you're like me, I don't need the huge amount of features Nero has so InfraRecorder does everything I need.
PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)- Up until recently I used this almost daily. It was one of the first pieces of software I installed after I rebuilt my machine. I've now purchased software that does what PDF Creator does and more, however it's still installed here. It's an excellent and easy way to create PDF files from anything you can print.

I also use Firefox as my primary browser.

[Bobinovich]

As much of my work is setting up PCs & removing malware my most used programs are:-

AVG Free Anti-Virus (http://free.grisoft.com)
Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org)
Adaware (http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php)
Hijack This (http://www.merijn.org/programs.php)

The other one is a clipart cataloguer for my design package, CorelDraw, called ROMCat (http://www.unleash.com/articles/romcat/).

However my 'toolkit' (AKA USB Drive) has numerous little fixes, applications and titbits which make my life that bit easier!

[Metalattakk]

Just a few off the top of my head:

Paint.Net (http://www.getpaint.net/) - If you can't afford/don't know how to get Photoshop, Paint.Net is an open source, freeware alternative.
Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) - Freeware audio editor and recorder.
MediaCoder (http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/) - Freeware open source Video/Audio converter.
Comodo Free Edition (http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html) - Freeware personal firewall - WinXp/2000 only though.

[blueivy]

Comodo Free Edition (http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html) - Freeware personal firewall - WinXp/2000 only though.

... it now supports Vista (and x64 which surprised me as I've had the thrill of looking for XP x64 software for the last month after installing it).

[blueivy]

Just a few off the top of my head:
MediaCoder (http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/) - Freeware open source Video/Audio converter.


Just downloaded this as I needed to convert some MP3's to WAV files. Fantastic. Did an entire album in under a minute!?!

Big pat on the back from me, Metalattakk!

[masterchippy]

Hi new to forum but has anyone else visited
http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/imagedit.html
Great site full of free stuff
one I really like is 'Faststone image viewer' for a bit of quick editing. I you follow the links there is a great pdf tutorial on how to set up and use. For those wil an SLR it even seems to handle .RAW files well.
Many other free pieces of software aswell

Jamie

[Niall Fernie]

Here's the first part of my most used freeware list, I'll add the second half when I get time to find URLs for them all :)

Apache Web Server
http://www.apache.org/
If you don't already know what this is, you don't need it yet :)

Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Great sound editor.

AutoGK
http://www.autogk.me.uk/
High quality convertor of many video file types to DivX/XviD at whatever quality/file size you would like. Good for reducing filesize of videos for uploading to youtube etc or e-mailing.

AVI2DVD
http://www.trustfm.net/divx/SoftwareAvi2Dvd.php
Converts AVI files to DVD format.

ImgBurn
http://www.imgburn.com/
Good for burning converted videos to DVD.

pjBmp2Avi
http://www.digital-digest.com/software/download.php?sid=1017&ssid=0&did=2
Creates AVI files from sequentially named BMP/TGA files.

CDBurnerXP
http://cdburnerxp.se/
CD/DVD burning software, with basic wizards for most jobs and advanced settings for more specific tasks.

Cerberus FTP Server
http://www.cerberusftp.com/
Does what it says on the tin.

CPU-Z
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
Gives you information on your CPU, motherboard and memory.

ExamDiff
http://www.prestosoft.com/ps.asp?page=edp_examdiff
Software that allows you to compare differences in text based files, like html php etc etc.

GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/
Brilliant freeware image editor, compares favorably to photoshop version 7 or so.

Glary Utilities
http://www.glaryutilities.com/
Nice set of system utilties, helpful in cleaning your system.

GSpot
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/
Handy utiltiy for identifiing Codecs used in video files.

HyperTrace
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/htrace.htm
Performs fast detailed traceroutes.

JPGVideo
http://www.ndrw.co.uk/index.php
Creates AVIs from sequentially named JPGs.

LAME MP3 Encoder
http://lame.sourceforge.net/
Codec for MP3 encoding, required by software like Audacity to create MP3s.


M-Z will follow sometime...