Freeware I use everyday!

[Josh Randall]

I know there are lots of web sites that rate software, but like when I shop
on New Egg, I give more weight to a person that actually *uses* the
software. These are a few I use everyday and love. OS is Win XP (soon to
cut-away to Linux Fedora. All these will work with Linux)

#1. Firefox (browser)

#2. Avant (virus protection)

#3 Ifranview (photo editing)

#4 Thunderbird (e-mail client <don't like the news reader>)

#5 Win Start Monitor and Console (start up editor and protector of your
registry). by: Mike Linn

#6 Open Office. (great substitute for the bloatware M$ Office)

#7 ZipFree 2000 (zip program)

#8 Clipomatic (another Mike Linn utiltiy to expand your clipboard)

#9 POP Peeper (great way to check your e-mail)

#10 Ad Aware (best bot getter in the world IMHO)

#11 Ace Money (great personal money manager)

#12 ABI-coder (encrypter. I believe only the payware version is now
available).

A few more, but these are the ones I use everyday. SEARCHING FOR: A
simple address book with good printing capabilities and good database
handling. I used to use Day-Timer (pay version) but it won't work with XP
very well....Love it's features though..........

Go any you'd like to share?

JR

 

[badgolferman]

Josh Randall, 6/1/2005, 3:06:20 PM,

#2. Avant (virus protection)

Avant or Avast!

 

[Chakolate]

I know there are lots of web sites that rate software, but like when I
shop on New Egg, I give more weight to a person that actually *uses*
the software. These are a few I use everyday and love. OS is Win XP
(soon to cut-away to Linux Fedora. All these will work with Linux)

#1. Firefox (browser)

#2. Avant (virus protection)

#3 Ifranview (photo editing)

#4 Thunderbird (e-mail client <don't like the news reader>)

#5 Win Start Monitor and Console (start up editor and protector of
your registry). by: Mike Linn

#6 Open Office. (great substitute for the bloatware M$ Office)

#7 ZipFree 2000 (zip program)

#8 Clipomatic (another Mike Linn utiltiy to expand your clipboard)

#9 POP Peeper (great way to check your e-mail)

#10 Ad Aware (best bot getter in the world IMHO)

#11 Ace Money (great personal money manager)

#12 ABI-coder (encrypter. I believe only the payware version is now
available).

A few more, but these are the ones I use everyday. SEARCHING FOR: A
simple address book with good printing capabilities and good database
handling. I used to use Day-Timer (pay version) but it won't work with
XP very well....Love it's features though..........

Go any you'd like to share?

JR

Nice list - so nice I didn't snip it. But I believe it's 'Mike Lin',
FYI. As for a calendar, if you don't like FireFox's addon, what about
EccoPro? It's free and multi-featured.

Chak

 

[Ben A Gozar]

You might take a look at:

<http://www.freebyte.com/freeware/> he has a free address book you can set
up any way you like it to be, well it is definable at any rate.

 

[Ben A Gozar]

I made this list and descriptions for a class, but it would be useful
here too.

~~~~~

Text editor - For working with Text only files, a notepad replacement:
EditPad Lite or Notetab Lite

http://www.editpadpro.com/

http://www.notetab.com/


Text or HTML file comparison.

Sometimes you have myfile1, and myfile2, and you do not know what
differences are as you created them a long time ago. This program does a
good job of finding and showing you those differences.

http://www.prestosoft.com/ps.asp?page=edp_examdiff


File manager - Window's MyComputer and Explorer are okay, but they
aren't great. Powerdesk leaves them in the dust if for no other reason
than you can have a dual directory display.

http://www.v-com.com/product/PowerDesk_Free_Trial.html


File Privacy - For encrypting files so it is very difficult for anyone
to read them without the password:

Blowfish Advanced CS by Markus Hahn

http://bfacs.sourceforge.net/

Directory or CD encryption - Same thing only this encrypts a whole
directory or cd.

E4M - Encryption for the Masses

http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/e4m202a.zip



Spyware, Malware stopper and removal, virus protection

Spyware Stopper and removal - SpywareBlaster, Ad-Aware SE Personal
Edition for stopping and finding spyware and malware. For stopping
tracking cookies, most popups, and browser hijacking: Winpatrol and
Proxomitron with JD's filters

SpywareBlaster - Stops spyware before it makes your computer home.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Ad-Aware - Finds and eliminates most spyware

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

WinPatrol - Barks when malicious software attempts to make a change to
your system. Unless you know you want to change something, always tell
the program: 'No' do not allow this change.

http://www.winpatrol.com/

Google Tool bar is the easiest popup blocker you can use although not as
good as Proxomitron.

http://toolbar.google.com/googlebar.html

Proxomitron - Very effective popup stopper for your web browser.
Proxomitron is really a Proxy Server. A proxy server acts as a buffer
between your web browser and the Internet.

http://www.proxomitron.info/index.html

JD's filters for Proxomitron - This is an up to date filter package for
Proxomitron

http://www.jd5000.net/index.php

Grisoft AVG Anti Virus - Not a replacement for a bought and paid for
virus checker but if you can not afford one, this is as good as it gets
for free.

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1



Music

Winamp Version 2.91 plays your MP3's or music CD's. Newer versions are
out there on the winamp home page, but they are bloated and slower in my
opinion. Make sure you turn off the "check for updates" switch. There
are some good winamp plug ins if you are willing to search for them.

http://www.oldversion.com/ Look for Winamp, version 2.91


Billy is a simpler easy to use music player which also is one of the
smallest out there.

http://www.sheepfriends.com/


CDex, Turn your CD's into MP3's

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

Tag Scanner, MP3 Song renaming program

http://xdev.narod.ru/index_e.htm

Catfish, A great program to generate a printable listing of a directory,
cd, or hard drive

http://www.equi4.com/catfish.html



PIM, notes manager

Treepad lite, a program that stores random information in a hierarchical
or tree like format. The Treepad Business version is worth the upgrade
if you like this program, it has encryption, calendar, and will
catalogue your cd's.

http://www.treepad.com/


Keynote is the same type of program but it uses Rich Text (like Windows
Word Pad)

http://www.tranglos.com/ - Click on the freeware link

Golden Section Notes works well as a diary program, but the search
functions are not as strong as the other programs.

http://www.tgslabs.com/eng/gsnotes/


Office Substitute, huge 68 megabytes, don't bother trying to lownload
unless you have a DSL or Cable internet connection

http://www.openoffice.org/



Web Browser - This is my personal favorite, but use the one you like
best. I like the ease of use and security of this browser.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/



News Group reader for participation in Usenet newsgroups, Newsguy is
currently the best bang for the buck if your ISP does not offer one.

You can find a link to XNews here, a very good straight forward news
reader,

http://xnews.newsguy.com/

Xananews is a pretty slick newsreader that sort of a take off on Agent,
one of the original and popular news readers that is showing its age and
needs an update to compete with the newer news readers.

http://www.wilsonc.demon.co.uk/d9xananews.htm



Graphics - I do not do much with graphics except look at family pictures
and jokes. This program is Irfanview and it displays almost any graphic
you can download plus convert a picture to almost any other format. You
can also download plugins for Irfanview, but unless you are an
experienced user I do not recommend you download and try to use them.

http://www.irfanview.com

MWSnap is a great screen capture program that allows you to capture the
active window or the whole screen!

http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html



Email

Microsoft Outlook which comes with every flavor of Windows is a great
email program with a major problem. Every email virus written is written
for Outlook and Explorer. I recommend you do not use Outlook if virus
infection is a major concern. Also steer clear of any email program that
uses HTML as this is the vehicle of choice for email virus writers.

Foxmail is a very good simple freeware email program

http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english.htm

Pegasus mail is a little dated by todays standards, buta very powerful
multiuser email package for family use where each user has their own
account. I used Pegasus for a long time.

http://www.pmail.com/index.htm

Thunderbird email is getting great reviews. It appears to be a slimmed
down version of Outlook

http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/


Google mail....

Google mail is getting good reviews, but with a few caveats, Google isa
the internet archive center. Everything posted to usenet is archived
unless you specifically ask for your message to be deleted. It may be
the same with their email service. The second problem is you have to be
invited to get an account. Those folks that I know that that use Google
email do like it.

Yahoo email....

I have been using it for years with no problem.

Email cleaners.....

You can download or buy many email cleaners but a plain simple text
editor like Editpad does just fine at cleaning up your email. As an
example, copy your email and paste it into Editpad. Have Editpad do a
search and replace on > with nothing in the replace field. Copy your
email from Editpad and paste it in the body of your new email and you
are set to go!


Converting units of measure

Convert will convert almost any unit to any other, ie, inches to
centimeter, degrees frm f to c, almost any other conversion you may need
to do. This program siffers from the rest as it is donation ware. The
author would like you to send some amount of money of you find the
program useful.

http://www.joshmadison.com/software/convert/

For those that know what RPN is.... A great little RPN calculator,
requires a hello email for registration.

http://www.tordivel.no/xcalc/

I like Calculator.net better, but it needs Microsoft Net (huge program
and painful to download) to use. This program is donationware also.

http://www.speech.kth.se/calculator/index.htm



Checkbook manager - Nothing flashy

http://www.moor-software.com/



File Sharing - I shudder to mention this program as this type of program
gets more people in trouble with virus' and other problems than anything
off a college campus. Use at your own risk.

http://www.winmx.com/

 

[Josh Randall]

Avant or Avast!

Right you are. It's Avast. Plus a few *won't* work in Linux. Was in a hurry!
Sorry.

 

[Mountain Mike]

I made this list and descriptions for a class, but it would be useful
here too.

Thanks, Ben! I got your idea for XanaNews from your list. Once I learn
all it's tricks, it's my newsreader of choice. WOW!

 

[Frank Steinmetzger]

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 19:06:20 GMT, Josh Randall:

#3 Ifranview (photo editing)

But Crap for viewing.

#4 Thunderbird (e-mail client <don't like the news reader>)

Ditto, a very good and *free* reader is Dialog
http://www.40tude.com/dialog

#7 ZipFree 2000 (zip program)

whenever I can I avoid zip for the benefit of WinRar as it is far
better and if I have to, I can zip with it as well. Also, it's free
(shareware), the only nag comes when you open an archive, but not when
you use context menu operations.
http://www.rarlab.com/


Things I use:

MediaPlayerClassic - the best player I know according to filesize and
usability. Only in DVD menus it seems to have a problem with buttons.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

AveDesk - a program to display so called desklets and docklets;
widgets shown on the desktop or always on top that can show any
information about your computer. Deeply configurable and free.
http://www.dockex.com

GnuPG - make your emails secure with this incarnation of PGP software.
Thanks to enigmail (http://enigmail.mozdev.org/) it is easlily
integrated into Thunderbird.
http://www.gnupg.org

DLUL Meter - shows a history graph of network traffic.
http://www.utilkit.com

On http://www.sysinternals.com you can find many free goodies like TCP
View (shows all network connections), Filemon (monitors file accesses)
and Regmon (the same for the registry).

Restauration can restore deleted files. It is a very small program
that runs even from floppy disks and can handle NTFS.
http://aumha.org/a/recover.php (download link at the bottom)

Scanner - shows where your disk space is used up in a circle diagram.
http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/

Clocx shows an analog clock on your screen as an alternative to that
boring windows clock in the tray.
http://www.clocx.cz

Ok, these are all Freeware tools I regularly use. I believe there are
even more, but I don't have my computer here to check *g*

 

[Doc]

whenever I can I avoid zip for the benefit of WinRar as it is far
better and if I have to, I can zip with it as well. Also, it's free
(shareware), the only nag comes when you open an archive, but not when
you use context menu operations.

So that is your definition of FREE ??

Some dude (and/or dudesses) work their collective butts off and produce
something as wonderful as WinRAR - they give you the opportunity to try
it for a generous 4 weeks to see if it suits yours needs, and then ask
that you purchase it if you wanna keep using it. And you call it FREE ?

Wish I am at the pearly gates when you arrive.

 

[Mandy Abbett]

whenever I can I avoid zip for the benefit of WinRar as it is far
better and if I have to, I can zip with it as well. Also, it's free
(shareware), the only nag comes when you open an archive, but not when
you use context menu operations.

OK, its NOT free, but obviously you don't wanna pay for WINRAR.

Arms too short to reach your wallet ??

May the fleas from a thousand camels infest your scrotum, and may your
arms stay so short that you cannot scratch !

Good luck with the rest of your journey thru life ..... may others rip
you off as you rip them off !

 

[Frank Steinmetzger]

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 11:21:56 GMT, Mandy Abbett:

Arms too short to reach your wallet ??

May the fleas from a thousand camels infest your scrotum, and may your
arms stay so short that you cannot scratch !

Good luck with the rest of your journey thru life ..... may others rip
you off as you rip them off !

OK I'm sorry to have upset you, I assumed it was free for private use
as it is with other programs. I admit I obviously didn't read that
popup thoroughly enough *duckandhide*.
I developed a natural reflex to escape-away all kinds of popups and I
almost never use that details view in the first place, because the
context options are simply faster.
And the PocketPC version that I use occasionally _is_ free.

And Mandy, there's no need for insults, please.
Not far too long ago I was still a pupil, and I used to belong to this
95% of teens who used friends' resources because it was out of reach
otherwise. But now as a student with a bit of income, things and
mentalities are subject to change. Hello conscience, nice to meet you.

 

[Vic Dura]

Good luck with the rest of your journey thru life ..... may others rip
you off as you rip them off !

Well said and worth repeating.

 

[Mike Bourke]

Go[t] any you'd like to share?

ZoneAlarm - Firewall

Rambooster - Memory Manager

K9 - AntiSpam program

Simplecheck - POP3 Mail preview

Yankee Clipper - Clipboard extender

Extended Character Map - used every 2nd day at least

Saver - Autosaves work in progress at regular intervals, works with any
program that supports the Cntrl-S shortcut

Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D - Anti-spyware

AVG - Antivirus

XL-Plot - Simple spreadsheet/graphing program (again, at least every second
day)

Juke - digital jukebox

Audioactive - MP3 player

WhopSee - CD Player

Dupeless - Duplicate File finder

WebTime - updates system clock

Fontloader - lets me add special fonts for specific projects on the fly
without permanently installing them

Yahoo Messenger - IRC Client

Zipfix - repairs damaged Zip files - used regularly but not daily

+ a number of small shell enhancements and at least another 150 apps that
are used once a week or less.

Mike Bourke

 

[Mark Carter]

Go any you'd like to share?

FreeCommander - dual-paned file manager (best of the bunch, IMO)

XEmacs - world's most advanced file editor that can do just about
anything (you can even play ascii space invaders on it)

 

[Brook Humphrey]

whenever I can I avoid zip for the benefit of WinRar as it is far
better and if I have to, I can zip with it as well. Also, it's free
(shareware), the only nag comes when you open an archive, but not when
you use context menu operations.
http://www.rarlab.com/

Of course you must have slipped up here. You must have meant 7-zip or maybe
my favorite zip utility that includes 7-zip support which is izarc.

Izarc works very well and also handles iso images in the latest betas.

 

[MsOsWin]

But Crap for viewing.

i use it for scans. i hate that you can't do some 'shell' edits while in fodler view. but i like
that thumbnail dispaly-resize is quick.

 

[MsOsWin]

freeware/donateware used often:
firefox, esp for rss. or mozilla (soon to be named 'seamonkey')
with some extensions
cobian backup
xnews 'test' ver
editpadlite
xplorer2lite
irfanview
zonealarm free
YPops
Proxomitron
spybotS&D
Ad-Aware

less often:
tugzip sometimes
maxthon (tryout period)
RegAlyzer
AgentRansack
7z (7zip ? sourceforge, i think)
metapad (pastes url and title when drag-to)
Adobe Reader .x (6 loads slower, and removing some of 5's files speeds acrobat5
loading)
AM-DeadLink
HijackThis (after new ver of HijackThis and after install any new app)

not often:
freedownloadmanager
htmlbeauty
RegSeeker
iespell
Winamp (can't find the wheat among the chaff)

include-ware or free-optionware:
nero 5.x
ie
notepad
WordPad (rarely)
mbsa
wmp (rare use)



vaguely freeware, handmedownware
FavOrg

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 19:06:20 GMT, Josh Randall:

moz mail, since OE broke. with k9 for pop, spamihilator for imap (not often)

Ditto, a very good and *free* reader is Dialog
http://www.40tude.com/dialog

xnews

 

[MsOsWin]

I made this list and descriptions for a class, but it would be useful
here too.

very appropriate recycling

~~~~~

Office Substitute, huge 68 megabytes, don't bother trying to lownload
unless you have a DSL or Cable internet connection

http://www.openoffice.org/

I tried whatever ver was current in late 2004, but gave up after a while. I don't recall the
download was impossibly large. I didn't get the java, because after digging around for
info (for hours?) java wasn't needed.

Proxomitron - Very effective popup stopper for your web browser.
Proxomitron is really a Proxy Server. A proxy server acts as a buffer
between your web browser and the Internet.

http://www.proxomitron.info/index.html

proxo looks odd, but if 'newbie' follows the install instructoins in html help pages, install
takes a little time, and is not confusing.

JD's filters for Proxomitron - This is an up to date filter package for
Proxomitron

http://www.jd5000.net/index.php

I should look at those again.

Web Browser - This is my personal favorite, but use the one you like
best. I like the ease of use and security of this browser.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

be sure to turn off java and change a few other things in options.

Most-necessary extensions:
GoogleBar. Change some of the options.
Your choice from among many Tab extensions.
Sage rss/livebookmarks

I recommend creating new disposable test profiles constantly, then after an extension
works well *for you*, install it on your "real" profile.


bookmark the osu mirror site to get the most recent updates.



KMeleon seems good, but crashed often on both WinME and WinXP. The fast CCF/
&ME versions are too cut-down and therefore have annoying lack of usability after using
Ff/Moz with my favorite extensions.

IE6 suffers the same annoying lack of features after using Ff/Moz.

Graphics - I do not do much with graphics except look at family pictures
and jokes. This program is Irfanview and it displays almost any graphic
you can download plus convert a picture to almost any other format. You
can also download plugins for Irfanview, but unless you are an
experienced user I do not recommend you download and try to use them.

http://www.irfanview.com

the lossless JPG edits require a plugin, IIRC.
Read the plugin readme text file to select plugins. This tells you which plugin files to
download (zip, I think). Then, from your zip program's window, drag the plugins you
need to IrfanView's plugin folder.
Start IrfanView and use

Resizing and color reducing work ok, after some disposable experimenting.

Some default actions are not obvious until later. Learn to workaround those. Something
about IrfanView not remembering last used folders, or not offering current folder is not
right, IMO

Email

Pegasus mail is a little dated by todays standards, buta very powerful
multiuser email package for family use where each user has their own
account. I used Pegasus for a long time.

http://www.pmail.com/index.htm

2004: info on this looked good. but it was a puzzle to setup. or maybe I was unlucky in
hitting on what was necessary. after a couple times fiddlings got me nowhere, I
uninstalled.

Thunderbird email is getting great reviews. It appears to be a slimmed
down version of Outlook

http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

Some menu operations are inconvenient, but it's pretty good for mail, IMO

RSS is very awkward. I found it necessary to edit one of the .js or .rdf or whatever files
to fix my first experiments with tbird's Rss.

Not quite good enough for nntp

Yahoo email....

with POP grabber (ypops) and k9

I have been using it for years with no problem.

Email cleaners.....

You can download or buy many email cleaners but a plain simple text
editor like Editpad does just fine at cleaning up your email. As an
example, copy your email and paste it into Editpad. Have Editpad do a
search and replace on > with nothing in the replace field. Copy your
email from Editpad and paste it in the body of your new email and you
are set to go!

I use wordprocessor macros (buttons in toolbar) for that type operation.

but wrangling editpadlite's search&replace is good when I dont want to deal wiht
formatting. (editpad gives true WYSIWYG!)
and the semi-auto modes of editpad lite's search&replace is complex, but soon I got the
hang of it. very nice.

I wish it offered way to restrict search/replace to "selected text". Usually I copy the
block to a new file, S&R, then paste block back into originating file.

 

[REM]

<[email protected]> wrote:

[cleaning email]

I use wordprocessor macros (buttons in toolbar) for that type operation.

but wrangling editpadlite's search&replace is good when I dont want to deal wiht
formatting. (editpad gives true WYSIWYG!)
and the semi-auto modes of editpad lite's search&replace is complex, but soon I got the
hang of it. very nice.

I wish it offered way to restrict search/replace to "selected text". Usually I copy the
block to a new file, S&R, then paste block back into originating file.

Try PsPad! Very nice, very powerful, and it does almost anything that
you might need to do.

http://www.pspad.com/

You just cannot have too many good editors in your arsenal.

I also suggest Atlantis Nova for RTF:

http://www.rssol.com/

There is the free Atlantis and another not free editor, select
Atlantis for another really nice editor.

 

[J44xm]

["Frank Steinmetzger"; Thu, 02 Jun 2005 10:20:47 GMT]

But Crap for viewing.

How is IrfanView insufficient in this use?