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Mel
Last updated March 1, 2005, 12 items updated, 2 additions, 2 deletions.
Currently there are actually 60 utilities listed but this report will
still be called now and forever "The Best-ever 46 Freeware Utilities."
Best Free Web Browser
Internet Explorer is a good browser but it has become such a target for
malicious exploits that it is now a major security risk. Quite
separately, the browser itself is now looking dated with most
alternative products offering tabbed browsing and other productivity
enhancements. There are several excellent alternatives but Mozilla
FireFox is the stand-out pick. It's much safer than Internet Explorer,
so safe in fact that many users have reported no spyware infections
since they started using the product. It's also browses faster than
Internet Explorer and since the release of version 1.0, it's stable and
reliable as well. It loads a little slower than IE but once running, it
zips along at lightning speed. With tabbed browsing and more free
extensions than you could ever want, it offers a major upgrade in your
browsing experience. Unlike IE, it's also standards compliant. FireFox
is now my everyday browser though occasionally I have to fire up IE to
browse a site designed around IE's non standard features. (4.7MB)
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
http://www.techsupportalert.com/firefox.htm <= Free FireFox migration
guide
Best Free Anti-Virus Software
There are two equal recommendations in this category. First there is AVG
Antivirus 7.0 Free Edition. This product has been continuously refined
since it was first released in 1991 and now offers very impressive
protection capabilities. Additionally, it's relatively small, light on
resources, has regular automatic updates and handles email scanning.
There is a free and a pro version, the only difference being that the
free version has a few non-critical features disabled and has no direct
technical support. Even so, it's an impressive package and offers the
financially challenged a real alternative to the major anti-virus
suites. Equally impressive is the free Avast! scanner though its funky
media player style interface is not to everyone's taste. Avast! also
required periodic re-registration while AVG does does not. (5MB)
http://www.grisoft.com
http://www.avast.com
Best Free Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover Updated March 1, 2005
I used to recommend SpyBot Search and Destroy but I'm afraid its
detection rate has fallen off recently. I now recommend Microsoft's
Antispyware program which is currently available as a free beta to users
of Windows 2000 and later. It' s based on the Giant Antispyware product
that Microsoft purchased late in 2004 and has impressive detection. It
also has excellent real time protection against the current plague of
browser hijackers, auto-dialers and other surreptitiously downloaded
scumware products. Microsoft have announced that the product will remain
free even when out of beta so it's a good long term choice. My second
selection in this category is Ad-aware SE. It's free too and works with
all versions of Windows though the free version lacks the active
protection offered by Giant. However you can add active protection by
using other free products (see below) I use both Giant and Ad-aware as
they tend to find slightly different things. If possible, I suggest you
use both as well.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx (
6.4MB) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ (1.7MB)
Best Free Browser Protection Utility Updated March 1, 2005
There's a scumware plague at the moment. All it takes is a visit to a
pushy web site or a loaded shareware install and next minute your
Internet Explorer homepage has been changed, your default search setting
altered, unwanted ads pop up on your screen and worse. SpywareBlaster
is not a scanner like Ad-Aware rather a stand-alone inoculation program
that prevents the initial infection. It provides active protection for
Internet Explorer users against thousands of malevolent products that
use ActiveX based exploits and offers defenses against unwanted cookies
as well. A companion program to SpywareBlaster is SpywareGuard. It is a
protective program that checks programs for malware signatures before
they are executed and checks program behavior as well. Both products are
well executed, regularly updated and work well with each other. If you
are using Microsoft Antispyware, Ad-aware Pro or other anti-spyware
utility with active protection you probably don't need these products.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html (2.2MB)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html (1.96MB)
Best Free Firewall
Two things need to be said about firewalls. First, the number and
quality of free products is remarkable. Second, no other single product
category seems to cause as much angst to average users in their
installation and day-day-use. That's why my choice for "best" goes to
Kerio Personal Firewall, the product that seems to cause the fewest
problems for users. Don't get me wrong, it is also an excellent firewall
.. More adventurous users and the technically inclined may however wish
to consider ZoneAlarm and Sygate. The most technically advanced
firewall of all is possibly the latest Tiny version. However it is so
fiendishly difficult to install and setup that I can only recommend it
to network specialists and masochists. Note: The free and paid versions
of Kerio are the same. If you don't buy the product some advanced
features are automatically turned off after 30 days.
http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html (7.3MB)
Best Free Trojan Scanner/Trojan Remover Updated March 1, 2005
Ewido is the best of a new crop of anti-Trojan programs. On my recent
tests over at www.anti-trojan-software-reviews.com it emerged as was one
of the few products that could reliably detect polymorphic and process
injecting Trojans that were totally missed by anti-virus products like
Norton and AVG. No, it's not as effective as TDS-3 or Trojan Hunter but
these are shareware products. As ever, you get what you pay for. In
particular the free version of Ewido doesn’t have a memory monitor but
the on-demand scanner is however, excellent. The free version download
is actually the same as the paid version but after 14 days the memory
monitor becomes non-functional. I recommend that all average PC users
who don't have an anti-trojan scanner download the product and scan
their PCs weekly. I suspect you may be surprised at what you will find.
High risk PC users such as P2P file sharers and frequenters of hack
sites, should however consider the industrial strength protection of
TDS-3 or Trojan Hunter both of which offer the enhanced protection they
need.
http://www.ewido.net/en/ (2.2MB)
http://www.anti-trojan-software-reviews.com/review-ewido.htm
Best Free Intrusion Prevention and Detection Utility for Home Use
These days all users face a real risk of malicious programs secretly
installing themselves on your computer. Anti-virus and anti-spyware
products dramatically reduce the chance of infection but you can enhance
your protection further by installing an additional layer of defense
with an intrusion detection program. For advanced users Prevx is a stand
out recommendation. It's so good I made it my Free Product of the Year
for 2004. However it's talkative nature and sometimes cryptic messages
make it only suitable for experienced users. For other users (but not
beginners) I recommend WinPatrol. Like Prevx it provides a vital "last
ditch" defense layer by telling you when a product is trying to change
any of the critical settings on your PC such as the registry and
auto-start areas. WinPatrol simply throws up a dialog asking whether you
want to allow the change or not. Of course being warned is useless
unless you have some idea how to respond to the warning. That's why
neither Prevx nor WinPatrol is suited to inexperienced users.
http://www.prevx.com/prevxhome.asp (7.5MB)
http://www.winpatrol.com/ (880KB)
http://www.techsupportalert.com/intrusion-detection.htm <= Brief survey
of IDS software
Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service Updated March 1, 2005
There are lots of reasons folks have for wanting to surf anonymously,
ranging from simple paranoia to possibly being murdered by a malevolent
foreign government. Whatever the reasons, commercial services that offer
anonymity are doing real well. However one of the best services JAP, is
totally free. In fact JAP is perhaps a little too good. That's why the
German Police insisted in 2004 that a backdoor be put into the product
to allow interception of child pornographers. This was done but
subsequently removed as a result of court action by JAP. An alternative
to JAP is another system called Tor. However the US Navy origin of Tor
gives rise to the suspicion that this system may indeed have a permanent
backdoor. Whatever, both JAP and Tor offer a level of secrecy that is
better than many commercial systems. However expect your surfing to slow
down as you'll be relayed through a chain of servers. You'll also need
to change your browser settings to work through a proxy.
http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html
http://tor.eff.org/
Best Free Software Suite
The Open CD site offers for free a wonderful collection of just about
every application software product you need to run a PC. Many of these
substitute admirably for expensive commercial products. There is Abi
Word as an alternative for MS Word, OpenOffice for MS Office XP,
ThunderBird for Outlook, The Gimp for Adobe Photoshop, 7-zip for WinZIP
are many more. If you then add to this collection some of the other
utilities from my "46 Best-ever Utilities" collection you will have all
the software you'll ever need without spending a cent. Note: All of the
Open CD utilities can be downloaded for free as a CD ISO image. If you
have a slow connection you can purchase the CD for a very modest cost.
http://theopencd.sunsite.dk/programs/
Best Free File Manager
Windows Explorer is fine for simple file management activities but when
you have some serious work to do, you need a two pane file manager. I
use Directory Opus which is excellent but costs $59. Recently I
discovered xplorer². It offers most of the functionality of Directory
Opus and is totally free. As a bonus, its user interface is very similar
to Windows Explorer, so most users will find this tool easy to learn and
use.(575KB)
http://www.netez.com/xplorer2/x2lite.htm
Best Free Email Client Updated March 1, 2005
Thunderbird, the free open source POP and IMAP email client, has been
finally released after a long period of gestation. It was developed by
Mozilla.org, the same folks who brought you FireFox. Feature-wise it
sits somewhere between Outlook Express and Outlook which means that it
offers an upgrade to Express users and a downgrade to those who use the
more advanced PIM features of Outlook. All Outlook Express users should
seriously consider switching. You’ll be rewarded with a more advanced
product including built- in spam filtering, built-in RSS reader, better
security, message color coding, fast email search and the ability to
view your mail in conversational threads. On top of that, the product is
more secure than OE and, unlike the latter, is still being actively
developed. The transition is made easier by the fact that Thunderbird
looks and works similar to OE. Tools within Thunderbird also allow you
to easily import OE account settings and stored email. Outlook users who
aren’t reliant on calendaring, Microsoft Exchange or Outlook plug-ins
should also consider switching. If you switch to Thunderbird, you should
also consider using the free Copernic Desktop Search program, the latest
version of which now indexes Thunderbird email files.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird
http://www.nidelven-it.no/articles/introduction_to_thunderbird
Best Free WebMail Accessory Updated March 1, 2005
Two suggestions: the first is a nifty free product called YPOPs!
(formerly YahooPops!) that allows you to collect your Yahoo webmail from
within your POP email client such as Outlook, Thunderbird or Eudora. I
use it on multiple Yahoo accounts and it works wonderfully. The second
suggestion is an Open Source utility called MrPostman. It's a much more
flexible product than YPOPs! and will download HotMail, Lycos, Yahoo and
several other webmail services into your POP email client. It can also
give you access to email accounts on MS Exchange 5.5. If you only use
Yahoo webmail, go with YPOPs! as MrPostman is a more complex program and
may need a bit of fiddling to work correctly. You'll find a couple of
links below that will help you. Note that MrPostman requires the Java
Runtime Environment to be installed on your PC.
http://yahoopops.sourceforge.net/ (1.3MB)
http://mrpostman.sourceforge.net/ (1.5MB)
http://2mod2.com/mohot/ <= Installing Mr Postman
http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=68124 <= MrPostman forum
Best Free Outlook Add-in (1)
I hate opening HTML email. Despite multiple layers of protection I just
know that one day some cunning new exploit is going to get me. That's
why I'm so enthusiastic about PocketKnife Peek, a small free Outlook
2002 add-in that allows you to preview your HTML email as text.
http://www.xintercept.com/pkpeek.htm
Best Free Outlook Add-in (2)
RealAccount is a freeware add-in for MS Outlook 2002 and later that
allows you to designate a default email account and signature for any
Outlook Folder. The program is a late beta but has proved totally stable
on my Windows XP Pro PC. Yet another free utility that provides
functionality that should have been included in the original product.
(338K)
http://www.realpopup.it/realaccount/
Best Free Outlook Express Backup
This free utility allows you to do a full or selective backup of OE's
critical files including mail folders, newsgroups, address book and
identity settings. Simple, effective ... neat. (2.1MB)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
Best Free Spam Filter for the Average User
Mailwasher is for most folk, the easiest way of free option for dealing
with Spam. It's an email preview utility that allows you to check your
email on your mail server before you download it to your PC. The
advantage of this approach is that you can kill unwanted messages
including spam, viruses and large attachments before they get anywhere
near your computer. Mailwasher automatically flags for you any messages
containing viruses and possible spam which makes for quick and easy
identification though you still need to check this manually to ensure
you agree with its classification. The current version of Mailwasher is
shareware and if you can afford $37 then buy it. However the last free
version of Mailwasher before it went commercial is still floating around
the web. It lacks some of the advanced spam detection features of the
latest version but is still very effective. You can get it using the
second link below. Alternatively, try XTerminator which provides some of
the same features of Mailwasher and is totally free.
http://www.mailwasher.net ( 3.05MB) <= commercial version
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page2.html#Mailwasher (1.57MB)
http://www.artplus.hr/adapps/eng/xterminator.htm (1.87MB)
***
Best Free Spam Filter for Experienced Users
When it comes to effectiveness, POPFile beats the pants off most other
spam filters I've tried. But this effectiveness takes a little time to
develop. POPFile is a statistical filter so it has to be trained to
recognize your spam from your normal mail. It takes a week or so before
it starts becoming accurate and best results may take a month or more.
POPFile works as a proxy mail server so that means that it can be used
with any POP email client. Setup is reasonably straightforward for
experienced users but beginners should stick with Mailwasher. Outlook
users should check out SpamBayes, another open source statistical filter
that offers an Outlook plug-in that makes it more more convenient to
use.
http://popfile.sourceforge.net/old_index.html (4.3MB)
http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/ (3.6MB)
Best Free Popup Stopper
The need for popup stopper utilities has fallen away in recent months as
many browsers such as FireFox now have this function built in. If you
need a separate popup stopper and have good PC skills I suggest you try
The Proxomitron.. It operates by filtering and transforming all your Web
pages on the fly. As a result you can not only stop pop-ups but
pop-unders, ads, flash animations, status bar scrollers and just about
anything else. Besides, next time you are asked what pop-up stopper you
use, you can answer; "why, I use The Proxomitron" and how cool is that.
The first link below is to version 4.5, the last and final version of
this superb utility. The following two links offer useful setup and
usage tips. Note: For Novice PC users I suggest you try the Google
toolbar rather than The Proxomitron. It's free as well and has an
excellent popup filter built in. It's nowhere near as flexible as as The
Proxomitron, but it requires no setup. As a bonus it also makes Google
searches easier.
http://computercops.biz/files/ProxN45.exe
http://accs-net.com/smallfish/prox.htm
http://www.sankey.ws/proxomitron.html
http://toolbar.google.com/
Best Free Desktop Search Utility Updated March 1, 2005
In early 2004 there were no contenders for this title. Today we have a
wealth of choices. In a close race I would have to say the Free Desktop
Search from Yahoo comes out in front. It's powered by the well
established X1 local search engine and can index the contents of 200
different file types including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, Outlook,
Outlook Express, HTML, text, ZIP and Adobe PhotoShop. At the moment it
will only handle email files from Outlook and Outlook Express and
although it will index html files, it can't index your web browsing
history. In effect, it offers most of the benefits of the full $75 X1
search product for zip. Unfortunately though, to run it you'll need
Windows 2000 or later. If you are stuck with earlier version of Windows
then try the free Copernic Desktop Search. It offers many of the same
features as the Yahoo product though the presentation of search results
is not quite as elegant. On the positive side, the latest version of
Copernic will index Thunderbird email files while Yahoo will not.
http://desktop.yahoo.com (7.9MB)
http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/download.html (2.3MB)
Best Free Notepad Replacement
There are lots of text editors and Notepad replacements. Some of these
aspire to be programming editors while others try to be word processors.
What I love about EditPad is that, unlike the others, it concentrates on
simply being a better plain text editor and it succeeds brilliantly. It
has a Notepad like interface combined with tabbed document windows and
the ability to open as many documents as you like with no file size
limitations. I use it every day for tasks as diverse as writing Support
Alert Newsletter to examining my web log files. Some of the latter can
be up to 100MB, yet EditPad handles these huge files with ease.
(849KB).
http://www.editpadlite.com/editpadlite.html
The Best File Archiver/Zip Utility New March 1, 2005
Users are spoiled with choice in this category with QuickZip, ICEOWS,
IZArc, TUGZip, ZipGenius and 7-Zip all worthy contenders for the title.
7-Zip v4.15 is to be commended for it's solid engineering; It was the
only product in this group that could unpack a multi-part RAR volume
embedded in a ZIP archive and the only product to give a meaningful
error message when an attempt was made to unpack a 256bit encrypted
WinZip archive. However it's lack of drop and drag from an archive is a
real minus as is the fact that it was the only product that required
configuring after installation. It also supports only 12 formats - it
can't for example read ACE archives. ZipGenius v 5.51 is the easiest to
use and has the most professional looking interface but was the slowest
to run. ICEOWS v4.2 (the former ArjFolder) opens all archives in an
Explorer Window rather than its own control panel, a feature some might
find comforting but I found limiting. TUGZip v 3.2 is a terrific product
marred by the lack of captions on its control panel icons - I got
confused every time I used it. QuickZip 4.5 impressed me greatly with
its features. It was also the only product that displayed different
icons for different archives which proved to be a surprisingly useful
feature. QuickZip was however, just a little slow to run and supports
fewer archive types than some of the other products - it's another
product that can't read the relatively common ACE format. That leaves
IZArc v 3.5; It's relatively fast, easy to use, has full drop and drag
support, can read nearly 50 archive types including media formats like
ISO, BIN and IMG and can write (and convert) to 12 archive types. The
only downside is that it uses one icon to represent all archive types
and a quite ugly icon too. That aside, it is a terrific product and gets
my hearty recommendation. Note: If you already use WinZip you'll find
IZArc an excellent companion product. It can read just about all the
archive formats WinZip can't, including RAR. Make sure though, that
after installing IZArc, you don't let it change your WinZip file type
associations. Just let IZArc handle file types not covered by WinZip.
Freeware, Windows 9x and later, 3.1MB
http://www.izsoft.dir.bg/izarc.htm
Best Free Hotkey Utility
Hotkeycontrol XP is a free utility that allows you to define your own
hotkeys so that a single key press can launch an application, insert
commonly used text, change your volume, or just about anything else.
Hotkeycontrol works with all versions of Windows from 98 onwards, though
some features will only work with Win2K or XP. (0.91KB)
http://www.digital-miner.com/hkcontrol.html
Best Free Registry Cleaner
To keep the registries on my PCs in top running order I use Fix-It
utilities This is a commercial product but I must admit that Toni
Helenius' Easy Cleaner performs almost as well and is totally free. As a
bonus, it will also detect duplicate files and help you clean up temp
files to make more disk space. Remember though, as with every Registry
cleaner, to back up your Windows Registry before use. (2.64MB)
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
Best Free BitTorrent Client
It's amazing how quickly BitTorrent has become one of the major download
formats. With good reason, too: it's fast, equitable and efficient. If
you haven't yet installed a BitTorrent client on your PC, you should as
there are some great free clients available. I recommend the Open Source
program Azureus. It's beautifully implemented, well supported and, being
Java based, is available for multiple platforms. Of course the Java code
will eat up your CPU cycles so you need a reasonably fast PC. Those with
older machines should check out BitTornado. It's also cross platform and
is fast and highly configurable as well. Both products are adware and
spyware free.
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ (4.4MB)
http://bittornado.com/ (3.3MB
The Best Free FTP Client New March 1, 2005
I used WS_FTP Pro as my FTP client for years. What started out as simple
and effective product gradually with each new version became more
feature bloated and less effective for routine tasks. With the release
of Version 9 it was clear to me that the product had totally lost its
way so I started looking for an alternative. After trying seven
different FTP clients I decided that the best for me was the Open Source
utility FileZilla. It uses a simple layout based on a two pane interface
that looks a bit like the early versions of WS_FTP. But this simplicity
is deceptive, it is actually a quite powerful product There's a full
featured site manager, firewall and proxy support, SSL and Kerberos GSS
security, restart, drop and drag and a lot more. The only significant
feature that's missing is site to site transfer but that's of no
importance to me. What is of importance is that FileZilla is fast,
totally reliable, secure and and very easy to use. There's also a free
FileZilla FTP server which I haven't used but I hear that it's just as
good as the client. (4.5MB)
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/
Best Free Bookmark Cleaner
AM-DeadLink scans your bookmark file for dead links or duplicate links.
When I tried it on my huge favorites file I discovered 17% of my links
were dead. I've now got a much leaner set of favorites and the comfort
of knowing that the links actually work. (546KB)
http://aignes.com/press/deadlink140.htm
Best Free Route Tracer
3D Traceroute graphically displays Internet route information. You can
use it for technical tasks such as diagnosing slow connections or for
general purpose snooping like determining the location and owner of a
web site or tracing spammers. (996KB)
http://www.d3tr.de/
Best Free Screen Capture Utility
I've used over half a dozen screen-capture utilities and none of them
has really satisfied. Until now. Gadwin screen capture does exactly
what I want in the way I want. Further, it avoids the trap of providing
lots of useless and confusing features. It's the little things that
count like making the hot key PrtSc so I don't have to remember it, and
automatically sequentially naming the output files for multiple screen
shots. Gadwin will stay on my PC permanently. (976KB)
http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/?prnscr
Best Free Search Toolbar
Search toolbars allow users to do web searches without having to go
first to the home page of a search engine. This really saves a lot of
time. In the last year search toolbars have become a hotly competed
product class and as result, users now have an excellent choice. The
"best" in terms of features is probably Yahoo's Toolbar whose features
include anti-spyware capabilities as well as popup blocking. It's for
Internet Explorer but they are currently offering a beta version for
FireFox. My only beef with the Yahoo product is that I prefer to use
Google for my web searches rather than Yahoo and that's why I use the
Google Toolbar which also offers popup blocking though no anti-spyware
features. Again it's only for IE though there is version for FireFox
available from the Mozilla extensions site. Some folks still like Dave’s
Quick Search Bar because it gives access to multiple search engines.
Another advantage is that it resides in your task bar rather than your
browser so it's easily accessible from any application. Other Dave's
features include a dictionary, thesaurus, calculator and a lot of
customizability.
http://toolbar.yahoo.com/ie (3MB)
http://www.dqsd.net/ (327KB)
http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/ (447KB)
Best Free Download Accelerator
For some time I've been recommending Star Downloader but the freeware
version has been effectively frozen at version 1.44 with future with
enhancements restricted to the shareware version. After trying half a
dozen other products, I've settled on "Free Downloader" as my new
selection. It's fast, stable and integrates well into both Internet
Explorer and FireFox. Furthermore, there is no embedded adware or nag
screen. After using it for a couple of weeks, I've decided that it's
actually better than Star Downloader. (1.31MB).
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm
Best Free Digital Image Editor Updated March 1, 2005
The Gimp is a graphics processing program similar in function to
Photoshop and PaintShop. The big difference is that it's free, the
others cost big bucks. But don't think free means limited. On the
contrary this product can read multiple formats, has filters, textures
and color effects to burn and can even handle layers. The latest
version, V2.2, is excellent and a huge improvement over its
predecessors. The interface is better, drop and drag now works between
most applications and there are many more previews. It's a big step
forward though it's fair to say the product is still less than intuitive
to use. Note you need the 6.9 MB GTK Runtime Environment 2.4.14 or later
installed (see second link below) before you install The Gimp. That's
just another complication in a complex install procedure that confounds
beginners and can even confuse experienced users. If The Gimp just
doesn't do it for you then do yourself a favor and check out Paint.net.
It's an amazingly sophisticated piece of work from computer science
students at Washington State University that's just about as powerful as
The Gimp but a lot easier to use and install. It is however only for
Windows 2000 and you'll need Microsoft's bulky .NET framework installed
on your PC.
http://www.gimp.org/windows/ (7.07MB)
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=71914&package_id=71649&release_id=235490
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/ (7.7MB)
Best Free Web Site Ripper
HTTrack is one impressive product: it's easy to use, has an excellent
user interface, offers every feature you could want, is blindingly fast
and free of any adware as well. If you like to download web sites so
that you can "browse them offline", this is the product to get. (
3.23MB)
http://www.httrack.com/
Best Free DLL Cleaner
Over time most PCs become cluttered up with the unwanted remainders of
long deleted programs. DLL Archive is a free utility that will scan your
PC for DLLs that are no longer referenced. You can then archive the
unwanted programs away or delete them entirely. Archived items can
easily be restored to their original location if any problems arise.
(227KB)
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/dllarch.htm
Best Free TCP Settings Tweaker
Whether you use a modem or broadband, you'll get a faster connection if
you tweak your connection's TCP parameters. Among the most important of
these is MaxMTU which, in simple terms, needs to be set to the largest
value possible without your data being broken up into smaller chunks
en-route. Most techies determine MaxMTU by trial and error pinging using
different packet sizes but it's a tedious procedure and definitely not
for beginners. TCPOptimizer from SpeedGuide.net is a free utility that
will do the job for you automatically. Furthermore, it will use this
value to advise you on your other TCP settings and then apply these
values at the press of the button. There are commercial programs that
will do much the same thing but TCPOptimizer does it just as well and is
totally free. The only minus is the lack of in-program help. However
you'll find a useful FAQ at the SpeedGuide site. (225KB)
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
http://www.speedguide.net/faq_in.php?category=100
Best Free Digital Photo Organizer and Editor
It’s rare for me to be utterly wowed by a product but this one certainly
did it. When you first run Picasa it offers to scan your whole hard
drive (or designated locations) for photos and videos. canning is
surprisingly quick and when finished you’ll have all your shots neatly
organized into folders on a time line basis. Now you can view you shots
one at a time, in slideshow or traversing the time line. The editing
features are limited compared to professional image editors yet they
provide you with every function amateur photographers could conceivably
need including one click red eye reduction. Similarly adding labels to
photos is a cinch while a simple but effective star rating system allows
you to flag favorite snaps. Individual folders can also be password
protected. Facilities are provided to import your images from your
camera in multiple formats including RAW. You can send photos to your
choice of web printing service, cut a CD, print to a local printer or
share with others via your own blog or instant messaging. Simply
sensational. Windows 98 or later, 300MHz Pentium with 128MB memory or
better, 3.2MB.
http://www.picasa.com/
Best Free File Cleaner
I've tried quite a few commercial products designed to clean unused,
temporary and unnecessary files off your hard disk but must say that the
free utility "Empty Temp Folders" ranks with the best. It takes a few
minutes to set up but after that, just press a button to recover many
megabytes of disk space. An excellent alternative is CCleaner. It's a
tad easier to use though not as effective in removing temporary files.
Both products may be used together for maximum cleaning. You may be
surprise how much disk space you will free up.
http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp (667KB)
http://www.ccleaner.com/ (403KB)
Best Free Resource Meter
This is cute. TinyResMeter is an itsy-bitsy system monitor. Unlike many
other monitors, it doesn't consume a lot of CPU utilization in order to
tell you your CPU utilization. In addition to CPU usage, you can
optionally monitor cache, RAM, page file and swap file usage, running
processes and threads, disk space utilization and a number of other
parameters as well.
Also built-in, is a screen grabber that saves the current screen to disk
when you press PrintScreen. How they fit all this into 96KB beats me. I
http://pesoft.fr.st/
Best Free Sticky Notes Utility
Some people hate these programs others swear they can't work effectively
without them. I used to be in the first category but with so many things
on my plate these days, I'm slowly being converted. The function that I
find really useful is the reminder that pops up at a designated time and
date. I use it for simple things like "put up the latest issue on the
web site." ATnotes is a neat implementation that features configurable
alarms, resizable windows, variable fonts and a host of other useful
features. The product is remarkably similar to the commercial sticky
notes utility called, TurboNotes. Is imitation the sincerest form of
flattery? Maybe not. (723KB)
http://atnotes.fr.st/
Best Free Secure Erase Utility
Eraser is a free, GNU license utility that will securely erase files,
folders or even whole disks from any Windows or DOS PC. Eraser
overwrites data area with selectable random data patterns and also wipes
data in the paging file, Internet cache, temporary files, Internet
cookies, unused disk space and a number of other places where data can
secretly lurk. It handles FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS partitions as well.
Erasing files with high security will always be a difficult and time
consuming task and can never offer absolute 100% safety. However Eraser
makes the task about as easy as it be, with a security level beyond most
conceivable requirements. An impressive package. (2.6MB)
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
Best Free Registry Editor
I've used the full version of Resplendent Registry Editor for years and
have never had any reason to look for an alternative. Recently a
subscriber asked me what was the best free registry editor and that made
me realize I've never looked at that particular product category. The
first product I checked out was Registrar Lite, the free version of
Resplendent Registry Editor and I'd have to say it's an impressive
freebie. To start with, it works totally reliably - an essential feature
for any registry editor. On top of that, the user interface is simple,
the functionality excellent and, perhaps most importantly, it has a
really fast search. I did, however, miss a "search and delete" option -
that's unfortunately only available on the full product. That said, it
leaves Regedit for dead. If you know a better free registry editor, drop
me an email. ( 2.0MB).
http://www.resplendence.com/reglite
Best Free Process Viewer
PrcView has long been my personal choice but Process Explorer has pushed
it aside. The reason? A better display setup coupled with more features
and even more information. Process Explorer uses two vertical panes. The
top contains all active processes while the second shows either all the
handles opened by a selected process or, optimally, a list of DLLs and
memory mapped files. A very handy search feature allows you to work
backwards from named DLLs or handles to the owning process. A gem.
Freeware, 230KB.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml
Best Free PC Inventory Tool
The freeware utility AIDA32 was the best system inventorying tool ever
regardless of price. It documented just about every aspect of your
hardware and software configuration as well as checking networks and
providing memory benchmarks. However the developer announced in March
2004 that the free product had been frozen. Development work shifted to
a commercial organization called Lavalys and AIDA32 was re-launced as
Everest. Lavalys now provide a commercial "professional" version of
Everest as well as a free home version. The free version is not as full
featured as the old AIDA32 but it is still impressive. You can however
still find the old AIDA32 at the second link below.
http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en (3.0MB)
http://www.soft32.com/download_9181.html (5MB)
Best Free Search and Replace Utility
Until recently my choice in this category was HandyFile's excellent Find
and Replace program but alas, this has now gone commercial. I've looked
long and hard for an equally competent replacement but can find none.
The best I could find is Search and Replace 98. It's effective enough
and will certainly satisfy most users' needs but lacks the finesse of
HandyFile's product . If someone has a copy of the last free version of
HandyFile Search and Replace could they contact me at
(e-mail address removed) and I'll make it available for download.
http://html.megalink.com/designer/reviews/sandr98.html
Best Free Outliner
I'm not a great fan of outliners - my brain doesn't work that way. Some
folks however, swear by them and if that includes you, then you should
check out Keynote, an Open Source freeware program that has a dedicated
band of followers. Its major design attribute is its ease of use. Words
like "natural" and "seamless" come close to the mark but really don't
capture the essence of what is really a great design. What do you do
with it? Well to quote the web site “KeyNote is used by screenwriters to
draft screenplays, by medical doctors to keep patient databases, by
developers to store source code snippets - and to everyone it serves as
a place to put all the random pieces of information that have no
particular structure of relationship to other data, and do not fit
easily in task-specific applications such as word-processors, databases
or spreadsheets.” (1.7MB)
http://www.tranglos.com/free/index.html
Best Free Rename Utility
Lupas Rename 2000 is a small Windows utility that globally renames all
the files in a directory and its subdirectories. It can convert names to
upper/lower case, change the case of the first letter, add text, left
crop, right crop and just about anything else you can think of. And
unlike DOS based utilities, it will work on hidden files as well. Add in
a nice GUI interface, an undo feature, full preview of changes and the
fact that it's free and you have a utility that should be in every
toolkit.
http://www.azheavymetal.com/~lupasrename/download.php
Best Free Windows Driver Backup
I used to recommend WinDriversBackup for this task but it has now,
unfortunately, morphed into shareware. However, I can suggest you try
WinRet as a replacement. It will not only back up your drivers but also
your system registry, program settings and preferences, shortcuts,
Favorites, Outlook Express folders, accounts and message filters as
well. As a bonus, it allows you to tweak some of your system settings. I
didn't try the latter but can report that the driver backup and restore
worked well. It's not quite as simple to use as WindriversBackup but,
then again, it has much more functionality. (227KB)
http://winret.sourceforge.net/
The Best Free PDF Writer Updated March 1, 2005
The top choice here is PDFCreator, an open source program from
SourceForge that works by setting up a pseudo printer in your system. To
create a PDF you just select the PDF "printer" and write to it. This
means you can create PDFs from Word, Excel or indeed any program that
allows you to print. A good second choice is CutePDF Writer a which is
cut-down version of the commercial CutePDF product. It works in a
similar way to PDFCreator but it's only free for personal use.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57796&package_id=53473
( 2.6MB) http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp (1.04MB)
Best Free File Comparison Utility
WinMerge is a free Windows utility that compares two files and
identifies the differences. The differences can then be merged from one
file into the other. This is the sort of product that is ideal when you
have several different versions of a file and are not sure of how they
differ. The product is geared to text files so it won't be much use to
you with Word Processing or other complex formatted documents But for
text reports or computer programs, WinMerge is ideal. (514KB)
http://winmerge.sourceforge.net/
Best Tabbed Internet Explorer Variant
Tabbed IE variants seem to be proliferating wildly and with good reason.
The one that I like most is a freeware product called Maxthon
(formerlyMyIE2). It works as a small efficient shell that uses the IE
rendering engine. After using Maxthon for a while, Internet Explorer
seem totally out-of-date and painfully cumbersome. Don't expect a lot
of documentation but if you read the FAQ (see below) you'll have no
problems. Some folks prefer the free Avant browser to Maxthon. It's a
close call; Avant has a cleaner look while Maxthon is more full
featured. In the last analysis it's Maxthon's ability to accept Internet
Explorer plug-ins that put it a nose in front.
http://www.maxthon.com/en/index.htm (1.51MB)
http://maxthon.cafedeux.com/faq/
http://forum.maxthon.com/forum/index.php
http://www.avantbrowser.com/ (1.32MB)
Best Free Encryption Utility
This is what the web site says: "dsCrypt is AES/Rijndael file encryption
software with simple, multi-file, drag-and-drop operations. It features
optimal implementation, performance and safety measures. dsCrypt uses
an advanced encryption algorithm and offers unique options for enhanced
security." To that I'll add the fact that it's tiny, easy to use, has
open code, employs proven techniques that are essentially unbreakable
and comes from a highly reputable source. In summary, dsCrypt offers
the average user everything they want in a secure encryption program
and it's free. That's why I use it myself. (25KB)
http://freezip.cjb.net/freeware/
Best Free Time Correction Utility
A lot of folks have difficulty getting time correction software to work
on their PC. If that's you then you should try Dimension 4, a free
utility that gives you the choice of connecting to a time server either
by standard TCP protocol or by the more common (and more problem-prone)
SNTP protocol. If you haven't yet got a time correction utility, this is
the one. It's free, it’s easy to use, and it has every function that
you could conceivably want. Because it works from both the command line
and Windows, it's ideal for batch files, too. (292KB)
http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/
Best Free Startup Manager Updated March 1, 2005
Everyone needs a startup program utility so they can exercise control
over what third party programs start automatically with Windows. My
first choice is Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel. It’s small, and easy
to use yet has powerful features including the ability to edit or add
entries. An equally good choice is Nir Sofer's StartupRun. Unlike
Startup Control Panel it lists all startup programs in a single list
rather than in tabs according to location. It also has a lot more
information on each program and has extensive editing features as well
which means that it's definitely not for Newbies. Each product is
excellent. Try both and make a personal choice.
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml (59KB)
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/strun.html (68KB)
Best Free File Backup Program Updated March 1, 2005
Karen's Replicator is a straight-forward backup utility that copies
individual files, folders and even entire drives to another location.
The backup can be on another partition, local drive, network drive or
removable device. Its key feature is the ability to schedule automatic
backups so that you can make regular automatic backups of critical
files. I use it to make hourly backups of the file containing my notes
for future issues of my newsletter. Simple, effective and free. (1.4MB)
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp
Free NFO Viewer
Many freeware files are distributed with descriptive NFO and DIZ files
as part of the distribution package. These are just plain text files so
you can view them with Notepad or other text editor but often the
formatting is lost. Try this tiny little viewer that's built for the
job. It's free and once associated with the NFO and DIZ file types,
works seamlessly, a true "install and forget" product.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Text-editors/DAMN-NFO-Viewer.shtml
Best Free Data Recovery Utility
PC Inspector File Recovery 3 is a free utility that does an impressive
job recovering accidentally deleted files or files lost through
corruption of the file system. It has some nice features, like the
ability to recover files with lost headers, and to recover partitions
even when the boot sector has been lost or damaged. It works with the
FAT16/FAT32 and NTFS file systems. This is no home written utility - it
is a serious product from a reputable German company with a long history
in commercial data recovery. PCI is the ideal product for those who want
the security of a data recovery program but are not prepared to fork our
big bucks for the extra features of high end products. (2.8MB)
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm
Best Free Remote Control Software
Ultr@VNC is a client/server package that allows remote control of
another PC using a TCP/IP connection. It works with Windows W9x/NT/2K/XP
and offers all the features you need including auto-configuration, easy
user interface, extensive hotkeys and embedded file transfer. Apart from
the fact that it's free, its strong suite is its speed. Ultr@VNC must be
the fastest remote control package I've ever used. Just the thing for
accessing your home PC while traveling, off-site troubleshooting or
general network administration.
http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/
These specialist free utilities don't fit into any particular product
category but are great products that fill a real need:
Restore Missing Toolbars
Inexperienced PC users just always seem to be losing their Windows and
Internet Explorer toolbars. I've never quite worked out exactly how they
do it but they sure manage it somehow. Luckily, this free utility makes
recovery a snack.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/ToolbarRepair.Exe
Locate Required DLLs
This free utility can be a lifesaver. It identifies all the DLL and OCX
support files required to operate any Windows 32 bit executable file.
http://linos-software.com:8080/Downloads.html
Lock Down Your Icons
Sick of Windows moving your icons around on the desktop? Lock them down
with this nifty free utility. (400KB)
http://www.sillysot.com/
Hides Personal Files from the Boss
Camouflage is a free utility that will hide your personal or
confidential files within another file. The neat thing is that the
container file looks and works like a normal file of that format. So, by
way of example, you could embed a secret message in a Word file which
could be opened by anyone and appear to be just a normal Word file. The
intended recipient could use their copy of Camouflage to open the file,
enter the password and extract the embedded information. This free
program is not intended to provide military strength protection but
rather a convenient way to sneak information past unnecessarily prying
eyes. Note: It looks like the author's web site is down, however you
can download Camouflage from the other links below. (2.65MB)
http://arxspace.com/Camouflage/
http://camouflage.unfiction.com/
http://webmasterfree.com/software/996.html
Share Bookmarks between Browsers Updated March 1, 2005
BookMarkBridge is a free open source utility that allows you to share
and synchronize your bookmarks between several browsers. I've got 3
browsers installed at the moment: IE 6, Mozilla-FireFox and Netscape
4.7. BookMarkBridge correctly identified and synchronized the first two
but it couldn't cope with the old version of Netscape. If you use
FireFox as your primary browser check out the SyncMarks extension. It
automatically updates your Internet Explorer Favorites every time you
change your FireFox Bookmarks.
http://bookmarkbridge.sourceforge.net/(2.69MB)
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=1366
W
Won Dampchin
Lius said:
Compliments!
Regards...
L
Lius
hey, no need to post the contents here..............
<snip useless>
<snip useless>
M
Mike Andrade
Are you a moron or just a pain in the ass?
J
Jeff Needle
Mike Andrade said:
Actually, I was glad to see the whole list here. I found at least one
program I'm getting.
E
elaich
I wouldn't recommend Kerio version 4 to anybody. Kerio is notorious for
causing problems for users. It's full of bugs. Besides, since Kerio turns
off features after 30 days if you don't purchase it, it's better described
as crippleware rather than freeware.
What? Both are extremely easy to set up and use.
M
Mike Andrade
And you're not bright enough to simply click on the url link?
E
elaich
So how do you download it?
The site points you to a simtel.net page on which the download link doesn't
work.
The program's home page points you to the same place.
F
Florestan
J
Jeff Needle
Sass aside, it isn't a matter of being bright, it's a matter of having a
slow dial-up connection. Having a verbose explanation of the application at
hand, without having to go to the website, is very handy for me.
Sorry to see you have you be so nasty about a benign comment. Tsk.
M
Mike Andrade
Clearly it is.
it's a matter of
Then downloading a huge pile of stuff in your newsreader that is
available at the click of a link is stupid. It basically means
you're doing it twice. And you said it isn't about being bright?
Having a verbose explanation of
Yes, it seems to be very handy for dim folks.
M
Mel
It may not if java script is disabled.
ftp://mirrors.blue.aol.com/mir01/SIMTEL/pub/simtelnet/win95/3dna/xplorer2_lite.zip
J
Jeff Needle
Sass aside, it isn't a matter of being bright,
It would be a waste of time to discuss this further. I don't know where
your hostitlity comes from, but I'll simply ignore this thread from now on.
It would be a waste of time to discuss this further. I don't know where
your hostitlity comes from, but I'll simply ignore this thread from now on.
M
Mike Andrade
Apparently dim folks have a magic computer that allows them to see
emotional states of people through their posts. You can continue in
ignorance if you wish. Apparently you do.
D
Duddits
And you're clearly an ahole. I'm tired of listening to your dribble
"insert favorite filtering noise here"
J
Jeff Needle
Duddits said:
Hmmm, am I not the only one who's been attacked like this? I often don't
follow threads.
L
Lius
admit that you make an unintelligent post and all is forgiven 
I am on a 2.5MB adsl conncection and I do know that many are still on dialups,
therefore I posted only the link and not the whole article. Please be
considerate when posting.
The responder to your post make it very clear !
going to the site to read and reading it will cost you the same
I am on a 2.5MB adsl conncection and I do know that many are still on dialups,
therefore I posted only the link and not the whole article. Please be
considerate when posting.
The responder to your post make it very clear !
going to the site to read and reading it will cost you the same
M
Mike Andrade
Another comment from the dim brigade. Like anyone cares who you
filter. Pshaw.
S
Sparky
Er, no.Jeff said:
I don't know how "new" you are to the whole newsgroup culture but the
traditions of </rant> and flame well pre-date Mosaic. These traditions
are freely and frequently (mis-)applied for no apparent gain other than
the pummeling of civility.
99.999 percent of the time, it ain't personal. For the other times,
it's only personal inasmuch as it reflects on the poster.
hth,
-Sparky