What's your favorite (lesser know) freeware?

[Bill Day]

Don't name a freeware that most of us are familiar with like Spybot, Open
Office, ect but something you use whether it be a game, screensaver, utility or
whatever that others may not be aware of.

MouseTool -sadly, version 3.1 is the last free version....it has gone
from free to $75 in its latest incarnation. ..but 3.1 is still wonderful
if you have tendonitis problems. Get it while you can!
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,19480,00.asp
We'd all like to avoid tendonitis, and this can help keep your mouse
buttons from being the culprit. MouseTool decreases your reliance on
mouse buttons by automatically clicking them whenever you pause the
mouse. Desktop items can be dragged and dropped without having to click.
You can set the time delay, and the number of pixels the mouse can drift
without clicking. Left-, right-, and double-clicks can be made on your
keyboard by using hot-keys.

MouseTool knows which window is under the mouse, and can send the click
you want to each window automatically.

It's simple: MouseTool watches as you move the mouse. When you stop, it
clicks.

It's an idea that may take some getting used to, but the program itself
is surprisingly easy to use.

You can have it send left-clicks, right-clicks or double-clicks. Do you
always double-click on the desktop? MouseTool knows what window is under
the mouse, so it can send the right click to the right window.

MouseTool also has a stretch break timer that will remind you to take
breaks.

At first, using MouseTool may feel more awkward than clicking the mouse
directly with your finger -- but it hurts a lot less. And, once you get
used to it, you barely even notice that it is running. Most of the
screen is safe to click on, and once you get used to using it, you drop
very few accidental clicks.

 

[MightyKitten]

Well, maybe I might take this oppertunity to show a little program I wrote
myself...

<Shameless self promotion on>

Name: Phonetic 2004
Vers: 3.0
Auth: Little old me
Site: http://downloads.it-hulp.nl/ithulp_extra_downloads.php
PLic: Freeware
BLic: Freeware
Note: Don't expect the greatest find in your life, but It just might forfill
a need ;-)
Info:
Phonetic is a tool that helps you spell out any name or short phrase. You
enter the name you want to spell out, select a language you want to use and
press the
[Spell-it] button.

if you're into screensavers, check the S.S. butterflies screensaver on the
same site.
(Also freeware)

If you're into wallpapers try http://fotoalbum.it-hulp.nl/

The main site of this all is http://www.it-hulp.nl (If found firefor having
trouble with some of the javascript on the page. I have to rewrite this -
but I'm to lazy at the moment ;-)

<Shameless Self promotion off>


MigthyKitten

 

[Rob]

Another favorite of mine is: Classic Clip

Available freeware from:
http://www.nakka.com/soft/clcl/download/clcl110_eng.zip

This thingie captures screen shots normally; text, graphics, whatever
... and
keeps them archived in a folder in the ClassicClip main folder. And,
not just
full window pictures, either. You can highlight any text and capture
it with
CTRL-C, and it also will be placed in the archive folder. There are
other freeware programs available, but this one is far and away the
simplest to use.

Who does it compare to Yankee Clipper III listed on www.pricelessware.org ?

Rob

 

[Rob]

Don't name a freeware that most of us are familiar with like Spybot,
Open Office, ect but something you use whether it be a game,
screensaver, utility or whatever that others may not be aware of.

I have to go with "Screen Saver Control." This is great if you need
to start your screensaver or powerdown your monitor immediately.

Also another small program called "shut down". Just set the timer and
your computer will shut down at that time. great for downloading and
defrag.

both can be found at this freeware site under system utilities

http://www.webgrid.co.uk/

Wordtabs a great Notepad replacement. It also does RTF. It supports tabs,
files of unlimited length and a spell checker. See the recent thread in
this newsgroup.

I prefer Wordtabs over Editpad Classic or Lite.

Rob

 

[Roger Johansson]

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

Quote from website:
---
Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between
multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own
display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple
computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

No special hardware?

You forgot to explain that you need a local network where all these
computers are connected.

This program should rather be described as a remote control system for
local networks.

 

[Ulrich Neumann]

No special hardware?

You forgot to explain that you need a local network where all these
computers are connected.

This program should rather be described as a remote control system for
local networks.

I think they are referring to KVM switches as being "special hardware".
But what about suggesting this to the authors of Synergy? I just quoted
the text from their website.

Ulrich

 

[John Corliss]

Don't name a freeware that most of us are familiar with like Spybot, Open
Office, ect but something you use whether it be a game, screensaver, utility or
whatever that others may not be aware of.

I have to go with "Screen Saver Control." This is great if you need to start
your screensaver or powerdown your monitor immediately.

Also another small program called "shut down". Just set the timer and your
computer will shut down at that time. great for downloading and defrag.

both can be found at this freeware site under system utilities

http://www.webgrid.co.uk/

I just noticed and started using this one from the FWT Newsletter this
morning:

http://www.ptpart.co.uk/quickmix/

It solves an old problem I'd been having with my mixer settings
changing every time I reboot. On reboot, this program automatically
(and invisibly) restores the mixer settings to a saved configuration.
Very nice.

 

[Grant Abraham]

Wordtabs a great Notepad replacement. It also does RTF. It supports tabs,
files of unlimited length and a spell checker. See the recent thread in
this newsgroup.

I prefer Wordtabs over Editpad Classic or Lite.

You didn't mention a website, and when I Google'd for it on Google Groups, I
found out why:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=....cistron.net&rnum=1&prev=/groups?q=wordtabs+o
fficial%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Dactive%26selm%3D92o
5u5%2524fba%25241%2540enterprise.cistron.net%26rnum%3D1

That links to a thread about it once being in Pricelessware, and someone had
been hosting a copy of v3.30 on their site at Crosswinds (which use to be a good
free host back then).

I was able to download a copy of EditTabs v3.29 from Pricelessware's 2002 text
editor page (http://www.pricelessware.org/2002/pricelesswaretext.htm), but the
update to v3.30 is broken. Does anyone have the 3.29-3.30 update or the full
3.30 download available somewhere?

 

[omega]

(e-mail address removed) (MystryClassmate):

Don't name a freeware that most of us are familiar with like Spybot, Open
Office, ect but something you use whether it be a game, screensaver, utility or
whatever that others may not be aware of.

DLTypes.

Cat it as a file association editor... Personally, my frequent habit is to
use my registry editor, having not found any of the file association editors
giving me everything how I wanted. Yet, I have been impressed by several
interesting features offered by this one.

................................................................................

DLTypes
File Types Manager
http://dlsoftware.pair.com

Description from the developer:

: DLTypes offers a quick, simple, and safe way to manage, catalogue,
: and monitor the numerous registered file types in Windows. It should
: prove to be indispensable for system maintenance and troubleshooting
: for the advanced home user, and informative and educational for the
: novice.
:
: DLTypes retrieves all registered file types from the Windows registry
: and presents them along with the number of files, file sizes, and
: invalid entries for each extension and file type. This information is
: presented in an easily accessed window for selection either by file
: extension, file types, or unregistered files.
:
: Included is a fast search function to find files based on their
: extension or file type. After the files are found, many functions are
: available to make testing the associated actions easy.
:
: After the selection has been made, modifying the default icon and
: associated actions as well as adding or removing file extensions and
: correcting invalid entries can be easily done.
:
: Zip backup is available for file types.
:
: Print functions are available for all file types and their associations.
:
: Icons can be located or built easily by using the scan function. After
: the scan, create a favorite icon list by browsing and selecting the
: icons.
:
: To keep things safe, DLTypes automatically backs up Registry entries
: when deleting extensions or changing values and tracks changes made to
: registry.
:
................................................................................



PROs

Lots of functionality. Including its special consideratons for icon fans.
And it really stands out in its scope for backing up (to .reg) -- and
tracking changes.


CONs

[A] Interface weaknesses. 1. You have to be patient while getting used
to the weird little places to access commands. 2. The windows are the
old block win95 type situation -- and with no decent resizing. The product
is a payware-turned-freeware. Wishlist would be that the developer went
a step further and released his source for someone to rework the interface
aspect.

[B} It's a big, fat thing - with lots of OCXs. OCXs means a lot of entangled
entry into the HKCR section of the registry. Often I'll bypass programs
that are built with such controls, especially if it's a lot of them. But
I found DLTypes so good in functionality, to make exception.

 

[John Corliss]

A.A. Fussi wrote:

(removed)

Please stop using sock puppets. That's the act of a troll.

 

[Rob]

You didn't mention a website, and when I Google'd for it on Google
Groups, I
found out why:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=....cistron.net&rnum=1&prev=/groups?q=wordtabs+o
fficial%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Dactive%26selm%3
D92o
5u5%2524fba%25241%2540enterprise.cistron.net%26rnum%3D1

That links to a thread about it once being in Pricelessware, and
someone had
been hosting a copy of v3.30 on their site at Crosswinds (which use
to be a good
free host back then).

I was able to download a copy of EditTabs v3.29 from Pricelessware's
2002 text
editor page
(http://www.pricelessware.org/2002/pricelesswaretext.htm), but the
update to v3.30 is broken. Does anyone have the 3.29-3.30 update or
the full
3.30 download available somewhere?

Try http://www.mailandfiles.com/users/omega/wt330upd.zip

If you want to get rid of the annoying pop up message and restore all the
features in Wordtabs, you should also grab riched20.dll ver 2. Get it here:

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?riched20

Do NOT replace richedxx.dll in your c:/windows or c::windows/system
directories..
Put the riched20.dll v2 ONLY into the Wordtabs directory.

Rob

 

[Rob]

Don't name a freeware that most of us are familiar with like Spybot,
Open Office, ect but something you use whether it be a game,
screensaver, utility or whatever that others may not be aware of.

I have to go with "Screen Saver Control." This is great if you need
to start your screensaver or powerdown your monitor immediately.

Also another small program called "shut down". Just set the timer and
your computer will shut down at that time. great for downloading and
defrag.

both can be found at this freeware site under system utilities

http://www.webgrid.co.uk/

Here is another one -- Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader v 2.2 released on Oct 25,
2001.

Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader displays BOTH PDF and ebook files. It will even
read aloud the PDF or eBook files. Very slick interface and easy to use.
But I do not know whether it suffers from the same security flaws reported
for Acrobat Reader v5.x and earlier.

It is a pity that it is no longer available on Adobe's website. Adobe has
replaced it with Acrobat Reader v6. Now talk about bloatware!

Rob

 

[MightyKitten]

And here is a link http://www.tucows.com/preview/269393.html
(One of the positive sides of a company who only acts if someone pays up ;-)

 

[Susan Bugher]

Here is another one -- Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader v 2.2 released on Oct 25,
2001.

Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader displays BOTH PDF and ebook files. It will even
read aloud the PDF or eBook files. Very slick interface and easy to use.
But I do not know whether it suffers from the same security flaws reported
for Acrobat Reader v5.x and earlier.

It is a pity that it is no longer available on Adobe's website. Adobe has
replaced it with Acrobat Reader v6. Now talk about bloatware!

http://katalog.utc.sk/e-books/books/index.php

Acrobat eBook Reader 2.2 Win

http://katalog.utc.sk/e-books/download/eBookReaderInstall.exe

(NOTE: URL is listed in the Program Information pages)

Susan

 

[Susan Bugher]

And here is a link http://www.tucows.com/preview/269393.html

Rob wrote:

That's better than the link I had - thanks - I'll revise the P_Info page.

Susan

 

[Al Smith]

Launchmate by Tom Ressler. It keeps my Windows98 SE desktop free
of icons.

 

[Grant Abraham]

Try http://www.mailandfiles.com/users/omega/wt330upd.zip

If you want to get rid of the annoying pop up message and restore all the
features in Wordtabs, you should also grab riched20.dll ver 2. Get it here:

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?riched20

Do NOT replace richedxx.dll in your c:/windows or c::windows/system
directories..
Put the riched20.dll v2 ONLY into the Wordtabs directory.

Great, thanks!

 

[Tiger]

Who does it compare to Yankee Clipper III listed on
www.pricelessware.org ?

Tried both...imo, no comparison. YCIII is far better. YMMV.

 

[JoeA]

Don't name a freeware that most of us are familiar with like Spybot, Open
Office, ect but something you use whether it be a game, screensaver, utility or
whatever that others may not be aware of.

I have two.
1. For people who use Internet Explorer only, a Handy Internet Explorer
Context Menu Extension thingy.
No more copy / pasting of URLs from web pages !
1. Select any text on the page (doesn't need to be a link)
2. Right click with the mouse
3. Choose "Open Selected URL" from the context menu
4. A new window will popup with the new url loaded !
Almost impossible to find, but the author JohnC has a temporary site

http://www.browsertool.com/downloads/

2.OpTool-for people who are using one browser most of the time, but when
a page does not render correctly you want to open the same page quickly
in your back-up browser.

 

[Iain Cheyne]

(e-mail address removed) (MystryClassmate) wrote in

Don't name a freeware that most of us are familiar with like Spybot,
Open Office, ect but something you use whether it be a game,
screensaver, utility or whatever that others may not be aware of.

Tagscanner (http://xdev.narod.ru/tagscan_e.htm)

Best MP3 tag editor I have tried, and I've tried many. Way better than
the ones at Pricelessware.org.

Features
# Music files renaming by TAG info
# Supports MP3, OGG and MPEGplus files
# Support for ID3 Tag version 1.0 / 1.1 / 2.3 / 2.4
# Support for ID3v2 Lyrics and Attached pictures
# Supports ID3v2 compressed tags
# Supports OGG-info tags
# TAG generation by folder/filename
# TAG version conversions
# TAG generation from internet database (freedb)
# TAG case conversions
# Built-in player
# Worksheets technology
# Works with subfolders
# Advanced TAG editor with batch features
# More than 140 Genres + ability to write your own styles
# Powerful Playlists editor
# Write extended playlists like Winamp or Sonique
# Playlists export to HTML, Excel and CSV(e.g. for MySQL)