I use a lot of freeware programs on my computer, partly because freeware applications are usually smaller and faster than commercial programs, which lowers the stress on my operating system and saves space on my hard drive but mostly because Phil & Moke's Secret Free Place is, after all, about free things on the web. I try out many of the programs I list in the ezine and on the website and occasionally find one that I especially like. Those programs are listed here. Some of these applications have become so invaluable to me that my computing experience would be notably diminished by their absense and you'll find those, most special of freeware programs, clearly marked by the following suffix: Favorite
Not long ago someone asked me what freeware applications I would put on a CD as a gift to a new computer user and I'll indicate those applications with this suffix: Newbie
The software I list here is divided into categories as much as possible but many of the websites listed here offer more than a single freeware title and that will be mentioned in the listing. You'll quickly see that I don't have a single favorite software application, but I do have a favorite programmer. His name is Johannes Wallroth and he lives in Berlin, Germany. His site is chock full of useful little Windows freeware applications that are small and non-invasive. To uninstall most of his applications you need only right-click and delete the executable. Any program that's an exception will be clearly indicated as such on his website. It's a rare computer user who won't find at least one nifty little gotta-have program on the site and almost all of them are freeware. Have a look (Favorite), you'll be glad you did.
Security Tools
Grisoft -- Here, you can get your free copy of the AVG 6.0 Anti-Virus System - AVG 6.0 Free Edition and you will be able to use it without any limitations for the life of the product. If you're like me your first thought was "Free Anti-Virus software? Yeah, right, you get what you pay for." but, like me, you're wrong. Grisoft makes AV software for large users, and they're good at it. Creating a personal edition of their software, for home use, and offering it as unsupported freeware can be seen, by cynics like me, as a shrewd marketing strategy to give their product more name recognition, but, even if you take the cynical view, it's a terrific deal for home users. AVG works beautifully and, in my experience, causes far fewer conflicts with other products on your computer than some of the better known AV products.
Favorite Newbie
Spybot - Search & Destroy -- This excellent freeware program can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't install, your browser crashes frequently for no apparent reason, your browser's start page has changed without your having changed it, your dial-up Window comes up when you haven't clicked on anything to invoke it, or you start getting pop-ups on websites where you aren't accustomed to seeing pop-ups, you most probably have spyware. Even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging which silently tracks, and reports, your surfing habits to create marketing and demographics profiles which will be sold to advertisers.
Favorite Newbie
SpywareBlaster -- This awesome freeware program doesn't scan, locate, and remove spyware, it prevents it from ever being installed in the first place. The newest version can even block spyware/tracking cookies, and SpywareBlaster doesn't need to be running in the background to provide this protection. You won't get any more annoying &Yes/No& boxes popped up, asking you to install a spyware ActiveX control (which can increasingly be found in pop-up ads.). In fact, you won't see or hear anything at all when the program does it's job. No alarms, pop-ups, alerts, bells or whistles. SpywareBlaster quietly prevents malicious websites from being able to touch your computer and your surfing experience is undisturbed in the process. You'll need to update the software frequently because malicious operators aren't napping. They're working hard and fast to develop new ways to invade your privacy so if you see any sort of pop up that asks you to "Click here to install (whatever)", and you didn't click anything to put it there, take that as an alert to update SpywareBlaster.
Favorite Newbie
StartupMonitor -- This nifty little program, from Mike Lin, is a small utility that runs transparently (it doesn't even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents those utterly useless tray applications from registering themselves behind your back, and it acts as a security tool against trojans like BackOrifice or Netbus. Editor's Note: There are several other useful freeware programs available on Mike's site too.
Favorite
ZoneAlarm -- Millions of users have selected this free program as their basic Internet security solution. The award-winning personal firewall blocks dangerous Internet threats, guarding your PC from many of the tactics used by hackers and data thieves. I don't use a firewall, because I feel it's overkill with a dial-up connection, but not everyone would agree with me on that and ZoneAlarm Basic is the most popular firewall on the web. Zone Labs, the company which created ZoneAlarm, is a commercial entity and it's understandable that they'd prefer having you purchase one of the upgraded versions of their software so it might take you a minute or two to find where, on their homepage, to click for the free version. Why don't I use a firewall? Mainly because I've never had a problem with the protection I'm using now (all four of the programs listed prior to ZoneAlarm in this section), firewalls can interfere with downloads, and I do a great deal of downloading.
Newbie
Image/Photo Editors
XnView -- This is my personal favorite graphics editor. Most of the images I want to manipulate are jpeg images, and while XnView can handle every image format I've ever heard of, and quite a few I've never heard of, it's especially suited to editing jpeg images. It's grown larger, and more sophisticated with each upgrade so I no longer use it as my default viewer but I still use it regularly. Even if you have PSP or Photoshop you'll find XnView a handy and powerful addition to your graphics tools.
Favorite Newbie
IrfanView -- The most popular freeware graphics editor on the Internet. Irfview is my choice for manipulating gif images and my default viewer for most image types. Small, fast, and incredibly powerful. Another "must have" editor.
Favorite Newbie
20/20 -- This one is adware, but it's not spyware. 20/20 sticks to the ads that are contained in the initial download and doesn't update to new ones while you're online. The ads are annoying, but not impossible to ignore (I certainly never notice them). 20/20 has some specific features that make it a very good tool for creating seamless background (web tile) images. It's a very feature rich editor, but not nearly so "user friendly" as XnView or IrfanView. If you need a great tool for web tiles or backgrounds in email stationery, this is an editor you should have.
Favorite
The Gimp -- The Gimp is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. This site contains information about downloading, installing, using, and enhancing Gimp. In all honesty, I don't know a great deal about this one, but I'm a strong supporter of the concept behind
Open Source software. The Gimp still has a few bugs, and is sometimes unstable, as I write this (October, 2002), but I've no doubt that it will be an increasingly useful editor as it's development continues and many Linux users already compare it favorably with PSP and/or Adobe Photoshop.
Pixia -- The original Japanese Edition was created and developed by the author, Isao Maruoka, but has been aggressively raised by its fans, which makes this software quite unique and different from other tools. Pixia is a painting tool made exclusively for full color graphics. Maximum graphic size: 10240 x 10240 dots (Note: this depends on RAM capacity.) Number of Layers: As many as available RAM will permit. This is an excellent tool for graphics designers.
2-Pic -- This software enables you to add two pictures together, mixing them into a single image. Admittedly, this software has a narrow application, but the images it creates are nice enough to make it a useful addition to your graphics tool box. The developer's website is gone as I write this but the software is still available from Simtel. Simtel's links seem to change regularly so if this link goes bad, please notify me (use the link to our site feedback form at top or bottom of the page) so I can locate an up-to-date link for it. The link, above, is to a Simtel page because the developer's site seems to be a little on-again-off-again, but if it's "on" at the moment, you'll find it
here and it's likely to have a more recent version than is offered by Simtel.
DCEnhancer -- MediaChance has some excellent shareware, but they also have a several freeware digital camera accessories available for download. The DCEnhancer is my favorite, and it's a terrific tool which "turns on the light" in digital photos. A picture that was taken under poor lighting conditions can be turned into a brighter, clearer image. Even photos that look "OK" can be greatly improved with the DCEnhancer. It's not a fancy software with a lot of features, but it's a very useful tool and well worth having. Among the other digital camera tools from mediachance, there are two more that I've enjoyed using,
CleanSkinFX which does terrific things to close-up shots, and
B/Works which does nice things to monochrome (black and white) photos.
Favorite Newbie
i.Mage -- Here's the description of this software in the the authors own words: "i.Mage is a simple graphics editor inspired by the late great Deluxe Paint II for Amiga and PC's. This program is a result of my frustration with main stream editors like Photoshop and Corel Photopaint's ability to do simple tasks in a timely manner. To start such an application can take 30 seconds or more... for what? Just cropping a screenshot? Well there has to be a better way I thought. So I started coding and here's the fruits of my labour, not finished by any means but it is starting to be really useful to me for a variety of tasks. " The executable install for this software is just under 700k in size, making it a small application, but there's nothing small about the features. For example, if you need a great replacement for Microsoft Paint this software will fill the bill beautifully. The paint feature offers a sensitivity adjustment and gives you superlative control of individual pixels. If this isn't enough to attract you to the site, then how about several other freeware applications, like a lightweight email client, a small FTP client, a great little text editor, and several other useful utilities. Scroll down the page to see them all. Editor's Note: Many of the buttons and other text-bearing graphics on this site were created on blank, presized images, pixel by pixel, with i.Mage and I've often used it to edit, and clean, images created by more sophisticated applications, reducing image file sizes and creating sharper images.
Favorite Newbie
Ultimate Paint -- A full-featured 32-bit Windows graphics program for image creation, viewing and manipulation (scroll down this page to get to the freeware version).
ScreenHunter -- I used to prefer PC Magazine's ScreenSeize to create screenshots with the cursor in the picture, when I'm creating tutorials for this site. When I had to change computers and attempted to download a new copy of ScreenSeize I discovered that PC Magazines's so-called "freeware" is now available only to persons who have a paid subscription to their downloads. I was annoyed because it's not "freeware" if it isn't free, so I went to Google.com to find an alternative software. I found several freeware utilities for taking screenshots (with the cursor in the image) but this one was by far the smallest download (the executable is 382k) and it works beautifully. In fact, it's easier to use than ScreenSeize, so thanks PC Magazine, I'd never have discovered it without your "help".
Favorite
Color Selection Tools
Christel's ColorCoder -- I use many different tools for selecting background and text colors when I'm working on web pages (or email stationery) but this is usually my first choice tool because it's the smallest, fastest, and easiest way to get the job done. Christel has created a palette of web safe colors. Clicking on a color from the palette displays it's Hex and RGB values, and writes that value to the clipboard if you chose. On her page, you'll see the words "Looking for the ColorCoder ? >>". Clicking on the arrows initiates the download. [Editor's Note: "web safe colors" are defined as colors that appear the same on different browsers. With modern browsers, this isn't as important as it once was, but I still use Christel's palette because it's quick and easy.]
Favorite Newbie
BK Colour Coder -- This is my second choice for a color selecting tool. It's more complex than Christel's ColorCoder, but more useful too, enabling you to determine the value of a specific color on a web page or graphic image (by unchecking the "default" box on the "bgcolor" screen, clicking on "snag color" and following the directions in the small window that then opens). The software also contains excellent help files and permits you to create, and save, customized palettes.
Favorite
Color Explorer -- From jensSoftware (hosted here on our server). This is my third choice tool for selecting colors. Not as sophisticated as the BK Colour Coder but smaller and faster. Using this tool takes some experimenting since there's not a help file included, but if you're willing to experiment, and "learn by doing" it's an excellent tool.
Favorite
Match Head -- Made with the web designer in mind, it converts RGB/HSB values to hexadecimal values and can match any color you have on your screen.
Get Color -- The developers of this little application contacted me via our site feedback form to tell me about it. I downloaded it and found that the program didn't work properly on my Win98SE system. I emailed them about the problem and a few days later they notified me that the problem had been corrected so I tried it again and it worked great. This is a very nice little tool for snagging a color from anywhere on your computer screen. I haven't used it often, the BK Colour Coder is more suited to my needs, but it's too handy a tool to get rid of.
Text & HTML Editors
NoteTab Light -- NoteTab is a leading-edge text and HTML editor for Windows. Winner of software industry awards since 1998, this application does it all: it easily handles a stack of huge files; lets you format text to your heart's content; does system-wide searches, and multi-line global replacements. I used NoteTab to create this page (and all of our pages), and I use it to create our ezine twice a month. This is the most awesome editor I know of. Great for text files, and unbeatable for "hands on" editing of HTML files [executable size: 1606k].
Favorite
Arachnophilia -- This is a very powerful,
CareWare, (free for personal, non-commercial use) Web page editor and workshop. In it's current incarnation, Arachnophilia has been rewritten in Java and is designed to run on any platform that supports Java 2 (virtually any computer or platform you can name). The author,
Paul Lutus, strongly recommends you use this latest version of his software, however, the older, Windows-only version, while no longer supported, is still available
Here.
DerekWare -- This is the perfect HTML editor for anyone who doesn't have a lot of hard drive space available. It's not a bad tool if you do have a lot of free disk space either. It's size makes it fast loading, and it still manages to have plenty of features. This file is hosted here on our site and there's an excellent review of the program, written by guest editor, Doug McHone of
Coffee Swirls, on the download page [executable file size: 191k].
NotePad+ -- This freeware program is a 32-bit replacement for the standard Windows 95/NT 4.0 Notepad which had a host of features not found in Windows Notepad, among which are a nicely laid out toolbar, search/replace functions, unlimited file size, and the ability to open multiple documents. It's not a tabbed editor, like NoteTab, but additional open documents are minimized behind the currently open page. Minimizing the open page makes all open documents appear as small boxes along the bottom of the screen and double clicking a particular box will maximize that document. NotePad+ is one of several Notepad replacement documents I've been using in rotation for the last few months. I'm having trouble deciding which one to use in place of Windows Notepad on my computer, on a permanent basis, but this program is definitely "in the running" [executable size:423k].
Favorite
DomiNote -- Is quite similar to NotePad+ and is one of several freeware applications offered on the same site. After reviewing the applications, click on any of the download links to see which of them are freeware [executable size: 472k].
EditPad Lite -- EditPad Lite is a general purpose tabbed text editor, designed to be small and compact, yet offer all the functionality you expect from a basic text editor. EditPad Lite works with Windows 95, NT4, 98, 2000, ME and XP. The Linux version is available
separately. EditPad Lite is free for non-commercial use. That is, you may use EditPad Lite if you do not get paid, directly or indirectly, for the work you do with EditPad Lite. Registered charities may also use EditPad Lite [executable size: 406k].
Favorite
NotepadEx -- A freeware Notepad replacement with no file size limitations, and a text search and replace function. Editor's Note: This is another of the programs I've used recently. I feel it's a good NotePad replacement, however, if you download the installer it will overwrite Windows NotePad, and that's not a good thing. I renamed the executable for Windows NotePad (Notepad.exe) to notepadW.exe (the "W" is, of course, for "Windows"), and then installed NotePadEx so I'd still have Window's original NotePad onboard for those occasions when it's more suited to the task. By simply downloading the zip file for NotePadEx you can install it in a location of your choice, and rename it's executable, instead of your Windows Notepad's executable if you wish [executable file size: 614k].
Randy's Notepad -- This is a simple, but powerful little freeware replacement software for Windows NotePad, from Randy Ford, that won't give you any flack about the file sizes. Randy has some other freeware offerings on the same page, and a few more
Here, including a pop-up killer, an image viewer, and an Icon editor. In fact, his site is well worth taking the time to fully explore [executable size: 429k].
Ted -- This program is a simple little cross platform text editor that very closely resembles Windows NotePad and offers search/replace functions, choices in fonts, and has no file size limitations. The executable is only 34k however Ted uses it's own 319k dll that comes with the download. The developer, Matthew Allen, also has several other excellent freeware applications available on his main site,
here.
MetaPad -- I've been on something of a quest for the perfect replacement for Windows NotePad and have tried close to two dozen programs. Many of the programs I've tested have impressed me in one way or another whether it was because of the features they offer, or their simple, user-friendly interface but speed has been my most important criteria for finding a NotePad replacement. Nothing can replace NoteTab as my main editor, it's got every feature I can imagine ever needing (and then some) but that doesn't mean I don't need a small, fast default editor and I'd prefer having one that didn't slow me down with file size limitations. The executable file for Windows NotePad is 52k in size. To attain comparable speed a replacement editor needs to be close to the same size. So far in my quest, metapad is the smallest text editor I've found that doesn't have file size limitations. It also has far more features than Windows NotePad (For Windows 9x/NT/XP) [Executable file size: 94k].
Favorite
NewPad -- This little gem, from Eugene Vassiltsov can open as many files at a time as the memory of your computer allows (sorry, file size limit is 64 Kb), remember settings (fonts, window size and position) since last session, choose any font installed on your computer, choose different fonts for editing and printing (of course, you can choose identical), has Page Setup, where you can set headers and footers for printing, has Word Wrap, Find, Find and Replace commands, shows current date in a status bar, and is very nearly identical to Windows NotePad in appearance. [executable file size: 46k].
WED -- This program, from Harry J. Gensler, has file size limitations and I didn't care for the file handling dialog but has several nice features which aren't found in NotePad. The download, on his site, is simply named "Windows Editor" (for Windows 9x) [executable size: 41k].
Scribbler -- This is a small, fast text editor that has file size limitations but does offer many more features than Windows NotePad. There are other freeware programs offered on the site, among which is another text editor called "Jotter" that's slightly smaller than Scribbler (the executable is 42k). For Windows 95/98/ME/NT3.51/NT4 and WINE 20030115 [executable file size: 44k].
Windows NotePad -- In the interest of fairness, and just for a lark, if there are purists out there who still think this program is the be-all and end-all of HTML editors this site shows that your aren't alone in your opinion, and, just in case you've misplaced your copy, you can even download the program on this site [executable file size:52k]
WhatYouSeeIsWhatYouGet Web Editors
1st Page 2000 -- A full-featured, completely free, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor/script editor. The application now includes 450 Javascripts ASP, SSI and DHTML effects.
IMS Web Dwarf -- A drag and drop WYSIWYG HTML editor with pixel precision positioning and scaling. Features include a TEXT, HTML and Rich Text editor that also supports conversion between these formats and the ability to import-export these formats from/to other popular text editors including ms word. HTML can be modified by the program. The program also includes a publisher with a gather option to export the finished HTML files to a local disk or to FTP them directly to the internet server.
Mozile -- Stands for "Mozilla Inline Editor" and is an in-browser, context-sensitive, XHTML editor that allows a user to edit all or just specific editable sections of any XHTML page from the comfort of his own browser. It can act as the client-side of a content-editing system or as a self-contained "web word processor". (still under development as this is written)
Seamless Tile and Specialized Graphics Tools
Syntrillium "Tiles" -- A small freeware Windows application that creates seamless background tiles.
Texture Processor -- Texture Processor is a unique program for creating textures (background tiles). The basic algorithm in the heart of Texture Processor permits practically unlimited quantities of complex textures in a minimal amount of time. Texture Processor is intended for 3D-artists and web-designers. [Editor's Note: Technically this one isn't freeware, it's adware, advertising their other products, but the ads are built in, meaning it doesn't appear to download new ones, and are reasonably unobtrusive.]
sTile -- Formerly "HarmWave, Harm'sTile, Harm'sTile99, or sTile99", a program designed to create seamless tiles. It can do other things, but that was (and still is) its primary purpose. There are links to tutorials and examples on this page, along with the download.
EVE -- Stands for Embedded Vector Editor. This is a sophisticated and powerful tool even though it's a tiny software (62k) that's size is only 92k in the zip file, and that includes the tutorial. There's a fairly steep learning curve with this one, but it may be worth it for you to download it and tackle the curve.
Johannes Wallroth -- Images can be taken (by screenshot) from his Dazzling Screens, and Kaleidoscope programs for editing into web tiles. [Editor's Note: Don't forget to check out everything else on the site while you're there.]
Favorite
Curve-a-Graph -- This tiny software creates spiraling graphics images that can be saved as bitmaps and used to create background tiles.
ZPaint -- This software can create 3D-looking elements for websites. Easily paint raised or lowered shapes such as buttons, rings, boxes, or add those effects to existing graphics. Color/texture selection, adjustable extrusion depth, gloss and other effects. [Note: Zpaint isn't an editor, so you'll need a graphics editor (like XnView or Irfanview above) to prepare your images before converting them to 3D with ZPaint.]
Miscellaneous Cool Tools and Utilities
Cool Ruler -- From FabSoft. This is a little ruler that appears on your screen, permitting you to measure anything on the screen in inches, centimeters, or pixels. You can also open two or more rulers at once. The ruler is just over three inches long when it appears, but can be lengthened by clicking and dragging at the top right hand end of the ruler. It can also be switched from horizontal to vertical.
Favorite
Text2Web -- I create our ezine's Current Issue page, from the text file in which it was written, with this free adware (but not spyware) text-to-HTML converter. I searched and scrounged all over the web when I was looking for a software to make this conversion. I found several applications and tried them all. This one was far and away the best of the lot.
Favorite
Another Lens -- This is an excellent little magnifying utility that will enlarge any area on your screen. Especially helpful for the vision impaired but also handy for closely examining small areas in images. The author
Bjoern Ischo, has a few other interesting freeware applications on this page of his site:
The B-Zone-Software.
AM-DeadLink -- Detects dead links and duplicates in your Browser Bookmarks. If a Bookmark has become unavailable you can delete it from your Browser. AM-Deadlink checks Bookmarks from Internet Explorer, Opera and Netscape. The author, Martin Aignesberger, of Aignes Software, has a few other freeware programs on the same page.
DLExpert -- The "DL" stands for "DownLoad" and this is a terrific download manager. While many, so called, "free" download managers are actually spy-ware, or ad-ware DLExpert is neither. On the other hand, it is a very powerful tool with many useful functions.
Favorite Newbie
AnalogX DLL Archive -- Everyone has uninstalled programs at one point or another, just to be presented with that wonderful dialog asking whether or not we want to delete some 'shared' Windows resource... Do we? Does something else use that DLL file it's asking about? That's where AnalogX DLL Archive comes in - it searches through all the files on your system and lets you know if any of them contain references to the DLL's in question.
Favorite
TrayKiller -- There are three times when it's very important to shut down any non-essential processes which may be running on your computer.
1. Prior to running Scan and/or Defrag.
2. Prior to installing new software.
3. Prior to making a music CD (so you won't have those annoying little skips in the music).
Shutting down running applications using the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys won't always show you every application that's running, inexperienced users aren't likely to use MSCONFIG to access the Start list, and the only other way to be assured that Scan and Defrag will run properly is to go into Safe Mode, which presents yet another daunting challenge to the inexperienced user and isn't much help if you're trying to install new software or make a music CD. Traykiller is a little sophisticated and might be difficult for even an experienced computer user to figure out but once it's properly configured, a couple of clicks positively shuts down all non-essential processes which are running on your computer. Even if you have to bring in a geeky friend to help you set it up, this one's worth having on any Windows computer.
Favorite Newbie
RamBooster -- Windows fills up your computer's memory (RAM) little by little and finally RAM is filled with unnecessary data. Sooner or later you have to reboot your computer to make it work faster. This little install-it-and-forget-it utility ends that problem. You might have to experiment with the best settings for your particular system, but once it's set, it needs no further attention, and it seems to do a wonderful job.
Favorite Newbie
OpenExpert -- This little free utility, from BaxBex software, adds a bar to your right-click menu that says "Open With", and you can configure it to give you a list of choices for a given type of file. Very convenient where you have several choices of software for opening a given file type. If you're at all like me, once you've used this wonderful tool, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.
Favorite
CopyURL -- This software is a so-called "shell extension" that adds three new choices to the right-click for browser favorites. One of those new choices is "Copy URL" and it's great for grabbing the actual web address of a link to paste into a document or email. Just right click on the link, click on "Copy URL" then place your cursor where you want it in your document or email, right-click and hit "Paste". The actual web address of the link appears in your document. I've never needed the other two choices, and don't really recall what they are, but I don't mind getting a couple of choices I don't need in return for one which I use almost every day. [Note: I know this works great with IE, but I don't know about other browsers, and they don't say in their description] There are also other freeware programs on the same page. One of them, "filenote", is a great tool for anyone who does a lot of downloading (like me, for example).
Favorite
Dir2Text -- You may never need a text file listing the contents of a particular folder, but if you ever do, this will be a useful tool.
Favorite
Dir2URL -- I searched the web over for a utility, like Dir2text, that would make a list of the actual URLs in a folder of Windows Favorites. Dir2Text, and all similar utilities, just returns a list of the file names. Finally, in frustration and virtual desperation, I emailed Jesse Moore, of
Mooresoft and asked him if he could help me. He then created this specially modified version of Dir2Text, that does the job. He sent this version to me, via email, and didn't even put it on his website for download. Jesse later told me that he'd lost the original source code for Dir2URL in a computer crash, but he gave me permission to host this terrific little utility here on our server. For the moment, this one's a Maxpatch exclusive (but I'm sure that won't last long). Thanks a million Jesse!
Favorite
The File Splitter -- There are lots of free file splitters out there, used to break large files into segments which will fit on a floppy disk, while providing the means to reassemble the file once you've transferred it to another computer. I don't know anything about all the other file splitting programs, because this one, from Marc Bjorklund is the only one I've ever used, or needed. It works great, and it's free!
Favorite
The Font Thing -- This free software, from Sue Fisher, is an extremely useful tool if you're "into" fonts, and want to know more about what fonts you have on your system, or need to get a good look at them in order to easily pick the right font for a particular project.
Favorite
Font Explorer -- Karen Kenworthy has another terrific font managing tool, along with lots of other fine freeware, on her awsome website. In fact, there are so many things on her site that you'll have to look closely to find the Font Explorer, and you're quite likely to see another program that interests you while you're there.
TunerTool -- This is a utility that any guitarist will find useful. It's not an automatic tuner, you'll need a good ear, but you can't beat the price!
Favorite
Web Time -- This is a free and handy utility, from Gregory Braun, that will synchronize your PC's internal clock with one of the several atomic clocks maintained by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Favorite Newbie
Versaverter -- Inches to Centimeters? Miles to Kilometers? Cubic Liters to Cubic Inches? Whatever. This free utility, from Pawprint, does it all, as far as I can see. This one ought to be especially useful for students.
Favorite Newbie
JR Icon Refresh -- Sometimes Windows gets mixed up and shows the wrong Icons on the screen. Everything seems to work normally, but the wrong icons are displayed and the only way to fix it is to reboot. Well, not any more. Running this little utility will fix the mixed up icons in a jiffy, without rebooting.
Favorite Newbie
Space Odyssey -- A hard drive certainly can be a messy place. It can be crammed full of stuff you don't need, or want. Windows applications litter your hard drive with junk that serves no purpose. This junk can cause your PC to slow down and even cause some application problems. Space Odyssey fixes and prevents errors in Windows 95/98/2000 and Windows NT by finding and cleaning error-producing and space-wasting garbage files. Space Odyssey operates by scanning your hard drive for various error producing files and then optionally cleaning them from your system for you.
Cookie Muncher -- Without going into the Pros and Cons of managing cookies (All the experts seem to have different ideas on this), I'll just tell you that Cookie Muncher is a real good cookie utility and I've been using it for some months now. When you visit thousands of websites each month, like I very often do, you don't really want to clutter up your computer with cookies from every site you visit, especially when only a small percentage of them are worth visiting again. You'll have to scroll down and hunt for Cookie Muncher because there's a lot of software listed on this page.
Favorite
Easy Message -- I'm not a big user of Instant Messengers and frankly I don't care for them, but they're handy on rare occasions so I have the "biggies" installed on my computer (i.e. MSN, ICQ, AIM, and Yahoo Messenger). That's why I was thrilled to discover this little 238k program that replaces all of them at once, without a lot of extra features that I never use, and without the dubious privilege of viewing their ads. You have to register with all four of them in order to have an identity to log in with, but Easy Message permits you set up a single service, all four, or any combination in between.
YahooPops -- Checking your Yahoo email with your default email client (Pop3 access) is no longer possible unless you pay for the service, and checking your Yahoo email online means you get subjected to all their in-your-face advertising. This excellent utility becomes a sort of proxy between you and Yahoo, permitting you to use your default email client without violating their terms of service, and you get to skip all the ads too. Setting it up requires a little computer know-how (I wouldn't recommend it for a novice)but they do provide complete and accurate instructions. Tip: In Outlook Express, it works best if you set it up as a separate account which only sends or receives when you click the send/receive icon. This permits you to turn YahooPops on, only when you wish to change identities and check your Yahoo email. If the account is set up to send and receive automatically it's best to have YahooPops in the Start menu (and I try to avoid that).
Hotmail Popper is a similar utility that works with your Hotmail acount. It seems to work a little smoother and faster than YahooPops too. I gave up my Hotmail account a long time ago (they delete you automatically if you don't log into it for three months) because it was getting several hundred spam posts each week. I went and opened a new (free) account so that I could "test drive" Hotmail Popper. I was very impressed with it.
Abiword -- At some point every computer user needs a word processor but not everyone needs the expense, or the extra "bells and whistles" of commercial products. Abiword is an Open Source word processor that's been under continuous development for several years now. It's got a lot of nice features, works on several different Operating Systems (like Windows or Linux), gets better with each new release, and, because it's Open Source, is free. I've used Abi for the last three years and it's always had more features than I needed. I won't say that some of the earlier versions didn't cause me some grief but there were never any problems that I couldn't overcome and the more recent versions have all been terrific.
Favorite
Zip Utilities
ZipGenius -- This program is a full featured file compression utility that can stand toe-to-toe with any number of shareware applications. The difference is, ZipGenius is freeware. I used this one for several months and was happy with it but it started acting up and became increasingly unstable. I updated it and that didn't fix the problem so I uninstalled it and switched to 7-zip. The download for ZipGenius Standard Edition is close to seven megabytes in size.
7-zip -- This too is a full featured file compression utility. It's not as slick looking as ZipGenius but it's file size is far smaller (under one megabyte), it seems to be quite a bit more stable, and it's far more popular with technogeeks. After using it for a while, I'm glad I switched.
Favorite
JustZIPit -- A tiny freeware program which simplifies zip compression to the bare bone. The program doesn't even have an interface. It's only accessible from the right-click context menu where there will be two new commands, "JustZIPit - Create a zip file" and "JustZIP - then email" (when you right-click on an uncompressed file). To open a zip file, just double-click the file in explorer or right-click and select JustUnZIPit from the popup context menu. This program is simple, small, fast, only works with zip files, and has very limited functionality but is very probably all most Windows computer users will ever need.
FreeZip -- A small, fast and efficient Zip utility for compression and decompression of files and directories. FreeZip integrates with Windows Explorer and uses file associations and context menus to zip or unzip files and subdirectories. At 250 kilobytes, FreeZip is a little smaller than JustZIPit and the author, Dariusz Stanislawek, offers a couple of patches that add extra functions to the application.
Newbie
Registry Tools
Note: Windows Registry is something that no novice computer user should ever tamper with under any circumstances. Too much can go wrong, and experienced users should proceed with a great deal of caution. Nevertheless, the registry can, and will, get cluttered up with superfluous entries and cleaning out the useless bits will make your computer run smooter and faster. Cleaning the registry can be done manually using the built-in REGEDIT tool, but that's a very complicated and tedious process, especially when there are reliable software tools available to do the job for you. I've found four that have been useful and have, so far, caused no problems on my system. I list them here in order of my personal preference.
RegSeeker -- As I write this, RegSeeker is still in beta which means there's a very strong possibility that the program will become shareware once they've completed it's final development. For the moment, it's still free, and is a very good program.
EasyCleaner -- From ToniArts, EasyCleaner is a small program which searches Windows' registry for entries that are pointing nowhere. EasyCleaner also lets you delete all kinds of unnecessary files like temps, backups etc. You can search for duplicate files and you can view some intresting info about your disk space usage! You are also able to manage startup programs, invalid shortcuts and add/remove software list. This is a very nice software application that performs nicely and is possibly the safest freeware product , of it's type, available. This comes from Toni's new personal website and there are several other freeware products there too .
Favorite
RegCleaner -- This is an older product created by Jouni Vuorio, the developer of the popular shareware program jv16. It doesn't have as slick an interface as EasyCleaner or RegSeeker but it does a good job on my Win98SE system. and it's still available, as a freeware application, from MajorGeeks.
RegClean -- This is another older product offered by MajorGeeks, developed by Microsoft but no longer available on their website. Because it was developed by Microsoft themselves it's probably the safest registry cleaner available for Win9x systems. Note: &bnsp; If you have MS Office 2000 or MS Office XP on your computer, do not use this application.
Games
I'm not a serious gamer so this is a lean section. I'm sure there are lots of good games out there, but these are the only one's I've bothered to download.
Valvo -- The nice folks at Family games have several freeware games on this page but this is the only one I've downloaded. This game takes a while to figure out, the computer really whips you at first, but, before long, you get the hang of it, and it can be set up for two players, playing against each other. Don't play with your spouse unless you sleep in different beds already.
Alhademic Balls -- The software is free, but they require that you register it. I didn't notice any marked increase in junk mail after I registered this one, and I enjoy the game.
123 Free Solitaire -- This isn't really freeware, it's adware, but the games are nice and the graphics are excellent.
Yahtzee -- This is a free single player computer version of Yahtzee, from Rekenwonder Software.
Zeek the Geek -- This is a free game that's very challenging, and a lot of fun. I had a link to it on one of our pages, but the link went bad. I got an email about it from a visitor, and I went looking for an alternate source for the software (the developer's site is long gone). I finally found a copy on an Eastern European website which wasn't in English (the website I mean, I had a heck of time figuring out where to click for the download but the game is in English). I downloaded the software, tried it on my computer, decided that it was worth the effort so I put it on our server. The download is hosted on our system.
I'm really addicted to
Johannes Wallroth's "Blocks" game which you can find among the downloads on his site, along with several other games and utilities.
Favorite
