Best Free Software On The Web, note: most of this is windows based
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subhuman |
Posted: 17-Jun-2008, 11:21 PM
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Celtic Guardian
Group: Scotland
Posts: 418
Joined: 16-Oct-2005
Zodiac: Willow
Realm: 127.0.0.1
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All too often, people think they need to pay for (or pirate) software in order to get results. Luckily that's not the case. You rarely hear about the free software because, well it's free- and whoever publishes it doesn't have an advertising budget. Here I'm going to share some of my favorites, and hopefully people will contribute to this as well.
CD Burner XP is the best freeware CD burning software I've used to-date. However, this article goes into a comparison of it against a product called Deep Burner. Both get similar results at the end, but it is mentioned that CD Burner XP also does DVD video, and apparently Deep Burner does not. In addition to just burning, CD Burner XP also allows you to rip music CDs (I prefer other program, listed below), make .ISO images, convert other formats to .ISO images and many features usually found on pay software. It's one hell of a step up from the burning software in Windows. I prefer it over Nero as well. Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
Mozilla Firefox THE web browser of choice. No matter what your OS, this is the one to use. Versions available for Windows, Linux, Mac and OS/2 (or eComStation) machines.
CCleaner or Crap Cleaner. Removes temporary files for many programs and cleans out your prefetch cache, but where it really shines is in its Windows Registry analysis. It's amazing how many Registry Keys software leaves behind when uninstalled, and this program works wonders on correcting this. Although it gives you an option of backing up the registry first (which isn't a bad idea) I've never yet had a single problem with it. For removing the crap that uninstallers forget to remove, this is the program. For Win 2k/XP/2k3/Vista
XNView image viewer and converter. Just for converting from one picture format to another, doesn't do any editing. If you want to do image editing, try....
GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, aka "the freeware Photoshop." Versions avail for Win, Mac, eComStation and Linux
VirtualDub, a freeware video capture/processor. Not really an editor, but does great encoding. I use it mainly to convert videos to AVI format from wahtever crap format someone else may have had them in. Has numerous third-party plugins, the one I use most is called DeLogo, and I use it to remove network logos from videos recorded off of TV.
ImgBurn I don't use this much anymore, since CD Burner XP does more than it does. However if you want a lightweight CD burner/ripper... this may be what you're looking for. CD Burner XP only lets you burn images in ISO format, this supports other formats. If you have a need for non-ISO images, this may be your tool.
BoncEnc is a CD ripper, audio encoder and converter for various formats. It can produce MP3, MP4/M4A, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Bonk and FLAC files. Lightweight, fast, easy. Does VBR MP3's amazingly well.
Alba Extractor does AlbumWrap format MP3s better than AlbumWrap itself, even recovering partial or damaged files.
VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Although I usually use WinAmp for videos, VLC is nice in that is doesn't require any external codecs. Speaking of WinAmp...
WinAmp for playing my audio/video files. I'm sticking to a somewhat older version, 5.093. This would be the only one I used, except I'm finding some newer videos Matroska encoded, and VLC handles them much better. But the rest of the time, and for music, WinAmp wins.
Daemon Tools for mounting CD/DVD images and making them act as an actual drive. Faster and more convenient than actually digging up the CDs. Plus, reduces the risk of damaging your original CDs since you're not actually using them. Of course, it's useless unless you use one of the programs listed above to make an image file first...
Notepad ++ is, IMHO, the best free editor around- and it gives most costly editors a good run. A drop-in replacement for the windows Notepad, but supports tabbed editing and recognizes over 30 languages from Assembler to XML and everything in-between. Compare it to SciTe, another excellent free editor- but Notepad ++ integrates into Win better, and is uses about 1/2 the memory of SciTe. They make it a bitch to find, but here's instructions and a download link for the "convert Notepad ++ to the default instead of Notepad" for Windows. Scroll down past the plugins, and there ya go. This alone makes Notepad ++ the winner. Anything that tries to open Windows Notepad opens Notepad ++ instead. Double-click on a file, and it opens in Notepad++... you get the idea.
Ad-Aware 2008 for spyware/adware/malware scanning. Don't let the name fool you, the definition files are updated at least once a week.
For a quick, small and easy to use Windows-based file defragmenter, Defraggler deserves mention. I'm not kidding about small: the entire installer is a mere 444k in size. Made by Piriform Software, the same company that publishes CCleaner (mentioned above).
For a very viable replacement for Adobe Acrobat, there's Foxit Reader. Unlike Acrobat 8, which sucks up about 80 megs on your HD, Foxit comes in at a mere 3 megs. Load times are much faster also.
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I have two modes: wiseass and dumbass. Mode is determined by current blood alcohol level.
Drinking is a sport. In order to be competitive, you must practice on a regular basis. Although you can practice alone, it is much more fun to practice with friends. If you're out of shape and practice too hard, you will regret it the next day.
Life is a disease. It is sexually transmitted and always terminal.
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iolanda |
Posted: 27-Jun-2008, 04:51 PM
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Celtic Guardian
Group: Founder
Posts: 679
Joined: 14-Jun-2008
Zodiac: Willow
Realm: Rieti ( Lazio )
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Hi Subhuman, I'm not so skilful about computer science, on the contrary a newcomer! But I would like to tell you a site where you can free-download many movies,music,cartoons, programs, documents, etc. the last comes out, too.I'm in Italy,so this is an italian site but you can find a lot of them in English language, too. Sometimes you can find a fake, but many times a lot of good things !! This is Emule. I don't know if you have an equivalent in your country, anyway give a look! There are 2 or 3 kinds of download (now I don't remember exactly), one of both is faster than other to dowload, but both are o.k. Let me know something, everything, about it; also I'm wrong or if it's no good for you :I need to learn. Another thing is: Threatfire in another good free antivirus-anti spyware etc. You may also buy it, but the free version is real good and with automated updates. O.K. I hope has been useful.... Slainte Iolanda
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]Happy who, hovers over the life..feels the language and the fragrance of the simple things and the flowers.. (C. Baudelaire)
If you lose, don't lose the lesson ... (XIV Dalai Lama)
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