This topic got me thinking. Thanks nivekelly!

I thought it might be nice to have a place where we can all recommend our favorite shareware / freeware products to each other. There are so many options out there, it would be nice to hear the experiences of others before we try something new.

Name your favorite Shareware/Freeware programs. What are they? Why do you like them? And is there anything people should know about them before they try to use them? Please feel free to provide a link to more information about your recommendation.


For my part I will get stared with a few:

When it comes to firewall programs, I have had alot of luck with Zone Alarm. It is easy to setup and install, and as far as I know I have not had an intrusion on my systems since I have been using it. The program has been out awhile and the support is very good. I decided to subscribe to the professional version about a year ago and all has been great. If there is one thing I would say is negative about it is that often times an alert about a program trying to access the internet, act as a server, etc pops up and I have no idea if it is something I want have access or not. Often times I just say no for that one time, and then I do a web search for the program name, learn what it is and make a more informed decision from there. If you use this system, you'll be surprised when you first run it, just how many programs want to access the net on their own.

Another shareware program I like is AdAware. This is a program that searches you computer for spyware, adware, etc. The first time I used it I was amazed at how much was running on my system. I was even more amazed to discover how much faster my system ran with it all removed. A word of advice though. When you discover adware on your system, I recommend you use the backup option before you delete it. One or more files being used by the adware/spyware could be important to something else. Backing it up before you delete it gives you the ability to put it back if you run into issues later. I choose to register this one as well about a year or so ago, and I have been quite happy with it (though there are others out there like Spybot that I have used that are just as good).

One program I really like to mess with is Icon Constructor 2. Ever get tired of the same old icons? BORING!! Well you can use this program to turn any picture into an Icon (or folder skin, AIM shortcut, etc) with all sorts of variations! It makes it so much easier to find things and lets not for get the geekchic factor. You will have to buy this if you like it, but you can play with a trial version for awhile (it just adds the word trial to your icons).

One really cool program (if you have the system resources and like this sort of thing) is SmartBarXP. This puts a large, fully customizable toolbar on your desktop. Drop a few frequently used links there, add an imbedded media player, etc. I enjoy using this, but tied up too much in the way or resources on my laptop.

Last but DEFIANTLY not least is Network Magic. WOW! I never could successfully network my computers for file and print sharing and the like (wiring I got down, but the software side? ). Then, thanks to my AOL membership (I know, I know ), I get this one for free. The link above is for all you not AOL users out there (for those closet AOL users...pssst.....keyword: Network Magic ). I downloaded and ran this on each of my three computers and bamm!! Network up and running, sharing is a snap, no issues at all! When my Mom visited I ran it on her laptop and Wham!! she was up and running, sharing away on my network, no problem. This is the only product I have found that makes networking computers a snap. The link I included is to information about this. I believe all you non-AOL types out there only get a 14 day trial before you have to pay up. If you are like me, and have been frustrated repeatedly and eventually gave up on networking your systems they TRY THIS! you' love it. Your router is MUCH more useful when you network.

OK, that's my contribution! What's yours?

Oh dear God, how much time do you have? First off, I got to give props to sourceforge they have tons of open source programs for Windows, just give them a search and make sure you the software can run under Windows or Mac (A lot of it is Linux based so be sure to read!)

For you Windoze/Mac types, please for the love of Sys Admins and web developers everywhere, install Firefox For those of you who don't know, Windows in their infinite wi$dom tied Internet Exploder and their Operating System (Windows) together pretty tightly, even after the monopoly deal went through. What this means, is that the thing you browse the internet (the cesspool of virus, trojan horses, and worms oh my!) interacts a lot with your OS where all your files and important things are. Remote Procedure Calls (the way IE and Windows talk) are a Script Kiddies best friend, just ask the 18 year old who made the Blaster worm. Firefox on the other hand isn't tied into the OS so closely so you have less chance of "picking something up in the wild."


Want MS Office for free instead of $400? Try Open OfficeOpen Office. Want Adobe Photoshop Pro? Try The Gimp All those started out on Linux but have been ported over to Windows.

Another cool one is Gaim Gaim is like AOL Instant Messanger but allows you to be logged on to more than one type of IM In fact it supports: AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger, and Zephyr networks. So you can talk to your friends on AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN messenger all at the same time!


The Ultimate in freeware of course is Linux/Unix/BSD! If you are somewhat computer savvy and have some time on your hands (and maybe an old computer), get yourself a version of Linux and install it. I'd suggest something more "mainstream" like Fedora or SuSE so you don't have to do a lot of configuration and things like your video card and sound card will work. Be sure to do some reading on the subject first! You don't want to overwrite your Windows OS and lose all your data! (if you can, do it on an old computer please!) After a few weeks or so, you'll realize that Linux offers pretty much all the same programs that Windows does but with out the crashes, viruses, worms, monopoly support etc etc. (except with games...no World of Warcraft on Linux [this being why I had keep my Winblows install instead of being a pure linux geek]...unless you run it with W.I.N.E but I digress....)


ps: Yes, I am a nerd!

Alright, sticking with Windows freeware, I highly recommend Nonags.com. Everything they list is free except the "featured listings" which are advertisements.

Going through my start menu, here are some good applications:

• TweakUI (scroll for it). This PowerToy from Microsoft gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.
• Crimson Editor. Crimson Editor is a professional source code editor for Windows that performs syntax highlighting for plenty of programming languages, and has a lot of nice hotkeys.
• WAMP. If you need to run a local Windows-based Apache MySQL PHP server for testing purposes, this is the one you should run.
• Picasa. Picasa (by Google) is an excellent program for viewing, sorting, and categorizing images. It has a very nice user interface, and is simple to use.
• PIXresizer. If you have a lot of pictures that you want to resize for emailing or posting to the Internet, give PIXresizer a try. It works great.
• MWSnap. MWSnap is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen. It is capable of capturing the whole desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen. It handles 5 most popular graphics formats and contains several graphical tools: a zoom, a ruler, a color picker and a window spy. It can be also used as a fast picture viewer or converter.
• VisualIRC. If you don't like the AD chat applet, you can run ViRC. It is less bulky than mIRC, and works very well.
• Avast Antivirus. Don't waste your money on McAfee or Norton Antivirus. Avast is just as good, and is completely free.
• CCleaner (Crap Cleaner). CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!
• CSDiff. ComponentSoftware Diff (CSDiff) is a free, advanced file-difference analysis tool for Microsoft Windows. It is great for analyzing changes which have been made between two revisions of the same file or folder, and for analyzing program source files, HTML documents and MS-Word documents.
• IZArc. IZArc is a file compression utility, comparable in quality to WinZip. I counted 47 filetypes that it supported.
• Everest Home Edition. Everest is a freeware hardware diagnostics and memory benchmarking application. It offers accurate hardware information and diagnostics capabilities, including online features, memory benchmarks, hardware monitoring, and low-level hardware information.
• SpeedFan. SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in computers with hardware monitor chips, among other things.
• SyncBack Freeware. Automate your system backups with SyncBack. Make sure you get the one marked "Freeware."
• Winamp. Winamp is an excellent media player. It includes advanced playlist capabilities, support for a lot of formats, and plugin support.

Enjoy!

Mike

Linux It is the only system I use.

My favorite Linux program is Gimp.

I've got to add Mozilla Thunderbird to the list.

If you are still using Outlook Express like a sucker, you owe it to yourself to give Thunderbird a shot.

It has a fairly strong junk mail filter that learns what email is junk based on email that you mark, and that makes it really easy to cut down on spam. If an email is junk, you just hit the "junk" button and it is moved, never to bother you again.

It also has full support for RSS feeds, which is a very nice feature. I have about 20 blogs in my RSS section of Thunderbird, and it notifies me whenever someone makes a post.

The only drawback is that it does not handle (as far as I know) Hotmail email like Outlook Express does. So, if you use OE to check your Hotmail, and if that is important to you, then Thunderbird is probably not the best software for you.

Mike