www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/index.html

Pretty nice list of "you want do do what:  here's what you do it with" freeware.

Jim

Nice link!

I'm always on the lookout for free stuff to download.

Thank You Sir

Also have this one I put together months ago....

This is archived....

archive.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=408728

AnandTech Freeware/Open Source Software list

AnandTech Consolidated Security Thread has a lot of freeware security software.

distrowatch.com/

^ linux & BSD based operating systems (bit torrents are usually quicker than any mirrors).

Originally Posted By david_g17: distrowatch.com/ ^ linux & BSD based operating systems (bit torrents are usually quicker than any mirrors).

live cds  

originally posted by OTAR

portableapps.com

Originally Posted By cruze5: originally posted by OTAR portableapps.com

Now that multi-gig flash drives are cheap, this is fantastic.  I have OpenOffice, AbiWord, and about a dozen other apps sitting on less than half of a 2 gig PNY Attache drive.

Jim

Thanks for the list. It seems a little dated, but stll lots of good programs.

I'm not a big Microsoft fan, but here is a list of MS freebies that is really quite impressive.

I'm going to have to check out Map Cruncher (I do some GIS stuff, this looks like a neat map/image registration tool) and a few others for myself.

Jim

Does anyone know of any free data recovery software?  Or is that unheard of?  I had an external hard drive that gave me an error and all that the manufacturer would tell me was to reformat and lose everything.  Something like this would have been nice.

GNU Cash:  Free OSS version of Quicken, (still in beta so regularly save your transactions, {has option to save every transaction as it's entered}).  I've found this program very helpful. Cross platform.  Very good quality

Gnu Image Minipulation Program, (G.I.M.P): A free OSS alternative to Photoshop.  Capable of editing many different image formats, but it has a steep learning curve and its aesthetics are quite lacking to be honest.  However, with plugins, this program is very capable of performing any task that you may ask of it.  Cross platform.  Good quality.

OpenOffice.org:  A Free OSS office suite.  Very similar to MSO, and in many ways superior.  Ability to save in MS formats, documents as PDF, and presentations as Flash.  Very capable, and very shallow learning curve.  Cross platform. Excellent quality.

AVG 7.5: Free Anti-virus utility.  Email scanner, web scanner, file scanner, on demand scanner, automatic daily updates.  Very good quality.

Ad Aware SE Personal Free Adware Scanner.  User initiated, but very good at detecting adware/spyware files installed on HDD and FDD.  Very good quality.

Spybot Search & Destroy:  A free spyware/adware scanner.  Excels in detecting registy entries.  On demand registry change authenication, user initiated, immunization database prevents installation or execution of known bad products.  Manual updates.  Very good quality.

Spyware Blaster: A free utility to prevent the installation or execution of spyware/adware.  Very good quality.

True Crypt:  A free, secure file encryption utility to keep your files unreadable, (and unknowable of existance), to unauthorized parties.  Very customizable, and ability to have layered, (invisible if you like), virtual encrypted drives.  Excellent quality, (if you use a secure authentication key with maximum encryption).  Excellent quality.

Eraser: A free OSS, secure file deletion utility conforming to NSA standards and greater.  Customizable file deletion data erasure
patterns, automatic "secure wipe" of empty space on HDD every morning at 00:01. Excellent quality.

File Recovery:  A free program that allows you to recover deleted files off of your HDD and FDD.  Very easy to use.  Simply select the drive and/or directory you wish to search, and enter the file name of the file you wish to recover.  Very thorough, but takes a little bit of time to find "deleted" files.  Very good quality.

Boot and Nuke:  A free OSS program that securely erases your HDD upon starting your computer.  Very effective at its purpose.  This is a must have if you ever intend to sell your computer, or need a VERY secure data wipe of your entire system.  I will warn you, DO NOT START YOUR COMPUTER WITH THIS DISK IN THE FDD IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO IRRECOVERABLY ERASE EVERYTHING INCLUDING THE OS!!!  This will do as advertised, and "nuke" your system.  After using this, your system WILL NOT BE USABLE without re-installation of an OS.  This wipes your system 100% clean.  Unequaled in quality.

Knoppix Live CD:  A Free OSS Run-From-CD Debian based Linux CD.  Complete w/ OS and full compliment of utilities.  Combine this w/ a flash drive, and you'll have all your computing needs in a portable package.  This is very useful for system recovery operations, (actually reads "unreadable" drives in MS Windows), as well as a portable system for either testing Knoppix, or as a portable personal desktop, (if you also use a flashdrive).  This is also installable to the HDD as a conventional OS if you so desire.  Excellent quality.

I have more programs if your interested.  About the only pay program on my computer that I have is the OS.  Everything on my system is free ware, and I've had no issues whatsoever.  I can run virtually any file, and have had no infections.  I don't even use IE or OE.  It's kind of hard to beat free for a price, and until I find a software company that pays me to run thier software, I'll run free alternatives on my system.

I wanted to mention that I have started using Google Docs a lot more in the past few months.

I'm not comfortable putting anything sensitive and unencrypted up on a third party server, but for run of the mill documents, lists, non-confidential work stuff, it's nice to have it available from any web browser in the world.

For specific things like class syllabus and homework listings for my students, the "Publish" feature (publishes it to the internet, viewable at a specific URL) is FANTASTIC.  I've also started using the "Collaborate" feature to work on documents with coworkers.

docs.google.com

PortableFreeware.com

Great Links!

nice list, thanks

cool!

definate tag

.

cool. thanks

tagaroo

FreewareFiles
Freeware Only

MajorGeeks
Freeware and Shareware

FileForum/Betanews
Freeware and Shareware

Shell Extension City
1,000,000 + Freeware Programs

Enjoy!

nice

My old friend.

Delpart

Put it on a bootable USB key, and you can nuke just about anything.

tag

Thanks for all of this info.

Thanks I found one thing in there at the a whole group of IT guys said was impossible.  Once again affirming my beliefs that nothing on a computer is impossible, without bugs or impentratable.

For research records (a citations database):  Zotero

www.maximumpc.com/article/features/25_best_opensource_or_freeware_alternatives_you_need_to_download

www.maximumpc.com/article/%5Bprimary-term%5D/the_wow_factor_opensource_or_freeware_apps

Finally found what I've been looking for for a long, long time - an antivirus live run CD.

http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html
http://www.avira.com/en/support-download-avira-antivir-rescue-system (Updated January 2012)
Scroll down to "Avira AntiVir Rescue System" for the rescuecd.iso file download link.  This is updated regularly (almost daily) with new definitions files built in to the CD.

http://dnl-eu10.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/RescueDisk/
http://rescuedisk.kaspersky-labs.com/rescuedisk/updatable/ (Updated January 2012)
Kaspersky anti-virus also has a bootable antivirus scanner, the current version as of Jan 2012 is a stripped down live linux distro based on Gentoo with full graphic interface or you can select a minimal non-graphic interface.  It also connects for updates, and was the only AV out of many I tried that successfully found and eliminated a rather nasty rootkit on a machine I worked on recently.

http://www.f-secure.com/linux-weblog/files/f-secure-rescue-cd-3.11.23804.zip
http://www.f-secure.com/en/web/labs_global/removal/rescue-cd (Updated January 2012)
As discussed here
F-Secure also has a bootable rescue antivirus CD, which connects to download updated definitions if you have internet connectivity on the computer, or can use a definitions file from a USB drive.  Also has some additional utilities.

You can also build your own windows bootable CD with the BartPE builder and an XP cd, and add AV/spyware scanning programs to your build although I haven't tried this route yet.

For the Mac users and those considering the purchase of a Mac:





This first link, a blog, isn't freeware but it IS a good source of information for new Mac owners and those wishing to brush up on their skills. There are links within the blog for recommended freeware:





www.interrupt19.com





Lighthead Software offers "Caffeine", a small app that overrides your Mac's sleep function so that your screen doesn't go to sleep while watching lengthy web videos, movies, or while giving presentations. Very popular. Settings can be customized.





www.lightheadsw.com





VideoLAN - VLC media player





This app allows you to play just about any type of video file that Quicktime (Mac's video software) will not including MPEG, WMV, and .avi (DivX).


Will also play .wma audio files.





www.videolan.org





Papparazzi





Mac's OS X operating system allows you to capture web pages as images in .pdf format using the browser's print feature (Safari, Firefox). Papparazzi allows you to capture web pages via the Safari browser in a variety of formats. Settings can be customized.





http://derailer.org/paparazzi/
 

Found this one by chance.  WOW.  It kept me busy for a while.  It has free and shareware, and offers a free program give away a day that would regularly be charged for.

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/  

I can see this hasn't had an update for a while, here's my contribution.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pcs_32_totally_essential_apps

Dig for Windows (command line _real_ DNS lookup)

ProcExplorer.exe (From Microsoft)

BareGrep.exe  (Grep for Windows (GUI only) that lets you find text strings, this is GREAT for looking at log files)

WireShark packet sniffer

And seriously, there's a good web site that explains all of the little commands and switches for Windows command line, that should be copied to the thumb drive or just printed to a folder.  You can do some amazing stuff with just the command line if you know what you are doing.

A program to reset (change) Windows Admin passwords.  There are several.  The names escape me at the moment.

The Microsoft Forum Network is a great forum community.  Here is a nice list of freeware:

http://www.msfn.org/board/free-software-list-t129933.html

I got a little SAM manipulation tool - Works on every NT based M$ O/S from NT4 Workstation thru W7RC including server editions. Even worked on RAIDS!

Strangely, the name escapes me too. I carry it on a business card CD and its labeled "Don't Ask!"

"Active Directory" is another issue.

More free Mac apps:

http://www.macappguide.com/

Waste of time, lots of that stuff is out-dated and there are better alternatives than 2 or 3 of the things I looked for.

Good commentary, did you have something helpful to offer?

A free WYSIWYG web design gem. It's sort of clunky if you go from using something a little more expensive. But for my freeware website build where i only use free programs like GIMP and a free ftp it's working ok.

http://netobjects.com/html/downloads.html

Keepass password manager.



I use it.  One feature that I like is that you can paste your username and password into the appropriate fields Keepass will erase them from your clipboard after 10 seconds.


Vulcan94

I use KeePass as part of the PortableApps suite.  Very handy!

great thread

+1

I concur. A great site for free programs that is updated frequently check out: http://www.techsupportalert.com/

tagarooni

I've got to edumacate myself! My computer is trashed!

Hessian-1

since M$ didn't put native support in Windows 7 for having different wallpapers on different monitors
http://dualmonitortool.sourceforge.net/download.html

it looks to be pretty basic, but it worked great for setting 2 separate wallpapers