I use a lot of little programs to make my day-to-day life easier. This way, when I need a software that could cost $50, I’ll have a free utility which does exactly the same and costs absolutely nothing. Here are a few of them. Most of these programs are small, under a megabyte and don't require an install. I use some of them every day, and others I use only occasionally. Almost all of them are free. I'll be adding to this list as time goes on. I'm sure there are little programs I use that I forgot about, and there are some that are no longer available that I may make available if the license permits me to.
Antivirus & Antispyware
Your computer is physically in front of you, but is it really under your control?
Want to keep your computer spyware free? Use Ad-Aware.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
You have to be careful to always select the free option when downloading, but AVG has been free for years & it works great.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: November 10, 2006
I use this program: Daily
Another Sysinternals product (now owned by Microsoft), FileMon reports on every time a program accesses your hard drive. The information given is overwhelming, but a bit eye opening too, and could be important in tracking down a piece of malware.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: January 14, 2006
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
HijackThis scans your computer for anything that may have been changed by malware (viruses & spyware) and reports on them. It makes no judgment calls & doesn't try to fix anything, but it does let you go to the internet & get answers to how to fix things when they go horribly, horribly wrong.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
Gibson Research Corporation's website that will test you computer to see which ports are open. Thanks to my firewalls, I get a perfect "Stealth" rating. What kind of rating do you get?
License: Freeware
Installation: Browser Based
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Once a year
Another excellent tool to help get rid of and prevent spyware from infesting your computer. This one caught some spyware on my friend's computer that Ad-Aware missed.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
TrustNoEXE solves the problem of "how do I lock down the computer so I can hand it over to someone & expect to get it back in the same condition I gave it to them in?" It prevents any program not in its list of trusted programs from running & the list is only accessible from the Control Panel. For a power user that regularly runs new programs this may be annoying, but for a system administrator, or someone giving a computer to mom (who may open "funnyCatPicures.exe") it's a godsend. It can also be set to allow any program in a certan directory run (such as c:\windows or c:\users\mark\desktop\smallware).
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: January 14, 2006
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
Winpooch is a cool, and only sleightly annoying (compared to Trust No EXE below) anti-spyware & anti-trojan tool that monitors your computer for internet connections, file accesses, etc. and reports them to you, allowing you to approve or deny them. Advanced users only.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 12, 2006
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
Audio, Video & Music
Tools for displaying, editing, and creating audio and video, as well as tools for learning music, etc.
Free, open source multi-track recorder & editor. Audacity has become my go-to program for simple edits. I have a few gripes (the built in EQ sucks), but it accepts plugins, so maybe I'll find something...
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: January 7, 2006
I use this program: Once a month
CDex is a fairly simple to use MP3 ripper. For problem discs, try Exact Audio Copy.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
GNU Solfege is an ear training program. It has a number of exercises of increasing difficulty. This program really kicks my ass. If I stuck with it more, I'd have better ears than I do.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a month
Works with a USB piano keyboard and teaches you how to read music - notes values & durations are drilled. Great tool for anyone looking to learn piano or learn to read music.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
Based on an old version of Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic is a great, compact media player that handles some things a bit better than VLC. Unlike VLC, MPC depends on the codecs installed on your computer. Combine it with a media codec pack such as K-Lite & Quictime Alternative, and you should be able to play just about anything.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Daily
Combines multiple MP3s into a single file - good for combining multiple audio-book files into a single file.
License: Freeware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a month
You know how our MP3s all play at different volumes? MP3Gain analyzes your MP3s and determines which ones are louder/quieter and sets a hidden bit in the MP3 that tells your player how much volume to add or lower. Once you run MP3Gain on your MP3s, each one will sound just as loud/soft as the previous one and you can get back to doing what you were doing instead of constantly adjusting the volume.
For you audio geeks out there, it simply adds an entry to the ID3v2 tag that tells it "play at -6.5 db" so it doesn't compress, clip, or otherwise alter the audio data in any way.
Update March 2009: I still use MP3 gain on my MP3s, but I don't trust it on all of them (I'm not sure how to reversethe process). There are some MP3s where it seemed to set the volume to 0, but this was a very rare edge case & I've never seen it behave like that before, and some MP3s where it didn't get an accurate read of the volume, and those remain much louder than others. Also, there seems to be a bug on the iPod where for the split second after you hit "next" it plays the song at full volume - somewhat annoying but less annoying than constantly changing the volume as each song comes on. There are programs available for Linux & OSX as well based on the same algorithm.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: November 15, 2006
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a month
Use this to capture streaming video and audio off the net.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: January 7, 2006
I use this program: Once a year
VLC is one of the most popular video players in the world. Compact & supports a wide variety of files, VLC is my default video/audio player.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Daily
A very simple & versaile metronome/drum machine that lets you enter in patterns with the keyboard by referencing the number of the track you want to play. Useful for practicing odd times.
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
ABX is a tool for testing your ears & comparing two audio files. It plays an "A" file, a "B" file and an "X" file and you hav to decide if the X file is A or B. Audiophlies use it to determine if there really is a difference between two sound samples. WinABX seems to be the last of this dying breed of programs.
License: Freeware
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
Backup
Backing up your data is essential to being able to keep working after something goe wrong.
I've been using 12 Backup on & off for years, depending on my needs at the time. 12 Backup behaves like Time Machine on a Mac (but did it first). The Hyperbackup stores a copy of your file every second for a minute, every minute for an hour, every hour for a day, every day for a week, every week for a month, and every month forever. This way you can retrieve a version from a few moments ago, a few days ago, or a few months ago, or anywhere in between. Good for rapidly changing files.
License: Shareware
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Daily
I searched high and low for a program that will not only copy my files to another drive or computer on the network for safekeeping, but FTP them to another location entirely. SyncBack does this. Now if the worst happens - a total hard drive failure - my most important documents will be waiting for me on my server (in another city thousands of miles away). Not bad for freeware!
Update March 2009: I've been depending on this software for over 4 years now, and it has performed beautifully. My laptop died last year & I didn't lose any important information. A shared-network drive at work died and I didn't lose any important information. Truly amazing. I've updated to the shareware version & recently went back to look at the freeware version & it was pretty simplistic, but still got the job done. One of the great features of the shareware version is that will keep versions of our file, so that if the file gets corrupted, you don't have to worry about the corrupted version overwriting your good backup, since you can have (for example) 10 versions going back 30 days.
Other Similar Tools: Karen's Replicator is a freeware tool that will copy your fils from one drive to another, but lacks versioning & FTP. Second Copy (shareware) is also consistently highly recommended as an excellent backup utility.
I've written an article called Automated Hands-Free Backups for my search for the ultimate backup tool. I also wrote another article called Recovering from Catastrophic Failure about how SyncBack let me keep working, even though my computer died.
License: Freeware and Shareware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Daily
Games
Abandoned tinygames. See also A Complete Waste of Time for all sorts of time wasters.
This little wargame is simplistic by modern standards, and the Play By Email function seems quaint in the world of always-on-broadband and Playstation2 or XBox Live, but there's still a soft spot in my heart for this game. It was published in 1993 by Burnham Park Software, Inc. Written by Mark Brownstein.
Declaration of War is a version, which includes modern weapons such as airplaines and aircraft carriers. Search for "dowar11.zip" on Google. Also medoor11.zip, is a BBS door version of the game... I have no idea how this one works, as I never ran a BBS.
I was in contact with the programmer, who was developing a 2.0 version (which I was waiting for before I registered) but it never came out, and the company fell off the face of the Earth. I never did get a registered version (which would allow you to build your own scenarios).
Download directly from my site: Medwar; Declaration of War
License: Freeware and Shareware
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
Updated: March 21, 2009
The Original Daleks Game - Daleks.exe
Another addictive puzzle game. You play Dr. Who, and you have to avoid the Daleks. They move one space every time you move one space. You kill them by getting them to crash into each other, or destroying them with the one-use sonic screwdriver. You can also teleport, but that's dangerous. While you won't teleport directly onto a dalek, you may teleport next to one, and it can kill you on it's next round.
This DOS game was written by Robert Paauwe in 1985. Again, numerous other versions have been written of this game, including several online versions, but the first remains the best. Though some of the online-only versions have some good features, like, well, not having to install it at all, and you can compete against hundreds of other people for the high score.
Download directly from my site: DALEKS.EXE; see A Complete Waste of Time for online versions.
License: Freeware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: December 5, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
The Original SameGame
"The ultimate time waster." In this addictive puzzle game, you have to clear the board of colored blocks. You can only clear 2 or more adjacent blocks, and the more you can clear at once, the more points you get.
Download directly from my site:
samegame.exe License: Freeware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
Graphic & Web Design
Small utilities to to make your world a bit more colorful.
My favorite drawing program & the reason (besides Photoshop) I want a tablet. It simulates drawing on paper, painting on a canvas, etc.
License: Freeware and Shareware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a month
A simple program that does something unique. You can choose any color and it will tell you what other colors compliment it. The algorithm it uses to do this is fairly straightfoward, but being able to see them all in the same place has it's advantages. It also has an eyedropper for grabbing colors, a sample webpage where you can see how the color schemes you selected will look, and an archive of your favorite colors.
Incidentally, my favorite method for finding color schemes is shrinking photographs to 10 pixels wide using bicubic algorithms & expanding them out using nearest-neighbor.
Try the Online Version
License: Freeware and Shareware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Once a month
Dennis Forbes wrote this tiny tool to strip EXIF data from your .jpg images. This is typically stuff like what camera took the picture, what sorts of conditions it took it under, and so forth, but can include large amounts of data, such as thumbnails of the picture. This tool strips all that out. See also jhead, another utility that can edit that data as well as delete it. (Via the Joel on Software forum.)
Admittedly less useful in today's broadband & mega hard drive world, in fact this is the kind of information you often want to keep in your photos (for photo nerds like me), but may be useful to you.
License: Freeware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Never
A unique tool that measures the number of pixels between two points on your screen. Can also be used as an onscreen ruler for keeping things straight. They also make a Screen Protractor, which does what you would expect it to do.
License: Shareware
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Once a month
A nice, graphical and GUI based log file reader. I use Google Anlaytics now, but it doesn't tell you everything a good log analyzer may tell you.
License: Freeware and Shareware
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
Hard Drive and File Repair, Rename & Recovery
Everything you need to keep your hard drives running efficiently
Command line tool that lets you defrag a single file or directory. From Microsoft, formerly from SysInternals.
License: Freeware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
This file searches your hard drive & finds duplicate files. You can select the paramaters - Name, Filesize, Date or CRC, folders, filetypes, folders, etc. Easy to use, no install. Works great, the UI is excellent and it runs extraordinarily quickly.
Update: They've introduced a "Pro" version of DoubleKiller with a bunch of new features. (Thanks to Robert Bull for the pointer.)
Update 2: I've purchased the Pro version. The advanced options make it well worth it. I've already used it to clean probably several gigabytes of files I had lying around duplicated either due to having several copies from upgrading my computer or due to downloading the same file twice, or retagging MP3s so a less sophisticated program couldn't spot the dups. Well worth it for a digital packrat like myself. Update March 2009: I still use DoubleKiller Pro, though not as much as I used to. Nowadays I just buy another external hard drive. What's really impressive about DoubleKiller Pro is how fast it works (depending somewhat on how you configure it). Highly recommended for anyone that needs this sort of thing.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
Adds a column to Windows Explorer that tells you the size of your folders. It takes a moment to grab information from your folders (like doing a rightclick/properties), but can replace the "Size" column by including folder size information as well.
Update March, 2009: In my increasingly networked & large-hard-drive filled world, I don't use Folder Size much anymore - it's just too slow.
(via LifeHacker)
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: January 7, 2006
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Never
I use this program on a regular basis. I hate getting files with extremely long file names and going to burn them them to CD just to find they don't fit and I have to rename 100 files. Or getting an audio book on mp3 just to find that the filenames are "Author - Book Title - Disc 1 - File 15.mp3" when my mp3 player only shows the first few characters of the file. Well, luckily, there's Oscar's File Renamer to the rescue. It's extremely simple interface lets you search & replace or record keystroke macro's. What really sets this apart is that it opens a directory like a text file, moving the cursor up and down doesn't just select a different file, it keeps the same character spacing as before, and you don't commit your changes until you're happy with them so you can experiment without fear of screwing up. When you use a program like this, you have to balance the time & effort you spend learning it/using it with the time it would take to rename all the files by hand. That said, here are a few other renamers you might be interested in.
I've also used BKRenamer, which is a great regular expression, command-line no-install tool. BKRenamer is great when you have to do a change all the file names in several directories because it can search through subdirectories as well.
I've also used the Bulk Rename Utilitiy, which is quite complex, but useful when you need to do more than simple renaming, such as renaming and moving only files that have been renamed, etc.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a month
When I needed to undelete a file that I'd erased, I googled for a program that would work for me. Out of all the programs I tried, PC Inspector was the best. It works with NTFS and FAT32, and it's extremely thorough. It may take a while to scan your hard drive, but it's well worth it if you can get your precious data back.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: January 6, 2006
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
This program shows you visually how much space is taken up by what folders/files on your hard drive. Think of it as a sort of square pie chart that allows you to zoom in to a folder. This is a very powerful program that allows you to literally see where all of your space is going. Not as popular as SequoiaView, but I think it's better because SpaceMonger shows you directories and allows you to zoom in on them.
WinDirStat is a free, open source program that does many of the things SpaceMonger does, and more. (Thanks to Robert Bull for pointing me to this one.) Folder Size (see above) is an excellent plugin for Windows Explorer that will show you the size of each folder. Update March 2009: There is a powerful shareware version of this software now, which you may be interested in if the freeware version doesn't do enough for you.
License: Freeware and Shareware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
Hard drives go bad, it's a fact of life. Spinrite can help. By booting into Spinrite, it can analyze your hard drive (sort of like chkdsk), and even try to recover bad sectors. It's a real last-ditch drive saving tool, but can be the difference between recovered data & unrecovered data.
I list this as being "Portable" but you have to burn it to a CD andn run it as a boot disk since it has to bypass the OS for direct access to the disk.
License: Shareware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
Information Managers
See Comparison of Outliners for a comprehensive overview of my favorite information managers.
More of a database than an outliner, Treeline is a great tool for keeping structured information. It stores files in an XML structure & exports nicely to HTML. I maintain this smallware list in Treeline.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Daily
I've been using this program to organize information for as long as I can remember, certainly for the past decade (it being 2009 now). Combined with TrueCrypt to keep the data secure & Syncback to back up my files, TreePad has been the single place I store all my most important data. Thanks to this setup, I've never lost old passwords, can use very complex passwords that even I can't remember, and so on.
There are shareware versions, which I own, but Treepad Free remains the best.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Daily
Internet - email, chat, browsing, networking
Small alternatives to the major programs, as well as some interesting things you may not have known existed.
An RSS aggregator that's fairly lightweight (though the database can get huge if you have a lot of feeds in it). If you prefer an offline reader, Feedreader is probbaly the way to go. I was able to browse thousands (yes, thousands) of job ads a day using Feedreader to quickly scan the headline & just look at the ones that were most intersting to me.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a month
Open source FTP program. portable version
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: April 4, 2009
I use this program: Daily
This program sits in your system tray & lets you add files to be downloaded. It can beak a large file up into smaller parts to speed up the download, or resume a download once it has been stopped (depending on the configuration of the web server you're downloading from). I haven't used it in a whlie, but it was very handy for a while.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
Google Chrome is a somewhat lightweight browser that has some interesting features. It's based on the Safari rendering engine, and launches each tab in a separate process, so if a webpage has something on it that causes that tab to crash, you can to into the task manager, kill that process, and keep on browsing without losing any of the data in your other tabs. While this means greater overhead per-tab, it also means as you close tabs, memory is reclaimed and given back to your OS. It also has an "incognito" mode that keeps no cookies or history of what you're doing. All in all, I recommend it for lightweight or private browsing. Works on a computer I have at home that could never easily run Firefox.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Daily
HTTrack will browse a website & make an offline copy of it for you to browse at your leisure. It's the kind of thing you'd only need occasionally, but you're glad to have when you do need it.
License: Open Source
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
Jabber is a server + client protocol that allows you to set up your own instant messenger. Used mostly at companies that want to enable chat, but don't want their chat shared with AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo or Google or to go unencrypted over the internet. Since you control the server, you can enable things like encryption & chat logging on the server. Google Talk/Gchat is based on Jabber. You can also enable communication between server, so you can connect different branches of your organization with Jabber, each controlling their own version.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Never
Using Mailwasher, you can log in to your email account & delete and bounce spam mails before they hit your inbox. Why is this cool? Because by sending a bounced email, you're telling the spammer "return to sender, address unknown" and spam bots will remove your email address from their list of valid email addresses. It won't solve your spam problems, but if used diligently, it should be a great way to cut down on the amount of spam that gets sent to you.
Update March 2009: I used this program to delete over 4,000 spam messages in someone's inbox. Yes, that's 4,000 spam messages. (Or maybe it was 40,000, I forget). Any email client that downloaded the email first to analyze it would have died. Mailtrust too wasn't rock-solid and I had to keep stopping the download process, otherwise Mailtrust would peg the CPU and churn for hours, but it was the only tool I could think of that would get the job done, nevermind the bounce features, it's a great tool for cleaning your inbox if there's so many spam emails your mail client chokes on them.
License: Freeware and Shareware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 3, 2006
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
MoonEdit is a great collaborative text editing tool. It allows two people to edit the same document simultaneously. I've never found a use for this, but it's just simply awesome in concept.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: January 21, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: #####
This is a great tiny (1.2MB) web browser that only supports old-school website layouts (HTML 3.2 - no CSS, no Javascript), but could get you out of a jam on a computer with absolutely no spare RAM. It claims to erase your tracks after you use it, but I find that they persist.
License: Freeware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: March 12, 2006
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
Pidgin is an open source instant messaging client that works with all the major protocols, including IRC and Jabber. It's the only instant messaging client I use.
A portable version is available at PortableApps.com. One of the benefits of having a portable version is that all your passwords & chat logs are stored in the same folder as the application, making Pidgin that much easier to secure. Pidgin Portable even supports encrypted chat sessions with portable versions of Pidgin Encrption and Pidgin OTR.
I DO NOT recommend Trillian. When dealing with tech support, the tech support guy emailed me a portion of my password hoping to jog my memory (thinking that my problems were an inability to remember my Trillian password & not their confusing licensing scheme). The fact that my password was stored in plaintext is a HUGE red flag that they don't take security seriously.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
Updated: April 10, 2009
I use this program: Daily
VNC allows you to take control of another computer. It's cross platform (and comes pre-installed on Macs where they call it "Screen Sharing"). It does this by sending a highly compressed video of your computer to the other computer. Created by a compan that was acquired by AT&T, VNC has been long trusted in the computing world. VNC can also be configured to act as a web server, so you can allow someone to take control of your computer via a web browser alone without having them install the software, in which case it uses a Java client. One of the cons of VNC is that it doesn't work if the client is behind a firewall (such as on an internal network). Obviously, this is recommended only for highly technically proficient people.
Real VNC: Freeware & Shareware versions (I've only ever used the freeware version). I believe Real VNC is based most closely on the original. I've found RealVNC to be the least resource intensive VNC, which is great for older computers.
UltraVNC: Open Source, this version allows you to create an .EXE file that you can send to someone else and they can connect to you rather than you connecting to them. In this case, you have to not be behind a firewall (or at least open certain ports to the public). UltraVNC is frequently used by tech support personnel that need to control your computer to fix something (Verizon, for example, used it to help me troubleshoot a problem DSL connection).
TightVNC: Open Source, this version places an emphasis on how highly it compresses the video stream for slow internet connections, but I found it to be very CPU intensive, so it may not work so well on older computers.
Fog Creek CoPilot: Shareware/Subscription Service, this is a pay-per-use VNC based on Ultra VNC, meaning the other person downloads a program & runs it and automatically connects to you - they don't have to configur anything. The major benefit over Ultra VNC is that it takes care of configuration for you (you don't need to email/upload the configured file anywhere) & uses a 3rd party server to "punch through" firewalls, allowing it to work even if both computers are behind a firewall. There are many services like this (I believe "GoToMyPC" is another), but I happen to be familiar with CoPilot & like that you can pay for only 24 hours, which in most cases, long enough.
License: Freeware and Shareware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
WASTE is a program with an interesting history. Written by the guy who wrote Gnutella after his company (which also makes WinAmp) was bought out by AOL as a competitor to AOL Instant Messenger and released controversially on to the web for just a few hours before being pulled by AOL executives, it's a purely peer-to-peer chat & file sharing app that operates similar to AIM/Yahoo/MSN/ICQ etc. Without a central network to connect to, you have to rely on your peers to keep their client open (and unfirewalled) for the network to stay alive.
WASTE is part of a burgeoning "darknet" community, but I find it very poor as a file-sharing tool, unless you're specifically sending a file to someone. Everything that happens within the network is encrypted to outside eyes, but the chain is only as stron as its weakest link.
The latest active version is Waste Again, which adds some nice features.
I wrote a version of the Wikipedia article.
I use it mostly to share files between home & work - it opens some files on my home network that only I can access. Recommended only for advanced users.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: #####
You won't need this program a lot, but it can be used to analyze network traffic going into & out of your computer... for example I was able to configure it to create a chat log of a flash-based chat. It can be useful in finding spyware as it tries to phone home & see exactly what is being sent.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
Macro
This program is great. A few simple keystrokes and you can type any unicode character, like ¼ or û. Plus you can use it to playback certain keystrokes in Macro mode.
Update March 2009: I don't really use this program, but leave it here because it's still pretty neat.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Never
Very robust macro program that can be programed to do just about anything you can do. I use it to automate tedious tasks, and create quick-launch keys to launch certain applications. Straightforward keyboard interface is easy to learn, though tedious to use. I don't use this nearly as much anymore now that I discovered than any shortcut on your desktop can have a shortcut key. Just right click on it and go to properties and choose a Shortcut Key in the appropriate box. Not as robust as other macro programs out there (like Maco Express), but this one has the advantage of being free.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
This is a great time saving macro. Any text you type can be replaced with any text in the robotype database. For example, any time I type ?latin, it's replaced with the Lorem Ipsum Dolor blurb text. This is great for sig files, or standardized bits of text you use all the time (like bits of code).
Version 3 adds a lot of great features, such as categorization, getting rid of the extra space after the replace text, merging two .rtl files, a "launch when windows opens" option (before I had to add my .rtl file to the Startup group), and the ability to prompt for input.
Note: RoboType is no longer free, it's now part of the PC Magazine Utilities, which are available inexpensively on the Ziff Davis website.
Update March 2009: I still use this program from time to time when I have a lot of repetitive text to copy/paste, but need to maintain several copy/paste sources.
License: Shareware
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Once a year
Office Tools
I love Excel. I think Excel is one of the greatest pieces of software known to man. (a quick browse through the rest of my blog should show you that - charts galore).
Now that Excel, and all of Microsoft Office has gone & changed the file format and the interface (and even introduced a carry-over bug) it's time to move on. Excel 2003 was the pinnacle - subtle improvements on an already excellent peice of software, but it's not available for sale anymore & it's as good a time as any to start evaluating other software packages.
Enter Gnumeric. I've tried Open Office Calc & I can't figure out how to get it to make charts and we all know I love charts). Gnumeric seems to do it all. Not as nicely, but it does it all, and it doesn't ask you to install the statistics plugin before it'll do statistics (like Excel). At home, for spreadsheets, all I use is Gnumeric. (At work I use Office 2003.)
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: April 8, 2009
I use this program: Daily
I've been following Open Office for years (since Star Office 5.2 back in 2001 or so) and recently I was looking for a word processor to replace Word. I tried AbiWord but found it to be a little buggy - when I corrected a misspelled word the underline would stay there, and when I deleted a paragraph of text, the screen wouldn't refresh so I wouldn't be able to view everything I that was on the page unless I scrolle away & back again.
Open Office Writer is great, though. I almost feel like I'm using another version of Word. I highly recommend it as an alternative to Microsoft Word.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: April 8, 2009
I use this program: Daily
Operating System Tools
All the tools I use to keep my computer humming along & for moving around massive amounts of files.
This program adds Always On Top, Minimize to Tray, Priority and Transparency menus to your taskbar rightclick. Sometimes I wonder how I've managed to live without it. Setting priority on the fly and minimizing to the tray (freeing space in the precious taskbar, and effectively allowing me to rearrange the order of my taskbar) are must-have tools for me.
Update March 2009: I rarely use this program - probably because more & more programs feature "minimize to tray", but it is still part of my "bag of tricks" and I use it from time to time.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
We recently lost a domain controller at work & when I switched some users from the domain to "workgroup" I lost the ability to access their files, including all their outlook emails, etc. Luckily, I had a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD (a 4 year old one at that), and I was able to boot up the machine & change some of the NTFS passwords (pretty scary that you can do that, but if you're not encrypting you're not really securing anyway) to regain access to those files. Then all I had to do was point outlook to those archive files & they had access again. The Ultimate Boot CD rocks!
License: Freeware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
Don't you hate it when you're trying to move a folder, or delete a file and Windows won't let you because it's "In use?" Well WhoLockMe will tell you what programs are using that file or folder, so you can shut them down and move on with your life.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Never
Project Management / Getting Things Done
A simple tool that's part clock, part spreadsheet. By clicking on it you can start tracking the time you spend on any task. If you're idle, or come back from idle, it will ask you whether or not you want to end/resume a task. At the end of the day, week, month, or year, you will know exactly how much time you spent doing what. The only drawback is that you have to be near a computer to use it.
Update September 2004: Unfortunately, this program is now shareware. The new shareware version adds a number of new features, but you will have to pay for it from now on.
License: Shareware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: #####
Open source alternative to MS Project. I found it to be a little buggy as of last year, but still very good overall.
License: Open Source
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a month
This program, which I didn't fully understand until I used it, tracks tasks that you have to do "every 3-4 days" or "about once a month." You input them and it shows you around when you need to do it using a color coded grid. It's shareware, but the freeware version lets you have up to 4 tasks per instance, and you can have 2 instances on your desktop.
License: Shareware
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: #####
Reading & Writing
Tools used for writing & analyzing text, behaviors, etc.
From 1990, this DOS program analyzes your writing style for style & content. I haven't come across anything like it since & I'm now making it available to you!
download Readability Plus.
License: Shareware
Installation: Portable
Date Added: April 4, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
Textstat analyzes word frequencies in text documents. Useful for keyword analysis, or my favorite use, inferring pseudo-pop-psychology/linguistic concepts from word usage.
Textanz and Concordance are both shareware tools that do this too, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a year
I have very little experience so far with yWriter, but it seems like a great tool for fiction (and other) writers. Importantly, the features are robust & it does a lot to ensure your data is there no matter what happens to the program.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: #####
Search & Replace
Agent Ransack is a great search utility that will search through folders and files based on regular expression searches. It also has a handy regular expression builder, though I find it only gets you about halfway to where you want to go.
I don't use this program anymore, I think because I've become more organized. Google has a similar program called Google Desktop Search, which I haven't used.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
I use this program: Never
This is a great regular expression based search & replace utility that will search through the text of multiple files & performer multiple search & replaces on them. One of the great things about this software is that you can save your search & replace strings for later use. Very handy for repetitive editing tasks, like cleaning up documents you get from someone else. The "Advanced Edit" tool also makes more complex search & replace tasks easier.
License: Freeware
Installation: Install
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Once a month
This is a diff program - it will detect changes between two text documents or between two directories. I used this recently when migrating between two computers to ensure a lot of my important files made the transition smoothly without some random Windows copy error preventing me from getting something I needed.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: November 15, 2006
I use this program: Once a year
Security & Encryption
If you lost your laptop, what would the thiefs be able to find & do to you?
OTR is a plugin that will encrypt your chat sessions. I use the
Password Safe
Portable Pidgin OTR plugin.License: Open SourceInstallation: Install & PortableDate Added: April 10, 2009I use this program: Once a yearAfter a bug that caused the last letter of every username & password my girlfriend generated to not appear in Password Safe after upgrading from 1.7 to 3.0, I no longer recommend Password Safe. Rather, I recommend using an Outliner and Truecrypt. (We were eventually able to recover her passwords by using a backed-up version of her file & running Password Safe 1.7.)
License: Open Source
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Never
PGP is the grandaddy of all modern encryption. Using the same sort of technology that your browser uses to secure your credit card transactions (only much more powerful) it can encrypt your files & text so that only you, or only someone (who also has PGP) that you designate can open it. It also allows you to prove you are who you say you are or that you wrote something by digitally signing it.
PGP is for the somewhat advanced user - you have to be able to keep & protect a private key file that is essential for everything - encrypting, decrypting, and signing all of your files & messages (a truecrypt volume would be a prime candidate for this).
- PGPi.org maintains a list of freely available PGP downloads. The latest version available through the site is PGP 7.03. (link: Freeware versions for Windows 95/98/NT)
- PGPdisk PGPdisk will encrypt a disk partition for you. While I prefer TrueCrypt for this (you can create small portable files that act like encrypted disks, and TrueCrypt is in active development) some of you may prefer PGP disk. The last freeware version is version 6 and is available from PGPi.org.
- The latest version of PGP available from PGP Corporation is version 9, technically "trial software" which, after 30 days reverts to PGP freeware (PGPdisk will not work after 30 days). You must register with a valid email address to download it & you get a PDF with a license key and a download link. This download is also about 10 times bigger than the last PGP freeware version. (around 80mb vs. 8mb) I would rather stick to PGP 7.
- GnuPG is an open soure alternative, but only operates from the command line, so there are front-ends available that simplify running the program, but these mainly seem to be to interface to email clients. GPG is completely compatible with PGP protocols. Notably, there is a version of GPG that will run in conjunctin with a portable Thunderbird installation.
- PortablePGP is a Java based program that performs the basic PGP functions (encrypting, decrypting & signing), and even runs on a USB stick (by bundling the Java runtime environment), unfortunately this makes the program rather large, but it will run on a USB stick. Some people have reported that it will not load perfectly good PGP keys from PGP version 7, but will work perfectly good with keys created in PortablePGP.
License: Freeware and Shareware
Installation: Install & Portable
Date Added: December 12, 2005
Updated: April 5, 2009
I use this program: Once a decade (emergencies)
TrueCrypt allows you to create encrypted files that act like drives, allowing you to store many file within them. I use TrueCrypt all the time at home and at work to store my most important documents (such as tax documents, password lists, etc.). It also has a "plausible deniability" feature that allows you to create hidden volumes - one password accesses one portion of the TrueCrypt volume, another password accesses another, hidden portion, so that if pressed for the password, you can give them a password. I use TrueCrypt every day to protecy my most important documents.
License: Open Source
Installation: Install
Date Added: March 21, 2009
I use this program: Daily
Links
Want more? Here are a collection of links (last checked 4/4/2009 - it's amazing how many years some of these sites have been around) to places to find sofware with a similar philosophy.
AnalogX
Some of what you'll find inside: audio tools, internet utilities, articles, web tools, DirectX plugins, original MP3 music, MIDI software, and much more, all available to download for free!
CleanSoftware.org
"This software is believed to be free from nasties: adware, spyware, harmful/intrusive components, and threats to privacy. There are no sponsored entries."
CMD Tools
For everyone serious about the command line. (site seems down as of 4/4/2009)
DonationCoder.com
Lots of "freeware" and "donationware" software with revews and an active community.
Freeware Guide
Lots of good stuff here, and even have archives of abandonware that's no longer available.
FreewareFind
(currently closed)
gHacks Technology News
Tips & software for technology lovers.
Gizmo's Freeware Reviews
(formerly "The 46 Best-ever freeware utilities")
I want to: Web 2.0 applications, utilitie and resources
Web 2.0 applications and resources to help collaborate, communicate, discover, email, laugh, generate images, podcast, use multimedia, store photographs, use RSS, internet search, shop, create start pages, store information, time management, train, teach and do things with webpages and websites.
Jeffrey Vanneste's My list of useful tools/services
Karen's Power Tools
has a lot of cool stuff.
LOOP List
List Of Open-source Programs (LOOP) for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. Maintained, interestingly, by the Ubuntu community to show the quality of open source products.
NirSoft
a unique collection of small and useful freeware utilities, all of them developed by Nir Sofer.
Nonags
"is the safest place on the Internet to download free software from. Before we list anything here we check for viruses, trojans, spyware etc. And even if we find something clean, it still has to pass our special "cheesetest" which for obvious reasons we do not publish exact specs."
Ohloh
A community for open-source projects & their fans. A good way to find the most popular open-source projects.
OldVersion.com
"because newer is not always better"
OpenDisc
(Formerly the Open CD) Similar to the LOOP list, the OpenDisc is a collection of free, open source programs for Windows - apparently with the intent of being downloaded, burned to CD and given to someone (or used for yourself) to replace a number of commercial software programs. There is an educational variant.
PortableApps.com
An excellent collection of "portable" apps (no intall, will run from a thumb drive). They come with an (optional) "Start Menu" style launcher & the list of apps covers most basic computing needs. I may consider going here first next time I find myself starting over from scratch - a bit of a return to the glory days of programs that install into a single folder & don't hook themselves into other parts of your operating system, or check for updates non-stop.
Pricelessware Freeware
The best of the best in Windows Freeware, as determined by the readers of alt.comp.freeware
Scott Hanselman's Ten Tools in Ten Minutes
"a quick list of the tools I use to be productive"
SnapFiles
My go-to site for lots & lots of freeware & shareware.
Software hall of fame
An excellent list that I think compliments mine very well.
The "neat application I stumbled across on the web" thread (Ars Technica)
The Portable Freeware Collection
A massive collection of portable freeware programs
TinyApps.org
An aging catalog of tiny, well-made software primarily for the Windows platform (though Palm and OS X pages also exist) - very similar to my smallware list.
Top 100 Network Security Tools
(formerly the "Top 75 Network Security Tools", the name change is no doubt a sign of the changing times)
UtilityGeek
Diagnostic tools and utilities for your PC
page first created a very, very long time ago.
Search Everywhere, Easily 
Get Exactly What You Want 
Hardcore Technology, Mac Simplicity 
Advanced Features 
The buttons and menus at the top of your inbox look a bit different: there's a new "Labels" button that makes labeling messages even easier. Turn on keyboard shortcuts and hit "L" to bring up your labels, and auto-complete will take it from there. Use the "Move to" button to label and archive in just one step -- just like you would with a folder. 
Send in a self-addressed stamped envelope, get back some free Gmail stickers. We may be all about speedy electronic communication, but this time we're going old school with snail mail. 
Fast PDF previews 
New in Labs: Tasks 
Send SMS text messages right from Gmail. You chat from your comfy computer and reach your friends on the go; they get your messages as texts and can peck out replies on their little keyboards. Turn on SMS text messaging and more from the Labs tab under Settings. 
From minimalist grays to dynamic mountain landscapes, choose from over 30 options to personalize the look and feel of your Gmail account. To get started, check out the 
Talk face to face with Gmail voice and video chat 
There's a whole lot more to play with in Gmail Labs, our testing ground for experimental features. Google Calendar and Docs gadgets, a forgotten attachment detector, advanced IMAP controls, and canned responses are just a taste. Turn on these and more from the Labs tab under Settings. 
Gmail is now available on the world's first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1. All of the features you love about Gmail on your computer, plus real time push email so you never need to refresh your inbox. 
Emoticons – they're not just for chat anymore 
to 
or even 
. Click the 
's desire. 
Gmail for mobile 2.0 
Gmail Labs: A testing ground for experimental new features 
Gmail has a new look on the iPhone browser 
More friends are more fun. Gmail welcomes your AIM® friends. 
Better organize your email with new colored labels. Just click the color swatch next to each label to assign a color. 
Group chat 
New emoticons 
Smashing Magazine
You can do Email, Contacts, and Calendaring very similarly to Outlook (minus some of the polish). It’s built using the same open, extensible platform as Firefox, so there is a steadily growing collection of extensions to augment it’s functionality. 
This is the home of the freebies. There are so many free internet browsers and applications that I could go on all day. Actually, the follow-up article will focus on the best web-based applications. 
t sure how much anybody "needs" this software, but you know you want it. Stalk your friends, enemies, and ex, then check out the Eifel Tower and Pyramids. 
en
Here is one of the fields where you can spend your whole paycheck on commercial software. Pick up anything from Adobe, Corel, Pinnacle, etc and you’ll see what I mean. Fear not, there are plenty of ways to view, manage, create, and distribute your media without spending a dime. 
photos on your computer, you MUST get Picasa. Organize, search, display, and share your photos in a way that will make you really appreciate your camera. 
doesn’t do, I just use one of the other options. Alternatives: (
computer. Temporary files, Cookies and other junk from every browser, Programs running at Startup, Uninstalls software and fixes all kinds of problems in your Registry. Click about five buttons and wait about a minute and your machine is a new person. Alternatives: 
Filezilla
7Zip
uTorrent
Microsoft Virtual PC
of a complete physical computer. Use virtual machines to run operating systems such as MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2. You can run multiple operating systems at once on a single physical computer and switch between them as easily as switching applications—instantly, with a mouse click. Virtual PC is perfect for any scenario in which you need to support multiple operating systems, whether you use it for tech support, legacy application support, training, or just for consolidating physical computers. 
