|
The most important software is protection software so that's
first, below this you'll find the best
free software that will do what the high priced programs do but
are free and usually better. |
| CD/DVD Burning, ripping,
copying, etc.... ImgBurn (Best free all
around ripping/burning software for those that
are somewhat experienced)
Click here.
Supports CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
(double layer mediums included); burns discs
from images or files, creates bootable discs,
creates images from files or discs, adds
sessions to multisession discs, fixates discs,
verifies burns, erases rewritable media; creates
audio discs, creates video DVDs, HD-DVDs, and
Blu-Ray discs; supports many image formats
including BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS,
NRG, PDI; enables access to drives for
restricted users; multilingual, supports unicode
filenames; endless amount of advanced features
and options
CDBurnerXP
(Great free CD/DVD burning program with a easy
to use interface for beginners)
Click here.
Supports CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
(double layer mediums included); burns discs
from images or files, creates bootable discs,
creates images from files or discs, copies discs
to discs (does not bypass copyright protection),
adds sessions to multisession discs, burns
on-the-fly, verifies burns, erases rewritable
media; creates audio discs, creates video DVDs;
command line version; LightScribe cover printing
support with very basic designer supporting
custom background images; enables access to
drives for restricted users; multilingual; some
advanced features and options
DVD Shrink (Best
DVD ripping software with some very nice
options)
Click here.
DVDShrink is software to backup DVD discs.
You can use this software in conjunction with
DVD burning software of your choice, to make a
backup copy of any DVD video disc. DVDShrink
will also burn your backup DVD, if you have
installed the latest version of Nero. You can
also download a demo version of Nero here. If
you already possess alternative burning software
and prefer to stick with it, then you can still
use DVD Shrink. The output from DVDShrink can be
saved as files on your hard drive, which you can
then burn with software of your choice.
DVD Decrypter -
Click
here.
DVD Decrypter is a software application for
Windows (including Windows 7 support) that can
create backup disc images of the DVD-Video
structure of DVDs. It can be used to image any
DVD, but controversially it is especially useful
for decrypting copy-protected movies. The
program can also burn images to disc. CSS
decrypting software (such as DVD Decrypter and
AnyDVD) allows a region-specific DVD to be
copied as an all-region DVD. It also removes
Macrovision content protection, Content
Scrambling System (CSS), region codes, and user
operation prohibition.
Top of page
|
| File
maintenance, repair, care, etc..:
7-Zip (Great
lightweight fast program that replaces Winzip &
WinRAR) Click
here.
Can unpack a multi-part RAR volume embedded
in a ZIP archive, and gives a meaningful error
message when attempting to unpack a 256 bit
encrypted WinZip archive. Even though it handles
fewer archive types than some other programs (It
only supports 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP,
BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM, and DEB) it is a
fantastic program that will fill 99% of all your
file archiving needs.
TrueCrypt (File
encryption).
Click here.
Encrypts your sensitive data. You can
encrypt a folder that will mount as a removable
drive called a container or you can encrypt an
entire drive.
FileRenamer
(Rename Files).
Click here.
Allows you to rename many files at once with
many perimeters. I use this regularly, nice program.
JkDefrag (Disk
defragmenter).
Click here.
This will defreagment your drives faster and
more efficient than the built in defragmenter
that comes with windows.
FilePhile (file
sharing/transfering over the internet).
Click here.
FilePhile is a peer-to-peer, multi-platform
app for getting files of unlimited size between
yourself and anyone else.
Top of page |
| Music (for music the best
software is the free software, written by people
that wanted it done right and were sick of
programs like MusicMatch):
MKW Audio
Compression Tool (Convert .mp3 to .wav to
.shn and so on).
Click here.
This is one of the best converters out there.
Exact Audio Copy
(extract audio from CD's).
Click here.
This is the best program for taking music
from a CD and putting it on your hard drive,
converting to .mp3's or just copying CD's.
Flac Frontend
(Lossless audio compression).
Click here.
This will greatly compress music for storage
and file sharing with no loss at all (.mp3's
lose quality during compression that you can't
get back), the only one I use.
WinAmp (Music
player, great for .mp3's, flac and many more
formats).
Click here.
This was meant for .mp3's when I first
started using it back in 1995 but now it plays
pretty much any media file including videos. In
my opinion this is the nicest player there is, I
use it all the time for music.
Windows Media Encoder
(convert different types of audio into Windows media (.wma)).
Click here.
Use this to reduce the size of waves making
them easy to email and share with others.
Top of page |
| Chat/Instant Message:
Digsby (Instant
message with YahooIM, AOL instant messenger,
MSN, Google talk and more).
Click here.
This one program can connect to all the
popular instant messengers at once, Yahoo, MSN,
Google, ICQ, AOL, etc.. I use this every day.
Trillian (works
with all the IM chats like Digsby).
Click here.
There is a pay and a free version of this, I
used the free version for years until Digsby
came out. For me I like Digsby but they both
have their good points.
Top of page |
| Photo & Video
VLC Media player
(media player like Windows media player).
Click here.
VCL Media player uses less memory than other
media player yet it plays almost all types of
video: MPEG, AVI, ASF, WMV, WMA, MP4, MOV (quicktime),
3GP, OGG, OGM, MKV, Realplayer, WAV, AAC, AC3,
FLAC, FLV, DVD and more.
Photoscape -
Click here.
This is really a different class product than
the editors above in that it does things that
are beyond the focus of the average editor, and
is more of an image suite. I have had a number
of users request that this product be included
and have finally decided to oblige. Once you get
used to its unusual interface you will find it
is much more than a photo editor.
Image Resizer
(Provided be Microsoft, this is the
easiest way to resize an image for email or web
use) To
download click here for
instructions click here.
This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many
image files with a right-click.
Gimp (photo editor
like Photoshop).
Click here.
This photo editor will do just about
everything Adobe Photoshop will do, many pros
use this and it's free.
DVD Shrink (copy,
shrink, edit menus from DVD's)
Click here.
This program allows you to remove menu items,
compress parts or the whole DVD to fit dual
layer DVD's on one DVD or it can split it into
two
so you can keep the full quality and just burn
it to two discs.
DVD Decrypter (copy
DVD's).
Click here.
This is one of the best programs for ripping
DVD's to your hard drive. Then you can edit or
burn another copy.
Windows Media Encoder
(convert videos into Windows media (.vmv)).
Click here.
Use this to reduce the size of videos making
them easy to email and share with others.
Top of page |
Office - documents,
spreadsheets, power point, faxing and more.
OpenOffice (An alternative to Microsoft Office).
Click here.
Most of the features of MS Office and
compatible.Google Docs (documents and spreadsheets).
Click here.
Google Docs allows you to make documents and
spreadsheets that are compatible with Microsoft
Office.
Faxing (send).
Click here.
This service allows you to send faxes for
free. You can make .pdf files (see CutePDF
below) with images and
text to be uploaded and faxed or you can type or
past text into a text box and send that as a
fax.
Faxing (recieve).
Click here.
efax allows you to have a free account and
phone number for receiving faxes. You have to
pay for the ability to send faxes but for that
you can use the service mentioned above. You
have to install their program to view the faxes
and they will send you stuff (spam) from time to
time but for the service they offer it's worth
it. PDF Viewer
(Best pdf viewer I've ever used, far better than
Adobe Acrobat)
Click here.
FreeMyPDF.com
Use this site to
remove passwords and restrictions (such as
printing, copying text, etc.) from PDFs.
PDFill PDF Tools -
Click here.
Clean and nice user interface with most of
the functions covered, such as merge pdf files,
split or reorder pages, rotate or crop pdf
pages, add headers and footers complete with
page numbers, etc. CutePDF (create and
.pdf files).
Click
here.
This free program is for creating pdf
documents that can be viewed it programs such as
Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader.
Top of page |
| Web Browsers and Browsing
Utilities Google
Chrome (web browser)
Click here.
Google Chrome is, in my opinion, the fastest
and most secure browser. It is faster and more
secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer and
Firefox. Firefox
(Web Browser).
Click here.
At the time this is the best web browser.
It's much safer than Internet Explorer that
comes with Windows. There are many add-ons so
you can customize many thing as well as themes
to change the look. It's not as secure or as
fast as Google Chrome but because of it's
ability to be customized, I still like this a
little better. I actually use both Chrome and
Firefox, each have their own purpose.
Top of page |
|
Backing up your important files
SyncBackFree
|
| |
|
|
