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Cool Freeware/Shareware

 
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Does anybody use any particularly useful freeware or shwareware that they think the rest of us should know about? There's alot of this stuff that probably makes our tmie on the computer that much easier or more enjoyable.
Here's a list of some software that I've found to be useful, in no particular order.
<table border="1"><tr ><td>Name</td><td>Description</td><td>License</td></tr><tr><td>Winamp</td><td>The king of mp3 players. Skinable.</td><td>Freeware</td></tr><tr ><td>ICQ</td><td>The best oof the various instant messengers</td><td>Freeware</td></tr><tr><td>Winzip</td><td>Needs no introduction</td><td>Shareware (no limit)</td></tr><tr ><td>WinRAR</td><td>Like Winzip, but boasts better compression. Offers several improvements over the .zip format</td><td>Shareware (no limit)</td></tr><tr><td>Pop-Up Stopper</td><td>Kills browser pop-up ads.</td><td>Freeware</td></tr><tr ><td>Ad-Aware</td><td>Finds and removes spyware/adware.</td><td>Freeware</td></tr><tr><td>ZoneAlarm</td><td>Software firewall. This is almost essential to anybody with a cable or dsl connection.</td><td>Freeware</td></tr><tr ><td>AVG Anti-Virus</td><td>Why pay big bucks for virus protection when this is free?</td><td>Freeware</td></tr><tr><td>Irfanview</td><td>Outstanding graphic viewer. Can view almost any format (gif, jpg, avi, mpg, etc...).</td><td>Freeware</td></tr><tr ><td>mIRC</td><td>Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. Great fun. The best and most popular IRC client out there.</td><td>Freeware</td></tr><tr><td>Style XP</td><td>Change the look of your Windows XP. Allows the installation of themes that have not been signed by Microsoft. Although this software automates the process, you can do the same manually by patching a .dll file. Do a search on "uxtheme" for more info.</td><td>Shareware (30 day free trial, $20 to register)</td></tr><table>
[ November 17, 2002: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]
 
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I use an rss news aggreagotr called Amphetadesk..you can get it by typing in the url:
http://www.amphetadesk.com
 
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i use a program called Power Archiver instead of Winzip
i also use a download manager for those game demo downloads that take forever called Get Right, and i use WS_FTP for getting files from school.
i also have most of the programs Jason mentioned.
last but not least (almost failed to mention) Java, Forte, Apache, Tomcat and PHP
[ November 17, 2002: Message edited by: Randall Twede ]
 
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If you like examining different languages, Ruby:
www.ruby.org
It is free.
G.
 
Jason Menard
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Originally posted by Guy Allard:
If you like examining different languages, Ruby:
www.ruby.org
It is free.
G.


I think the correct link is www.ruby-lang.org.
 
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Wow! Free anti-virus? Who would have thought!? Is it as reliable as Norton or McAfee? Thanks for the tips, Jason!!
Also - does anyone know of a way to spy on my kids' chat sessions - AIM, for instance? Like something that logs the text? (I know - bad mommy!!)
*Elaine
 
Jason Menard
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Originally posted by Elaine Micheals:
Wow! Free anti-virus? Who would have thought!? Is it as reliable as Norton or McAfee? Thanks for the tips, Jason!!


I've read several reviews on it and it seems to receive favourable ratings. I've been using it for awhile and haven't come across any problems. It seems to be kept current and you can receive frequent updates.

[qbAlso - does anyone know of a way to spy on my kids' chat sessions - AIM, for instance? Like something that logs the text? (I know - bad mommy!!)
*Elaine[/QB]


iOpus STARR Home Edition seems to have received good reviews. Another one is Spytech SpyAgent, and . http://www.parental-controls.com/ has a list of similar software which they sell through their website as well. I can't seem to find any free solutions for what you are looking for though, everyone seems to be charging $$. I haven't used any of these so I can't personally vouch for them. Maybe there is someone here who has?
[ November 18, 2002: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]
 
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Jason!
Thanks for Free virus tool link.
 
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I've used AVG anti-virus for over a year and have had no problems myself or heard of any problems from other people I know using it. I switched to it from Norton which used to crash my computer (and wasn't free!).
Of course, as with any anti-virus software the key is to make sure you regularly download the updates! :roll:
I know its not strictly freeware but I like the Google toolbar.

Linda
PS. Thanks Jason, for the Pop-up Stopped link - its great.
 
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Originally posted by Elaine Micheals:
Also - does anyone know of a way to spy on my kids' chat sessions - AIM, for instance? Like something that logs the text? (I know - bad mommy!!)
*Elaine


If you have your kids use Trillian for their chat sessions you can configure it to log all sessions!! Trillian can be used to connect to Yahoo IM, MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ and some others!!
[ November 18, 2002: Message edited by: Angela Poynton ]
 
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I found Tight VNC very useful for Remote Desktop Access. Its free (SourceForge Project), lighter than the original VNC, and has many good features that original VNC lacks.
 
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Originally posted by Balaji Loganathan:
Jason!
Thanks for Free virus tool link.


But I cant see any virus tool link.
 
Ashok Mash
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Its there in the list.
Here its again for your comfort.
 
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If you want to download your free Yahoo! email (into a typical email client such as Outlook Express), YahooPOPs! has worked great for me. I keep hoping to find a similar app for use with http://www.mail.com .
 
Randall Twede
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i have also heard that AVG is a top ranked anti-virus progam and i believe it. i tried norton and McAfee. and i found AVG superior to both.
Angela...d'oh! i wanted to tell someone about trillian tonight but i couldnt think of the name. :roll:
one other good freeware i failed to mention...MySQL
did i mention that zone alarm is a fantastic free firewall?
one drawback to AVG which i believe the other have too is that it wants to run in the background. i dont like that so when i boot i (this is win 98) ctrl alt del and stop it. i would much prefer if it only ran when i called it.
for all you winzip users...check out power archiver...much superior program
and now it's time for me to run winamp
[ November 25, 2002: Message edited by: Randall Twede ]
 
Jason Menard
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I can't believe no one has mentioned any text editors!
EditPlus has always been an old favourite of mine. It's a good all around text editor with extensions for just about every programming language out there. It's non-expiring shareware ($30 for a license).
Another one I've started using lately which seems very nice is jedit. It's a freeware text editor with a plethora of extensions that make it a joy to use for Java development.
 
Ashok Mash
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Another editor that I found quite useful is UltraEdit32.
 
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Another one is JExt
 
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Originally posted by Jason Menard:
I can't believe no one has mentioned any text editors!
EditPlus has always been an old favourite of mine. It's a good all around text editor with extensions for just about every programming language out there. It's non-expiring shareware ($30 for a license).


What is the diff between freeware and shareware ??
AW there is textpad which I found much better than editplus, you can download it from the site and it will never expire. Just bother you like editplus for buying it
But the real diff between Editplus & Textpad you will find when you open a logfile or any other file which is in few MBs.
Textpad is superb. And other thing I dont like personally in editplus is the color it uses for syntax and all other stuff. (imagine the colors in your code: red, mergenta etc.. ). You can customize it... but I prefer to customize Textpad for adding extension to other languages.
 
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Originally posted by Ravish Kumar:

What is the diff between freeware and shareware ??


Shareware is usually distributed with some restriction like, "You may evaluate this software for thirty days, after which you must purchase a license if you wish to continue using it."
Sometimes shareware stops working (times out, expires, etc.) after the trial period finishes. Sometimes it just shows you a nag screen every time you start it explaining that you are in violation of the licensing terms. Sometimes nothing happens and you are expected to stop using it of your own free will.
 
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sad there aint no VI users.. (
Well I have loved VI on *nx and have loved VIM for windows too!!
Though, it doesnt have the intelli(non-)sense, it sure is good!!
Used textpad.. lite but cant beat VIM.
May be I m prejudiced..
Lupo
 
Ashok Mash
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RegCleaner is a pretty decent little tool that you can use anytime to clean your Windows registry.
Its especially useful if you have thos dodgy popups coming up out of nowhere in your macine - This one lets you clean all unwanted or dodgy-looking entries from your registry.
[ December 02, 2002: Message edited by: Ashok Krishnan ]
 
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Any free/shareware alternative to MicroSoft's NetMeeting?
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