Hana & Sarah's Freeware blog » freeware

The complete list of best freeware that you will ever need

HanaDaddy — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:59:21 +0000

It has been awhile since I posted the last article. I was busy setting up my new website http://wpmarketing.org . Anyway, I stumbled this introduction page of free desktop application from lifehacker , my favorite DIY site. I am using many of the list, and love to tell which ones I am using. I will mark them with Red Color.

61 Free Desktop Applications, Webapps, and Tools We’re Most Thankful For

Firefox (see also: Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3, Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features)
VLC (see also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC, VLC Hits 1.0 with Better Playback and File Support)
CCleaner (see also: Five Best Windows Maintenance Tools)
Dropbox (see also: Use Dropbox for More Than Just File Syncing, Sync Files and Folders Outside Your My Dropbox Folder)
7-Zip (see also: Five Best File Compression Tools)
OpenOffice.org (see also: OpenOffice.org 3.1’s Usability Tweaks, OpenOffice.org Screenshots Preview a Ribbon-Like Toolbar)
Google Chrome (see also: The Power User’s Guide to Google Chrome, 2009 Edition)
µTorrent (see also: Tweak uTorrent’s Settings for Faster Downloads, Five Best BitTorrent Applications)
Notepad++ (see also: Five Best Text Editors, AutoSave Adds Reassurance to Notepad++ Editing)
Gmail (see also: Our full Gmail coverage)
GIMP (see also: Gimp 2.7 Beta Improves Text Editing, Streamlines Saving)
Paint.NET (see also: Paint.NET Releases Big Update, Still a Killer Photoshop Alternative, Paint.NET Plugin Lets You Open Photoshop Files)
Microsoft Security Essentials (see also: Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus App Leaves Beta, Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft’s Security Tools Are Good Enough)
Revo Uninstaller (see also: Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads)
Evernote (see also: Evernote 3.5 Beta Brings Tons of Tiny Fixes to Windows, Expand Your Brain with Evernote)
Thunderbird (see also: Thunderbird 3 Release Candidate Available for Download)
Audacity (see also: Geek to Live: Make a ringtone from any MP3)
ImgBurn (see also: Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster, Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools)
Picasa (see also: Picasa 3.5 Organizes Your Photos with Facial Recognition)
Skype (see also: Our full Skype coverage)
Pidgin (see also: Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin, Five Best Instant Messengers)
Ubuntu (see also: First Look at Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony)
iTunes (see also: iTunes 9 Improves Syncing, Network Sharing, More)
foobar2000 (see also: Screenshot Tour: The beautiful and varied world of foobar2000, Hack Attack: Roll your own killer audio player with foobar2000)
Foxit Reader (see also: Five Best PDF Readers, Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads)
FileZilla (see also: Five Best FTP Clients, Build a Home FTP Server with FileZilla)
VirtualBox (see also: The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox)
TrueCrypt (see also: Geek to Live: Encrypt your data, Five Best Portable Applications)
Avast! (see also: Five Best Antivirus Applications)
Defraggler (see also: Five Best Disk Defragmenters)
KeePass (see also: Eight Best KeePass Plug-Ins to Master Your Passwords, How to Use Dropbox as the Ultimate Password Syncer)
Opera (see also: Opera 10.10 with Unite Media Server Released)
AVG (see also: AVG 9 Free Now Available for Download)
Digsby (see also: Five Best Instant Messengers, Digsby Sees the Light, Removes (Some) Bundled Crapware)
Google Reader (see also: Our full Google Reader coverage)
Winamp (see also: Win7shell Adds Windows 7 Jump List Support to Winamp)
Google Earth (see also: Google Earth 5.1 Speeds Up Your World Browsing)
TeraCopy (see also: Five Best Alternative File Copiers)
Launchy (see also: Our full Launchy coverage)
Transmission (see also: Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Mac Downloads)
Eclipse IDE
SpyBot Search & Destroy (see also: Five Best Malware Removal Tools)
Adium (see also: Adium Updates with Security Fixes, Better Facebook Integration)
PuTTY (see also: Add Tabs to PuTTY with PuTTY Connection Manager)
Songbird (see also: Songbird 1.0 Release Official, Fixes Bugs, Plays iTunes Purchases, Killer Add-ons Make Songbird So Much Better)
Sumatra PDF (see also: Sumatra 1.0 is a Blazing Fast Replacement for Adobe Reader)
XBMC (see also: Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap, Customize XBMC with These Five Awesome Skins, Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation)
Blender (see also: Learn Blender with free e-book)
CDBurnerXP (see also: Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools)
Everything (see also: Everything Finds Windows Files As You Type, Top 10 Tiny & Awesome Windows Utilities)
HandBrake (see also: HandBrake Updates to 0.9.4 with Over 1,000 Changes, 64-Bit Support)
Rainmeter (see also: Rainmeter 1.0 Brings the Enigma Desktop to Everyone)
AutoHotkey (see also: Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut, Hack Attack: Knock down repetitive email with AutoHotKey)
Google Calendar (see also: Our full Google Calendar coverage)
MediaMonkey (see also: MediaMonkey 3.2 Syncs with More Devices, Adds Auto Folder Watching)
Quicksilver (see also: A beginner’s guide to Quicksilver)
WinSCP
Google Voice (see also: Make Unlimited Free Calls on Your Cellphone with Google Voice, How to Ease Your Transition to Google Voice)
Boxee (see also: Build a Cheap But Powerful Boxee Media Center, Boxee to Launch Beta with Loads of New Features)
AdBlock Plus (see also: Top 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions, 2009 Edition)
Media Player Classic (see also: Five Best Video Players)

Okay, I only use 21 programs out of 61 listed. But here are some of terrific freeware that I am using, but not mentioned on the list.

RocketDock – Application Launcher just like Apple OS X. The dock can be set to hide and to appear with mouse moves.
Any Video Converter – I have reviewed several free video converters few months ago. This was the best and quick and easiest converter out there among the free ones. Check the download menu and go to the bottom to get the free version.
QuotePad – This is sticky notepad with alert function. The best feature I like is that it can dock to the side of the screen and hide and appear whenever mouse moves over it! It saves the desktop space.
Windows Live Writer – Must have tool for any blogger. Wordpress has very good interface for writing articles, but sometimes it is awkward to attach images or formatting article layout. But Windows Live Writer comes to the rescue! It supports various blogging platform including Wordpress. You are able to set Category, Tags, Publish Date. And provides intuitive interface just like any other desktop document word processing software. You can easily attach images by just copy and paste screen capture images.
Recuva – To recover deleted files or to completely delete them.
PhotoScape – Simple and Quick image editing or manipulation tool. I know Paint.NET is very good one, but it’s just too heavy to perform simple editing. But PhotoScape is lighter and I prefer to use it most of the time. I rarely use Photoshop after I found PhotoScape.
Ashampoo Burning Studio Free – Full featured CD DVD Blu-ray discs burning tool. I am not sure how this commercial grade software can be free, but it is truly free. It do have ImgBurn installed, but I think I never used it.

That’s about it for now. I will update the list if I find good ones worth to mention.

Thank you and enjoy!

LiberKey – Updatable Portable Software Package with more than 200 freewares

HanaDaddy — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:31:37 +0000

LiberKey – Updatable Portable Software Package with more than 200 freewares.

I am a big fan of portable application and probably PortableApps.com is the most well known portable application suite. It presents about 70 freeware application as portable apps.

However, LiberKey’s Portable suite has comprehensive list of 202 freewares and worth to give it a try.

LiberKey of freeware packages are distributed as portable so that they can be used without the need for the installation. They presents three types of downloads – Basic, Standard, Ultimate. Each distribution package contains 28, 106, and 202 freewares.

Benefits of the portable programs are, of course, you can store them in a USB stick and bring anywhere you want and use them right away without installation.

If you use LiberKey package, it allowed you to update the software whenever there is a new version is available.

This is a very big image.

This is LiberKey screenshots. You can access the menu and softwares from the LibertyKey tray icon.

Using the LiberyKey Tools, you can associate the file extensions , back up the software settings, disconnect the USB drive, and etc.

I think this individual software update screen is the best function of LiberyKey.

Here are some other portable apps packages for you to check.

Thank you for visiting Hana & Sarah’s Freeware Blog.

Best Freeware for Windows by LifeHacker

HanaDaddy — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:06:57 +0000

Lifehacker.com is one of my favorite DIY website with articles on free softwares and great ideas to improve our lives.

This “Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads” article from Lifehacker.com features the important freewares that we need in our desktop PC.

From well known and ever popular Firefox – Web browser and Picasa – Image Tool, they mention about Everything – Desktop File Search Tool (Hana Sara Freeware Blog).

Some of my favorites are

Foxit Reader – PDF reader much faster than Adobe PDF reader and supports tab browsing.
Notepad++ – Simple yet powerful text editor!
7Zip – Free quick , powerful, easy to access Zip utility that you must have
ImgBurn – This is a very nice Free CD/DVD/Blu-Ray burning tool, but my choice is Ashampoo Burning Studio – Free DVD, Blue-Ray burning software

However, the most interesting part is that they have a software package that includes all the softwares (except some license sensitive ones) that you can download. download the Lifehacker Pack bundle . Here is the explanation from the website.

To use it, download the Lifehacker Pack bundle, extract the two files from it into a folder or onto your desktop, and then run the InstallPad app; you’ll see our must-have list ready to download and install in a snap. You can un-check the apps you already have or don’t want, install apps individually, or mass install everything you’ve got checked with one click. We included everything in the InstallPad list except iTunes, Songbird, and the Mozy backup software; the former two because they’re somewhat of an either/or choice (at least in our list), and the latter because it requires a sign-up and registration to really install and use properly.

So enjoy!

QuotePad – note manager for quick access

HanaDaddy — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:21:39 +0000

Often I yearn for a good note taking tool. It could be a to-do list tool but must be more feature rich in terms of managing projects and items that spans through several days. But it should not be too complicated to manage everyday minor issues. I have many little issues at work that need to be managed from 1 week to a month. And it is really difficult to maintain up-to-date status on those little issues.

So I been using those little Post-It like note tool for a while , but then I found it hard to access easily. Then I changed to use the ‘Slickies’ Yahoo Widget . It’s a very simple note pad that can stick to the edge of the screen and it hides itself when the focus is lost and shows again when you click on it. It was very simple note taking tool but very easy to access whenever I need it! So I have been using it for 2 or 3 years. But the problem was that I had to run extra Yahoo Widget Engine just to run Slickies. Now everybody is using Google or Microsoft Desktop Widgets and Yahoo Widget is not being maintained properly.

But then few days ago, I found this application ‘QuotePad’. It’s not a widget but an independent application. It behaves just like ‘Slickies’. It docks to the edge of the screen and hides itself when the mouse focus is lost. Perfect. Also you can add each note as separate items making easier to distinguish different issues. Also it provides Search and Alert(Reminder) functions. With multi-lingual support, fast and easy to access interface, and non intrusive behavior, I instantly fell in love with QuotePad.

Still I am open for other good note taking tools, so let me know if you know any. I am very interested in trying other ones too.

Thank you for visiting Hana & Sarah’s Freeware Blog!

Website: http://quotepad.info/

Best Photo Editor for Blog – Photoscape

HanaDaddy — Mon, 25 May 2009 03:17:50 +0000

I am using PhotoScape version 3.3 for all my photo editing needs. OK, I admit that I use Photoshop time to time. But after I started using PhotoScape, I rarely use Photoshop because PhotoScape is so fast, simple and yet powerful enough for me to use with blogging.

PhotoScape is a graphic editor that helps me edit and fix digital images easily. Probably this is most helpful when adding addtional texts for descriptions onto the screen captured image. I always use PhotoScape to edit images for my blog.

There are many features in PhotoScape, but especially I like two functions.

1. Editor:
Basic graphic editing tool such as resizing , bright, sharpen, auto level, and other effects. You can easily insert texts and icons also draw lines and shapes easily. You can also insert other pictures as object and easily move them just like object in layers of the PhotoShop. There are other tools for digital pictures such as Red Eye remover and Mosaic effect .

2. Batch Editor:
You can edit multiple files at once. I found it very useful to print the date taken for the hundres’s of the digital pictures before I order the prints. It extracts the information using EXIF data information. Or you can resize or apply specific filtering effect to the multiple pictures at once.

Also it has other useful menus such as GIF animation creator , Color Picker, and filename change tool.

This is a freeware to use in Personal and Commercial purposes. Completely free.
This software is Microsoft Windows compatible. (Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista)
Click here fore More ScreenShots

Website: http://www.photoscape.org Download Page

Thank you for visiting Hana & Sarah’s Freeware Blog

Easy Offline Microsoft Windows and Office Update

HanaDaddy — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:17:35 +0000

Are you getting tired of the constant MS Windows Update screen? Or You are not sure if you are running the latest bug patched version of MS Office suite? ‘Offline Update’ is the answer for you.

It is an easy and convenient utility that will download all the necessary Windows and Office Update and install them at once. It supports multi languages and even you can make ISO disk image or copy it to the USB memory stick.

First download the zip file and unzip it to a drive with enough hard disk space. For your information, my total downloaded file size was about 500MB. Then execute the ‘UpdateGenerator.exe’ . Below window will open. As you can see , you can select the target language and version of Windows and Office Suites , then click on the ‘Start’ button. It will start download all the required updates which have not been patched. Once the download is completed, a pop up window will be showing to alert the download is completed.

All the update files are in fact stored in the ‘client’ subfolder. Please move into the ‘client’ and execute ‘UpdateInstaller.exe’ to initiate the actual installation process. I only tested with Office Suite and had 17 updates patched which took about 30 mins. For me, my machine was only rebooted once after all the updates were patched, but you might want to enable the ‘Automatic Reboot and Recall’ if you are updating Windows since Windows Updates often require rebooting per each update.

Website: Offline Update Website ( Google Translation )

Download: Offline Update Direct Download

Restore or Completely Delete : double edged Recuva

HanaDaddy — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:17:17 +0000

Do you need to recover the deleteted homework or important office document? Please relax, we have Recuva.

Today, I am going to introduce ‘Recuva’ (supposedly pronounce it as ‘RECOVER’) . It is from the maker of the famous free software CCleaner, Piriform. Recuva is a freeware utility to restore the deleted files including the ones completey emptied from the Recycle bin.

The interface is very simple and intuitive that anybody can perform the quick restoration. It provides three types of familiar interface , list view,tree view, and Thumbnails view. Of course , with the Thumbnails view, it shows preview for the image files. If you want to navigate using the folder structure, try tree view. When you want to recover files , select the files first and then right click to click on the ‘Recover …’ menu.

This is Thumbnails View

This is TreeView

There is a search field on the top so you can easily search the file name or path.

The last item I want to talk about is the ‘Secure Overwrite’ function which is directly opposite function of ‘Recover’. It will completely delete the file, so the files won’t be recovered.

‘Recuva’ is FREE , fast , simple, easy to navigate. You can either RECOVER or COMPLETELY REMOVE the deleted files. I mean this is so simple but yet powerful , I would not want any other RECOVERY program!

Website: http://www.recuva.com/

Free Text Editors

HanaDaddy — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:01:46 +0000

Make sure to check out this blog from sixrevisions.com ‘12 Excellent Free Text Editors for Coders’. To someone who uses text editor everyday like me, it is an amazing list of complete freeware text editors. Actually I am using UltraEdit mainly which is not free. My company is using it. But my favorites are Crimson Editor and ConText. I guess I like them because they are very similar to UltraEdit. But NOTEPAD++ is also very popular.

Also there is another one not mentioned in the list. It’s ‘InType’, it is supposed to be ‘TextMate’ kind of text editor for Windows. The latest version is alpha and not have been in development since 2007, but if you like Mac’s TextMate, you might want to try.

If you are looking for more professional programing editor, you may want to try Eclipse. It is a development IDE and the size is big (over 200MB). Here is the link to PHP version (Eclipse-PDT project). The greatest thing about Eclipse is that it’s a full development platform which is free and supports almost perfect Code Completion. Check out my article on the Eclipse PHP Code Completion.

Thank you for visiting Hana & Sarah’s Freeware Blog.

Quick list of the popular freewares

HanaDaddy — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:51:37 +0000

If you want some quick list of the popular free softwares, try freewaregenius.com’s ‘Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs’

It features 53 freewares and it is huge. The blog was written some time ago 2007 but many of the softwares are still popular and actively maintained. Some of my favorites are Launchy, CCleaner, Primo PDF, FileZilla, and Picasa.

Enjoy!

Light and Fast desktop file searching – ‘Everything’

HanaDaddy — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:18:20 +0000

Probably this freeware that I’m about to introduce is the most efficient file search tool that I ever used.

I often store various data files in the hard drive , but forget where it is almost every time. But with ‘Everything’ File Search Tool , I do not worry. In fact, it is very light and fast, so I prefer ‘Everything’ over Google Desktop Search or even Locate32.(Locate32 is simliar search tool based on filename exported to Windows from Unix.)

It only searches filename and does that job very well. It does not search the file contents. It lists up all the files that includes the search keyword that I type in real time.

You need to have NTFS file system, and only indexes local and removable NTFS partition. It does not support networked computer shared folders by default. However, you can search network computer by running another instance of Everything in the remote server as ETP server (See the website for more info)

It supports various boolean operators , wild cards , and regex expressions . It is so amazing. For example, To search files with particular extensions, let’s say mp3, try this.

.mp3

You wan to search mp3 or jpg,

.mp3 | .jpg

If you want mp3 or jpg files in D:\down folder, try this

D:\down .mp3 | .jpg

For more keyword samples, check the homepage FAQ.

Thank you for visiting Hana & Sarah’s Freeware Blog.

Webpage for Everything: http://www.voidtools.com/