Share with us some cool freewares (totally free only)

[ianholm]

There are some great freewares here that I downloaded. One thing bothers me and maybe I'm overly paranoid, but what are the chances that there could be some sort of viruses or malicious programming in all this freeware floating around the internet? It's always in the back of my mind when I install one of these programs. I'm assuming virus protection would be useless for this sort of possiblilty?

[Roan]

These are some of my favorite freewares:

StartupMonitor alerts you whenever another program registers itself to start with Windows. It then gives you the option of allowing or disallowing the program from starting at startup.

Clickie Clickie adds two features to the context menu (right click menu): Copy Path Name: Copies the path of the selected folder or file to the clipboard (as text). Open MS-DOS Prompt: Opens a DOS window in the selected directory.

VideoLAN is a totally free video player.

[ianholm]

Originally posted by Blake
I prefer Statbar - www.statbar.nl - cleaner, faster, not as many options, but it's got all I need.

Sweet!

[Roan]

CloseIEx adds two buttons to Internet Explorer--one to close all Internet Explorer windows, and the other to close all other Internet Explorer windows except the one you are viewing.

[Gunshy]

I was going to mention this is my other post but couldn't remember the web site.

http://www.eclipse.org

What is it: Eclipse is an open source software development project dedicated to providing a robust, full-featured, commercial-quality, industry platform for the development of highly integrated tools.

The FAQ is here:

http://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/faq/eclipse-faq.html

I know of someone doing enterprise level Java for a Fortune 500 using this and swears it is better than the other three big commercial (read $$$) Java development products they have tried, not to mention being one of the best software development environments/products they've ever used. I've dl'd it myself and tried it briefly and I must say it looked very robust, comprehensive and had a good GUI. It runs under Windows, Linux, Mac OSX, Solaris 8, HP-UX, others.

And best of all, it's free! (guess it would have to be or there would be no point in mentioning it here huh?)

Note, the Windows download is about 66Mb in size.

-Gunshy

[DGibFen]

PortChecker - It checks your ports for various spywares or open entry points.

Anarchy Online - You can download the full game free from the web site. You get seven days on the server free, but after that it costs money each month to play.

[Groucho]

OpenOffice. Open source, freeware office suite...word processer, spreadsheet, powerpoint, etc (think MSOffice). It even exports to PDF! (For Windows, Linux, and Solaris.)

1st Page 2000. Very nice Freeware HTML editor.

[dancinns]

PostCast Server

PostCast Server is a free server program that enables you to send messages directly from your computer. When you install it, it turns your computer into outgoing mail server. This is a perfect solution for sending newsletters, distributing messages to different mailing lists, sending notifications to your customers, as well as for sending individual messages. You can use it instead of the SMTP server of your Internet Service Provider.
-----

This program is extremely useful for those ISPs that don't have a SMTP server (AOL).

[DGibFen]

Saw this one today on techtv:

RegSeeker

This program is pretty nifty. It has a feature like regcleaner, but also allows tweaks, searching the registry, and other features. It's the perfect RegEdit replacement.

Also my favorite:

Pop-Up Stopper

This stops everything. (Well, almost, but 98 percent is pretty good.) Only downside: stops everything. If you want to use a javascript thing, you have to disable it, but it's as easy as clicking on the hand or holding down the CTRL key. I just DL'd the newest version, this program didn't have any updates for the longest time though.

[Nifty03]

Star Downloader is a good download manager program that, according to TechTV, doesn't have any spyware (like Realdownload). It integrates nicely with IE, Netscape and Opera and has plenty of option tweakes to make it run like you want it to. Very usfull if your on dial-up.

[Groucho]

Originally posted by dancinns
PostCast Server

Hey, I just wanted to let you know this program saved my ass. My ISP won't let me send emails from any SMTP server but theirs, and only then if the email address matches that on the account. Since I handle my email via my own domain, this was a major problem...and PostCast solved it.

[jrobinson]

PDF995

Installs a PDF file converter print driver... so to convert anything printable to PDF, just select PDF995 as your print device, boom! easy, free, fast.

free version: after each print opens web browser to their website. 9.95 to register.

[DGibFen]

Objectdock

Similar to Mac OS, this program works like the taskbar, but with an interesting interface.

[Heat]

Originally posted by namja
Post-it Software Notes Lite 2.1.1.1023
...

That's a cool program, I just downloaded it a few days ago. There is a newer version out there now, version 3.0.1.1069.

[namja]

Originally posted by Heat
That's a cool program, I just downloaded it a few days ago. There is a newer version out there now, version 3.0.1.1069.

Try to find version 2. It's "better" in that you can change the post-it colors, a feature that I use a lot. With the new version 3, that feature is only available if you pay for it and not available in the freeware version.

[namja]

"No! Flash" v2.1

Block multimedia ads (pop-up, animated, flash etc.), Spyware (browser Parasites, hijackers etc.), etc. No! Flash is an utility to block multimedia ads and spyware in Microsoft Internet Explorer. It resides in the system tray of user's desktop, it enables or disables multimedia content display as the user clicks the program's icon or menu. No! Flash speeds your browsing by blocking ads. it helps you surf faster, safer, easier.

http://www.geocities.jp/baryonlee/noflash/


It bypasses all the flash intros, the crazy stuff on the main page of ESPN.com, the psych ads sometimes seen on Yahoo's main page, etc.

[DGibFen]

Real Alternative

Quicktime Alternative

Hate all the spyware/annoyingware both RealOne and Quicktime Player tend to bring? Both of these will play these kinds of files without all of the annoyances that the corporate versions provide.

[Groucho]

Avid Free DV: Free version of Avid's video editing software (thanks to pcdoctor for posting about this over in "Hot Deals")

Gunbound Free online artillery game (like Worms or Scorched Earth)

[j123vt_99]

how are these?? might need to try them

Originally posted by DGibFen
Real Alternative

Quicktime Alternative

Hate all the spyware/annoyingware both RealOne and Quicktime Player tend to bring? Both of these will play these kinds of files without all of the annoyances that the corporate versions provide.

[DGibFen]

Originally posted by j123vt_99
how are these?? might need to try them

The first couple of version were ok, but they've steadly increased quality. They look practically like the original version. It uses an older version of windows media player (the 6.4 version) to play the codecs in.

I've tried both on the internet and they work just fine. I expect them to get better cause the team has put out several versions within the past month.

[DGibFen]

Process Explorer

Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. (The DL is at the bottom of the page)

Use this page if you find something that might look suspicious. This will tell you if the process is for Windows, a program, or a bug.

[mikehunt]

It wouldn't be hard to put malicious code in it. virus scan software that looks for virus like behavior in addition to known viruses might catch it depending on what it does.
That said, I've never thought of it before now and still am not going to worry about it. If it does worry you just stick to programs that are hosted on the big download sites that have reviews in addition to the files. If there was a problem with any of the files they probably wouldn't be hosted by those sites or a reviewer would mention that they had a problem

Originally posted by ianholm
There are some great freewares here that I downloaded. One thing bothers me and maybe I'm overly paranoid, but what are the chances that there could be some sort of viruses or malicious programming in all this freeware floating around the internet? It's always in the back of my mind when I install one of these programs. I'm assuming virus protection would be useless for this sort of possiblilty?

[mikehunt]

I just found out about this program. I think it's cool but I've become an aerial photo and topographic map nerd for the last week while scouting out places to go hiking
http://jdmcox.com/

http://jdmcox.com/USAPhotoMaps.exe

[ChrisHicks]

Originally posted by ianholm
There are some great freewares here that I downloaded. One thing bothers me and maybe I'm overly paranoid, but what are the chances that there could be some sort of viruses or malicious programming in all this freeware floating around the internet? It's always in the back of my mind when I install one of these programs. I'm assuming virus protection would be useless for this sort of possiblilty?

my rule of thumb is: I always scan any new downloaded program before I open/execute it. it only takes a few seconds and I feel safer doing this.

[gregjay]

Did anyone list these? Worth browsing every so often:

http://www.freewarehome.com/
http://www.freewarefiles.com/
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/