Programs Section
This section is dedicated to programs I use or think will be useful to others.
SIW - System Information for Windows by Gabriel Topala
A friend gave me this.....great free little program that will tell you everything about your system, both hardware and software.
CCleaner
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!
CCleaner cleans the following:
Internet Explorer
Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.
Firefox
Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.
Opera
Temporary files, URL history, cookies.
Windows
Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
Registry cleaner
Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.
Third-party applications
Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more...
100% Spyware FREE
This software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses.
Ultimate Boot CD
I came across this surfing for something about a week ago and found it very interesting and thought it would be of use to many others.
You need the Ultimate Boot CD if you want to:
Run floppy-based diagnostic tools from CDROM drives. More and more computers are shipped without 3.5' Floppy drives these days, and it is such a royal pain when you need to run diagnostic tools on them.
Free yourself from the slow loading speed of the floppy drive. Even if you do have a floppy drive, it is still much much faster to run your diagnostic tools from the CDROM drive, rather than wait for the tool to load from the floppy drive.
Consolidate as many diagnostic tools as possible into one bootable CD. Wouldn't you like to avoid digging into the dusty box to look for the right floppy disk, but simply run them all from a single CD? Then the Ultimate Boot CD is for you!
When you boot up from the CD, a text-based menu will be displayed, and you will be able to select the tool you want to run. The selected tool actually boots off a virtual floppy disk created in memory.
Very cool Desktop Themes
Thanks to a post in a computers forum....I came across some Alienware Windows desktop themes.
Here is there site....enjoy
Anti-Spyware Programs
I've tried many free anti-spyware programs and these seem to do the best so far....click the link to go to their download page.
1. Ad-Aware
2. Spybot-Search & Destroy
3. SpywareBlaster
Unlocker
Ever had any of these annoying messages given by Windows?
-Cannot delete file: Access is denied
-There has been a sharing violation.
-The source or destination file may be in use.
-The file is in use by another program or user.
-Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Then Unlocker is your solution.
Unlocker is an Windows Explorer extension allowing you with a simple right-click on a file or folder to get rid of error message such as error deleting file or folder, cannot delete folder: it's being used by another person or program.
Helps delete locked files with error messages like:
- Cannot delete file: Access is denied
- There has been a sharing violation.
- The source or destination file may be in use.
- The file is in use by another program or user.
- Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Unlocker website
Making/ripping your own MP3's
My favorite mp3 ripping program is....Audiograbber. It's an old program but still a great one and it's free.
Audiograbber is a beautiful piece of software that grabs digital audio from cd's. It copies the audio digitally-not through the soundcard-which enables you to make perfect copies of the originals. It can even perform a test to see that the copies really are perfect. Audiograbber can also automatically normalize the music, delete silence from the start and/or end of tracks, and send them to a variety or external MP3 encoders, such as Fraunhofers L3enc, or even use some MP3/WMA encoders internally for automatic creation of MP3's. Audiograbber can download and upload disc info from freedb, an Internet compact disc database. You can even record your vinyl LP's or cassette tapes with Audiograbber and make wav's or MP3's of them. There are a lot more functions in Audiograbber, but to put it simply: Audiograbber has the most features one can wish from such a program!
Audiograbber website
Download latest version here
NOTE: You will also need to download and install the Lame mp3 encoder from here.
After you download it...extract it to the Audiograbber install folder
MSConfig Cleanup
MSConfig is a powerful tool that allows you to enable/disable the programs that start when Windows boots up. MSConfig would be a perfect startup manager, if it allowed you not only to disable items, but to delete them forever. Unfortunately it does not do that.
This is where MSConfig Cleanup comes in! It scans the startup configurations and allows you to remove any item that has been previously disabled via MSConfig.
Try it. It's Free!
Free CD Burning Software - Win XP
Here's a nice program I came across for those who need a cd burning program for free.
Source: CD.Burner.XP website
The main features
Writes all kind of mediums apart from double-layer DVD (follows in next version). Burning video-DVDs is limited.
Burn audio-CDs with and without gaps between tracks
Burn on the fly / Burn-proof
Supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
Rip Audio-CDs to harddrive, obtain track-information (ID3-tags) from Internet
Burn and create ISO-files
Customizeable with many settings
Data verification after burn, create bootable discs
(will be) available in multiple languages
100% freeware - no adware or restrictions
bin/nrg->ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!
Operating systems: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003 Server.
All features in detail
Create Data-CDs/DVDs
burn any Data on CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW burn mp3-CDs to store many audio files on one single disc
create bootable discs
verify written Data automatically after burning process
use either the internal browser to add your files or the intuitive Drop-Box to drag and drop files directly from any Windows Explorer window
apply file filters to see only the files you need (for example *.jpg to display only JPEG files in local browser)
save your compilations for creation of backups
burn on-the-fly and with buffer-underrun protections
import previous (ISO 9660) sessions and edit existing file structure on CD/DVD
quick- and full-erase disc
retrieve recorder and disc information
Create Audio-CDs
create Audio-CDs from mp3, wav, ogg and wma* files
add single or multiple tracks from existing audio-CDs directly to your new compilation without ripping tracks before (add cda-files)
play audio-files with integrated audio player
gapless audio-CDs supported (disc-at-once-mode)
import m3u-playlists
*only available for Win98SE and later
Rip Audio-CDs
rip tracks from any audio-CD to wav, mp3, wma or ogg
download album information from online database
sort ripped files in subdirectory automatically (based on information you get from online database)
supports jitter-correction ripping modes to rip tracks from scratched CDs
ISO features
burn ISO files to CD
create your own ISO files
convert bin- and nrg-files to ISO
Other features
simple cover printing feature for Data- and Audio-CDs
Audio Editor
MP3 Tag-Editor
converter for audio files (wav+mp3)
supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
ASPI not required for NT/2000/XP
integrated option to enable access to drive for restricted users
lots of settings to customize CDBurnerXP Pro
online update
Enjoy
Photo Programs
Here are some useful, FREE photo programs you might find useful....
FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches the four edges of the screen. Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF and DNG).
No Adware No Spyware
Free for Home Users
FastStone Photo Resizer is an image converter / resizer intended to enable users to convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text and watermarks to images in a quick and easy "batch" mode. Drag and Drop mouse operation is well supported.
No Adware No Spyware
Free for Home Users
Windows Updates Downloader
Here's a great little program many of you will find useful....I came across it this morning.....enjoy.
Windows Updates Downloader
This is a small utility that allows you to download all of the current Windows and Office updates. All updates are downloaded directly from microsoft.com to your computer with a single mouse click. You can then burn them to a cd or dvd and save them for the next time you format your hard drive saving you all the hassle of using the windows update site.
How to use:
-Click on the plus icon, which opens up WUD's webpage. From there,
-Select a UL (Update List) you'd like to use, then when asked if you want to save or open the UL, open it.
-It will then be installed in WUD.
-Simply click the refresh button and you can select the UL that was installed.
-Select the updates you want to download and click the download button and off it will go.
save2pc
Someone finally made an easy way to download and save youtube/google videos to your computer.
save2pc is a small, fast, useful, practical and powerful. It has a clean, simple interface.
save2pc will work with Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista operating systems.
Simply paste the URL of a video into the program, press Start , and the AVI, MPEG or FLV file will be downloaded into the selected folder. You don't need any players to play flash video just play it on the defult media player clasic.
save2pc is a completely FREE Software. It contains absolutely NO ADWARE, NO SPYWARE, NO REGISTRATION, NO POPUPS, NO MALWARE or other unwanted software.