1. Price

Of course the price is great. You simply can’t beat free. Many people think, “you get what you pay for“, but that’s not entirely true. For instance, even most Windows users will say that Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome are the best browsers out there. How much do you pay for those? That right, they’re free. Although these are free, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some really good developers behind the software.

2. Software Management

One of my favorite features of Ubuntu is its software management. This is especially true when it comes to updates. In Windows, it could turn into an all-day job just to update the operating system, and then all the software you have installed because you have to go to Windows Updates and the websites for all of your installed software. Some programs might have an update system built into the software, but I still say it’s not as nice as updating everything in a single place at a single time. All of the software is available for install from the same place as well. When you decide you need a new program for keeping track of your bank account, it’s just a case of opening your favorite package manager and installing it from there.

3. Choices

Since Linux is open source, there are a ton of choices and options. This can be daunting to some people who like simple. It can be very simple. It’s even a choice to have choices. You can go to Ubuntu’s website, download the latest release, install it, and enjoy the operating system with its default set of software. However, you can also dig deeper and change nearly everything. Whether it’s the desktop environment, email client, look and feel of everything, or nearly anything else you want, the options are there. Unlike Windows, you can even change the default file manager. If you don’t like Windows Explorer, you can’t exactly ditch it and use a different file manager. In Linux, you can use the default file manager if you like, which Nautilus is a great file manager in itself, or you can install something else (like Marlin) and set it as default. Simple as that.

4. Customizing

It’s nice to be able to customize something when you don’t like the defaults. You can change nearly any aspect of the operating system, as I mentioned. This can be done through themes, color schemes, widgets, change of software, or pretty much any other way. In an earlier article, I told you how to move the navigation buttons to the left of the address bar in Nautilus 3+. Most customizations aren’t that involved, but due to the young nature of the latest versions of Gnome and Nautilus, some options aren’t supported yet. Overall, if something isn’t to your liking, it’s usually easy enough to change it to what you want.

5. Support

People may think different things when the word “support” is mentioned. Some people will think, “I need help, where do I go?“, while others will think, “Does my 3G modem work with it?“. Both are valid concepts of support, and both are really good in Linux. It’s easy to get help with Linux. If you have a problem, there are many forums and chat rooms you can use to get help. Ubuntu Forums is possibly the best place to get help with anything related to Ubuntu, its derivatives, and its software. If a more general forum would be better suited for you, LinuxQuestions.org is the place to go.

When it comes to hardware support, that can be a tricky subject to tackle from either the user’s aspect, or the developer’s. Some hardware is supported by Linux, while some hardware manufacturers support Linux. Things that aren’t supported in either direction are usually being handled the best they can in some way or another. The Linux community is big, and I mean really big. That means that if there’s a piece of hardware out there, it’s bound to be in the hands of a Linux user or developer. If it’s not already supported in some way, it’s probably being worked on by someone in the world. Even if something is already supported, there’s probably someone working on making it easier to work with, no matter how well it already works. The goal is to make everything work, and make it as easy as possible to do. That seems like a very noble goal, especially when it’s such a big task with some hardware.

6. Bug Handling

This actually goes in with support, but it’s done well enough to be mentioned separately. There are many ways to file a bug report. Ubuntu even has bug reporting built into the operating system. When you find something wrong with the software and you file a bug report, it will be verified and assigned to a developer to be fixed in the next release of the software. If it’s big enough, it could even justify a bug fix release on its own.

At the same time, there’s also feature suggestions. Most open source software has a way to make suggestions for improving the software. Nobody knows a user’s needs and desires like a user, so if you find something missing from your software choice, make a suggestion. This is one of the best ways for developers to know what they need to add to their software, and in most cases, they like to get that feedback.

7. Community

As I mentioned before, the Linux community is really big. It’s not hard to go into the Ubuntu IRC chat room and find over 1000 users online. These people are there to get or give help, or just to talk about Ubuntu-related stuff. There are even Linux User Groups (LUGs) all over the world. There’s a good chance you can find one near you, or you can even organize a group of your own. With how the Internet works, it’s easy to create an online community for your area, organize meetings, create forums, chat rooms, host install parties, and much more. If you have a verified group, you can even get free or discounted stuff from different places to help promote Linux and open source software.

There are also many blogs out there, like Make Tech Easier, that post articles to help you along the way. Most of the time, if you can’t figure out how to do something, you can usually find the answer on a blog of some sort listed in Google’s search results. In the spirit of open source, users will often volunteer their time and knowledge to be shared with others.

Conclusion

There are a lot of things to like about Linux. It’s not just Ubuntu, but most distributions offer a lot of things to like. There are a lot of people that are passionate about open source software, and the developers volunteer their time to make it all better. In the end, it all boils down to the community that surrounds Linux. If it wasn’t for the community, Linux wouldn’t be as good as it is. You can expect Linux to get even better as the community grows over time.

What are some of your favorite parts of Linux? Let us know what you have to say in the comments.

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But why opt for websites that require payments when you can use sites that are free? For every website that requires a payment, there is another one that offers a free equivalent. However searching for these free equivalents each time you need to use a new web service can be very time consuming. Here to help you with the entire process is CatchFree – a site that maintains an organized list of websites that offers free services.

Introduction

Each time you are about to use a web service – sharing a large file with friends, streaming complete movies, etc. – you cannot spend the time looking for the best web service; it would be simply be too time consuming. Here to provide you with that information automatically is CatchFree. CatchFree ranks the best free websites categorized according to their particular web services. The sites covered include at least one permanently free package without any catches – something that CatchFree derives its name from. So the next time you have to find out the best free way to create your own website or stream an entire movie, simply head on over to CatchFree and follow the steps we have mentioned below.

Usage

When you visit CatchFree, you will view a list of various web services. The list will cover nearly all tasks you use the internet for.

By default, these websites are sorted according to popularity. But you can rearrange them according to other factors.

Or if you are looking for a particular web service, you can use the keywords search.

In case you want an explanation for a particular web service, simply place your mouse pointer over it and details will be displayed in a window that appears.

Clicking on the service will reveal the top 2 free websites offering that particular service. For streaming videos, for instance, the top 2 websites turned out to be YouTube and Hulu.

Apart from the top 2 site, you can view other top sites ranked orderly.

For each site, you can view its user rating, Facebook likes, and the platforms it works on. You can also see if the site requires a download and user-friendliness and value are graded.

These ranked websites appear under a tab named “Compare free apps”. You can use the other available tabs to read the frequently asked questions and user comments. You can even submit a new application that is not on the list but you feel it should be; for this action you will need to sign in using your Facebook or Twitter account.

By viewing all this information about the ranked websites, you can easily determine which free website offers what you are looking for.

Conclusion

While CatchFree offers a simple service, it is still a highly valuable one. By using users’ opinions to rank free websites and sorting them according to the service they offer, the site has provided an invaluable tool particularly to amateur computer users. People looking for a free alternative to the paid app they are using will also highly benefit from this website. In conclusion, CatchFree deserves to by bookmarked by all computer users.

Visit CatchFree @ http://catchfree.com/categories

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If you do remember any of that, first of all, welcome to adulthood. Next, I would like to introduce you to FreeMGP (Mega games Pack) Vol 1. It will take you down memory lane, but even if you are too young to remember the games in this pack, playing them might still seem like a fun way to spend a summer afternoon.

Unlike the PC game bundles of old, there is no physical packaging for this game pack. Instead, you must download the 1.82 GB ISO image and burn it to a DVD. The entire pack of games is free (made up of both open source and freeware games), and this Linux version contains less games than the Windows one, only including those that have been tested and work well in Linux. Even with that limitation, it still includes 211 games. Nevertheless, all of the games are Windows games, so FreeMGP requires you to have Wine installed and operational.

Installation and Interface

Once you have the DVD burned, open it in a file browser. There is an autorun file, presumably for Windows, as well as three folders. You have to choose the Installer folder and run GamesInstaller.exe to start the installer program. I had to assume this was the correct way to run the program, as I did not find any Linux-specific instructions.

The Installer itself, however, is attractive and runs perfectly under Wine. It includes a side menu with game categories and a list of each game. To install, you simply click the check box next to any of the games you want and then click “Start”. It really cannot get any easier.

The games install quickly, as would be expected, and do not take you through individual installers. The only anomaly I experienced was that, with my dual-monitor setup, one of the monitors would turn off during installation, as if a game were about to start.

Once the games are installed, they will appear in your Wine menu, providing individual shortcuts for each game.

Gameplay

I did not test all of the games, but all of the ones I did test worked without any real problems. Some of them were even 3D games, and they all ran well. The compilers of the game pack have taken the time to pre-configure the games to work correctly under Linux. For example, if a game did not run correctly in fullscreen mode, they set it to load in a window by default. Like typical older windows games, this presents you with a variety of resolutions and window sizes, something that is unavoidable.

Once you get playing, you will likely forget about anything I just said, mostly because the games are fun, providing you with everything from all-out arcade action to thoughtful role playing. FreeMGP has something for everyone, children included.

I found most of the games required the mouse, keyboard, or some combination thereof, with a few responding to a gamepad. Many of the games are undoubtedly familiar and are still popular, like Glest and Wolfenstein 3D. Some, like Tower of Goo (the predecessor to World of Goo), can have you clicking for hours. Others like Aztec Challenge have an annoying nostalgic familiarity that is quite amusing. Then, there are games like Marble Arena that could probably still stand on their own with challenging and entertaining gameplay.

The Bottom Line

Pros:

• FreeMGP is easy to use and will provide you with a plethora of good games.
• It’s free, portable, and redistributable
• Even though you can probably find most of the games separately, FreeMGP will save you the time
• It has been configured to work with Linux. How cool is that?

Cons:

• Most of the games are pretty dated and may even draw an insult or two from your teenage brother
• They are Windows games that still require Wine, often producing wide variety of full screen resolutions or tiny game windows

Overall, FreeMGP is a mega pack of fun games, some of which you will definitely want to keep installed and may even pass along to your children. It is definitely worth a little of your time, and at zero cost, it is unquestionably worth the price.

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SpiderOak is a free and paid service that offers storage, backup, and syncing to Windows, Mac, and Linux users. Users can access their data through the website or using the cross-platform desktop application. SpiderOak also has an iPhone app available through the iTunes AppStore.

As a Kubuntu Linux user, I have been disappointed with the lack of KDE support by Ubuntu One. Also, I was looking for something that would allow me to start writing an article on one computer, save it, close it, and then pick up writing on another computer, without any file management. SpiderOak does that and more.

Installation

The first step to getting SpiderOak is to download the application from the website. The makers of the website make a big promise about protecting your privacy and that they will never violate it. I will leave it up to you to decide what type of data to trust with them.

The pricing scheme is one feature that makes SpiderOak unique. Like Dropbox and others, it offers a free basic account with 2GB of storage space, which includes all backup and sync features. They then offer a plus account, which is $10 per 100 GB per month, and it increases in 100GB increments. With this, you can essentially setup your own plan.

1. Click Download SpiderOak to begin (it attempts to detect your operating system version, but always failed on mine, so I had to click Ubuntu Lucid Lynx).

2. Once the download is complete, click the package and proceed through the normal installation process.

3. After installation, run SpiderOak or find it in the applications menu.

4. When you run SpiderOak for the first time, it will ask you to provide your account information or to sign up for a new account. Choose new account.

5. Enter your contact information.

6. On the next screen, it will ask for username and password information. Enter it, click Next, and then enter the security code.

7. Click Next again, and it will take a while to create your cryptographic code.

Backup and Sync

SpiderOak’s first start will show you the Backup tab. If you have some typical folders, such as Documents and Photos, it will display those and give you the option to back them up. If you do not or if you have specific folders not listed, click Advanced to get your full file tree. Check the files you want to backup, and click Save. As soon as you do, it will start the backup process.

You can add as many folders as you want, assuming they all fit within your storage limit. A meter at the bottom will keep track of your online storage space. If you have no further files to backup, you can minimize SpiderOak to your system tray.

Now, if you want to sync, go to the other computer and download SpiderOak. The two computers need not have the same operating system. After it is installed, start SpiderOak, and instead of choosing new account, enter your existing account information. It will then ask you if you want to add a new computer or reinstall on an existing one. Choose the new computer setting, and give your second computer a distinct name.

Next, choose the folders and files you want to backup, just as you did on the first computer.

1. Click on the Sync tab and click New.

2. Enter a name and optionally, a description

3. For folder one, click Browse and find the folder you want to sync on computer number 2.

4. Click Select to finalize.

5. For folder two, click Browse and find the folder on computer number 1.

6. Click Next

7. Save

SpiderOak will begin the sync process, copying files to and from each folder until the folders match. In the future, anytime you add or edit files in one location, they will be synced with the other location.

In Preferences ->Schedule, you can change the timings for backups and syncs to make them as frequent as you like. In the Backup section of Preferences, you can also tell SpiderOak to ignore certain file types, sizes, and ages.

SpiderOak is free and easy to use. I am now able to write an article like this and then find the same article on my desktop computer. I can also make some files public and share them with friends and family. Best of all, SpiderOak has released many components of their technology to the free and open source community under the GPL v3 license.

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In a nutshell Ninite is an app downloader and installer. However, it offers more than just a directory of apps to download. What makes Ninite special, is they take all the crap that most people done want — toolbars — and saves you from having to click next 50 times. Kinda makes you wish you got off your lazy butt and did created something like this doesn’t it?

What apps does it work with?

Most of the apps are open source software like Firefox, Skype, Chrome, VLC, GIMP and Filezilla. There are a lot of others too. The landing page is broken down into categories; web browsers, messaging, media, imaging, documents, security, runtimes, file sharing, utilities, other, compression and developer tools. In total, there are currently 71 different apps to download and install via Ninite.

How do you use it?

1. I’m telling you, it’s super simple. Start by selecting one or more applications you’d like to install on your Windows computer. I am selecting CutePDF, Evernote, Defraggler and Recuva. (1 click if you are installing 1 app)

2. Click on the big Get Installer button. Are you still waiting for the hard part? (Click 2)

3. You will be taken to a screen showing all of the apps included in the installer you will be downloading.

4. At the bottom of the screen—using Chrome—you will need to click to save the installer to your desktop. (Click 3)

5. Go to where your files download to. You will see a new file that bears the Ninite logo. You will also notice the file name includes all of the apps you have chosen to download.

6. Double click the installer to start the installation. (Click 4 and 5)

7. On my netbook, I had to click one more popup to run the installer, you may not need to depending on your security settings. (Click 6)

You will then see a progress bar.

The whole installation is completely hands off. Go get that coffee refill or something. When you get back, everything will be done. Seriously, that’s all there is to it. Here are the desktop shortcuts created by the installer.

Something to note about using the free version of Ninite (yes there is a pro subscription). The installer(s) you download need an internet connection to download files from Evernote or Mozilla or whatever app you are installing.

If you are setting up a new computer with all of your favorite apps, browsers and other essentials, This is definitely a site you will want to keep in mind. If you are setting up computers very regularly, the pro subscription has some features to make your job easier and faster. Here is a link to the page talking about the Ninite Pro paid version if you need more features. For my personal needs the free version works fantastic.

How many clicks does it take you to install an application? As a comparison, I counted to see. It took me 16 clicks to install 1 program (CCleaner) right from piriform.com/ccleaner. I installed 4 apps (2 apps are from the same company who makes CCleaner) using Ninite in 6 clicks.

What other time savers do you have when setting up a new computer?

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From time to time, we collaborate with various software developers to provide free download for our readers. This time round, the latest software available for free download is WinX HD Video Converter (orignially $39.95).

WinX HD Video Converter is a professional video converter specially designed for HD video conversion. It allows you to effortlessly convert HD videos mutually with no loss of image and sound quality, like MTS, M2TS, TS, HD MP4, MKV, HD WMV, and HD MOV, etc. Besides, it also lets you convert between HD videos and regular AVI, MP4, MOV, WMV, etc.

The software itself is very easy to use. There is almost no need to fiddle with any of the technicalities, unless you choose to.

When you first run the software, it will prompt you to Add file from your video folder.

There isn’t really much for you to do. All you need to do is to

1. Add video file

2. Choose the format that you want to convert to.

3. Change the settings (optional). The default setting is good enough for most users.

4. Click on the Start button to start the conversion.

As the conversion could take a long time, there is also an option “Shut down computer when conversion completed” which can be very useful when converting a big file.

At the moment, the format that it supported includes HD-AVI, HD-WMV, HD-AVC, HD-MP4, HD-MOV, HD-MPEG, HD-TS, HD-Youtube and AAC (audio).

In case you have a big video file and only wish to convert a portion of it, WinX HD Video Converter also allows you to specify the start and end time of the video.

All in all, a simple and easy to use software with plenty of useful features.

WinX HD Video Converter is available for free download till 16 Dec 2009. You can grab this great software here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to MakeTechEasier RSS feed or email to get the latest software update from us.

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Imagine a situation when you have a lot of applications and windows open and you have to constantly switch different windows. This takes away the focus from your work and kills your precious time. What if we could arrange all the windows folders and running applications in tabs just as we open multiple websites in Firefox?

Earlier we have used QTtabbar, which lets you import tabbed features to your windows explorer but WinTabber is even more useful. It is a free desktop tool for windows that lets you organize open windows and running applications in tabs. All the open folders can be grouped together which keeps your desktop clean and uncluttered. Another advantage of using tabbed applications is that you get a lot of space in the taskbar and the running applications do not get huddled together. (also see : useful Firefox extensions for better tab management)

Earlier my desktop used to contain a lot of open applications and took me quite a lot of time to figure out a particular program or window. Here is how my desktop looked

After using WinTabber the same desktop looks quite different.

As you can see, all the running programs and open folders are neatly organized in multiple tabs under one common explorer window. You can open almost any program in a new tab. This may include your browser,Microsoft word,command prompt or even a video playing in your favorite media player.

How does WinTabber work ?

Nothing that geeky. Following are the steps involved to use WinTabber :

1. Start the application and open a new tab or a new window.

2. WinTabber will ask you which applications and folders you want to dock. Select the desired applications which you want to group together.

3. The selected applications will open in a new tab inside the WinTabber window. You can drag and rearrange the tabs and change the position just as you do with Firefox tabs.

4. You can run multiple instances of WinTabber simultaneously. So if you are working on different browsers then open a new WinTabber window and dock all the browsers together. Similarly you can group all the open folders in another WinTabber window and so on.

5. Ctrl + tab moves to the next tab while Shift +tab takes you to the previous tab.

6. You can release a particular window or you can release all of them with a single click. If you want to close all the applications just hit “Remove and close all”.

7. If you have a large number of tabs open,you can compress the appearance of tabs just as it appears in Google chrome. Go to View–>Tab layout—>Compressed and it’s done.

8. There are quite a handful of themes to choose from so that you can give the tabbed environment your own feel. Personally, I like the Office 2007 theme.

There are two editions of WinTabber available for use. One is Free while the other one requires a one time registration fee of $5. The registered version allows you to open an unlimited number of tabs while the free edition limits you to a maximum of 4 tabs. Here is a quick rundown of all the features of WinTabber.

Other Tabbed applications for Windows

1. Window tabs: This app is quite similar to WinTabber. It lets you group similar windows and programs into a tabbed interface. Comes with a licensed version as well a free one.

2. Xplorer2 : Instead of organizing the open folders in tabs, Xplorer2 adds multiple panes in your windows explorer so that you can work on different folders at the same time.

Do you use any of the apps that we have discussed here? Do share your thoughts and ideas so that we get to know what makes you productive.

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1.  NeoOffice

NeoOffice is very impressive. It is a user friendly office tool that will help you develop all the documentation, spreadsheets, and presentations for your business. If you have used other office application softwares, it has the same basic functionalities, as well as additional ones. NeoOffice Writer has everything you would need a word processing software to have. One great feature that I haven’t seen anywhere else is the Bibliography Database. If you are creating extensive documentation that has numerous references, Bibliography Database keeps track of them. NeoOffice Calc helps you create easy and robust spreadsheets that you can use. NeoOffice Impress helps you create impressive presentations that will wow your clients. NeoOffice Drawing allows you to design your own documentations, very similar to Adobe’s InDesign. Overall, it’s a great suite of office applications with the quality of expensive versions of it.

To download NeoOffice, here is the site: http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

2.GanttProject

GanttProject allows you to create a work-breakdown structure that will keep track of your project schedule, critical paths, and milestones. Additionally, it allows you to monitor your resources. It is very similar to MS Project, but without the cost. You can easily add resource information, task-related options, and link tasks that people have complained is pretty hard to do on MS Project. This can be used for any project, including blog creation, marketing schedule, or social media game plan.

To download GanttProject, here is the site: http://www.ganttproject.biz/

3. EverNote

Evernote is a way of keeping track of all your notes that you collect for a project. It is great because you can capture images, videos, and another forms of media that you are unable to get using a basic word processing tool, or scribbling notes by hand. The great thing about it is that you can sync it to the web, smartphone, and computer, so you have all your information any time. The free version gives you 40MB a month, so if you want more space, you will need to upgrade, which gives you 500MB. Overall, it’s a great capture-all software that can keep all the notes for your project.

To download EverNote, here is the site: https://www.evernote.com

4. Buddi

Buddi is a simple finance accounting software that provides you a way to keep track of your expenses. It doesn’t have a way to interface with your financial institution, like you could probably get from web-based finance accounting tools (e.g. Mint or Yodlee). However, the budget reports more than make up for it. There are reports and charts that you can use to view your budget in different formats. Overall, it does the job to keep track of your business.

To download Buddi, here is the site: http://buddi.digitalcave.ca/

5. FreeMind

FreeMind is a mind map tool that allows you to create mind maps of your project. Mindmapping is a great way to help you with planning. It’s a tool that many businesses are starting to adopt because they see the value in using this as a way to plan projects before the work begins. FreeMind has the basic functions that allows you to create a mine map. Furthermore, your maps can have images, colors, and attachments to make it come to life. Another great feature is the ability to write notes that append to a node so you can have additional formation that could not be shown mind map. You can also link to external web sites, and get to them from FreeMind.

To download FreeMind, here is the site: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

What other software do you use to manage your business?

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Here’s How

Step 1: First you open up Some PDF and a window similar to the following one should pop-up.

Step 2: Then you have to go to the File tab and click on the Open File option.

Step 3: Once your document(s) has been opened in Some PDF then you need to scroll (if you have more than one) to the document you want to convert and click on it.

Step 4: Make your way all the way down to the end of the window and click on the Start Convert button to instantly begin the conversion.

Step 5: Now just sit back and watch Some PDF convert your file into Word format.

Side by Side:

Here’s the image before the conversion:

Now here’s the converted to Word format version:

Conclusion

For the most part converted files are good in terms of content (Images, Text, etc…). However, you’ll probably find that some of the font will come out in different sizes once the full conversion has taken place. With Some PDF you can play with a wide range of options, for example if you would like to keep or skip the conversion of images. The graphical user interface (GUI) actually feels a bit “old-school”, however it functions very well. Perhaps Some PDF will possibly bring drag and drop, better user interface and graphics to its future versions of this software.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts or suggestions on how to make tech easier below!

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In a previous post I talked about a great disk usage analysis tool called TreeSize Free that visually summarized how your disk was being used.  Free Disk Analyzer performs a similar task, however it also has some added features and some better graphics.

In this walkthrough I’ll show you what Free Disk Analyzer is all about and we’ll look at some comparison shots with TreeSize Free.

Installation

Start by downloading the installation package for Free Disk Analyzer from the ExtenSoft web site.  Like most of the applications that we review, the installer for Free Disk Analyzer is very easy to use.  Just walk through the steps using the installation wizard and you will be up and running in less than a minute.

You can install Free Disk Analyzer in a number of languages including English, French, Dutch, German, and Russian.

Usage

After completing the installation and launching the Free Disk Analyzer, you will be presented with a similar window as I’ve shown below.  This shot gives a nice and quick breakdown of disk usage by volume.

To kick start or update the analysis, click on Analyze in the menu bar.  Once selected, “Analysis in progress…” will display in the status bar at the bottom.

By double-clicking on a volume, or by using the tree in the left-most pane, you can drill down into specific areas of storage.  In the following example, you can see a comparison of my D: drive using Free Disk Analyzer and TreeSize Free.  The numbers are slightly off, but I would say they are close enough to each other to be accurate.  As expected, both applications give similar results, however Free Disk Analyzer (on the left) really shines from a GUI standpoint.

The next comparison shows a drill-down into the storage folder, which is the biggest consumer of storage space on that drive.  Once again, Free Disk Analyzer really shines from a graphical display standpoint.  However both applications are accurate and will get the job done.

Clicking on the Largest Files tab, at the bottom of the window, will bring back a listing of the files that are consuming the most space for the folder and sub-folders you selected.  Looking at Program Files, you can see that my Assassin’s Creed and Unreal Tournament 3 folders are the biggest consumers of hard drive space. Yikes!

Checking out the Largest Folders tab will get you a breakdown of sub-folder sizes.  As expected from the previous shot, my two game directories are the biggest culprits for space waste.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, the functionality of Free Disk Analyzer is basically what you would expect from any application claiming to analyze space consumption.  What this program excels at is really in the presentation.

If style is your thing, then I strongly encourage you to get a copy of this app today! You won’t be disappointed.

Do you have another favorite disk usage analysis tool?  Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear about it!

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Recuva allows you to selectively search for specific files such as pictures, music, videos, and documents or you can search for any deleted files if you are looking for something outside of a specific niche.  This handy walkthrough will show you just how easy it is!

To get started, download the installation file from the Recuva site and use the wizard to guide you through the installation.  The only change that I would suggest would be to uncheck Install Yahoo Toolbar when presented with the option.

Once installed, launch Recuva and select continue if prompted by Vista’s UAC security warning.  This product uses a very easy to follow wizard to help you recover those lost files quickly and easily.

As you can see, Recuva gives you the ability to specialize your search, so that your file is more likely to be recovered quickly.  Once you get to the end of the wizard, you are given the option to do a deep scan.  It’s not recommended on your first pass, but if you have trouble recovering a file you can try the deep scan to improve your results.

After you click Start, Recuva will begin scanning your drive(s) for deleted files.  A progress bar allows you to see how far along the scan is at any given moment.  Once that scan is complete, you will be presented with a listing of files that can be recovered.  I chose to recover a picture, so in my example I am offered thumbnails to make finding my file easier.

All that’s left is to place a checkmark in the checkbox under your file, then click the Recover button in the lower right-corner of the window.  A dialog box will appear asking where you would like to save the recovered files to.  It is highly recommended to select a drive that is different than the drive containing your files.

After one last prompt that tells you the recovery time, your files are in your selected location and ready for use.

This tool is a great asset to have on hand and it could certainly be a life saver one day.  I look forward to the next great product from Piriform to see just how much easier computer management can get.

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nLite and vlite are two useful tools that allows you to customize your Windows XP or Vista installation CD and add/remove extra components of your choice. You can use it to deploy additional software packages including drivers, service packs or to remove miscellaneous Windows components that you have no use for it.

Here’s how you can integrate additional packages to Windows XP with nlite.

Customize Your Windows XP Bootable ISO Image

1) Create a folder on your hard disk and label it XP_Source

2) Copy the full content of the XP distribution CD into this folder.

3) Start nLite. The welcome screen shows you which version of nLite you are running and allows you to choose an alternate language. To continue click on ‘Next‘.

4) Click Browse and locate the XP_Source folder that you have created just now

5) nLite recognizes the language and version of your Windows installation files and displays the information. Click Next to proceed.

6) You can save your current presets for future use or load presets from the last time you used nLite. Click Next to proceed.

7) Choose your customization

- To Integrate a Service Pack, first download the correct pack for your operating system and save it to your hard drive.

- Click on the ‘Select‘ tab and integrate the service pack.

8) Next we arrive at the option to integrate drivers that Windows does not install by default. These can be drivers for almost any type of hardware as long as you use the correct driver. Click on the ‘Insert‘ button to search for drivers to install, make sure that you open .inf files only

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Enjoy!

Office Suite

1. OpenOffice.org – OpenOffice.org is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office – even for professional use. It can do just about anything Office can.
2. AbiWord – A lightweight version of Microsoft Office. Simple, straightforward interface; easy to use.
3. Jarte – A word processor based on the Microsoft WordPad. It can be run directly from a USB flash drive.
4. Notepad++ – A free source code editor and Notepad replacement, which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.
5. EditPad Lite – A general-purpose text editor, designed to be small and compact, yet offer all the functionality you expect from a basic text editor.

Security

6. avast! 4 Home Edition – A complete antivirus solution that is able to find computer viruses, create and check the integrity of programs installed, test executed programs and opened documents, to test and check email and other functions.
7. AVG Anti-Virus – A free security solution that is easy to use, has low system resources, automatic update functionality and ability to protect as files are opened and programs are run.
8. Comodo Firewall – A free firewall that constantly monitors and defends your PC from internet attacks. It is a fully functional product that comes with continual updates that are free forever!
9. McAfee SiteAdvisor – A plugin for Firefox and IE browser that shows safety rating as you browse the Web.
10. SpyCatcher Express – A free anti-spyware program that allows novice PC users to remove aggressive spyware, stops next-generation, mutating spyware, blocks reinstallation of aggressive spyware and removes spyware safely and automatically.
11. StartupMonitor – A small monitoring program that keeps a constant eye on your system’s startup entries. When ever a change is made, you will be notified and given a choice to either allow the change or not to change.
12. SuperStorm Freeware – This software allows you to hide your confidential files and folders in a wide variety of media files such as pictures, audio, video, executable programs among many other file types.
13. Windows Defender – A free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software.
14. HijackThis – A malware remove tool that makes a detailed log of what’s going on in your Registry and gives you the opportunity to remove things that might be suspect.
15. Zone Alarm – This software lets you block uninitiated and unwanted traffic, even while your PC is unattended or while you’re not using your connection.

Desktop management

16. Google desktop – A desktop search application that gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web.
17. Yahoo Desktop – Yahoo Desktop enables you to search and instantly find information, preview it in its native format, and take action on it immediately.
18. TweakUI – This software reduces the Windows annoyance without having to meddle with the registry. It gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.
19. Pretty run – A small program that can search your start menu, desktop or any other folder for shortcuts.
20. RoboForm – RoboForm memorizes and securely stores each user name and password the first time you log into a site, then automatically supplies them when you return.
21. AutoHotkey - This open-source utility can automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write macros by hand or use the macro recorder. You can also create hotkeys for keyboard, mouse, joystick, and handheld remote controls.
22. Keepass safe – A password manager which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk.
23. Clipomatic – A clipboard cache program that remembers what was copied to the clipboard and allows you to retrieve it, even after you’ve copied something else to the clipboard.

Browser

24. Firefox – Firefox includes tons of useful features such as tabbed browsing, built-in and customizable search bars, a built-in RSS reader and a huge library of extensions developed by thousand of developers.
25. Opera – Opera introduces Speed Dial which vastly improves navigation to your favorite sites. In addition, there’s Fraud protection, an anti-phishing detection keeps browsing safe and secure.
26. Crazy browser – A browser that allows users to collect tabs into groups and then load an entire group at once. This feature is very useful for research, as you can summon a set of related sites as needed, without manually opening each one.

Fun and Games

27. Banshee Screamer Alarm – A snoozeable alarm clock designed to wake you up. Play MP3s, execute programs, or shut down your computer at the time you set.
28. BZFlag – An online multiplayer cross-platform open source 3D tank battle game. It runs on Irix, Linux, BSD, Windows, Mac OS X, and many other platforms. It’s one of the most popular games ever on Silicon Graphics machines.
29. ConWare IconArt – An easy-to-use icon & cursor editor that allows your to design your own, edit previous icons, create cursors, capture icons from programs and DLL files or import an image for your icon.
30. Google Earth – Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.
31. Tux Racer – Getting bored and sick of the Windows game? Tux Racer lets you take on the role of Tux the Linux Penguin as he races down steep, snow-covered mountains. Enter cups and compete to win the title!
32. ZSNES – A Nintendo emulator on your desktop. ZSNES is built to run on Windows, DOS, Linux and FreeBSD Unix and it is by far the best SNES emulator available.
33. Cartes du Ciel – A sky map that allows you to find out what constellations and planets are visible tonight.

Graphics Editing

34. GIMP – A complete image editing software with capabilities not found in any other free software product. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert-quality photo-retouching program, a mass production image renderer, or an image-format converter.
35. Paint.net – A free image and photo editing software that features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
36. Google sketchup – A powerful yet easy-to-learn 3D software tool that combines a simple, yet robust tool-set with an intelligent drawing system that streamlines and simplifies 3D design.
37. IrfanView – A fast and compact image viewer/converter that is simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.

Video and Audio

38. Audacity – A complete recording and sound editing software that is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.
39. Media Monkey – A music manager and jukebox for serious music collectors and iPod users. It offers an intelligent tag editor which looks up missing Album Art and track information via Freedb and the Web.
40. CDex – An application that records audio tracks from CDs and saves them to a disk as regular WAV files or as encoded sound files.
41. iTunes – One of the highest downloaded digital-jukebox software. Comes with the iTunes Music Store that offers music at 99-cents-per-song.
42. Winamp – A multimedia player that supports numerous audio and video formats. It also plays streamed video and audio content, both live and recorded, authored worldwide.
43. VLC – A highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
44. QuickTime Alternative – This application let you play QuickTime or Real videos without Apple or Real’s bloated, in-your-face proprietary players.

PDF creator

45. PrimoPDF – A free tool for high-quality PDF creation, comprising a user-friendly interface that enables printing to PDF from virtually any Windows application.
46. PDF creator – A simple PDF creation tool for those who just want to skip the technical steps and produce a PDF file. If you know how to print, then you know how to use this software.
47. doPDF – Using doPDF, you can create searchable PDF files from virtually any application. You can search for text within the created PDF file, and search engines will also index the text from the PDF.

Virtual Server

48. VMware Server – VMware Server installs on any existing server hardware and partitions a physical server into multiple virtual machines by abstracting processor, memory, storage and networking resources, giving you greater hardware utilization and flexibility.
49. LogMeIn Hamachi – A VPN that allows you to access your home PC from work (or vice versa) as though you’re sitting right in front of it.
50. OpenVPN – OpenVPN is a tried and true VPN solution. It is totally secure and infinitely configurable. You can install and run this software without relying on a third party.

Instant Messaging

51. Windows Live messenger – The next generation MSN Messenger. It comes with everything that were already available in Messenger, and a new i’m Initiative that makes helping your favorite charity as easy as sending an instant message.
52. Pidgin – A multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once. Pidgin can work with: AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo!, MySpaceIM and many more.
53. Trillian – A fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC.
54. Skype – A software that enables you to make free calls anywhere in the world.

Download manager

55. Download Accelerator Plus – A download manager that can enhance your download experience. Features include a search tab, security check for every site and application you download, more speed per connection, resume broken download and preview file when you download.
56. Internet download manager – A tool for increasing download speeds by up to 5 times, and for resuming, scheduling, and organizing downloads. The program will resume unfinished downloads due to network problems, or unexpected power outages.
57. Getright – As a download manager, GetRight supports BitTorrent downloads too. In addition, you can use GetRight to schedule your downloads for later; it can dial your modem (if needed), download the files you want, then hang up or even shut down your computer when it is done.
58. DownThemAll – A powerful yet easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox extension that adds new advanced download capabilities to your browser.
59. Flashgot – A Firefox extension that allows you to handle single and massive downloads using the external download managers of your choice.

File Management

60. Eraser – An advanced security tool for Windows that allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.
61. Restoration – An easy to use and straight forward tool to undelete files that were removed from the recycle bin or directly deleted from within Windows (we were able to recover photos from a Flash card that had been formatted).

Torrent Manager

62. Azureus – A popular torrent manager that allows you to install plug-in and tweak your own settings.
63. µTorrent – A very, very tiny BitTorrent client that packs enough features into that small package to compete with beefier applications like Azureus.
64. Bitcomet – A bit torrent manager that allows videos files to be previewed while they’re still being downloaded, and there’s a built-in chat tool that lets users chat with other peers in the swarm.

Backup Program

65. Cobian Backup – A multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network.
66. Back4Win – A backup program that uses industry standard ZIP compression to ensures that your data will be accessible regardless of which PC operating system. Does not have 4Gb and 65535 file limit of other ZIP backup programs.
67. DriveImage XML – This software allows you to backup logical drives and partitions to image files, browse these images, view and extract files, restore these images to the same or a different drive and copy directly from drive to drive.
68. JaBackup – JaBackup allows advanced automation features. You can schedule backup tasks by the second or minute, or on a hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
69. Xdrive Desktop – Xdrive gives you 5GB of online storage space to store and backup your files. The Xdrive desktop software allows you to backup and synchronize your data with the web server with few mouse clicks.
70. Gmail Space – Use your Gmail account as storage by uploading and downloading files through a browser-based interface.

File Compression

71. 7-zip – This software compresses files in new 7z format with LZMA compression. It supports multi formats, including 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR, RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS.
72. Winzip – Using WinZip, you can quickly and easily compress and decompress files, folders, and entire folder trees to save storage space and reduce e-mail-transmission time, as well as encrypt and decrypt your sensitive documents.
73. AutoUnpack – This is designed to unpack your compressed file in a single quick step. You merely point to a folder containing your ZIP or RAR files and choose an output directory. Press one button to start a process that ends with your archive perfectly unpacked, or let the program automatically unpack that directory every set number of minutes.
74. ExtractNow – A simple program allows you to extract more than one archived file at a time, with one click of a button, making extracting files quicker and easier.

System Optimization and Diagnostic Tool

75. CCleaner – A system optimization and privacy tool that removes unused files from your system and allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.
76. Security Process Explorer – An enhanced task manager, that provides advanced information about programs and processes running on the computer. It displays all the standard information, including file name, directory path, description, CPU usage etc. as well as a unique security risk rating.
77. CPU-Z – This mini software allows you to find out everything about your computer. You can find information such as processor name and vendor, core stepping and process, processor package, internal and external clocks, clock multiplier, partial overclock detection, and processor features including supported instructions sets.
78. EULAlyzer – This takes your EULA agreement and analyze it in seconds, and provide a detailed listing of potentially interesting words and phrases. Discover if the software you’re about to install displays pop-up ads, transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you, or more. It is great for picking out privacy issues.
79. Process Explorer – An advanced process management utility that picks up where Task Manager leaves off. It will show you detailed information about a process including its icon, command-line, full image path, memory statistics, user account, security attributes, and more.
80. Auslogics Disk Defrag – This software was designed to remedy system sluggishness and crashes caused by disk fragmentation. It is fast, simple to easy and what’s more, it is effective.
81. SmartDefrag – SmartDefrag boasts a system checker that continually defrags the files that you use the most, and does it without becoming a persistent drag on your system resources. The “Install It and Forget It” feature works automatically and quietly in the background on your computer and it only eats up 14MB of RAM, so it’s possible to run it smoothly on older machines.
82. Local Cooling – Fight global warming from your desktop! Local Cooling automatically optimizes your PC’s power consumption by using a more effective power save mode.
83. Belarc Advisor – Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and analyzes elements such as whether antivirus software is up to date, or whether all the security flaws in Windows have been patched.

Email Client

84. Thundrebird – Thunderbird makes e-mailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry’s best implementations of features, such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in RSS reader, and quick search.
85. Eudora – A robust e-mail client whose features include multiple address-book-formatting options and the ability to filter, redirect, and forward mail. It supports QuickTime- and HTML-enriched e-mail, letting you include stylized, formatted text and in-line graphics in your messages.
86. Opera Mail – Opera Mail is integrated with the Opera browser, and lets you send, receive, sort and search your e-mails quicker and easier than with conventional e-mail programs.
87. Sylpheed – A surprisingly versatile email client. ‘Surprisingly’ because it has a friendly, easy to use interface to its many useful features.
88. PopTray – The premier pop-up mail checker for standard POP3 and IMAP mail accounts, including Gmail, and it can be coaxed to work with HTML-only mail such as Hotmail by following the instructions at the PopTray site.

Photo Organizer

89. Google Picasa – A free software that helps you locate and organize all the photos on your computer, edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks and share your photos with others through email, prints and on the web.
90. Xnview – A fast multi-format graphics browser, viewer, and converter. It has an Explorer-like browser that allows quick and simple browsing of directory contents.
91. FxFoto – This software provides a single tool for automatically organizing, enhancing, annotating, e-mailing, printing, uploading, and archiving your digital photos.
92. Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.0 – This software makes it easy to find, fix, and share your digital photos. Instantly fix photo flaws in just a click or two.
93. Jalbum – A gallery software that makes web albums from your digital images.

Video Converter

94. Free FLV Converter – This free software let you search youTube and dailyMotion videos without opening your browser and you can even watch the videos using the built-in video player.
95. Free Video To iPhone Converter – Convert video files to Apple iPhone MP4 video format. Convert the whole movie or select a partition from the movie to convert (trim video).
96. Any Video Converter – An all-in-one video converting freeware with easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed, and excellent video quality.
97. iPod Video Converter – Free iPod Video Converter provides an easy and completed way to convert all popular video formats to iPod video.

FTP client

98. Filezilla – A full-featured FTP client that supports Secure FTP, SSL, and other protocols in a slick interface, complete with a tree-structured site manager that lets you store settings for multiple sites.
99. SmartFTP – An FTP client which allows you to transfer files between your local computer and a server on the Internet. SmartFTP offers secure, reliable and efficient transfers that make it a powerful tool.
100. FireFTP – FireFTP turns your browser into an FTP client, with a two-pane file manager for uploading and downloading.

EyeCandy

101. Yahoo Widget – A small, specific applications that you can run on your Windows or Mac OS desktop. You can download tons of useful widget from the widget gallery.

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