Free or Nearly Windows Software and Services
There are lots of useful free (or inexpensive) Windows programs and services. Check back often – I’ll be adding items here frequently.
Non-free items are marked like $ 00.00
Software
* Blogging Software:
WordPress is the “industry standard” blogging software ((you’re looking at it now) and the best way to start your own blog.
* Courseware Software:
Moodle
Would you believe there’s a high quality free product for creating your own online courses and classes?
It’s true.
* File Manager:
$ 22.95 Tree Size Personal
Display the sizes of all your Windows folders. Useful for managing your files and determining which folders and sub-folders are the largest, when you need to clean up your hard drive. Does several things Windows should have been designed to do but was not.
* Image Software
Color Picker:
Pixie
Used to find the color code for any pixel on your display screen. Useful for web developers and digital artists.
Image database:
These are used to organize images on your computer, share them online, create slide shows, galleries, etc.
Google Picasa
Free and powerful image management suite, including online albums.
Screen dump:
Screen dump programs are used to save an image of all or a part of your display screen as a picture file.
WMSnap
An excellent free screen dump utility.
Screen Ruler:
JR Screen Ruler
A screen ruler measures items on your display screen in pixels. Useful for photographers, web developers and digital artists.
* Security Software:
Gibson Research Corporation
Various small free security testing programs. Lots of good info.
* Suites
Productivity (Word processing, Spreadsheet, etc.):
Open Office
A free suite of products similar to (and compatible with) Microsoft Office. Also has a PDF converter to make word processing docs into PDF files.
* Utility Software:
Computer inventory:
Belarc Advisor
Creates a complete report of hardware and software on your computer – useful for insurance purposes. Some reports even show your licenses, which is ever so handy if you have lost track of them.
Caution – I got (non-critical) warnings in the Windows 7 system event log after installing Belarc Advisor. It didn’t seem to cause any problems though.
* Video Software:
Video editors
Windows XP Movie Maker
Create movie clips for use online – such as for YouTube or FaceBook.
* Games:
Solitaire
A very nice free Klondike game (the default Solitaire game) and several others are available from:
Free Solitaire
Free trials:
Industry standard Adobe products like: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, Acrobat, Illustrator, Flash and such, are all available for free 30 day trials. These are not crippled samples, but fully working products.
This means you can use them for 30 days, one time only, at no cost. You can do a lot of work in 30 days – maybe enough to pay for the product!
Adobe
Free Information
* Reference
Encyclopedias
Wikipedia
Trustworthy and deep information.
Google Earth
A detailed online Earth globe, based on satellite photos, roadside photos and user input.
Free Tests
* Diagnostics
Security tests:
Gibson Research Corporation Shields Up!!
Test your firewalls against hacker probes.
