FREE STUFF

http://bobalston.notlong.com

If you know of GREAT additions to this list

Please contact the author at

bobalston9 AT yahoo DOT com

Personal Computer Protection

Zone Alarm Firewall

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/zonealarm.html

AVG Free edition – antivirus

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/40/lng/ww

Spybot Search & Destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

Adaware

http://www.adawareresource.com/co/adawareresource/?sid=M2AG0001eGS

a-squared FREE http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

Audit My PC

http://www.auditmypc.com/

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool – updated version available http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/thankyou.aspx?familyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displayLang=en

SpyCatcher Express PC Magazine 2-20-2007 p 62

http://www.tenebril.com/consumer/spyware/spycatcher-express-download.php

Windows Defender PC Magazine 2-20-2007 p 62

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Pictures & Graphics

Picasa2

http://google.picasa.com/

Now has a FREE web based picture albums

IrfanView graphics editor

http://www.irfanview.com/

Omniformat change document & graphics formats

http://www.omniformat.com/

View, process and convert image files

http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enxnview.html

GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program

http://www.gimp.org/

Snapfire

www.snapfire.com

StudioLine Photo Basic

http://www.studioline.biz/EN/downloads/photo-basic/default.htm

FastStone MaxView

www.faststone.org

Paint.net

http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html

Web Browser Related

ieSpell - free Internet Explorer spell checker

http://www.iespell.com/

Mozilla Firefox – alt to Internet Explorer

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Wiki http://pbwiki.com/

Blog Hosting

http://www.blogger.com/start

Screen Image Capture

MWsnap screen capture utility PC Magazine 2-20-07 p.64

http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

Fastone Capture screen capture utility

http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm

Ace Winscreen

http://www.filetransit.com/view.php?id=20989

SnagIt – this is the commercial/not free software I use and like very much - $40.00

http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.asp

Printing Utilities

CutePDF – Print output to PDF format for easy emailing as an attachment

http://www.cutepdf.com/

Adobe Reader 7 – Read / view PDF files

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Free Email Accounts

www.yahoo.com

gmail.google.com

http://free.aol.com/thenewaol/email.adp?sem=1&ncid=AOLSSO00170000000001

Other free email services

http://email.about.com/cs/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm

Free Email Reader Software

Mozilla Thunderbird

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

Has Very good Bayesian spam filter

Eudora

http://www.eudora.com/

Light version is free

Upcoming opensource version will be free

Outlook Express

Email Client Utilities

YPOPS http://sourceforge.net/projects/yahoopops/

POP3 & SMTP access to Yahoo email

FREE Tax Preparation Software

Review of Free Tax software

http://taxes.about.com/od/preparingyourtaxes/tp/freefile.htm

IRS Free file – if Adjusted gross is less than $52,000

http://taxes.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=taxes&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irs.gov%2Fefile%2Farticle%2F0%2C%2Cid%3D118986%2C00.html

Business Related Software

Free Access database for Inventory

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010184581033.aspx?CategoryID=CT101426031033&av=ZAC000

Mailing Address Verification and Correction

http://global.dymo.com/enUS/CampaignsHome/Address_Fixer.html

Microsoft Office Alternatives

Google Docs and Spreadsheet

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&c

Microsoft Software alternatives

http://www.kmfms.com/alternatives.html

Microsoft Access Alternatives

ReKall (Linux only) http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/04/20/1823249.shtml?tid=150&tid=72&tid=82

Kexi (full free version Linux only)

http://www.kexi-project.org/

Base – part of OpenOffice

http://www.openoffice.org

Comparison to Access:

http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/openoffice-base-20-vs-microsoft-access.html

Miscellaneous

actiTime – Time entry and reporting

http://products.actimind.com/actiTIME/

TimeCalendar

www.timecalendar.com - last check the URL didn’t work

But you can download the free version here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050830002959/http://www.timecalendar.com/

DropLoad.com - Send a File to someone where you cannot send an email attachment

www.Dropload.com

TreeSize - How much space does each directory on your hard drive take?

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/treesize.html

Convert - Convert quantities between various units of measure

http://joshmadison.net/software/convert/

ExpressClickYes – automatically respond Yes to MS Office security feature

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/clickyes.html

FreeZIP – File zip compression utility

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/

LogMeIn – PC remote control – Get the FREE version!

https://secure.logmein.com/

Remove unnecessary Windows files

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Registry cleaner

http://www.tweaknow.com/products.html

Secure Data Erase Tool to Wipe Files Clean

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

PC hardware and software detailed information

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Ultimate Boot CD - PC Hardware Diagnostics and Utilities

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

TclockEx - enhances the standard Windows taskbar clock

http://www.rcis.co.za/dale/tclockex/

XXCOPY - enhanced version of xcopy

http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

What’s running in your PC – shows processes, services, modules/dlls, etc

http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx

Web sites for more FREE software

http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/

http://www.nonags.com/

www.completelyfreesoftware.com/

http://www.thefreesite.com/

http://www.freewarefiles.com/

http://www.freewarehome.com/

www.pricelessWareHome.com

www.snapfiles.com/freeware/

Freeware World Team http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php

www.freedownloadscenter.com/

http://www.radified.com/Articles/freeware.htm

http://www.selectfreeware.com/

http://www.100-downloads.com/

Actually has over 300 total free downloads

http://nedwolf.com/Freeware.htm

http://www.opensourcewindows.org/

http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

http://www.hsinlin.com/

http://www.freeware-guide.com/

http://www.fincher.org/tips/General/BestFreeSoftware.shtml

http://www.sofotex.com/freeware.html

http://www.freewarebox.com/

www.filehippo.com - I think all the downloads are free

Web sites

Bargains

Ben’s Bargains http://bensbargains.net/

DealNews http://dealnews.com/

Bargainist http://www.bargainist.com/ has freebies section

Car information

http://www.edmunds.com/

Housing Prices

www.zillow.com

Computer / Internet

Internet Archive – Wayback Machine – Find information from web sites that once existed but don’t currently exist

http://www.archive.org/index.php

Driving Directions

http://www.mapquest.com/

http://maps.google.com/

http://maps.yahoo.com

Financial / Investments

http://morningstar.com/

Medical Help

http://www.webmd.com/

http://www.drweil.com/drw/ecs/index.html

Search Engines

www.google.com

www.yahoo.com

http://www.askjeeves.com

www.aol.com

www.msn.com

Metacrawlers: Search multiple search engines from the same web site

www.dogpile.com

http://clusty.com/

Internet Searching Techniques

“tropical fish” Type in a word combination or phrase in quotes

- in front of a word to omit matches with that word

Click on Advanced Search

Technical Support for PC Problems

List of FREE Tech Support Web Sites

http://www.techsoup.org/fb/index.cfm?fuseaction=forums.showSingleTopic&forum=2068&id=65405&cid=117

Best Free Tech support sites

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_free_tech_support_sites.htm

Weather Information

http://try.weatherstudio.com/landing/weatherstudio/weatherstudio_09.php?aff_id=weatherstudiogoogle

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/adcbin/desktop2/signup.asp?partn

Weather Plus

http://www.tropicdesigns.net/weatherpulse.php

Weather Watcher

http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_16_179_22333.html

Weather Channel Desktop

http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_16_179_23958.html

Weather Grabber

http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_16_179_10832.html

www.weather.com

Weatherbug http://weather.weatherbug.com/

National Weather Service http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=FWS&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=yes

NewsGroups

“Organized groups of messages on a focused topic”

Groups.google.com

Enter the topic description in “Find a group”

Click on one of possible interest

Browse messages

Enter search text in 2^nd search field to “search this group”

Once you know the group name

Groups.google.com

Type in the newsgroup name

Most groups allow you to post messages and get responses

Some email readers such as Thunderbird also read newsgroups

Miscellaneous

National Do Not Call Registry

https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

Texas Do Not Call Lists

http://www.texasnocall.com/

Registered Sex Offenders (by zipcode or name)

http://www.familywatchdog.us/