WEBSITES: [Editor's note: Due to
IE security issues, the following websites have not been linked
here, but have been within the article. We apologize for
any inconvenience.]
http://www.irfanview.com
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox
http://earth.google.com
http://www.download.com
http://www.tucows.com
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com
I
take a lot of digital photos, and periodically scan other photos
and documents with my
scanner. Sometimes my digital
photos and
scanned images need some editing, cropping, and other
enhancements. An excellent and very popular program used by over
30 million users, Irfanview can do that and much more. It
is available for free download from
www.irfanview.com . Irfanview can open, convert, and edit
almost every known image format. It offers simple controls for
image contrast, color, brightness, and hue that concurrently
shows both the original image and the corrected image for
comparison. For those who want the simplicity of automation,
Irfanview offers a one click option to sharpen or color correct
images. Irfanview has much of the power and features of image
editors that cost hundreds of dollars, but is available for free
for anyone to use. Irfanview can also run a scanner, with the
images brought directly into the program for any necessary
editing. An optional Irfanview feature, “All Plugins”,
can be downloaded and installed, giving the program the ability
to play almost all known audio and video formats. I use
Irfanview almost exclusively to edit photos and other images, as
well as to play any video and audio files. It is an outstanding
program, and very worthy to download.
Sometimes it is
helpful to know all the facts about the hardware and software
installed on a computer. This is often necessary to troubleshoot
hardware and software problems,
as
well as identify hardware components installed in
the computer to locate
updated drivers, or
replace selected components. An excellent freeware product that
can do all of that and more is Belarc Advisor Free Personal
PC Audit. In addition to detecting and listing the details
of all of the hardware and software installed on a computer, Belarc Advisor can also
determine if any Microsoft hotfixes are missing, as well as
determine the status of any antivirus software installed. With
some Windows operating systems, such as XP Professional (not XP
Home), and Windows 2000, Belarc will display its “CIS” (Center
for Internet Security) security benchmarks, which show the
security status of the computer. Belarc Advisor can be
downloaded for free from
www.belarc.com/free_download.html . Belarc Advisor is free
for personal use only; use of the free version on multiple
corporate or academic computers is prohibited, as Belarc has a
commercial version available for that purpose.
Almost
everyone with a Windows PC has Microsoft’s Internet Explorer
installed, and by default, set up as the primary browser. I
rarely use Internet Explorer as my browser, choosing to use
instead the free Firefox browser, available for download
from
www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox . I am not alone, as over one
hundred million other surfers around the world have selected
Firefox as their primary or default browser. The excellence of
Firefox as a browser has been recognized by the working press,
by awarding it recognition as an outstanding choice. Firefox
version 2 was the C-net Editors’ Choice, and the PC Magazine
editors’ Choice. In many ways, Firefox is a more advanced and
feature rich browser than Internet Explorer, and written in
tighter code which allows for a smaller, faster loading file,
that also loads and displays web pages faster than Internet
Explorer. One very nice feature in Firefox is the ability to
incorporate literally thousands of free “Add-ons” or extensions
that add usability and features to Firefox. I use Firefox almost
exclusively as my browser of choice, and can strongly recommend
it to others.
Another free program I use frequently is Google
Earth, available at
www.earth.google.com . This is a multi function program that
can display high resolution images of almost anywhere on the
globe (and also the moon, and soon other planets), track
airplanes in flight in real-time, find the best routes between
two or more points and display the route on a traditional map or
composite photo of the terrain, locate points of interest such
as restaurants and hotels, and a myriad of other functions. The
detail of the satellite and aerial photos is amazing, and Google
periodically improves them. Buildings in major cities, and major
landmarks around the world can be viewed in high resolution 3-D.
Satellite weather images and real-time weather maps can be
overlaid on the images, providing accurate weather information
anywhere in the world. In some major cities, Google Earth can
display street level 3-D images showing people and cars on the
road, and the buildings along the road. The quality of many of
the maps and images is nothing short of amazing. The best way I
can describe Google Earth is that it is just plain fun to play
with and very useful. I have it installed on both my desktop and
notebook computers, and use it extensively both at home and when
traveling. It is one of those utilities that you might think
that you do not need, but once you have it and use it a few
times, you wonder how you did without it. It is a great program;
download it, install it, and play with it for a while. One
warning; Google Earth can be addictive!
Sometimes we need to
find a free program for a specific purpose, and may not know
where to look for it. There are two major download services that
I frequent regularly, Download.com and TUCOWS.
Download.com allows the user to locate desired software by
the use of a hierarchal menu, or through the use of a search
box. By entering the type of software desired in the search box,
and then selecting the “Software” category, hundreds of
thousands of software titles will be searched. Once the
preliminary search is completed, the terms can be refined by
using the pull down menus displayed at the top of the listings
to specify the operating system, and type of license. “Free” is
one of the license selections, and selecting “Free” will only
display software that can be used for free. Many of the titles
displayed by Download.com display one or more ratings, an
editors’ rating, and a users’ rating. Some titles are also
hyperlinked to published reviews, providing even more
information on the title. By primarily selecting software with
high ratings, the user can be reasonably assured that he is
downloading a quality product.
TUCOWS is
another major source of downloaded and free software (
www.tucows.com ). TUCOWS is an acronym for the archaic
original name of the service, “The Ultimate Collection of
Winsock Software”, and pronounced like “2 cows”. Unlike
Download.com, TUCOWS files are not stored on a central server,
but are instead stored on dozens of frequently updated mirror
sites all over the world, which allow for faster localized
downloading of software. TUCOWS has software for Windows, Apple,
Linux, and PDA’s. Software can be located on TUCOWS either by
searching, or through the use of a menu. Once a category of
software is located, it can be sorted by rating, license (free,
trial, demo, etc.), and other characteristics. One cute feature
is the rating system used by TUCOWS; it does not use a “star”
system like other download sites, but instead uses “cows” to
denote the rating of a product, the more cows (five is the
best), the better. On TUCOWS, almost all software is “cow”
rated, making it easier to select titles to download.
There is a way to
legitimately download licensed commercial software, with a few
strings attached. The website “GiveAwayofTheDay” at
www.giveawayoftheday.com makes available for download
a fully licensed and legal version of a commercial software
title each day, but only one title per day, and each title is
only available for download for 24 hours. Once downloaded, the
commercial software is usable for a typical license term,
usually for a year or for whatever the normal duration of the
license for that software title. Be sure to follow the included
instructions to register and activate the software. While
licensed and legal, this commercial software does not offer
technical support or updates under the terms of the free
license. Every morning I practice the ritual of seeing what is
available on this website, and occasionally download the
software of the day. Before
downloading
software of interest I review the comments
and
evaluations that are posted; if they are generally positive,
then I may download the software; if they are generally
negative, then I usually pass on that title. GiveAway has a
companion site that gives away fully licensed commercial games,
with a different title every day. The games can be downloaded
from
www.game.giveawayoftheday.com .
There is a lot of
free software available, and much of it is of a quality
competitive with its expensive commercial competitors. If you
find free software with legitimate good ratings, then you are
generally safe to download it and try it. If you like it, that
is great. If you do not like it, then uninstall it, and other
than a few minutes of time you have lost nothing. Quality free
software should be strongly considered by everyone. This is
one case where the old cliché “You get what you pay for” does
not apply.
This article has been provided personally by the
author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses
require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above)..
