Freeware-Databases
- QueryCommander
A new OpenSource tool to run SQL queries on Microsoft SQL Server. It is built using the .NET Framework. The interface is quite nice and supports Intellisense.
Freeware-Development
- Dev C++
A GUI for the GNU C++ Compiler
- Nullsoft Installer
When you need to create an installed, the Nullsoft installed is a great, free way to handle the task. It has a very complete script editor that will let you handle all of the tasks you can think of.
- Visual Studio Express
You can download free compilers for most languages that Microsoft supports. Of course, these are not full-features compilers (e.g. Visual C++ Express does not contain MFC), but it can still be very useful to compile some basic projects.
- WinMerge
When programming, it is often useful to be able to know what the differences between two files are. WinMerge is a nice utility to do file comparisons, or directory comparisons, and be able to move text from one file to the other when you find differences that you want to merge over. Don't be afraid to install the latest Development Version. It has a ton of great features compared to the latest stable version.
Freeware-Internet
- Filezilla
I was a CuteFTP Pro user before, but FileZilla has all of the same great features, and is Open Source. Not a hard thing to win me over.
- Gaim
A lot of people use instant messaging applications these days to communicate. The one problem is that there are so many networks that it you can't always connect with your friends if they don't use the same network you're on. Gaim address these issue by connecting to MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ and even IRC channels!
- HydraIRC
I have been in search of a good IRC client to replace MIRC for a while. HydraIRC has finally reached a good maturity that hs convinved me to move over.
- Mozilla Firefox
A browser including a slew of great features, such as pop-up ad blocking, a built-in download manager and tabbed browsing. Just try it once and you'll want to switch over.
- Mozilla Firefox Web Developer Extension
This extension to Mozilla Firefox lets you edit the CSS of a page that is displayed and see the results directly in the browser window. MAkes layout tweaking very easy.
- Mozilla Thunderbird
The new mail client from the Mozilla Foundation. Very small and efficient.
- uTorrent
One of the popular ways to share files recently has been the BitTorrent protocol. While I used to prefer the Java-based Azureus, the interface just got too busy recently when they tried adding a multimedia browser / search engine capability in the tool. uTorrent goes back to the simplity that made Azureus so great. Information available includes exact visual representation of download status and the possibility to only download some files out of large downloads containing multiple files.
- WordPress
Weblogs are very popular these days. Wordpress is a free, open-source blog management engine that runs on top of MySQL and PHP. It makes web publishing extremely easy and gives a lot of power to make powerful dynamic content. Is it used to run the front page and link sections of this site.
Freeware-Multimedia
- Audacity
A free wav/mp3 editor. This application available on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux is extremely useful to be able to edit, cut and save parts of wav files.
- AudioGrabber
A CD ripper to convert an audio CD to MP3s. Make sure you also download LAME Enc DLL to get the best free MP3 encoding.
- CamStudio
Screen recording software
- Dia
Every once in a while, I need to use a tool to create flowcharts or illustrations for a technical document. While Microsoft Visio is a great tool to do the job, it is difficult to warrant getting a license when you only use it sporadically. Dia solves that problem by providing a rich set of functionality that matches the core competencies of Visio for free.
- FastStone Viewer
FastStone viewer is an image viewer and browser that makes it very easy to see all images files in a directory and make modifications such as rotations to a large number of files at the same time.
- Gimp
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP for short) has has a long-standing history as a great Adobe Photoshop-like tool for Linux. With a Windows version that supports all of the same great image manipulation capabilities, the Gimp for Windows is the perfect tool to filter, manipulate and edit images.
- Inkscape
Inkscape is a drawing tool that is similar to Adobe Illustrator. It lets you create high-quality vector art using the Scalable Vector Graphic standard (SVG).
- K-Lite Codec Pack
Stop worrying about having all of the right codecs installed. Just get the K-Lite Codec pack and it will install everything you need to playback audio files. It's a very small and tight installer to boot!
- MediaCoder Audio Edition
MediaCoder lets you convert audio files between a variety of formats. For example, if you purchase some songs from iTunes Plus in an unprotected .aac format, MediaCoder will be able to turn it into an MP3. A very useful application.
- MediaCoder for iPhone/iPod Touch
If you are the proud owner of one of Apple's latest toys, the iPhone or the iPod Touch, you might be looking at getting some video files on the neat device. MediaCoder makes it very easy to convert videos from a multitude of format to the MPEG4 (.mp4) format that is required of these devices.
- Mp3 Book Helper
This application is very useful to tidy up directories of MP3. It can rename files based on ID3 tags and vice-versa. It can also find names on tracks on the net for full albums in MP3 format.
- MWSnap
From creating documentation, to working on designing a web site, it is always useful to have a good tool to make screen captures. MWSnap is a nice small application that lets you take snapshots, or a generic area, any window or menu, or the whole desktop. Easily rivals with SnagIt.
- Picasa
Managing digital photos can be a nightmare. Picasa, recently bought by Google, can provide order to your chaos. It lets you view pictures inside of all of your folders, automatically sees when there are new files and lets you add extra tags to put pictures in many categories.
Freeware-Security
- Ad-Aware Personal Edition
This is a small test to show the description.
Spyware remover. Should be used in conjunction with Spybot since neither one catches all spyware.
- AVG Anti-Virus Free
I was a big Norton user for a while, but recently switched over to AVG Free. It is very efficient at keeping viruses away and has a decent interface.
- Spybot Search and Destroy
Spyware remover. Should be used in conjunction with Ad-Aware since neither one catches all spyware.
Freeware-Sites
- SnapFiles
A great site listing freeware and shareware tools. It comes in very handy when searching for freeare utilities.
- SourceForge
The internet's biggest repository of open-source, freeware projects. It is a great place to find excellent freeware applications and to even get their source code to learn how they were made.
Freeware-Utilities
- DirectorySync
Great for backups on external drives or other portable media, this tool can be used to synchronize the contents of two directories. This means that only the files that have changed or newly created can be copied to a backup location.
- DriveImage XML
Similar to Symantec Ghost, DriveImage XML can take a complete snapshot of a drive that you can use to make copies or as a complete backup.
- GParted
GParted is the Linux partition management utility. What is interesting about this particular version of GParted is that you can download it as part of a bootable CD that lets you manipulate the partitions of any computer for free.
- HotKeyBind
A tool to assign special functionality to keys on the keyboard. Can be used to start an application with a keystroke or to perform a recurring task (like type your company's e-mail domain).
- Installed Programs Printer
One of the most annoying things that has to be done when you re-build the OS on a computer is to list all of the applications that were installed. This little utility extracts a list of programs from the Add/Remove programs window and then enables you to print a list with little check boxes. A great time saver.
- IzArc
Why use WinZip when there is great freeware like IzArc. It has all of the same features that Winzip has, including contextual menus to be able to easily zip and unzip files, and also supports a slew of other compressed file formats (7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BZ2, BZA, CAB, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MBF, MIM, PAK, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO).
- KeePass Password Manager
In today's information world, you end up with logins and password for a ton of web sites, computer systems, servers, and other places. KeePass is a password storage application that stores all your password in an encrypted database, which you can open with a master password or using a USB key. It can be used just to store password or also to do automatic entry on web sites.
- PathSync
This simple utility will let you synchronize two directories on different machines across a network.
- PDF Creator
Why use an expensive tool like Adobe Acrobat for simple PDF file creation when there are free tools out there like PDFCrator. It simply installs itself as an additional printer driver on your system and you can then print to a PDF file from any application.
- Process Explorer
A replacement for the Windows Task Manager with a slew of information including all opened file handles for a process, TCP/IP connections and other details. It also shows processes in a hierarchy indicating if processes started other applications
- Programmer's Notepad
A powerful text editor. Programmer's Notepad is small enough to come up quickly when you want to edit text files, but it is also powerful enough to highlight the syntax of a ton of file formats and has many utilities that make text editing extremely easy.
- Tatuk GIS Viewer
At work, I recently started needed to be able to quickly view the contents of GIS data from various data sources. TatukGIS Viewer helped me out by being able to read ESRI shape files (.shp) but it also reads a bunch of other formats (TIFF/GeoTIFF, ECW/ECWP, MrSID, JPEG2000, JPEG, IMG, BMP, BIL/SPOT, PNG, CADRG,TatukGIS PixelStore, SHP, E00, MIF/MID, TAB, DXF, DGN, TIGER, GML, KML, VPF, GDF, DLG, SDTS, GPX,CSV, ADF, BT, DT0, DT1, DT2, GRD, GeoTIFF, World File, and TAB).
- The Open CD
A collection of the best OpenSource freeware utilities that people most commonly need.
- WinDirStat
A utility that parses directory structures and drives to display how much space is used by each. Very helpful when you're trying to clean up large folders.