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Software Links
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Thanks
to some talented and programmers willing to share their software, there
are decent free applications for most casual computer users. These are
the ones I use..
| Software Links Page: 2 |
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Mozilla Firefox My favoured web browser. I tried the alternatives and found Firefox to be the easiest and most intuitive to use. Using Add-ons, like Flashblock, Adblock Plus and Save-link-in-folder, give important extra functionality. |
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VLC Media Player Not perfect but a useful media player with a nice, minimal design. It plays most formats and handles divx and xvid avi files very well. Not great with wmv files though and doesn't play Real Media. Subtitles aren't great either and it can't store bookmarks. Still it doesn't come with all the bells and whistles of other players that can be a bit annoying. |
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Real Alternative This is a program that enables Media Player Classic (MPC) to play Real Media Files, which is useful if, like me, you think RealPlayer is a little bit invasive and uses a lot of memory. MPC is included in the Real Alternative download and is a useful little player that is much better than VLC with wmv files. |
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CCleaner This application cleans out your temporary files, internet browsing history and, perhaps most usefully, redundant registry settings. You can select a secure deletion method which in theory makes files unrecoverable. |
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Eraser pure deletion tool that can also overwrite empty space on your hard drive for extra security. It overwrites the target data 35 times which seems like plenty. |
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Tugzip A free archive program that can extract most archiving formats. It's the best one I've found so far in terms of versatility although I've never tried to archive anything with it, I only use it for extraction. |
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Foxit Reader free PDF reader that means you can avoid downloading Adobe software which I personally don't like. For reading purposes this slimline piece of software does pretty much everything you could wish as far as I'm concerned, including being able to take snapshots of pages and copy them to the clipboard. |
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Komposer After a bit of browsing I found this WYSIWYG html editor which is based on, but better than, the Netscape one I suggested before. Plus you don't have to download the awful browser. |
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AVG Anti-Virus Free
Edition A solid, free anti-virus package although it's a bit hard to judge how effective they're being. Didn't pick up any viruses anyway, although now I use the McAfee software that came with the broadband provider. |
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Emule A P2P file sharing that program that might be a little slower than some of the others but is much better at finding obscure files. I'm an advocate of file-sharing because in my opinion it's morally the same as lending someone a cd or dvd. As long as you're prepared to reward artists by buying originals you can avoid wasting your money on poor films and albums.. |
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Ziepod A really good podcasting application that was the best I managed to find after going through quite a few different ones. The user interace is polished and professional and so far has done everyhing I've asked of it. Go to my podcast links for more stuff on this subject. |
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AoA Audio Extractor A useful application that extracts the audio from video files, including YouTube files with the flv extension, and saves it in a choice of mp3, wav or ac3 fomat. |
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Free Hi-Q Recorder This program allows you to record any sound going through your soundcard. It can therefore record audio from the internet or any external source and will save it to MP3 or WAV. You need to scroll down a bit to find the download link for the free version. |
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Miro This is a kind of free internet TV service. Various people and organisations post videos that you can download for free and watch on the player. It's not continual broadcasting but there's some interesting video podcasts from the likes of Democracy Now and Jamie Oliver. Personally I like the ethos behind it... |
| Go to Software Links Page: 2 |