There are many guides on the internet listing the best freeware applications that provide a decent solution to many computing tasks. These lists tend to be long, the software briefly mentioned and inaccurately reviewed, sometimes it can be difficult to narrow down the right tool for your specific job.
I make a point of sourcing and employing freeware applications on my computer, taking time to test them against their paid-for counterparts to see if they will enable me to the job I am after. This can be a lengthy process but it is all the more worthwhile when you can recommend these tools to friends and family, saving them time and money when outfitting their computers with the software they need.
I would like to share with you 10 really useful and free applications that I would be lost without on my Windows machine. I will try to include all relevant information, links and screenshots so that you can make an informed decision before you decide to download an use them.
Most modern internet browsers now support the newest HTML 5 coding, but sadly, Internet Explorer is the only web browser out there (with the exception of any mobile browsers) that does not natively support it yet. For those of you who aren’t familiar with web design, HTML is the Hyper-Text Markup Language. This, as well as various other components, give a website its design. A simple analogy of this would be a control room. The people inside the control room would be the HTML programming, given a set of commands to follow, such as redirect flight A to runway B. The flight A would be a plug-in, and runway B would be another form of file, usually Javascript or Cascading Style Sheets, but anyways, the control tower would tell the plugin to run on a certain instruction set (javascript or CSS).
The new HTML 5 is a vast improvement over HTML 4. For example, instead of having to install a separate program to run flash (Adobe Flash plug-in, which is sadly not compatible with Safari Mobile), HTML 5 would be able to run video and sound files without the need for additional plug-ins. Some other new functions include 2-D drawing inside the HTML code, timed media playback (playing a file, say fifteen seconds after you load the website), offline storage (similar to cookies, but more advanced), document editing (Google Docs or Office Live), drag-and-drop (good for file hosting where you have to specify the path of the file), and much more. You may wonder how much of this may affect an average user, but these changes are quite significant. Flash files are larger than most components in a website. These files create beautiful special effects, but they may take some time to load on old, or slow computers. The new HTML 5 will integrate that into itself, so that it can play videos and sounds without having to load much extras. Document editing is currently restricted to its respective online service, like Office Live or Google Docs. These both require you to import files in order to edit and distribute, but the improvements in the HTML 5 allow it to be edited locally and saved locally, without having to upload and download the file.
Whether you are an experienced Windows user or new to Microsoft’s all-powerful operating system, the chances are you may have either have to protect yourself from the threats of computer viruses or had to deal with the fallout when your system is infected. Research a virus related problem on an internet forum, the most common reply would be to arm yourself with a decent antivirus, that or buy yourself a Mac or install Linux.
There are a number of free antivirus solutions for Windows, some of the most popular distributions including; AVG, Avast, ClamWin, Avira Antivir. One company you might have expected to write their own antivirus software for Windows would be the creators of the operating system the viruses were designed to exploit; Microsoft. Sadly that was not the case…until now!
Today I am pleased to introduce and review Microsoft Security Essentials, a free real-time protection software designed to keep your system free from Viruses, Trojans, Spyware and Malware. We will take a look and see just how well it fares against other, more well-known virus scanners.
Individuals and businesses have gravitated to the Skype service as it provides free peer to peer calls and very competitive international rates for dialling abroad. One of the missing functions inside the official Skype software is the lack of a recording function that allows you to save your conversations to your hard drive.
There is a tool, however, that aims to enable the possibility of recording Skype calls. MP3 Skype Recorder is a small Windows utility that sits independently of the main Skype executable and has a few options that allow you to calibrate your recordings.
For years, web designers have had to struggle with code that enables their websites to be rendered properly in different internet browsers. To make sure that each browser is supported, designers have had to download each browser and individually test which ones work. On the other hand, corporate web users may have constrictions on what browsers they can install, sometimes they may want to open a link in a different browser depending on if the link is either personal or professional.
Browser Chooser is a small tool that allows you to open a particular link in the chosen browser you wish to either test or browse websites with.
Don’t you always wondered how many keys and mouse clicks you do each day? Every thought if you typed more keys than your friends? With WhatPulse, it’s easy to find out!
WhatPulse is a multi-platform program that monitors how many keys your press, and how much you click/move your mouse. It is NOT a keylogger, as your computer protection software might be suspicious about this.
Remember a while back when there was a post about TweetMyPC on WillIneedit? Well, they recently came up with TweetMyMac, which essentially does the exact same thing as the PC varient of it. While I personally do not own a Mac, I did find this to be a convenient tool for remotely administering my friend’s Mac and thought it would be interesting for Mac owners to be able to learn about this tool.
This is a guest post from a good friend Dave Day. He is a Mac fanboy and technology guru. He is also the creator of the MacVideoGuides videos displayed here on WillINeedIt. Why not follow him on Twitter?!
If your like me you probably subscribe to far too many RSS feeds, don’t get me wrong I love RSS it’s the way I get most of my news. Recently I’ve reached my limit of what I can reasonably get through in any one day. I’d ideally subscribe to more feeds but I really don’t have the time to read them all. I’d rather not suffer the ‘unread item guilt’ or ’second inbox syndrome’ that you can sometimes get with unread feeds. This is where the RSS aggregator Fever from Shaun Inman can help.
In the current economic climate, jobs are scarce and many are working their hardest to make sure they still have one. Whether you run your own company or you work for a company who want to showcase new job opportunities, having the right platform to display these listings is always one of the most important things to consider.
I few days back I received an email from a company called JoobsBox highlighting their new jobs board listing software of the same name. Upon inspection, it looks to be the free open source solution to small and medium sized companies who either need to find new talent or jumpstart their recruitment process for other clients.
A couple days ago, Willineedit had a post about cracking WEP with Backtrack 4. Using this tool, you were able to crack WEP, but only after you typed every command out.
As there is no GUI (Graphical User Interface), this means that for some it may not appear to be very user friendly. However, there are tools within Backtrack 4 that makes it easier for users not used to commands to crack WEP.
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