Computer Software

Recommended Software

Programs listed are effective and are, in the webmasters’ opinion, among the best of their type. We presently use a number of those listed. We suggest several in some areas, though others not listed may better suit other users.

No outright recommendation is given for any program. Individuals make their own decision about capacity, suitability, ease of use, whether freeware or not.

Programs are Freeware wherever possible, thus removing any costs.

Always look for the latest version of the program. Some change often. Sometimes these are minor adjustments, other times a major change in ease of use and/or capability.

Programs are found on computer magazine discs, developer’s home pages, Freeware or Shareware sites, … .

Freeware Programs :

Are free to use, even in commercial situations;
Some limit the program to being Free for personal use only;
Some have advertisements, or even other programs, included with them. Many are not obtrusive, others are. You have to decide if you want to accept these or not. We believe those including other programs, especially when not clearly indicated or without a clear option not to install extras, should be avoided;
Authors describe some programs as ‘lite’. They have many [but not all] of a Fee-based program’s features. For many, they offer everything needed;
Most Open Source programs also give access to the program’s code, allowing people to change [perhaps even improve] this if they wish.

Shareware Programs :

Are initially provided free, in the belief you will pay if you continue using them, i.e. authors trust you to pay. You should honour this;
Some have time limitations allowing a reasonable trial, e.g., 15, 30 or 60 days, before ceasing operation;
Some have limitations until purchased, e.g. can’t save, restrict processes, have watermarks, … .

Games are not included as :

There are too many to consider doing so;
People have distinctly different interests and tastes;
The best games often have significant price tags or are for proprietary systems, e.g. Nintendo, Xbox, Playstation, Wii, … .

Plug-ins are not listed. Again there are too many. We have limited knowledge in this area and forums or program sites prove a more effective way of finding the best of these.

Portable Programs :

For those who want to use but not install programs, or who simply prefer to use portable programs [on a USB stick], we have indicated these when known. These allow for use on any machine, as well as not affecting the registry [in most cases].

With USB-based programs, ensure you are aware of possible U3 requirements. U3 programs require a U3 capable USB stick to work.

All programs listed are Freeware unless otherwise indicated.

All known programs with portable versions are indicated by the following symbol :

Visit the Web Creation page, for other programs in that area.

Online Programs :

For those who want to use but not install programs, an increasing option is available with Online Programs. They do the same as installed programs, are available everywhere via the internet and do not affect your computer. They target both general and specific needs for users. We will add more online programs as we assess these.

All programs listed are Freeware unless otherwise indicated.

All recommended online programs are indicated by the following symbol : Online
Program

Top of Page

Recommended Programs

Internet & eMail

Classic FTP
FTP and SFTP browser for Mac OS X.
Firefox
Internet browser. Now also available as Mobile, Add-ons & Other Stuff.
FileZilla
Reliable, quick, has a lot of features.
Google Chrome
Browser. Check Google Chrome Portable, also Google Search and Google Mail.
HTTrack
‘Allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, getting HTML, images, other files from the server to your computer’.
Internet Explorer
Mailinator
‘Protect your privacy and avoid spam.’.
Skype
‘Free calls, video calls, instant messaging over the internet. Great value calls to phones anywhere in the world’.
Thunderbird [Mozilla]
‘It’s easier to organise, secure and customize your mail with Mozilla Thunderbird’. Extensions, options, more.

Other Options

Listed with no annotations, unless also available as a Portable Program, Online Program or Not Freeware.

Graphics

Dia Portable
‘Draw[s] many different kinds of diagrams and has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other[s]’.
GIMP
Access links for several operating systems, resources, downloads.>
Gimpshop
Try this version as a Photoshop replacement. Win XP only.
Lightbox
‘If you just want to adjust your picture and make it look great, then Lightbox Free version is a good choice’.
Lovely Charts
‘Lovely Charts is a drawing application that allows you to create professionnal looking diagrams of all kinds, such as flowcharts, sitemaps, organisation charts, wireframes and many more … . Not Freeware. Also online.
Microsoft ICE
‘Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher’.
Paint.net
Replacement for MS Paint. Includes layers. Requires Net Framework 2.0 and at least XP SP2. Also Tutorials & Forum.
Picasa
Organise, edit, create with, share your photos. All major operating systems.
Reshade
‘High quality photo enlargement’.
XnView
‘View and convert graphic files. Simple to use ! Support for more than 400 graphics formats’.

Other Options

Listed with no annotations, unless also available as a Portable Program, Online Program or Not Freeware.

Top of Page

Miscellaneous

Calibre
‘The one stop solution to all your e-book needs’.
Convert
Converts most measurements quickly and easily. Create your own custom conversion process.
EditPad Lite
Notepad replacement. Tabbed windows, too many capacities to list. Latest version added even more. Highly Recommended !
eTextReader
‘Read plain text files e.g. eTexts from Project Gutenberg in a book-like manner. Window size, font style, font size are selectable; page breaks inserted automatically’.
Mayura Chess Board
Multiple levels, assistance. Requires Net 2.0.
Open Office
The best replacement for MS Office.
Pocket
‘One reading list, everywhere you are. Read It Later is integrated into many popular applications and platforms you may already use’.
Previously listed as ReaditLater.
Scribus
‘Open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2, Windows desktops. Professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management, versatile PDF creation’.>
Stickies
‘The program is small and simple. Stickies will not mess with your system files, or write to the registry’.

Other Options

Listed with no annotations, unless also available as a Portable Program, Online Program or Not Freeware.

Multimedia

Audacity Player
Audio player, editor. Record, edit, convert, mix sounds, change speeds.
Exact Audio Copy
Not only does the job but handles imperfections better than the others. Requires LAME Encoder for MP3s.
Free Video Converter
‘Convert video Free to AVI, MP4, WMV, MKV, MPEG, FLV, SWF, 3GP, DVD, MP3, iPod, iPhone, PSP, Android, rip & burn DVD, convert online videos from 40+ sites, burn Blu-ray, and upload to YouTube with our Free video converter’.
iTunes
Buy, download, organise, play music. Mac & PC.
VLC Player
‘Highly portable multimedia player for audio and video formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, various streaming protocols. It doesn’t need any external codec or program to work’.

Other Options

Listed with no annotations, unless also available as a Portable Program, Online Program or Not Freeware.

Top of Page

Security

Avira AntiVir Personal
‘Protects against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans, costly dialers’.
KeePass Password Safe
‘Open source password manager. You put all passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file’. Has a password generator.
Microsoft Security Essentials
‘Real-time protection for your home or small business PC that guards against viruses, spyware and other malicious software’.
Online Armor Personal Firewall
Personal firewall.
Sandboxie
‘Runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents [people] from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer’.
WOT
‘Internet security addon for your browser. Keeps you safe from online scams, identity theft, spyware, spam, viruses, unreliable shopping sites. WOT warns you before you interact with a risky website’.

Other Options

Listed with no annotations, unless also available as a Portable Program, Online Program or Not .

System Utilities

7-Zip
Zip, unzip material in many formats.
Bullzip PDF
Make printable items into PDF format. Requires Ghostscript [available through the site].
CCleaner
‘CCleaner is the number-one tool for cleaning your Windows PC. It protects your privacy online and makes your computer faster and more secure’.
Eraser
‘Completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it multiple times with carefully selected patterns’.
Dropbox
2gb Free online storage then paid options. You can link other storage sites with it as well.
Flash Player
Now owned by Adobe.
Free Commander
Dual panel Windows Explorer replacement. Unzips files, synchronises, more.
Genie Timeline Backup
Simple to use, multiple options available. Set and forget.
PDF-Xchange Viewer
‘View, Print, Export Text & Images, add content to PDF files. Includes Help files, Manual’.
PDFill PDF Tools
Merge/split files, apply watermarks, encrypt, rotate/crop, convert to to/from several formats, more. Requires Ghostscript which can be linked to from the site.
PDFrizator
‘A Freeware tool to create PDF presentations, with the possibility to setup the PDF page transition effect, page advance time and background music. This can be done for already existing PDF’s, from the various file type formats supported’.
PicPick
‘An all-in-one program that provides a full-featured screen capture tool, intuitive image editor, colour picker, colour palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair and even whiteboard’.
Process Library
‘Free, comprehensive online Process Library resource is for anyone who immediately wants to know the exact nature and purpose of any and every single process that is - or should not be - running on your PC’.
Revo Uninstaller
‘Faster, more powerful alternative to Windows Add or Remove Programs applet’.>
Shockwave Player
Now owned by Adobe.
SnagIt
No other screen capture utility matches this one. Not Freeware.
Startup Control Panel
Take complete control of what does and doesn’t start with Windows.
System Information for Windows
Provides a wealth of information about everything with your system.
WordToys
‘Over 40 tools that make Microsoft Word easier to use and more fun to work with. Tabbed documents, auto-backups, unlimited doc history, and unique formatting and editing features’. The Personal edition is Free but it is Not Freeware if you want all the features. Integrates into MS Word but only Word 2000 to 2003.
Xsearch
Desktop search program. Fast, small, doesn’t need to install, multiple options for your search, also searches hexadecimal files. Save searches to file.

Top of Page

Widgets

Gadgets that sit on your desktop and provide information on everything from blogs to weather.

Apple Dashboard
Widgets for use with the dashboard. NewsCloud to NatiGeo and beyond. Searchable database of widgets.
Mac Widgets
‘A collection of my dashboard widgets for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger’s Dashboard’.
Yahoo Widgets
Download the Widget engine, then visit the Gallery for hundreds of other widgets to suit your needs. Windows and MacOS X.

Other Options

Listed with no annotations, unless also available as a Portable Program, Online Program or Not Freeware.

Webmaster

Absolute Color Picker
Choose and adjust any colour you want via many methods.
KompoZer
‘A complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing’.

Other Options

Listed with no annotations, unless also available as a Portable Program, Online Program or Not Freeware.

Top of Page