Chuck The Geek.com

Free Software and Services Everyone Should Try

July 27th, 2008 by Chuck Sharp

Here is a list of software and online services that I currently use and recommend. These are all free and incredibly useful.

• CDBurnerXP - Free replacement to Nero or Roxio CD/DVD burning software. Good stuff, and it doesn’t cost $70.
• Combined Community Codec Pack - A collection of codecs (drivers for media files) that lets your PC play about any kind of media file you can find. It includes a media player called Media Player Classic, which suitable for playing any video or audio you have. I use it as my DVD player. Works great.
• Del.icio.us - Online “social” bookmarking. Save your bookmarks online, sync to Firefox, share with others. Find popular bookmarks.
• EditPad - Powerful replacement for Notepad, but not as programmer-ish as Notepad++. Recommended for more casual and power users.
• Evernote - Simple and powerful note taking, media clipping, organizing, outlining, second-brain type thing. Includes web access and PC software, syncronized.
• Firefox - Open source web browser, very flexible and powerful. Best part: it’s not Internet Explorer.
• Foldershare - File syncronizing across multiple PCs, and remote file access. Very useful, and acts like a backup too.
• Freemind - Open source mind-mapping software. Fun and useful. Not as feature-rich as Mind Manager, but costs $350 less.
• Gmail - Google email. Excellent, almost perfect.
• Google Calendar - Very nice online calendar. Share with others, coordinate meetings, subscribe to public calendars, sync to Outlook. Send email or text message reminders.i
• Google Reader - Web-based RSS newsfeed reader. Subscribe to blogs and news sites (subscribe is a technical term — it’s free), view and read online. Easy to use, very fast navigation with shortcuts.
• Hamachi VPN - “Instant, Zero Configuration VPN.” Connect all of your PCs, remote and local, into a secure, private network. Suitable for remote desktop, getting past work firewalls, SSH to Linux/Unix, and file sharing via Windows network shares.
• Jott - Leave a voice message from your phone, get a transcribed copy sent to your email or to someone you know.
• LogMeIn - Remote desktop from any computer via the web. I use this fairly religously.
• Notepad++ - Powerful replacement to Notepad. Great for text editing, made for programmers, suitable for all users.
• Picasa - Absolutely amazing photo management software. The best I’ve seen for photo organizing, displaying, emailing, and posting to web.
• Thunderbird - Firefox’s sister app for email. Great, especially if you’re currently using Outlook Express. (Tip: don’t use Outlook Express)
• Traffic.com - Check on congestion, accidents, and construction before you leave.
• Xplorer2 lite - A surprisingly nice file explorer. I’ve made fantastic use from this.

Entry Filed under: PC Basics, Productivity, Review