FREE Great Programs for Windows 7 [2]

[x BlueRobot]

brink can you add greenshot screenshot tool to this list? here's a feature list

• allows you to save instantly to a directory of your choosing with many options for automatic file naming.
• uploading to imgur, pisca, dropbox, photobucket, flickr, and box and copying the link to your clipboard.
• full screen, window, or custom selection of areas
• quick image editor for adding text, bluring private information, and drawing arrows
• options to save as many file formats
• free and open source

i think that's a clear enough description, i use it every day. it surely beats the pants off off pasting into paint

Very useful tool

 

[kado897]

I prefer Snapdraw Free. I don't think it is on the list either. Print Screen Capture Software with Special Effects, Annotation Tools and support for Windows 7, Vista and XP Alpha Transparency (Translucency).

 

[Kari]

BleachBit

BleachBit is a great, free tool for cleaning the hard drive as well as taking care of your privacy. It clears the browser cache, logs, temporary files, history, and broken shortcuts on the desktop. BleachBit has been translated into 61 different languages.

BleachBit quickly frees disk space and tirelessly guards your privacy. Free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn't know was there. Designed for Linux and Windows systems, it wipes clean a thousand applications including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari,and more. Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster. Better than free, BleachBit is open source.

• Simple operation: read the descriptions, check the boxes you want, click preview, and click delete.
• Multi-platform: Linux and Windows
• Free of charge
• Free to share, learn, and modify (open source)
• No adware, spyware, malware, or browser toolbars
• Translated to 61 languages
• Shred files to hide their contents and prevent data recovery
• Shred any file (such as a spreadsheet on your desktop)
• Overwrite free disk space to hide previously deleted files
• Portable app for Windows: run without installation
• Command line interface for scripting and automation
• CleanerML allows anyone to write a new cleaner using XML
• Automatically import and update winapp2.ini cleaner files (a separate download) giving Windows users access to 1700+ additional cleaners
• Frequent software updates with new features
• Free disk space
• Reduce the size of backups and the time to create them by removing unnecessary files
• Maintain privacy
• Improve system performance (by vacuuming the Firefox database, for example)
• Prepare whole disk images for compression (common for "ghost" backups and virtual machines) by wiping free disk space

(Quote, list of features and ways to use and screenshot from Clean Your System and Free Disk Space | BleachBit)

Kari

 

[edwin222]

Everything
Everything Search Engine
Everything Search Engine
Locate files and folders by name instantly.
Incredible Windows search engine. Uses the NTFS index. Doesn't search contents. Will find folders. Great filters.

 

[mjf]

"Everything" is already on the list. I agree it is powerful but prefer Agent Ransack/File Locator lite as a general search utility if the inbuilt search doesn't suit you. I use File Locator lite all the time.

 

[grits]

I'm lazy. I just make an image of the entire system. It takes only 8-10 minutes, depending on the phase of the moon or something equally ridiculous, about the time it takes to get a snack or make a pit stop.

Yes well so do I on a regular weekly and on cal basis but nothing beats a reg backup onto a doc or even a stick.
I do this particularly straight after an install and when things have quietened down so I have at least three form of reg backup but I ma just pedantic after wrecking it a few times.

I wish things were quiet here, been wanting to reply for days, & of course have lost my original thoughts but before the crew gets back, I'll take a min. to do a quickie. Do you guys & gals use an external disk for imaging? @John, can you please tell me how you do the circles, etc, in your screenshot post #376?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I use external disks...sorta. On my desktop, when imaging the boot drive, I save it to an internal drive. I use internal type HDDs in a swap bay (essentially, a built in dock) to backup the drive that I stored the image onto. With my notebook, I use an external dock to hold an internal type HDD and send the C: partition image to that drive.

 

[Brink]

BleachBit

BleachBit is a great, free tool for cleaning the hard drive as well as taking care of your privacy. It clears the browser cache, logs, temporary files, history, and broken shortcuts on the desktop. BleachBit has been translated into 61 different languages.

Kari

Thank you Kari. Added to list.

 

[scr]

Unchecky

I came across this program today on LifeHacker; Unchecky Ensures You Never Accidentally Install Bundleware Again

Program website: Unchecky - Keeps your checkboxes clear

More information over at Unchecky protects you from unwanted third-party offers during software installations | Ghacks

"In particular, it will uncheck options and switch to custom installation for you if available. In addition to that, it will also warn you that the software may install potentially unwanted programs on your system, so that you know that you need to be extra careful during setup.

It needs to be noted that while this works well most of the time, it is not something that you put all your faith in. It is very likely that it won't detect all custom installation options with 100% accuracy, and what may weight even more, it cannot make decisions for you that require you to click on buttons."

"If you get an accept or decline screen, it is you who has to make the decision as Unchecky won't do anything... "

"In short, Unchecky does two things: it warns you when program installers include unwanted offers, and it will pick the custom installation option and uncheck boxes for you automatically.

The application itself runs silently as a service on the system. It will come to action whenever you install a software program on your PC."

"Unchecky offers no 100% protection against unwanted software installations. While it covers many, it will let others slip by it so that you still have to check all options manually to make sure that this is not the case.

If you fall pray to these installations often, or know someone who does, you may want to give the program a try to reduce the damage that these installations make"

I can't say much about how well it works as I just installed it. I want to pass this on to my daughter who never reads anything except the "Agree" and "Continue" buttons when installing anything. If nothing else hopefully it will slow her down.

 

[C-11]

Did not see this on the list. Been using it a few years now.

Screenpresso - Simple and effective screen capture

 

[The Howling Wolves]

I use Jing by Tech Smith which is free to download.
TechSmith | Jing, Free Screenshot and Screencast Software

 

[maxie]

PCI-Z ... PCI-Z is a freeware lightweight system utility designed to provide information about (unknown) PCI (PCI-E, PCI-X...) devices.


PCI-Z is designed for detecting unknown hardware on your Windows based PC. It will help you determine vendor, device and certain details about device even if you don't have drivers installed. Software uses The PCI ID Repository, a public repository of all known ID's used in PCI devices: ID's of vendors, devices, subsystems and device classes. It is used in various programs (e.g. The PCI Utilities) to display full human-readable names instead of cryptic numeric codes.



PCI-Z detect unknown PCI devices

 

[Anak]

For VM users

Utility I saw on a Spiceworks email I received:

Free Tool for VMware and Hyper-V Backup New Veeam Backup Free Edition

Ad hoc backup for your VMs Have you ever wanted to archive an old VM just in case before deleting it? Or take a copy of the VM before applying a critical patch? Well, now you can! With VeeamZIP™, ad hoc backups are:

• Easy: No complicated configuration, and no need to pause or power off the VM
• Compact: Compression, deduplication and swap file exclusion make backups small
• Portable: Captures all the virtual disks and configuration files needed to restore the VM on any host

Product Overview

Using the free download link here: Veeam Backup Free Edition for VMware and Hyper-V You only need to supply your name and email.

If you go here: Veeam Backup Free Edition for VMware and Hyper-V VMs (VeeamZIP) to find out more and then use the free download link from there you will have to create a veeam account and supply your corporate credentials.

Beware, it is a large 809MB .iso download, and you will need to convert.

 

[Brink]

Added:

PeStudio is a free tool performing the static investigation of any Windows executable binary. A file being analyzed with PeStudio is never launched. Therefore you can evaluate unknown executable and even malware with no risk. PeStudio runs on any Windows Platform and is fully portable, no installation is required. PeStudio does not change the system or leaves anything behind.

 

[andrew129260]

Fantastic freeware.

Should I Remove It? - Download (Free)

How do I use it?

Gives detailed analysis of what a program does when its installed to your system, (like virus total) and gives you a recommendation on removing the software or not.

Includes information on how it affects startup, what entries are created as well as how it effects cpu usage. Its pretty fantastic, and I think I am going to start using it a lot more to analyze a person pc.

It also does not install any services or run at startup. This program only opens when you tell it to, although you can configure it to run in the background scanning all the downloads you initiate.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

PCI-Z ... PCI-Z is a freeware lightweight system utility designed to provide information about (unknown) PCI (PCI-E, PCI-X...) devices.


PCI-Z is designed for detecting unknown hardware on your Windows based PC. It will help you determine vendor, device and certain details about device even if you don't have drivers installed. Software uses The PCI ID Repository, a public repository of all known ID's used in PCI devices: ID's of vendors, devices, subsystems and device classes. It is used in various programs (e.g. The PCI Utilities) to display full human-readable names instead of cryptic numeric codes.



PCI-Z detect unknown PCI devices

Nice one Brian and so quick!!

 

[kathy025]

Kingsoft Office 2013 Free

Elegant Black

Classic

A great freeware office suite that does the 3 major office tasks (word processing, presentations, spreadsheets). Great support for Office 2003/2007 fileformats with a very familiar interface. It even has a Classic view for those used to the 2003 view. It is currently my office suite of choice.

 

[Britton30]

That looks sweet like a good suite Kathy.

 

[andrew129260]

king soft office has a version for android as well that is free

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cn.wps.moffice_eng

 

[wanchoo]

Thanks a lot. Will surely try it out.

Fantastic freeware.

Should I Remove It? - Download (Free)

How do I use it?

Gives detailed analysis of what a program does when its installed to your system, (like virus total) and gives you a recommendation on removing the software or not.

Includes information on how it affects startup, what entries are created as well as how it effects cpu usage. Its pretty fantastic, and I think I am going to start using it a lot more to analyze a person pc.

It also does not install any services or run at startup. This program only opens when you tell it to, although you can configure it to run in the background scanning all the downloads you initiate.