Free For All

As we begin a new year, I thought I'd share some of the free software that I use regularly—not because it's cheap (well, free) but because it's good. This article won't review any of the applications, but I'll include a quick summary of what each of them does.

FastStone Image Viewer
There are lots of free image viewers that are handy when you don't want to open a full editing program to view an image. The developer also offers some shareware applications that you may want to look at.

Irfan View
This is another free image viewer and was my favorite until I encountered FastStone. Try both and see which works better for you.

Filezilla is a free, open-source application that beats most commercial FTP applications. You can use a browser as an FTP client, but when it comes to heavy lifting, you need a real file transfer protocol client and this is the one I use. Mac users should check out CyberDuck, which is also being developed for Windows users.

WINSCP is a small FTP client that is offered in a "portable" version so you don't have to install it. This is handy if you don't have administrator rights on a computer.

CCleaner
The extra C is for crap, and that's what CCleaner gets rid of: all the detritus left behind in the course of using Windows.

7-Zip
WinZip's development seems to have stagnated and the free 7-Zip (besides being free) works just as well and offers, in addition to the standard zip format, its own more robust format.

LogMeIn
Unless the company you work for is so unenlightened that they won't allow you to use an application that gives you access to your office PC from your home computer, you'll want LogMeIn installed. If you forget to bring home an important file from the office, just connect to your office computer and get it. A paid version offers more features.

ImgBurn
If you need to create a CD or DVD from files on your computer, the free ImgBurn lets you do the job in just a few clicks.

Itunes (the application I hate to love)
Apple keeps changing Itunes and sometimes new versions crash unexpectedly. As a Windows application, Itunes is badly engineered; but if you have an Ipod, you really need Itunes.

Picasa
If you don't need all the features that you'll find in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or Paint Shop Pro, Picasa offers a lot of features for free.

KeePass
It's dangerous to use the same password for multiple sites, but trying to remember all those passwords you create is difficult. Don't write them down! Instead, use KeePass to keep track of them—but make sure you don't forget the KeePass password!

PDF Creator
There's less need for this than in the past because many applications can now save files in PDF format but if you're using an older application that can't, PDF Creator installs itself as a printer and creating a PDF from any printable document is as easy as printing it.

Adobe Reader X
Late in 2010 Adobe released a new version of the Acrobat Reader program. PDF is such a commonly used format that every computer should have the latest version of the reader installed.

Unlocker
If you've ever tried to delete a file only to be told that you can't because the file is in use, you need Unlocker. Without it, the only solution is to reboot the computer and then delete the file. Use this program with care, but when you're sure that it's safe to delete a file that's locked, you can use Unlocker to find out what application has locked the file, to unlock the file, or to terminate the locking application. I repeat: Use with care!

Happy New Year