Useful and Free Tools Abound on the Net

Andrew Kantor, USA TODAY

My office just completed a pretty big upgrade, trading in old Macs for spanking-new Windows PCs. And there was much rejoicing.

I've been running a PC at work for sometime, though, often getting requests to open such-and-such a file, or to go to a website that couldn't be viewed on the other reporters' computers. I've also accumulated several useful pieces of software that I've mentioned to colleagues, usually when explaining how I did something they couldn't do on their home PCs.

Now that everyone is running Windows, people have come to me and asked about those things I mentioned; they can run the programs now.

The Firefox Web browser tops the list (along with extensions for it such as Tabbrowser Extensions, Sage, IE View, and Forecastfox), but there were a few other programs I pointed them to as well.

Which got me thinking about the gobs of open-source and freeware programs I have, and how useful some of those things are. I thought I'd share my favorites.

But I didn't want to do Yet Another List of Free Software. There are plenty. I wanted to avoid the obvious products such as Firefox and Google Earth.

I also wanted to avoid programs that mimic the functions of software that comes with your computer. So, although OpenOffice is a great product, most people have Microsoft Office already installed.

And I didn't want to list products that do things that are, well, mundane. So, although both ALWIL software's Avast 4 Home Edition (if you can download it) and Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus are great and free anti-virus tools, they didn't make the main list. Ditto for Spybot Search and Destroy, my free anti-spyware program of choice.

I want, instead, for you to say, hopefully more than once, "Neat. I didn't know I could do that."

There might be commercial software that does the same thing as some of these freebies, and it might even do it better. But all of these cost nothing and do a good job.

Microsoft Tweak UI for Windows XP

I'm one of those people who likes things just so. I like to tweak the little stuff -- to personalize them. My Microsoft Office toolbar, for example, is completely customized. Who needs buttons for cut and paste?

So I love Tweak UI; It allows you to change all sorts of little things on your system: The speed of your menus, the name of your "My Documents" folder, whether shortcuts have those little arrows on them (and whether they're preceded by the words "Shortcut to"), and many, many other things. (There's also a version for Windows 95 through

2000.)

Note: Depending on the version, Tweak UI may appear as an application under Start/Programs, or it may be in your Control Panel.

Sector7G's PDFCreator

Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) has become the standard for sharing rich documents - documents that maintain the exact look and feel you designed for them. They're how many articles and brochures are circulated, in part because they can't be edited the way a Word Document or Web page can.

You might think that creating PDFs is tough, or that you need to buy one of the full versions of Adobe Acrobat. Nope. PDFCreator installs itself as a print driver -- it can turn into a PDF anything that you can print out. That simple.

Granted, it doesn't offer some of the advanced functionality that Adobe provides, but if you simply want to take a document and make it into a PDF, this is terrific stuff.

ToniArts' EasyCleaner

If you install and uninstall software, you probably know that even things you removed often leave traces in the Windows registry.

The problem is that your registry can get clogged with outdated or broken entries. That makes your system slow down. EasyCleaner finds those unneeded entries and gets rid of them.

But wait, there's more. Like TweakUI, EasyCleaner lets you change other settings: What programs start when Windows starts, what's in your "Add/Remove Programs" list, and other such customizations.

Heidi Computers' Eraser

You probably know this: When you delete a file from your computer, even when it's removed from the Recycle Bin, it's not actually deleted. Your computer simply marks that space on your hard drive as "available." Eventually it will be overwritten, but someone with the right tool could easily recover it.

Enter Eraser. It wipes the file completely so it's gone -- to Department of Defense standards, no less. It can wipe individual files (right-click them and choose "Erase") or all the unused space on your hard drive.

Microsoft PhotoStory 3

This is an incredible way to make your still photos into a video that will dazzle your friends and family. You point the program to all the images you want in your "story" (JPEG, TIFF, or GIF) and it makes them into a video -- a slideshow.

But it' s not just picture, blink, picture, blink, like a traditional slide show. Instead, it uses the "Ken Burns Effect," gently zooming or panning over each image.

You can also add background music -- any MP3 or WAV files you have -- and even a voiceover. My favorite is "Linus and Lucy" from "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Even better, you can choose to "Create Music" using a variety of settings such as genre (Classical, Rock, Soundtrack, etc.), style (e.g., "Soundtrack: Adventure" or "Pop: Motor City"), the instruments, the mood ("Bittersweet," "Cheerful," "Upbeat," etc.), and more.

You can save the result as lower quality for e-mail, or DVD quality for burning to a disk. (You need DVD-creation software for that, or you can buy a $20 plug-in for it.)

Just using the defaults gets you an amazing video; play around a bit and you might leave your family in tears.

Audacity

Audacity is a full-featured, well-designed audio editor -- a handy tool for recording WAV files, editing MP3s, and messing with music.

Things I've used it for: Saving recordings made on a tape recorder to WAV or MP3 format so I can play them on my PC. Trimming some sound files (audiobooks, actually) so they fit on a single CD. Removing noise on old recordings. Playing music backwards just for the heck of it. Changing the pitch of songs to make the singer sound like a member of the Chipmunks, which amuses my three year old.

Audacity is one of those very powerful programs that have more features than most people will use. But if you like to play with sounds, it's a great product.

Cerebral Synergy's Batch File Renamer

If you take a lot of digital photos, this can come in quite handy. Like the name says, it's a batch renamer; you can point it to a directory and rename the files lots of ways - from scratch using sequential numbers, replacing text, changing the case of the extension (.JPG to .jpg), and more.

I use it when I have 50 photos named "IMG_1282" through "IMG_1331." I'll replace "IMG_" with the date - "05-1021" for example. Then those

50 images at least have vaguely useful names.

It's not perfect software. It doesn't remember the last directory I used, but it does remember the last replacement. I wish it was the other way around. And the authors sacrificed simplicity for power; there's a bit of a learning curve, although it's pretty straightforward once you get used to it.

4t Niagara Software's 4t Tray Minimizer

There's some software that I always leave running -- Gaim, my instant messenger application (see below), for example. But only a few will minimize themselves to the system tray -- that group of icons next to the clock on your taskbar.

Instead, they clog up my taskbar even though I only want them in the background. It's especially annoying if I'm "Alt-Tabbing" through my windows.

Image courtesy of authorMinimize anything. Besides the hardware removal tool, you can see icons for Word, Windows Media Player, and Firefox, thanks to 4t Tray Minimizer. 4t Tray Minimizer lets you minimize any application to the system tray -- from your MP3 player to Outlook. I have it set so a simple right-click on the minimize button does the trick. It's great for reducing clutter, and if you've got something on your screen you want to hide quickly.

There are plenty more I could probably name -- CDex for ripping your CDs to MP3s, Gaim as the single instant-messaging program for all your accounts, PixVue, whose praises I sang in a column a couple of weeks ago, and so on.

But I think you've got enough to play with for a while.

Andrew Kantor is a technology writer, pundit, and know-it-all who covers technology for the Roanoke Times. He's also a former editor for PC Magazine and Internet World. Read more of his work at kantor.com. His column appears Fridays on USATODAY.com.

Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at

formatting link
. Hundreds of new articles daily.

To read other stories from USA Today at no charge with no login requirements, go to

formatting link

Reply to
Andrew Kantor
Loading thread data ...

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.