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My Favorite Free Software |
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Images & Photos |
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Image Editing: Paint.NET
I’ve used over a dozen programs and this is the best. Its
open source so dozens if not hundreds of add-ons are
available to make it do whatever you might want. It also is
fairly easy to use.
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html |
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Image Batch Converter:
FastStone Photo Resizer
This program can convert, rename or resize hundreds of
pictures per minute. It will even copy and duplicate folder
structure.
http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm |
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Sound |
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Sound Editing: Audacity
Audacity does a great job and is fairly easy to use. It also
is open source and many add-ons are available as well.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ |
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Audio Format Converter:
Zilla Audio Converter
I’ve used this program to convert .AVI movie file sounds to
.MP3 sound files which can then be edited in Audacity.
http://www.zillasoft.ws/ |
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Firewall & Spyware Protection |
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Antivirus: Avast!
This program does a great job and has kept my home PCs
healthy for years.
http://www.avast.com/ |
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Spyware/Virus Killer:
Spybot Search and Destroy
My favorite feature of Spybot is its startup tool that lets
you delete or turn off malicious or unnecessary programs
that run every time you start your PC.
http://www.spybot.com/en/download/index.html |
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Spyware/Virus Killer:
Ad-Aware
Perhaps the best up-to-date free virrus and spyware scanner
http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php |
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Movies & Videos |
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Movie Editing: Windows
Movie Maker
OK, this one isn’t free but it does come with Windows. I’ve
used many video editing programs and I don’t think I’ve
found a program that does as good a job at compressing
movies with sharp images at reasonable file sizes (and in a
reasonable amount of time). It also is very intuitive to
use, is reliable, uses regular Windows Explorer type file
management and is fairly compatible. It’s drawbacks are that
it does not have reverse, green-screen and does not
recognize some movie file types such as QuickTime and .VOB
(DVD). I am listing it here because I have not seen a
better free movie editing program (or a moderately priced
one either) |
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QuickTime Player: QuickTime
Alternative - Media Player Classic
Because QuickTime is so invasive and is such a resource hog
on PCs, I avoid installing it.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm
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QuickTime Converter: The
Rad Video Tools
Converts QuickTime to Windows Movie Maker compatible files
(and many other things).
http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm |
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Macros |
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Macro Scripts: AutoHotKey
This program is very small, reliable and powerful, but the
directions are poorly written. Once you figure it out it is
not terribly difficult to use.
http://www.autohotkey.com/ |
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Google Earth |
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Google Earth
This is possibly the coolest free program ever!
http://earth.google.com/
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