Freeware Tools

[Annabell]

I have seen this at other Forums in the past and can become a large useful thread.

If you have a favorite freeware software application (not trial ware) but 100% free and you think others would benefit by it please post it with a short description "what its for, OS its compatible with and a link to download from

ATF Cleaner

Note This program is for XP and Windows 2000 only ATF Cleaner is a temp file cleaner and a stand alone application "you don't install it" so you can download to desktop or say my documents.

To Operate ATF

For IE6 or 7

Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
Under Main choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.

For Firefox

Click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.

For Opera

Click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.

Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program.
For Technical Support, double-click the e-mail address located at the bottom of each menu. Read more / Download > ATF - Cleaner

Click image to enlarge

[lincsat]

Good idea this - I've stickey'd the thread

[Annabell]

Thanks lincsat

HDD Thermometer

Hard disk temperature monitoring tool. It has all the features needed to prevent overheating and possible data loss, freeware, but requires free on line registration.

Monitors hard disks temperature changes; Ability to perform any of following actions when exceed Warning or Critical temperature, Show Notification, Play Sound, Execute Application, Shutdown / Hibernate, Show hard disks temperature indicators in the System Tray; Log temperature changes; Ability to set individual settings for each hard disk, Currently available 27 languages
Download is 265kb tiny footprint so very light on resources, read more and download if you wish in the link below, picture of interface and task bar readout below

link > HDD Thermometer

Click image to enlarge
-Task bar readout of my HDDs

[Annabell]

XP Black - royale noir

Not exactly a tool but a little known Windows Theme, and very sexy i think downloads as a RAR Zip file, to install unzip to Windows/ Resources/Themes "see pictures" and download if you wish below

Click 1st image to enlarge

________

Download > XP Black

[Annabell]

Just had to post this because its brilliant

UBCD - Ultimate Boot CD v4.1.1 Windows / Linux

This is a freeware utility that lets you run floppy-based diagnostic tools from CD and includes CPU Burn In, Darik's Boot and Nuke, CHZ Monitor-Test and many more, download and burn as bootable Note to run UBCD you have to change boot to CD / DVD drive in BIOS / Boot Sequence, or you can download the USB memory stick version "if your BIOS suports boot from USB memory stick", download formats - ISO image, Self-extracting EXE, ZIP File.

About UBCD > Information

Main page > Download scroll down this page for full list of UBCD tools.

[Annabell]

System Analyzers

Here are four system analyzers "designed especially for detection of hardware and software" eg your Hard Drive, Motherboard, CPU, GPU and OS "operating system" i have used all of these and all four work well "yes there are others but i have found some not to be very accurate", a short description is given for each with the link.

SIW v1.68 current version

SIW (System Information for Windows) Displays information about System hardware /software / BIOS, all Windows and Vista, stand alone application "you don't install it".

Link > SIW

PC WIZARD

PC Wizard is able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results and can analyze and benchmark your computer system.

Link > PC Wizard

CPU-Z

CPU-Z is stand alone so does not need to be installed and can gather information on some of the main devices of your system.

Link > CPU-Z

Win Audit

WinAudit is easy to use, no special knowledge is required to use the program. It is a self-contained single file that needs no installation or configuration. It can be run from a floppy disk or USB stick. The program reports on virtually every aspect of computer inventory and configuration. Results are displayed in web-page format, categorized for ease of viewing and text searching, and covers Windows PE / NT4 / 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista, this is my favorite

Link > Win Audit

[Tee_111]

Thanks Annabell, good thread!!

[Annabell]

Thank you Tee_111, i hope other members will also add


Pixia

This is a freeware painting and retouch software for full color graphics, supports mask, layer and many other editing options. You can use your own customized brush tips and even use an image file as a brush tip to create unique effects, Pixia supports the most common editing techniques and presents a user friendly interface, it has similarities with Paint Shop Pro and Paint.Net but its outstanding fetcher is the drag resize and paste, for freeware its brilliant , i use v3.3a screen shot below

Read more and download if you wish Pixia v3.3a

Note Pixia v 4 has been released "but still has some bugs" if you want to try version 4 you can download Pixia v4 Here

Click on image to enlarge

[Annabell]

Eraser v 5.8

Sending things to the recycle bin in Windows and deleting works but with the right software these things can be retrieved so if you want to be sure try Eraser 5.8 Freeware -

Eraser is an advanced security tool, which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard disk by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.
You can drag and drop files and folders to the on-demand eraser, use the convenient Explorer shell extension or use the integrated scheduler to program overwriting of unused disk space or, for example, browser cache files to happen regularly, at night, during your lunch break, at weekends or whenever you like.
The patterns used for overwriting are based on Peter Gutmann's paper "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory" and they are selected to effectively remove the magnetic remnants from the hard disk making it impossible to recover the data.
Other methods include the one defined in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual of the US Department of Defence and overwriting with pseudo random data.

Eraser is all you need to get rid of anything (permanently) and the eraser tool is in your right click drop down (when installed) for Windows 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP, incorporated in Eraser is Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") so you can make a bootable Floppy / Disk to Erase a complete Hard Drive (Note anything erased with Eraser 5.8 or DBAN is not recoverable), see pictures of Eraser and download link below

Eraser in right click drop down "Erase"

Erasing a Acronis True Image 5.85GB backup

And the result

Link > Eraser v 5.8 download

[Annabell]

Foxit Reader 2.0 for Windows

This is a full function PDF reader, document viewer and printer and i have been using Foxit for some time "i think its better than Adobe", neater and faster also Foxit is a small footprint 1.5mb and Acrobat Reader v 8.1 is 22.3mb that makes Foxit about a 5th of the size small and super fast, ideal for small systems, Laptops and high end systems, but don't take my word for it try it !, shot of Foxit working below and the link to download if you wish

Click on image to enlarge

Download Foxit 2.0 Here