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Just because you paid for a software doesn’t means its good. The Internet is loaded with free software, that are equally good and sometimes better. Here is a list of 15(Web and Desktop) based software for increased productivity. I hope you find these interesting.
Most people swear by Adobe PDF reader! Funny thing is that most of them hate the slowness of Adobe PDF reader. Foxit PDF Reader is a small PDF reader that loads in a flash. It’s an excellent alternative to Adobe’s slow, bloated PDF Reader.
2. Firefox
I have been using Firefox for quite a while. I would recommend upgrading your browser to Firefox mainly because it’s safe, fast, and tons of great extensions to customize it.
3. Launchy
Launchy is a free windows utility that lets you launch your favorite applications or any documents, just typing a few keystrokes.
4. TimeSnapper
TimeSnapper is a great utility that takes screenshots of your desktop every few seconds to give you an accurate picture of what exactly you’ve been doing with your time. Sometimes Windows may restart itself without any warning at that particular time you were writing something! OMFG how am I gono write that 10 pager again, don’t worry using TimeSnapper you can see what you had been writing when disaster struck.
5. Gmail
Gmail is the ultimate web based email client out there. It comes with built-in Google search technology, 6 GB of storage (and counting), and a number of excellent features.
Another great Google product is the Google Calendar. Google Calender lets you set up automatic event reminders, add important events with a single click, and use the built-in search tool to keep track of all your events.
OpenOffice is the best free open source alternative to Microsoft’s Office Suite. OpenOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet software similar to Microsoft Excel, web page editor, photo software and a presentation program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint.
CutePDF acts like a printer. You can convert any documents to a PDF as long as it has the print function. Best part! it’s FREE for personal and commercial use, besides that no watermarks!
9. Skype
Skype allows you to talk to people across the world for free. Just for few bucks you can do international, local calls to cellphones
10. Mediafire
Have a really huge PDF to send but your email client wont let you upload that big. You’ll love mediafire then, it lets you can upload a file that is too large to send via email (Up to 100MB per File).
11. CamStudio
CamStudio is free recording software that will allow you to create demonstration videos, online tutorials, or even video-based information products. Best part is it doesn’t cost you a penny!
Spywares can wreak havoc with your PC. SpyBot Search and Destroy is the best free spyware cleaner to keep your computer running smoothly. Just hit the scan button and let the software do its work.
Free Download Manager is a highly recommended download accelerator and manager. Don’t waste your money on paid alternatives like DAP or IDM. If the developers are correct Free Download Manager will instantly increase your download speed by up to 600%.
14. IZArc
IZArc is the ultimate freeware archive utility supporting nearly 50 archive formats. Just name it, IZArc will open it.
15. FileZilla
FileZilla by far the best free FTP client that I have found. It supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).Quite user friendly and fast.
If you think you can find better free applications out there. Shoot in a comment.
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30 comments ↓
Thanks man! Really good list…. keep up the good work.
Hmmm, I’ve found that PDFCreator works much better than CutePDF. Additionally, you can “stack” pages to a PDF in order to combine them into one document.
“Launchy is a free windows utility that lets you launch your favorite applications or any, just by pressing shortcuts.”
Ha! Ha!…. already got one of those. It comes with…. wait for it….. your operating system. Its called a Graphical User Interface. Why do people bother making frivolous junk like this
pretty good list, saw one new usefull program
Good stuff - I use most of these things on my computer at work, which runs WinXP. Couple of suggestions for more:
Irfanview - necessary for anyone who works with images in any way. The “new improved” Microsoft image viewer is a weak, failed clone of this remarkable tool.
Lupas Rename - necessary for anyone who works with digital photos (or large numbers of any kind of files), enables you to rename files in bulk with numerous options for “fixing” messed up file names, working with sequence numbers, etc.
Mozilla Thunderbird should be on a list of freeware that improves productivity because it is easy to use, has numerous powerful extensions available, and its built in spam filter is fast, simple, and over 90% accurate once trained. (Not to mention that it removes the risk of days of downtime due to mail-borne botnet worms.)
Privoxy, the de facto default ad filtering program for any web browser, increases productivity two ways: It makes web pages load faster (no more bandwidth wasted on advertising), and makes web pages easier to read (no professionally made-to-distract images dancing around).
AVG Antivirus improves productivity by allowing the whole computer to run faster, compared to the performance hit from any “pre-installed” antivirus software. Same thing could be said for Sunbelt-Kerio personal firewall. (Both are free for noncommercial use,
and less than 1/2 the price of the junk they replace for business use.) The overall increase in speed for both applications and networking is well worth the effort.
And of course I have to mention Linux. For typical office work, any “modern desktop distribution” offers major productivity benefits over any DOS-based operating system: Linux is the clear winner on system performance (speed, reliability, security), and provides a 15% to 700% increase in real network speed depending on the network environment. Whether Linux is a better option for any given user is a large question and the answer depends on many factors - but it is certainly a question worth asking.
@Steve K
Hey stevey thanks for the list, really handy apps. Must have overlooked them. Pardon me for that.
@Joel Witherspoon
Nice find!
@jacko
Maybe people love to make fun of people by doing this!
That description of Launchy is pretty crappy and misleading.
It’s actually a Windows equivalent for Quicksilver, which lets you type the name (or partially-matched name) of any application and press enter to launch it. Way more convenient than clicking on shortcuts.
@DarkMirage
Sorry for that! Should have been diff! Editing it ASAP
Regards CutePDF there is another free PDF “printer driver” called PDFCreator. Having never used CutePDF I cannot compare the two; however, PDFCreator does a credible job. And it is completely free for all uses. Whenever possible I try to use completely OpenSource alternatives.
Oh, and forget ye not, if you are using Open Office you can create PDF out of any document an office suite can normally print. One button. Form creation supported. :o)
@Steve K
Hey stevey thanks for the tip!
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http://www.sisense.com
Amazing dynamic reports builder application. Powerful and easy to use query and data segmentation tools, huge visual widgets selection, and all this with stat-of-the-art slick ui.
@Marc
Great find dude
I’d also add StrokeIt to the list. You can add mouse gestures to any of your commonly used programs. Good stuff.
http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/
For all online backup, file sharing and storage related info, I recommend this website:
http://www.BackupReview.info
@vliam
Thanks really good software
I had both Free Download Manager and IZarc and had no problem with them, but switch to wxDownloadfast and PeaZip because they do everything the others do on all Operating Systems and are open source.
@Vladimir
I’m no coder so ill stick to FDM, for the time being. Vlad nice find thou. Thanks
Now that people love list, here is another:
http://www.runpcrun.com/freesupportengineerstoolkit
Nelson:
I currently use PDFCreate and find it invaluable, but it is not free. I has a 30 day free trial period, after which it is $7.95/month (or $30/year).
The program is easy to use and will pretty much convert any file into a PDF file, which you can then add to the end (or beginning) of another PDF file. Unfortunately GIMP (a free Photoshop) was the exception, but other graphics software worked fine with it.
just thought i’d let you know, the mediafire link seems to be broken.
Also, there’s a free cd/dvd burning software that you might like to check out & add to the list. It’s DeepBurner, i;ve used it for years and it’s excellent.
http://www.floors4u.net/
@steve
lupas rename is GREAT
If you are going to be dealing with graphics much, Faststone Image Resizer is mighty handy, as is Faststone Image Viewer. Both are basicially single purpose programs that do a narrow spread of jobs, but do them well and quickly.
Although I am a registered, card-carrying Microsoft loather, LiveWriter makes short work of blog entries. The only thing missing that I would like is the ability to post the same entry to multiple blogs simultaneously. That’s a small handicap for an infrequent urge. It does a very capable job of inserting graphics and fires up from within Firefox (with the appropriate plugin).
Floors4u is right about DeepBurner. But you knew that, right?
@BillinDetroit
Thanks for the tip. I’ll see it
Great list. Many useful application and best of all, they’re free.
and to get rid of all other unwanted programs you can try Revo Uninstaller
@Marty
Good to see you like those applications.
@Maikati
Thanks man for finding that app.
Marc, thanks!
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