essential freeware

Alpha stage is a prototype - some functions may not work properly or at all. Most are not released to public for testing. Next is Beta stage where public or private testing is allowed and bugs are addressed. Release Candidates are next. There can be several of them. (more bug chasing and final decisions are made as to which features, functons are to be released)

I may have missed something but that is how I've come to know the stages of software development.

 

CIS WebServer

http://www.cisindia.net/webserver.html

 

Sorry can't edit my post above. on the same site are some useful apps and more

PC Engineer 1.5

Stay Online 3.3

http://www.cisindia.net/downloads.html

 

Eeeeeeeek! I have have been misusing the term alpha version all this time. Luckily, I am surrounded by idiots so nobody could possibly have noticed! We A-Team fans think Alpha is the best!

From webopedia: Alpha Version -
A very early version of a software product that may not contain all of the features that are planned for the final version. Typically, software goes through two stages of testing before it is considered finished. The first stage, called alpha testing, is often performed only by users within the organization developing the software. The second stage, called beta testing , generally involves a limited number of external users.

From wikipedia: Alpha Version -
Each major version of a product usually goes through a stage when new features are added (alpha stage), then a stage when it is actively debugged (beta stage), and finally a stage when all important bugs have been removed (stable stage). Intermediate stages may also be recognized. The stages may be formally announced and regulated by the product's developers, but sometimes the terms are used informally to describe the state of a product.

Well, live and learn, as they say

Anyway, I am kind of excited because I have been wanting something to turbocharge my searches, but have be too lazy--er--busy to look.


HandsOff




Thanks Buck, I will download the alpha version, but I only feel daring enough to install the beta (after all, this is not new technology, just a new implimentation).

P.S. - Props to Lynchnot, I did not notice you had gone into a more in depth explanation of the terms, hence my little journey through definition wonderland. You said the same thing, you said it first, and more concisely. Still, if you know any dead horses that need a good whipping, feel free to call on me!

 

Looks like he needs motivating all right. Needs a little 'attitude adjustment'. Right up my alley!

-HandsOff

 

Agent Ransack - a very fast way of searching through your documents for a particular word or expression.

SyncBack - excellent and very intuitive backup/synchronisation tool.

EveningDew Bible System - in my job I sometimes need to track down a particular expression in the Bible, and this is much faster than working through the concordance or searching a text file. The default text is the King James Version, other versions and translations are available on the downloads page.

 

Thank you for the 'EveningDew Bible System' link - I haven't even downloaded the software but the online system has been of great use already. Really nice to have a link not just for technical/computer useful tools

 

Diskeeper Lite

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

 

Another one:

Foxmail

A polished alternative to Outlook Express. Imports OE mail, accounts and address book, displays emails in plain text by default but has a button to toggle for html formatting, another button to toggle the preview pane. It runs minimised in the system tray, with audio and visual alerts (not intrusive but more prominent than OE) for new mail. It includes a spam filter that works very well with the default settings, with Bayesian filtering as an option.

Regarding security, it uses IE's Trident engine, so is approximately as safe as OE with secure configuration (which is safe enough for me). On install it adds a couple of Chinese websites to your IE favourites, which AdAware picks up and removes. Trivial IMO but no doubt unacceptable to some.

 

InfoTag Magic
it displays extra data stored in tag fields, like this DLL (my mouse is hovering there)
http://www.contextmagic.com/
http://www.contextmagic.com/downloads.htm

 

Useful shell extension and app that I now install on all my systems:

FragExt 1.0.780.3402 - Jul 14, 2005

http://www.mutexed.com/code/FragExt/

"FragExt is free application and shell extension set, designed to help you manage file fragmentation on FAT, FAT32 and NTFS volumes.

The set includes:

-A unique file defragmenter which allows you to defragment specific files rather than an entire volume.

-Windows Explorer column and info-tip extensions for displaying file fragments, extents, clusters, disk space usage and alternate data streams.

-A file property extension for displaying detailed information about a file's, folder's and NTFS data stream's fragmentation information.

-Integration extensions for simplifying the use of the FragExt defragmenter, allowing you to select and defragment files directly from within Windows Explorer.

-Simple reporting features allowing you to save the information FragExt gathers.

-A scriptable defragmentation engine, allowing you to create your own custom utilities."

 

FILEMAP

FileMap lets you take control of the growing number of files on your system by making record lists of those in the Windows, the System, and the C:\ root directories so you can constantly check what has been added (or removed). (143KB)

http://www.dogkennels.net/filemap/

 

i just found this on my HDD, it's similar to Sysinternals' psloggedon.exe from their PSTools, but does alot more.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/ntlast.html

 

this is a nice standalone app. it gives lots of info on your motherboard, just about everything. when you click on Function there's a very long list to choose from.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/CrystalCPUID/1095863951/1

 

here are two programs i have just installed and like.

Event Log Explorer: Event Log Explorer is a free software for viewing, monitoring and analyzing events recorded in Security, System, Application and another logs of Microsoft Windows. It extends starndard Event Viewer monitoring functionality and brings new features.
http://www.eventlogxp.com/

and Error Messages For Windows: Error Messages is a small utility that will allow you to look up MS Windows error code numbers and display a descriptive message explaining what the numeric code actually means. If you have software programs that produce numeric error codes now you can find out what they really mean.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Error_Messages_For_Windows_d1405.html

 

WebWasher

Web filter. I'd never managed to find a true set-and-forget configuration for Proxomitron. Paranoid2000 recommends WebWasher as a simpler, less configurable and less powerful alternative. Blocks what should be blocked and lets through what should be let through, with minimal demands on the user.

 

VLC media player

Recently started using this for video files, excellent features and picture quality. It's happy with most formats, apart from Real. Where other media players go for maximum cheesiness, VLC is beautifully minimalist.

 

Another great freeware I recently unloaded and am using is the FastStone Image Viewer 2.20 Freeware (Last Update: Aug 10,2005) :

A FREE image browser, viewer, converter and editor that supports all major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA. Other features include a batch image converter / resizer, a Full Screen image viewer with Select-Zoom support, a crystal-clear magnifier and a slideshow with 150+ transitional effects.

This is available at :

http://www.faststone.org/

 

Audacity is a free audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files, and more. Use it to edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), mix tracks together, or apply effects to your recordings. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. Built-in effects include Bass Boost, Wahwah, and Noise Removal, and it also supports VST plug-in effects
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

 

GPEDIT.MSC (Group Policy Editor) isn't available on XP Home Edition
This file makes it possible for xp-home
download zip file "telecharger le fichier zip" from
http://www.astwinds.com/astuces/gpeditxphome.html

 

WipeCMOS

http://geocities.com/sjwoolham/freeware/wcmos12.zip

 

THE ABSOLUTE essential freeware for me, it's http://www.cygwin.com; of course that's really because I really am a UNIX person, but that environment really is incredible. It's pretty much like working on UNIX/Linux and Windows at the same time. It also integrates with the DOS commands. Of course, that's hardly a 'newbie' tool. It could helpful for somebody who wants to switch to UNIX/Linux, but I'd say that taking the step of working on a real OS install would be better anyway. But it's absolutely essential for people who switch from UNIX to Windows (like I did at work).

Also, http://www.vim.org, http://www.gimp.org. GNU has also various ports on Windows of UNIX programs, like Emacs.

 

That sure would have been handy if it works. Word of caution for pest patrol users, and possible Microsofts Antispy thing. Something like this will probably be designated as malware.

-HandsOff


who knows what "telecharger le fichier zip" is anyway? Is it related to poker?

 

Araneae 4.5.2
Araneae is a simple, yet powerful, text editor for the web. Araneae (pronounced ah-RAN-ee-ay) provides only the features necessary to create stunning websites with the latest web technologies.
http://www.ornj.net/software/araneae/