Computer Software Links

There are many Internet sites offering free and legal software. There are also sites that offer free or inexpensive software that is not legitimate and violates Copyright laws as well as sites that offer software that contaminated with viruses or spyware. The "bootleg" programs can suddenly fail when the Copyright owner determines the software is illegal. All the sites we reference offer legitimate licensed software at a discount price that is free of viruses and adware. You can download safely from all of these sites. Non-Windows software may be found in the Links for Advanced Users.

Discount Software

Most of these retailers offer OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) software. Totally legitimate but without a manual or box. Just like the software that came bundled with your new computer. You get a CD, a software key and an EULA (End User License Agreement). If it's a popular piece of software you can buy a manual better than the one in a retail box at any book store.

NothingButSoftware (Lots of software at a reasonable price)

Retro Software (Buy the previous version of software at significant savings)

RoyalDiscount (More software at great prices)

Software Media (More software at discount prices. Great prices on Adobe products.)

Web Community Software (Another source for legitimate software at a discount price)

Fonts

These add fonts to your computer. Fonts are the various type faces found on any program that is capable of putting letters in a document, file or graphic. True Type fonts are the kind used by Windows. Go to the Control Panel to install. There is no limit to the number you can install and they are fairly small files.

1001 Fonts (Download fonts here - many free, some fee)

Better Fonts (Thousands of true type fonts)

DAfont (More true type fonts - free and fee)

FontCapture (Create a font from your handwriting)

Font Finder (A collection of about 50,000 fonts in England - many free)

FontFrenzy (An easy way to manage your fonts)

Movie and TV Show Fonts (Unique free fonts from the movies)

What Font (Submit a font for identification)

Graphics

These are programs to manipulate pictures, images and graphics. Some, like Adobe Photoshop are designed for professionals and cost $100's of dollars. If you own a digital camera you probably got a free graphics program with it. The following are all free programs.

Artweaver (A free alternative to Photoshop from Germany)

GIMP (The Gnu Image Manipulation Program. A full function graphics editor.)

Inkscape (A free open source drawing program like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw)

Irfanview (A free graphics editor - be sure to get the PlugIns)

My Album (Free photo album software)

Photo Story 3 (A digital picture slide show program from Microsoft)

Photobie (A full feature and free image editor)

PicLens (Resize pictures from selected sources to fullscreen)

Picasa (A free graphics organizer and editor from Google)

Pixlr (Online image/photo editing software)

Image Recovery (Recover digital images from zapped media)

Resizr (Resize pictures online)

Shutterfly (Create calendars, cards and gifts with your digital photos)

SmartMorph (Merges one image into another)

Studioline Photo Manager (Organize your photos and add comments)

Miscellaneous Programs

These programs and utilities don't quite fit in another category.

Advanced Diary (A diary program with a simple word processor and digital pictures)

AOL on Outlook (Microsoft's instructions on configuring Outlook Express for AOL mail)

Atomic Clock Sync (Synchronize your computer's clock to an atomic clock)

Audacity (A free cross platform audio editor)

Blist (A database for the rest of us)

Calculator Plus (Replace your XP calculator with this freebee from Microsoft)

Carbonite (The Internet backup service - only $50/year)

Cinq (Share photos between multiple computers and mobile devices)

Color Folders (If you're tired of yellow folders, add color)

ConvertIt (Convert filetypes here)

DBAN (Selling your computer? Nuke all your files with DBAN)

Delico (A Firefox social bookmark manager)

Dliveo (A unique way to deliver very large files)

DVD Toolbox (A file is a file)

Eudora (One of the best email clients and now free. Runs on Windows/Mac)

FileWiggler (Converts video formats on-line)

Google Ads (Change your preferences or opt out completely)

Google Docs (Software is moving to the Internet - a free WP and spreadsheet)

Google Pack (Get your collection of free Google software)

How Secure is my password (Check yours)

InstaPaper (Save news articles and read later)

Jing (Captures the desktop - even video)

Launchy (If you prefer the keyboard to a mouse, this is for you)

Microsoft Store (The high price leader for everything Microsoft)

MoffSoft FreeCalc (An improved calculator for Windows)

NCH Software (All kinds of free and fee software for computers and phones)

nero (The best CD/DVD burning program for $50-$80)

Notepad++ (A greatly improved version of the Windows tool)

Old Version (Sometimes better than the new one)

Open Talk (Free voice and video conferencing)

PC Decrapifier (Get rid of all the annoying advertisements that come on a new PC)

PDFmyURL (Turn a web site into a PDF file)

Peter's Online Typing Course (Learn how to type here)

Photostage (Photo display and slideshow software)

Picreflect (Improve digital pictures by adding a reflection)

Postica (Attach sticky notes to a web site and share with friends)

Pure Networks (Easily set up a home network with Network Magic Essentials)

Rapid Typing Tutor (If you didn't like Peter's try this one)

ResizeEnable (Turns usually non-re sizable windows into re sizable windows)

Skype (Make VoIP telephone calls for free - all you need is a microphone)

Thunderbird (The Mozilla email client. Written in Java so it runs on anything)

USB Ejector (A utility to quickly remove USB devices)

VLC (A universal video player. It plays all formats.)

WeatherBug (Posibly the best weather program for your browser)

WordPress (Create your own free BLOG here)

Yahoo Mobile (Get Yahoo on any cell phone)

Office Tools

Microsoft's Office Suite is a popular set of programs. These sites contain extensions for Microsoft Office and complete alternative products.

Adobe Trials (Download 30 day evaluation versions of Adobe products)

ASAP Utilities (Over 300 tools for Microsoft Excel users)

Avery (Get the free software to print Avery labels)

Clipart (The Microsoft clipart library - make your own cards, signs, etc.)

FreeCalc (A replacement for the Windows calculator)

IBM/Lotus Symphony (The Symphony Office Suite free from IBM)

Jott (Jott it down here)

LibreOffice (A free replacement for Office by the Document Foundation)

Microsoft Office Download Center (Get free add-ins for MS office)

NitroPDF (A more advanced and free PDF creator)

Num Sum (Need an occasional spreadsheet??)

Open Office (Same function as Microsoft Office but free.)

PDF Creator (A configurable PDF creator from Sourceforge)

PDF Pad (Standard forms in PDF - calendars, flags, etc.)

PDFtextOnLine (Extract text from a PDF file in your browser)

PDF to Word (Convert a PDF to Word format)

PDFview (Allows you to edit and change a PDF document - try it free for 6 months)

Preezo (Create "Powerpoint like" presentations on the web)

PrimoPDF (A free and simple Acrobat PDF creator)

PST Backup Tool (From Microsoft. If you know what's in a .pst, you know it needs backing up)

Scribus (A free desktop publishing program from Sourceforge)

Spicebird (A free Outlook replacement. A full contact management system.)

SunBird (The calendar project from Mozilla)

Think Free (A free on-line Office Suite)

KeyBr (Learn or improve your typing skills)

ZOHOwriter (On-line word processor. Link rather than cite)

Security

Security is always an important topic with computers. Things like computer viruses, spyware, adware and firewalls are covered here as well as ways to generate secure passwords.

Avast (A free anti virus program as good as as the paid versions)

CCleaner (Get rid of the junk on your PC)

Hashapass (A Javascript secure password generator program)

IE Privacy Keeper (Clean IE cookies, history, archives)

KeyPass (Keep your passwords secure with this freebee from Sourceforge)

Lockbox (Secure files with this free utility)

Magic Keyfinder (Lost your Windows or Office product key? Recover it here.)

MailWasher (One of the better Spam eliminators for $37 - free trial)

Malicious Software Removal Tool (from Microsoft - for Windows 2000, XP & 2003 ONLY)

Password Calculator (How secure are your passwords to a brute force attack?)

Password Checker (How secure are your passwords? Let Microsoft check them)

Password Meter (How secure are your passwords and how to make them stronger)

SpamBayes (Eliminate spam with this tool from SourceForge)

SpyBot (Remove advertising spyware from your system)

Spam Proof email (Generate a spam proof email address)

Stinger (From McAfee - the virus removal tool)

TrueCrypt (Free Open Source encryption software)

Zone Alarm (A great firewall for broadband users)

Software Repositories

A number of web sites contain a wide variety of Freeware, Shareware and Demo Software. Many of the sites offering free software also provide viruses or spyware along with the free program. The following sites scrub every submission and only post clean software. Freeware is completely free software. Many are the result of a Computer Science Doctoral Thesis. Shareware is free to try, for a month, some number of uses, or a function like SAVE is missing. After the evaluation period you have to buy it if you want to continue using it or it will no longer work. The price is usually modest - between $10 and $50. Demo software just shows you how the software would operate when you buy it. Expect to spend many hundreds to thousands of dollars for the actual software.

Free Software (100's of free software programs. Lots of fun stuff.)

Freeware (Freeware from the Cocos Islands)

No Nonsense Software (Fee and free utilities for Windows)

SimTel Software Library (Another software download library)

TUcows (One of the biggest software download library)

ZD Net (Downloads from Ziff Davis)

System Tools

These tools enhance the operation of Windows. They provide missing functions or extend existing functions.

Belarc Advisor (Builds a profile of your computer so you can answer any technical questions)

DLL Dump (An archive of Dynamic Link Libraries)

Eraser (Permanently erase files on a hard drive)

Fresh Devices (4 free tools: Download, Diagnose, View and UI)

GoBack (Restore your system to an earlier time)

Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Windows XP Downloads

My Uninstaller (Alternative to the Windows uninstall utility)

PCmover (A $50 product that moves programs from PC to PC)

Pitaschio (A program to customize Windows to look and work as you want)

Restore Desktop (Saves and restores your desktop after a monitor resolution change)

Startup (Adds an icon to the control panel showing all programs called at startup)

Sysinfo (What does that program do and is it really necessary?)

Tweak (a free download from Microsoft that provides complete control of the Windows Desktop)

Undelete+ (Restore deleted files on your hard drive or SD card)

Uninstaller (A free tool to remove all traces of a program)

USB Flash Manager (A free download from Microsoft to manage flash drives)

Version Tracker (Keep track of the software version you are running)

Windows Power Toys for XP (Windows XP tools from Microsoft)

Windows Memory Diagnostic (Online crash analysis from Microsoft)

Winzip (to zip and unzip files)

World Time (The ultimate clock program)

Xecutor (Run programs on startup, execution or shutdown)

Zert (Provides updates for old, unsupported versions of Windows)

Viewers

Viewers are small programs that allow you to view the results of a proprietory program. You cannot do whatever the original program did, but you can view the results.

Adobe Acrobat Reader (get the free PDF reader here - a must for government sites)

Chrome (The web browser from Google)

Excel Viewer (View an Excel Spreadsheet without Excel)

Flash Player (Download a free Flash player or Shockwave player from Adobe)

Mozilla Firefox (The most secure browser available with a built in pop-up blocker.)

Mozilla Firefox Extensions (Get Firefox browser extensions here)

Mozilla Projects (Additional applications from Mozilla)

Powerpoint Viewer (View a PowerPoint presentation without PowerPoint)

Quicktime (Get the free Quicktime audio/video player here)

Word Viewer (View a Microsoft Word document without Word)