Articles about Free Software

Building the perfect ad-blocker is a complex business, not least because your users can have very different ideas on how it should work.

Some developers try to address this with layer after layer of features. You’ll be able to whitelist this, blacklist that, and add custom filters for just about everything else. Sounds great, until you have to spend an age learning how everything works, and start to notice how all these layers are slowing you down.

Continue reading →

Astonsoft has released EssentialPIM Free 5.8 and EssentialPIM Pro 5.8, major new versions of its personal information manager tool for Windows.

Also available in portable form as well as on Android and iOS, version 5.8’s headline feature is integration with the new EPIM Cloud feature, allowing data to be synced using the cloud.

Continue reading →

Deleting files from Windows Explorer is usually very easy. Select your target, tap "Del", click the "Yes, I really mean it" button and the object disappears forever. (Or is sent to the Recycle Bin, anyway.)

Sometimes you’ll get an "in use" error, though, usually because the file is locked by Windows or the system. It’s best to find out why -- the file could be important -- but if all else fails, a specialist tool like Unlocker can help you to delete it anyway.

Continue reading →

Piriform has released Defraggler 2.18 and Defraggler Portable 2.18, minor updates to its Windows freeware defrag tool.

Version 2.18 builds on the previous release by adding additional functionality to the recently introduced Statistics tab as well as implementing a new Quick Optimize feature for sold-state storage drives.

Continue reading →

Whether you need to understand a problem, complete a task, or just generally get organized, mind mapping can probably help. Not least because it’s so easy.

Start with the central issue; note down any related ideas, and begin to arrange and order them. You’ll quickly come up with a structure which helps you better understand the issue.

Continue reading →

Big Angry Dog Ltd has released HardWipe 4.0.1 and HardWipe Portable 4.0.1, a major new version of its ad-supported data wiping tool for Windows. Version 4.0.1 is notable for becoming a 64-bit only build, dropping support for legacy OSes including Windows XP in the process.

The update also sees HardWipe transition from the Qt4 to Qt5 application and UI framework as a result of becoming a native 64-bit application.

Continue reading →

If you need to run rapid searches for file names on NTFS drives then there’s no substitute for VoidTools’ Everything. The program’s smart use of the NTFS Master File Table (MFT) means you’ll see matching files almost as fast as you can type.

There are competing tools around, though. And the latest, Hddb (Hard Disk Database) is particularly interesting, as it claims to address and fix some Everything problems. Is it worth your time? We took a look.

Continue reading →

PeaZip srl has released PeaZip 5.3, the latest version of its open-source, cross-platform archiving tool for Windows and Linux users. The archiver supports over 178 file extensions, and is also available for Windows users in 64-bit form as well as portable builds (both 32-bit and 64-bit).

Version 5.3 launches with numerous new features and improvements to the File Manager graphical user interface as well as a wide range of improvements to its archiving and extraction tools.

Continue reading →

PlainEdit.NET is a free portable Notepad replacement with some interesting and unusual extras.

The core feature set is familiar enough. A tabbed interface allows you to open multiple documents, and there’s support for opening ANSI, UTF-8, Unicode and Unicode big-endian files, with Windows, Mac and Unix line breaks.

Continue reading →

NirSoft’s Nir Sofer has announced the release of InstallerDriversList, the latest addition to his lineup of system information tools.

As you’ll probably guess from its name, the program is a compact portable tool which displays a report on all the device drivers installed on your PC.

Continue reading →

Eusing Clock is a free clock gadget for your Windows desktop. Yes, we know, there are several million of these already, but this one does have a few twists which help it stand out from the crowd.

The program doesn’t just reproduce the same old digital design, for instance. Instead it has three colored meters which fill up to represent seconds, minutes and hours, making it a more eye-catching addition to your desktop.

Continue reading →

The value of a PDF document is, in part, that it can be read on just about any device, on any platform. Wherever you are, you can open it and see the same information, presented in the same way.

This isn’t always as good as it sounds, of course. Especially if a document has been formatted for landscape viewing on a high resolution desktop, and you’re trying to browse it on a smartphone (there’s sure to be plenty of surplus scrolling involved).

Continue reading →

EASEUS has released Partition Master 10 Free and Partition Master 10 Professional, the latest editions of its excellent disk management tool.

The new build now includes a wizard to migrate your system disk to a new drive (SDD and HDD), and make it bootable.

Continue reading →

Netpict is a simple free program for creating basic network diagrams using popular Cisco icons.

If you’ve ever used any other diagram tool, Netpict will seem very familiar. A panel on the left has various icons ("Cloud", "Firewall", "Server", "Router", "PC", "Laptop", more); you drag and drop the ones you need onto the page, right-click and drag to create connections between two elements, before finally exporting the map as an image.

Continue reading →

The Windows clipboard is useful, but limited, not least because it can hold only one item at a time. Copy in something else and the first has gone forever.

Clipboard managers can help, though, and at first CopyQ seems like a very typical example. It lives in the system tray; in a click or two you can be viewing a list of recent clipboard items (text or images); and any of these can then be selected or pasted into the current document.

Continue reading →