Articles about Free Software

Veteran dual-pane Windows file manager Saladin has recently been updated to version 1.0, its first major release since 2014.

The program opens with two independent Explorer-type views on your file system. Double-clicking, right-clicking and drag-and-drop all work as you’d expect, allowing you to start using the program right away.

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Fraqtive is an open-source generator of gorgeous Mandelbrot and Julia fractals. It’s a crowded area and there are a lot of similar programs around, but Fraqtive has enough interesting extras to justify the download.

Speed is a plus. Launch the program, a familiar Mandelbrot view appears, and you can quickly zoom in and out by moving your mouse cursor to an interesting area and spinning the mouse wheel.

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Superstring is a free tool for creating stylish and professional lyrics videos. Choose an audio file and Superstring displays its waveform vertically. To the right of the timeline is a table where you can type the lyrics you hear at the right point.

Playback starts automatically but you can pause and restart as required, or click back on the timeline if you need to hear a particular section again.

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Monitoring which apps use the most network bandwidth can help you spot resource hogs, malware and more. If you’re using Windows 10, you don’t have to install any complicated network software to make this happen. The OS tracks all this information by default, and all you have to do is view it.

To check it out, launch the Settings app, click "Network & Internet", select "Data usage" in the sidebar, then click "View usage details."

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Team MediaPortal has released a major update of its open-source media server and center for Windows. MediaPortal 2.1 opens with completely reworked media management tools, with a wide array of content now automatically scraped for metadata and artwork.

Users gain better visual indicators of watched series and individual movies, plus a number of new skins make their debut, including one aimed squarely at Windows Media Center users.

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If you’re bored with Chrome’s standard "new tab" page, there are hundreds of free extensions to make it better. Whether you’re after gorgeous photos, better searching, more productivity tools, there’s something, somewhere that can help.

If you don’t have time to look, that doesn’t have to be a problem either -- just install something like Start -- A Better New Tab, which crams in just about every feature you could possibly want.

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O&O Software has released O&O FileDirect 1.0, a brand new freeware file-sharing tool for PCs running Windows 7 or up.

The program makes it easy -- and safe -- for users to share individual files through a secure web link, which recipients can access through their own web browser. Files are transferred directly from the end user’s computer -- no cloud storage is utilized.

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Veteran Windows disc burner cdrtfe has been updated to version 1.5.7. This is a maintenance release, though with some worthwhile tweaks, including smarter verification for ISO burning operations and a RAW writing mode for CUE files.

If you’ve not come across cdrtfe before, it’s is simple application for burning data discs, audio CDs, XCDs and (S)VCDs, as well as creating ISO images from discs or burning ISOs to disc.

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NirSoft has released UninstallView (32-bit here), a portable tool which collects and displays information on your stored applications.

Don’t be fooled by the name. UninstallView isn’t trying to compete with GeekUninstaller and has no program-removing abilities, it’s just a better version of the standard Windows Add/ Remove Programs applet.

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There are endless graphical Ping tools for Windows, and we’ve probably tried more than our share -- but could Ping GUI win us over, anyway?

The program offers plenty of plus points. It’s portable, open-source, and the creation of Peter Verbeek, the developer behind the popular Peace Equalizer.

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Laptop speakers can often be underpowered, and if you’re on the move it might not always be convenient to connect external speakers, or headphones. Another option is to install specialist audio processing software to amplify your system volume beyond the usual maximum.

How well this works depends on the individual device. Your usual volume limit isn’t some definitive physical barrier, and it’s likely you’ll be able to go a little further without any issues, but taking it too far will trash your audio quality.

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If you’re looking to revisit a website later then the obvious solution is to bookmark it. That’s easy, but won’t help much if you forget about the link, or where you saved it.

Open Me Later! is a free Chrome extension which enables scheduling a page to open automatically, as the date and time you specify.

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Desktop recorders are common on the PC and we’ve regularly covered them here, but does Icecream Screen Recorder have enough to stand out from the crowd?

A handy set of capture types doesn’t stop with full screen, window and freehand rectangles. The program can also capture a fixed-size rectangle around your mouse cursor, very useful when you need to focus on a particular area of the screen.

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Dalenryder Password Generator is an interesting collection of simple security tools, nicely presented in a big-buttoned, touch-friendly interface.

Tap "Quick Password" and the program generates and displays a strong 12-character long password. You can optionally include symbols or change the password length to anything from 4 to 30 characters, then generate a password and copy it to the clipboard in a couple of clicks.

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Zive, Inc has released Kiwi for Gmail 2.0 for PC users, migrating its popular Mac tool of the same name to the Windows platform.

Kiwi for Gmail will appeal to those Google aficionados who are currently accessing Google services -- primarily Gmail (including mail, calendar and contacts), but also Google’s G-Suite office apps -- through their web browser.

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