Free Software

Can’t remember some obscure HTML tag detail, Apache directive or C++ function? There’s endless technical documentation on the web, so entering a few keywords at Google will probably tell you all you need.

Web-based solutions aren’t always the best, though. You’ll need to be online. Sites may be slow and unresponsive. Documentation quality will vary, and every site works differently.

OpenShot Studios has shipped OpenShot 2.1.0, the latest release of its cross-platform open-source video editor.

The big news this time is the addition of many animation features, including layers, transparent image sequences and keyframe support.

On all mobile platforms -- and, indeed, desktop ones -- there are no end of apps and websites that can be used to earn money and other rewards in return for providing feedback. Google, however, has a different idea.

The company has released a new app for Android called Crowdsource. The idea is to improve the likes of Google Maps and Google Translate with input from the likes of you and I. But rather than paying contributors -- or even offering any kind of incentive -- Google is rather cheekily looking for help completely gratis.

Australian backup vendor Sydneybackups has released SBGuard Anti-Ransomware 1.3.0, claiming it "protects your Windows PC against all known Ransomware malware, such as CryptoLocker, CryptoWall, TeslaCrypt, CryptoXXX, CTB-Locker, Zepto and many others".

How does it work? According to the developer, the program "injects a large number of restriction mechanisms and modifies some core Windows components to prevent malicious behaviors and executions".

At first glance, Back4Sure might not seem the best choice of file backup software. First released back in 2009, the developer still hasn’t tested it on Windows 10, it doesn’t look promising -- right?

Well, maybe, but don’t rule it out just yet. Older applications might not use toast notifications or display their status in a live tile, but they may still have many advantages.

If you’re manually checking a PC for malware then you could browse a folder in Explorer, look at file names, sizes, maybe open anything suspect to see what it contains. But you might be missing something…

Drives formatted using NTFS store file information in attributes. The contents of a file are stored in the $DATA attribute, and that’s what you’ll see in Explorer, and view when you open the file in an application.

Unchecky is a free tool which monitors installations and automatically unchecks unrelated "offers", helping ensure you only install the software you expect.

We've written about the program before, but a recent update has seen it leave beta and add support for a host of new installers and applications.

If you're setting up a PC for others to use then you’ll often want to limit their actions, prevent them running other applications or tweaking system settings.

Windows has many security and user settings that can help, but they're scattered across many applets and may be hard to find.

DarkAudacity, a mildly redesigned branch of the classic open-source audio editor Audacity, has been released for Windows.

The package has no big technical changes or enhancements, and instead focuses on revamping the interface to simplify operations and give it a more modern look.

OpenStreetMap has launched OpenStreetView, an open-source alternative to Google Street View.

The service offers free Android and iOS apps to record images while you’re driving. Upload the results to the OpenStreetView servers and they’ll be shared with the world.

Spektrel Art is a smart Windows and Mac app/ Photoshop plugin which transforms images into digital works of art -- and it’s available for free until August 29th.

What does it do? The developer attempts to explain, saying it’s "an extravagant otherworldly display of undulating movement that glimmers and gleams with intersecting lines of tapered light". Umm, great.

You’ve found an ebook you need, downloaded the EPUB, tried to open it, but your viewer won’t display it properly. Or maybe at all.

You might assume it’s the viewer, and try something else, but the problem could also be the file. A converter or publishing program might save something with an EPUB extension, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be a valid EPUB file.

Are you earning so much with Google AdSense that you’re always online checking your balance? OK, probably not, but if you’re earning something then tiny Windows freebie Auburn could save you time by displaying your earnings in a system tray icon.

If you’re doing implausibly well, it’s possible to have the program check your balance on a regular basis, display a tooltip and play an audio alert when new money arrives.

Filling web forms is dull. It’s bad enough when you have to fill a page of boxes just to sign up for something. It’s much worse if you’re testing a website and have to do it over, and over, and over again.

Fake Data is a very simple Chrome extension which can automatically fill those annoying text boxes with dummy data.

The free genealogy tool My Family Tree has hit version 6.0 with a host of small but welcome enhancements. Smarter GEDCOM handling includes a new import log to help diagnose any problems, and options to choose who to export when you’re saving a file.

Dates may now be input and displayed in multiple calendar formats: Gregorian, Julian, Hebrew, French Republican, lunar Hijri (Islamic), and solar Hijiri (Persian).