Articles about Free Software

Quizzes have been used to test our knowledge since the dawn of schooling, and they’re still just as effective today.

They're not just for teachers, either. A well-designed quiz can help anyone find out more about themselves, learn about something that interests them, maybe compete with friends.

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Benjamin Leclerc has announced that TaskUnifier Pro, his comprehensive task manager for Windows, Mac and Linux, is now available for free.

Unfortunately this isn’t quite as good as it sounds, because the reason is the program will no longer be maintained.

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If you suspect your PC has been infected by malware, but your regular security package hasn't raised an alert, then you could try to locate the threat yourself. It's sometimes easier than you might expect.

One strategy is to search your system for recently changed or modified executables. If you find an EXE file created yesterday on your desktop, maybe an SCR file in a temporary folder, and you’re not sure how they got there, then they might deserve further investigation.

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If your PC has several users -- or you’re checking its security -- then you might occasionally want to examine or tweak its user accounts. You can do this from Windows, but it’s far from easy. Information and options are scattered across several applets, sometimes buried in the Registry, and it can take quite some time to find what you need.

Quick User Manager is designed to simplify user management by making all the important details and settings available from a single interface.

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Comodo has updated its range of free and paid-for security tools with the releases of Comodo Internet Security Premium 8.1.0, Comodo Internet Security Pro 8.1.0 and Comodo Antivirus 8.1.0.

Version 8.1 sees a change in bundled browser, improved sandbox and protection against potentially unwanted programs, and various critical fixes.

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First revealed back in Windows Vista, the Games folder was supposed to be the starting point for all your games, with shortcuts, cover art, updates, news and more. But no-one cared, unfortunately, and although it’s still there, most gamers pay no attention to the Games folder at all.

If you’re happy with a service like Steam then this won’t be a problem. But if you’d like something simpler, more lightweight, then you might be interested in LaunchBox, a free games database and launcher for Windows Vista+.

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Office, PDFs, ebooks, archives, audio, video, images: the average PC owner regularly encounters a lengthy list of file formats, and viewing them all typically requires an entire library of software.

Free Editor claims it can simplify all that by opening 70-plus file formats from a single interface, and editing some of them, all for free. Too good to be true? Let’s see.

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Jhead is a free command line tool which crams a host of JPEG-tweaking power into its tiny 163KB executable.

The program can strip out all unnecessary metadata, reducing file size a little (occasionally, a lot), and maybe protecting your privacy.

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It may be more than 15 years old, but 7-Zip is an open source classic, still used as the archiving engine for a host of applications.

7-Zip’s interface isn’t a strong point, though, and if you'd like something simpler then you might prefer the Java-based J7Z.

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Spend a day on some personal PC task and you’ll probably only be interested in the end results. Did you find the information, produce the document, achieve everything you wanted?

Go to work on a commercial project, where someone else is paying, and you’ll probably want a far more detailed breakdown. Which applications did you use, for how long, and just how much work was involved?

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How secure is your computer? Finding out can take a little work. You might have to check your antivirus, firewall, backup program, maybe the Windows Action Center and various other system settings.

OPSWAT GEARS is a free utility which tries to do everything you need from a single interface. It works on individual PCs (Windows 7+) or Macs, and can also be used to check and manage security on up to 25 network computers (switching to the paid version removes that restriction).

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There are many ways to keep your PCs confidential files safe from snoopers. You could encrypt them individually. Store them in a password-protected archive. Maybe just bury them deep in some unexpected area of your file system.

Anvisoft’s Anvi Folder Locker Free aims to simplify the process by applying protection at the folder level. In just a few seconds it can hide a folder, add password protection, maybe just make it read-only – whatever suits your needs.

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There is an old adage that a fool and his money are easily parted. This is a motto that I follow in my life. I don't mind paying for quality, but I won't open my wallet for nonsense.

With that said, you should always be wary when something is free; another adage is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. That's not to say that free things can't exist, but there may be strings attached. Today, Google Earth Pro becomes free -- are there strings attached?

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The Document Foundation has unveiled LibreOffice 4.4, describing it as "the most beautiful LibreOffice ever".

But while there are plenty of visual tweaks (an enhanced Sifr monochrome icon theme is now the default on OS X), most of the UI improvements are about usability.

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If you’re trying to diagnose web problems, or you’re concerned about security, then it can sometimes be useful to watch your PC’s HTTP and HTTPS traffic.

Fiddler is one possible solution, an industrial-strength web debugging proxy with a lengthy feature list and enough monitoring power to satisfy the most demanding of developers.

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