Articles about Free Software

Is your PC slow? Unstable? Whenever your system is misbehaving, it’s wise to take a look at how it’s configured, and the various processes it might be running.

You could get a basic view with Task Manager and assorted Control Panel applets. But the open source Listsp is a more complete solution, and gives you access to processes, services and driver information from a single interface.

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RootsMagic, Inc has launched RootsMagic Essentials 7.0, a major new version of its free (and paid-for) genealogical tool.

Both free and paid-for versions gain a new Web Hints feature that automatically suggests record matches from a number of online websites, while paid-for users also gain a number of other useful tools and improvements.

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Point, click, tap, tap -- using your favorite PC programs can become a near automatic process. But have you ever wondered how much work is really involved, how far your mouse is moving, how many left or right-clicks you’re making? That’s what the free system monitor Mousotron can help you find out.

After an adware-free installation the program displays a very lengthy status bar, with various statistics on your keyboard and mouse use. There’s the distance your mouse has traveled (miles/ yards/ inches, or the metric equivalent); the total numbers of left, right, middle and double-clicks; the average mouse speed, X/ Y coordinates, active and idle time, and more.

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Most internet resources are accessed through a web interface, which means they’re normally very easy to use. You might have menus, text prompts, graphics, maybe wizards to walk you through whatever you’re trying to achieve.

For more low-level control, though -- micro-managing your own web space, maybe setting up a remote server -- you might still need a terminal emulator like the free-for-personal-use Xshell 5.

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AutoVer is a small, simple, and surprisingly capable free backup tool. Not only can the program monitor folders, detecting new and modified files, and backing them up in real time -- it can maintain a library of their previous versions, too.

The program opens with a very straightforward interface. No menus, no complex dialogs or status displays, just a four-column table and a small toolbar.

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Just weeks after unveiling a public beta, Piriform has released CCleaner 5.0 FINAL for Windows PCs. Also available as a portable build, version 5 shows off a new interface design.

The new release also widens support for Google Chrome, promises improved performance, detection and stability, and unveils optimized 64-bit builds for Windows 8, 8.1 and 10.

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Launch Windows Explorer and typically you’ll have some specific task in mind: a particular folder you need check, some files you’d like to open.

Occasionally, though, your requirements might be a little more vague. You want to watch a video, maybe, or play some music, but you don’t know and can’t decide which files to choose.

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Comodo has unveiled a controversial new version of its Chromium-based browser with the release of Comodo Dragon 36.1.

The version number reveals that the browser is now based on version 36 of Google’s open-source Chromium browser, but the new release has already divided users with its major user interface changes. It also unveils an improved PrivDog privacy tool, plus fixes several issues with Adobe Flash.

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Everyone has their own idea of how digital photos should be named. This might change from time to time, cameras usually produce something entirely different, and the end result can be a hard-to-browse tangle of mismatched images.

It's a familiar story, but the open source Exif ReName tries to restore order by renaming and sorting your pictures based on the date and time they were taken.

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Webcam hijacking has been around for a long time, but recent stories about websites streaming live footage from thousands of hacked webcams have placed it firmly back in the headlines.

Fully protecting your own webcam requires tough security measures. A quality antivirus engine, smart firewall, strong passwords.

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Evernote Corporation has released major updates across its four biggest platforms with Evernote for Mac 6.0, Evernote for Windows 5.7.2, Evernote for iOS 7.6.2 and Evernote for Android 6.2.

All four platforms roll out a new collaborative feature named Work Chat, while Evernote for Mac 6 also unveils a new Yosemite-friendly redesign. Evernote Premium users also gain a new business card scanning feature in Evernote for Android.

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Popular open source video transcoder Handbrake has been updated to version 0.10 with some major additions and improvements.

New encoders include Intel Quick Sync Video, a speedy hardware-based H.264 encoder. Basic H.265 support is provided by x265 1.4, while WebM's libvpx can encode VP8 to MKV files (and sees Theora deprecated).

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UnityPDF would like to be the tool of choice for batch PDF processing. It can split or merge files, extract all or selected pages, divide one file into several, rotate every page in a file, insert pages from one file into another, password-protect or set permissions for your PDFs, even display or clean metadata.

That’s a solid set of features, and we were interested to see that UnityPDF had once been a commercial product, if only briefly (it’s now free for any use). Time for a closer look.

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It’s important to keep Windows up-to-date, and the easiest way to make that happen is to let the operating system handle everything. Set Windows Update to "automatic" and get on with something else.

But if you need more control, some way to install only your chosen updates, at a time that’s convenient for you, then it might be worth looking at ABC-Update.

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There’s something to be said for the way old printed photos age over time, as they turn yellow or sepia, coloring our own perception of the past. With the rise of digital, of course, all that has come to an end, with photos promising to remain as color-sharp, bright and vibrant as the day they were originally shot.

If you wonder how those photos might look in the future had they been shot on film and left to fade over time, there’s no need to wait if you’re a Windows user. Simply install Vintager 2014 and you can see how they might have looked 20, 30 or even 40 years hence.

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