Those free programs that really do a job. Without ads, stable installation, regular updates etc. I am sure the collective knowledge of the CFC community can produce a lot of the real goodies!

Some of my favs (Win98):

ePrompter: small and neat program that checks multiple mailboxes at set timeintervals, picks up new mail and removes mail marked for deletion. It only shows header information and it is a good tool in the war against spam.

DivX: very good video compression codec. Put 1,5 hour of DVD video on a CD-ROM without a tracable loss in quality.

FlaskMPEG: extracts files from DVD and puts it in a format computers can work with.

Mindbeat: RAM defragmenter. That is what it does.

Some of my indespensible favorites are:

MMM (file:///C:/WinPgms/utils/MicroMeter/MikesMicroMeter.htm) - Mike's Micro Meter, which is best in Win9x OSs.... it puts a tiny Icon in your system tray that contains four tiny graphs that show (from left to right) the percent of free memory, System resources, User resources, and GDI resources. It is excellent for monitoring you system in real time... esp. those ill-behaved programs from MS & others like Copernic.

Cacheman (http://www.outertech.com/product.php?product=3) - I still use an old 4.x version, but it is very good for easily setting some essential performance-related registry settings most users have no clue about. Nicely explained for a novice, too.

FTP Server: GuildFTP (http://www.nitrolic.com/)
Archive Program: Ultimatezip (http://www.ultimatezip.com) - A good program but you will still need Winace to unace 2.0 ace files.

Originally posted by Beammeuppy
Those free programs that really do a job. Without ads, stable installation, regular updates etc. I am sure the collective knowledge of the CDC community can produce a lot of the real goodies!

Some of my favs (Win98):

ePrompter: small and neat program that checks multiple mailboxes at set timeintervals, picks up new mail and removes mail marked for deletion. It only shows header information and it is a good tool in the war against spam.

DivX: very good video compression codec. Put 1,5 hour of DVD video on a CD-ROM without a tracable loss in quality.

FlaskMPEG: extracts files from DVD and puts it in a format computers can work with.

Mindbeat: RAM defragmenter. That is what it does.

Unless you want to convert a DVD to 5 CDROMS the loss is very tracable, at least to me :p

bah, double post...all vBull's fault :p

editPlus (http://www.editplus.com/) - code editor, not too complex but good syntax highlighting.

phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com) - greatest fora software ever :D

smartFTP (http://www.smartftp.com/) - king of the ftp clients (they use phpBB2 for their support fora too:)

readplease (http://www.readplease.com) - (gotta thank Tf for this), text to speech program.

worldcraft:make your own half-life and counter-strike levels:http://www.game-revolution.com/download/pc/action/half_life_worldcraft.htm
Ad-aware:searches and destroy spyware:www.lavasoft.nu

IrfanView - nice program to view graphic files.

I pirate so much I can't remember what's free and what's cracked on my comp :p

But I'll give it a try.

My fav freeware: (If I post something that is not freeware, correct me).

- Dev-Pascal for Pascal programming at home (I learn pascal at school)

- Ad-aware, divx, like my formers.

- I think that's all the freeware I got :/

Here are a few good freeware programs that haven't been mentioned yet:

X-Setup (www.xteq.com) - Tweak tons of Windows registry settings without manually editing the registry.

Winamp (www.winamp.com) - Great media player without spyware (unlike that realplayer crap).

RegCleaner (www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml) Clean crap from the Windows registry that was left behind from uninstalled programs. Creates backups just in case. Pretty good for a free program.

The best freeware program;

openoffice.org (www.openoffice.org); A complete office suit.

i gotta agree with IceBlaze:

Ad-aware really is the best freeware program ever

ever so handy for delousing those lovely p2p spyware programs

:D

For sheer hours of payback, ICQ has to be the best freebie ever.

Of course, Trillian now goes a step further.

ScreenPrint Gold..only 1.6mb iirc

SmartFTP is definitely top notch :goodjob:

On my mac I could not go without Stuffit with Dropstuff.

I'm finally taking your advice and giving PSG a chance, Smash! BTW, ScreenPrint Gold is here. (http://www.softwarelabs.com/tsl4/spg3.exe)

and it is 1.3 MB.

The Free version (gold) lacks some features, but is the right price ($0!). naturally, they would like people to upgrade to Platinum, which lets you do more, hehe.

Now I've installed and tested it. The biggest disadvantage for me is the BMP-only format, the lack of cropping, and no basic text editing (eg, add text , boxes, arrows, etc.). For $35, Platinum will net the 1st 2 features. The "toggle" feature is nice to switch back and forth between the Gold and 30-day limited Platinum test! :)



SmartFTP is here. (http://www.smartftp.com/)

EDIT: Add info.

Trillian www.trillian.cc
SmartFTP
POW! Popup Killer
All the software I write. ;) http://www.angelfire.com/geek/cornempire/

hummmm...

Speedfan - Monitors CPU temperature...and other MB temps.
Logon Loader for Windows XP.

X-Setup (www.xteq.com) - Tweak tons of Windows registry settings without manually editing the registry.

I totally agree about the XTeq program. It is ideal, esp. for those unfamiliar with registry editing!

PS, It can also get you into trouble unless you use it with care. :eek: Always backup your registry!

I like the freeware Motherboard Monitor. It has all the features you can shake a stick at, even remote features, logging, fans, CPU Idle, Automatic E-mail status reports, text/html/csv output options, Alarms, actions to be takes at different temperatures, system resources reports, etc. And it's free!


here. (http://mbm.livewiredev.com/)

Here is a Screenshot form my older version 4.17.... I have the 5.xx version too, but like the 4.xx cor compactness...

http://www.civfanatics.com/uploads/CFC_MBM-ss.gif

:)

www.trillian.cc

I don't use it as my primary most the time because I have to load it indepentantly and I am lazy :)

But it is superior.

Originally posted by erix
The best freeware program;

openoffice.org (www.openoffice.org); A complete office suit.

I download this program.....I only used the writer for 2 minutes but I was REALLY impressed!

I intend to have it replace MS Word. ;)

Evil Microsoft....

Originally posted by gonzo_for_civ
www.trillian.cc

I don't use it as my primary most the time because I have to load it indepentantly and I am lazy :)

But it is superior.

Ugh! Nonono! Trillian is muy horrible! It crashes all the time...

I download this program.....I only used the writer for 2 minutes but I was REALLY impressed!

I intend to have it replace MS Word.

Evil Microsoft....


I agree! I have the StarOffices, but OpenOffice is even better....

There is no reason for most average users to pay M$ these days for their $600 OfficeXP/2K.

MS Office will not run on all 3 major OS's (Mac, Linux, and M$).. OpenOffice will, and is almost identical to MS Office so there is minimla learning curve. Plus you can DL the source code if you want to change something!!

Long Live OpenOffice amongst those that yearn to breath free and cast off the evil skin of MS.... bathed in the purity of Open Source Code, mankind casts off the shackles of M$ spyware and awakens to a fresh new dawn of cross-platform operability!

:goodjob:

I downloaded that OpenOffice, too, and I like it a lot. Great MS alternative.:goodjob:

Does it have good foreign language support, foreign language menus, and a clipart gallery?

If not, I'll stick to MS.

P.S. I just saw it doesn't support Hebrew, so I'll have to pass.

Now I've installed and tested it. The biggest disadvantage for me is the BMP-only format, the lack of cropping, and no basic text editing (eg, add text , boxes, arrows, etc.). For $35, Platinum will net the 1st 2 features. The "toggle" feature is nice to switch back and forth between the Gold and 30-day limited Platinum test

I have the free version platinum test expired.

You can save in any format.Select "save as" and there is a dropdown menu.....

You can crop with it :confused:

No there is no text editing but that gives me an excuse to use Paint.

Incredimail is a fun e-mailer.The final "paid for" version doesn't seem to offer that much more than the freebie version.It has ADS but I don't really notice them.

by Smash:
I have the free version platinum test expired.

You can save in any format.Select "save as" and there is a dropdown menu.....

You can crop with it
I went back and spent more time with it. After consulting help about crop (which was no help, LOL), I still culd not figure out why teh "crop" button was greyed. I had assumed it was not an available function. But...... later I found accidently out the button to it's left is the required first step for a crop.... you used that button to select an area, then the crop button to do the cropping! A bit nonstandard, but it works just fine!! :)

The documentation mentioned the .BMP only aspect for the gold version, so I took it at face value. But in testing the gold version, I see that the .jpg, etc. is there!

Those are really the most important features, so I do agree that this is a pretty good (and good price: $0) screencapture!

Thanks!

:goodjob:

The following have already been mentionned :
- customize Windows with X-Setup (www.xteq.com)
- Archive Program: Ultimatezip
- clean your registry with RegCleaner (www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml)

I'd like to add :
- install your free firewall: ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com)
- if you need an anti-virus, go to www.free-av.com
- to help you browse the Internet, don't forget Copernic (www.copernic.com)

I donwloaded the firewall! thanks:goodjob:

All those are nice. My best pic would have to be Trillian. I'm a buyer for a living and use the IM"s to make deals. It's nice having 1 prog insted of 3 or 4. That and I hate AOL almost as much as I hate MS.

Can't wait to try Openoffice. Thanks!

I have to say that I have been having problems with AVG antivirus....it crashes a lot on my XP system...even after reloading the entire system the program seems very unstable. I attribute this to AVG and not XP which has been very good to me.

I like the site the link in your sig leads to, Lostman.

Does anyone know, what exactly is the difference between StarOffice and OpenOffice? I tried the StarOffice Beta but since it's expired I switched to OpenOffice. Can't see many differences though. But it really IS a great Prog, looks like I bought an M$-Office-Prog for the last time...

OpenOffice is based on StarOffice source code, and it is an evolutionary step above StarOffice 5.xx. A couple features like e-mail and calendar have been removed, and any embedded 3rd party code like the database engine is removed. OpenOffice is a worldwide project, and the source code is free. Eventualy, StarOffice 6.0 (yet to be released) will incorporate many of OpenOffice's improvements.

OpenOffice is undergoing rapid improvements, and is fine for most needs (e.g., Word Processing, Spreadsheeet, and Presentation).

OpenOffice is teh way for most users to go, and it is of course free!!

:)

Wow, got good tips out of this thread! Because of Xteq my PC uses my RAM before it starts to use the swapfile and I am investigating Trillian.

Just a suggestion, compose a top 10 of freeware in this or another thread?

Originally posted by Beammeuppy
Just a suggestion, compose a top 10 of freeware in this or another thread? A Top 10 list would be very subjective but it could be done. Maybe if everyone votes on it we can have an UnOfficical CFC top 10 freeware list. :)

Originally posted by PaleHorse76
I like the site the link in your sig leads to, Lostman.

Cool, thanks bro. It's a site me and my brother are working on. Trying to find a nice ladder system though that doesn't cost anything.

For freeware (I think) I use the AnalogX NetStat for looking at network traffic statistics.

One shareware program I love is TaskInfo. http://www.iarsn.com
Using WindowsME, I can look at processor and memory usage, etc...

Thanks for all the great ideas and links!

www.analogx.com is a good place to get a lot of little freeware programs for Windows. (chieftpaco brought AnalogX up but didn't provide a link, if anyone else did, sorry)

PowerArchiver, supports .zip, .tar, ..ace, .rar, and .cab files. New versions are shareware, but older versions were free...besides, I don't think even the shareware version ever expires. IC3, great lil note-taking app. CryptEdit, enough of a word-processor for most ppl...and it's only about 1 mb! 2xExplorer, and the text editor that's built into it, editor2 (squared)...no more, "this file is too big for notepad to open, do you want to open with wordpad"...98calc. Scanner, a great graphical representation of the files on your hdd. I have tons, I've spent countless hrs searching out and trying freeware, but these are the ones I always add back, right away, whenever I have to reinstall windows, which is something I've gotten rather quick, and organized, at...when you experiment, and install over 100 apps at a time, the .dll's don't always play nice! :cry:

Almost forgot the 1st, most basic one of all, that I ALWAYS use...98Lite.

Is it just me or freeware is almost always less buggy than software? :rolleyes:

Most of the freeware I have I want to pay for, and most of the software I have I wished I didn't pay for.

With some quality exceptions.

Freeware is often less complex as "normal" software and therefore less likely to have bugs. But that's fine with me, I don't need (for example) 2000 fonts in 3458 colors in 56 sizes in word with all other kinds of stuff I will most likely never ever use!

Does anyone know if there is decent freeware for burning
CDs? Thanx.

Ad-Aware ('http://www.lavasoftusa.com/')
Great program for cleaning those doubleclick cookies, and making sure there is no spyware on your machine.

Americas Army ('http://www.americasarmy.com')
Great game developed by the United States Army. Completely free. They are coming out with two versions, a FPs version and a Sim-like version.

GIMP Image Manipulator ('http://www.gimp.org')
Very nice free, open source, photo editor, and image creator, first made on the Linux Platform. Replaces Adobe Photoshop :D.

KazaA Lite ('www.kazaalite.tk')
A spyware free version of the popular P2P file-sharing tool.

Linux Mandrake ('http://www.linux-mandrake.com/')
Great distribution of Linux. Easy to install, and well, its Linux.

phpBB ('http://www.phpBB.com')
Free bulletin board package, superior to VBull :D .

SmartFTP ('http://www.smartftp.com/')
Very nice FTP program

Trillian ('www.trillian.cc/')
An instant messaging program that combines AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, and IRC.

WinAmp ('www.winamp.com')
Great mp3 player

Windows XP Powertoys ('http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp')
Great free tools from Microsoft including my favorite, TweakUI.

Zone Alarm ('http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp')
A great free software firewall program.

Originally posted by baseballtwin86
phpBB ('http://www.phpBB.com')
Free bulletin board package, much like VBull


whaaaaaaat?! that's an insult! change that to 'much better than vBull' now! ;)

good programs there gimp, I use lots of them too. :)

Originally posted by Black Fluffy Lion


whaaaaaaat?! that's an insult! change that to 'much better than vBull' now! ;)

good programs there gimp, I use lots of them too. :)

Changed my master :cool: :goodjob: .

My greatest new find has been Trillian. Keeps down the number of annoying programs running in the Systray, and allows me have all my buddies on one screen. Plus its skinable and auto-connects to all the IM Clients.

Nothing is better than Vbulletin. Well the Vbull lite kind of sucks, but the full version is the best!!!!

Originally posted by Lostman
Nothing is better than Vbulletin.

:rolleyes:

Well the Vbull lite kind of sucks, but the full version is the best!!!!

all of the versions suck :p

Excellent post, baseballtwin86 (the list). Real nice links and summaries!

:goodjob:

Originally posted by Black Fluffy Lion


:rolleyes:
all of the versions suck :p

THIS forum is on Vbulliten!!!

Originally posted by starlifter
Excellent post, baseballtwin86 (the list). Real nice links and summaries!

:goodjob:

110% agree, I am already using most of them.

Originally posted by Lostman


THIS forum is on Vbulliten!!!

yes, and vBull still sucks

by Fluffy Black Lion:
yes, and vBull still sucks

I know a lot of computer stuff, but I also don't know a lot. One thing I'm not too familiar with is current BBS software, such as the pros and cons and limitations that you all are talking about. It would be cool if one or more of you had a BBS thread, so I'll make one. :)


EDIT: I just created this (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28646) thread to learn more about BBS differences.

Originally posted by starlifter
by Fluffy Black Lion:


I know a lot of computer stuff, but I also don't know a lot. One thing I'm not too familiar with is current BBS software, such as the pros and cons and limitations that you all are talking about. It would be cool if one or more of you had a BBS thread, so I'll make one. :)


EDIT: I just created this (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28646) thread to learn more about BBS differences.

:D yaay...great thread starlifter :)

I don't know of any true freeware for burning cd's, and I looked all over, a few months ago. Nero offers a trial period, though. Ahead.com

Lion, twin, stay on topic :rolleyes:

This is not a vBull vs. phpbb thread. Starlifter's thread, however, is.

Originally posted by gonzo_for_civ
Lion, twin, stay on topic :rolleyes:

This is not a vBull vs. phpbb thread. Starlifter's thread, however, is.

I love how lostman, who supports vBull doesn't get told off :rolleyes: :p

During the forum downtime, I did a bit of wandering for some new freeware and came across this site:

http://www.onlythebestfreeware.com/default.asp

A lot of the suggestions made here are also up there. It appears to be a very clean site with good quality freeware and not much spyware and junk as far as I can tell.

2 programs I found there that interested me (past what was already recommended):

A download accelerator that improved my download time by 4x. Also integrates with IE, Netscape, and Opera. Unfortunately, I have the attachment.php problem with forum attachments, but everything else seems to work great.
www.stardownloader.com

An open Civ game project trying to design a great AI.
http://c-evo.org/

@chiefpaco

Cool site!

Anyone who has experience with Mailmoa. Or Mailmoa vs. ePrompter? The spamfilter in Mailmoa looks promising!

Nobody ever tried Vcool? An amazing CPU temperature reducer. It's a freeware and works much better than CPU Idle. Works only with AMD chips.
I got I my 1.2ghz Athlon down to 32°C/89°F... No comment.

http://www.onlythebestfreeware.com/program.asp?program_id=26

I recommend Irfranview...a graphics viewer with some limited editing tools.

Also OPERA: a free internet browser

http://www.opera.com

I think vcool only works with with AMD cpu's, on a VIA chipset, actually. And yes, it does work, in apps where the max cpu usage isn't necessary.