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Some of the Finest And Best software on the net!
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Finest And Best Software! |
| Sites to visit for Freeware
and Shareware There are many other sites - these
seem to be the least invasive.
Found a great site called, "List of Lists"
Lots of good programs!!
Found another site (along with the others to the right) which
has nothing but Freeware. It's called Pricelessware
Adware, Spyware and Advertising Trojans - Info & Removal Procedures
What is Drug Dealer
Ware?
We've tried to keep up with the changes at Winmag and especially
Zdnet. Good luck trying to get any program from either. It seems Zdnet changes links or
just drops programs at the drop of a hat. So, any Zdnet links may or may not work, perhaps
depending on the time of day, or the day of the week, or whether the moon is full. |
wilders.org
Welcomes you to their security website. If you are looking for information and advice to
secure your pc the best you can, you came to the right place!
This website is for all those who don't have much knowledge concerning security and how to
secure one's pc. If you are one of them, you will be guided through the whole procedure.
No doubt, visitors who do have knowledge about pc-security will find very usefull and
quite interesting information, free
security software and free services as well. Just browse to those pages you find
interesting. And there are quite a lot of them.
Another site is Downright
Useful Downloads - which has a large collection of good
stuff! Including Boot Disks! Again, a must visit site!Nonags - terrific selection
but no indication as to adware or not.
WebAttack - now Snapfiles - large
selection, mostly shareware - the plus is that any adware "free" programs are
identified as such. Note: site uses doubleclick, cookies, referer,
etc. to track every visitor.
It seems that Lockergnome and Webattack have teamed up to provide links to very
good software. One thing which is appreciated is the screenshot for each program. Great!
Find freeware here.
ZDNet is a good place to search for software if you can stomach the ads. I use an
ad/cookie killer, works well. However, they've partnered with adware firms, so don't
expect them to say whether a program is adware or not. Note: now they do - discretely.
Remember all those great utilities (Registry ripper,
Registry Pruner, Directory Printer, and many more) from Karen Kenworthy at
WinMag? Well WinMag is closed down, but Karen has a new site with great programs - free!
Click to go to KarenWare.com |
| Desktop |
Memoclip
from CodeSector is a simple clipboard extender which uses less than 1% system resources.
We tried many others, but all used 4% or more.
metapad
is a small, very fast (and completely free) text editor for Windows 9x and Windows NT
(2000) with similar features to Microsoft Notepad but with many extra (and rather useful)
features. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes (just about) all
of Notepad's features and much, much more. |
| Encryption and
Decryption |
Cryptext
- shell extension for strong file encryption and decryption using a right click from
Explorer.
Iron
Key - encrypt files and send them over the net as
password-required self-extracting files.
ABI-CODER - file encryption program
VGP
Encryption Editor and File Vault (places a number of user selected
files in a single self extracting / self decrypting executable file called a File Vault). |
 News Reader |
Free Agent usenet news reader
Xnews is a terrific usenet news reader. It can
combine all multi-part entries into one listing - showing the number of parts - for a more
readable list. Excellent filtering as well. Does yEnc too! |
| Graphics Viewer |
IrfanVeiw32 - graphics viewer - and much more!
Thumbnails, Preview, Drag & Drop Support, fast Directory View (fast moving through
directory), Print Support, Scan (TWAIN) Support, Slideshow, Batch conversion, much more. |
| Search and Replace |
BK
ReplaceEm is a very good multi document search and replace program. |
| Font Viewer |
Get FontPage to view your fonts in style!
Much more freeware from BlueFive Software. |
| Clean you MS
documents |
GUIDClean is a program to detect, display and
modify the Global Unique Identifiers (GUID) that some MS Office products (Word and Excel)
place in documents. |
| Mail Program |
Pegasus Mail
- excellent free email program which supports multi accounts
Thunderbird - the new
full-featured email program from Mozilla.org.
Also see Mail Program Report here for great free,
small, fast and light programs. |
| Html Editor |
NoteTab
Lite is a leading-edge text and HTML editor. Very powerful
text-based html editing. Free version available which I use to convert html to text as
well as html work. It is fast and there are lots of plugins available. Preview using your
browser without having to save first!
Combine Homesite & Hotdog & Coffeecup and you get 1st Page 2000 - an exceptional html
editor. Very slow on a 300Mhz PII |
| Zip unZip |
Freebyte
Zip - a great free zip-unzip windows program. Small, fast and light! |
| Internet Security
If you really believe you don't need vigilance, then
check these sites:
Secunia re IE and Pivx re IE and other vulnerabilities
2003/09/11
 Please check out this site, EmailPrivacy.info for very
interesting info on email privacy. Lots of tips.
A note about bloatware. There are some programs which use
a bloat engine called Visual Studio .NET, or its components: VB/C++/C#. The runtime engine
is about 20Mb in size. So a program which uses the runtime may only be a couple of hundred
Kb in size, but the download would be 22-25 Mb in size, because, in addition to the
runtime, an installer is necessary. Wow!
Do you really need to muck up your computer with this
extra baggage? |
Visit Gibson Research to check how open your computer
is to the net! The newest check program (LeakTest) is for outgoing comms from any
program on your computer. Does your firewall stop outgoing comms from applications? Click here for more!
Visit Junkbusters and see
what other sites can find out about you - or here for more about you.
Privacy
Software Corporation has four great free single purpose programs. One locks your sock,
another bans "doubleclick" monitoring completely, one turns off file/print
sharing, and - NEW!
HTAstop
It's now possible for a "rogue" website to actually
embed trojans, worms and/or viruses directly into a web page. In the past, pages that
offer seemingly attractive downloads which contain such malware required you to click to
start any download to your computer. Now it's become automatic, using features in the
Windows operating system known as scripting. These scripts can load programs without you
knowing, and then they run immediately. All you have to do is visit the site, without
doing anything besides viewing the page.
HTAstop acts as a brickwall against these scripts, disabling them so the download doesn't
occur. HTAstop protects you against one variety of script, our IEClean 5.50 covers all
twenty seven
User Warning
Two [of many] of the offenders for Spyware are: Gozilla and NetZip. You are warned! Some
other Notables: Mattel, Netscape (whats related), Real Media (Real Player) - and the list
just goes on and on...... see Steve Gibson's page at GRC.com
From Radsoft.net
"Download Accelerator and GetRight are both popular download managers, but watch
out for the built-in advertising that's creeping over all these applications today: if you
don't know any more, and you suspect your download manager will be using built-in
advertising, do not use it, do not even install it. Find something else that does less
damage to your computer and your privacy."
If you really NEED a download manager, try the FREE - now $12.50 (no ads
- no spyware) Download Mage (no bloat - only 174k). Or
try Jon's
Downloader - download
link here completely free.
Alphabetical
list of Known Spyware
Spyware-Guide.com has
lots of up-to-date info about every kind of malware, including a Blocklist. Must see!
What's the answer? Get a filewall! For free is the Zonelabs filrewall, called ZoneAlarm!
Free for personal and non-profit use. It stops outgoing comms from
applications too! Another
dnld link here. The only one to do so, according to Steve Gibson! (see above)!
The only problem is that their website is almost entirely javascript and you can't get
past the intro page. So the link above is more direct. Their support system leaves much to
be desired as well. Perhaps it's time for a new vendor.
Another option is Tiny
Personal Firewall - very, very good too!
Please see the Security page for a small write-up
regarding these two firewalls.Look'n'Stop You may wish to try out a new firewall called Look'n'Stop Lite
from Soft4Ever. There is a free version (Lite) for personal use.
To check if there is Spyware on your system, try:
AD-aware New Version available - Version 6!
A free multi-spyware removal tool that detects and safely removes advertising spyware from
your system. It now removes:
Adware, Alexa, Aureate v1.0,2.0 and 3.0, Comet Cursor v1.0 and v2.0, Cydoor,
Doubleclick, DSSAgent, Flyswat, Gator, TimeSink v1.0 and v2.0, Web3000 and Webhancer. Click here to goto a fact-filled site
about adware/spyware, some of which operate in stealth mode (eg. Conducent). This is scary
- who has control?
(also mentioned under System Utilities below.)
SpyBot Search and Destroy is an excellent
program to find and destroy spyware, adware, parasite, keylogger, etc. applications
which you may not realize are on your computer.
MultiProxy
is a multifunctional personal proxy server that protects your privacy while on the
Internet as well as speeds up your downloads, especially if you are trying to get several
files form overseas or from otherwise rather slow server. It can also completely hide your
IP address by dynamically connecting to non-transparent anonymizing public proxy servers.
You can also test a list of proxy servers and sort them by connection speed and level of
anonimity.
Proxomitron or here. gives you huge control
of browser surfing. You can filter both in and out.
Have you ever wished you could turn off some of those fancy new HTML features your
web browser supports? Are you tired of pages filled to the brim with blinking banners,
pop-up windows, and other such aggravations?
Using special HTML filters, the Proxomitron can transform web pages on the fly - changing
most anything you wish. Speed your browsing by saying goodbye to slow loading cyber spam
and other web-gimmickry. Customize pages to suit your tastes. Take control of your web
viewing, and don't be slave to some web-master's whims.
Not everyone is aware that there's a hidden conversation going on between your web browser
and the sites you visit. Known as HTTP header messages they can contain all sorts of
information - some of which you might rather keep to yourself. The Proxomitron not only
lets you view all messages, but also lets you alter, add, or delete them. If security is
important to you, make it your business to know what your browser is telling the world and
have it say only what you want!
If you already use web proxies to speed your internet viewing, the Proxomitron can help
here too. It can maintain a list of different proxy servers and allow you to easily switch
between them. You can even test proxy servers for accessability and see what, if any, HTTP
headers they may add.
Finjan Software SurfinGuard Pro will
help when you need it most! Acts as a sandbox for those pesky scripts you are downloading
(whether you know it or not).
EICAR Test Virus This test virus was developed by the European Institute for Computer
Anti-Virus Research (EICAR) to provide an easy (and safe!) way to test whether your
anti-virus software is working, and see how it reacts when a virus is detected. It is
supported by most leading vendors, such as IBM, McAfee, Sophos, and Symantec/Norton. |
| Toolbar Launcher |
LaunchMate - the finest free toolbar launcher
I've found! Tried many - most used 3%-17% system resources - just for a toolbar.
LaunchMate just uses 2% on my computer. From TDRWare. |
| PDF Creator |
Free PDF from the ZipGuy, is a frontend for Ghostscript and Redmon. I think they are the best free anything-to-PDF set of programs on the net.
The setup is not for the faint of heart, but once done, it works flawlessly! Free PDF does:
Make it easy to use RedMon and Ghostscript to make PDFs
Gives you a "Save As" Dialog for you to name your PDFs
Remembers where you like to put your PDFs
Let you optionally call your favorite PDF viewer to glance at your new PDF
Lets you graphically configure where the Ghostscript and PDF viewer executables are.
Gives you a variety of other options
Free PDF does not:
Capture your PostScript printer output. RedMon does that
Make PDF's from PostScript files. Ghostscript does that |
| System Utilities |
 From AnalogX - some great free utilities! They also have Net
utilities. Very good site!
from Javacool Software
A number of small programs for free or donation. MRU-Blaster, ID-Blaster, Spyware-Blaster
and more!
EasyCleaner
A small program which searches W95-98 Windows' registry for entries that are pointing
nowhere.
OleClean
The purpose of this program is to remove the Ole garbage left in the registry after
installing and deinstalling several Ole (Com) dlls.
Registry Pruner Now
available from the author here! 06/01/01 WinMagazine site no longer available.
Now available from the
author here! Clean up your Registry's SharedDLLs key. Orphaned entries can cause
install and uninstall programs to misbehave. And can even trigger bogus Registry Corrupted
error messages.
The program can also removed "ghosts", entries in the Control Panel's Add/Remove
Programs list that remain even after a program has been uninstalled.
Letter Assigner
Allows assignment of any letter to any drive in the system for W95 or W98.
Notify
Alerts the user when it detects any kind of change in a directory it has been told to
monitor.
COA32
Try this
link Change of Address/32 is a 32-bit Windows version of the
popular PC Magazine utility COA, which is for 16-bit Windows. COA32, which runs under
Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51or higher, lets you change the drive or directory of a
Windows program without having to reinstall the program. It works by searching for all
references to the old path and updating them to reflect the new path.
Association Manager
Load and Save association Settings to Files so that errant programs
can't change your settings forever. Edit, Create, and Delete associations between file
types and programs.
MenuZap
MenuZap lets you zap the Programs menu back into order. The Windows
Desktop Update lets you rearrange the Programs submenu of your Start menu, but this new
feature has a downside. If you never change the order, Windows sorts the Programs menu
alphabetically, with submenu items followed by non-menu items. But once you've made any
change, Windows no longer sorts automatically.
Startup
Monitor
A small utility that runs transparently (it doesn't even use a
tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It
prevents those utterly useless tray applications from registering themselves behind your
back, and it acts as a security tool against trojans like BackOrifice or Netbus.
RegistryProt
A 100% free, standalone, compact, low-level realtime registry
monitor and protector, that adds another dimension to Windows security and intrusion
detection - from DiamondCS.
By monitoring important locations and keys in the Windows system registry, RegistryProt
will alert whenever a key is added or changed, and then give the option of accepting the
key change, reverting back to the original key setting, or deleting the key.
RegistryProt's most useful attribute is that it will detect the vast majority of trojans
at the exact moment that they infect/install themselves into your system, and as such
provides a new dimension in trojan and intrusion detection.
InCtrl5
When you install a new program, the installation utility adds some files to your
system, replaces other files, and changes elements of the Registry and essential INI
files. You hope it will make those changes cleanly and correctly, and record them for use
by the program's uninstall utility. But in case it doesn’t, InCtrl5 can provide a
record of exactly what the install program did.
Get UNDOreg to go with it.
Instant
Version Info
Version info for file appears in explorer context menu.
Right-click a file in explorer. Not all files have version info, in which case the program
does not add an entry to the context menu. Clicking the Instant Version Info menu entry
copies the version info to the clipboard.
ScanSys
This is like the Win98 System File Checker. Excellent for Win95, runs on Win98 as well.
Keep tabs on system file changes brought on by software installations.
Process Explorer
From Sysinternals for Win 2K/NT. Ever wondered which program has a particular file or
directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which
handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. The unique capabilities of Process
Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and
provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.
Tweak UI
The Win95-98 tweaking tool from Microsoft. |
| Internet Explorer /
Outlook Express / Outlook I had
to add this because of all the Security and Privacy issues regarding this bloat-ware.
Go to Microsoft TechNet Security -
Security Bulletin Search
For those who actually like IE, etc., and care about security. There are quite a
number of patches to fix security holes.
If you don't care about security, after reading the MS patch page, you should! |
BHO Cop
A free application from PC Magazine that lets you control the Internet Explorer Browser
Helper Objects (BHOs) that are installed on your system. It makes it easy to see what
BHO's are installed and to de-activate them.
BHOCaptor
A free application that lets you control the Internet Explorer Browser Helper Objects
(BHOs) that are installed on your system. It makes it easy to see what BHO's are installed
and to de-activate them. Get it at WebAttack.com
BHO-Demon This program is my choice for BHO detection and is highly recommended.
A BHO is a COM DLL that allows developers to customize and control Internet Explorer. When
IE 4.0+ starts, it reads the registry to locate installed BHOs and then creates them.
Created BHOs then have access to all the events and properties of that browsing session.
StartPage Guard
Has your IE start page setting been hijacked? Stop it from happening again.
SetBrowser
Lets you set the default web browser in Windows.
Script Defender from AnalogX becomes the go between!
You can then let it execute or not. You can add more extensios for it to check at any
time!
ScripTrap
ScripTrap traps scripts when they attempt to run on your computer and provides the
option of blocking them or letting them continue to run.
Try the CookieWall from AnalogX!
WatchDog
On its first run, WatchDog will prompt you to associate it with certain scripting file
extensions. Once associated, WatchDog becomes the default program for Visual Basic Script
(VBS) and other scripting files. When one of these files is launched, WatchDog will look
it over and warn you of any possible security risks. You can then determine whether the
file is supposed to be taking these actions and how to proceed. WatchDog has been replaced
by ScriptSentry.
CacheSentry
This is a program that fixes serious bugs in the Internet Explorer cache manager (versions
3.0 on up through and including IE4 SP1, Internet Explorer for Windows 98, and IE5.5).
CacheMonitor
New version of CacheMonitor II used for tracking Internet cache changes.
DBXtract
for OE 5.0
Extracts all mail and news messages from individual dbx files.
MBXtract for OE 4
Extracts all mail and news messages from individual mbx files.
Outlook Hints & Tips
If you use Outlook (not Outlook Express) try this extensive collection.
|
SHAREWARE
Buy it or try it for short while and if you like it,
then buy it! |
|
| Desktop Utilities |
Radsoft.net has a terrific collection of well-written utility programs and desktop tools
- well over 100! For instance, a windows "explorer" with a file size under 15k!
Go have a look, if you are even close to being a power user - these tools are a must! Extreme Power Tools 2003 |
| Surfing Helpers |
vacant |
| Text and Html Editor |
NoteTab
is a leading-edge text and HTML editor. Very powerful text-based html editing. Free
version available which I use to convert html to text as well as html work. |
| Screen Saver |
 ScreenPaver
is a great screen saver. Here are just some of the features: use an unlimited number
of your own jpeg or bitmap images from local and/or network directories, alphabetical or
random order, and much more. Best 10 bucks I've spent on software! |
| Internet Security |
From Privacy
Software Corporation, take control of Internet Explorer
and Netscape. Go there and learn much more. Including:
BOClean - for terrific trojan protection!
If you are ready to buy one of the these products, please click the following
link(s), which will take you to the buy page at Digital
River. If you do it this way, even I will make a few pennies!
BOClean
NSClean
IEClean NEW
Version - 6.0 - Available now!! Trojan Defense Suite is good.
Very comprehensive. |
| FTP Client |
Use FTP
Navigator to upload and download to web sites - or .....
It uses an explorer-like interface, and is very reasonable in cost. Excellent
program! |
|
special-programs |
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