Free Utilities, Software Tools and Applications
Useful programs for your computer
Free Utilities and Software Tools
Welcome to thefreecountry.com's directory of free utilities and software tools, with lists of free software and sites that will help you do various useful tasks with your computer.
Free Multimedia Software
- Free Standalone Flash Video (FLV) Players
- Free Video Editors (Free Video Editing Software)
- Free Video Capture and Recording Software
- Free Screen Video Recorders and Screen Capture Software
- Free TV PVR (Personal Video Recorder) and TV Recording Software
- Free Video Codecs
- Free DVD Authoring and Creation Software
- Free CD and DVD Burning and Copying Software
- Free DVD and VCD Players, Free Movie and Video Playing Software
- Free Digital Audio Editors, Free Sound Editing Software
- Free Audio CD Rippers
- Free Lossless and Lossy Audo Encoders / Compressors
- Free Autorun/Autoplay DVD and CD Menu Creation Software
Free Graphics Software
- Free Image Authoring and Editing Software, Free Drawing and Painting Programs, Photo Editing Tools
- Free Panorama Photo Stitching Software: Stitch Overlapping Images to Make a Panoramic Picture
- Free 3D Graphics Software: Create 3D Content for Games, Videos, Film and Animation
- Free Morphing Software for Creating Warping, Transitioning and Distorting Special Effects
- Free 3D Software Box Image Makers
- Free Font Editors, Font Creation Software and Sites
- Free Fonts for Programmers, Webmasters and Designers
Free System Utilities
- Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities
- Free Data Recovery, File and Partition Recovery, Undelete and Unformat Utilities
- Free Partitioning Software (Copy, Resize, Move, Create, Convert, Undelete Partitions)
- Free Device Driver Backup and Extraction Utilities
- Free Boot Managers and Multi-Boot Loaders
- Free File Managers and Graphical Shells
- Free Defragmentation Utilities / Free Defraggers / Free Defrag
- Free Utilities to Delete Currently Used, Locked, Undeletable, Busy Files
- Free CD and DVD Burning and Copying Software
- Free DVD/CD Emulators, Free Virtual CD/DVD Drives
- Free Process Monitoring and Management Utilities
- Free File Archivers and File Compression Utilities
- Free MD5 Checksum or Hashing Utilities (Free MD5sum Software)
- Free Keyboard Macro, Remapping and Hot Key Software
- Free File Renaming Tools for Bulk Renaming of Multiple Files
- Free Find / Delete Duplicate Files Utilities
- Free File Splitters and Joiners
- Free Remote Control Software and Remote Desktop and Access Tools
- Free Uninstallers
- Free Disk Usage Management and Reporting Software
- Free x86 / PC Emulators and Virtual Machines
- Free Command Line Shells
- Free RAM Disks or RAMDisk Drivers
- Free RAM Memory Diagnostics (Software Utilities)
Free Productivity and Office Applications
- Free Word Processors and Office Suites
- Free Desktop Publishing Software
- Free PDF Readers / Viewers
- Free PDF Converters, Editors and Printer Drivers
- Free Online Office Suites: WordProcessors, Spreadsheets, Presentation
- Free Spell Checkers
- Free Fonts for Programmers, Webmasters and Designers
- Free Font Editors, Font Creation Software and Sites
- Free Business and Personal Accounting Software
- Free OCR Software (Optical Character Recognition)
- Free Fax Software (Send a Fascimile through Your Fax Modem)
- Free File Archivers and File Compression Utilities
- Free Personal Information Manager (PIM), Personal Planner, Organizer and Desktop Calendar Software
- Free Software Calculators: Scientific, Graphing, Statistical and Programmable Calculators
Free Security Software and Sites
- Free Spyware/Adware/Trojans/Keyloggers/Hijackers Removal, Detection and Prevention Tools
- Free Antivirus Software
- Free Secure Deletion Tools, Disk and File Wipe Utilities, Destructive Erasing Software
- Free Anonymous Surfing
- Free Encrypted Email, Encrypted Chat
- Free Encryption Software, On the Fly Encryption, Steganography, Public Key Encryption Software
- Free Personal Firewalls
- Free HIPS (Host Intrusion Prevention Software) and Application and System Monitoring Utilities
- Free Secure Password Managers and Password Savers
- More Free Security Software and Sites
Free Accessibility Tools
- Free Screen Readers: Text to Speech Conversion
- Free HTML and Accessibility Validators (for Webmasters)
Free Internet Utilities and Services
- Free Anonymous Surfing
- Free Offline News Feed Readers and News Aggregators
- Free Instant Messaging (IM) Clients
- Free Email Clients
- Free Usenet News Readers
- Free Online Backup, Internet Hard Drive
- Free Online Office Suites: WordProcessors, Spreadsheets, Presentation
- Free POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Web Email, Email Forwarding
- Free Internet/Network Bandwidth Monitors and Meters
- Free Graphical Ping Utilities to Check Network Connections
- Free Translation Software and Services
Free Programming Resources
- Free Source Code and Programming Libraries
- Free Compilers and Interpreters for Programming Languages
- Free Programming Tools
- Free Online Programming Documentation, Frequently Recommended Programming Books
- Free Emulators and Virtual Machines
Other Resources of Interest
- Free POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Web Email
- Free Perl CGI Scripts
- Free PHP/Perl CGI Script Hosting
- Free PHP Scripts
- Free JavaScript, AJAX, DHTML and Web 2.0 Scripts
- Free Web Hosts, Budget Web Hosts
- Free Tutorials and Articles for Webmasters
- More Free Webmaster Resources
New Pages on thefreecountry.com
- Free ASP Forum Scripts (Message Boards, BBS and Discussion Forums)
- Free Regular Expression (Regex) Libraries and Source Code
- Free Web Hosting Control Panel Software
- Free/Open Source Web (HTTP) Server Software
- Free Process Monitoring and Management Utilities
- Free Panorama Photo Stitching Software: Stitch Overlapping Images to Make a Panoramic Picture
- Free Autorun/Autoplay DVD and CD Menu Creation Software
- Free 3D Software Box Image Makers
- Free DVD and VCD Players, Free Movie and Video Playing Software
- Free DVD Authoring and Creation Software
- Free Antivirus Software and Free Online Virus Scans
New Pages on thesitewizard.com
- How to Use the Frame Blocking Facility (Anti-Clickjacking Defence) in Internet Explorer 8
- How to Add Images to Your Website in Serif WebPlus X2
- How to Add a CAPTCHA Test to Your Feedback Form Script: Reducing Spam in Your Contact Form
- How to Point a Domain Name to Your Website (Or What to Do After Buying Your Domain Name)
- What Does It Mean to Park a Domain Name? Domain Name Parking Explained
- Serif WebPlus X2 Tutorial: How to Design Your Website with Serif WebPlus X2
- Is it Possible to Use Microsoft Word or Office to Create a Website? If So, How?
- How to Transfer / Move Your Website from GeoCities: Closure of GeoCities' Free Web Hosting
- How to Upload and Link to a PDF File (or PDF Ebook) in KompoZer and Nvu
- How to Create a Membership or Password Protected Subscription Website
- How to Install Apache 2.2 on Windows Vista
- What is HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and Perl? Do I Need to Learn Them to Create a Website?
- How Much Does It Cost to Set Up a Website?
- How to Design a Two Column Layout for Your Website Using CSS
- Dreamweaver Tutorial: How to Create a Website with Dreamweaver CS3 (Part 1)
New Pages on HowToHaven.com
- How to Slipstream Windows XP Service Pack 3 to Create an Integrated XP Setup Disk with SP 3
- How to Back Up Your Hard Disk in Windows
- How to Securely Prepare Your Old Computer for Disposal
- How to Work Around the Missing Up Arrow Button in Vista's Windows Explorer
- How to Create a Bootable "Live" Windows Rescue CD
- How to Delete Undeletable, Locked, Busy or Currently In-Use Files in Windows
- How to Record or Save Streaming Music or Audio
Popular Pages
- How to Create/Start Your Own Website: The Beginner's A-Z Guide
- How to Create a Bootable Windows XP Setup CD/DVD on a Preinstalled Windows System
- Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities
- Free Spyware/Malware Removal, Detection and Prevention Tools and Sites
- Free Antivirus Software
- Free Device Driver Backup and Extraction Utilities
- Free DVD Authoring and Creation Software
- Free DVD/CD Emulators, Free Virtual CD/DVD Drives
- Free Data Recovery, File and Partition Recovery, Undelete and Unformat Software
- How to Create a Website with Dreamweaver CS4 (Dreamweaver Tutorial)
- How to Design and Publish Your Website with KompoZer
What's New
Stay Updated (Free)- Keep track of what's new on thefreecountry.com with your news reader
by pointing it to
thefreecountry.com's news feed
.
Note: this What's New column also includes information from
thesitewizard.com's news feed
and HowToHaven.com's news feed
.
- New page: How to Use the Frame Blocking Facility (Anti-Clickjacking Defence) in Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 8 gives webmasters a new way to protect their site from being placed in a frame, and thus, hopefully, prevent clickjacking from taking place. This article shows you how you can configure your website so that it takes advantage of IE 8's new feature.
- Two new free online C# tutorials have been added to the Free Online C# Tutorials, References and Documentation page. One is from the horse's mouth itself (Microsoft) and the other is from a tutorial delivered at a Microsoft .NET Crash Course in Cambridge. If you're hankering to write programs using C#, check these out.
- Fancy creating your own cartoon (animation), with or without sound? Pencil lets you create your cartoons as a Flash file, a QuickTime movie file or as a series of PNG images. For lack of a better category page to list this interesting open source program, I've provisionally added it to the Free Drawing and Painting Software page. Since it can produce Flash files, you can even exhibit your cartoons on your own website. (QuickTime movies should work too, but not everyone has the QuickTime plugin.)
- Two new free tools, an icon editor and a cursor editor, have been added to the Free Resource Editors, Compilers and Icon Editors page. The icon editor, IcoFX, lets you create icons, such as the "favicon" icon that is used by websites or the icons that appear on your computer desktop. The cursor editor, AniFX, can be used to create cursors, even animated cursors, that you can integrate into your programs or substitute for existing ones to customize your computer. Check them out.
- New page:
How to Add Images to Your Website in Serif WebPlus X2.
The second chapter of the Serif WebPlus X2
Tutorial Series is now online. This chapter deals with how you can add things like your website's logo, photos, product images, background images
and so on to your web page. It also introduces the concept of a stacking order to the objects on your web page. (For those who don't know,
Serif
WebPlus X2 is a point-and-click visual web editor that you can use to create a website.)
- A new web host has been added to the Free Web Hosts with Free Domain Hosting page. Besides letting you host your own domain with them, this free web host, L4rge, also provides PHP (with limitations), MySQL access, a script installer, and so on. Check it out.
- New page:
Free ASP Forum Scripts (Message Boards, BBS and Discussion Forums).
Are you thinking of putting a forum or discussion board on your website, where visitors can chat or discuss topics of relevance to your website?
This new page lists free ASP forum scripts that you can install on your site to provide that facility.
Note: if you do not specifically need your forum script to be an ASP script (that is, it can be in any language), please also see the Free PHP Forum Scripts and Free Perl Message Board Scripts pages as well. You'll have a wider selection that way.
- New page:
Free Regular Expression (Regex) Libraries and Source Code.
Are you thinking of adding support in your program for searching for a particular piece of text? If so, the
free regular expression libraries
on this page will allow you to do so in the standard way used by most software, without having to reinvent the wheel. For the puzzled, regular expressions are
just a concise way to specify a pattern of text to match.
Note: if you are looking for a search and replace utility so that you can find a file or document containing something you wrote a while ago, you should check out the Free Text Search and Replace Utilities page instead. The libraries page mentioned earlier is meant for programmers, while the utilities page is useful for everyone.
-
A new web-based content management system has been added to the
Free Content Management Systems (CMS) PHP Scripts page.
It is customizable, supports extensions that you can add to your site (like a blog module, a forum module, a calendar/event module), has a number
of themes that you can select to change the appearance of your website, and so on.
For those not sure what Content Management Systems are, they let you create and manage your website from your browser. That is, after you install it on your site, all you need to do is to log into your site from your web browser to add your content, customize the appearance and so on.
- New page: How to Add a CAPTCHA Test to Your Feedback Form Script: Reducing Spam in Your Contact Form. Is your mail box filled with spam sent by automated computer programs dumping junk into your feedback form? Are you tired of having to wade through tons of ridiculous body enhancement suggestions replete with grammatical errors before arriving at your real email? This article shows you how you can add a CAPTCHA facility to your feedback form in an easy-to-do way, to hopefully reduce the spam arriving through your contact form. Note that this article is intended for the ordinary, non-technical webmaster, and can be implemented by anyone.
- A new PDF converter has been added to the Free PDF Converters, Editors and Printer Drivers page. CC PDF installs itself on your system as a pseudo-printer driver. When you print a document from any program, you can select that printer, and it will generate a PDF file for you (instead of sending the document to your printer), thus allowing you to create PDF files from any program that can print. Like all the other PDF converters on the page, it is free.
-
The Feedback Form Script Wizard has been updated to
add the following features to the feedback form it creates: (1) The PHP feedback form script created by the wizard can now, at your option,
check to make sure that the comments/message field is not empty before submitting its contents. (Note: this is not exactly a new feature since it was
present in older versions of the script but was removed in recent versions. By popular request, the facility has now been restored
to the script.) (2) You can now make the wizard use either XHTML or HTML for the form code. If you don't know what to use, just leave
it at the default.
If you don't need the new features, you don't have to upgrade. As always, the script is free.
-
Another text editor has been added to the
Free Programmer's Editors, Integrated Development Environment (IDE), ASCII Text Editors
page. TED Notepad is a Windows notepad replacement with souped up features, including Unicode support, hotkeys for every function/feature,
multiple clipboards, text case conversions, and so on. Check it out, or get one of the other free text editors on that page.
Note: those looking for web editors or HTML editors may prefer to visit the Free HTML Editors and WYSIWYG Web Editors page instead. Those are, of course, also free.
- A new website offering free and open source fonts has been added to the Free Fonts page. The site provides a number of Unicode encoded and legacy fonts supporting many languages. If you are looking for fonts to make your documents look interesting and unique, check it out.
- New page: How to Point a Domain Name to Your Website (Or What to Do After Buying Your Domain Name) So you've bought your own domain name. What do you do next? How do you point a domain name at your website or your web hosting account? This article answers that question.
- New page: Free Web Hosting Control Panel Software. If you are setting up your own web server, or having to manage a bare-bones dedicated server or virtual private server (VPS), the software listed on this page may interest you. These free (and often open source) programs let you manage the server from your web browser. They let you configure the web server, email, FTP, databases, DNS, user accounts, domains, and so forth without having to resort to manual editing of server configuration files.
- New page: What Does It Mean to Park a Domain Name? Domain Name Parking Explained. In response to a query, this article explains what it means to park a domain name. It also covers situations where you may want to park a domain name, and discusses why you may not want use your domain name registrar's parking services.
- A new audio editor has been added to the Free Digital Audio / Sound Editors page. This one supports the usual assortment of editing features as well as support for VST plugins, ASIO, pitch shifting, vocal removal, loop, bit-depth conversion, etc. Like all the other digital sound editors on that page, it is free.
- New page:
Serif WebPlus X2 Tutorial: How to Design Your Website with Serif WebPlus X2.
At the request of a number of visitors, I've now begun a new tutorial series.
Serif WebPlus X2
is a site builder and WYSIWYG web editor that allows you to simply drag and drop elements onto a page to create a website. This tutorial will guide
you through the steps of building a complete, fully-functional, multi-page website using the web editor.
