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 Converters or Transcoders: Convert Movies/Videos between Different Formats
- 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 Software and Fonts
- Free Font Editors, Font Creation Software and Sites
- Free Font Manager Software
- Free Fonts
- Free Programmer's Fonts
Free Hard Disk 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 Boot Managers and Multi-Boot Loaders
- Free Defragmentation Utilities / Free Defraggers / Free Defrag
- Free Disk Usage Management and Reporting Software
Free File Management Utilities
- Free Utilities to Delete Currently Used, Locked, Undeletable, Busy Files
- Free File Archivers and File Compression Utilities
- Free MD5 Checksum or Hashing Utilities (Free MD5sum Software)
- Free File Renaming Tools for Bulk Renaming of Multiple Files
- Free Find / Delete Duplicate Files Utilities
- Free File Splitters and Joiners
Free DVD, CD, Blu-ray Utilities
- Free CD and DVD Burning and Copying Software
- Free DVD/CD Emulators, Free Virtual CD/DVD Drives
- Free DVD Authoring and Creation Software
- Free Audio CD Rippers
Other Free System Utilities
- Free Device Driver Backup and Extraction Utilities
- Free File Managers and Graphical Shells
- Free Process Monitoring and Management Utilities
- Free Keyboard Macro, Remapping and Hot Key Software
- Free Registry Cleaners and Registry Repair Utilities / Software
- Free Remote Control Software and Remote Desktop and Access Tools
- Free Uninstallers
- 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 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
- Free Registry Cleaners and Registry Repair Utilities / Software
- 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 Programmer's Fonts
- Free Font Manager Software
- Free Text User Interface Programming Libraries and Source Code
- Free Alternative Operating Systems
- Free PHP Web Based File Managers
- Free Electronic Circuit Simulation Software / Circuit Simulators
- 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
- The Decline and Fall of Internet Explorer 6: Implications for Webmasters
- Should You Choose a Linux or a Windows Web Hosting Package? Is There Such a Thing as a Mac Web Host?
- How to Redesign a New Website without Affecting the Old Site Until the New One is Completely Finished (Using Dreamweaver)
- How to Transfer Your Dreamweaver Files to a New Computer
- How to Pop Up a Tool Tip Window for Your Images Using Dreamweaver
- Is There a WYSIWYG Editor for PHP? Should I Use PHP or HTML for My Website?
- What's The Difference Between Liquid, Elastic, Relative, Fluid, Flexible and Fixed Layouts?
- 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
- 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
- How to Create a Website with Dreamweaver CS4 (Dreamweaver Tutorial)
New Pages on HowToHaven.com
- How to Change the Disk Signature of a Drive Without Losing Existing Data or Reformatting
- 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: Free Programmer's Fonts. This new page lists monospace (fixed width) fonts that have special features useful to programmers, as well as webmasters who hand code in HTML/CSS. The fonts listed here were moved to their own page from the Free Fonts page, which has a wider variety of fonts that is useful for both documents and visual design.
- A new free anonymous proxy service has been added to the Free Anonymous Surfing and Proxies page. This one gives you a German IP address and is able to remove cookies and scripts from the web pages you visit. There is also a HTTPS (secure) version available. Such services allow you to surf the internet without leaving a trail of information about yourself wherever you go.
- New page: The Decline and Fall of Internet Explorer 6: Implications for Webmasters. Yes, Internet Explorer 6 is finally dying. While webmasters and security pundits the world over breathe a sigh of relief, this article deals with some of the practical aspects of that demise where webmasters are concerned.
- Looking for an email program that you can run on your own computer? The newest addition to the Free Email Clients page works on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris, and can handle multiple email accounts, email filtering, spell checking, all the usual email protocols, and even has built-in support for encrypted email (using GnuPG). Check it out.
- A new web server has been added to the Free/Open Source Web (HTTP) Server Software page. Tornado is a scalable non-blocking web server designed for real-time web services. It is able to handle thousands of simultaneous standing connections. It is the open source version of the server developed for FriendFeed.
- New page: Free Font Manager Software. Looking for a program to manage your collection of fonts? These free font managers let you organize your fonts into categories, install and uninstall fonts, load fonts them on-the-fly into your system so that you can use them with a particular program without permanently dumping them into your system font folder (thus potentially slowing your system down), see sample text of fonts (even if they're not installed), check out the font licensing, font metrics and other font information stored in a font, etc.
-
A new CAPTCHA script has been added to the Free PHP CAPTCHA Scripts
page. The script allows you to add a test to your contact forms to make sure that the person submitting the form is a human and
not a spam program.
Note: for those who would rather not modify your own PHP scripts by hand, you may prefer to use my step-by-step tutorial on How to Add a CAPTCHA Test to Your Feedback Form which uses a different set of (free) programs to do the job.
- New page: Should You Choose a Linux or a Windows Web Hosting Package? Is There Such a Thing as a Mac Web Host? Those who are thinking of starting a website will have noticed that some web hosts advertise Linux packages, others Windows, still others FreeBSD. Should you choose a Linux web host or a Windows one? What if you have a Mac? When do you need a Windows web host and when a Linux or FreeBSD? This article attempts to answer these questions.
- Microsoft's research operating system, Singularity, complete with source code, build tools and documentation, is now listed on the Free Alternative Operating Systems page. If you're thinking of creating your own OS, check this out to see how it implements advances in software engineering to make a more reliable system.
- Another frequently asked question (FAQ) has been added to the How to Add a CAPTCHA Test to Your Feedback Form Script: Reducing Spam in Your Contact Form tutorial. This one deals with the error message from ReCAPTCHA about using the "JavaScript free version of reCAPTCHA" in a browser that has JavaScript. Note: if you do not already have a contact form on your website with CAPTCHA support to filter out spam, read that article for an easy way to do this.
- Thinking of creating your own fonts that will have the exact design you're looking for? Check out the newest addition to the Free Font Editors and Font Creation Software page. This one, Type Light, handles both OpenType TrueType fonts (.ttf) and OpenType PostScript fonts (.otf). And there are a number of other free font editors listed on that page too, if you prefer something else.
- A new shopping cart software has been added to the Free And Open Source PHP Shopping Carts page. Besides the usual features that most shopping carts have, this program (OpenCart), supports product reviews and ratings, the display of related products, downloadable products (for those who are selling ebooks and software), multiple currencies, multiple tax rates, shipping weight calculation, unlimited categories, and so on. If you're thinking of selling anything from your website, check it out.
- New page: Free Text User Interface Programming Libraries and Source Code. Create fancy user interfaces for your text-based programs in a device independent way with these Free Text User Interface (TUI) Programming Libraries. Now you don't have to worry about supporting the wide variety of video adapters, terminals and whatnot while still adding things like windows, dialog boxes and other widgets to your programs.
- Are you thinking of creating your own computer game? Shorten your development time with the newest game engine to be added to the Free Games Programming Libraries and Source Code. The Unity games development tool not only comes with support for graphics, animation, sound, multiplayer networking and scripting, it also ships with an integrated editor that lets you create and edit things like animation clips directly. Or if you prefer another game engine, check out the other 30 or so packages listed on the page.
- A new program that converts video files between different formats has been added to the Free Video Converters or Transcoders page. It can rip (ie, copy) directly from various media (like DVD) and devices and convert it so that it is suitable for playing on other devices (eg, iPod, DVD, PSP, Playstation 3, etc). This particular program is for Linux, but if you use Windows or Mac OS X, there are numerous other software listed on that page that can do the job for your system, so if you want something handy for converting videos or movies, check it out.
- Google's new operating system has been added to the Free Alternative Operating Systems page. This is a minimalist operating system designed for netbooks where the main user interface is probably the web browser. Source code for the system is available, and you can already build it and modify it if you wish.
- New page: How to Redesign a New Website without Affecting the Old Site Until the New One is Completely Finished (Using Dreamweaver). If you have an existing website and you want to redesign it from scratch using Dreamweaver, how do you go about doing it without overwriting the current one while developing? This article describes the procedure, and shows you not only how to defer the publication of your newly redesigned website, but also how you can test your site offline while working on it.
- Have you ever encountered a virus infested computer system that was so badly riddled with malware that you couldn't get programs (including antivirus programs) to run properly? If so, the newest addition to the Free Antivirus Software and Free Online Virus Scans page may prove useful. VIPRE is a command line antivirus program that is specifically designed to clean an already infected system. The entire program is self-contained, containing the latest virus definitions and everything needed for the disinfecting work, and is intended to work under such adverse conditions (or so we're told). It's free.
- Looking for a Help Desk software so that you can provide technical support for your users via a simple-to-use web interface? The latest software to be added to the Free Help Desk Software, Customer Service Management (CSM) and Support Ticket Applications (PHP Versions) lets you to do just that. Your users can send support tickets either online, or if you enable the facility, via email. You can then track, escalate, respond (even with canned replies) to them using the online interface.
- New page: How to Change the Disk Signature of a Drive Without Losing Existing Data or Reformatting. If you've received an error from Windows saying "This disk is offline because it has a signature collision with another disk", or if you've tried to connect a disk to your system and found that Windows refused to recognize it even though you knew the disk was working properly, read this article to find out one way to solve it.
- Looking for a video editor to trim your holiday home movies (or any other type of video for that matter)? A new Windows video editor from Pinnacle has been added to the Free Video Editing Software page. This editor supports video (AVI, MPEG-1, FLV, etc), audio and image files. You can even extract the sound/music from a video easily and save it as an MP3 file.
- The free online (and searchable) Chambers Dictionary has been added to the Free Online English Dictionaries page. This dictionary not only gives the usual definitions and spelling (both US and UK variants) of words searched, it also supplies their etymology (history/origin). If you need the pronunciation, you can get it from one of the other dictionaries listed on the page. As always, only dictionaries from reputable dictionary publishers are listed here.
- New page: How to Move Your Dreamweaver Files to a New Computer. Have you upgraded to a new computer and are wondering how you can transfer your Dreamweaver website files and site definition from your old system to the new? This article shows you how you can do it in a quick and easy way, without losing any work and without having to redo anything.
