thefreecountry.com
Free Programmers', Webmasters' and Security Resources
thefreecountry.com
Welcome to thefreecountry.com's collection of free programming resources, free webmasters' resources, free security resources and free utilities.
Free Programmers' Resources
Free Programming Language Compilers
Comprehensive list of compilers for numerous programming languages.
Free Source Code and Programming Libraries
Source code and libraries that you can use in your own programs.
Free Programming Tools and Utilities
Tools to make your programming job easier, such as editors, debuggers, static code analysis, disassemblers,
compiler construction tools and grammars, file comparison, search and replace, help authoring, setup utilities,
resource editors, and lots more.
Programming Documentation
Online tutorials (free), online references (free) and frequently recommended books (not free) for programmers and webmasters.
Free Emulators and Virtual Machines
Run multiple OSes simultaneously, run a Mac OS on a PC (and vice versa), run a PC virtual machine inside your existing PC, etc.
Free Webmasters' Resources
Free Web Hosting and Cheap Web Hosting
Free and budget web hosts where you can place your website, blog, software, video, music, etc.
Free PHP Scripts ||
Free Perl CGI Scripts ||
Free ASP Scripts
Free programs that allow you to add a wide variety of facilities to your website, including forums, polls, counters, search engines,
blogs, wikis, photo galleries, etc.
Free Remote Script Hosting
Free services that allow you to set up a forum, feedback form, search engine, poll, guestbook, counter, gather web statistics, etc, when your
web host does not support scripts.
Free Webmaster Tutorials and Articles
Tutorials on running your own website, earning income from your site, writing your own PHP scripts,
starting a newsletter, search engine positioning, web design, usability, etc.
Other Free Webmaster Resources
Other useful and free webmaster resources that don't fit into the above categories, such as WYSIWYG HTML editors,
validators, DNS, FTP, SSH, and so on.
Free Security Resources
Free Security, Privacy and
Anonymity Tools and Resources
Tools to safeguard your computer (such as antivirus, anti-spyware) and data (backup, recover lost data) as well as to ensure your privacy (eg
encryption, anonymous surfing).
Free Utilities and Applications
Free System Utilities
Free utilities to recover your data, create or manage your partitions, image or backup, and lots more.
Free Multimedia Utilities
Free multimedia tools to edit, capture, process your audio and video, rip your CDs/DVDs, record your TV programs, author your own DVDs or movies, etc.
Free Office and Productivity Applications
Free applications and tools such as word processors, spreadsheets and office suites, image and photo editing software,
free fonts, free translation software and so on.
Tofrodos: Unix to Windows/DOS Conversion Utility
Convert text files to/from Unix and MSDOS/Windows file formats. Free with source code.
New Pages
This Month
Last Month
Recently on thefreecountry.com...
- Free Video Conferencing Software
- Free Geolocation Services
- Free CAD Software
- Free XML Parser/Generator Libraries
- Free Android Emulators
- Free Social Network / Media Software
- Free JavaScript Minifiers (Minimizers), Obfuscators and Compressors
- Free Image Pop-Up JavaScripts (Where Image Overlays Current Web Page)
- Free Static Code Analyzers (Static Source Code Analysis Tools/Lint)
- Free Royalty-Free Stock Photos
- Free PHP Compilers: compile PHP scripts to native code, .NET or Java bytecode
- Free Embedded Web Video Player Scripts/Code
- Free Image/Photo Slide Show JavaScript
- Free GUI Builders, Application Builders and Rapid Application Development (RAD) Software
Recently on thesitewizard.com...
- How to Restore the Style Properties Panel in BlueGriffon if It Disappears
- How to Use Small Capital Letters for Lowercase and Large Capital Letters for Uppercase (CSS)
- How to Change the Colour (Color) of Links on a Website with Expression Web
- How to Change the Colour (Color) of Links on a Web Page with BlueGriffon
- Why Can't I Make Up Any Domain I Want? Is There a Way to Do Away with a Registrar Altogether?
- How to Prevent Two or More Words from Being Split into Separate Lines (HTML/CSS)
- How to Add an Audio or Music File to a Web Page with BlueGriffon
- How to Draw a Rectangular Box Around Your Content in BlueGriffon
- How to Insert a Bullet Point (Unordered) List with BlueGriffon
- How to Start a List with a Number Other than 1 and Still Have it Automatically Numbered (HTML)
- What to do if a registrar quotes an exorbitant price for a domain
- How to Rotate an Image on a Website When Viewed on a Mobile Phone (CSS)
- How to Stretch a Background Image to Fill an Entire Web Page (or Column) in BlueGriffon
- How to Change the Message Shown Before the Comments Field in WordPress
- How to Use Google Fonts and Other Web Fonts in BlueGriffon
- Can I Change My Website's Address to HTTPS Without Getting an SSL Certificate?
- How to Make a Button Run a Server-Side Script (eg, a PHP, Perl, or Python Script) (HTML)
- How to Add a (Self-Hosted) Video to Your Website with Expression Web
- How to Prevent Your Website from being Placed in a Frame
- My Frustrations with Google AdSense
- How to Put Rounded Buttons on Your Website
- How to Close a Browser Tab/Window with JavaScript
- How to Prevent a Directory Listing of Your Website Without Using .htaccess
- How do I Increase/Decrease the Space Between Paragraphs on a Web Page (CSS)
- How Do You Get Access to a Domain Name You Just Purchased? What to Do After You Buy a Domain Name
- How to Redirect Visitors to Another Web Page After a Set Amount of Time
- How to Create a Password-Protected Area for Customers or Members in WordPress
- How to Redirect to Another Web Page in PHP
- What Happens If My Web Host Goes Out of Business? Or If They Shut Down My Website?
- How to Add a Tooltip in HTML/CSS (No JavaScript Needed)
- How To Make Links to PDF Files Open in a PDF Viewer
- How to Change Font Sizes with JavaScript
- Can I Buy the Capital Letters Version of a Domain if Someone Else Owns the Lowercase Variant?
- How to Check for Broken Links on Your Website
- How to Indent Alternate Lines with HTML/CSS
- Does Using a Web Host Mean that My Files Belong to Them?
- How to Insert a Button into a Web Page (HTML)
- How to Get a Domain Name for Email Only
- How to Remove the Underlining from Links (HTML/CSS)
- How to Make a Web Page Always Display the Current Year
- What to Do if Expression Web Does Not Update Some of the Files Attached to a DWT (ie, Template)
- How to Stretch a Background Picture to Fill the Entire Website (or a Column of it) (HTML/CSS)
- How to Add a Shadow to a Box in HTML/CSS
- What To Do If You Do Not Own Your Website's Domain Name
- How to Embed an Image to Get a Self-Contained Web Page
- How to Make a One Column Website Mobile Friendly
- How to Make a Persistent Header, Footer or Image that Stays at a Fixed Position Even When a Web Page is Scrolled (CSS/HTML)
- Can I Create My Entire Website in PDF?
- How to Put Text Next to an Image and Centre ("Center") Both on a Web Page (HTML/CSS)
- How to Play Music or Audio on a Website with HTML (HTML5)
- How to Make Expression Web Use HTML5 By Default
- How to Add a Video to Your Website in HTML (HTML5)
- How to Create a Blog
- What's the Difference Between a Domain Name Registrar and a Web Host?
- How to Create a Coloured ("Colored") Box in HTML/CSS
- How to Back Up Your Website
- BlueGriffon Tutorial: How to Design a Website with BlueGriffon
- How to Move Your Website to SSL (ie, Convert from HTTP to HTTPS)
- Expression Web Tutorial: How to Design a Website with Microsoft Expression Web
- How to Install and Configure Apache, PHP, Perl and MySQL on Windows the Easy Way (with XAMPP)
- Can you register a domain name directly with ICANN instead of through a middleman?
- Free Mobile-Friendly (Responsive Design) Layout Wizard
- How to Make Your Images Mobile-Friendly (Responsive Design)
- How to Make a Mobile-Friendly Website: Responsive Design in CSS
- Should I Use a Specialized Blog Host or Install My Own Blog Software?
- How to Make Links Open in a New Window or Tab
- Dreamweaver Tutorial: How to Design a Website with Dreamweaver CS6
- What Banks Need to Know Before Getting a New Domain Name
- How to Reserve a Domain Name. Do You Need a Web Host if You Want to Reserve a Domain for Future Use?
- What's the Difference Between a Content Management System (CMS), a Blog, a Web Editor and an Online Site Builder?
Recently on HowToHaven.com...
- How to Get the Hash (MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA512) of a File on Windows Without Installing Anything
- How to Solve the 0x80092004 Error When Installing a Windows 7 Security-Only/Monthly Update
- How to Record a Game Video
- How to Boot a CD or DVD in Windows 8.1
- How to Shut Down Windows 8 (Full Shutdown and Normal Hybrid Shutdown)
- How to Set Up a Standard User Account (or Limited Account) on Windows Vista and Windows 7 for Daily Use
A While Ago...
- Should You Get a Domain Name with Spaces or Dots In Between to Improve Readability?
- How to Rescue Your Website from the Clutches of a Bad Web Designer or Bad Web Host
- How to Create Rounded Corners for Your Box Borders in CSS
- What is MySQL? What is a Database? What is SQL?
- Free / Open Source Non-SQL Database Servers and Engines
- Free Royalty Free Music and Sounds
- How to Point Multiple Domain Names to One Website: And How to Avoid Search Engine Problems When Doing So
- Should You Choose a Linux or a Windows Web Hosting Package? Is There Such a Thing as a Mac Web Host?
- How to Point a Domain Name to Your Website (Or What to Do After Buying Your Domain Name)
- How to Add a CAPTCHA Test to Your Feedback Form Script: Reducing Spam in Your Contact Form
- What Does It Mean to Park a Domain Name? Domain Name Parking Explained
- Is it Possible to Create a Website Without Buying a Domain Name? The High Price of "Free".
- How to Centre a DIV Block Using CSS
- What is HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and Perl? Do I Need to Learn Them to Create a Website?
- How to Design a Two Column Layout for Your Website Using CSS
Featured Pages
- How to Create / Make Your Own Website: The Beginner's A-Z Guide
- How to Register Your Own Domain Name
- How Much Does It Cost to Set Up a Website?
- Six Steps to Creating a Search Engine Friendly Website
- Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities
- Free Partitioning Software - Copy, Create, Move, Resize, Convert, Undelete Partitions
- Free DVD Authoring and Creation Tools
- Free CD and DVD Burners and Copying Software
- Free Antivirus Software
- Free Anonymous Surfing and Proxies
- PHP Tutorial: Writing Your First PHP Script
- Free Customized Feedback Form PHP / Perl Script
- Free C/C++ Compilers, Free Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler
- How to Accept Credit Cards on Your Website
What's New
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Note: for historical reasons, this What's New column (but not the news feed) also includes information from
thesitewizard.com's news feed
and HowToHaven.com's news feed
.
- Before you write to ask, yes, I know that thesitewizard.com is down at the moment. In fact, the entire web host on which that site is placed appears to be down, taking my site down with it. Again.
- A Fortran compiler has been added to the Free Fortran Compilers page. It handles the Fortran 2003 language (as well as some features of Fortran 2008) but the next version will support the Fortran 2018 language specifications. This compiler only works on Linux but you can find Fortran compilers for other systems, such as Windows and macOS, on that page as well.
- If you are thinking of putting a slideshow on your website, take a look at the newest addition to the Free Image/Photo Slide Show JavaScript page. This one does not depend on JQuery, and allows for slides that automatically advance after a specified period of time, or manual advancing by your visitors.
- New page: How to Create a Website Free of Charge. This article answers a visitor's question on how to build a website for free, without paying any money for it.
- A new software development suite has been added to the Free Common Lisp Compilers and Interpreters page. This one can generate native code for Windows. For those who don't know what I'm talking about here, Common Lisp is a general purpose, dynamic programming language that you can use to write computer programs.
- New page: Free Software to Create Bootable and Multi-Boot USB drives. If you have ever needed to boot from a rescue disk, or an operating system installation disk, only to find that they are distributed in the form of an ISO file or CD/DVD media, these utilities allow you to transfer them, in bootable form, onto a USB thumb/flash drive. In fact, some of them can even create bootable drives containing multiple ISOs, with a menu that appears on startup, letting you select which to boot from.
- New page: How to Restore the Style Properties Panel in BlueGriffon if It Disappears. This article deals with how you can restore the Style Properties panel in the BlueGriffon web editor should you find it missing or not visible when you enable it.
- Another source of free SSL certs has been added to the Free SSL Certificates for Websites page. If you are wondering what this is all about, such certificates let your website be accessed using HTTPS instead of HTTP. For more information, read How to Move Your Website to SSL (ie, Convert from HTTP to HTTPS).
- New page: How to Use Small Capital Letters for Lowercase and Large Capital Letters for Uppercase (CSS). This article answers a question from a visitor on how to display a sentence so that small (lowercase) letters are shown in capital letters, but have a height shorter than the actual capital (uppercase) letters.
- If you are developing a DirectX 12 game on Windows, take a look at the newest program to be added to the Free Debuggers and Bug Trackers page. This one is from Microsoft, and is both a debugging and profiling/performance tuning tool.
- Updated: The Feedback Form Wizard has been updated to include an additional CAPTCHA option. This one is not only free, it apparently even pays you when your visitors solve the CAPTCHA challenges. For those wondering, CAPTCHAs are those "I am not a robot" or "I am human" checkboxes on forms, used to make sure that a human is at the helm, and not some spam robot.
Updated: How to Add a CAPTCHA Test to Your Feedback Form Script: Reducing Spam in Your Contact Form. The article on how to add a CAPTCHA to your contact form has been updated to include information on how you can use the newest CAPTCHA option (the one that potentially pays you for using them) of the Feedback Form Wizard.
- A new program has been added to the Free Static Code Analyzers (Lint) page. Such tools scan the source code for your program, looking for potential bugs and vulnerabilities (even before you compile and test it). The latest addition can handle programs written in Java, JavaScript, C#, TypeScript, Kotlin, Ruby, Go, Scala, Flex, Python, PHP, HTML, CSS, XML and VB.NET. (If you use a different language, such as C, C++, Fortran, there are other tools listed on that page that can scan those too.)
- A program that lets you create 2D animation and other artwork has been added to the Free Drawing and Painting Software, Image and Photo Editing Programs page. This one works on Windows, macOS and Linux.
- New page: How to Change the Colour (Color) of Links on a Website with Expression Web. This article deals with how to change the colour of the links on a web page using the free Microsoft Expression Web editor. It also addresses how you can change the colour of a link that has been clicked, as well as its colour when a mouse pointer is hovering over it.
- If you are frustrated with how clumsy it is to work with Windows Explorer, when you want to copy or move files between two folders, you may want to use one of these new additions to the Free File Managers and Graphical Shells page. One of them makes multi-panel (dual-panel or four-panel) Windows Explorer windows, and the other creates tabbed Explorer windows. And yes, you read that right. They actually reuse Windows Explorer for the actual windows.
- New page: How to Get the Hash (MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA512) of a File on Windows Without Installing Anything. Sometimes, when you download a file, the website you get it from also lists its MD5, SHA1, SHA256 and SHA512 hashes, so that you can verify that the file you obtained has not been tampered with or corrupted in transit. This article shows you how you can check those hashes using Windows' built-in programs.
- Another program has been added to the Free Video Editors page. If you are looking for software to process your video file, whether to do something simple like split it into smaller segments or extract a scene, or something more elaborate like add special effects, watermarks, image overlays, and so on, take a look at the many free programs available here.
- Another web conferencing computer program has been added to the Free Video Conferencing Software page. This one was originally designed by Microsoft for academic learning and collaboration, but has since been released as open source software.
- Bored? A new program has been added to the Free Android Emulators page. Android emulators let you play Android games (and potentially also run other types of Android apps) on your computer.
- New page: How to Change the Colour (Color) of Links on a Web Page with BlueGriffon. There may be times you need to change the default colour of a link on your web page, for example, because the background colour clashes with it or renders it nearly invisible. This article shows you how to do it using the free BlueGriffon web editor.
- Two new sources of free certificates have been added to the Free SSL Certificates for Websites/Web Servers page. They may be useful if you are thinking of moving your website from HTTP to HTTPS.
- A new service has been added to the Free File Sharing and Storage page. This one seems to have been around for quite some time and offers up to 10 GB space for files that you want to share with others, or just to back up on the cloud.
- A new interpreter has been added to the Free APL Compilers and Interpreters page. APL is a high level programming language used in a wide variety of fields, including scientific programs, financial software, robotics, neural networks, computer animation, etc.
- New page: Why Can't I Make Up Any Domain I Want? Is There a Way to Do Away with a Registrar Altogether? I was asked by a visitor why he couldn't dispense with a registrar and just make up any domain name he wanted. You may be surprised to hear that you can actually do that. But it won't do you any good.
- New page: How to Prevent Two or More Words from Being Split into Separate Lines (HTML/CSS). Sometimes you may want to keep a group of words on a web page together on a single line, rather than allowing the web browser to break them up and place them on separate lines if there's no space. This article shows you the HTML and CSS to accomplish this.
- Two more emulators have been added to the Free Amiga Emulators page. One of them runs in a modern web browser (which means it can work on Windows, macOS, Linux, etc), and the other works on the Playstation Portable (PSP). (For those wondering, Amiga emulators are software that allow you to run Amiga programs and games on your modern computers, by mimicking the original Amiga computers.)
- Another C compiler has been added to the Free C/C++ Compilers and Interpreters page. There are now about 32 C or C++ compilers on that page, and that's not even counting the ones listed separately for microcontrollers, PDAs, calculators and embedded systems. For those who don't know what these are, loosely speaking, C and C++ compilers let you create your own computer programs.
- New page: How to Add an Audio or Music File to a Web Page with BlueGriffon. BlueGriffon has built-in facilities for you to insert an audio clip or music file into your web page. This article shows you how to use it.
- GW-BASIC has been released as open source by Microsoft, and thus has been added to the Free BASIC Compilers and Interpreters page. For those not familiar with this program, it is a BASIC interpreter that was bundled with MS-DOS for umpteen years, and many people learnt ("learned") to write computer programs in those days by experimenting with it.
- New page: How to Draw a Rectangular Box Around Your Content in BlueGriffon. This article deals with how to use the BlueGriffon web editor to draw lines around text and/or images on a web page, so as to put them into a box, setting them apart from their surrounding content.
- Another free service has been added to the Free Source Code Hosting Services page. This one not only allows you to host software projects, but you can also use it to create websites containing free content on any subject. You can use your own domain name for the site, or the free web address they provide.
- New page: How to Insert a Bullet Point (Unordered) List with BlueGriffon. This article shows you how to insert a bullet point list (where each item on the list is marked with a solid black circle rather than numbered) into a web page using the BlueGriffon web editor.
- New page: Free Video Conferencing Software. If you are looking for video conferencing software, either to conduct virtual meetings, online courses, or even just to collaborate on a project or document, take a look at these free open source software. With these, you don't have to rely on third-party online services over which you have little or no control.
- New page: How to Start a List with a Number Other than 1 and Still Have it Automatically Numbered (HTML). What happens if you want to create a list of items, but don't want to start counting from 1 (eg, you want the list to start from item 4)? This article shows you how to do it, and still use the HTML ability to automatically number the list, and keep the numbers up-to-date even when you add items to (or delete them from) the middle.
-
Two new programs have been added to the
Free File Synchronization Software
page. One of them can even back up across a local network and the Internet. As everyone who has worked on a computer
for some time knows, it is very important to back up (at the very least) your data onto a separate device on a
regular basis, since computers can fail at unexpected times. Software like these are used to automatically
mirror the data on your main computer with your backup drive or system, so that it is kept up to date.
Note: if you want to back up an entire computer, and not just your data, please see the Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities page instead.
- New page: How to Insert a List that Automatically Numbers/Renumbers Itself with BlueGriffon. This article shows you how to add a list to your web page that automatically numbers itself. This way, you don't have to go through the whole list to renumber everything when you add to the middle of the list or when you delete items from it.
- A new SQL database server has been added to the Free Database Libraries and SQL Servers page. This one is column-oriented, potentially increasing its performance (over the usual row-oriented database management systems).
- New page: What to do if a registrar quotes an exorbitant price for a domain. One of my visitors told me that a domain name registrar quoted a "ridiculous price" for a domain he wanted, and asked if there was any way around it. This article answers that question.
