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| Freeware Downloads |
| This page reviews a small, select group of free programs which
come highly recommended because we either use them ourselves or have favourable experience of
them. A few are fairly well known, so you may already have them. Where possible, we have provided deep links direct to the original suppliers' download pages. All links are designed, for your further convenience, to open automatically in either a new floating window or a new tabbed window, depending on your browser and settings. |
We've also got a tab, above, to FileHippo - who carry the latest updates for brand-name freeware programs. And a tab to PC Utilities - a gigantic, 570 page repository of the freeware from its past magazine cover disks. You will find it hard to resist downloading stuff but don't do anything silly like installing duplicate anti-virus or firewall apps on your PC as they will conflict. And, please, back up your registry and image your C: drive first - so you can easily flip your system straight back to how it was before, if need be. |
| Anti-Virus | Firewalls | Graphics | PDF Reader | Web Design |
| 1. Anti-Virus | ||||
| a) AVG Anti-Virus Free | Tech note:- | |||
| "The best software in use today." Result of a vote by readers of PC Pro magazine in
December 2007. "AVG is just as good as the best-known commercial anti-virus program and is free for home users. It also has low resource requirements and won't slow down computers." (Computer Shopper, Jan 2006.) "Why is AVG Free so good? It gives you many of the features you would expect to find in a commercial product, and you get regular updates for free too. You would be a crazy fool not to install this application." (Practical Internet, Jan 2003.) Why is it free for single users? Well, with endless accolades like those above appearing in computer magazines, in online forums, and from many satisfied individuals, this generates immeasurable free publicity for AVG which must help them considerably when selling the Pro version to businesses and network users. In fact, so pleased have we been ourselves with AVG's performance on standalone personal computers that, for years, we have made a point of recommending AVG Pro to our IT and business contacts (PMD, 7/08).
AVG Free download page
If this link fails to work, go straight to FileHippo (use tab at top of this page) where you will find a link to the latest version. AVG remains as good as ever and now includes powerful trojan-detection capability which may prove to be just what you need if you are ever unlucky enough to follow one of the many links in search engines unknowingly pointing to deliberately booby-trapped or innocently infected websites. Some search engines are aware of the problem and you will sometimes see warnings of possible risk against some of their links. But that is hopelessly unreliable because the bad guys will always be one step ahead. So, for added safety, irrespective of which anti-virus program you use, we also recommend that people should temporarily disable Java, JavaScript and ActiveX in their firewall (or browser) settings whenever using search engines because they have become the main pipeline for the delivery of malicious software (PMD, 30.5.07). ActiveX had become such a dangerous vehicle that it was finally disabled by default in the version 7 release of Internet Explorer. But this led to an increased use of malicious JavaScript so, if you leave that enabled when following links in search engines, or email, or anywhere else, ayou do so at your peril (1.7.08). |
If you already have a different anti-virus program from AVG on your
PC, it would be safer to stick with it, and just keep that one updated. Trying to uninstall some
mainstream anti-virus programs (AVG excepted) can cause major trauma to your system and internet
connection. If you must change, due, say, to dissatisfaction with or obsolescence of your existing tool, you should image your C: drive with drive-imaging software first, to ensure you can flick the system back to how it was
if necessary. It is also inadvisable to install a second anti-virus program next to any existing one due to a risk of
low-level conflicts. If that advice leaves you feeling trapped into your current anti-virus vendor, that is probably how they
would like it to be. However, you at least now know there is a first-rate alternative when you next
reinstall Windows or buy a new computer which has no anti-virus program or internet security suite
pre-installed. In the latter case, be sure to enable a firewall before ever connecting to the internet - and make AVG the only site you visit (to get the download) until
after AVG is installed. Upgrading from AVG6 and/or AVG7 to AVG8 - online forums show plenty of people managed to screw up the upgrade to AVG7 and, no doubt, it will be the same with AVG8. People fail to allow for the fact that anti-virus programs are hooked in to the system at very deep levels compared with run-of-the-mill programs. Here is a safe procedure that has never failed us once. Download AVG8 Free to your desktop. If the setup file has a long or irregular name, right-click on it and rename it simply as setup.exe. Disconnect from the internet. Switch off all peripherals like a printer, scanner, webcam etc. Scan your entire system one last time with AVG6 (or 7) to ensure it is virus-free. If you have any reason to suspect your machine is infected with malware, scan your C: drive with something like Spybot Free to ensure the system is super-clean. Restart the PC into Safe Mode. This will ensure you are disconnected from the internet if you failed to do so earlier, and will also prevent any hidden TSR programs causing conflicts with the install. Once in Safe Mode, use the Task Manager to end any running process, if any, that is AVG-related. Then use AVG's own uninstaller to remove the old version. If, instead of AVG6 or 7, you have some debris remaining from a failed attempt to install AVG8, remove that instead using AVG8's own uninstaller if available, otherwise via Windows' program remover if showing in there. If, after that removal, AVG6/7 and/or AVG8 still appear in the Contro[ Panels' list of installed programs, ignore it - it is just a leftover from a now-orphaned entry in the Windows' registry. While still in Safe Mode, manually delete the old Grisoft folder, and any AVG shortcuts that have been left behind in the Start menu or on the desktop. Restart into normal mode so the Windows' registry can fully update itself. Restart back into Safe Mode > open the Control Panel and Windows' program installer > browse to the (renamed) AVG setup.exe file > begin the install. If you are using XP or Vista and you find it blocks this install in Safe Mode, come out of Safe Mode and use the Control Panel to add the program in normal mode. The foregoing method is convoluted, admittedly, but it will avoid any of problems which hasty install attempts have sometimes caused other people. |
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| 2. Firewalls | ||||
| a) ZoneAlarm Firewall | Tech note:- | |||
| "ZoneAlarm is the web's premiere free firewall. It is
a robust, easy-to-use application that will give you the maximum protection for nothing."
(Practical Internet magazine, Jan 2003.) By providing a free version, ZoneAlarm gains many tributes from single-users and in computer magazines which, in turn, helps ZoneLabs to sell its Pro version to businesses. However, if you already have an alternative, effective firewall on your PC, you may as well stick with it. Firewalls do not, after all, require frequent updating like anti-virus programs - so there is not the same ongoing cost implication. |
1) If you are with AOL, note that there were reports
in the past of AOL's software lacking compatibility with ZoneAlarm. Hopefully since sorted
out? 2) ZoneAlarm has been known, in the past, to cause a PC to be bombarded by incoming probes at an ever-increasing rate - almost as if it was sending out responses and, thereby, acting like a magnet to attract attacks. Those attacks will not, of course, get through. Again, this is hopefully something which has since been sorted out. If, however, you are a ZoneAlarm user, and you were to find your own system being overwhelmed by alerts, visible or otherwise, and, ultimately, being slowed down, note that a solution to this problem, once recommended by a reader in Web-User magazine was to uninstall ZoneAlarm and replace it with Outpost Firewall (see next item). |
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| b) Outpost Firewall Free 1.0.1817 (2002) | Tech note:- | |||
| Outpost is another cracking freebie that, like ZoneAlarm, runs
quite happily side-by-side with AVG Free anti-virus and will not cause any slowdown in performance
or in bootup time that commercial all-in-one security suites might. This firewall is highly configurable and readily allows you to temporarily block dangers like ActiveX, Cookies, JavaScript and Java before using links in a search engine or whatever, so the chances of infection from booby-trapped web pages is virtually nil. Outpost not only blocks unwanted incoming attacks but also unapproved outbound transmissions. This is a big bonus these days when considering the vast majority of Windows XP systems are infected with spyware unbeknown to the users. According to official UK government statistics issued on 27.10.05, a staggering 58% of people were still surfing without a firewall enabled. Talk about naive, especially when considering the things are free! |
1) Do not try to install or uninstall any firewall while still
connected to the internet. Always disconnect first so you are not left unprotected, not
even for a few seconds. 2) Never try to run two different third-party software firewalls at the same time on the same PC as conflicts between the firewall rules in one program, default or customised, and those in the other, would risk causing complete mayhem, slow running, or permanent breakage of your internet connection. 3) Any option to 'Update' a firewall automatically, while still online, is possibly best resisted, particularly if there is another option allowing you to download the Upgrade manually so that you can install it yourself after disconnecting from the internet. |
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| c) Comodo Firewall | Tech note:- | |||
| This new-kid-on-the-block firewall has been touted as the best freebie
by quite a few computer magazines in the past year (July 2007). We've had no cause to try it ourselves yet. But, evidently, it's very strong and highly configurable, so it must be worth a look by anybody thinking of getting a new PC and, therefore, in need of a firewall. |
Before installing any new software firewall read our general safety-first notes, in this RH column directly above. |
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| 3. Graphics | ||||
| a) Color Cop - a superb color-picker tool - ideal for web designers and digital-image manipulators | ||||
| Color Cop is a minuscule utility that will show you the RGB or
Hex value of any color anywhere on your computer screen. Even if you have already got
the better-known eyeDropper color picker, you will still find that the non-incursive way in
which Color Cop's pipette and magnifier work will prove a far nicer option in most instances.
If the screenshot on their download page looks iffy, do not be put off by that. This is
one thoroughly cool tool when the need to use it arises. Most definitely one of the best
mini-apps ever written for anybody who works with images or web design. You really should not be without a shortcut to Color Cop on your desktop or, better still, on an Office or Windows' sidebar, even if you have already got the eyeDropper alternative. Color Cop is donateware, so you are under no obligation to pay anything. But it is well worth a few dollars of anybody's money. |
Tech note:- Color Cop's window has no toolbar so, to get to its Settings' menu, you have to remember to right-click anywhere on its window. Color Cop malfunctioned on us once, but only the once, and that was a very long time ago. For no known reason, instead of opening in the normal floating window, it kept minimising itself to the Taskbar. If you were ever to experience something similar, all you need to do is go into the Color Cop folder and delete its settings' file, called ColorCop5.dat, and restart the computer. The dat file will regenerate itself the next time you change any of Color Cop's default settings. |
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| 4. PDF Readers | ||||
| Foxit Reader | ||||
| They have ironed out the terrible bug in the previous version which
sometimes caused text copied from a PDF document to be pasted in one continuous string with no gaps
between words. All ok in v2.1, so Foxit Reader is now added here (9/07). Foxit Reader is an Adobe Reader clone but without any of the bloat, slowness, jerkiness, insistence on updating IE first, and other annoyances. It's like a breath of fresh air. You don't necessarily have to uninstall Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader if you don't want to. So, if Foxit fails to meet your requirements for some reason, there'll be no harm done. |
Tech note:- Foxit Reader is available as either a normal self-installing program (download the "Foxit Reader (.exe)" file) or, if you prefer, as a standalone program with no install (download the .zip file alternative). |
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| 5. Web-design utilities | ||||
| a) Bhaum Text/HTML Editor - a superlative, enhanced text editor |
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| There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of free, small, Notepad-like
editors to choose from. We have trialed a great many of the lightweight ones (i.e. those
small enough to fit on a floppy disk) and we have found the one called Bhaum (bough-m) to be literally
head and shoulders above the rest if your requirement is for a massive amount of readily accessible
functionality crammed into a tiny, smart-looking, colourful interface. Uniquely, Bhaum
incorporates dual-purpose toolbar buttons. Left-click a button and it will do one thing,
right-click it and it does something else. It's a brilliant space-saving concept - why
nobody else has ever copied the idea in other programs is a crying shame. There's an HTML toolbar, at the bottom of the window,
which can be toggled on or off, and the HTML bar is even wrappable so that all the toolbar options
remain accessible at all times without ever needing to maximise the window size. How all
this functionality was squeezed into something so small and fast really is quite amazing.
Apart from being a superb companion to Notepad, as a more powerful text editor, Bhaum is also an excellent HTML editor when
needing to carry out quick minor tweaks to existing html files. It is significantly better
for that purpose than Notepad, and is a lot easier than opening a big WYSIWYG web editor just
to make small tweaks. Keep Notepad - we would never say dispense with that. But be sure to put a shortcut to Bhaum next to all your shortcuts to Notepad, including next to
those on the right-click menus to Notepad. Then you can always choose Notepad or Bhaum - whichever one of them will be best for the job in hand.
Bhaum was written for Windows 95/98, and carries a proviso in its ReadMe file that "Some functions
may not work on Windows NT/2000". The same will, presumably, apply to XP users.
However, all the basic features seem to run fine in XP, and it certainly looks an absolute picture
in XP compared to Notepad! Bhaum is a Korean word with no identical sound in English. For an anglicised pronunciation, rhyme it with words like how, now, cow, bow (to bend forward), and bough, all with an 'm' added on the end, hence It has not been possible to satisfactorily download Bhaum from the author's badly neglected website since 2002. Nor to download a make-believe successor, dubbed Henshoo, from any site. But the alternative source, right, for the original Bhaum, was still good (at 2.9.07). |
Tech note:- To install Bhaum, download the zip file to your desktop > right-click on it and choose your 'scan for virus' option (just routine). Right-click on the zip file again and choose your 'open zip file' option > select the setup.exe file > click the "Install" button if your Zip program has one, and follow the prompts. If not, extract the setup file and double-click on it to start the install. The web pages on our site were not created with an HTML editor like Bhaum but by WYSIWYG editors. This is because the squishy tables we use throughout are too complex to be coded by hand. However, the HTML and CSS code of every single page has, subsequently, been tweaked with Bhaum at some time or other. Numerous times in many cases! Bhaum has proved indispensable and unrivalled as a tweaking tool, and as an enhanced text editor. That is why we recommend it. There has been no means of communicating with the author of the program since 2002. So, if you ever have trouble with anything to do with Bhaum, drop us an The application does have a few minor imperfections, like the odd spelling mistake or poor grammar, which the author knows about but, unfortunately, could not be bothered to fix. The slips do not affect the integrity of the tool and will not spoil your use of it. So, do not let that put you off trying what is otherwise the best lightweight text editor and HTML code-tweaker that we have come across. |
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| b) CSE HTML Validator Lite | ||||
| If you already use programs like Notepad, FrontPage, Dreamweaver
and Bhaum, you probably think you've got all the HTML editors you could ever need. Wrong. You also need CSE HTML Validator Lite. After you have installed this tool, you can right-click on any of your htm files to open it in CSE's window, where you can edit the file just the same as if you had opened it in Notepad or Bhaum. However, you will find it has some nice added features like syntax highlighting, a spell checker and, on its toolbar, the all important Validate button. CSE scans a document in the blink of an eye and, in a panel across the bottom of its window, CSE reports all the syntax errors it finds. You can correct the errors right there and then in CSE - there is no need to transfer to another HTML tool or WYSIWYG editor to do it. You will be staggered by the sheer variety and volume of real errors and associated errors this tool will uncover in the syntax of your web pages - and we do mean staggered. In fact, you can put the pages of any top website through the online CSE scanner and the picture is always the same. Even the Home page of the leading search engine, which uses ultra-basic plain HTML, flagged up some real syntax errors when we ran its URL through CSE's online scanner on 7.7.07 (no doubt still the same now?!). Web designers get away with these accidental mistakes because the pages still look okay in a browser. That is because browsers have enough knowledge and flexibility programmed into them about HTML to know what was really meant most of the time. But the errors are still there nevertheless! Hence, validating your HTML is not so much an absolute necessity, but more a case of pride in your work. Either way, though, it is always very satisfying when you eventually arrive at CSE Lite's ultimate accolade which will state "Congratulations! Even the Standard and Professional editions would not have found any errors or warnings." To see the "Congratulations..." message in action, copy the URL of this page and paste it in the online scanner at html validator. Then type in some big-brand URL, say www.google.com or www.facebook.com and see if you get something other than "Congratulations...". One thing you must NEVER do with CSE, no matter how tempting, is to change the default settings for its 'Validator Engine' as a means of stopping CSE flagging up particular things as errors even if you are certain they are not. If you were to water-down the defaults, that would mean a page appearing to you to be free of errors offline, either in CSE or in a browser, will not look that way to any of your web viewers if they run the same page through CSE's online validator. They will see the page has faults. A workaround, in this situation, could be to cloak any troublesome sections of code with CSE's special start and end IGNORE tags i.e. <CSEIGNORE> and </CSEIGNORE>. Anything inside these tags will not be reported on by CSE. If you do resort to that, we advise adding an ordinary comment in the <HEAD> section to remind yourself, in the future, and to inform any diligent viewers, why the IGNORE tags were applied. Finally, use IGNORE tags very sparingly. The ideal is to have no errors in CSE and no IGNORE tags either. It can be done, as most, though not quite all pages on this site will prove if you were to run them through CSE's online scanner. |
Tech note:- You will, admittedly, need to be as clever as Alan Turing to decipher, and clear, every last one of the red, yellow and green problem messages that the Lite version throws up. Some of CSE Lite's red messages, and all of its yellow messages, will state the exact line number and nature of the fault - making it easy to pin down those errors. However, CSE will frequently alert you to other errors somewhere in the code by generating multiple associated red messages for each such fault, none of which will be stating the true line number for the fault. The key to cracking this enigma, we can exclusively reveal, is to clear each yellow message first because that will also clear any phantom red messages associated with it. Then, if you are still left with further phantom red messages, the answer is to check the HTML code not just in the stated line numbers (which are usually false) but in the lines on either side of the stated lines. Look especially for missing characters like an absent slash After you have cleared all the yellow and red messages you will probably be left with a green message-count giving no information other than a total number of additional items found. To unravel this problem of green error or comment messages but no line numbers, the best way is to work on a copy of the page, deleting sections bit by bit, until you trace a section that reduces the green message count. You can then undo (restore) the last section you deleted and look through it for the fault. If you can't identify the fault, you can narrow it down further by temporarily surrounding sections of HTML in the guilty section with CSE's special 'ignore' tags <CSEIGNORE> and </CSEIGNORE> and re-validating the page. If the green message count reduces, you know a fault was in the section of HTML you just told CSE to ignore. When you have cleared that fault, remove the 'ignore' tags - don't leave them in, that would be cheating, and untidy. However, if you are not a budding Alan Turing, we have to admit this could all be a bit beyond you. In that case, you may have to turn to the Standard or Pro buyware version for assistance. But try the Lite one first, in conjunction with the above clues, to at least get the hang of it. |
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| c) StatsMachine - a smart, formatable, concealable, text-based hit counter for websites | ||||
| Most hit counters are image-based, and can seriously slow down a page download, especially if the counter is unsuitably placed in the first screenful of the page. However, StatsMachine offer a smashing text-based alternative and that is what we recommend. Not only because of speed, but because it can be styled to any particular type, color or size of font of your choosing so that it blends in with the overall design of your page. Or, if you want, you can make it invisible to anyone except yourself simply by making the text-color for the numbers the same color as the background color behind the counter. That is the kind we now use on this particular site. So, for a counter that is image-free, ad-free, cookie-free and cost-free, look no further than StatsMachine! |
Tech note:- Conventional image-based hit counters invariably look out-of-keeping with a page's design style and, therefore, can make your pages look very amateurish to every single visitor. StatsMachine's text-based counters avoid the unprofessional look because the text and numerals can be styled and coloured to blend in with a page's overall style and color scheme. You can see an example at the bottom of this particular page, where a specimen (non-functional) counter is seamlessly blended into a full-width, squishy bottom banner. You could not ask for a slicker implementation of a visible counter than that! If you would need any help with the HTML to achieve a suitable styling for your own pages, drop us an |
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| Menu Top Contact |
| Disclaimer: The authors of this web page are not connected in any way with any of the third-party software programs referred to or recommended herein and cannot be held responsible for any problems you may experience as a result of installing or running any of the said programs. | ||
| Started 29.8.03 Last amended 8.10.08 (dmy) | ||
| Computer Freeware Section Copyright (C) 2003-2008 PM Designs All Rights Reserved | ||
| Trademark Acknowledgements |
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