LinksTopFreeware
{ ZDNET }
Low-cost EDA package offering facilities for schematic drawing, SPICE simulation, and PCB layout.
OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
IrfanView 4 - Freeware
A fast and simple image viewer and editor that supports all major graphic formats.
OS: Windows (all)
INDEX:
ZDNET
Most popular
New this week
Downloads for Mac
Downloads for Handhelds
Top 10 "need-to-know" lists
10+ things you should know about troubleshooting a slow PC
10 things you can do when Windows XP won't boot
10 customization tricks to save you time in Windows XP
10 dumb things users do that can mess up their computers
10 things you should do to improve every new Windows PC
10 things you should do to a new PC before connecting it to the Internet
10 things you can do to optimize and maintain your PCs
10 things you should know about Windows XP's System Restore tool
10 valuable (but underused) Microsoft security technologies
10+ tools you should have in your support tech repair kit
2.0 TOP FREEWARE AND SHAREWARE UTILITIES
2.1 Microsoft Virtual PC Now Free
I've been preaching the security benefits of surfing in a virtual environment for some time now so the recent decision from Microsoft to make available its Virtual PC 2004 product for free is most welcome. Hopefully it will suffer fewer problems than other free virtualization products such as SandBoxie and GreenBorder which, for whatever reason, just won't run on some PCs.
Virtual PC [1], like VMWare [2], allows you to install another "virtual" computer on your real PC. You can use the virtual PC just like a normal computer. The security benefit derives from the fact that virtual PC is corralled off from your real PC so any malware can't affect your real PC. Additionally, you can easily reset the virtual PC to a former pre-infection state thus eliminating the infection entirely.
It all sounds attractive but there's a major qualification. If you use Windows as the operating system for your Virtual PC then you need to buy a separate full copy of Windows as you can't legally use the same copy that's installed on your real PC.
This is a big catch. It certainly makes Microsoft's decision to release Virtual PC 2004 for free seem much less generous: "Hey guys, get this; it's free! Just buy another copy of Windows." :>)
You could, of course, install a free Linux distro like Ubuntu for your Virtual PC. However, if you are going to do that then you might as well use the VMWare Player [2]. It's also free and a better product than Virtual PC. You can't create a virtual PC with VMWare Player; it only allows you to run one that's already been created. But there are many pre-configured machines ("appliances") available for free download [3]. You could also create an appliance using Virtual PC 2004 as VMWare Reader can use Virtual PC images. Free, Windows 2000 SP4 and later, 18.2MB
[1] http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx
[2] http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
[3] http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/cat/25
2.2 How to Build Your Own Web Site for Free
Many folks would like to build their own site but are frightened to get involved with writing HTML. An alternative to hand coding is to use a web hosting service that allows you to use point-and- click tools to create a web site from a template. There are many of these services but the current offering from the Microsoft Office Live Beta service is very tempting. You not only get free site creation tools but also free hosting, five free email accounts plus a free domain name as well. Microsoft claims that if you sign up during the beta, the free hosting will continue even when the product goes live. It sounds like an unbeatable offer but there is a small catch; it's for US based users only. Thanks to subscriber Callie Jordan for letting me know about this. If you want to see what can be achieved using the Microsoft service then check out Callie's own site [2].
[1] http://officelive.microsoft.com/WebHosting.aspx
[2] http://www.groundworktrainingsystem.com
2.3 Free Site Offers Online Notes Service
Subscriber R.D. writes, "Gizmo, I was reading your comments about Evernote, a product I use and love but I didn't know if you were aware of Notefish that's rather like an online version of Evernote. Firefox has an extension for it, so you can select something, right click, and send it to Notefish. Actually I like Notefish over Evernote because it preserves the formatting of saved web pages much better." Nice find, R.D. Notefish is a combination notes organizer and web snippet manager that's ideal for researching any topic from your next holiday to a PhD thesis. The fact that the information is optionally shareable only adds to the power. It's free for personal use though registration is required.
http://www.notefish.com/whatsnew.html <= Firefox extension
2.4 A Quality IP Scanner for Nothing
Subscriber Phill Jempson writes "Hi Gizmo, as a long time reader of Support Alert I've often kicked myself for not emailing you about software I've been using and love. In an attempt to remedy this I'd like to let you know about Angry IP Scanner. It's a basic network scanner but one I use nearly every day in my capacity as a network support analyst and always install onto any new PC as well as keeping a copy on my USB flash drive. It's beauty is in it's ease of use. I use it to do quick and dirty troubleshooting scans, like checking to see if a network segment is still up, finding the number of PCs on a subnet etc. It's also a very small, single file which can even be run from the web site. A couple of things I change when I first run it on a new PC are:
1. Go to Options > select Columns and move all available columns into the visible section.
2. Go to Options > Options and set the display to "Only Alive". There are also some useful plugins available from the website." Nice find, Phill. The range of plug-ins is actually quite extensive. These include web and FTP detect modules, Windows shares and DNS aliases and quite a few more. There are even instructions on how to write your own. I just love collecting little tools like this for my tech toolkit. Note: the download link is not well marked on the web site so I've included it here [2]. Free Open Source, Windows (version not stated), 108KB.
[1] http://www.angryziber.com/ipscan/
[2] http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=25534
** Additional Items in the Premium SE Edition **
2.5 Free Email Filter Impresses
2.6 A Free Program that Blocks P2P Users
2.7 Finally, Real ActiveX Support for Firefox and Opera
Got some top utilities to suggest? Send them to
3.0 SECURITY PATCHES, SERVICE RELEASES AND UPDATES
3.1 Microsoft Security News
Patch Tuesday on the 8th of August delivered 12 new security updates [1] nine of which were rated as "critical." In addition to several fixes for flaws in the Windows operating system, the critical patches included updates for Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Visual Basic for Application and Microsoft Powerpoint. The later MS06-048 [2] is of particular significance as it fixes a very serious flaw in Office, exploits for which are in wide circulation. Equally important is MS06-040 [3] that patches vulnerability in the server service in Windows 2000, Windows XP SP1 and SP2 as well as various Windows 2003 server configurations. Again, exploits are actively circulating so patch as soon as possible. This one is potentially so serious that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has even issued an advisory warning users and organizations to patch immediately. All the updates are distributed automatically by the Microsoft Update Service. It is extremely important that users who do not have automatic updates enabled visit the Update Service [4] now.
[1] http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-aug.mspx
[2] http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-048.mspx
[3] http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-040.mspx
[4] http://update.microsoft.com (Requires IE5 or later)
3.2 New Rootkit Ups the Ante
Symantec [1] has released details of a new rootkit labeled Rustock.A that uses a cunning combination of techniques to evade detection by current rootkit detectors. The article lists six techniques employed but the first two are of particular note: First, "Rustock.A has no process. The malicious code runs inside the driver and in kernel threads." Second, "Rustock.A uses NTFS Alternate Data Stream to hide its driver into the \System32:18467" ADS. In addition, this ADS can't be enumerated by ADS-aware tools since it is protected by the rootkit." The Symantec article is worth reading in full; it really gives you a good idea of the sophistication of modern malware. The news is not all bad; F-Secure has already updated their BlackLight rootkit detector [2] to pick up Rustock.A. The cat and mouse game continues.
[1] http://tinyurl.com/f6wnt (symantec.com)
[2] http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-062006.html#00000907
3.3 Top Anti-Spyware Program Suffers New Version Woes
Am I wrong or is security software quality assurance getting worse? This year we have seen major problems with the release of ZoneAlarm V6, Ewido V4, Trojan Hunter 4.5, CounterSpy 1.5 and now WebRoot SpySweeper V5.0. All are top rated products from respectable companies so it's not just slackness. My guess is that modern security products now overlap so much that interactions with other products have become a severe problem. Whatever, I've uninstalled SpySweeper V5 which caused my PC to slow to the point of uselessness and have gone back to V4.5 which is working like a charm. And I'm not alone.
http://www.castlecops.com/postx162250-0-15.html
3.4 Yet Another Firefox Update
These proactive security updates are coming thick and fast. The latest V1.5.0.6, covers 12 potential flaws, seven of which are rated as critical. The update also includes some improvements to product stability and Dutch language enhancements. To my knowledge there are no current exploits in circulation that utilize any of these flaws. However, it is essential that you update as the baddies routinely reverse engineer security updates to identify flaws to exploit in unpatched machines. Users with Firefox automatic updates enabled should have had the new version automatically delivered and installed. You can check by selecting Help/About from within Firefox. If your version number is less than 1.5.0.6 then update manually from here:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
3.5 Controlling Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Hassles
A couple of months back Microsoft used the Windows Update service to secretly download the Windows Genuine Advantage program (WGA) onto your PC. This program checks to see if you have a genuine copy of Windows. If the WGA program doesn't think you have, then you are plagued with warning messages and worse, your ability to use the Windows Update site is restricted. Now, I have no sympathy for software pirates but I don't like having programs installed on my PC without my permission. Nor apparently do tens of millions of other folks who, like me, have disabled automatic updates and now choose manually which updates to install. But that's not the end of the problem. Apparently the WGA program is wrongly identifying a number of genuine Windows systems as illegal. One report puts this figure as high as 10%, though this sounds way high to me. Microsoft has conceded there have been problems and have issued two updates to the WGA program, again secretly delivered via the Windows Update service. They also have a web page dedicated to problem solving [1]. Many affected users have taken a more direct route and disabled WGA using specially written utilities. Here's a link [1] to one such tool that uses different techniques to remove the WGA depending on the version installed. I have no way of testing this product so use at your own risk.
[1] http://forums.microsoft.com/Genuine/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=442&SiteID=25
[2] http://www.firewallleaktester.com/news.htm#60
----------------- sponsored links -----------------------
The Best Windows Backup Software
We are in the process of updating all the backup reviews at our site but I can tell you right now that the top product has blitzed the field for a second year in row. In fact, it's improved so much that it's now a one horse race for our "editor's choice." The updated review of the top product is now online. If you have been looking for a backup program, this is the one.
http://www.backup-software-reviews.com/
The Best Spyware Detector
PC Magazine 10.31.05 "Webroot's Spy Sweeper 4.5 is the most powerful antispyware tool we've seen yet. Its Comprehensive Removal Technology attempts to remove spyware completely in a single pass, and its behavior-based Active Shields prevent the installation of new threats on the cleaned system. Fancy names aside, our testing shows that the utility really works."
If you use Ad-aware or SpyBot you will be surprised just how more effectively SpySweeper detects and protects your PC from Adware, Spyware, Trojans and other malicious products. It's also one of the few anti-spyware programs that can reliably detect rootkits. Try the free evaluation copy of the new Version 5.0 and see for yourself.
http://www.webroot.com/consumer/products/spysweeper/index.html?acode=af1&rc=1132
The Best Remote Access Software
Our reviewer had given this product category away as "too slow, tool clumsy and too unreliable" but after reviewing this product he's changed his mind; "at long last a remote access solution that actually works! Quite frankly we agree with him, it's an impressive product. Read the full review here:
http://www.pcsupportadvisor.com/best_remote_access_software.htm
The Best Drive Imaging Program
In this race there are really only two runners worth considering. In this review we do an in-depth comparison of the top contenders but in the end, one product is the clear winner.
http://techsupportalert.com/drive-imaging-reviews.htm
Open Workbench is the real thing, not some amateurish, half baked effort. Like Microsoft Project, it is best suited to large scale projects that can justify the considerable time it takes to learn the product. Those with smaller projects may want to consider some of the simpler (and less powerful) alternatives such as GanttPV [2] or ToDoList [3]. Freeware (registration required), Windows 2000 and later, 9.03MB.
[1] http://www.openworkbench.org/index.php
[2] http://www.pureviolet.net/ganttpv/index.html
[3] http://www.codeproject.com/tools/todolist2.asp
2.2 Best Free Screen Capture Utility
My top suggestions in this category have long been PrintScreen [1] and ScreenHunter Lite [2]. The former has the advantage of simplicity while the later has more features. These are both quality freebies that will meet the needs of most people so I haven't really been looking for alternatives. However, after some glowing recommendations from subscribers about FastStone's Screen Capture [3] I decided to check this program out. In a word, it's outstanding. It's small, doesn't require installation and has more features than you could ever want including the ability to capture scrolling screen shots across more than one screen page. It can also save in BMP, JPEG, JPEG2000, PNG, GIF, TIFF and TGA formats. In many ways it's like the full commercial version of ScreenHunter except that it's free for personal use. This one goes straight into my "46 Best-ever Freeware" list. While at the site check out FastStone's Image Viewer [4]. I think it's the best freebie in its class. Its speed is simply sensational; reminiscent of the old ACDSee before it suffered feature bloat.
[1] http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/?prnscr
[2] http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter.htm
[3] http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm Free for personal use, all Windows versions, 1.2MB
[4] http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm Free for personal use, all Windows versions, 2.9MB
2.3 Free Text to Speech Utility
Recently subscriber Jim Powell wrote in to tell me about Dimio's Tool's [1] web site offering a collection of free utilities. When I checked it out I found they were offering a free remote shutdown program, a task manager, folder sync utility and more. But what really caught my eye was DSpeech, a free text to speech and voice recognition program. Unlike other similar utilities DSpeech is small (600KB) and doesn't need to be installed. This makes it ideal for folks who only have an occasional need for text to speech conversion. To use the program you cut and past text into the conversion window and press the "Speak" button. Speech quality is totally dependant on the voices you use. The best voices are commercial products but the site lists some free voices that give quite acceptable quality. Freeware, Windows NT and later, 600KB.
http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/
2.4 Firefox Extension Provides Enhanced Search
Now, how can you go past an extension called "Advanced Dork?" Well, I couldn't and as a result discovered an excellent free tool that performs various advanced Google searches when you right click on any highlighted word or phrase on a web page. The search options include maps, definitions, links, Froogle and a dozen or so more. You can even select which options are displayed in the right click context menu. I use it a lot for finding the meaning of new technical terms as well as locating maps of places unfamiliar to me.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2144/
2.5 Top Free Process Viewer Enhanced
I have several process viewers scattered across my various PCs but the one I find myself using most often is "What's Running" [1]. It's not the most powerful; SysInternal's excellent Process Explorer [2] takes that title. It's not the most informative; WinTasks [3] wins there. It's also slow to load. So why do I use it? Easy: it gives me the information I want in the way I want it. That's because "What's Running" is more than a process viewer, it's an excellent startup manager and port enumerator as well. That means I can just flick between the various tabs to get the full lowdown on what's running on my PC without leaving the product. The latest version 2.2 adds even more functionality to an already powerful product and also offers usability enhancements. The new feature I liked most was the ability to jump from an autostart entry to the running processes created by that entry. Try it, you may like it. Free for personal use, Windows 2000 and later, 1.1MB
[1] http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html
[2] http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/
[3] http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx