Description: I recently clean installed Windows XP on my laptop, and this meant that I had to re-install all the essential software that I use. It also presented an opportunity to write a posting about how you can outfit your computer with all the essential (and non-essential) software you need using strictly 100% freeware and/or open source titles.This posting could have been titled any of the following:

• How to never use a paid program again (aside from Windows).
• 53 essential freeware programs that can take care of the majority of your computing needs.

I am writing this from the perspective of myself clean-installing Windows and re-installing all the software I find to be essential afterwards. This post took a long time to write, please Digg and/or Stumble it ;).
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Going on vacation to my native Jordan for 2 weeks, but I will try to post whenever I can. Expect more days between posts though.

In the meantime, check out my for a categorized list of software reviewed on Freewaregenius.
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Rating: 5 pick

Version tested: 0.8

Description: RightLoad adds an entry to your explorer context menu that can be used to quickly upload files to your ftp server (or servers) straight from Windows explorer. It will also automatically generate a list links to the uploaded files that can be easily copied into your post or website.

I upload a lot of images, Wordpress plugins, and other random files to my site, and whenever I need to do so I always find it a bit more work that it should be (even when I really like Filezilla my default FTP client). Which is why I’ve been looking for something like this program for some time now.

From the get-go let me state that I really like RightLoad, for the following reasons:

• The interface: the right-click context menu is really elegant, and employs a tree structure to get you to your desired folder (see screenshot).
• Pre-defined directories: allows you to pre-define all the directories you need that you would typically upload files to. It will also allow you to simply type the name in.
• Automatic thumbnail creation: can optionally create and upload a thumbnail for you whenever you upload an image; you can set the default maximum pixel height and width in the settings, as well as whether or not to add a frame.
• Multiple servers: allows you to define multiple servers that are easy to access from the context menu. This is nice to have if you work with multiple websites and/or servers.
• Generates links: to your files after it is done uploading them, which you can use in the body of your post or website.
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Rating: 4.5

Version tested: 1.0

Description: JelloCar is a free physics game where you drive your car through a world where everything is made out of Jello, including your car, the terrain, and the objects you have to interact with along the way. The objective is to make it to the end of each level while making the best possible time.

I’m always looking for interesting and/or original games, and even before its release when I saw a video of this game in action I knew I had to post it on Freewaregenius (see video below). The reason this game is interesting is the physics engine behind it that models the way these objects would behave to very pleasing effect. Here are some notes on this game:

• Controls: use left/right arrows to go forward/back, and the z and x keys to make your car lean forwards or backwards. Pressing space blows your car up so that it becomes temporarily much larger, which is very useful in many situations where you need to climb over obstacles.
• Objective: is to reach the end of each level (marked by a circular ’target-like’ object) in the best possible time.
• The levels: over 15 levels that in general are well made and interesting, and you can play any level at well without having to finish a level to unlock another.
• The level editor: is included in the download; if you’re into level creation be sure to send your creations to the author.
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Rating: 4.5

Version tested: 1.5

Description: DateInTray installs a small icon in the system tray that displays the day of the month; also displays a quick popup calendar when clicked.

Let’s have a quick show of hands: how many times a day do you place your mouse pointer over the time display in the lower right hand corner in order to get a quick reminder of today’s date?

I know I’m constantly doing this, and if this describes you you might be interested in DateInTray, a program whose main function is simply to place an icon in the system tray that displays the current day of the month. The day is displayed as a single number (so just ’12’ rather than Oct 12). It also can 2 two other little functions as well:

• Double click on the day icon to prompt a display a quick monthly calendar. The nice thing about this is that it remains open until you choose to close it manually.
• Right click and select ’paste date to clipboard’ to copy today’s date to the clipboard.
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Kloonigames is a blog about games, or, I should say, about the games made by Petri Purho of Finland, whose game development philosophy is that any single game should, to quote his site, be made "within a 7-day limit, …. made by me alone and [has to] test some new form of gameplay".

In other words, Mr. Purho has set himself a bunch of constraints that force him to take his games back to basics and to be creative. And his philosophy seems to be paying off; the games are really cool. (Although it seems that he recast his approach to "a game a month" rather than a game a week from the looks of it).

Anyway, make sure to check out the fantastic Crayon Physics (5.6 megs), a truly great game in my opinion. Also download the Extra levels and the Level Editor (also see this posting for a tutorial on how to use the editor). Another game I like is Pluto Strikes Back.

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Rating: 5

Version tested: 2.0.2

Description: Local Website Archive Lite is a program that can take quick snapshots of individual web pages and store them locally on your hard drive. It is intended to provide quick access to information that a user finds on the internet and stores it locally for quick off-line access.

In order to determine what to write on Freewaregenius, I do a lot of research over the internet. I look at a lot of websites, blogs, etc. and often when I find something interesting I need to quickly take a snapshot of a page or article and move on, until a latter time when I can actually sit down to write a posting. Storing the website and/or information locally means that I do not have to do the work of locating the information or webpage twice; it’s also important because much of what I write actually takes place on the bus to and back from work, and in cafes on my lunch break, where internet connectivity is often not available. In these situations, having the research that I need stored on my hard drive is simply a lifesaver.

Local Website Archiver does exactly that. It downloads most of the elements of a normal webpage including layout, text, and images. It does not load multimedia objects such as flash animations, videos, etc. Here are some notes on this program:

• Browser integration: will integrate itself as a button within your browser’s toolbar, as an entry in the browser’s context menu, or as a handy shortcut within the quick launch tray.
• Source URL: Keeps a record of the original URL whence the page was captured (as well as the date of capture).
• Search: offers a powerful search functionality. You can search within a page, within a folder, within a selected folder recursively, or within all folders.
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Martin from Ghacks posted a curious post called “Blog Feed Dependencies“. The idea was to list his top 10 tech blogs and to get these blogs to post a similar story with linkbacks to his original posting. In theory the idea (if I understand it correctly) is to facilitate the creation of some sort network of tech blogs connected by linkbacks to each other.

I’m not sure about the reality vs. the theory, though, but I figure posting a list of my top 10 blogs is a good idea, so here goes. If your blog is listed here do think about posting a “top 10 tech blogs” postings and linking back to this article.

My top 10 (actually 11) tech/software blogs in ALPHABETICAL order (note that only blogs were considered).

• Appaholic: He’s an Appaholic. He also has some cool freeware reviews
• Confessions of a Freeware Junky Detailed reviews of freeware programs
• CyberNET News: prolific output combined with great software discoveries.
• DonationCoder: Excellent forum for everything related to software. Excellent donationware software to be had as well.
• Download Squad: an essential and enjoyable, read.
• Ghacks: Interesting blog for tech and freeware news and reviews.
• Jonathan’s tool bar and grill: Jonathan writes about software in detail and with a lotta love.
• LifeHacker: This blog is what techies would write if they (a) aspired to be cool, and (b) were obsessed with GTD (the Getting Things Done methodology).
• MakeUseOf: what you get when you combine good content with an apparent affinity for making lists.
• Mashable: web 2.0 galore. An essential news source.
• SimpleHelp: This blog has tech and software news and reviews. Features occasional software comparisons that are very detailed and well thought out. Read more »

Rating: 5 pick

Version tested: 1.7.0.7502

Description: Returnil creates a virtual system on your machine that completely mirrors your actual setup. It is designed to take the risk out of exposing your machine to all manner of software, websites, downloads, or anything else that might have adverse effects on your machine or infect it with malware. Once restarted, your system will revert back to its original state and all changes to your primary partition will disappear. It’s free for home users.

Don’t let this whole “virtualization” business put you off; aside from having a name that sounds like a pharmaceutical, Returnil is a very simple software to use that works really well. You can think of it as a system-wide “undo” function; once you turn it on, you can do whatever you want with your system; all changes to your primary partition will be temporary and will disappear when you restart the computer.

Here’s how to use this software:

1. Install Returnil: a very simple process. The only decision that is out of the ordinary is the option to create a virtual partition (the program will not need this partition, but you might; see point #4 below). During installation you can also set a master password to restrict access to the program.
2. Turn Returnil’s protection on, when you need to; no actual changes will occur on your primary partition once this happens; from this point onward everything occurs on a “virtual” copy of your system.
3. Do what you need to do: e.g. surf those dodgy internet sites, or install that piece of software that you want to test, or open the files you need to open, etc.
4. Save your data: you will have to save any files you are working with someplace other than the primary partition (e.g. a secondary partition, a thumbdrive, or upload your files on the internet, etc.) Or let Returnil create a virtual partition for you; its purpose is precisely to provide a place for you to save your data when protection mode is turned on, and you can set any size you want for it that you have space for on your hard drive. Any files/data saved on the primary partition will eventually be lost.
5. Restart the system: this is the only way ro turn Returnil’s protection off. Once this happens, any changes that happened when system protection was on will be gone; your system will look exactly the way it looked before you started.
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Version tested: 1.0.0.36791

Description: Jzip is a free compression utility based on 7-Zip. It features the same reliability, high compression ratios, and speed that 7Zip provides with an enhanced user interface.

Jzip is based on the open source 7-Zip, which delivers the 2 most important features you would want out of a compression program (a) very high compression ratios, meaning that your compressed files created with this program will be as small or smaller in size than many comparable compression programs out there, and (b) excellent compression speed. (For comparisons of a number of archive programs see this great comparative review of zip utilities on Donationcoder).

The most consistent criticism of 7zip has always been its rudimentary interface, and Jzip offers the kind of user friendly interface for managing files/archives that 7-Zip’s interface lacks (and that is offered by many archive utilities); such as:

• Display folder trees on the left-pane, explorer-style.
• Create folders/subfolders and drag files into these from within the Jzip interface.
• Switch between icon, thumbnail, list and detail view, explorer style.
• File sorting. Also supports sorting by clicking on column headers in detail view.
• Wildcard select (e.g. select all .jpg files within an archive)
• The ability to view compressed files without having to extract them from the archive first. Read more »

Rating: 4.5

Version tested: 1.0b

Description: Perfect Battle Online is a free 3D action/strategy game that combines elements of a Real Time Strategy game with top-down fighting action. It offers single player battles against the computer or multiplayer over LAN or the internet with up to 8 players.

This game implements all the elements that would classify it as a Real Time Strategy game (an economoy, structures that you can build, tech research), but in a very simple, straightforward way that keeps the focus on the frantic fighting action.

There is only a single resource (gold) that you can collect, 3 structures (see below), and just a handful of technology upgrades. This makes “Perfect Battle Online” the kind of game that you can instantly get into with only a very small learning curve. Here are some notes on this game:

• Objectives: in general the objective is either to destroy all other players (or at least be the only surviving player), or, if not, to score the most points before time runs out. However, when playing in campaign mode you are given specific objectives to carry out (e.g. survive for 8 minutes, destroy all enemy factories, etc.)
• Units: aside from your main ship you have other, smaller ships that set forth and fight on their own without the player’s intervention. These ships are constantly being produced in factories; typically you will start the game with a handful of these factories surrounding your base, and while you cannot build more of these you can upgrade them as well as capture them from other players.
  The terrain: although the objects in the game are apparently 3 Dimensional, the game is viewed top-down 2D style from above. Maps occupy a single screen or can be large scrolling maps. Each map will contain its own geography of mountains and other objects that act as natural barriers.
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Rating: 4

Version tested: 1.1.42

Description: Text Mining Tool is a free program that can extract text from PDF, DOC, RTF, CHM and HTML files without needing to have any other installed programs that open these files such as MS Word or a PDF reader.

If you ever need to extract text out of any of the above mentioned file formats you can use Text Mining Tool to do so quickly and easily. All you have to do is load the source file and it will extract the text and display it for you, afterwhich you can either save the text file or copy it into the clipboard.

Of course, you can always use a free program such as OpenOffice to open and edit a number of these formats, and many PDF readers allow you to select text from the PDF file and copy it into the clipboard. However, if you don’t want to install any programs or have to open these programs and then manually go through the process of grabbing the text, Text Mining Tool can do it all for you in a single click.
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Have you ever been surfing the net with IE and ended up on a page that is stuck in a frame from another site? Typically in these instances the URL being shown is that of the framing website, with a frames scrollbar surrounding the page whose content you are viewing (which is actually the page you are interested in).

In some instances framing sites provide a way for the user to click out of the frame and onto the ’real page’, but in many cases they do not, which can be really annoying. Wouldn’t be great if there was a single simple button you could push to ’de-frame’ a site?

Well, there is. Here’s how to do it with an (unfortunately named) free program called IECrap.
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Rating: 4.5

Version tested: 1.1.0.6

Description: PatchOnClick is a freeware program that enables you to create patches that can modify your file or document and transform it into a more recent version of that file or document. It is well suited to modify large files that are sent over email, the internet, or a network, without having to resend the entire file.  

Let’s say that you have a 50 meg MS Word document that consists of 300 pages. Let’s say, furthermore, that you sent this document to someone by email, but that after you did this you changed a few sentences and added a single page. Instead of re-sending your friend the entire document, wouldn’t it be great if you could send him/her a small 1-2 meg patch file that would simply append the older file and bring it up to speed? This is what PatchOnClick is designed to do (and it does it for ANY type of document).

Here are some notes on this program:

• The user interface: is simplicity itself; consists of 2 buttons: “create a patch file” is where the program looks at version A and version B and creates a file to update A to become B. The other button, “Patch a file”, is what you press in order to make the transformation happen. VERY easy to use.
• How it works: you need both the older and newer versions of a file on your hard drive simultaneously; PatchOnClick will read both and generate a patch file. A person who wants to apply the patch needs the older version (A) of the file, the patch file, and also needs to have PatchOnClick installed on their machine to apply the patch.
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Rating: 5

Version tested: 1.0.1

Description: Any Audio Converter is a freeware program that can convert a wide range of audio files into MP3, WMA, ACC, or OGG audio format. It can also demux (extract) audio tracks from most video files, including FLV and DVD video VOB files, and provides a preview screen where you can set beginning and end points for audio extraction from a video.

While you can perform audio format conversions another using a number of applications (e.g. a CD ripper such as BonkEnc, an audio player such as Mediamonkey, or even the context-menu based DMSI), there are a number of reasons why you should download and use Any Audio Converter, as follows:

• Converts audio files and demuxes video files as well.
• Broad range of supported input formats (although some audio formats are conspicuously absent): MP3, WMA, WAV, WMV, ASF, VOB, MPG, DV, M1V, M2V, MOV, MPEG-4, 3GP, RM, RMVB and FLV. Supported output formats: MP3, WMA, AAC and OGG. Not supported: FLAC, OGG input, APE, M4A/M4B, (Itunes formats).
• Supports FLV; (for all of you downloading tracks from music sharing sites in FLV format and not knowing what to do with them, Any Audio Converter is what you need).
• Converts files in batches (including videos).
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