Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

JoeP
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by JoeP »

Goshute wrote:I'm interested in recommendations on freeware disk defragmenters for NTFS?
I've been using MyDefrag v4.2.9 on XP & Vista systems. On the Win7 systems at work I've just been letting the builtin defragger run. With the size of todays drives I question the need to worry too much about defragging.

Engineering Windows 7 : Disk Defragmentation – Background and Engineering the Windows 7 Improvements is an interesting post.

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viking33
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by viking33 »

Goshute wrote::jollyroger: I'm interested in recommendations on freeware disk defragmenters for NTFS?
I use Power Defragmenter by Sysinternals\Microsoft on my NTFS disks.It's fast and works fine on XP, Vista and I assume W7. ( even though it doesn't mention W7 )

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Har ... nter.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by JoeP »

viking33 wrote:
Goshute wrote::jollyroger: I'm interested in recommendations on freeware disk defragmenters for NTFS?
I use Power Defragmenter by Sysinternals\Microsoft on my NTFS disks.It's fast and works fine on XP, Vista and I assume W7. ( even though it doesn't mention W7 )

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Har ... nter.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Picking a nit - Power Defragmenter is a GUI front end from RejZoR - Links for the Contig tool from Windows Sysinternals: Documentation, downloads and additional resources.

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viking33
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by viking33 »

JoeP wrote:
Picking a nit - Power Defragmenter is a GUI front end from RejZoR - Links for the Contig tool from Windows Sysinternals: Documentation, downloads and additional resources.


Yeah, OK....??? :scratch:
Last edited by viking33 on 17 Apr 2010, 16:43, edited 2 times in total.
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BobL
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by BobL »

Hi Goshute,
I've been using http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/ and have not had any problems - running on Vista 32.
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by Rudi »

Hi all,

Here is another useful tool for tagging and simple renaming of files...(Excellent for MP3's).

If you want to synchronize tags for ID3v1.1 & ID3v2.x and want to rename files based on these tags, then this simple program is great!! I have been cleaning up my MP3 lists...1000's of songs and wanted to get them all renamed something like <artist> - <title> - <track>. Most of my songs had these tags already, so, all I did was point the program to the folder and set the rule...and hey presto.... all the files were neat and renamed exactly like the rule! AWESOME!!!

See this link for the homepage of the tool and read up on the features (and for the download link): http://massid3lib.sourceforge.net/
Regards,
Rudi

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JoeP
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by JoeP »

viking33 wrote:Yeah, OK....???
It is that PowerDefragmenter is not a Microsoft product. You may as well attribute it to the actual author.

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AlanMiller
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by AlanMiller »

Goshute wrote::jollyroger: I'm interested in recommendations on freeware disk defragmenters for NTFS?
I'm currently trying out Puran Defrag and have been impressed so far. It's the first freeware defragger I've seen that does boot time defrag and free space optimization.

Download Details - Puran Defrag Free Edition
Filename: PuranDefragFreeSetup.exe

File Size: 2.39 MB

Description: Now get a professional defragmenter for your computer at no price at all.
This is Puran Defrag Free Edition which is exactly the same as its commercial version
except you do not need to pay for it.

* Free for private and non-commercial use only.

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Post by AlanMiller »

ClamWin is a Free Antivirus program for Microsoft Windows 7 / Vista / XP / Me / 2000 / 98 and Windows Server 2008 and 2003.
Free Antivirus for Windows - Open source GPL virus scanner

I use a portable version on a USB stick, that came with the free LiberKey - Portable Applications suite. Some of the free AV versions don't offer "on demand" scanning of single files or folders. This one does.

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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by Bigaldoc »

AlanMiller wrote:... Some of the free AV versions don't offer "on demand" scanning of single files or folders.
Just so you know in case you need it, Avast does both selected file and folders.
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HansV
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by HansV »

Microsoft Security Essentials (free) lets you scan selected files and folders too.
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AlanMiller
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by AlanMiller »

HansV wrote:Microsoft Security Essentials (free) lets you scan selected files and folders too.
I've tried this feature, but it always wants to do a "quick" scan first... which can take ages. Maybe I'm missing something?

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AlanMiller
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

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Bigaldoc wrote:Just so you know in case you need it, Avast does both selected file and folders.
I know the Pro version does, but IIRC the free one doesn't. Again, maybe I missed it?

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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by HansV »

When I use this feature, Microsoft Security Essentials just scans the items I selected. With files of a few megabytes, it's almost instantaneous. Large installer files that contain lots of files take a bit of time - a 1.2 GB installer containing over 2,000 files took almost a minute. Perhaps you've never run a quick scan?
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AlanMiller
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by AlanMiller »

You're right as usual. I think the situation might be that it will run a quick system scan if it's been a while since the last one. If not, it scans as you stated. Mine seems more sluggish than your reported times though.

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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by Bigaldoc »

AlanMiller wrote:
Bigaldoc wrote:Just so you know in case you need it, Avast does both selected file and folders.
I know the Pro version does, but IIRC the free one doesn't. Again, maybe I missed it?
Alan, I'm using the free one and my graphic proves that it does scan groups of files or folders.

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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by ABabeNChrist »

Hi, does anyone know of a Free PDF Writer that able to add bookmarks when creating a PDF file. At the moment I’m using PDF Creator 0.9.9 with GPL (FREE), which I really like but does not have a bookmark capability.

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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by HansV »

Word 2007 can produce PDF files with bookmarks from headings or bookmarks. It's not free, of course, but if you already have Office 2007, you don't need additional software.

Alan Miller posted a free solution in the Windows Secrets Lounge some time ago: Word DOC to PDF WITH bookmark tree!, but the link to HTMLDOC is not valid any more. HTMLDOC is now available from <HTML>DOC.
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by jonwallace »

ABabeNChrist wrote:Hi, does anyone know of a Free PDF Writer that able to add bookmarks when creating a PDF file. At the moment I’m using PDF Creator 0.9.9 with GPL (FREE), which I really like but does not have a bookmark capability.
OpenOffice does this quite nicely ( I use it at work for just this task). It co-exists on my work PC with MS Office 2000 and proves to be handy when rude people send us docx files. Available from http://www.openoffice.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (beware of imitators that want you to pay! the scandal!!)
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Re: Best FREE Software (Used and Rated by Loungers)

Post by BobH »

Hans mentioned Mozilla and named Firefox. I'd also nominate Mozilla Thunderbird Thunderbird.

Hans also mentioned Piriform's CCleaner and Tom mentioned Defraggler. I'd like to add Speccy and Recuva from Piriform as well. I especially like Speccy. Piriform


Does anyone have experience with MBR Wizard? It is (shudder) a Master Boot Record manipulation tool that runs from a command line. I'm about to dabble with it and would like to have the benefit of anyone else's experience.
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