VirtualBox

"VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). See "About VirtualBox" for an introduction.

Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.

VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. VirtualBox is a community effort backed by a dedicated company: everyone is encouraged to contribute while Sun ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria."

15 Free Stock Photo Sites

http://sixrevisions.com/resources/15-best-places-for-designers-to-get-free-stock-photos-online/

"I’m not sure if you’ve ever had a look at the prices on some non-stock photography sites (pictures of Gummy bears for $769.00 anyone?), but they reach far beyond the budget of the typical designer/developer. However, many places online allow you to obtain high-quality stock photos for free, giving the average starving artist a chance to create wonderful works of art/design without having to use next month’s rent on stock photos."

KeePass Password Safe

KeePass is a free, open source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager.

What is KeePass?
Today you need to remember many passwords. You need a password for the Windows network logon, your e-mail account, your homepage's FTP password, online passwords (like website member account), etc. etc. etc. The list is endless. Also, you should use different passwords for each account. Because if you use only one password everywhere and someone gets this password you have a problem... A serious problem. The thief would have access to your e-mail account, homepage, etc. Unimaginable.

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish). For more information, see the features page.

Used and recommended by my friend Tony.

Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect is an image backup program. There is a free Edition (for personal use).

Absolutely free! No strings! The only free XP and Vista compatible disk imaging software with BartPE and Linux based recovery options.

• Create a disk image whilst running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS).
• Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD.
• Built in scheduler.
• 32 bit and native 64 bit versions.
• Industry leading compression levels and speed.
• Linux based Rescue CD with Network access and full GUI. Only 6.5MB in size!
• Built in CD/DVD packet writing engine. Supports packet writing to DVD DL media with Windows Vista.
• HTML log files.

Microsoft Security Essentials

"Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times."

Works on XP SP2 and higher.

Openfiler

Openfiler is an open-source "storage management operating system" that takes the Linux OS and makes it into a SAN controller. It can all be configured with a web browser. It can act as both SAN or NAS. It supports multiple iSCSI targets with multiple LUNs.

A Step-By-Step OpenFiler tutorial by David Davis: “Use OpenFiler as your Free VMware ESX SAN Server“ and how to configure for a static IP.

Another free option: StarWind. Their free version supports up to 2TB.

jBidWatcher

Since I'm looking at eBay tonight, another utility: jBidWatcher

A Java-based application allowing you to monitor auctions you're not part of, submit bids, snipe (bid at the last moment), and otherwise track your auction-site experience. It includes adult-auction management, MANY currencies (pound, dollar (US, Canada, Australian, and New Taiwanese) and euro, presently), drag-and-drop of auction URLs, an original, unique and powerful 'multisniping' feature, a relatively nice UI, and is known to work cleanly under Linux, Windows, Solaris, and MacOSX from the same binary.

eBay Desktop

If you like to shop on eBay, give the free eBay Desktop a try. It's faster and has a few useful features that the web-based version does not.

YouTube Comment Snob

YouTube Comment Snob is a Firefox add-on that:

filters out undesirable comments from YouTube comment threads. You can choose to have any of the following rules mark a comment for removal:

• More than # spelling mistakes: The number of mistakes is customizable, and the extension uses Firefox's built-in spell checker.
• All capital letters
• No capital letters
• Doesn't start with a capital letter
• Excessive punctuation (!!!! ????)
• Excessive capitalization
• Profanity

Startup Delayer

Startup Delayer by r2 Studios purports to speed up windows boot-up time. Reviewed by PCWorld and highly rated.

From the r2 web site:

When Windows loads it's Startup file, it attempts to load every program in there at the same time. Therefore if you have quite a lot of programs starting when Windows starts, each program will try and grab CPU time so that it can load.

If each program tries to do this at the same time, you soon notice the slow down that occurs, due to your CPU trying to help all the programs to load, and your hard disk accessing multiple files.

Startup Delayer allows you to setup how many seconds after Windows has started, to load each program.

For Example:
If you have your mail program and a special clock starting up, then you can make your mail start say 10 seconds after Windows has loaded, and then the special clock start 20 seconds after Windows Starts.

Prezi

Prezi - an interesting-looking presentation tool. An interesting and creative PowerPoint alternative? Free, online version.

Balsamiq Mockups

Balsamiq Mockups is both a desktop application and online tool for designing user interface (UI) mockups. It sports a simple and powerful interface that makes for quick UI design and idea communication.

An even better option: iPlotz

R-Studio

"R-Studio is a family of powerful and cost-effective undelete and data recovery software. Empowered by the new unique data recovery technologies, it is the most comprehensive data recovery solution for recovery files from FAT12/16/32, NTFS, NTFS5 (created or updated by Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista), HFS/HFS+ (Macintosh), Little and Big Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris) and Ext2FS/Ext3FS (Linux) partitions. It functions on local and network disks, even if such partitions are formatted, damaged or deleted. Flexible parameter settings give you absolute control over data recovery."

AutoPatcher

This utility purports to streamline the initial patching process for a fresh Windows OS install. You download a whole mess of things and burn them to a CD, then answer some questions and the process is supposed to be fairly automated. I haven't tried it yet but if using a slower internet connection or doing multiple machines this could help a ton.

Panda Cloud Antivirus

Panda Cloud Antivirus is a free, light weight AV system that leverages the internet "cloud" to do its thing. I have tried it on a couple of machines (one with fairly minimal horsepower) and it seems to work well. Currently in beta.

CCCP

The CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) is a DirectShow filter pack.

DiskDigger

DiskDigger is "an all-in-one undelete and recover utility that’s simple, straightforward, easy to use, and most importantly, free!"

DiskDigger can recover files from any type of media that your computer can read. This includes USB flash drives, memory cards (SD, CompactFlash, Memory Stick, etc), and of course your hard drive. The types of files that it recovers include photos, videos, music, documents, and many other formats.

DiskDigger can even scan reformatted or badly formatted disks (disks to which Windows can’t assign a drive letter), and even disks with bad sectors. It bypasses the Windows file system drivers and scans your disk directly. It has its own built-in support for the following file systems: FAT12 (floppy disks), FAT16 (older memory cards), FAT32 (newer memory cards and hard disks), NTFS (newer hard disks), and exFAT (Microsoft’s new successor to FAT32).

DiskDigger is also very compact and portable. The entire program is a single executable file that you can run from anywhere. There’s nothing to “install,” and the program doesn’t leave any trace of having been run.

EveryDNS.net

EveryDNS.net provides free DNS services.

static DNS services as well as many advanced services such as Dynamic DNS
resolution, Secondary service, AXFR service, and domain2web redirection

DriveImage XML

DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives.

This free (for home users) application performs the same task as Ghost; it creates exact hard drive images for archiving or migration.

InfraRecorder

InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

Firefox tweaks that will double your browser speed

Interesting article with some good suggestions.

Conficker eye chart

Use this link to test a machine for Conficker infection:
http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/infection_test/cfeyechart.html

Since the Conficker worm blocks access to certain security sites, this can be used to determine infection. The page above consists of linked images from these security sites. So, if your PC can display the images, it is not infected . . . .

RichCopy

My friend Ron introduced me to a free utility from Microsoft called RichCopy via a TechNet article. It is described as "An advanced alternative to RoboCopy".

From the TechNet article:

RichCopy is a free utility that comes to us from Ken Tamaru of Microsoft. The tool was first developed in 2001 and has been updated regularly to keep pace with evolving needs. Trust me when I tell you, this is the answer to all your file copying needs. What you'll find most striking the first time you take RichCopy out for a spin is that it's a multithreaded copying tool. That means that rather than copying one file at a time in serial order, RichCopy can open multiple threads simultaneously, allowing many files to be copied in parallel and cutting the total time required to complete the operation several times over. You can also pause and resume file copy operations, so if you lose network connectivity at any point, you can just pick up where you left off.

According to this blog post I found, it is blisteringly fast.

15 free downloads to pep up your old PC

"Got an aging Windows laptop or desktop computer, but money's too tight to buy a new one? Fret not. There's plenty of life in your old PC. It may seem sluggish and on the point of expiring, and its hard disk may be nearly full to bursting, but there's plenty you can do to clean it up, speed it up and give it new life."

Link

PDF-XChange Viewer

PDF-XChange Viewer is "smaller, faster, and more feature rich than the Adobe reader". It is free for private and commercial use. Additional features are also available in the pro version that they sell.

In addition to all the standard features here are some of the features available in the PDF-XChange FREE Viewer

• Add Comments and Annotations to any PDF file (subject to security settings) - unlike the Adobe Viewer which requires the PDF creation tool to be 'certified' by Adobe !
• Add & apply Custom Stamps from any Image or PDF File and even your Windows Clip board !
• Mark-up pages with text and objects
• Type directly on any PDF page, not just Adobe enabled forms documents - in Typewriter mode.
• Export PDF pages or entire files to any one of the supported Image formats including BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG and many more ...
• Extract text from a PDF page/File
• Make your navigation of large or complex PDF files both simple and enjoyable with the extended functionality of our 'Loupe' and the 'Pan' Window tools
• Fill and Save Adobe Forms to disk, email or 'post' !
• Full Javascript Engine included
• Updated JPEG2000 Compression support - improving speed.
• Plug-Ins for both MS IE or Firefox Browser's included
• Integrate seamlessly with your favourite translation software to translate text on the 'fly' - including : ABBYY Lingvo 12, Translate It!, Lingoes.
• Includes comprehensive Help file and PDF Manual - no extra downloads required to add features etc.
• Portable version also available - can be run from any suitable device such as a Memory stick/CD/DVD etc - simply unzip and use - no installation required - just 4MB download !

TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is a free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Hard Drive Cloning Utility

http://clonezilla.org/

Open Source alternative to clone utilities such as Norton Ghost, Partition Image, etc.

Drive imaging program, bare metal backup and recovery.

Botched VMware Install or Uninstall

I have had multiple occasions when upgrading VMware Player, Server, etc. where the process goes wrong and leaves me unable to cleanly uninstall or re-install.

It happened again today. This time I was installing VMware Workstation 6.5.1 and it wanted to uninstall Vmware Player first. Well this failed and now I couldn't install either app.

A little digging and I found a knowledge base article: Cleaning Up After Incomplete Uninstallation on a Windows Host

Following the repair steps accomplished nothing but then I noticed this little gem at the bottom: VMware_Install_Cleaner.zip This did the trick and I could then install Workstation. :) Note that for Vista you need to right-click and run as administrator if using UAC.