The Best Free Software – Part 3
CD/DVD Tools: ImgBurn, bitRipper, CDex, DVDShrink
Pictures and Photos: Paint.NET, FastStone Image Viewer,IrfanView, GIMP, PhotoScape, Google Picasa
Backup Tools: FBackup, EASEUS Todo Backup Home, Clonezilla, SyncBack Freeware
Download Managers: uTorrent, Deluge, YouTube Downloader HD
CD/DVD TOOLS
ImgBurn
ImgBurn supports a wide range of image file formats – including BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI. It can burn Audio CD’s from any file type supported via DirectShow / ACM – including AAC, APE, FLAC, M4A, MP3, MP4, MPC, OGG, PCM, WAV, WMA and WV. You can use it to build DVD Video discs (from a VIDEO_TS folder), HD DVD Video discs (from a HVDVD_TS folder) and Blu-ray Video discs (from a BDAV / BDMV folder) with ease. It’s a very flexible application with several advanced features that are often lacking in other tools, especially when it comes to burning DVD Video discs. It supports all the latest drives without the need for updates (including booktype / bitsetting / advanced settings on many of the major ones – i.e. BenQ, LiteOn, LG, NEC, Plextor, Samsung, Sony). Download ImgBurn Here!
bitRipper
bitRipper is FREE DVD to AVI software that allows you to back-up your DVD’s as AVI files on the hard drive. It can be used for one-click ripping as good as for advanced modes. You are free to choose whether to use default configuration values or to set them manually. There are all necessary settings available:
- Video and audio codecs configuration
- Video resolution and aspect ratio
- Sound track language and sound value normalization
- Variety of actions to be performed after the copying process is completed
- Includes 3rd party decryption module for CSS protected DVDs
CDex
CDex- Convert Audio CD to WAV or MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) files. Convert WAV file to Compressed Audio File.Extract CD track to Compressed Audio File.CDex v.1.51. Cdex is a is utility which can extract Digital Audio (DA) tracks from an Audio CD into files on the hard disk. The extracted audio tracks can be stored as WAV or MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) files. Cdex is a is utility which can extract Digital Audio (DA) tracks from an Audio CD into files on the hard disk. The extracted audio tracks can be stored as WAV or MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) files.
DVDShrink
DVDShrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc. DVDShrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero. You can also download a demo version of Nero here. If you already possess alternative burning software and prefer to stick with it, then you can still use DVD Shrink. The output from DVDShrink can be saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn with software of your choice.
Download DVDShrink Here!
PICTURES AND PHOTOS
Paint.NET
Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP. Download Paint.NET Here!
FastStone Image Viewer
FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches the four edges of the screen. Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF and DNG).
Download FastStoneImage Viewer Here!
IrfanView
IrfanView is a very fast, compact and innovative FREEWARE image viewer/converter for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. IrfanView is fast and small, with extremely low system resources requirements. It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.
Supported file formats: AIF, ANI/CUR, ASF, AU/SND, AVI, AWD, B3D, BMP/DIB, CAD formats, CLP, DDS, Dicom/ACR, DJVU, ECW, EMF/WMF, EPS/PS/PDF/AI, EXR, FITS, FPX (FlashPix), FSH, G3, GIF, HDR, HDP/WDP, ICO/ICL/EXE/DLL, IFF/LBM, IMG (GEM), JLS, JPG2000, JPG, JPM, KDC, MED, MID/RMI, MNG/JNG,OV, MP3, MPG, MrSID, NLM/NOL/NGG, OGG, PBM/PGM/PPM, PCX/DCX, PhotoCD, PNG, PSD, PSP, PVR, RAS/SUN, RAW, Real Audio (RA), RLE, SFF, SFW, SGI/RGB, SWF/FLV, TGA, TIF, TTF, TXT, WAD, WAV, WBMP, WSQ, XBM, XPM, CRW/CR2, VTF, DNG, NEF, ORF, RAF, MRW, DCR, X3F, PEF, SRF, EFF, DXF, DWG, HPGL, CGM, SVG, WBC/WBZ, etc.
Some features: Multi language support, Thumbnail option, slideshow, fast directory browsing, batch conversion/editing, multipage editing, file search, email, print, Paint plugin – to paint lines, circles, arrows, straighten image etc., support for color profiles, change color depth, scanning, OCR, cut/crop, IPTC edit, capturing, lossless JPG operations, effects (sharpen, blur, Adobe Photoshop filters), EXE/SCR creating, Unicode support, many hotkeys, many command line options, 50+ plugins … Microsoft Media Player PlugIn: allows IrfanView to read following formats: ASF, AU/SND/AIF, AVI, MID/RMI, MOV, MP3, MPG/MPEG, WAV, WMA, WMV. Support for Apple QuickTime (PlugIn): allows IrfanView to read following formats: MOV, QTIF, Mac PICT, FLI/FLC. IrfanView was the first Windows graphic viewer (worldwide) with Animated-GIF support ! Download IrfanView Here!
GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It is a powerful piece of software with capabilities not found in any other free software product. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert-quality photo-retouching program, an online batch-processing system, a mass production image renderer, or an image-format converter. GIMP is modular, expandable, and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image-manipulation procedures to be easily scripted. GIMP – Windows Download | GIMP Mac Download
PhotoScape
Photoscape is a fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos. Key Features:
* Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a slideshow
* Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
* Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos
* Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo
* Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo
* Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo
* Print: Print portrait shots, carte de visites(CDV), passport photos
* Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces
* Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
* Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color
* Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
* Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
* Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper
* Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet
Google Picasa
Transfer, find, organize, edit, print, and share images, all with this easy-to-use product. Watch Picasa automatically organize all your pictures into elegant albums by date. Having all your photos in one place means no more time wasted searching for folders or files. The program works with JPEG, GIF, BMP, PSD, and movie files and is compatible with most digital cameras; it detects your USB driver and imports pictures into albums. Editing tools include cropping (standard or custom), removal of red-eye, and enhancing–even switching from color to black and white. Download Google Picasa Here!
BACKUP TOOLS
FBackup
Once a backup job is defined you can run it manually by pressing the Backup button (or F6), or if you added a scheduler it will run automatically. FBackup can easily back up sources from local drives (including USB connected drives) to destinations such as USB/Firewire connected devices or mapped network locations. It creates either standard zip files (when using the full backup type), or exact copies of the original sources without any compression (using the mirror backup type).
EASEUS Todo Backup Home
EASEUS Todo Backup Home is a free and easy-to-use backup software for home users to back up photos, music, videos, documents, etc. It is an award-winning solution for a good reason: with detailed instruction wizards, your system, files, folders, videos, music will be in a safe condition within minutes without the help of an IT specialist.
Most of all, it is free to use! Main features of EASEUS Todo Backup Home: System Backup and Recovery: Backs up entire system state including the operating system and installed applications on-the-fly without interrupting your work under Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7. It will enable you to get the system up in time after crash. File and Folder Backup: Backs up specified files, folders or file types in case of virus attack, hard disk failure, or deletion by accident, etc. Files in use can also be backed up.
All your documents, pictures, music, video, personal and financial data can be well protected. Download EASEUS Todo Backup Home Here!
Clonezilla
You’re probably familiar with the popular proprietary commercial package Norton Ghost®. The problem with these kind of software packages is that it takes a lot of time to massively clone systems to many computers. You’ve probably also heard of Symantec’s solution to this problem, Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition® with multicasting. Well, now there is an OpenSource clone system (OCS) solution called Clonezilla with unicasting and multicasting!
Clonezilla, based on DRBL, Partclone and udpcast, allows you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Two types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. Download Clonezilla here!
SyncBack Freeware
Easily backup, synchronize, or restore your files to another drive, FTP server, ZIP file, networked drive, or removable media. Highly configurable, SyncBack includes: detailed and easy to read log files; email results; simulated backups and restore; file filters; sub-directory selection; copy verification; background backups; auto-close of programs; easy and expert modes; profile groups; compare files, and an extensive context sensitive help file. As well as English, SyncBack is also available in French, German, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Hungarian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Japanese, Danish and Finnish.
Download SyncBack Freeware Here!
DOWNLOAD MANAGERS
uTorrent
uTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients. Various icon, toolbar graphic and status icon replacements are available, and creating your own is very simple. µTorrent also has support for localization, and with a language file present, will automatically switch to your system language. If your language isn’t available, you can easily add your own, or edit other existing translations to improve them! Download uTorrent Here!
Deluge
Deluge is a full-featured BitTorrent client for Windows, Linux. It uses libtorrent in it’s backend and features multiple user-interfaces including: GTK+, web and console. It has been designed using the client server model with a daemon process that handles all the bittorrent activity. The Deluge daemon is able to run on headless machines with the user-interfaces being able to connect remotely from any platform.
Deluge features a rich plugin collection; in fact, most of Deluge’s functionality is available in the form of plugins.
YouTube Downloader HD
Download videos from YouTube, FaceBook, Google, Yahoo, Bing, Vevo and many others and convert them to other video formats. Now supports HQ and HD video download too.
The program is easy to use, just specify the URL for the video you want to download and click the Download button. It also allows you to convert downloaded videos for iPod, iPhone, PSP, Cell Phone, Windows Media, XVid and MP3. You can use YouTube Downloader to download the videos of your choice from home, at the office or in school.
Download YouTube Downloader now and get started downloading your favorite videos from YouTube. Built-in FLV video player lets you play videos you have downloaded on your computer with no other programs required. Supports authentication for downloading FaceBook videos and restricted YouTube videos. Download videos from more than 50 sites.