Thursday, September 10, 2009

Freebies I Recommend

I know it's been forever since I've posted on this blog. Today I'm going to list a few freebie programs that I have installed on my own laptop and have found very useful.

1. PrimoPDF

This is a great little program for creating PDFs from Microsoft Word or other word processing programs. It acts as a printer, but instead of printing to a physical device it outputs the file to a PDF. Of course, make sure you have a program to read it (like Adobe Reader).

2. LogonStudio Vista

Tired of the Vista welcome screen? Here's a fun fix that allows you to create your own background. I prefer to use pictures. It makes the "welcome" to Vista a little less painful.

3. Active@ ISO Burner

There are a lot of free ISO burning programs available, but this is the one I've used most extensively. Burn ISO images to CD or DVD easily and quickly. I've used it for live CDs such as Ubuntu, Gparted, and Clonezilla, as well as operating systems and other bootable images.

4. Revo Uninstaller

I don't know about you, but I don't like how uninstalling programs from Add/Remove Programs (in XP) or Programs and Features (in Vista) doesn't completely erase the program and all the folders/files it created. Revo Uninstaller was a great solution for me. I use it whenever I'm uninstalling something. It goes all the way down to the registry and finds everything the program created, to erase it. I can't absolutely guarantee that it won't mess something up on your computer, because deleting registry entries is always a little risky. But it's never failed for me.