Recommended free softwares on internet

If TV is idiot box, what is computer? Well, computer is what you make it to be. If you know how to do stuff, computer is best efficiency machine out there, and if you don’t, it will make you commit suicide, or at least, tempt you enough. I love trying out new softwares and applications and want to list some of the best ones in this post. While these may not be new to anyone who follows technology blogs such as lifehacker.com, they might still provide a good summary of what you didn’t know you could do. I have decided not to provide direct link to these softwares since doing so is too much work for me and you can do no harm with more practice in web search.

Rename Master is amazingly powerful tool to mass rename your files based on variety of rules (ex: append, replace, meta data) and can be useful for organization freaks who like their filenames to have some conformity. EmptyFolderNuker is also simple software which checks your directories for detecting empty folders and deletes them, again useful for cleaning up your drive rather than saving much space. KeePass is recommended tool to store so many types of passwords that one is required to memorize these days. It encrypts database which can use a master password or some file as key. Launchy is also recommended application launcher tool from keyboards. Stop searching your software in long list of ‘All Programs’ and just press few keys to launch programs by their name. Launchy indexes your programs in its search and is intelligent enough to prioritize your frequently used programs in search results. If you ever wanted to record music playing on your computer then Audacity is for you. It is an amazing audio-editor can be used for practically anything and depends merely on your technical skill. SyncBack is tool to backup your data on external drive and it intelligently synchronizes changed files and backs up only modified file. CCleaner is your key to recover hidden spaces in nooks of your hard drive by clearing all junk. Duplicate Cleaner is pretty good software to search for duplicate photo or music files and offers smart delete options. TrueCrypt is tool to password protect important data on your computer. MediaMonkey and Picasa are recommended softwares to organize your music and photographs. ATNotes is great for on-screen post-it notes. Faststone is slick screen capture utility which provides wide functionality. Finally, Wallpaper Master automatically changes wallpaper on your desktop at set interval to bring freshness in your life.

If you use Firefox for your web browsing needs, and you should be, then following extensions and scripts will come handy. Add to Search Bar adds any search box to your browser’s search bar. All-in-One Gestures are latest invention in web navigation where you don’t have to click anything to perform various tasks on webpages. Better GMail 2, Better Youtube, and Better GReader add multiple functionalities to your Gmail, Youtube and Google Reader experience. BugMeNot skips past annoying registration requirements at many websites and Download Statusbar replaces your pop-up download window with slick small bar in status bar location. DownloadThemAll! is best download manager which is great for downloading multiple objects off same page. FEBE is extension to back up all your extensions, profiles, bookmarks, etc. at regular interval. Menu Editor helps you edit your main menu and context menus to clean out unwanted options. Morning Coffee opens up select sites that you regularly open first thing in the morning. PDF Download provides you many options when you click that pdf link in webpage. Read it Later is slick bookmarking tool to mark pages to be read later when you have more time. Tab Mix Plus is a must have extension covering all that you didn’t know you wanted in tabs in Firefox and more. TimeTracker tracks time spent on web, if that makes you feel guilty. Greasemonkey is javascript handler extension for Firefox. Few of my favourite scripts include The Movie Dude (cross-links movie sites), Google Account Multi-Login, Google Image Relinker (links to images directly in image search) and Inline IMDB Ratings (shows rating whenever link to IMDB is provided). Stylish is extension to change look and feel of webpage by modifying style sheets and you can find out more if you so desire.

If you blog, then Windows Live Writer with Dynamic Template plug-in is best desktop blogging client. coComment is service which tracks your comments at other people’s blog so that you don’t miss the conversation without needing to manually check if reply has been made.