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Free Software


Are your applications up to date? If you're running old versions of Firefox, Adobe Flash or Acrobat Reader then you're leaving yourself wide open to hackers - regardless of your anti-virus system! Secunia Personal Software Scanner will show you where your system is vulnerable and what needs updating.

FREE Spyware, Adware, Malware Removal : MalwareBytes (this is the most effective) - Lavasoft AdAware - SpyBot Search & Destroy - AVG Anti-Spyware .

AVG Anti-Virus - free for personal use, and now available for Windows & Linux. Great for keeping a clean system protected. Avast is also a perfectly good free anti-virus package.

Firewalls - Comodo Firewall - Another essential for XP & Vista, blocks unauthorised access to your machine while using the Internet. We also like Sunbelt Software's Personal Firewall.

Firefox : Now at version 4. A great alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. We also like the Noia Theme pack.
Useful free plug-in extensions for Firefox are NoScript, Flashblock & Adblock Plus.

Thunderbird : Open-source email application. Features anti-phishing, auto updates and junk email filtering - a great alternative to Microsoft's Outlook Express.

Open Office 3 - Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Database & Presentation package. Automatically reads and writes in Microsoft Office file formats. A great - FREE - alternative to Microsoft's Office suite. Even lets you create PDF files. V3 now natively supports .docx formats too. Also, check out LibreOffice.

Google Docs - Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation and Form package - all in your Web Browser. Automatically reads and writes in Microsoft Office file formats. A great - FREE - alternative to Microsoft's Office suite with all your Documents stored in 'The Cloud' - so you can work on them anywhere.

Meebo.com - Access your Instant Messaging account through your web browser.

VLC Media Player - Multi-platform media player. Plays nearly all Video & Music files. Good for Divx and Xvid movies etc.

Handbrake - Convert Video files for use on iPods, PSPs and YouTube.
Need to get your old VHS cassettes onto a Windows 7 PC? Buy our Video-2-PC Kit for just £33.95

The GIMP - Free image manipulation software for Windows with 'Photoshop-like' functionality.

Inkscape - Open source freehand drawing program for Windows with 'Illustrator-like' functionality.

Irfanview - Superb free image manipulation software - great for quickly reducing photo sizes for eBay & optimizing JPEG images for web pages.

VNC Virtual Network Computing - Remotely control another PC from you own, either over your local network or via the internet, for FREE. Now you can fix a friends PC without leaving the house, nice...
Even easier still, use Crossloop and you won't have to faff about with your Firewall.

Audacity V1.3.11 - lets you manipulate audio files for free. Ideal for cutting & splicing WAV files, etc. Useful for splitting captured Vinyl records into separate tracks . You'll also need the Lame Encoder to save MP3s. If you want to buy a complete Vinyl, Tape & MD transfer kit - with leads, adapters, instructions & videos for just £11.95 - checkout Vinyl-2-PC.co.uk - works with Windows 7, Vista & XP.

Free CD Ripper - Rips CDs for FREE! - automatically looks up track names from CDDB & rips tracks fast.

InfraRecorder - Burns CDs and DVDs for FREE! - Simple open-source disc writing application, a useful alternative to Nero. Happily burns .iso images, too.

Skype - Talk to family in other countries for free over the internet.

How secure is your system against hackers? Take a free test with Shields Up and Norton Security Check - both utilities will expose your machines potential vulnerabilities.

Need to clone a hard drive? Download a trial version of Acronis True Image (for Windows) or for a Linux Live-CD Cloning solution checkout Clonezilla. Also, checkout the FREE Linux based live-cd equivalent of Partition Magic: Gparted. Superb for moving, resizing & cloning hard drive partitions.

Getting rid of a PC? Wipe that drive! It could stop you being a victim of identity theft - BBC report here
  • Driver Magician Lite - Backup crucial hardware drivers before reloading Windows.
  • Killdisk - Will do a single pass HD wipe for free. Floppy or CD.
  • Dban project - Secure multiple pass drive wipe - for free. Bootable floppy or CD.
  • Disk Investigator - Now check your drive really IS full of Zeroes!
  • Eraser - Will securely wipe a file/folder or 'alleged' blank drive space.


    Fed up with Windows? Switch to Linux: Ubuntu (our current favourite) is an easy-to-install distribution, that can also be run directly from the CD. It comes with the Firefox web browser, Open Office, photo editing & CD playing/ripping/writing software, as standard.

    Backtrack Security Collection - All the WiFi & Bluetooth 'security' apps you could ever need - on a Linux Live-CD.

    GnuPG - Gnu Privacy Guard. FREE PGP style encryption for your private emails & files.
    Windows Version - GnuPG Homepage - Wikipedia Entry.

    Hushmail - Don't like the idea of the 'Spooks' trawling through your email traffic?
    Hushmail is web based email, but with a secure certificate that encrypts all traffic.

    Show Traffic - monitor all traffic passing through your ethernet card. See where all that outgoing net traffic is destined for. Input an IP address & Global IP locator will show you where they are.

    Anonymize your internet browsing with TOR - The Onion Ring - from the EFF. It integrates seamlessly into the Firefox browser. Just click the TOR button & you're browsing anonymously.

    Managing a Webserver? Try these useful tools: Filezilla A free FTP app. - PuTTY a Free Telnet/SSH client- WinSCP a Secure FTP app.

    AltaVista BabelFish - Just like Douglas Adam's fictional Babelfish, this site quickly converts one European language to another. Great for eBayers dealing with customers throughout Europe. This one's been around a while, but I just needed it and figured someone else might too!

    Mac-on-a-stick - Run an old version of Mac OS from a USB memory stick under Windows XP, more here. Also, if the ROM image doesn't work quite right, go here for a good one :)

    Old Apple Macintosh Page, with links to software, here.

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    Free Software - Fun Stuff - International Directory Enquiries

    Fun Stuff!


    TV on Demand - BBC iPlayer - ITV Player - Channel 4 - Channel 5 - Sky TV.

    Newspapers Online - The Guardian - The Times & Sunday Times - The Independent - The Mail and Mail on Sunday - New York Times.

    Geek News Online - The Register - Slashdot - Computer Weekly - Wired Magazine - New Scientist - The Onion.

    Monkey Magazine - FREE weekly mens magazine delivered directly to your desktop, courtesy of those kindly souls at Dennis Publishing. We wouldn't be without our Monkey fix!

    Ever fancied combining your love of Cats and Clay-Pigeon Shooting? Just click here - make sure your speakers are turned on! Miaow, Miaow, BANG! ...

    Mini Golf - 18 holes of crazy golf courtesy of puffgames.com

    Space Invaders - No need to insert coin, play for free - plays just like the original.

    Walk the drunk home game here. Can you keep him upright?

    Play Scramble - the 1980's arcade classic. This game once ate all my pocket money. This Java version seems to use the original ROM.

    Treat yourself to a reality check at Anxiety Culture - guaranteed to save you money!

    WikiPedia the free encyclopedia. Superb online resource, much easier than trawling through Google results for knowledge searches.

    Google Earth - This great application lets you zoom in on your house from space. Also, Google Mars now available here

    The Idler - quarterly magazine printed in paperback book format. Full of idle musings, which make us laugh out loud. They even fielded a winning team on 'University Challenge The Professionals' - so not that idle after all!

    New Scientist Magazine - Nowhere near as dull as you might think! Stimulate your brain for free. Many regular newspapers 'borrow' their science stories from these pages.

    The Ecologist Magazine - another good read, with lots of articles you won't come across in the mainstream media.

    Build your own replica Apple 1 - The first Apple ever built by Steve Wozniak, in the garage back in 1976, only 200 were ever made and they change hands for fortunes. This book, Apple I - Replica Creation, shows you how. Also, buy a complete kit to build your own, or even buy one ready assembled at Applefritter. Great if you miss the days of soldering together your own ZX81!

    • The Obsolete Computer Museum, go here to see the machines that first got TR and many others into Computers & Electronics. See 25 year old Apple Macintoshes that ran windowed operating systems in just 128K of memory, then laugh all night long at your Wintel crapola! Yes, the Mac really is 25 years old this year! Read more here

    Knowledge is Power (apparently), CIA Factbook unleashes the power, find out obscure facts about all countries of the planet, free with the CIA!

    Want to go back 100 years?? 1901 Census Online trace your relatives via the Census of 1901, now being made available online. Also look at www.ancestry.com Which has a certain amount of free information & a paid for service.

    www.howthingswork.com, very comprehensive site featuring items as diverse as hairdryers to fuel cells.

    www.streetmap.co.uk, get in-depth roadmaps for the whole of the UK, just supply a postcode.

    Royal Mail Postcode Finder check an address by postcode, or vice-versa.
    Visit Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, practical joker & über hacker.


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    Free Software - Fun Stuff - International Directory Enquiries

    People Finder Information

    UK Electoral Roll Search - Search electoral roll, marriages, deaths and property records online @ good prices!

    192.com - Finder for UK people, businesses, and electoral roll & company information. Basic info is free.

    VehicleLicence.gov.uk - Enter a UK car registration and make, to see if it's taxed or not.
    (just select Vehicle Enquiry from the menu)

    CheckSure - Find out how many company directorships an individual holds (plus year of birth & address) for free - just enter a name.

    Companies House - Then find all their company information for just £1 per document.

    United Kingdom Directory Enquires available on-line here, find residential subscribers by name & location, also other BT services
    USA Directory Enquires available on-line here, find residential subscribers by name & location all over the good old US of A
    German Directory Enquires available on-line here, find residential subscribers by name & location all over Germany
    New Zealand Directory Enquires available on-line here, find residential subscribers by name & location all over NZ
    Canada Directory Enquires available on-line here, find residential subscribers by name & location all over Canada
    Bermuda Directory Enquires available on-line here, find residential subscribers by name & location all over Bermuda
    Greek Directory Enquires available on-line here, find residential subscribers by name & location all over Greece (in greek)
    Australian Directory Enquires available on-line here, find residential subscribers by name & location all over OZ

    And finally, what you really came for
    www.driverzone.com
    all the drivers you'll ever need



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