Cool Free Stuff

Here's a look at the Computerworld staff's favorite no-cost software

By Computerworld staff

December 21, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch -- at least when it comes to software. Not every piece of freeware is of value, of course, but over the years, we've found some real gems.

Here, Computerworld reporters, editors, developers and IT staff share our favorite no-cost software downloads. From graphics applications to utilities to fun stuff -- whether you run Windows, Linux or Mac -- there's surely something here you'll want to try!

Graphics

Application: Irfanview

What it is: Lightweight image viewer/manipulator

Why we like it: Small, free, fast. Allows cropping, scaling and color adjustment. Has a slide-show function, a "Set as Wallpaper" function and a nice screen-capture utility built in.

Platform: Windows

Where to get it: www.irfanview.com

Recommended by: Peter Smith, lead developer

Application: Easy Thumbnails

What it is: Batch resizer of graphics files

Why we like it: Lots of software can resize a photo -- and if you want to crop, remove red eye or otherwise fiddle with an image, this isn't the application for you. But if all you want to do is resize a dozen or two holiday photos to post on the Web, this is definitely worth a download. Easy Thumbnails does one thing and one thing only, but it's simple, quick and pain-free.

Platform: Windows

Where to get it: www.fookes.com/ezthumbs

Recommended by: Sharon Machlis, online managing editor

Utilities

Application: Google's Desktop Search

What it is: It searches Web pages, Outlook and Microsoft Office files, saved AOL instant messages and text files on a local hard drive.

Why we like it: It's vastly better than the search tool in Microsoft Windows. It's very fast and gives detailed results in a format similar to Google's Internet search engine. Thumbnails of Web pages are shown. It can be used to delete files. A major limit is its inability to search Lotus Notes. There's probably some nasty security risk involved in using this tool (in fact, we published an article about one yesterday [see story]), but for now it's well worth the free download.

Platform: Windows

Where to get it: desktop.google.com

Recommended by: Patrick Thibodeau, senior editor

Application: MenuMeters 1.2

What it is: Preference pane for Mac OS X

Why we like it: MenuMeters places icons that give Mac OS X users information on how their computers are working. It shows disk activity, network traffic and throughput, memory use, paging activity and CPU use. The icons can be stylized to fit your Menu bar and can be reordered, allowing Macintosh users to monitor how their computers are doing at a glance.

Platform: Macintosh OS X 10.2 or later

Where to get it: www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters

Recommended by: Ken Mingis, online news editor

Application: Temperature Monitor 2.3

What it is: Internal temperature tracker for most recent Apple Computer Inc. computers

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