FREE SOFTWARE and where to find
it
Software can be expensive; very
often a single-copy license can cost much more than what you paid for your
computer. Thankfully, there are bona fide internet resources from where you can
get free and legal software that meet your needs.
NINITE
If you have bought a new
computer, Ninite is a one-stop shop that allows you to install
a whole bunch of utilities and tools in a single swoop. On its main page, you
will find over 80 titles in categories such a web browsers, media players,
photo imagers, office productivity suites, security tools, and utilities.
Select whatever software you want,
and Ninite creates a single installation file which you will
need to download and run. From here on, the service does the rest. It picks the
right 32- or 64-bit version of the software for your PC and it even opts out of
third-party toolbars and add-on prompts that appear in the middle of an
installation process.
The Ninite installer
even updates the software you’ve chosen. Just run it every few months to
download and install their latest stable versions.
ninite.com
FILE HIPPO, FILE PUMA & FILE HORSE
Between these three websites, you
can find software for each and every computing task you can think of.
File Hippo divides its downloads into 18 categories, including antivirus,
compression tools, file sharing, office productivity and photo imaging. On its
main page, it carries a list of its ‘Top 10’ most popular downloads. It also
has a section for business software, where you can find programs for
accounting, project management, sales, marketing and human resources. The
website even has a ‘Reviews’ section, and we recommend you browse through its
contents to discover new and useful programs.
File Puma is similar to File Hippo in its offerings. Only,
here, on its homepage itself, you get an upfront listing of the top six
software in each category.
Both, websites have free
downloadable tools – the File Hippo App Manager and File
Puma Update Detector – that scan your PC for installed applications,
and let you know if there are new releases available.
And finally, there’s File
Horse. It does not have as huge a software collection as File Hippo and File
Puma. Instead, you get a selection of curated downloads. Also, File Horse
maintains an archive of previous versions of software just in case you’re more
comfortable with older iterations of certain titles.
www.filehippo.com | www.filepuma.com | www.filehorse.com
PORTABLE APPS
Among free downloadable software,
there’s a category of programs and tools that you can run straight off a pen
drive, external hard drive, or cloud storage. This means you don’t have to
install these on your PC—thus saving precious storage space—and you can even
carry all these programs on a single pen drive to use on any computer,
anywhere. The Portable Apps website is the single largest
repository of such software.
Here, for instance, you will find
productivity suites like LibreOffice and Apache
Open-Office; photo-imaging software such as Gimp, IrfanView,Krita and LibreCAD;
web browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera;
multimedia players and editors such as VLC and Audacity,
as well as PC Utilities like 7-Zip, Wise Disk Cleaners and McAfee
Stinger.
To use portable apps, you will
need a pen drive with at least 16GB capacity.
Download the software you want,
and install it in a folder on your pen drive. It is recommended that you
regularly replace the software on the flash drive with latest revisions.
Running the software is as simple
as clicking its .exe file.
After using, before removing the
USB drive from your computer, exit all portable apps and wait for the activity
light on your removable drive to stop flashing. This may take a minute or so.
Select the Safely remove… option from the icon in the system
tray. If you remove the drive while it is writing, you may lose data.
portableapps.com
CLOUD SOFTWARE
With broadband speeds, secure web
browsers and new web technologies, you can run important software right from
the internet.
FOR OFFICE
PRODUCTIVITY…
docs.google.com : If you have a Google ID, you already have access to Google
Docs that comprises Docs for word processing, Sheets for
spreadsheets, and Slides for presentations. All the files and
documents you create and edit in this web-based office suite are stored on
your Google Drive.
docs.zoho.com : Sign up for a free account, and you get up to 1GB storage, and
access to Writer,Sheet and Show for
documents, spreadsheets and presentations, respectively. Now, while Zoho’s user
interface is quite different from what you see in Microsoft Office,
it is still packed with features that are intuitive to use.
icloud.com : If you use an iPhone, iPad or Mac and have an Apple ID, you also
get its iWork Office Suite with 5GB iCloud Storage.
There’s Pages for document editing, Numbers for
spreadsheets and Keynote for presentations. Like it is
with Zoho Docs, it might take a while for MS Office users
to get accustomed to the iWork’s look and feel, but you still get all the
features you need to be productive.
All three office suites, allow you
to invite other users to read and edit your files for collaborative working.
You can access your data from multiple machines so long as you have an internet
connection, and you can also download your files and documents from these
suites in formats that can be further edited in other software.
FOR IMAGE
EDITING…
www.sumopaint.com : This online image editor lets you edit your photos and create
digital paintings in your web browser. You can open and save images from your
hard drive or the cloud. Like Adobe Photoshop, it lets you work
with layers, filters, brushes, shapes; it comes with controls for colour
adjustments, and you even get a floating toolbar, comprising stamp-clone, ink,
eraser, magic-wand, gradient-fill, etc. All you have to do, is open the picture
you want to edit in the app, work on it using the myriad tools at your
disposal, and then save the finished image onto your PC.
pixlr.com : Almost similar to Sumo Paint in every possible
way, it’s really a toss-up over which Flash-based online tool you would prefer
to use. Try both out, before you decide which one works better for you.
vectr.com : This vector-illustration web app is from the same folk who have
developed Pixlr. Here, you get every possible tool that will allow
you to create logos, banners, icons, sketches and more. The web site even has
tutorial videos that will familiarise you with all the tools and features that
this Flash-based graphic software has to offer.
Savio.DSouza
TOI 9DEC17
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