Freewares to download

Save screen activity into video file

2010-11-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

Making a video of your screen activity is interesting when you have some trainings or tutorials to do. Sometimes, videos offer a better explaination of complex operations that can be difficult to understand when they are presented as static slides.
Here is a freeware that can help to do that.

Free Screen to Video is a free software that can record your screen activity, on the all surface of screen, an active window, or a rectangular area you have defined.
He is installed in one minute, and can be used in less time thanks to its user-friendly interface : one clic to start screen capture, one key to pause or stop it. The resulting video can be saved into AVI file, but also in FLV (Flash Vidéo) the compressed video format that can be integrated in web page. Moreover, Free Screen to Video even offers tha saving of a complete web page embedding the flv file and the appropriate flash video player.

Download Free Screen to Video, a free screen video capture software

Modify title and properties of PDF files

2010-10-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

It can be useful to change the properties of a PDF file, for example to make it better indexable by search engines like Google.
In the same situation, an accurate title for you document will always be better than a incorrect one.
But... what you don't have Acrobat Writer? That's a problem ugh? Not really in fact...

PDF Info is a little freeware that makes you able to change quickly and simply the PDF file metadata: title, author name, subject, keywords, and some other properties that are associated to a file.
Light and simple, he does simply the job. What more can you ask for?

TcpView lists active connections and used ports

2010-10-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

When you have somes troubles with your computer, especially with network connection, it is often useful to know what programs use a network connection and the port they have opened.
If you don't konw how to do this, TcpView is the key.

He offers a real-time monitoring of all connexions that are opened, even if they failed (because of a firewall for example).

Among useful information the frewware displays, there are the remote address (remote computer and port you are trying to communicate with), and the complete path of the program that establishes the connection.

It is possible to direclty cancel a network connection through the TcpView interface. Be careful, it does not mean that you have totally solved your problem. It's important to find the program that causes the unwanted connection and to eradicate it.

TcpView is so a diagnose-and-repair tool, to help you to find the causes of networking issues. In doubt about some programs opening connections, always look for information on internet, to make sure that the program is unwanted.
According your computer and settings, you can have a lot of active connections in the same time and it can be fully normal.

Download TcpView, a freeware to monitor network connections and active ports.

Megaupload and rapidshare download manager

2010-10-25T23:42:00.001-07:00

Websites like Rapidshare.com or Megaupload.com have became the most important places for online storage of files, documents, and videos. It is frequent to use them to download big files.

Nevertheless, these sites genrelly propose an illimited use only when you buy a premium account. It means that if you don't pay, you will have to wait few minutes before being able to download a file, or your bandwith will be blocked at a certain rate.
With the use of captcha (antispam code to be copied), it can really become hard to use them freely daily

Read below, here is the solution.

JDownloader is an opensource freeware that will make your life easier.

Just copy a download link, and it take care of all operation:
1- He recognizes the link type, and manage dozens of download sites, like megaupload, rapidshare, fileserve, uploading, filesonic...
2- You can define a priority for each file you download, and he manage the queue
3- He validates, when possible, the captcha by itself
4- He can even extract and rebuild compressed archives, so when job is completed you will find in its folder all final files.

Last but not least, he can manage large list of URLs. Just copy a text containg URLs and it will do the job for you.

If you are frequently using websites like Megaupload ou Rapidshare, don't waint anymore and use JDownloader.

Crayon Physics: Draw to win !

2009-07-29T04:43:00.001-07:00

Crayon Physics is one of these games that offer a really innovative experience.
In Crayon Physics, the principle is really simple: each level includes a ball, a star, and some decor and obstacles. The goal to acheive is to move a ball in the screen to touch a star.
What makes CP different from other games? Here, you have to move the ball... by drawing some shapes on the screen !

Easily, with your mouse, draw rectangles, circles, or lines, that will drive the ball to the final objective.

With a intuitive interface and a coherent physical modelization, it does not takes more than 1 minute to become familiar with the game.
Nevertheless, it does not mean that finishing the game will be easy! You will have to use your imagination to complete the most difficult levels.

Bonus: a video walkthrough for Crayon Physics. Obviously, we recommend to try by yourself before watching this!

Download Crayon Physics, a free game

Diagram & organization chart creation

2009-07-29T01:34:00.000-07:00

Using a diagram creation software may have some differents applications: create an organization chart, draw an electrical diagram, or represent the behaviour of a computer software...
In this area, Microsoft Vision still remains as the reference. But in the freewares family, Dia we can find Dia. Dia is a free diagram creation software that can be the anwser to all people looking for a free substitute to Visio (free and open source in fact)

Dia make us able to draw shapes, save diagrams as XML files and can export them as PNG/JPEG images, as vector graphics (SVG), or also as PDF file.

In addition to basic shapes, as text, box, polygon, ellipsis, Dia includes some specific shapes packages.
Thus, in the standard version, we can find the following shapes families:

Logical
Electricity
Computer, Network, Phone
UML, GRAFCET, SADT
Civil engineering

More than 20 packages immediately available. And if it's not enough, you can find some additional packages on the Internet, by using for example this Dia shape search engine.

Download Dia, a diagram & organization chart creation freeware

Keywords: freeware,diagram,organization chart

Filehippo - Software update program

2009-07-01T12:16:00.001-07:00

Having the latest software version installed is always useful: last features, security updates, hardware compatibility...

But with an increasing number of software installed on a computer, it becomes difficult to know if we have the latest version available for each one.

Linux has its famous apt-get, the packages manager, and Windows has now some software update program. One the most reliable comes from FileHippo website.
Using it is really simple: when launched, it scans your computer to find all softwares you have installed and that it knows.

Then it displays a web page to suggests you all new softwares updates alvailable, and you can download them, from filehippo.com of course.

Download FileHippo Update Checker, Software update program.

Keywords : software update checker,software update monitor

Shoot'Em Up Mario Forever Galaxy

2009-06-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Simply: playing a Shoot'em up game is just pure fun.
Mario Forever Galaxy is a little special. As its name says, it happens in the famous universe of Mario.

Nice, easy to play, the game don't forget the basics of shoot'em up, that have made the golden age of this kind : a lot of differents weapons (to buy with credits won during the game), some "magic" instants with a lot of ennemies.. and the famous end-level boss !

Download Mario Forever Galaxy, free shoot'em up

Keywords : free, game, Mario Forever Galaxy, shoot'em up

All format converter, for video and audio formats

2009-06-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

Multiple format converters for audio or videio are gone! With Format Factory, you've got a all-in-one format converter.
With Format Factory, you don't have to install one converter for each format you want to manage, it permit the conversion of almost video and audio formats.

When conversion has sense, it allows:

conversion from all file type to video format: MP4, 3GP (mobile phone video format), MPG, AVI, WMV, FLV, SWF (Flash)
conversion from all file type to audio format: MP3, WMA, AMR, OGG, AAC, WA
conversion from all file type to image format: JPG, BMP, PNG, TIF, ICO, GIF, TGA

Note that Format Factory supports format of mobile devices, like PSP, iPhone and iPod.

To finish, it supports conversion of audio CD files into all audio format, and also conversion of DVD in video format.

In one sentence, Format Factory is the toolbox to have for audio and video file conversion.

Download Format Factory, all format converter for audio and video files

Keywords: all format converter, freeware, file format converter

Free morphing software

2009-05-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

Want to play with family portraits ? WinMorph is a free morphing software which can be used to create videos file from a transformation of one photo to another one..

Load in Winmorph initial and final photos and then you have just to make some important point matchin betwwen both (eyes, nose, mouth, face...). The morphing video is automatically created with options defined.

Some examples:

Videocamera effect with morphing

Michael Jackson, a perfect test for a morphing software :)

Download WinMorph, free morphing software

Keywords: morphing, freeware, free, video, face morphing, software

Google Pagerank checker

2009-05-30T03:50:00.001-07:00

Even if the Google pagerank is less important today than some yers ago, it remains a good indicator of how Google take your website into account.

ParaMeter is a free Google pagerank checker, to follow the pagerank evolution of all of your websites.

Simply enter your URLs, then launch an update. In few seconds, you have the pagerank of your websites. Simple, efficient.

Associated with the Google ranking statistics freeware, it gives you a complete toolbox to manage SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Download ParaMeter, a Google pagerank checker

Keywords: google pagerank checker, freeware, check google pagerank

Application launcher for Windows

2009-05-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

Looking for a shortcut in the Windows start menu is often a difficult task. Because if you don't follow strict organization rules, the menu becomes really unusable after some months of software installations.

Windows Vista has shown with its quick launch bar what Linux users already know: use the keyboard to search for a program is incredibly faster than deploying a complex tree structure to find it.

Conclusion is simple: when we want to launch a software, we generally know what it is.

Launchy is one of the best application launcher for Windows. Process is simple:

It opens when you press some predefined keys (ex: Alt + Space)
You start to type a software name
Launchy uses autocompletion to suggests all software corresponding to your search
You press Enter to launch the application.

More features? It can index all kind of files and folders. So, if you choose to index by Launchy your video or music folder, you will be able to open then in 2 seconds.

Download Launchy, quick application launcher for Windows

Keywords: launchy, application launcher

Network monitoring software

2009-05-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

Netmeter is a free network monitoring software, simple and efficient.
It gives the ability to control all network activity of your computer, by displaying real-time statistics of data transfer rate, download and upload.

It can be associated to all of your network interfaces, or targeted on just one. Netmeter is displayed in a little Windows, or in a dynamic icon in the systrem tray.

A good tool to follow data bandwith and localize problems if needed.

Download Netmeter, free network monitoring software

Keywords: network, monitoring,software,rate,bandwith,upload,download

Download 3GP Player 2008

2009-05-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

3GP is the video format used by mobile phone.
3GP Player 2008 is a free 3GP video player.

Pay attention to uncheck the default installation of the toolbar that comes with the software installation.

Download 3GP Player 2008, free 3GP video player

Kewords: 3gp, video, mobile, player

Google ranking statistics

2009-05-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

One of biggest challenges given to webmasters today is to have the best rank in Google.
So, by modifying and optimizing his websites, each webmaster follow his Google ranking...

If you manage several websites, or target several key expressions, Free Monitor for Google will make the task easier. Free monitor for Google is a free software to follow your Google ranking.

This freeware is really simple, just enter your websites URL, associated keywords, then launch the search.
In few minutes, it returns the position of all of your websites on each keywords used, with the evolution with the previous position computed in the last execution.

It gives the ability to see how your websites ranking evolve and the impact of modifications you can do in each of them.

Download Free Monitor for Google, Google ranking statistics freeware

Keuwords: google, ranking, seo, position, statistics

Download notepad++ text & source code editor

2009-05-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Notepad++ is an advanced text editor. For a basic use of Windows, it's a very good substitute for native Notepad. For developers, Notepad++ is a good source code editor, light, quick, and efficient.

Main features are:

All documents are opened in one unique window with tabs
Line number
Syntax highlighting, with many of supported languages: HTML, PHP, ASP, C++, XML, Perl, Ruby...
Auto-completion
roll/unroll of code blocks (indents, braces)
Zoom in/out on file displayed
Search in files or folders, support of Regex (Regular Expressions)
Right-click integration in Windows
Extension with plugins to add more interesting features : find brackets pairs, escape special characters...

Download Notepad++, advanced text & source code editor

Keywords: text editor, source code editor, notepad