Useful Downloads
Some of these are links to the main download site, a few I have made the file available here direct - usually because it is out-of-date freeware no longer commonly available.
and if you don't find what you need here, check out http://www.majorgeeks.com/ which is a mega-download and info source, and if they don't have it, it probably ain't worth having.
Home
System Maintenance
- Advance System Care Free - Registry Cleanup, system optimiser and anti malware (old Version 3)
- Avast - Antivirus
- CCleaner - Registry cleanup
- Desktop Icon Save and Restore - allows you to save the position of all your desktop icons etc and restore them if it gets messed up by a resolution change.
- eicar - Test virus - completely harmless but will trigger a response from your Anti-Virus program
- HijackThis - Check your registry entries for malware
- MemTest - Windows memory test program
- PenDriveLinux - how to make a bootable USB flash drive running Linux - I prefer to use Knoppix but the site covers various Linux flavours. The UNIX Grymoire will tell you more than you will ever need to know about Linux
- PhotoRec - Photo (and other data) recovery from damaged disks including camera cards etc.
- Recuva - Recover lost, damaged or deleted files.
- Use this Portable version of Recuva from a USB drive if the data is on your hard drive as installing the main program may overwrite what you want to recover.
- Speccy - Displays detailed system information - OS, CPU, Memory etc.
- SyncBack Free - backup, restore or sync files between drives.
- TreeSizeFree - Find out what's using up all your disk space (that links to an old version, current site here)
- WinDirStat - Another prog which shows what's using up your disk space - this one gives a colour coded 'map' of the different file types
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Webby things
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Sound and Vision
- Audacity - free Sound recording / Audio editor
- LAME_Enc.dll - LAME encoder used by Audacity (and other progs) to convert to MP3 (homepage)
- AutoStitch - stick together lots of digital photos to create a great big panorama
- Gimp - Fully featured Graphics program - comparable to Photoshop but completely free. Gimp tutorials at and
- Irfanview - free - image editing software
- Paint.net - Free Graphics program
- VideoPad - Free Video Editor (Make sure you choose the Free not-for-commercial-use version, the other version is a trial for 30 days only).
- VLC media player - plays DVD, music, etc
- WinFF - media converter (convert Video/audio files between many formats using ffmpg libaries (included in WinFF download))
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Office Things
- Open Office - Complete Office Suite with WordProcessor, Spreadsheet, Database, Presentation,
Drawing package and equation editor
- Timer - a simple multi-function stopwatch / timer
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3D Printing
- Thingiverse - Lots of downloadable 3D model files
- FreeCAD - free open-source 3D modelling software
- Meshmixer - free software to edit meshes e.g. edit an .stl file
- Cura - free 3D printer slicing software
- 3D Viewer - Online 3D viewer
- OctoPrint - Use a RaspberryPi to control and monitor your 3D print
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Teaching Things
- Binary / Decimal conversion speed challenge game, and new 2sComplement version
- CMap Tools - Free Concept Mapping tool - multi platform
- CamStudio - Record whatever happens on screen - including an audio track
- Dasher - Predictive text - text input without a keyboard - Great for teaching AI
- Eclipse Crossword Generator - crossword maker
- Hot Potatoes - quiz and activity maker
- MSWLogo - Free LOGO / Turtle graphical programming app
- LiveCode - Free very-high-level, object oriented, event driven programming language. Available free for Mac, Win or LInux. Has the ability to create apps for iOS and Android.
- We previously used RevMedia - for Mac, Win or Linux in school - a precursor to the current LiveCode - also free but with fewer features.
- Ruby programming language and NetBeans IDE (Ruby no longer built in as part of NetBeans - version 6.9.1 has Ruby included)
- Scratch - an animation based programming teaching tool that makes learning to write complex programs easy and fun
- SWI Prolog - free Open-Source Prolog program - for Win or Mac - ideal for teaching AI in schools
- XGP Prolog - free Open-Source Prolog program for Mac
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Other Stuff
- AShampoo - free CD/DVD writing software - much easier to use than Nero et al (or version 10 of AShampoo appears to be available from here - requires free registration and is ad-supported)
- Barcode font
- PortableApps.com - Free open source programs to run on ANY PC - from a USB drive or other pnp device.
- Puzzlex - Anagram and crossword puzzle solver
- SkyGlobe - free Star Viewer / Planetarium
- Dates - a date manipulator: find dates that match day, date, month, year, or compare two dates, or adjust a date. New Version in development - still incomplete.
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Picture Galleries
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Remote Support
Remote Support by MrsB
Click the button and you will be prompted to download and save the Remote Support program. Once downloaded, run this program and you will be shown a 9 digit ID code and a 4 digit password. Send this to me (keeping this up on screen) and I will then be able to connect to your computer and see exactly what is on your screen in order to help you. No one will be able to connect to your computer without these codes. As soon as you stop running the program, no one can connect. The password changes every time you run the program.