Useful Software Sites & Links
(This page was last updated on the 18/02/2024)We do not accept any liability if you download or install any of the below, this is all done at your own risk as you should always check out anything before you install it on your computer; however you may find some of the below quite useful.
Below are links to where you can download some useful software, many of which can be downladed and used for free. If the developer is providing the software for free and asks for a donation, then send them something to encourage them to create some more useful things.
Anti-Virus
Audio
Deleting / Hiding Files & Folders
Encryption
File Recovery Software
Firewall
Hash Value Generator
Hidden / Meta Data
Image Viewer
Internet History Eraser
Laptop Recovery Software
Media Converter
Meta Search Utility
Network Tools
Newsgroup Readers
Odd Ones
On-Screen Video Recorders
Passwords
PDF Viewers & Others
Screen Grab/Capture
SpyWare Protection
Steganography
Video Players
Video Recording / Downloading
VOIP
Website Monitors & Scrapers
Anti-Virus
www.grisoft.com - ideal integrated protection for your home and small office workstations
www.avast.com - free integrated protection for your computer
www.comodo.com - free anti-virus software, with extra features
www.sophos.com - protect against a variety of web-based threats
Audio
www.sourceforge.net - Audacity is free open source software for recording and editing sounds
Deleting / Hiding Files & Folders
Delete Files & Folders
www.iobit.com - a free useful tool to uninstall & shred deleted files & folders
www.revouninstaller.com - Revo Uninstaller helps you to uninstall & remove unwanted programs installed on your computer
Hide Files & Folders
www.wisecleaner.com - Wise Folder Hider is free easy to use software to hide folders on a computer or usb stick
www.cleanersoft.com - Free Hide Folder is a free computer security software to hide your private folders, a useful way to keep your personal data away from others
Encryption
www.axcrypt.net - axcrypt is free open source encryption software for windows systems
File Recovery Software
www.z-a-recovery.com - ZAR is suitable for home users and small businesses who need a powerful data recovery solution, the free evaluation copy is ideal for lost images
www.ccleaner.com - Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer
Firewall
www.zonelabs.com - ZoneAlarm provides free basic PC protection for the home user, or pay and get the advanced firewall with identity and privacy protection
www.comodo.com - Comodo's firewall monitors all internet traffic and lets you allow or deny applications which attempt to go online
www.ashampoo.com - the Ashampoo FireWall Configuration Assistant guides you through every step of the simple set-up process. Easy Mode makes using it a breeze, you don't need any special technical knowledge and everything is explained clearly
Hash Value Generator
www.karenware.com - obtain a unique number for the contents of a file or folder, to preserve its integrity, to show it has not been altered, added to or deleted
www.slavasoft.com - SlavaSoft HashCalc is a free hash value generator but for files not folders
www.nirsoft.net - Hash My Files is a free hash value generator
www.md5calculator.com - md5 calculator is a free hash value generator
www.softpedia.com - MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility is a free useful hash value generator
Hidden / Meta Data
Documents
www.brightfort.com - free software to view & strip out metadata in office documents
www.evermap.com - AutoMetadata is a free application for exploring & editing metadata in PDF documents
www.github.com - Foca is a free application for accessing metadata in a number of document types
Photographs
www.gumroad.com - EXIFHound is a useful tool to display the available Exif Data in an image
www.photome.de - PhotoME is a powerful tool to show and edit the metadata of image files
www.tawbaware.com - basic exif viewer
www.geosetter.de - free but powerful exif viewer with nice geo-locator display & IPTC data
www.sourceforge.net - hide a file in a picture with hip2.1
www.softpedia.com - BartMark Bitmap Encoder allows you to encode text messages into bitmap images
Videos
www.headbands.com - Gspot can access & display very basic metadata in video files but is a bit old and outdated
www.mediaarea.net - MediaInfo is a newer tool which display very basic metadata in video files
www.digininja.org - ivMeta appears to show meta data in iPhone videos, including geo-location, date & time
Image Viewer
www.irfanview.com - an image viewer that allows you to open most of the image and video formats
Internet History Eraser
www.cnet.com - ScrubXP cleans a computer from temporary files and registry keys resulting from opening files and or using the Internet
www.privacyroot.com - Wipe clears browsing history and many other tracks of PC activity
Laptop Recovery Software
www.preyproject.com - Prey lets you keep track of your laptop, phone & tablet whenever stolen or missing
Media Converter
www.cocoonsoftware.com - Quick Media Converter can convert video or audio formats
www.freemake.com - free media converter which can convert many types of video or audio formats
Meta Search Utility
www.maltego.com - Maltego is a useful search facility for linking individuals & accounts
Network Tools
www.majorgeeks.com - SamSpade a dated but great network investigators tool
www.netstatagent.com - NetStat Agent is a powerful network toolkit that includes well-known tools like netstat, ping, traceroute, ipconfig, arp, route, whois, http checker and dns query
www.nirsoft.net - IPNetInfo is a small utility that allows you to easily find all available information about an IP address
Newsgroup Readers
www.forteinc.com - Agent8 is an integrated Newsreader and Email viewer
www.phex.org - Phex is a file sharing client for the Gnutella network
Odd Ones
Free Software
www.sourceforge.net - a site with links to open source software
www.osalt.com - a site with links to open source software
www.opensourcemac.org - a site with links to open source software for apple macs
www.oldversion.com - old / previous versions of popular software to download
www.lampyre.io - is a useful tool for searching email addresses & mobile phone numbers, linking them to various online sites & accounts, with a handy guide produced by @henkvaness available Here
Software
www.download.com - a site with links to all types of software
www.snapfiles.com - a site with links to all types of software
www.filehippo.com - a site with links to all types of software
www.majorgeeks.com - a site with links to all types of software
www.thedatalist.com - a site containing a large list of very useful software, much free to use
www.ninite.com - an easy & fast way to automatically install & update popular applications
www.downloadastro.com - a site with links to many popular & useful bits of software
Various Tools
NotePad
www.notepad-plus-plus.org - Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement
Screen Brightness
www.justgetflux.com - f.lux adjusts the colour of your computer's display to the time of day, making it appear dimer at night & brighter during the day
www.skytopia.com - this free software lets you adjust the brightness of your computer screen depending on the time of day, so you can make it dimer at night & brighter during the day
Software Checker & Updates
www.openwith.org - if you have been sent or downloaded a file that you don't recognize and can't open, this programme will tell which free programme you'll need to open it
www.cleansofts.org - the Update Notifier is a small utility that scans your computer for installed software and displays a list of updates
Time Checker
www.soft112.com - AtomTime Pro is a Windows based application which will connect to an atomic clock time server and display correct current atomic clock time value and then adjust your computers clock to the correct time if needed
Windows Start Up / Desktop Look
www.the-sz.com - Spencer is free software which gives the classic Windows XP Start Menu to a Windows 8 system
www.iobit.com - iobit's Start Menu 8 is free software, giving the Windows 7 start menu to Windows 8 systems
On-Screen Video Recorders
www.techsmith.com - Camtasia allows you to record your onscreen activity but expensive
www.nchsoftware.com - Debut Video Capture Software allows you to record video from a webcam, recording device or screen
www.camstudio.org - Camstudio is open source software which allows you to record your onscreen activity
www.sourceforge.net - RecordMyDesktop is an open source software for linux based systems, which allows you to record your onscreen activity
www.pixelmetrics.com - CaptureWizPro is a professional tool for capturing anything on your screen
www.screenpresso.com - free video screen capture for windows
www.wisdom-soft.com - AutoScreenRecorder video screen capture
www.atomisystems.com - Active Presenter provides both paid for & free version of screen capture software
www.litecam.net - provides both paid for & free version of screen capture software for various devices
www.srecorder.com - free video screen capture for windows
www.bandicam.com - free video screen capture for windows
www.airsquirrels.com - reflector allows you to wirelessly stream content from a smartphone to a desktop for recording
www.x-mirage.com - x-mirage allows you to wirelessly stream content from a smartphone to a desktop for recording
www.telestream.net - screenflow allows you to wirelessly stream content from a smartphone to a desktop for recording
Passwords
Password Recovery
www.lostpassword.com - reasonably priced software to recover lost passwords for MS Office documents
www.elcomsoft.com - Advanced PDF Password Recovery is an easy to use tool that recovers passwords & removes restrictions from password protected PDF's
PDF Viewers & Others
www.cutepdf.com - CutePDF Writer (Freeware) create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document. Free for personal and commercial use! No watermarks! No popup Web advertisements!
www.primopdf.com - Primo PDF (Freeware) create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document. Also offers a free on-line service changing files to PDF
www.foxitsoftware.com - a small & fast PDF viewer / creator
www.icecreamapps.com - as well as a having a PDF Converter they have useful free software that allows you to add or remove pages to a PDF or merge PDF files
www.pdfcore.com - free advanced PDF utilities
www.gonitro.com - free advanced PDF creator
www.pdferaser.net - allows you to delete text, images and whole pages from a pdf document
www.investintech.com - software which allows scanned pdf's to be converted to word documents
www.cisdem.com - pdf converter software with a free trial feature
Screen Grab/Capture
www.snapfiles.com - MWSnap is useful free Windows based program for getting screen captures of a desktop or a specified part of the screen
SpyWare Protection
www.safer-networking.org - the home of Spybot-S&D, the best (according to PC World, PCMag.com) privacy software available
www.malwarebytes.org - Malwarebytes is all about helping users remove malware from their computers and making sure their computers stay infection free
www.superantispyware.com - detects and removes Spyware, Adware, Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers and many other types of threats. Free home version and paid for pro version
Steganography
www.embeddedsw.net - OpenPuff steganography software
www.softpedia.com - Hide-In-Picture software
www.openstego.com - OpenStego is free steganography software which allows data to be hidden within an image
www.quickcrypto.com - free steganography software to allow you to hide files within an image
Video Players
www.videolan.org - VLC is a powerful media player, playing most of the media & video formats out there
Video Recoding / Downloading
www.handbrake.fr - useful tool for downloading videos to play on mobile devices
www.freemake.com - useful tool for downloading videos from different websites, which can then be saved in many different file types
www.ytddownloader.com - YTD downloader allows you to easily download YouTube videos along with many other sites
www.4kdownload.com - download from YouTube and other sites and convert to other file types
VOIP
www.skype.com - free Skype to Skype calls & cheap calls to other phones
www.voipcallrecording.com - MP3 Skype recorder is absolutely free and automatic Skype call recording tool for windows Skype users
Website Monitors & Scrapers
Website Monitors
www.aignes.com - WebSite-Watcher can be set to automatically check web pages for any updates or changes to save you regularly revisiting
Website Scrapers
www.scrapestorm.com - free & easy to use website scraper