Best Free Vista Applications

[felix8406]

I haven't had the chance to fully test IBM Symphony, as it can take a while to try all its features. I did come across and article from PCWorld that provides an analysis tittled "Why should we even care about IBM Lotus Symphony?". This is a good article for those who would like to try out a free office suite, but don't know is free is good enough. The only drawback I found when using the available free word processing applications is their lack of a thesaurus. It might not make difference when writing short paragraphs or articles, but becomes almost a necessity for freelance writers or others who write to make a living.

You can find the article at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...l?tk=nl_dnxnws

[CrowdAds]

[felix8406]

For photo editing you can download Paint.NET, which by the way, it was mentioned by ProCookie on another thread on this forum. It’s a more advanced image and photo editing software for Windows PCs than the Paint application that’s bundle with Windows.

It incorporates an easy to use interface, ability to work with layers, frequent updates, special effects, cropping, plus community help and many available plug-ins. http://www.getpaint.net/

[ProCookie]

I have recently received an email from a reader of my blog, he works for a software company called box.net

He asked me to try out a new Firefox extention they have created. It basically stores and backups up and synchronize your bookmarks to there severs so you can download them on other computer systems.

For more info on Box.net click here

For more info on the Firefox extension click here


I have yet to try this but i like the concept and i thought might be useful to someone reading this thread oneday.

[felix8406]

I gave it a try, it works. You first need to sign up for storage space at www.box.net. You can get 1GB of free storage space. Good enough to save and share files. I've been using box.net for over two years and they have make many excellent improvements. When you install the application, it places a link on Firefox and on your storage space (see snips). Good sharing Ant.

[ProCookie]

wow i didn't know box.net were that big, my blog is getting more attention than i thought.

[felix8406]

Yeah it is. I started using it when it first came out. It was more geared towards college students, but this year it went a little high tech so it cost more. I like its simplicity.

[felix8406]

I was reading my local newspaper (The San Antonio Express News) and came accross an article titled: "They cost less than zero, but do this web programs work for you? It mentions about online storage files and lists three online storage places that offer free storage space.

I just tried MediaMax, http://www.mediamax.com/. You can get up to 25GB of free storage space. Though it offers 1GB of share or download per month, and send files cannot be larger than 10MB, it's an excellent alternative to share photos and files. Free is almost good.

[felix8406]

Here's an excellent Office Online Suite, which provides many useful an easy to use applications. The best thing about it is that you can work on your documents online, including the ability to have more than one person working on the same document at once.

http://www.zoho.com/

[felix8406]

If you are considering running a business, you must also consider Zoho Busness. It permits you to use many excellent applications from calendars and to setting up meetings, and documents, spreadsheets and presentations; all accessible online from any computer. Is currently running on beta and you need to apply: http://business.zoho.com

[felix8406]

For a powerful, yet free application to record CD/DVD, you may want to take a look at InfraRecorder. You can create custom data, audio and mixed-mode projects and record them to physical discs as well as disc images. Supports recording to dual-layer DVDs, records disc images and create disc copies, on the fly, using a temporary disc image.

http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/?page_id=5

[felix8406]

Remember those Win XP PowerToys? ISO Recorder is tool for Windows XP and now is available for Vista. You can burn CD/DVD images, copy disks, make images of the existing data CDs/DVDs and create ISO images from a content of a disk folder.

Check it out at http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

[felix8406]

Here’s a nice nifty application...it only works on Firefox though. Snap Links allows you to open various links at once just by pressing the right mouse button and dragging it over the links. For example, if you Google for Vista, you’re going to get a lot of searches; but you may not one to click each one individually. With Snap Links you can simply right-click and drag your mouse over those links to open them with one simple move. As you drag your mouse over the links, it will create a box around those links you want to open.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4336

[felix8406]

Do you like to maintain notes, to-do lists, phone numbers and other stuff on your refrigerator door? Then you might like Stixy. It lets you place photos, notes and a lot more. You can even share all your stuff with family and friends. http://www.stixy.com/

[felix8406]

Originally Posted by crabby

I still believe OpenOffice to be the most universal free office suite. It is truly multiplatform which allows linux users etc to use it with ease. It is also so widely used now that Office 2007 supports its formats.

http://www.openoffice.org

crabby

Just wanted to add that OpenOffice can now read Office 2007 documents. It doesn't maintain all formatting, but you can open and edit the .docx extension documents.

[ProCookie]

isnt open office called star office now?