Unlike commercial software, freeware is often a labor of love. Written by public spirited people to solve problems and shared for the good of everyone. The authors are college professors like Timo Salmi at the University of Vasa in Finland, Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation, or Phil Zimmerman who wrote the privacy sustaining PGP encryption program. This site will lean heavily towards Unix style DOS command line utilities because that's where the real power is. Please note that most DOS software will run fine under Windows 3.x, 95, 98, or 2000. Storage space is limited, therefore a great many files cannot be listed at any one time. Instead, I will change the contents as regularly as possible so plan to drop by often. While this is not primarily a Unix site, I have recently added some links to the excellent Linux operating system. Enjoy!

• LINUX! Download the latest most powerful computer operating system, and all future upgrades, absolutely free? Yes, FREE! This includes a full office package with word processing, presentation software, spread sheet, graphics processing, and a ton of utilities. CD burning software included. Files may be easily imported or exported in Windows formats. Full graphical user interface, just like Microsoft Windows, but without all the crashing, security issues, and cost. Excellent networking tools and protection. There's a reason major corporations and even the Dept. of Defense equip their offices with Linux.
  1. Knoppix 9.0 (693 Mb) Try Linux without doing ANY installation on your hard drive! Download this single ISO image file, burn it onto a CDROM, drop it into your CD drive and boot up in a full version of Linux. Doesn't modify your hard disk because it runs entirely in RAM. In fact, you can build a fully networked Linux office machine with no hard drive in it at all. (To boot off CD drive, set CD boot order in BIOS, or just copy boot image file to floppy disk from CD disk and launch without modifying BIOS.) I use this disk to recover from Windows crashes. You can order a CD if you want, or download it free in many languages.

  2. Slackware Live 9.0 (186 Mb) Linux version that boots from your CD drive. Free ISO image download. Full graphical interface, but smaller package that requires fewer resources. Good for computers which cannot boot from CD drive, just go to linux directory on CD and type "linux" to start linux. Full networking capability built in, of course.

  3. Slackware 9.0 (650 Mb) Full version of Linux with lots of extras, burn the free ISO file onto a CD and start hard disk installation. Can be installed in a partition on same hard disk with Windows, but this is not recommended for new users (see ZipSlack, below). If you want to switch to Linux for personal use, choose this one. Then go to http://www.openoffice.org and download the free OpenOffice package (50 Mb) for Linux. While you are at it download the Windows version of OpenOffice too. Put it on every machine you own or use and you will have a familiar word processor on everywhere you work!

  4. RedHat 9.0 (4 CDs, 2.5+ Gigs) The king of them all. A full enterprise level version of Linux with everything. Includes OpenOffice software mentioned above. FREE! You download three ISO images (all the ones with "i386" in the file name) from above site, then download documentation from here: RedHat manuals. Install it on every machine in your office and save thousands. Printed manuals, help desk, and full corporate services are available from RedHat with just a phone call anywhere in the world: RedHat Global Support Services.

  5. ZipSlack 9.0 (50 Mb) This may be the most valuable Linux version here. It is a command line version which can reside in an ordinary DOS directory. You would think this might be complicated, but it works beautifully and is completely transparent to the user. I have this in the root directory of every Windows machine I use. When Windows won't launch, I boot to DOS then run Linux to get a complete network, USB, and Internet ready tool to recover/move critical files. Add the CD burning package to do critical backups and spare yourself yet another Windows disaster. Includes utilities to check fat16 and fat32 file systems. Also an excellent way to get started in Linux, practicing when you can. Just download it and unzip it in C:\ directory. Change to Linux directory and type "Linux". How did we live without this?

  6. Linux "How To" Documentation You will need this! This is a massive work published by the Linux Documentation Project, written by all those people around the world who wrote Linux. The is a link to the main html resource, but it's available in PostScript, PDF, and other formats. Download one of them so that you have expert advice available when you need it.

  7. SUPPORT LINUX! Never before in the history of Earth have so many people from around the planet worked so hard to create something better for all of humanity. Contributors who donated their enormous talent include Russians, Czechs, Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Europeans, Africans, and citizens from all of the Americas. They established working relationships and then friendships that transcend political boundaries, timezones, and language barriers. They are a model for us all. Support Linux! Most contributors accept donations. Find some part of Linux that has particularly benefited you and contribute funds to encourage more work. RedHat is a corporation and does not need donations, but they need your business. Join this worldwide computer freedom movement and it will support you. DONATE!

• DIACON11.ZIP (53,711 bytes, DOS, Windows 9x, NT, 2000) Diaconvertor, authored by Bill! Use to remove diacritical marks above text generated by foreign language translators. This allows you to send French and other foreign text as ASCII through normal email channels. Also necessary to load such text into a high end word processor like MSWord. Extensive documentation contains a tutorial to make usage easy for beginners. Written for the command line to allow batch processing and pipelining, this software supports Windows 9x long file names and files up to 4 gigabytes. It's easy to use and completely free for business or personal use. After "diaconversion" you can email almost anything as ASCII text. Click here to see an example: screen shot.

  Can't open a corrupted word processor file? Process it with diaconvertor to remove the strange looking characters word processors choke on, then load it into any text editor (like Programmers File Editor, look for our secret page) and manually recover your important data.

• LVIEWP1B.ZIP (312,747 bytes, Windows 3.x, 9x, NT, 2000) LView Pro is a superb image viewing and enhancing utility with many features even the heavy weights don't have. Does full algebraic matrix enhancements that can be custom tailored by the user. Later versions are shareware, but this one is free. Definitely worth registering to get more features if you like it.

• IVIEW361.EXE (816,649 bytes, Windows 9x, NT, 2000) Irfan View image viewer and formater. Free, but its author accepts donations (please consider donating, the author lives in Bosnia). So good you will hardly believe your eyes. Maybe better than LView above. Be sure to try the Thumbnail feature, it's excellent. Accepts PhotoShop plugins and great utilities like Kai's Power Tools. Processes a very complete set of file formats. Put this on every machine you have and forget about using Explorer to view image files.

• CMDCAP01.ZIP (32,560 bytes, MSDOS, Windows 9x, NT, 2000) Command Capture is my own utility for capturing command line information when one program calls another. Many good Windows shell programs for encryption, spell checking, and compiling call DOS programs in the background to perform the real work. Trouble comes when some of the command parameters are not being passed correctly. It's time consuming to resolve such issues when you can't see the actual information being passed to the called program. This utility answers the question, "Have I made an error in the option settings, or is this a program bug?" Just rename cmdcap.exe to the same name as the called program, and then run the caller again. All information passed on the command line will be stored in a text file: command.txt. Handles Windows long file names. Free for business or personal use.

• DOCP11.ZIP (62,394 bytes, DOS) Directory Oriented Copy program. Excellent! This program is the equivalent of store bought software selling for upwards of $40.00. Did you ever buy a laptop or a new computer and need to copy whole directories full of files from one to the other? Connect the computers together with a printer or null modem cable, run INTERLNK.EXE and INTERSVR.EXE (furnished with DOS) or Direct Cable Connection (furnished with Windows 95, 98, 2000). Then run this program. Files, directories, or even your entire hard drive will transfer while you sip wine by the pool side.

• DN151.ZIP (786,272 bytes, DOS under Win9x, NT, 2000, etc.) DOS Navigator. This is a spectacular freeware file manager which resembles an enhanced Unix Midnight Commander. Excellent tool for DOS command line power users. If Windows won't launch, press F8 while booting, and run this from the command line as you prowl for the cause. You can even play CDs or pause for a quick game of Tetris. Dual directory display, of course. Can handle a variety of file compression formats including ZOO. From Ritlabs where you will find other great freeware like TinyWeb (53k), the smallest web server ever written for Windows.

• DC11.ZIP (61,317 bytes, DOS) Directory Control is an excellent freeware file manager. Tag, View, Copy, Move, Rename, and much more. Small enough to be put on a floppy and distributed along with other files. Many times faster than Windows' file manager.

• UNZ541X3.EXE (253,795 bytes, DOS, Win 3.x, 9x, 2000) Free file decompression software with all the high powered command line switches you expect. Full 32 bit software handles Windows 9x long file names, command line pipes, and directory structure storage. Zipfile compression is the standard of the industry, but if you are using an unlicensed shareware version of PKUNZIP, you are expected to pay $47 to register it per computer. You can put this freeware unzipper on every personal computer you own, throughout your corporate office, or even distribute it on commercial disks without violating any laws. From: www.info-zip.org for every computer platform imaginable.

• ZIP23X.ZIP (308,972 bytes, DOS, Win 3.x, 9x, 2000) Free file compression software, companion zipper for above. Are you distributing files compressed with PKZIP? Have you registered it for $47 per copy? If not, this full featured replacement will keep you out of legal trouble. Full 32 bit software handles Windows 9x long file names, command line pipes, and directory recursing. Because US encryption laws are designed to deny its citizens adequate encryption, you have to download the (completely legal to import) encryption capable version (ZCR23X.ZIP) from outside the country. (Recommended reading: "1984", by George Orwell.) Freeware from www.info-zip.org.

• BEAV140.ZIP (94,583 bytes, DOS) Binary file editor works just like EMACS. This is a real power user tool (not for beginners). I put it in my utility directory and renamed it BEMACS for binary EMACS. Hack into and modify any file.

• FRHED154.ZIP (263,666 bytes, Win 9x, NT, 2000) Binary file editor for those of you who insist on dabbling in hex with a Windows interface. For some reason, I can't avoid using this regularly. First rate problem solver for doing things like converting foreign language software to Engish (be careful). Great hacker's tool.

• FIXTIME.ZIP (10,333 bytes, DOS) Corrects the inaccuracy of your computer's clock. Normally, all computer clocks are slightly (but consistently) off. Put FIXTIME in your AUTOEXEC.BAT to keep your system clock right on the money. Smart, never recalibrates twice in the same day.

• AAVIRUS.ZIP (14,955 bytes, DOS, Win 3.x) Never depend on a single antivirus program to protect you! It's too easy for viruses to test for and defeat any single countermeasure you install. The more common your antivirus software is, the more likely someone has found a way around it. The best way to trip them up is to use several programs like this one. This is professor Timo Salmi's boot sector protector. It will copy, compare, sound the alarm, and restore the boot sector on your hard drive. Boot sector infectors like the Michaelangelo and Stoned viruses are very common and among the most troublesome. You can actually get them from a "blank" floppy disk! Programs like this one, used in concert with others, form an unpredictable gauntlet that a virus must run to survive.

• PICEM32.ZIP (106,377 bytes, DOS) PICEM is a nice graphic image viewer that can even run slide shows. Handles a variety of graphic formats. Did you ever want to send someone a disk with some photos on it? Put PICEM in a .BAT file and set them up with a slide show anyone can run. Absolutely free.

• EDCMOS.ZIP (29,513 bytes, DOS) This excellent program will display your CMOS nonvolatile memory, allow you to modify it, or dump its entire contents to a file. Few things are more exasperating than having to redo your entire CMOS memory from scratch because some program crashed (usually in Windows) and overwrote it with garbage. All those settings, ----history, and your hard disk will be unusable until it's fixed. EDCMOS will have you back up and running in minutes. Despite dire warnings about what might happen if you inadvertently alter the wrong data, this program is very well behaved. It will modify nothing unless you launch it with a special command line switch. Make an emergency boot disk with EDCMOS on it and dump your CMOS memory to it. Do it NOW! This program has saved me again and again.

• KAL.ZIP (34,271 bytes, Windows 3.x, 9x, NT, 2000) This is the most beautiful screen saver you ever saw. Kaleidoscope produces a seemingly infinite variety of colorful displays. Speed and many settings are easily customized to any taste. This is installed from the Windows "Desktop". Splendid.

• WNETTIME.ZIP (199,114 bytes, Windows 3.x, 9x, NT, 2000) Set your computer's time to within one second accuracy over the Internet with just a mouse click. No more guessing what the right time is, you can watch your tax dollars work with this nice utility from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST = the old Bureau of Standards). Both 16 and 32 bit versions supplied. Easy to use freeware, cleverly hidden in a remote corner of the Internet, by the US Govt.

Freeware Tips: How would you like to talk with friends or family on the otherside of the planet Earth, complete with live video, for FREE! MicroSoft's NetMeeting software is available from www.microsoft.com. This often overlooked package will permit you to transfer computer files, open a live "drawing board" which everyone can see and draw on, and even share running software, while you talk and see each other. (But you can use it's other features even without audio or video.) On one occasion, we used the pop up chat window to connect people together from Jakarta, Athens, Taipei, and Florida. Important note: When you hear this phone ringing, make sure you're dressed before you answer it :-). Thieves and vandals have declared open season on the new users flocking to the Internet. Did you know there are many ways for a dishonest hacker to enter your computer and do whatever they want while you're surfing the net? You may not be looking for them, but they sure are looking for you! You won't even know it's happening before you've lost credit card numbers, software, company secrets, or worse. Even the head of the CIA was officially reprimanded for neglecting proper precautions. To protect yourself you need a computer "firewall". This blocks all those unused external ports that Windows leaves vulnerable to the outside world while you're online. OutPost is an excellent freeware firewall. It not only blocks the attempts (we get dozens of hostile port scans every week), but logs information about who did it. You can get a free security scan and learn more from the Shield's Up web site. (This is honest advice. I'm not affiliated with any of the links above.)

Is this all there is on this site? Maybe not....

---

visitors since August 1st, 1997. Send COMMENTS here!

This site maintained by: William H. Oldacre, Gainesville, Florida
Need Computer Help? Voice Phone: 1-352-332-3010