Downloads

To get the most out of your computer and internet experience, we recommend the following programs. They are all free, or free to try!

	EDIT PHOTOS AND OTHER IMAGES Paint.NET You don't necessarily need to shell out big bucks for Photoshop and other image editing programs. Paint.NET was developed at Washington State University under the mentorship of Microsoft. Originally intended as a replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing which will fit most users' needs. Easy to use, fast, and free!
	EASY SECURE BROWSING Mozilla Firefox browser Firefox has an intuitive interface much like Internet Explorer and blocks viruses, spyware, and popup ads. Trade-off is a lack of compatibility with certain plug-ins, including update checker and similar downloads from Microsoft's site. Still, Firefox is the superior browser for at-home users and other lesser-controlled environments.
	VIEW AND PRINT ADOBE PDF DOCUMENTS Adobe Acrobat Reader Adobe PDF is the most popular format for distributing documents over the web. Unlike browser content, it prints out exactly as displayed, and is relatively safe from viruses. If you don't have it, or are still using an older version, make sure to take advantage of this download.
	VIEW FLASH ANIMATIONS IN YOUR BROWSER Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash Player Adobe Flash is still the best way to display animations and presentations in compact downloads.
	PROTECT YOURSELF FROM INTRUDERS Zone Alarm If you're already using Windows XP's built-in firewall, you don't need ZoneAlarm. But if you're still using an older Windows version, ZoneAlarm is a must-have program which alerts you about incoming and outgoing traffic. Your computer might be broadcasting information on the internet without your knowledge! Note: You don't necessarily need "Plus" or "Pro"... the free version will provide you with the protection you need.
	RUN YOUR COMPUTER FROM YOUR CD DRIVE Knoppix Knoppix is a full-fledged operating system which runs from CD and is able to detect most components and peripheral devices while leaving the hard disk completely untouched. It is also great to recover files from a virus-infected system. Read more here.
	ANALYZE YOUR DATABASES Happy Fish Database Analyzer tool Happy Fish is an ERD database design tool which supports multiple database platforms. It helps you create complete and attractive Entity-Relationship diagrams illustrating domains, tables, foreign keys, views, stored procedures and more. It comes with a full-featured free trial. We found that HappyFish works great even on very large databases and is a viable alternative to high-priced tools.
	EDIT IMAGES FROM YOUR COMMAND LINE ImageMagick Imagemagick is a sophisticated command-line image editor. It allows you to perform complex transformations on collection of images or tieing image manipulation into batch processes. Not for the casual user, but an enormous time-saver for developers and graphic design professionals. Windows and Unix versions available.
	VIEW, EDIT, AND BATCH-CONVERT IMAGES IN MANY DIFFERENT FORMATS IrfanView Irfanview is a free image viewer and converter. Great for batch conversion of image files if you prefer a more user-friendly interface than ImageMagick's command-line capabilities. Supports AIF, ANI/CUR, ASF, AU/SND, AVI, B3D, BMP/DIB, CAM (Casio JPG), CLP, DDS, Dicom/ACR, DJVU, ECW, EMF/WMF, EPS/PS/PDF, FITS, FlashPix (FPX), FSH, G3, GIF, HDR, ICO/ICL/EXE/DLL, IFF/LBM, IMG (GEM), JPG2000, JPG, JPM, KDC, LDF, LWF, MED, MID/RMI, MNG/JNG, MOV, MP3, MPG, MrSID, NLM/NOL/NGG, OGG, PBM/PGM/PPM, PCX/DCX, PhotoCD, PIC, PNG, PSD, PSP, RAS/SUN, RAW, Real Audio (RA), RLE, SFF, SFW, SGI/RGB, SWF (Flash/Shockwave), TGA, TIF, TTF, TXT, WAD, WAL, WAV, WBMP, WBZ/WBC, XBM, XPM, CRW/CR2, DNG, NEF, ORF, RAF, MRW, DCR, SRF, X3F, and CAD.
	ERASE DATA FROM OLD HARD DISKS Active @ Kill Disk Eraser tool Don't destroy your old hard disks — donate or re-sell them. But make sure you've securely erased all data from them first. Active@ KillDisk - Hard Drive Eraser is powerful and compact DOS software that allows you to destroy all data on hard drives completely, excluding any possibility of future recovery of deleted files and folders. Conforms to US Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M.
	FTP UTILITY CuteFTP If you are running a website, you need FTP software to transfer files between your PC and remote servers. CuteFTP has an easy-to-use interface, a connection wizard, automatic-transfer-resume functionality, a built-in HTML editor, a transfer queue, directory comparison, custom commands, firewall and proxy options, and many other features. Tip: CuteFTP is not free, but if you let your trial run out and respond in the survey that you didn't renew because of the price, you might get a discounted offer.
	DETECT AND ERASE SPYWARE Ad-Aware by Lavasoft Detects and uninstalls "Spyware": small software applications that often come bundled with free downloads or games and send out information about your computer, personal data, browsing habits, and the like.
	RECEIVE FAXES IN YOUR E-MAIL - FREE! EFax A very useful service — get an EFax number and receive faxes by e-mail! With a small plug-in, you can also send faxes directly from Microsoft Word or other applications.
	MICROSOFT SECURITY UPDATES Download Patches Last but not least: Microsoft products are a favorite target of hackers and virus programmers. The company constantly releases security patches for its products. It is very important that you keep up-to-date, either by having the built-in Windows Update feature enabled (XP only), or by checking the "critical downloads" page on a weekly basis.