Another Freeware Friday

Doug Eilers: “Disk Cleaner allows you to easily clean up disk space that is used by temporary files like those in the system temporary folder, the Internet Explorer Cache and Cookies folder, Recycle Bin and various other areas of your system. In addition, you can erase personal tracks like recently used documents, typed URLs and more. The program comes with an attractive, user friendly interface. Disk Cleaner allows you to create cleaning profiles, and can automatically run at system start without user intervention. It supports Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera as well as various 3rd party applications.”

Mel Banton: “I have laptop and desktop computers connected on an ad-hoc wireless network. I connect to the Internet via my broadband modem and wanted to share this connection between the two machines without going to the expense of buying a router. Enter Proxy Plus, a freeware proxy server which enables the client computer to connect to the ‘Net via the host, over the wireless LAN. Easy to install and configure, this is a great little program. Interestingly, it is configured by typing an IP address and port number in the address-bar on my browser. Now I can surf from both the machines, with hardly any drop in speed.”

Steve Dickerson: “My favorite freeware of all time has to be AVG Free Edition. I know it has received some bad press in the past because the developer made it so hard to find, but that’s all changed now. Regardless of how you get to the Grisoft site, the free edition is easy to find.”

Steve Dickerson’s Request: “After using several types of CD labels, I found the Sonix brand from Imation. I liked them because they were on small sheets that each printed just one label and nothing else — and because their small center hole meant you could print on all the disc’s available surface without leaving an inch-and-a-half hole in the middle. Unfortunately, Imation has discontinued this fine product. My question: Does anyone know of something similar by another manufacturer (one label per sheet, and small center hole)? Of course it would be nice if it included design software, but I could do without that.”

Steve Cruser: “For all of the GPS geeks in GnomeNation, here is an invaluable freeware application. It is called EasyGPS. ‘EasyGPS is the fast and easy way to transfer waypoints, routes, and tracks between your computer and your Garmin, Magellan, or Lowrance GPS. EasyGPS lists all of your waypoints on the left side of the screen, and shows a plot of your GPS data on the right. Use EasyGPS to back up and organize your GPS data, print maps, or load new waypoints onto your GPS for your next hike or geocaching adventure.’”

Don Crowder: “Here’s an awesome little security tool that you’ve probably mentioned but it’s more than worthy of a repeat. StartupMonitor runs invisibly, in the background, using very little of your computer’s resources but nothing gets written to the registry without your consent. There’s an icon in the start menu which permits you to turn the application off if you’re doing something that you know will be writing to the registry, like Windows update for example. I never remember to turn it off so I have a laugh when it pops up and condescend to allow Microsoft access to my registry.”

[tags]freeware, software, download, gps, optimization, tweaks, proxy[/tags]