The Best Of: Windows Software As a Windows user, you have access to countless free applications. Which ones can you trust and which ones are the best? Consult this list for ideas and discover apps you didn’t know existed. We’re continuously seeking out the best Windows software, and places to download them, for all your needs. Most applications recommended here are free and you can quickly find what you need by browsing the listed programs by category. Note that some installers pack bloatware, useless adware that’s pre-selected to install. Antivirus ^ Antivirus software is a cornerstone in protecting your computer from external attacks. The Best Computer Security and Antivirus Tools The Best Computer Security and Antivirus Tools Need a security solution for your PC? Panda Free Antivirus Panda offers a full antivirus, anti adware and anti spyware suite that is light on your computer’s resources. Download: Panda Free Antivirus (Free) Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition Download: Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition (Free) SUMo
Trinity Rescue Kit | CPR for your computer Looking for the latest version of TRK 3.4?Download it here New features include easy to use startup menu, kernel 2.6.37.1, new virusscan engine (Avast), several backup utilities, amongst which the contributed 'pi', debugged and more foolproof 'winpass' (more news...) Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues. Since version 3.4 it has an easy to use scrollable text menu that allows anyone who masters a keyboard and some English to perform maintenance and repair on a computer, ranging from password resetting over disk cleanup to virus scanning Here 's a sumup of some of the most important features, new and old: I dare to say it: this is the BEST TRK EVER! It is higly recommended you leave alone older versions of TRK and download the latest 3.4, except for maybe some (quite) older machines with limited resources. The idea behind Trinity Rescue Kit Massimo
E.gg Timer - simple online countdown timer Creating Blogs and Websites This page is where you can find resources related to my presentations about creating effective blogs and websites to complement instruction. How to create a Blogger blog. How to turn on comment moderation in Blogger. How to add or subtract contributors to your Blogger blog. How to create an Edublogs blog. How to create a Wordpress.com blog. How to create a Posterous blog. The Basics of Creating and Editing a Wikispaces Wiki.More, including a video tutorial, about using Wikispaces. Creating a Google Sites website. Ten Options for Creating Websites. Yola (formerly Synthasite) is the tool that I am currently using to build websites for my department and other departments in my high school. Webs (formerly Free Webs) is another service that I have first-hand experience with in a school setting because my girlfriend (a teacher in another school district) uses it for her classes. Snap Pages provides a free service as well as a premium service for creating your custom website.
20 registry hacks to make your PC more awesome Right-clicking on everything is a good way to learn about hidden Windows functionality. Exploring the lesser-known Control Panel applets is another useful technique, and browsing the command line applications in Windows' System32 folder can be interesting. But let's be realistic. There's nothing that quite compares to the Registry. It's packed with useful settings that can improve performance, fix security holes and change even the most fundamental Windows behaviour for the better. If you're not cautious, you could cause more problems than you solve. 1. If strangers have physical access to your PC, it's easy for them to plug in a USB flash drive and make copies of your data. Go to 'HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies', create a DWORD value called 'WriteProtect' and set it to 1. 2. Windows Vista's User Account Control raises so many alerts that many people just turn it off. 3. 4. Sorting filenames in Explorer can be a problem. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Three Ways to Cut, Mix, & Mash YouTube Videos This post was inspired by a request from a reader for a tool that can be used to mash-up YouTube clips. YouTube is full of great content that can be useful in the classroom (YouTube is also full of nonsense that causes schools to block it). Sometimes you only need to show a part of a video to illustrate a point. Disclaimer: Some of these tools might be interpreted as a violation of YouTube's terms of service. TubeChop gives you the ability to clip a section from any YouTube video and share it. Splicd is a service that lets users select and share a segment of a YouTube video. If you made mix tapes in the 80's, the concept of Drag On Tape will be familiar to you. On a related note, if you have raw video footage that you want to edit or you have a collection of your own videos on YouTube that you want to edit, the YouTube video editor is quite easy to use.
50 Tools to Speed Up or Otherwise Enhance Your PC From: www.cio.com – Preston Gralla, PC World September 22, 2008 Is your PC tired and sluggish? Has its get up and go got up and went? If you want a faster system, you could certainly break the bank and buy a new machine. We've found 50 downloads that will make your PC run more quickly and smoothly, help you use the Internet more effectively, and push Windows to work at optimum speed with the interface you want, not what Microsoft gave you. Most of these downloads are free to use forever; some are free to try, but require that you pay for them after a trial period (we've labeled each download accordingly). What are you waiting for? General Tune-Up Tools Sometimes the best way to optimize your PC is to use all-in-one tune-up tools that offer a slew of utilities, ranging from file cleanup to Registry cleaners and beyond. Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal Be sure to tell the program to create a restore point before it goes to work. Download Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal | Price: Free Autoruns
100 Incredibly Useful YouTube Channels for Teachers | Online College Courses YouTube has earned a reputation for featuring brain cell-slaughtering fare such as the truly abysmal Fred and playing host to the some of the most depressingly stupid comments this side of Yahoo! News. But for every participant liberally dishing out misspelled racist, sexist and homophobic talking points, there is at least one whose channel genuinely offers something provocative and educational. For teachers hoping to infuse multimedia into their classrooms, YouTube makes for an excellent starting point. Multidisciplinary and General Education Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Technology Social Sciences, History and World Issues BarackObama.com: Love him or hate him, Barack Obama is still America’s president. Visual, Performing and Liberal Arts
The Best Free Software of 2010 - Reviews by PC Magazine Get what you DON'T pay for: Here are 196 programs that cost nothing but will make your computing life richer—all while keeping your wallet fat. We don't want to make you feel bad, but, uh... are you really still paying for software? Wow. Well, we're here to spread the word: There's no lack of free software to be found online. Knowing all this, every year PCMag puts together a fresh look at the Best Free Software. In addition, we know there's plenty of free software available for smartphones, so we've made a notation if the app has a mobile component, but we'll leave the full list of no-cost apps for your phone to our mobile experts (See "The Top 100 Free Apps for Your Phone.") Many of the apps rounded up here are also "portable," meaning that they have versions that can be placed on a USB Flash Drive and run without installation, sometimes as part of the PortableApp.com platform; we've marked them as such. Did we miss any great no-cost programs? In This Story:
7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers The possibilities for social media tools in the classroom are vast. In the hands of the right teacher, they can be used to engage students in creative ways, encourage collaboration and inspire discussion among even soft-spoken students. But we've already made our case for why teachers should consider using social media in their classrooms. Even when people say they want to incorporate social media, they don't always know the best ways to do so. To help, we've collected seven of the the best classroom tools for incorporating social media into your lesson plans. EDU 2.0 is a lot like online course management systems Blackboard and Moodle, but with a couple of distinct advantages. The founder of software company The Mind Electric, who has roots in education, self-funded the development of EDU 2.0 in what the site describes as a "labor of love." 2. The popular visual organizing and sharing tool Symbaloo launched its "EDU" version last month. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.