Years ago, it used to be that when I needed a program, I’d either buy it or find somebody who could give me a copy.  With the internet the way that it is now, nearly every application you could want can be found online.  However, downloading copyrighted software poses its own set of problems that may not be worth the money you’d be saving by downloading the latest version of Adobe Photoshop.  Therefore, I propose an alternative: freeware.

Over the past few years, freeware has taken a giant leap forward.  Most people are familiar with applications such as Open Office and Linux that have taken a piece of Microsoft’s pie.  Whether these people have used these applications is beside the point.  My point is that there are viable alternatives to expensive programs out there that don’t cost a dime.  On this note, I thought that it would be fun to share some other free applications that I have fallen in love with over the years.

Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier
This is a great program that I just discovered a week or two ago.  Have you ever tried to copy a file and received a stupid prompt that you could have done without?  Or maybe you failed when trying to copy a file that was larger than 4GB to a FAT32 partition.  I’ve done both and this little app took care of all of my issues.  It’s great for backing up data to an external hard drive before a reformat.

Amic Email Backup
This is a handy application for Windows users that will back up your mail databases.  As those who have worked tech support know, email is generally a big deal, especially to stuffy executives.  It’s no less important to my wife who freaks out every time that just restoring her Outlook files doesn’t make everything “like it was”.  This is a great tool that is easy to use and I highly recommend it.

DriverMax
I hate trying to keep my drivers current but it’s something that most geeks would recommend doing.  DriverMax makes it easy by scanning your system and then telling you what needs to be updated.  It will also export your current drivers for those times when you want to reinstall everything but don’t want to spend days looking for that rare driver.

I have a lot more freeware that I’d like to introduce you to but since I’m busy at work, I’m going to have to save it for a part two.  Stay tuned…