10 free tools that IT pros love

By Gina Smith March 16, 2012, 2:38 AM PDT

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Introduction

ntBy Gina Smith

ntThese days, there’s so much open source tech around and so much good will toward developers who provide great freeware, it’s tough to sift through all the offerings. So with a little help from the CIOs and IT pros who write for my geeky techblog, aNewDomain.net, I rounded up the best freeware out there and put it through its paces. Here’s a look at 10 freeware packages the techs I interviewed are in love with right now.

ntNote: If you’d prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our 10 Things blog.

ntPhoto credit: iStockphoto.com/porcorex

Start8

ntHours after Microsoft announced its Windows 8 Consumer Preview in Barcelona, utility maker Stardock said it would create a tool to easily return the now-missing Start button and menu. A week later, Stardock released Start8, a free tool for those who just can’t deal with the Windows 8 minimalist UI.

ntStardock execs say they will continue adding new features to Start8 as the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows 8 Server evolve over the year.

Ninite

ntNinite is a tiny installer that will automatically manage and download other freeware packages. Available for Windows and, more recently, Ubuntu 8 and higher, it automatically hunts for and installs free utilities like DropBox and 7-Zip to recently reformatted or new systems.
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ntNinite will cut hours off software re-installation time when you reformat a disk, do a clean install, or start a new system.

Oracle VM VirtualBox

ntVirtualBox is a free virtual machine manager, originally from Sun and now enhanced and available from Oracle. A new version of the software came out in December, offering more features and broad support for a variety of systems and platforms, including Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Windows NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, and Windows 7, plus Solaris and OpenBSD. It even supports OS/2.

Everything

ntThe search feature in Windows 7 is a huge improvement over what Windows XP and Vista offered. But it still pales miserably in comparison to Everything, a lightweight utility that indexes and queries your entire drive for anything you’re looking for. And is it ever fast!

Fing

Image: Domotz Ltd

Fing

ntFing, now in version 1.4, is a powerful network discovery tool, available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Android.

ntFor Linux, Fing is especially flexible, working with such variants as Debian 5.0, Ubuntu 8 and up, CentOS 5.0, Fedora 10, Slackware, and 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Gentoo.

Image: Domotz Ltd

Foxit

ntFoxit is a free alternative to Adobe Reader that makes viewing, printing, and saving your PDF files quick and easy. But where Foxit really shines is in performance. Try it once and I’ll wager you never go back to Adobe PDF Reader and Acrobat.

ntFoxit comes in versions for Windows, Mac, and some flavors of Linux.

Wappwolf

ntIf you share a lot of photos and documents, you might want to check out Wappwolf, a mobile app that runs on your iOS-based iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.
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ntWappwolf partnered with Dropbox early this year, so it now includes Dropbox Automator. That triggers the options you need depending on the file type you’re trying to share and edit — and in what Dropbox folder you’re storing it.

Combofix

ntCombofix is freeware that does one thing and does it well — it detects and deletes spyware on Windows PCs. It’s a powerful utility that runs at system level, so keep an eye on it and make your selections with care.

Stellarium

ntStellarium is a “planetarium for your computer,” giving you a 3D view of the sky. You can look at constellations (for 12 cultures), planets and their satellites, galaxies, and a host of visualizations, among many other things.
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ntStellarium is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

By Gina Smith

Gina Smith is a NYT best-selling author of iWOZ, the biography of Steve Wozniak. She is a vet tech journalist and chief of the geek tech site, aNewDomain.net.

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