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Freebies

Adding to what Arkrite said, open source software is usually safe and pretty good. https://sourceforge.net/

It’s not strictly speaking free because there are restrictions on development which shouldn’t be a problem for most of us.

Basically, if you improve the code of open source software you have to offer it free to the community and cannot sell it anywhere.

It is a group of programmers and engineers who believe software including operating systems should be free to anybody and work as a community to write and improve their own software. If I remember correctly they hold the copyrights on the software to prevent abuse. It’s where most of the Linux systems come from.
 
Alf, do you realise you can do that and a whole lot more with Irfan View Batch Conversion? And you don't have to be online to do it.
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You must forgive me Paul, I had Irfan up to 2 weeks ago when my son George bought me a new Computer, must be the excitement I had it since you recommended it to us 3+ years ago.:)
 
With my WindowsXP, there is a built-in feature. If I put a folder on screen and right-click on a photo file, or shift select a load of photo files, the box below pops up and I click on Resize Pictures, new smaller new copies are quickly made. One 'Freebie' that Microsoft has given away!
 
BordesleyExile said:
Do you have the opportunity to choose the size of the resized pics on XP, Old Mohawk?
Click to expand...
Yes when you do it the box below pops up and you can pick your size.
I've remembered it's a 'Microsoft Power Toy'. If you Google this it points to the MS page. I notice there is one for Vista. Once run it becomes part of Windows, you don't notice it's there until you right click. Here's a link to the XP page, scroll down to find it.
https://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
 
Thanks, Old Mohawk. That is a big help. I can now look out my XP computer, plug in the external hard drive & resize the jpg pics in order to insert into the family history, or that is the plan anyway. Or I will download the Vista version.
 
Yes, I use it often. It puts the re-sized copies in the same folder example Photo(medium).jpg. When you move the re-sized copies into another folder etc, you can batch re-name them to the original names, remove the word 'medium' etc.:)
 
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I have spent the last hour or so looking for the Microsoft Power Toy Vista link for resizing, to no avail. I may yet have to sep up my XP computer.
 
BordesleyExile said:
I have spent the last hour
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I've switched to Linux Ubuntu at the moment and have just Googled the Vista Powertoys, and it does seem that MS haven't included 'Resize' in Vista. Rather mean of them !:( I'm glad I never 'upgraded'? to Vista. Looks like you will have to use the programs suggested elsewhere in the thread.
 
Thanks, Old Mohawk. The XP lap top it is then. No, Vista is not that great & seems to involve lots of stages to reach a destination.
 
I did get mine long ago from there (#100) but Bordesley wanted it for Vista, but the Microsoft Meanies decided not issue it for Vista.:)
 
For those of you that do a lot of burning to discs, have you tried www.imgburn.com It is reviewed in the latest issue of web user. I have looked at the website and it looks ok, so I may try it, although I don't do a lot of burning.


Terry
 
terryb18 said:
For those of you that do a lot of burning to discs, have you tried www.imgburn.com It is reviewed in the latest issue of web user. I have looked at the website and it looks ok, so I may try it, although I don't do a lot of burning.

Terry
Click to expand...

I've used it and it is a very useful burning app. I keep it in my burning toolbox with a number of other applications- they all have strengths and weaknesses so it is as well to keep 2 or 3.
 
oldMohawk said:
I did get mine long ago from there (#100) but Bordesley wanted it for Vista, but the Microsoft Meanies decided not issue it for Vista.:)
Click to expand...

I believe the Power Toys suite produced for XP is not a Microsoft production, but was put together by Microsoft employees in thier spare time and is not supported by MS. https://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/700353.htm

The forum shows how to make Tweak XP work in Vista. It is advised to be done at your own risk.
 
I've used the Microsoft powertoy resizer for years and got it from Microsoft see post #100, so they must be reasonably happy with it, even though they had stopped it for Vista. There is a 'clone' of it for Vista, see post #106 but I haven't tried it because I ain't got Vista. I don't use Windows at the moment for the internet, but I might look at Windows7 when it's available. :)
 
Free icon maker

I found a nice little program for those who like to personalise their machines - ToYcon. It’s free and turns your pictures into icons you can use with windows. Drop pretty much any picture in, and it outputs it as an icon- keeping the original. All you need to do then is right click an existing icon on the desktop (or in a programs folder or the folder itself) , choose properties, click on change icon and if you don’t want windows stock icons, browse to where you saved your own choice.
 
Free backup software- that actually works!

After trying several free applications which would not back up to a network I came across this one from Comodo, the same company that offers free firewall and anti-virus

https://backup.comodo.com/download.html

It will back up an entire system, drive, partition or just settings, selected files and more to another drive, to a network and even to online storage.

It is as versatile as any paid backup solution. The only thing it will not do is clone a drive (a bit by bit copy of the entire drive, including free space) though there is an option to back up free space. There are also several compression options.

Worth a look if you need a backup solution. (And we should all backup- shouldn’t we?)

I am currently backing up my laptop to my desktop. If I encounter problems, I’ll let you know.
 
Would one of you who know about these things please tell me the name of a good free music download site for the occasional search for an oldie, whether it was a hit or not.
 
Re: MP3 converter

Convert Youtube videos to MP3. It's quite a new site but got potential. Simple to use,no signup,Nothing to download. I have managed to convert a few clips but sometimes it seems to hang. It's in a Beta stage at the moment but its looking good.

Terry

https://www.video2mp3.net/

I've just converted a few more and when it works its brilliant, the large files take some time though.
 
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Speccy:
This little utility by the same developers as Ccleaner checks all your hardware https://www.piriform.com/speccy It is only in the Beta stage at the moment but I've installed and run it without any problems. It does what it says on the tin and is dead easy to use.
 
Thanks Paul my Son likes it.

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year to you & Yours:)
 
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