TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:38:01 -0000

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
Main Features:

* Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.

* Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.

* Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).

* Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

* Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:

1) Hidden volume (steganography – more information may be found here).

2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).

Tags: encryption opensource software

Posted by: amortal

MediaCoder - more than a universal audio/video transcoder

Thu, 15 May 2008 04:46:35 -0000

Tags: video software converter opensource

Posted by: amortal

Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs | freewaregenius.com

Fri, 02 May 2008 11:08:29 -0000

How to never use a paid program again (aside from Windows).

53 essential freeware programs that can take care of the majority of your computing needs.

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

(Another good alternative: Faststone Image Viewer)

The first thing I would recommend to anyone who was going to re-install Windows is to first create an installation disk with the latest service pack and any additional hot fixes integrated into it. You can do this manually (msfn.org has a guide at http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/2/) or use a program such as nLite (nliteos.com) or XP-ISO-Builder (http://www.winfuture.de/xpisobuilder3_en), or some combination

The first thing you should install is InstallPad (http://www.installpad.com/). Then you can use it to install the rest.

NetMeter from mMetal MAchine http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/index.php?PHPSESSID=d28a0a3faf0a256097b5aa331ebfa981&action=tpmod;dl=get14
> Network Bandwidth meter, great to read real download and upload speed.

SIW: System information for Windows, a standalone program to make a full inventory of your HW:
http://www.gtopala.com/

Gadwin PrintScreen

Autoruns

now that I have my system decked out with all the software that I use, I create another image with DriveImage XML so that I have 2 images; one that contains Windows XP clean installed with drivers, and one with all the software that I use.

JOCR: can snap any area of the screen (or simply load an image) and provide instant (and excellent) optical character recognition.

Flashfolder: an explorer extension that adds user-defined favorites folders (and recent folders) to Windows’ open/save dialogs.

PDF-XChange Viewer: a very nice PDF reader that allows for form filling as well as annotation and adding notes.

Revo Uninstaller (#39 above) provides a built in startup programs manager as well.

ZSoft Uninstaller; this one will not uninstall programs as thoroughly as Revo does, but on the other hand will not erroneously remove registry entries or files that should be left alone.

Revo Uninstaller: my uninstaller of choice, Revo Uninstaller will uninstall a program and then look for any files and/or registry entries that were left behind by the program’s uninstaller

Local Website Archive: is a program that saves individual webpages locally on your hard drive

MP3gain: this program can analyze a group of MP3s and determine the average volume for each, and then raise and/or lower the volume of the files in order to “normalize” them (such that volume differences that might occur when one song transitions to another largely disappear). The cool thing is that it does this without re-encoding the files and its intervention is reversible.

GOM Media Player: a fantastic player that plays DVDs as well as video formats, including Real Media, Quicktime, DivX, Xvid and FLV. Whats is really nice about this program is that it is self-contained and uses all internal codecs

CodecInstaller, an excellent program that can identify, download, and install the codecs needed to play any media file (regardless of the player you are using)

Shock Sticker: a really nice desktop ’sticky notes’ program that provides rich text editing and minimizing notes to floating icon (which is why I like it).

JKDefrag has recently been tested and found to be the best amongst x different defragmentation programs

CDBurnerXP 4: is the free program I use to burn CDs and DVDs; it is a full featured CD/DVD burning program that can burn audio CDs, copy CDs/DVDs, burn/convert ISOs images, and handle a large variety of formats (including Double layer DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs).

Forcevision Image Viewer: this is a very competent and straightforward free image viewer.

In general I do not like to have any of my data stored in the primary (C:) partition, and I use this program to switch many of Windows’ special folders (i.e. My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Favorites, and the Desktop itself) from their default locations to a new location on the secondary partition. Having no data on the primary partition means that I can create images of my hard drive with DriveImage XML (#7 above) and restore them at will at any point without having to worry about lost data.

According to Matousec.com’s latest firewall ratings, Comodo gets the highest overall firewall score as well as the highest anti-leak protection

Spyware Terminator: provides very good real-time protection against spyware/malware. For system scans it also integrates the open source ClamAV virus killer, which it also auto updates.

DriveImage XML: used this program to create an image of my freshly clean installed hard drive

installed the Microsoft .NET framework and the latest Java RTE

keep a record of all the product keys for the Microsoft products that are on my system, including Windows XP and Office

DriverMax will backup all of your drivers locally and can optionally restore them for you.

Unstoppable copier makes the process of moving large numbers of files easy because you can set it up and leave and be certain that the copying process will not be interrupted by pointless Windows dialogs

preserve your data when you want to wipe your system clean

Tags: best windows opensource freeware software

Posted by: amortal

The OSSwin project: Open Source for Windows!

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:14:22 -0000

Tags: windows software freeware opensource

Posted by: amortal

Who needs to pirate software with a list like this? - 121Space

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:43:46 -0000

Tags: windows opensource freeware reference

Posted by: amortal

The Simple Dollar » 30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:32:43 -0000

Tags: windows opensource freeware utilities

Posted by: amortal

OPEN SOURCE GOD: 480+ Open Source Applications

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:09:57 -0000

Tags: freeware open source opensource software

Posted by: amortal

Amortal's Favorite Links on opensource from Diigo

TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux

MediaCoder - more than a universal audio/video transcoder

Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs | freewaregenius.com

The OSSwin project: Open Source for Windows!

Who needs to pirate software with a list like this? - 121Space

The Simple Dollar » 30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows

OPEN SOURCE GOD: 480+ Open Source Applications