Do you still pay for an anti-virus program?

Technorati Tags: windows,microsoft,anitivirus,free

If you’re a Windows user and you’re still paying for an anti-virus program, then you need enlightenment. Because Microsoft have made their excellent antivirus program (called Microsoft Security Essentials) free.

It’s fast, light-weight, non-intrusive and effective. It offers the same features as several commercial antivirus programs (like Norton and McAfee) do, including:

• Real-time protection
• System scanning
• System cleaning
• Rootkit protection
• and so on…

And if you think that a single antivirus is not good enough, then you can additionally install the excellent Avast Antivirus for home users for free.

Now stop paying for antivirus

Watch that Battery

Technorati Tags: battey,battery level indicator,free,battery status,battery info

Some laptops (like the ones manufactured by Lenovo) come with a handy gadget that let’s you monitor the battery level in the Windows taskbar. Others (like the ones manufactured by Dell) do not.

Enter the free tool aptly called BatteryBar:

BatteryBar does everything that you need from a barebones battery monitor software, like:

• Showing the battery level
• Showing whether the battery is charging or discharging
• Showing the battery wear and tear
• Showing the approximately battery time remaining

The manufacturers of BatteryBar claim that they are able to accurately predict the battery time remaining because they save historical battery usage data. If you like the product and would like to support the developers, they even offer a paid version with support for fancy themes. Get BatteryBar free from here.

Why pay CuteFTP when FileZilla is Here

Technorati Tags: ftp,filezilla,cuteftp,free,download

Most people need a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client some time or the other. A lot of Windows users depend on CuteFTP as their FTP client due to the numerous ease-of-use features it provides, such as:

• An intuitive user interface
• Ability to queue multiple files for download/upload
• Ability to download/upload from/to multiple servers simultaneously
• Automatic file-type detection for switching between text and binary modes
• Ability to retry failed transfers
• Ability to set data-transfer speed limits
• Ability to fallback to passive FTP whenever required (when the server does not support active FTP connections)
• And so on and so forth

Now, the good news is that you do not need to buy CuteFTP to get all these (and several more) valuable features. Just browse to http://filezilla-project.org/ and download the FileZilla FTP client for free.

FileZilla provides all these features and more at no cost. Of course, if you like the product and would like to support the development, feel free to donate via Paypal. Stay happy!

How to Quickly Turn-off Your Screen

With handheld devices getting more powerful every day, the problem we face is that the battery life of these devices keeps decreasing. So if your laptop is running on battery, sometimes you may feel the need to quickly turn off your screen without putting the system into sleep mode. This is where Dekisoft Monitor Off Utility comes handy:

This is a tiny stand-alone utility that does not need to be installed. Just download the EXE from http://www.dekisoft.com/ and set it to start with Windows automatically. The utility runs quietly in the system tray until you press the hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+L by default, but can be re-configured). As soon as you press the key, the utility turns off your screen. The screen can be turned on again simply by moving the mouse cursor, or by pressing any key on the keyboard. Simple, right? Then why not give it a try!