Geek Tested:

A Super Bowl of Freeware Apps!

Posted 02/02/09 at 10:00:00 AM by David Murphy

Are you ready for some f... reeware? It's Super Bowl weekend at Maximum PC, and we're doing all we can to find you the best, quick-hit freeware applications that will make a profound difference in your computing life. It's hard to manage the grill and install freeware, so we're giving you a mix this week: Tiny applications that don't require much of your input at all to interact with, as well as a pretty big application or two that should easily distract you if football-watching isn't your thing. We're covering a lot of field this week with our applications. Be prepared to check out everything from efficient file unzippers, to 3D designing programs, to pretty desktop RSS feed readers.

So what are you waiting for? Put on your helmet and get into the freeware huddle, champ! John Madden not included.

PeaZip

What it does: This handy little file archiving utility comes in 32- and 64-bit versions. With it, you can create a decent number of compressed archives, including support for ZIP, TAR, and 7Z archives. You can also use the program to unpack a larger number of file archives. We appreciate PeaZip's simplicity, including its ability to populate your right-click context menu with archiving options, as well as the installable and portable versions of the application. Slap this on a USB key and you'll be set for all your archiving needs!

Download it here!

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition

What it does: Tired of mucking around with boot CDs of Linux environments just to get your backup/restore open-source apps to function correctly? That's where Macrium Reflect comes into play. Unlike applications like DriveImage XML, which require you to boot into a BartPE environment just to operate the clone and restoration features, Macrium Reflect creates a Linux-based rescue disc for you. It's an elegant solution for running a backup process analogous to Norton Ghost without, you know, having to purchase Norton Ghost.

Download it here!

DAZ Studio

What it does: Nothing says "I hate football" than teaching yourself to use a 3D modeling application. You don't need to spend big bucks for expensive suites if you're trying to teach yourself how to get started in this unique field. DAZ Studio is a fully-functional modeling application that comes with quite few tutorials to get you started. Give it a whirl, and you'll be recreating your favorite World of Warcraft cutscenes before you know it.

Download it here!

Amarok

What it does: This application gives the big middle finger to iTunes, as it combines contextual information like lyrics and album art into an easy-to-use media player application. We like the player's ability to integrate a variety of Internet services into the player itself, like Last.fm music or random, cool Internet radio streams. You can further customize this media player by adding applets to appear in the application's various menus. Sure beats iTunes, which you can... not really customize at all.

Download it here!

Snackr

What it does: This elegant RSS reader pulls in the information of the various feeds you've described to. It outputs the data on a scrollable desktop bar that looks like the lovechild of a cable news ticker and the Windows Sidebar. And that's it! It's a perfect way to visualize the data that would otherwise just float into a boring ol' folder in your favorite e-mail client, or bookmark on your Web browser of choice, et cetera.

Download it here!

COMMENTS:10

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COMMENTS

Amarok and podcasts?
Submitted by netarc on Tue, 02/03/2009 - 10:19pm

I'd love to leave iTunes in the dust, but the feature I'd really miss is the ability to subscribe to podcasts. Any chance amarok (or any other alternative players?) support subscription and automatic downloading of podcasts from the iTunes directory?

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Good selection
Submitted by bandy-c on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 10:06am

I second the inclusion of PeaZip and Amarok in this selection.

Kleinkinstein, probably the crucial factor for including PeaZip instead of 7-Zip was what you mentioned: more functions like hash, secure delete, two factor authentication, scripting..., more formats supported and GUI for Linux (7-Zip, TugZip, Izarc etc lacks it). Add themes, a more polished and friendly look many users prefer to the minimalism of 7-Zip (not me, I like both). This don't change the fact that 7-Zip (and p7zip for Linux) are the groundbrekers which started spreading the 7z format.Tekzel, for many people (notably, including me) context submenus are no more than a fancy way to say "you have one more click to do".

About Amarok the name says it all: it rocks!

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Daz3d
Submitted by windbane on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 8:31am

Daz3D isn't modelling program, its a setup and rigging program. You dl new models and sets from Daz and and pose your model and change set parameters. Its Poser Lite...

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i use daz and its more then
Submitted by nekollx on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 10:16am

i use daz and its more then just rigging and posing thoug you need to be a lot better then me to take advantage of the subdevision distorting system in 2.0

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Correct. I should have been
Submitted by TheMurph on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 9:59am

Correct. I should have been more explicit in saying that this isn't 3dsmax, but it's still a way to interact with 3D models that you've downloaded and/or created.

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Some interesting apps, but I have better ones.
Submitted by Tekzel on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 5:41am

PeaZip was seriously lacking in options that I could see, I couldn't even find an option to put all the context menu items under a single menu. Even though it is basically a dead project, I prefer TugZip. After that, I would go with IzArc.

I have been using Acronis True Image (not freeware though, so isn't really applicable) for years, but I might have to give Macrium Reflect a try. I messed with it briefly and the thing that turned me off was the recovery CD they make is kinda lame. The Acronis boot CD had a lot of options, including being able to create archives.

DAZ Studio: No comment, I don't do creative things! :)

Amarok: I have tried to use other media management systems, truely I have. Yet, I keep coming back to the awesome Subsonic web based media streaming app. The new versions even have an awesome built in flash based player (the old one sucked). I could even remove Winamp and not miss it now. If you haven't tried Subsonic, run out and grab it now. I am pretty confident you won't regret it.

Snakr: Google Reader. Thats all I am going to say. My list of feeds are available wherever I am, and it works well with Firefox.

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PeaZip over 7-zip? What a
Submitted by kleinkinstein on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 5:25am

PeaZip over 7-zip? What a joke....MaxPC is once again asleep at the wheel! What they fail to reveal is that PeaZip relies on open source 7z component, which comes from 7-Zip project, to handle many formats. It adds support to various other formats (i.e. ARC, PAQ/LPAQ family etc, extraction of ACE files) and adds other goodies, like two factor authentication, secure file deletion, hash/compare files, helps in creating backup scripts etc. 7-Zip is smaller and generally speaking mode mature project (it is on SourceForge since 2000/2001, while PeaZip started in late 2006), has more localizations and has a very clean UI which some users find minimalist or utilitarianly (if a word) simple.

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Advantages
Submitted by yeld64 on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 2:37pm

7-zip is awesome, but PeaZip handles more archive families and despising it is a younger program, or maybe for that reason, offers a more friendly and cool graphical interface, translated in most of major languages.

Don't forget mentioning it offers the very same UI on Linux, very few application of this kind does, and that it is available as portable application.

This makes this little application a really handy jolly to have on an USB stick: I rutinely bring Linux portable, Windows portable, and Windows installable package with me. I've never needed another application to compress, make sfx, split, erase, checksum etc...

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Actually, 7-Zip is a great
Submitted by TheMurph on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 9:58am

Actually, 7-Zip is a great archiving tool. But this isn't supposed to be "Best of the Best" for software applications. PeaZip is just another alternative. And last I checked, it handled more archive formats than 7-Zip: 79 to 23

http://www.7-zip.org/

http://peazip.sourceforge.net/peazip-free-archiver.html

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