Featured Freeware

This Firefox extension should appeal to anybody trying to minimize bookmark and open tab clutter. Read It Later gives you a one-click option for saving the links and keeping track of which ones have been read. It also now sports deep integration with Google Reader, adding little check marks next to blog posts. Clicking one lets you mark it to read later on.

When you first start the extension, it will prompt you to install the two Toolbar buttons that are used to control the extension and manage your reading list. Users can also control adding bookmarks to their reading … Read more

This all-in-one freebie isn't my most beloved freeware, but it's something that may appeal to users who want desktop-enhancement and system-management tools packed into one program. Capture .NET's translucent interface houses a clock, calendar, a screen-capture tool, file converter, and a privacy eraser. Amazingly, this chock-a-block application only eats up a small amount of memory and is portable, running from an EXE file.

Capture .NET's system-tray icon displays the current date and zodiac sign. You can view a lunar calendar and see the time zone and current time for locations around the world. There's a … Read more

MSKeyViewer Plus retrieves full product-key information for numerous licensed applications, and it does it with a fair bit of style.

The program's GUI is simple but elegant, with clearly labeled buttons that should leave you with no question about how to use it. Granted, there's very little to do--open the program and all your licensed programs are shown in one of the two tabs. Programs are listed in a tree format, and it's easy to drill down to the details. The other tab shows nonlicensed programs like the free Adobe Acrobat reader. You can selectively copy information … Read more

Like all mind maps, FreeMind for Windows and Mac gives you the flexibility to organize thoughts on a page as they connect to each other and to the larger picture. After all, not all minds reason in subheadings and bullet points. You shape, place, and name that master idea--called the root node in FreeMind--then create child or sibling spokes that relate to it.

FreeMind encompasses a fine range of features, including scads of icons and color formatting options to help you visually organize concepts. It also supports hyperlinks, which allow you to link Web sites and even documents to a … Read more

This image editor earns kudos for its impressive feature set. Before it launches, FxFoto offers to scan your PC for images and gives you the option to view a detailed tutorial. The cluttered interface might make you wary, but it's not as bad as it looks.

FxFoto has just about every image-editing tool most folks will need. You can automatically or manually improve shots, remove red-eye and blemishes, apply a number of effects, add frames and borders, correct colors, and alter white balance. FxFoto supplies a standard set of drawing tools and lets you add captions to any of … Read more

Taking a cue from real-world Post-It notes, Stick provides an equivalent product for your computer desktop. A few differences from other sticky note programs make this a valuable asset for any PC.

The most noticeable is that notes, when closed, turn into tabs you can then append to the sides of your screen. This makes keeping your desktop tidy a snap. In addition to basic text notes, you also can create Explorer notes, which are actual Windows Explorer windows. You can navigate the file system from within these or even use them for Web browsing.

Each note features a variety … Read more

Easily combine executables, Registry changes, and commands into a single, tight, executable with this simple freeware. Wrapper's deceptively basic interface resembles nothing more than a generic spreadsheet app. As it doesn't need to be installed, the program is easy to add to a USB toolkit. This is a program for those comfortable with constructing potentially damaging executables.

Though it builds a flowchart of commands, operating Wrapper is not a linear process. Users choose to build projects, or lists of applications, commands, or Registry changes to invoke. The app uses simple press-a-button functionality to add a line to the … Read more

You can't predict every hard-drive failure. But when a drive goes down because certain hardware components are slowly degrading, then Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology, aka S.M.A.R.T., can help warn you of an impending crash so you have time to run a backup.

Mac OS X already uses S.M.A.R.T. to track the health of drives, but it only runs whenever you use Disk Utility to verify a disk. SMARTReporter is an open-source tool that checks the S.M.A.R.T. status of drives hourly, or at any interval you set. … Read more

The free productivity app WritingPad quietly and neatly eliminates the problem of stabbing the iPhone's keyboard in order to type an e-mail or note. Instead of entering letters one by one and waiting for the predictive text to kick in, you use your finger to trace a line from one letter to the next, so it will essentially looks like a squiggle on the keyboard, but it renders as a letter.

You don't have to concern yourself with avoiding letters you don't need, or with double letters like o's or n's. You don't even … Read more