Supporting Technology

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Friday 5 March 2010 at 00:00:00

Replace Notepad with a more capable version

Many people use Notepad for editing simple text documents and program/webpage code because it is small and fast. The disadvantage is that it lacks many features that would be very...

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Wednesday 3 March 2010 at 12:26:00

Create a graph showing what is using hard disk space

Running out of disk space is a frustrating experience. And trying to work out what the space is being used for is even more frustrating....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Wednesday 3 March 2010 at 12:10:00

Use your smartphone to make free internet calls

Many mobile price plans include internet usage. Fring lets you use this to make free internet calls and brings together various different social media and messaging services....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Tuesday 2 March 2010 at 00:00:00

Take to the skies with this free flight simulator

Flightgear is a free open source flight simulator. It has been designed to be easy to add new aircraft and scenery....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Tuesday 2 March 2010 at 00:00:00

Excellent Notepad replacement

Notepad is great for quickly editing text documents but it is basic and this can make it harder to use....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Tuesday 2 March 2010 at 12:07:00

A new look with tabs and better search

From the same stable as the ever more popular Firefox web browser, Thunderbird handles your email and RSS news feeds....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Tuesday 2 March 2010 at 11:54:00

Take a look at the future of this web browser

Opera is a popular browser with some of the best support for standards. Opera 10 promises even faster web surfing, built in spell checker and HTML emails....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Monday 1 March 2010 at 00:00:00

Create backups and fix a broken computer

System Rescue CD is a collection of programs on a bootable CD for creating and restoring backups, and for repairing Windows when disaster strikes....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Monday 1 March 2010 at 00:00:00

Convert images to another format

There is a huge number of different image formats and it is very frustrating to receive an image that cannot be opened....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Friday 26 February 2010 at 15:54:00

Record, edit and print out musical notation

There are times when it is very useful to be able to create musical scores. These include sending compositions to other musicians or as part of school work....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Thursday 25 February 2010 at 00:00:00

Create CDs and DVDs from an ISO file

There are many reasons for needing to make a CD or DVD with an ISO file such as creating a Linux Live CD....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Thursday 25 February 2010 at 00:00:00

Catch and delete viruses on a Linux computer

Linux may be more resilient against viruses, but there are still good reasons to install some form of antivirus software....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Thursday 25 February 2010 at 17:24:00

Better control over shutting down your computer

Intelligent Shutdown is a free application that offers a variety of features. Although its name suggests it only automates your PC switching off, you can actually use it to do...

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Wednesday 17 February 2010 at 00:00:00

Keep your files updated

Using a USB key for storing files is very useful until confusion dawns on which file is the most recent....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Monday 15 February 2010 at 00:00:00

Keep all of your passwords in one safe place

Whether the answer is one or hundreds, Password Safe allows you to safely and easily create a secured and encrypted user name/password list....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Wednesday 10 February 2010 at 00:00:00

Share data between a GPS and a computer

EasyGPS is a free tool for sharing GPS waypoints and routes between a computer and a GPS device. It is ideal for enthusiasts of the geocaching hobby....

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Monday 8 February 2010 at 00:00:00

Benchmark and diagnose PC faults

Find out exactly what your PC is doing with this diagnosis tool. It will analyse the PC and the tasks that are currently running, and will benchmark, or speed-test, the...

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Thursday 4 February 2010 at 15:11:00

Open and view PowerPoint 2007 files without buying Office

This is the software publishers description: PowerPoint Viewer 2007 lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions....

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Wednesday 3 February 2010 at 16:53:00

Keep track of the time spent on different projects

It is often important to know how long you have spent on different tasks, whether you bill people by time, or just want to keep on top of a busy...

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Monday 1 February 2010 at 00:00:00

Manage the fonts on your computer

Using a different font is a great way of personalising a document but it can be hard to keep track of the fonts installed on the computer, especially when software...