My Thoughts On The Dark Knight Rises

New episode of The Geek Life is up. In this episode, I discuss my thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises.

Windows 7 Tips - The Snipping Tool

I just posted a new video to the YouTube channel, talking about a great little tool that is built into Windows 7 called the snipping tool. It's a tool I use on a daily basis and I've found that a lot of people had no idea it was even there. Hope you guys find this useful.

10 Fantastic Pieces of Free Software for Windows 7

If you're anything like me, you like free stuff. I mean who doesn't like free stuff right? It seems like everything these days is getting more and more expensive, and software is no exception. Well, in order to give your wallet a little relief, here are 10 great pieces of software that are 100%, no strings attached, free to download and use for as long as you like.

1. Burn4Free DVD Burning Software

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Burn4Free is the only burning software I have used in quite awhile. It does everything you need it to do and it does it well. Burn4Free makes it very easy to burn CD, DVD, and BluRay Discs, including support for dual layer DVD's. The interface is intuitive and easy to use.

Download the latest version of Burn4Free here.

2. Picasa -  Organize, edit, and share your photos.

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I've tried out quite a few free photo organizers and Picasa is my favorite. It's easy to use and has some great features, including a pretty good set of editing tools to help you make your photos look their best.

Download the latest version of Picasa here.

3. Audacity - For audio recording and editing. 

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Audacity is an awesome piece of software if you need to work with audio files in any way. This is a powerful, yet easy to use program. Here are just a few of the things you can do with Audacity.

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

This really just barely touches on the features of the program. For a complete list of features, click here.

Download the latest version of Audacity here. 


4. PeaZip - File archiver utility.

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PeaZip is a great little program for working with any kind of archived files. You can easily compress, convert, split, and encrypt archives. PeaZip currently supports over 150 different archive formats, such as RAR, ZIP, TAR and 7Z. It also integrates into the windows shell so you can right click on a file from anywhere and access PeaZip functions

Download the latest version of PeaZip here. 

5. Stardock Fences

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Fences is an awesome utility that I absolutely couldn't do without. I have a lot of programs installed on my computer, which means I have a lot of icons on my desktop. The Fences utility allows you to create "fences" and label them any way you want in order to keep your desktop organized. You can create as many of these fences as you want and you can drag them into pretty much any shape, size and location you want. Fences is highly customizable. There is also a nice little feature that allows you to hide all icons by simply double clicking on any empty space on the desktop. This is one application that I can't recommend enough.

Download the latest version of Fences here. 

6. HWMonitor

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HWMonitor is a great little utility program made by CPUID, used for monitoring your PC's main health sensors, such as voltages, temperatures and fan speeds. 

Download the latest version of HWMonitor here.

7. CPU-Z

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CPU-Z is another great utility program from CPUID. If you want to know what is inside of your PC, this is the program that will tell you . It can tell you the exact type or processor, RAM, motherboard, GPU and much more that you have running on your system. You don't have to worry about messing anything up on your PC when using this program. All it does is give you very detailed information about the components that your PC is running. 

Download the latest version of CPU-Z here. 

8. Auslogics Registry Cleaner

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Auslogics Registry Cleaner is a simple to use utility that will quickly remove obsolete entries in your registry as well as fix registry errors, which will help your system to run more smoothly and stably. On my system, it takes less than two minutes to scan and fix all errors. I recommend running this at least once a week, but you can run it as often as you want.

Download the latest version of Auslogics Registry Cleaner here. 

9. Auslogics Disk Defrag

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Another fantastic free utility from Auslogics. Yes, Windows does have a built in disk defrag, but the truth is it's not all that great. Auslogics Disk Defrag is significantly faster than the built in Windows utility.  If you don't know what it means to defrag your hard drive, it basically defragments and rearranges files on your hard drive so that your system can access them more efficiently. I recommend running this program at least one per month and more often if you install and uninstall a lot of programs on a frequent basis. 

Download the latest version of Auslogics Disk Defrag here.

10. Apache Open Office

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Thinking about buying the pricey Microsoft Office suite? Well first, download Apache Open Office for free and see if it doesn't do everything you need it to do. Chances are it will and you will never look back. Apache Open Office is an open source software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is easy to use, is compatible with most other office suites and it is 100%, no strings attached, free. Honestly, I have no idea why anyone would spend $120-$500 for Microsoft Office when this fantastic software suite is available for free. 

Download the latest version of Apache Open Office here.

So there you have it. Ten fantastic pieces of free software. I hope you found at least a few of them helpful and be free to leave me a comment or question below if you have one.