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FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

By Deanna McElveen • Comment about this article

This week we’re looking at ten very useful and free programs that just kind of got buried in the thousands of other programs on our website.

This is not a “Top Ten” list — the selections are not ranked. But most have their place and serve a purpose, so I hope you’ll find something useful here.

If life dealt you cards ordering you to change your DNS often on your Windows computer, then ChrisPC DNS Switch is for you (see Figure 1). Not only can you just type in your own DNS addresses, but you can also select from popular, preconfigured DNS addresses.

Download ChrisPC DNS Switch from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 1. Never dig through Windows network settings again!

Our dog Annie is a cutie pie, but she will be even cuter as a pillow! Cstitch is pretty awesome — because it allows you to take any photo or image and turn it into a cross-stitch pattern with as many colors as you want to tackle (see Figure 2). It even gives you the color numbers and names for your trip to the craft store!

Download Cstitch from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 2. Your dog will have to love you if it’s a pillow.

There are overachievers out there who like doing nerdy things, such as creating lists of bad websites. WaGi’s IP-Blacklister lets you block all the addresses on those lists (see Figure 3). You can also be your own nerd and add lists or addresses.

Download WaGi’s IP-Blacklister from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 3. Make the Internet seem like a pleasant place.

I can’t tell you how useful Piggy Banks has been over the years. From Band Boosters to Youth Basketball, I can’t imagine raising all that money without Piggy Banks to set our goals. Simply plug in a goal amount, add how much you collect every week, and the program will tell you when you should have the money. (See Figure 4.)

Download Piggy Banks from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 4. Know exactly how long it will be before you can leave on that cruise.

Did you know there are people and organizations that preserve the sounds and sights of historic organs from around the world, organs that you can actually play in GrandOrgue? Every detail is preserved, from the pedals to the knobs (see Figure 5). The sound is nothing short of amazing!

Download GrandOrgue from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 5. Load an organ file and play it, as if you were there.

Most people do not know the power of the Windows Hosts file, probably because it’s such a pain to edit. Hosts File Editor+ makes it a breeze to block or divert IPs and addresses (see Figure 6). With handy buttons along the bottom, you can block popular sites with one click and restore to defaults.

Download Hosts File Editor+ from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 6. Take control of your Windows Hosts file with this powerful tool.

If I see a squirrel outside my window, I will lose 20 minutes of work time. Yes, I have focus issues. Writing with Writemonkey takes away all the squirrels and other distractions by giving me a clean workspace (see Figure 7).  I can keep dozens of projects stored and ready to open instantly from within the program. This way, I don’t come across a game or video (squirrels) when I am browsing my computer for a file.

Download Writemonkey from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 7. Writing without rodents

If you have an Android phone, as I do, you won’t transfer all your stuff for safekeeping or to a new phone — unless it is easy to do so. SyncDroid does make it easy … way easy (see Figure 8). Transfer your photos, videos, contacts, and more via a USB cable or Wi-Fi.

Download SyncDroid from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 8. Are all your eggs in one basket? Are your precious photos only on your phone?

I don’t know whether you will ever need to list all the information from every single file and folder in a selected folder. I don’t know whether you will ever want to kill a tree or two by printing out that list. But if you do, MiTeC DirList makes it easy (see Figure 9). In fact, just using it as a Windows Explorer replacement is pretty amazing, with all the info it provides.

Download MiTeC DirList from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 9. Find out every detail of your file and folder structure.

Want to record a video of your screen, with your mug in the corner, via a webcam? There are plenty of overly complicated programs to do so, but Lum Screen Recorder makes it super easy (see Figure 10). Don’t believe me? That’s my brother-in-law in that image. If he figured it out, you can certainly figure it out.

Download Lum Screen Recorder from OlderGeeks.com.

Figure 10. Poor, simple Jason

I hope you enjoyed this little walk down Software Memory Lane. Maybe we’ll do it again in the future. There are still thousands of hidden gems left to find.

Happy 2025, and …

Happy computing!

Our entire philosophy at OlderGeeks is built on being a safe download site offering software you can trust. We use every program we consider, checking it carefully for bundleware or other sneaky stuff. Every downloadable is checked with VirusTotal and Malwarebytes. If a program is updated, we do the same checks again. We reject more programs than we accept, always stressing quality and safety over padding our collection. Every program mentioned in this article meets our rigorous standards. We’re as trustworthy as Grandma’s apple pie!

Contribute your thoughts in this article’s forum!

Deanna and Randy McElveen are celebrating more than a decade of running OlderGeeks.com, over two decades in the computer business, and even more than that putting up with each other. Their computer store is in a small town in the Missouri Ozarks. Believing that happy customers are always the best advertisement, they hope to squeeze in a couple more decades doing the same.

FROM THE FORUMS

The forums are a centerpiece of AskWoody, allowing our community to engage with one another to solve problems, share insights, offer feedback, and add to our collective knowledge. (Not to mention keeping us in line.)

We appreciate both the questions and the ongoing willingness of forum members to participate.

Here’s a quick summary of posts from the second half of 2024. We look forward to seeing what happens in 2025.

Don’t forget to log in before posting!

The section of the forums devoted to support has long been the most active area of all. It accounts for hundreds of thousands of topics and comments. Check out the Support section from time to time. You never know when you might have that unique insight that will help someone else — or find the solution to a problem that’s been nagging you.

In the second half of 2024, hundreds of new questions were asked and several thousand replies were posted. Here are the ten most active Q&A sessions from that period.

Newsletter and blog

As you all know, a forum topic is associated with every post on our blog (the site’s home page) and every article published in our newsletter.

Almost every one of those topics generates some interest, so almost all have at least a few replies from the readership. The replies may be compliments on our articles, complaints about what we have written, disagreement with our conclusions, corrections of errors, further information about the topic, or in-depth commentary about specific points.

We appreciate the activity in the forums. Even if you don’t think there is anything to add, you might find the additional information provided in the forums useful.

In the second half, we published 125 newsletter articles and another 45 blog posts. Of those 170 items, here are the ten most heavily discussed forum topics.

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