Friday software freebies

Today’s picture is a little different to the usual photo that I start a blog with. This is one is of Blackpool, a popular seaside resort in the North of England. You can see Blackpool Tower and the pier; it was taken by Simon James. I edited the photo last night with Windows Live Photo Gallery; cropping it to make it look quite panoramic.

Windows Live photo gallery is part of the Windows Live essentials suite of software and that’s FREE! You can download that from Softronic.com. Choose the earlier 2010 version for XP or the 2012 version for Windows 7. That will give you Windows Live email, Live instant messenger, live writer to write blogs, live photo gallery to edit photos and movie  maker.

If you have Windows Live email or a Hotmail account, you can now go to Outlook.com and log in with your email address and password to upgrade your email account. You then get 7 Gb of free space and if you click ‘create’ you get an online version of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint FREE!

You can also find lots of free software at Download.com. I gave today’s picture a texture using PhotoScape, the free editing software I downloaded earlier.  PhotoScape is quite easy to use and very advanced. It’s also FREE!

You can also download Fotosketcher from Download.com and that will allow you to change your photos to water-colour, oil paintings, vintage photos and a lot more.

If you can’t afford Microsoft Windows Word for word processing, then why not download a freebie? You can download the Kingsoft suite of programs to get a Word compatible program and a whole Office suite of programs from the Kingsoft store. That’s FREE too.

Google Chrome is the fast browser that I use and once installed there are lots of add-ons in Chrome Web Store. I use Tweetdeck to keep up with what’s happening in the world of Twitter. 

If you need a free antivirus, then Avast free antivirus is on Download.com too. It’s FREE!

Not long ago, Microsoft bought up Skype the popular Voice over IP service. They now intend to drop Windows Live IM and replace it with Skype. There are dedicated telephone that work with Skype or a normal line and Skype is less bloated than Windows Live. I’ve had problems with Windows Live in the past using too much CPU power too. You can download Skype free and it also allows you to call normal phones with Skype out. I’m not sure about the other stuff like sharing photos and files though.

Do you have a favourite freebie? Please comment and share it with us. There are more amazing blog on a zillion ideas today. Why not take a look?

Related articles

• Neodigital art | Editing to create art (mike10613.wordpress.com)
• Neodigital Art | more editing (mike10613.wordpress.com)
• Microsoft to scrap Windows Live Messenger for Skype (business.financialpost.com)
• Microsoft announces plans to merge Skype and Windows Live Messenger (thecellphonejunkie.com)
• Microsoft to shut down Windows Live Messenger (vr-zone.com)
• Microsoft shoots Windows Live Messenger, brings in Skype IM (go.theregister.com)
• Confirmed: Windows Live Messenger Is Out, Skype Is In (mashable.com)