Freeware, Shareware & Abandonware

Many software companies use an activation code to prevent unauthorized users from installing and using their programs. Microsoft often uses this model to distribute their software programs,...

FrostWire is a free, open-source, peer-to-peer (P2P) media-sharing program. Developers created it as an alternative to LimeWire, which is riddled with viruses and costs up to $30, depending on...

A torrent file is used as a method of downloading something to your computer. The torrent points a torrent program to where the file is located so your computer can begin transferring it to where...

Reason 4.0 is a musi- producing software developed by the Swedish software company Propellerhead. With Reason, it is possible to create all sorts of sounds and bring the studio to your computer....

Blinkies are animated graphics, which are often small, and are used most commonly as signatures on websites such as forums, or to decorate personal Web pages. There are several different...

Have you ever wished for a calculator on your computer that could do more than just the basic four functions? How about the ability to type an equation and have it solved before your eyes? If you...

Mdf is a file format used by the program Alcohol 120%. It's a virtual copy of a CD or DVD. In order to get access to the files inside the mdf, you will need a program that can extract these files...

An mdf is a virtual CD file. This means that it simulates a real CD. It is a virtual copy of a CD that you can use on your computer without the actual hard copy of the disk. In order to open and...

When you get music video files from Web sites on the Internet, they could be in a wide range of video formats such as WMV or AVI. The problem comes when you want to play this music video on your...

After you install a program on your computer from a CD, you don't always keep the box. If a situation comes up where you need the product key for that CD, and you don't have access to it, then...

Although sometimes MP3 players may come with a few sample songs, in order to get more on them you'll have to buy them online and then download them onto the MP3 player through a USB cord. This...

The process of putting files such as a video onto a blank CD is called "burning." Transferring videos to a blank CD can be a great way to back up important videos if you're afraid of losing them...

The Yahoo user ID gives access to reading email, and signing into Yahoo Messenger. However, sometimes you may misplace or forget your password. Although this can be frustrating, it is certainly...

MIDI is an audio format that is used in ringtones and for digitizing musical instruments. If you accidentally delete a MIDI music file, you do have some options for getting it back. The best...

TUB is a graphics file type. The format is a multi-celled picture. Since this format isn't widely used by many programs, you'll have to convert it in order to use it with other programs or to...

Blubster is a peer-to-peer file-sharing program for the Windows operating system. This program enables you to share music, movies, photos and software with people all over the world at no cost. As...

If you put a password on a ZIP file and then lose or forget it, then you won't be able to "unzip" the files to get access to the files inside of it. Fortunately, there are programs you can...

MIDI is the audio file format that stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It allows for the digitization of musical instruments. One use for MIDI is as the ring-tone your phone plays...

A partition is a section of your hard drive. If one of your hard drive partitions is deleted for some reason, then you may want to find a way to get it back. One option is to download freeware...

It's now possible to download albums from websites like iTunes onto your computer. If you want to listen to such an album in your CD player, you'll have to record it to a blank CD first, a process...

BearShare is a file-sharing software application; you can share music, audio and video files. The program allows you to download many types of files on a peer to peer network. The BearShare...

VOB is a DVD format file on your computer. You can use VOB files to burn and create DVDs. If your VOB file becomes corrupted or damaged for some reason, you won't be able to use it to create a...

Downloading music from the internet is a fast and easy way to find songs you want, but one of the downsides is you don't always get to see the album cover art. Part of the pleasure of old LP...

Torrent technology allows you to download files from other users considerably faster than many standard file-sharing tools. This is because torrents allow you to get the same file from many...

PPM is a type of "decompressed" image file, which means it hasn't been compressed to make it smaller like some other picture formats. For this reason, your PPM file may be stored inside a ZIP...

Blinkies are graphics that are designed and animated to create the effect that they are blinking. They can contain small icons, blocks with letters, dashes that alternate colors to create the...

Trojan viruses often worm their way onto your hard drive by hiding themselves as another program. You think you are installing a useful program, but instead you may be installing a harmful virus....

WMV stands for "Windows Media Video" and it's a video file format you can watch on programs like Windows Media Player. The file format "3gpp" is a video format commonly used on cellphones. You may...

Sometimes, at school or in the workplace, you may be required to make a timeline chart to show details about an event. The timeline chart will show what happened over the course of the event in a...

WMV or Windows Media Video is a format that was designed by Microsoft to be streamed. However, WMV now supports all kinds of media content like music videos and movies. Even though the quality of...

The RAR file format is an archive type that stores other files for you. It makes these files smaller and easier to transport. When you need to get access to the files inside RAR, you'll need to...

A CSO file is a compressed ISO file, which is a kind of virtual copy of a CD. If you want to compress it further and make it even smaller, you can use an archive program. Archive programs let you...

Active X controls are essentially downloadable interfacing that allow your PC to interact with web based sites. Spell checkers and PDF readers are examples of useful Active X controls used...

When a program isn't working properly, your impulse may be to just select the program files and click "Delete." Unfortunately, this can cause errors on your computer and can leave other files...

Videos that you watch on the popular streaming video website, YouTube, are generally in FLV format. This format may not be compatible with various video programs and portable players. So in order...

Sometimes you delete something on your computer by accident. One instance when this could happen, is when you format your entire hard disk and forgot that were still some files you need to save...

MP3 music files won't always work on some older CD players. You'll have to "burn," or transfer, your songs specifically in an audio CD format in order for them to work in older CD players. To...

Some spyware programs can cause warning sign windows to pop-up on your computer claiming that you have spyware and the only way to fix it is to buy the product they offer. These programs are...

Keeping your computer in good requires periodical maintenance to enhance performance. it is imperative to learn how to perform regular weekly computer maintenance to enhance its operation and...

You can use the program LimeWire to share files with other users online, and you can also download files from them. Sometimes a problem will come up when you're trying to use LimeWire to download...

Adding a toolbar to your browser window can be a convenient shortcut or an annoying intrusion, it all depends on who you ask. If you find yourself wanting to get rid of one, try following the...

Is it possible to modify human behavior simply by flashing subliminal messages on your computer monitor? As far as the scientific evidence is concerned the answer is not clear. Subliminal...

In gaming terms, an emulator is a program that can copy the function of a gaming system like Nintendo or Sega Genesis. Using such a program, you can load "roms," which are virtual versions of game...

The P2P, or "Person to Person," program LimeWire will let you download files from other users who decide to share them online. If you're connection is slow, or if their connection isn't as fast as...

A rootkit is a malicious program that sneaks into your computer sometimes through another program that you install. It then gains high level access to your machine, and can then install other...

Want to convert files to PDF for free? This how to will teach you how to do it for free. PDF files have many uses, but the Adobe software that creates and converts the files is very...

Three easy steps with several mouse-clicking to get you used to the program to recover password for WinZIP/ZIP archives! This is a concise guide for you to quickly experience the program. For the...

Frostwire is a bit torrent program that lets you download files from many other users at the same time. The problem with using dial up for this program is that many of the files you would want to...

There is a simple way to set a program up to start running whenever you log in to your Windows XP account. There is a startup folder that holds the key to every program that starts when you log...

Utorrent is a program uses bit torrent technology, which is a different way of sharing files than used by services like Napster or Kazaa. In a bit torrent set-up, many people can upload and...