Dr. Shirley's Shareware Links

Dr. Shirley's Links

Shareware

There are a lot of good programs and other software available for free download on the Net; there are also so not-so-good ones. If you don't mind downloading them and trying them out - preferably on an old computer first - you can probably find one or more that will do the job you want, even better than bought commercial software. Here are some good sites which have collections of shareware, with descriptions and user remarks, ratings, and feed-back.
Beware of "trial" versions which let you try a program for a limited time and then close down on you - I have found some of them to be difficult to un-install. But that is true of many commercial programs also - McAfee is a horrible case in point - it took hours to get all its hooks out of my computer.
The really good programs come with no strings attached, and rely on folks' appreciation of their usefulness to keep a trickle of financial contributions going to the authors.

SHAREWARE SITES

5 Star shareware || 2000 Shareware.com
Absolute Freebies || AceFiles.com || Allen's Winappslist
BlueChillies || CNet || Completely Free Software
Download 32 || DownloadAstro.com || Download Collection || Download.com - part of CNet organization || Easy Freeware
FileHungry || FilePig || Freecode || Free Fun Files || Free Site, The || Freeware32.com || Freeware Asylum || Freeware Files.com || Freeware Filez has a Trojan || Freeware Hall of Fame
Hot ShareWare
Information Week Software || NoNags || Only Freeware
Pass The Shareware || ProgramFiles.com || Rocketdownload
Shareware Junkies || SnapFiles || SoftCircuits
TuCows
WebMaster Free || WinSite || WUGNet - Windows Users Group Network
list of download sites

VARIOUS APPLICATIONS

FTP - File Transfer Protocol

3d-FTP || AceFTP - Freeware || AutoFTP - Free || Chilkat FTP - Free || CoffeeCup Direct FTP || Core FTP || Cute FTP || FTP Explorer 30-day trial || FTP Navigator || FTP Net - Trial version || FTPPro2000 - evaluation copy || LFTP || NcFTP || RightFTP || SmartFTP - 30-day trial || WS_FTP - 30-day free trial

Zip/Unzip Programs

CoffeeCup Zip Wizard trial version || Cute Zip - trial version, discontinued, but there is still a download button || Freebyte ZIP || FreeZip || PKZip - for Windows or Macs || Stuffit Expander for PC or Mac || Stuffit Expander || WinZip

Search - for "word strings"

I use these programs for plagiarism checks, to search for the original author of a phrase
AnkaSearch - I've not used this one, but it's free, so it might be worth a trial
Web Ferret