Free Tools

Here are a number of free tools that I have found to be very useful.

Graphics

• GIMP GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package.
• Hugin Panorama photo stitcher.
• jhead Exif Jpeg header manipulation tool (can use -autorot flag in conjunction with jpegtran to automatically rotate images based on orientation data stored by cameras that support including many Canon Powershots).
• jpegtran Lossless jpeg manipulation including rotation (direct link for .exe version is here).
• ImageMagick I mainly use this for batch picture resizing (mogrify -resize *.JPG 1600x1600)

Video

• MPEG Streamclip Simple video editor that can read multiple formats and export them to QuickTime, DV, AVI/DivX and MPEG-4.
• VLC media player The cross-platform open-source multimedia framework, player and server
• VirtualDub Video capture/processing utility mainly geared towards AVI

Networking / Connectivity

• Firefox Web browser (favorite add-ons include Copy Plain Text, Auto Copy, ShowIP and SwitchProxy Tool)
• Skype Encrypted text & video chat that just works (even through firewalls)
• PuTTY Free telnet/ssh/serial client which supports tunneling and much more.
• UltraVNC Remote control software

Security

• KeePass Password Safe Secure, encrypted password storage with cross platform support including blackberry and other mobile devices.
• TrueCrypt Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux (I use it mostly for a virtual encrypted disk within a file which is mounted as a real disk).

Other

• 1-4a-rename A file renamer which renames many files at once (handy for combining pictures from multiple sources and prepending numbers to keep them in order).
• CDBurnerXP Burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs for free.
• Directory Compare This handy utility will compare and/or synchronize folders including network shares and can be used for simple backups. Visit the author's home page for more handy tools: http://tp.lc.ehu.es/jma.html