Kexi: Free Alternative to Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a versatile tool for creating database-driven applications and to maintain office or personal data. Access contains an embedded database engine, but it also connects to other databases through ODBC.

Microsoft Access free competitor, Kexi, allows users to design forms to gain access to and to create data, just like Access. Kexi also contains an embedded database engine and it can import data to Microsoft Access databases. And, yes, Kexi is open source, free utility.

Main Features

ü  Full visual designers for tables, queries and forms. Queries can be also designed in dedicated SQL view.

ü  Running queries, support for parametrized queries.

ü  Data entry and sorting.

ü  Support for "Object" data allowing to store images of many types.

ü  Designing and displaying relational data using combo boxes (lookup columns).

ü  Advanced CSV data import and export from files. Copying to clipboard and pasting from clipboard is also available, thus the data can be easily transferred to applications like spreadsheets or word processors.

ü  User Mode, allowing to switch off all commands related to editing project's design.

ü  "Find" window for searching thought table and form's contents with rich set of options.

Operating Systems

ü  Linux

ü  Solaris

ü  FreeBSD

ü  In development: Mac OS X (using Homebrew); MS Windows

http://www.kexi-project.org/

PC Decrapifier – Toilet Paper for you PC

In many cases, when you get your new computer, not all the software, preinstalled on it, is really needed. But when you are dealing with the warranty covered device, you are trying to be extra careful not to remove anything of value.

Unfortunately, most boxed PCs come full of bloatware, which was prearranged with software vendors, which made related deals with computers manufacturing, and you probably don’t need (or want) most of it clogging up your system resources.

That’s where the utility, called PC Decrapifier, comes in. This pint-size wonder program scans your PC, brings up a checklist of the bloatware installed on your machine, and helps you wipe unneeded crap away in couple of simple steps.

Main Features:

* It is super easy.

The PC Decrapifier provides an easy step-by-step process to help you remove the garbage clogging up your computer.

* You are  always in control

Nothing is removed without your approval. You can review and approve the list before anything is removed.

* Community recommendations

Decide what to remove based on our community of PC Decrapifier users.

Web site: https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

Hide File in File – For Everyone Who is Paranoid over Private Data Security

Say, you have important data, which you would like to store on your computer with no one else being able to access it even after the thorough investigation of the files. There are numerous ways and approaches to achieve the goal. Today, we will present one more method, fast, easy, and reliable.

You will simply hide your secret file or files inside another file. For example, compress the dangerous for you pictures in zip archive, and hide inside another picture or music mp3 file. The resulting file will look standard and will not offer any clues, it is “loaded” with something else.

Perform the task in few simple steps:

Step 1: Click on "File" button to select the file you want to hide or Drag the file onto the textbox beside it. Compress the files before the process is recommended e.g. zip, rar, or 7z.

Step 2: Click on "Picture or mp3" button to select the file you want to hide into or Drag the file onto the textbox beside it. Recommended image files formats: jpg, png, or bmp.

Step 3: Click on "Output" button to select the output path and file name or Drag the file onto the textbox to overwrite it. Recommended image files formats: jpg, png, or bmp.

Step 4: If "Show cmd Window" checked, the cmd window will show while processing.

Step 5:  Click on "Execute" to Begin the process.

For example, you decided to hide a song in mp3 format in the picture in jpg format. When you received your final output, performing the operations above, you will be able to switch easily between hidden audio in the picture (with extension jpg, clicking the file will just cause the picture opening) and playing your audio clip, when you just rename the output file in the mp3 format.

Website: http://fileinfile.sourceforge.net/

Freeware Suite, Alternative to the Microsoft Office

There is Microsoft Word, the word processor of choice for many users, as part of the Microsoft Office. There are OpenOffice and LibreOffice – two free alternatives for the commercial software. There are Google Docs cloud application, allowing you to create and edit text documents online for free.

Do you really need anything else? Why not, if all the presented solutions are not satisfying your needs in full.

One of my friends has switched to Calligra, so I would like to present this potential solution to you as well.

Calligra Words is an intuitive word processor application with desktop publishing features. With it, you can create informative and attractive documents with ease. It is a part of the Calligra office applications suite which may satisfy your potential needs for documents and data.

Calligra Words is an all-purpose word processor aimed at academic, business and personal use

You can create informative and attractive documents with a few clicks of your mouse. Objects like pictures or charts can be easily created with a few clicks of the mouse and just as easily moved or changed, while the text just flows around it.

Calligra Stage is a powerful and easy to use presentation application. Calligra Stage comes with some amazing, stylish options for your slide backgrounds. Make your slides using images, videos, animation and more. Making presentations has never been easier! With the plug-in’s available in The Calligra Suite, there are more options than ever to add to your slides.

Calligra Sheets is a fully-featured spreadsheet application. It can be used to quickly create spreadsheets with formulas and charts, to calculate and organize your data in a neat manner. Calligra Sheets comes with options for General, Business, and Home and Family options with pre-set spreadsheets. It also comes with an astounding array of pre-set formulas.

Calligra Flow is used to make diagrams and flowcharts. Use Flow to make network diagrams, organization charts, flowcharts and much more. Flow also comes with numerous stencils that can be used to make anything you want. There are options for Networking, Renewable Energy, Chemistry, Building sites, and many other options to help you make your diagrams.

Kexi is a visual database creator. It can be used for designing database applications, inserting and editing data, performing queries, and processing data. Forms can be created to provide a custom interface to your data. Kexi stores all database objects – tables, queries, forms, reports – in the database, making it easy to share data and design.

Website: https://www.calligra.org/get-calligra/

ShareX – Free Screen capture, file sharing, and productivity tool

 Why ShareX is so popular free substitute for commercial screen capture utilities?

Main Features:

* Free, open source, lightweight and free from advertisements!

* Advanced screenshot capture, screen recorder, file sharing and productivity tool.

* Various methods of capturing screenshots including full screen, window, monitor, region, freehand, scrolling, and more.

* Customizable after-capture tasks such as annotating, adding effects, watermarking, uploading, printing and other actions.

* Upload any file using configurable hotkeys, clipboard upload, drag & drop or from the Windows Explorer context menu.

* Supports over 80 different image, text, and file hosting services such as Imgur, FTP, Dropbox, Pastebin, etc. Also supports many URL shortening and sharing services.

* Contains tools like a screen color picker, an image editor, a ruler, a DNS changer, a QR code generator, a directory indexer and more.

* Unlimited customizable workflows with hotkey-specific settings.

* Program that you can trust with over 8 years of active development.

Screenshots:

Website: https://getsharex.com/

Free Pack of Audio/Video Converters from Pazera

Free Audio Video Pack is a collection of portable audio and video converters which helps you to convert between all most popular audio and video formats like AVI, MP3, MP4, FLAC, MOV, WMV, WMA, FLV, 3GP, OGG, WebM and other.

The package also includes applications that allows you to extract audio tracks from CD images based on the CUE sheets.

Content

* Pazera Free MKV to AVI Converter          1.6

* Pazera Free MP4 Video Converter           1.1

* Pazera Free Audio Extractor               2.3

* Pazera Free FLV to AVI Converter          1.11

* Pazera Free MOV to AVI Converter          1.9

* Pazera Free FLV to MP3 Converter          1.1

* Pazera Free WMA to MP3 Converter          1.1

* Pazera Free MP4 to AVI Converter          1.11

* Pazera Free MP4 to MP3 Converter          1.1

* Pazera Free WebM to AVI Converter         1.3

* Free WebM to MP3 Converter                1.1

* Pazera Free 3GP to AVI Converter          1.7

* Pazera OGV Converter                      1.1

* Pazera WebM Converter                     1.1

* Pazera FLAC to MP3                        1.1

* Free APE to MP3 Converter                 1.0

* Pazera Free MKV to MP4 Converter          1.0

* Pazera Free AVI to MP4 Converter          1.0

* Free AVI to MP3                           1.0

* Pazera Free Video to 3GP Converter        1.2

* Free Zune Video Converter                 1.1

* Pazera Free Video to Flash Converter      1.1

* Pazera Free Video to iPod Converter       1.1

* Pazera Free PSP Video Converter           1.1

Screenshots

Portability and Deinstallation

Free Audio Video Pack application is distributed in the form of archive and does not require any special uninstall process. To uninstall it, just delete files previously extracted from the archive.

Website: http://www.pazera-software.com/products/free-audio-video-pack/

Wmail - The missing desktop client for Gmail & Google Inbox

Bringing the Gmail & Google Inbox experience to your desktop in a neatly packaged app.

Wmail is a free, open source desktop client for Gmail and Google Inbox, available for Linux, Windows and Mac. For those, who prefer using the desktop client for the email accounts management, this software might offer a nice, reliable, convenient, and free solution.

Wmail adds loads of features that mail on the web misses making your mail feel right at home on your computer. It's easy to use, fast and has all the features you're already enjoying on the web, and much more.

Main Features:

* Support for Gmail & Google Inbox

Wmail supports all types of Google accounts. All you need to do is pick which type of account you want to add and sign in. The number of simultaneously supported accounts – unlimited.

* Multiple Accounts

Wmail lets you instantly switch between your accounts. No waiting for pages to load, no multiple tabs.

* Desktop Notifications

Need to know when your mail arrives? Not a problem, Wmail presents a desktop notification whenever you get a new message

* Unread badges

Just like all the other apps on your machine, Wmail shows you how many unread messages you have using badges. In seconds you can know if your inbox is full or at zero

* Cross Platform Support

Wmail works on OSX, Windows and Linux straight out the box. There's no reason why you need to type gmail.com into your browser ever again.

* Keyboard shortcuts & integration

Wmail works hard with Gmail and Google Inbox to support all the keyboard shortcuts, file drag drop and other native integrations you normally expect.

* File Drag & Drop

Wmail offers easy and fast operational capabilities, including files drag and drop operations.

Screenshots:

Website: http://thomas101.github.io/wmail/

Microsoft Photo Story – the Very Best Free Photo Slideshow Maker

Gizmo, the respectable freeware ratings site, announced the Microsoft Photo Story the winner and the Freeware award holder as the best product in its class!

Create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions. Small file sizes make it easy to send your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a computer, or a Windows Mobile–based portable device.

Review (Softpedia):

If PowerPoint isn't really your cup of tea and you just want an easy to use yet powerful slideshow creator, Microsoft Photo Story is one of the best choices. The interface is pretty basic and that's exactly the way it's supposed to be since the whole thing is actually a wizard, but, nonetheless, it helps you get the job done flawlessly.

Microsoft Photo Story supports as many photos as you want, offering a preview window and some basic editing functions straight from the beginning. You can thus rotate, crop, correct red eye or colors on the fly, without getting too deep into complicated tasks.

Of course, adding text over photos is a breeze, but the most important thing is that you can also pick from a wide range of effects to change the way photos appear and disappear in the video that will be generated.

A special feature that we discovered during our test was the background music editor that not only lets you use your very own files for the video, but also create songs on the go. You can choose from a number of genres and styles and customize them with your own moods, tempo and intensity, so that the tune will perfectly fit the newly created slideshow.

Microsoft Photo Story will save the resulted file in the .WMV format, so you might have to resort to some video converter software for additional formats.

Thanks to its ease of use and given the very good results in creating slideshows that Microsoft Photo Story offers are attributes that can turn this tool into a must have app.

Unrestricted Freeware

Screenshots:

Website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11132

Free OpenShot Video Editor – Impress your Friends!

OpenShot Video Editor is a free, open-source, video editor. It can take your videos, photos, and music files and help you create the film you have always dreamed of. Easily add sub-titles, transitions, and effects, and then export your film to DVD, YouTube, Vimeo, Xbox 360, and many other common formats.

OpenShot has many great features, such as trimming and arranging videos, adjusting audio levels, transitions between videos, compositing multiple layers of video, chroma-key / green screen effect, and support of most formats and codecs. What really sets OpenShot apart from other video editors is the easy-to-use user interface. We have worked very hard to create a video editor that everyone can enjoy!

Want to really impress someone with your video? Need to add some extra oomph to your video? With OpenShot, you can create 3D animated title sequences, which are guaranteed to impress your viewers! Most 3D animation software is very difficult to use, but not OpenShot. With just a few clicks of your mouse, you will have created your first animation! Behind the scenes we use the amazing open-source 3D package Blender.

Enjoy this video which showcases many of OpenShot's features: 3D animation, curve-based camera motion, compositing, transitions, audio mixing, and vector titles.

Main Features:

ü  Cross-platform (Supports Linux, OS X, and Windows)

ü  Support for many video, audio, and image formats (based on FFmpeg)

ü  Powerful curve-based Key Frame animations

ü  Desktop integration (drag and drop support)

ü  Unlimited tracks / layers

ü  Clip resizing, scaling, trimming, snapping, rotation, and cutting

ü  Video transitions with real-time previews

ü  Compositing, image overlays, watermarks

ü  Title templates, title creation, sub-titles

ü  3D Animated Titles (and Effects)

ü  SVG friendly, to create and include vector titles and credits

ü  Scrolling motion picture credits

ü  Solid color clips (including alpha compositing)

ü  Support for Rotoscoping / Image sequences

ü  Advanced Timeline (including Drag & drop, scrolling, panning, zooming, and snapping)

ü  Frame stepping (key-mappings: J, K, and L keys)

ü  Video encoding (based on FFmpeg)

ü  Digital zooming of video clips

ü  Time-mapping and Speed changes on clips (slow/fast, forward/backward, etc...)

ü  Custom transition lumas and masks

ü  Audio mixing and editing

ü  Presets for key frame animations and layout

ü  Ken Burns effect (artistic panning over an image)

ü  Digital video effects, including brightness, gamma, hue, greyscale, chroma key (bluescreen / greenscreen), and many more!

ü  OpenShot provides extensive editing and compositing features, and has been designed as a practical tool for working with high-definition video including HDV and AVCHD.

Screenshots:

Website: http://www.openshot.org/

Clementine - modern music player and library organizer

Clementine is a multiplatform music player, inspired by Amarok 1.4, focusing on a fast and easy-to-use interface for searching and playing your music.

Main Features:

ü  Search and play your local music library.

ü  Listen to internet radio from Spotify, Grooveshark, SomaFM, Magnatune, Jamendo, SKY.fm, Digitally Imported, JAZZRADIO.com, Soundcloud, Icecast and Subsonic servers.

ü  Search and play songs you've uploaded to Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive

ü  Create smart playlists and dynamic playlists.

ü  Tabbed playlists, import and export M3U, XSPF, PLS and ASX.

ü  CUE sheet support.

ü  Play audio CDs.

ü  Visualisations from projectM.

ü  Lyrics and artist biographies and photos.

ü  Transcode music into MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Speex, FLAC or AAC.

ü  Edit tags on MP3 and OGG files, organise your music.

ü  Fetch missing tags from MusicBrainz.

ü  Discover and download Podcasts.

ü  Download missing album cover art from Last.fm and Amazon.

ü  Cross-platform - works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

ü  Native desktop notifications on Linux (libnotify) and Mac OS X (Growl).

ü  Remote control using an Android device, a Wii Remote, MPRIS or the command-line.

ü  Copy music to your iPod, iPhone, MTP or mass-storage USB player.

ü  Queue manager.

Screenshots:

Website: https://www.clementine-player.org/

Download page: https://www.clementine-player.org/downloads

Double Commander – Open Source Enhanced variance of Total Commander

Double Commander is a cross platform open source file manager with two panels side by side. It is inspired by Total Commander and features some new ideas.

Main Features:

ü  Unicode support

ü  Tabbed interface

ü  Multi-rename tool

ü  Custom columns

ü  Built in file viewer (F3) to view files of in hex, binary or text format

ü  Internal text editor (F4) with syntax highlighting

ü  Archives are handled like subdirectories. You can easily copy files to and from archives. Supported archive types: ZIP, TAR GZ, TGZ, LZMA and also BZ2, RPM, CPIO, DEB, RAR.

ü  All operations working in background

ü  Extended search function with full text search in any files

ü  Configurable button bar to start external programs or internal menu commands

ü  Total Commander WCX, WDX and WLX plug-ins support

Screenshots:

Website: http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net/

Dopamine - cool media player for Windows

Dopamine is a chemical in the human body, which plays an important role in defining human behavior. It is a chemical released by the brain when we experience pleasure. And it is also released by our beloved brain when we enjoy music.

There are tones audio players, competing for the space on the market, there are hundreds of them free to the public. However, through this variety of the provided features and interface design attributes, there are software utilities, which are unique, cool, and attractive. Dopamine is one of the few players, having a special space in this group.

Dopamine’s main goal is make organizing and listening to music as simple and pretty as possible. It has no intention to replace existing full-featured audio players. Dopamine is for those that seek simplicity and functional eye-candy. It supports wav, mp3, ogg vorbis, flac, wma and m4a/aac.

Screenshots

System requirements

Windows 7, 8.x, 10

.NET Framework 4.5.1 or higher

Softpedia Review (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Players/Dopamine.shtml)

Dopamine is a lightweight piece of software that allows you to play music from your local disk drive and find albums, artists or track that you want to listen to seamlessly.

The utility comes with an appealing interface that displays a list of songs, albums, genres, artists and playlists in alphabetical order. Therefore, if you want to listen to a song you have in your head, but you can only remember the name or artist vaguely, you can find the track by searching the lists at the corresponding letter.

While most of the UI is dedicated to music organization, the player is located in the lower section of the screen and comes with the basic play, forward, backward, pause, loop and stop options. It is necessary to mention that you can minimize the interface so that you can only view the track that is currently playing.

The highlight of the application stems from the multiple methods it displays the data. In fact, it includes a separate tab for all metadata information, a feature that can come in handy when you are searching for a particular artist or song.

On the other hand, the application could use a few editing options that would permit you to equalize the sound, CD ripping for the basic video formats or have plugin support. In addition, it would be nice if the program permitted you to synchronize your music with your mobile device, let you subscribe to podcasts or find and download new artists, albums and music.

Website: http://raphaelgodart.tumblr.com/dopamine

Video Cache View – One More Useful Freeware Utility from NirSoft

Video Cache View is a freeware, tiny, but very efficient portable utility, weighting just 222k and helping you to save cached videos from your browsers.

When you may need it? After watching a video in a Web site, you may want to save the video file into your local disk for playing it offline in the future. If the video file is stored in your browser's cache, this utility can help you to extract the video file from the cache and save it for watching it in the future.

It automatically scans the entire cache of Internet Explorer, Mozilla-based Web browsers (Including Firefox), Opera, and Chrome, and then finds all video files that are currently stored in it. It allows you to easily copy the cached video files into another folder for playing/watching them in the future. If you have a movie player that is configured to play FLV files, it also allows you to play the video directly from your browser's cache.

Notice for users of Internet Explorer 10.0 and 11.0: In order to get videos from these versions of IE, you have to press F6 (Advanced Options) and choose the 'Internet Explorer 10 Cache' option in the 'Load video files...' section.

Installer and portable versions are available for downloading from the developer’s website.

Website: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/video_cache_view.html

DarkWave Studio - Free Music Creation Software for Windows

DarkWave Studio is a free Digital Audio Workstation for Windows. Featuring a modular Virtual Studio, Pattern Editor, Sequence Editor and Multitrack Hard Disk Recorder. It has support for VST/VSTi instrument and effect plugins.

The virtual studio has a modular design allowing machines to be connected in an ad-hoc fashion. The pattern editor enables the quick creation and modification of patterns by clicking to add or delete notes and dragging notes to move or resize them. The sequence editor allows you to queue patterns to play for each control track in any arrangement, enabling reuse of patterns and quickly remixing projects.

The Multitrack Hard Disk Recorder allows you to record the output of any machine and record it to 16-bit Integer or 32-bit Floating Point PCM encoded .WAV files for full-quality post-production editing or for conversion to MP3/FLAC/etc.

Main Features:

ü  Native x64 and x86 Windows Platform Support.

ü  VST PlugIn Support - Limitlessly Expandable With Instrument and Effects PlugIns.

ü  Multi Core / Multi CPU Support.

ü  Full 64-bit Double Precision Floating Point Audio Processing.

ü  Low Latency ASIO And DirectSound Audio Output Support.

ü  DirectSound Full Duplex Support For Low Latency Input And Output.

Bundled PlugIns:

ü  ES Audio Input - Allows For Input From Sound Card.

ü  ES Arpeggiator - For Easily Playing Complicated Arpeggios With A MIDI Keyboard.

ü  ES ControlChange Mapper - Map Control Change Events From One Index To Another.

ü  ES MIDI Input - Play Instruments From A Music Keyboard.

ü  ES MIDI Output - Sequence External MIDI Synthesizers.

ü  ES Mixer - 8 Track Stereo Mixer With 2 Auxilary Tracks.

ü  ES DGenR8 - Synthesize Drum Beats With Roland TR-909 Flavour.

ü  ES BassHead - Top Notch Virtual Analog Subtractive Synthesizer.

ü  ES SpatialVerb - Realistic Reverb Effects With The Smoothest Sound.

ü  ES Stomp - Synthesize That Classic Techno Thumping Kick Drum.

ü  ES AntiAlias - 32x Digital Oversampling Filter.

ü  ES QuadDelay - For Trippy Echo Effects.

ü  ES Distort - Basic Overdrive Distortion Effect.

ü  ES Crunch - Limit Bits Per Sample Anywhere From 16 To 1 Bits.

ü  ES StereoSplitter - Split An Input Stereo Signal Into Left And Right Output Mono Signals.

ü  ES StereoJoiner - Combine Left And Right Input Mono Signals Into A Single Output Stereo Signal.

ü  ES Scope - View Generated Waveforms In Realtime.

ü  ES Control Monitor - View Control Messages.

Screenshots:

Website: http://www.experimentalscene.com/software/darkwave-studio/