FREE Digital Organiser

LiveBinders is a FREE way to gather your knowledge, whether it is website links or files, all into one place for easy sharing. Also available as an app for iPad, Andriod and Chrome. See: http://www.livebinders.com

FREE Email Security Check

This FREE test lets you check how good your email antivirus is in a safe way, by sending you 7 emails with attachments each testing a way a virus could be sent. Many hosted email systems check attachments when you try to download it, so don't be surprised if you get all 7 emails. See: http://www.emailsecuritycheck.net/index.html

FREE Online Password Manager

Too many passwords is a symptom of modern life that can easily be managed by using a FREE online password manager. Rather than have the same password for all your online accounts and services, you only have to remember one really strong password.

See: https://lastpass.com/

Cloud Based Presentation Tool

With a FREE Prezi license you get 100MB of cloud storage to create public presentations. Create, edit and present, using the FREE iPad app or use Prezi Desktop, which also lets you keep your prezis on your own computer. See: http://prezi.com/

Independent Anti-Virus Comparision Website

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. Every day, AV-Comparatives researchers collect a set of malicious URLs and run real world tests, file detection tests and performance tests for most major antivirus products. The results are posted monthly in clear easy to read charts and reports. See: http://av-comparatives.org/

Check When Gmail and Twitter Are Down

Not being able to access a web service you rely on is frustrating, so first check to see if you are not the only one affected. downrightnow is a FREE monitoring website displaying the status of web services, such as Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Yahoo! Mail, LinkedIn and many more. It works by combining user Tweets and official announcements to tell you when there's service issues. See: http://downrightnow.com/

FREE PC Vulnerability Scanner

Keep all your PC software up to date with the FREE Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI). It scans your software for missing security updates and locates the necessary downloads for you. See: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

If you don't to install anything there is even an online version covering 100 third-party programs/plugins at: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/

Discover The Best Android Apps

AppBrain is a FREE Android market search engine, which lets you easily install and manage your apps directly from the web browser and on the device with their free Android app. Filter by categories; 'Free', 'Price Reduced' and 'App2SD supported' to help find your perfect apps - see: http://www.appbrain.com

Scientific Calculator In Google

I always knew that Google could act as a basic calculator, but I didn't realise that there was a scientific calculator built into the Google search page. Either search for the word 'calculator' or bookmark the following link: http://www.google.com/search?q=calculator

FREE Android Security And Optimization App

Advanced Mobile Care by IObit is a FREE all-in-one Android security and performance optimization app for Android. In addition to real-time malware scans, features include a Game Speeder, Battery Saver, App Manager, Task Killer and Privacy Locker. See: http://www.iobit.com/advanced-mobile-care.php

Email Up To 2GB For FREE

This simple no fuss service lets you email files up to 2GB for FREE, to up to 20 people at a time, with no registration. Files are available for 2 weeks before they are deleted. See: www.wetransfer.com

FREE Online Task Management

Manage your tasks and to do lists with this easy to use FREE cloud based system. You are spoilt for choice on how to add tasks, ranging from email, twitter and Siri, and also syncs with Microsoft Outlook and BlackBerrys. Apps are available for iPad, iPhone, Android and Gmail. The system lets you set a wide range of task reminders via email, SMS and most instant messaging clients. See: www.rememberthemilk.com

Windows 8 Start Button Alternatives

If you really cannot live with Windows 8 not having a start button, don't panic.
Here are some of the best utilities for getting back the start button.

	Start8 ($4.99) http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/index.asp
	Classic Shell (FREE) http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/
	StartMenu8 (FREE) http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php
	Start Menu Reviver (FREE) http://www.reviversoft.com/start-menu-reviver/
	Start Menu X (FREE) http://www.startmenux.com/

Email PDF Files Directly To Your Kindle App

Did you know that every Kindle device and Kindle App has it's own email address, which you can use to send PDF files directly to it.  Apps are available for Windows, Macs, iOS & Android devices. You can only send from approved email address, which are managed at Amazon's website in: Your Account, Manage Your Kindle, Personal Document Settings, Approved Personal Document E-mail List.  See: www.amazon.com

Find The Largest Files On Your PC Quickly

WizTree is a small FREE portable app that finds the files and folders using the most disk space on your hard drive in a matter of seconds. Lists the top 1000 largest files or a standard tree view. Essential if you are thinking of upgrading your HD to a SSD. Due to the way WizTree check files, it only works on local NTFS format drives. Available for all versions of Windows, see: http://antibody-software.com

Find And Remove Duplicate Files

After a couple of years, it's amazing just how many copies of the same files you may actually have, which becomes a problem when you start to run out of disk space. AllDup is a FREE tool that helps you to find and remove duplicate files on your PC. Also available as a portable edition, see http://www.allsync.biz/alldup_help/alldup.htm

To specifically find duplicate photos, try VisiPics at http://www.visipics.info

Rent Adobe Photoshop When You Need It

As part of their Creative Cloud offerings, Adobe now lets you take out a subscription to an individual software package on a monthly or annual contract. Photoshop CS6 normally costs $699 or £660, so if you only need it for a specific project, why not rent it out $29.99 or £27.34 per month. The price drops to $19.99 or £17.58 if you sign up for a year. See: https://creative.adobe.com/plans

FREE All-In-One Cloud Storage Solution

LogMeIn has expanded their FREE cloud offering with cloud storage that lets you sync, share, collaborate and store unlimited versions of your files. It's biggest trick though, is the ability to sync your data securely between your computers (PC's & Macs), avoiding the cloud if you so choose. You get 5GB for FREE, with an extra 1GB per referral (up to 25GB). See: https://www.cubby.com/

FREE Easy To Install Apache Web Server

Apache Friends is a non-profit project which put together XAMPP, a FREE easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. All features are turned on, so it's ideal for test environments. Available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris. See: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Upgrading Your Computers Memory

You don't need to open up a computer any more to see how many memory slots you have free. The Crucial System Scanner automatically analyzes your computer memory and suggests what upgrade options you may have. Available for PCs and Macs, see: http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

Quickly Diagnose PC Issues for FREE

The antivirus firm Webroot has FREE System Analyzer utility, which quickly highlights areas that need attention on your PC and gives a detailed report on all aspects of hardware, OS and installed applications. Works like a portable app and doesn't require installation. See: http://www.webroot.com/gb/en/business/resources/analyzer

Searching Gmail

Searching for emails in Gmail by size, has always been a bit of a bugbear for me, but this is no longer the case. Google have now published all the advanced search parameters in a 'Searching Gmail' support page for everyone to see, at: http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7190

Design Inspiration Blog

Designbeep is a design blog dedicated to web developers, bloggers, designers and freelancers. It's a massive site full of articles, tutorials, tools and resources for web and graphic design. See: http://designbeep.com/

FREE Website With No Adverts

Zoho, one of the first online productivity & collaboration companies is offering FREE websites that you can use with a custom domain and is totally ad-free. Web hosting is also included, together with unlimited storage and email support. See: www.zoho.com/sites

FREE Online Meetings

join.me is LogMeIn.com’s new screen sharing service. A free account gives you screen sharing for up to 250 viewers, with chat and internet calling features. Viewers can also be on Android or iOS (iPad or iPhone) via a free app. Existing LogMeIn accounts (free & pro) are also automatically valid join.me accounts. See: https://join.me/

Microsoft Office 365 Support Contact Numbers

Office365 support is only available to users with administrator privileges, but what do you do if they are not available.  Tracking down the telephone support number is quite difficult, the last thing you need when things aren't working. Click here to find the telephone support number for a particular country.

Managing A Windows Phone

Microsoft have a FREE portal for managing mobile phones running Windows Phone 7.5 or 8.  From the portal you can check your app purchase history and reinstall apps. You can even choose apps to install remotely, so setting up phones for colleagues and family is really simple.  The portal also includes a 'Find My Phone' feature, which lets you Ring, Lock or Erase your phone. See: http://www.windowsphone.com/

FREE Password Strength Checker

Check out this handy secure password checker which automatically checks the strength of any password, as well as advice to help you choose more secure passwords. See: https://howsecureismypassword.net/

FREE eBooks For Microsoft Technologies

Microsoft Press has quite a large collection of FREE eBooks (65+) now, available in a variety of formats (7 are available for FREE on the Amazon Kindle store too) for the full list see: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/11608.e-book-gallery-for-microsoft-technologies.aspx

Updating A Windows 7.5 Phone

I had intermittent issues when I first got my Samsung GT-I8350 Windows 7.5 mobile phone. They were fixed though once I installed the Microsoft Zune software and updated the phone by going to SETTINGS > PHONE > UPDATE. See: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27163

FREE PowerShell Plus v4.7 IDE

Windows Powershell is like Marmite, you either love it or hate it. This FREE Powershell IDE with pre-loaded scripts and built in learning center can make your admin tasks easier. See: http://www.idera.com/Free-Tools/PowerShell-Plus/

FREE Microsoft Virtual Labs

Not having access to the right software is no longer a barrier to learning with the FREE Microsoft Developer Network Virtual Labs. Using their Hyper-V virtualization and remote desktop technologies, you get to use the latest software without having to install anything other than a plugin. See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa570323

FREE Portable Apps Suite

There is a lot more to portable apps than not requiring to be installed. The FREE PortableApps Platform lets you organise your files and programs, with built-in updaters and App Store. Use it to create an 'in case of emergency' USB memory stick, full of your important files and the programs to edit them. See: http://portableapps.com/

Add Windows Media Player to Windows 8

Did you know that Windows Media Player is not installed by default in Windows 8, instead you have to manually download and install it. See: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30685

Free PC Diagnostics Tool

The antivirus company ESET have a FREE standalone diagnostics tool called SysInspector for all versions of Microsoft Windows. Features a handy sliding filter to help identify issues. See: http://www.eset.com/support/sysinspector/

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

If your work email has moved to Google Apps, it doesn't mean you have to give up using Outlook. Use this utility to easily connect your email to Outlook. (This does not work with Gmail, requires Google Apps for Business or Education) See: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync

Kaspersky Lab's Blog

Kaspersky Lab have a really informative blog full of videos and other tips and advice. Even if you don't use their antivirus software, it's worth a look. See: http://blog.kaspersky.com/

FREE Office Suites

Choosing a FREE office suite used to be easy, you downloaded OpenOffice. But when Oracle bought Sun a large chunk of the OpenOffice development team broke away and started LibreOffice. Oracle then gave OpenOffice to Apache, and so now we have two branches of the original OpenOffice to chose from.

	For LibreOffice version 4.0 see: http://www.libreoffice.org/
	For OpenOffice version 3.4.1 see: http://www.openoffice.org/

Recover Microsoft Product Keys

If you ever have to reinstall or upgrade Microsoft Windows or Office, locating a hard to read sticker somewhere at the back of your computer is a major headache. Instead run this FREE tool (you don't even have to install it) to see all your Microsoft product codes. See: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Play All Popular Audio & Video Formats

Codecs are needed for decoding audio and video formats. Without the correct codec to match a video file type, you cannot play the video. So if you come across a video format that you cannot play, try installing the FREE K-Lite Codec Pack for MS Windows. See: http://www.filehippo.com/download_klite_codec_pack/

FREE Cloud Based Collaboration

	FREE for up to 5 users with 1GB storage. See: http://www.podio.com
	FREE for up to 20 users with 5 workspaces with 20MB storage each. See: http://pbworks.com
	Enterprise Social Network, the Basic Network is FREE. See: http://www.yammer.com/
	Google Sites via Google Apps. FREE for up to 10 users with 5GB storage. See: http://www.google.com/a

Premium Cloud Based Email Systems

Here are what I consider to be the three main choices for premium paid for hosted / cloud email. I happen to use all three of these email systems myself daily and each has it's own pros and cons. All 3 include spam and virus filtering as standard and will link to your smartphone.

	Microsoft Office 365 Based on Exchange, Sharepoint and Lync with 25GB mailboxes at $8 per month. Basically corporate email, without the hassle. The $20/month version includes a full license of Office Professional and email archiving. See: http://www.office365.com/
	Google Apps for Business Gmail without adverts, 24/7 support and a 25GB mailbox for $50/£33 per year.  Includes all the Google suite, Docs, Drive, Sites, etc. They recently started offering monthly subscriptions at $5/£3.30 per user. See: http://www.google.com/a
	Yahoo Mail Plus I originally started paying $19.99/£11.99 a year just to not have any adverts on Yahoo's unlimited storage email service. Your account will never expire, together with live support, mail forwarding and disposable addresses. See: http://uk.overview.mail.yahoo.com/enhancements/mailplus