Microsoft .NET Framework Repair Tool

For Microsoft to build a repair tool, things must have gone wrong.  If like me, you've had to fight with problematic .NET installations, give this handy repair tool a try first. Half the Office365 issues I've had have been .NET related. See: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/

FREE Early Warning of Hard Drive Failure

Acronis Drive Monitor tells you everything you need to know about the health of your computer hard drives.  Receive alerts via email, together with weekly status reports, so if disk failure is immiment, you get a heads up and a chance to save your data. See: https://www.acronis.com/en-gb/homecomputing/download/drive-monitor/
or https://www.acronis.com/en-us/homecomputing/download/drive-monitor/

FREE Online Meetings

A Cisco WebEx Basic account is free.  Hold online meetings with up to 3 people, with desktop and document sharing.  Ideal for small training sessions or for remote users with iPads. See: www.webex.com

Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription

Get the equivalent of Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium as a subscription for a cash flow friendly £46.88/month instead of the usual £1700 purchase price.  If you have any existing Adobe CS3 or later products you can get the first year for £27.34/month, see: http://www.adobe.com/products/discount-software-coupons.html

FREE Alternative To Adobe Illustrator

I use a vector graphics program called Inkscape to create all sorts of scalable logos and graphics. Design it once and export out to any size as required. It's available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. See: http://inkscape.org/

Path Too Long Utility

Extemely long file paths in Windows can give you a real headache, causing backups to fail and users to get 'file name you specified is not valid or too long' errors. What started out as a utility to locate and remove these files, has evolved to be able to delete all sorts of troublesome files and folders that Windows cannot access. See http://www.pathtoolong.com/

Important iPad & iPhone Settings

If any of your children use your iPad or iPhone to play games, then it is extremely important to disable In-App Purchases.  Many FREE games are financed by optional In-App Purchases, and even if your child does not know your Apple ID password, they can still rack up a huge bill if you have just downloaded the game in question.  Go to Settings, General, Restrictions, and set In-App Purchases to OFF.  I also turn off Deleting Apps with young children.  For more detailed instructions see: http://www.itproportal.com/

Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition is FREE

Just because you have a Mac, it doesn't mean you are safe from viruses, there's just a lot less of them, for now that is!  Why take the risk when Sophos is giving their Mac anti-virus for FREE. See: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx 

FREE IT management software

Solarwinds has over 25 IT management and network monitoring utilities available for FREE at the end of their downloads page. See: http://www.solarwinds.com/downloads/

FREE Virus Removal Tool

SOPHOS has recently updated it's free virus removal tool, claiming 27% found malware missing by existing anti-virus as well as being 20% faster. Give it a try at http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/virus-removal-tool.aspx

FREE Windows PDF Printer

Create PDF documents from any Windows application using the Bullzip PDF Printer. Single installer and FREE for personal and commercial use up to 10 users.

Orphans Remover

Windows shortcuts that no longer work (known as invalid or orphaned shortcuts) can cause delays on Windows machines.  Use the freeware Orphans Remover utility to find and remove them.  (note - only use with 32bit machines)

Open Microsoft Project Files for FREE

	Gantter is a FREE web-based project management tool. Can open Microsoft Project files and integrates with Google Drive. See: http://gantter.com/
	GanttProject is a free open source project scheduling application that can import and export Microsoft Project files. See: http://www.ganttproject.biz/

FREE Piriform Utilities

Piriform has been making great free utilities for years. I always run CCleaner before a routine virus scan. See http://www.piriform.com

Microsoft Fix It

If your Windows computer is having issues, check here first for the FREE Microsoft Support automated solutions to many common problems.  See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2970908/how-to-use-microsoft-easy-fix-solutions

Manipulate PDF files for FREE

PDFsam is an open source software project to split, merge, extract pages, mix and rotate PDF files. The basic version is free, while the paid enhanced version is adds convert, review, fill forms, OCR, sign, secure and edit PDF files. See: http://www.pdfsam.org/

FREE Firewall Test

Test if you are really protected by your firewall for FREE with the online ShieldsUP! tool at www.grc.com

FREE Adobe Photoshop Training Resources

Learning to use Photoshop to an advanced levels just need your time, not money:

	Design Festival is a massive website providing daily tutorials, tips, advice and inspiration for designers, see: http://designfestival.com/
	Independent Adobe Photoshop tutorials, with topics for Buttons, Designing, Drawing Techniques, Photo Editing, Photoshop Basics, Special Effects, Text Effects & Web Layout. See: http://www.adobetutorialz.com/
	Adobe's own Photoshop training videos and tutorials, see: http://tv.adobe.com/product/photoshop/
	Julieanne Kost's Blog featuring indepth tutorials, training, techniques and shortcuts for working with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. See: http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/photoshop-training-videos

FREE Online Backup

I've been using iDrive.com as a backup solution for years. Monthly business accounts start at $9.95 for 100GB to $79.95 for 1000GB (1TB). A 5GB account is free, 12GB if you agree to share your contacts. You can also download free iPhone and iPad apps to backup contacts and more. The best feature is the Continuous Data Protection (CDP) which automatically backs up files under 50MB as you work. See: www.idrive.com

Standalone Virus Scanners

I use Trend Micro's free HouseCall on demand online scanner as a 'second opinion' sweep of any system I suspect may be infected. Every PC I've encountered with a virus had some form of antivirus software installed, which give an all clear after a scan.  Unlike some online scanners, HouseCall will attempt to remove any malware it finds.  See: http://housecall.trendmicro.com
Other alternatives are the Microsoft Safety Scanner and ESET Online Scanner

BgInfo showing Dell service tag

Download a customized Sysinternals BgInfo configured to show the Service Tag of a DELL computer here. Requires BgInfo.exe from: Microsoft sysinternals

To use, first run BgInfo.exe then select File - Open and select DELL.bgi from your downloads.

FREE SQL Resources

Free SQL Database Training

Free Microsoft Press eBooks

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Virtual Labs
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Virtual Labs