# Freeware sites



## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Created a website with what I think are the best freeware around. http://decentdownloads.freeservers.com
Any suggestions?


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## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

Take a look at www.dynamicdrive.com for some good DHTML scripts, pick one for a menu system, also choose a scroller for the resolution statement. Really suggest you add some frames and a few pages for each category.

Use the P ALIGN=CENTER /P attribute for your body text to align it in the center of the page regardless of resolution.

I know it's a work in progress.

If you're looking for good freeware stuff to add on, you might consider doing a search for "freeware" in this thread.


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## BillC (May 29, 2003)

You might also consider adding that web page to your Bio such that anytime you post, it will be easy for someone to explore.

By the way, a good selection of applications.


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## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

Working on it right now I see, Thanks for realigning the vonage ad.

I see you're adding the DHTML scripts as well, love that letters flying in from the side stuff.


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## Davey7549 (Feb 28, 2001)

coathanger
Thanks for the links! I will sure go through them for a look.
Also here is an update Gif without the white for your page if you wish to use.









Dave


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Thanks a lot for the suggestions! 
gotrootdude, will take me a while to go through dynamicdrive. Not sure I want a scroller for the resolution statement...prob more convenient using browser scroller. I thought the body text already aligns itself regardless of resolution? 
BillC, where is my Bio and the webpage you'd like in it? davey7549, downloaded the gif but it still has the background - how to get rid of it?
Thanks once again everyone.


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## Davey7549 (Feb 28, 2001)

coathanger
How do you mean it lost its transparency?
When you saved it from here to your computer? or when you uploaded it too your website?

Once you download the Gif from here, rename to something else and then change the code line in your website to reflect that SRC IMG name and then upload image as part of website package.

Maybe the site didn't change the Gif since the name was the same in other words.

Dave

```
Change this line to whatever you renamed the Gif to:
[CENTER][IMG alt="The Best Favourite Freeware (free software) Downloads "]lady_news_anchor_md_wht.gif[/IMG][/CENTER]
```


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Thanks davey7549. Followed your suggestion and it worked. You got the gif from animation factory gifworks right? Originally had the non-animated gif with white background to speed up loading times a little but since you liked the original, I've replaced it


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## GoJoAGoGo (Dec 26, 2002)

coathanger:

Nice site contains a lot of useful programs. Thanks...


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Nice site, I like the fact there is a description for every application, that's something that's frequently missing. 

I have one suggestion. Not many people run at 1280x1024, I'd consider optimizing it for 1024x768, which is the most common resolution for 17" monitors. I happen to run at 1152x864, the stuff at 1280x1024 is just a bit small for my tired old eyes. 

I also notice that there's a brown bar on the left that covers some of the text, is that because I'm not using the "approved" resolution?


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## Davey7549 (Feb 28, 2001)

coathanger
No I didn't get the transparent animation from animation factory. I used my graphic editor Photosuite 4 Platinum to remove the white background. Unfortunately Photosuite 5 discontinued Animated Gif production.

Anyway somewhere in the process of downloading the animation from this site and uploading to your site you lost the looping characteristics of the animation. Did you open the animation with any other editor before you uploaded?

Also I agree with John that you should optimize your site for 1024x768 which is most common and maybe remove the brown side margins since they cover-up some of the typing at left and the matching right bar is only visible at higher resolutions.

Dave


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

How do you remove a background Davey? 
I mean is there a way without have to cut it out?
Like how you can just change colors but pick to make what ever color transparent.  I know you can do it online at animation factory but I have not seen or know how to do it in any of my image programs.


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## Davey7549 (Feb 28, 2001)

Hewee
Using my photosuite 4 platinum program I can split and edit each frame individually. In the top part of the attach pic it shows the first edit screen of photosuite with each frame individual. In the next pic I select the first frame and slect edit. Int the third edit frame I select what they call the magic wand which when clicked in a certian area will accept that color to preset tolerances and remove it to transparency if I wish.
Of all the programs I use for GIF animation work I find Photosuite 4 platinum to be the most flexable for design and edit.
Unfortunatly as I mentioned many times prior that photosuite 5 does not contain animated gif capability! What a loss!
Roxio jumped ship and lost a big part of its features.

Dave


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I have Photosuite III and I think Photosuite 4 around here someplace.

See other thread that was started the same time I asked you about this.

http://forums.techguy.org/t162236/s.html

There has to be a color code for the transparent background.
R 255
G 255
B 255
Is for white and then you have all the others for the other colors so something has to be there for the transparent color I would think.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Thanks for all the help. The site has undergone major changes - new look, new pages and more importantly new host http://decentdownloads.x-istence.com It now gets about 8000 hits per day


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## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

looks wonderful.. Have to bookmark it..


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Thanks coathanger


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Glad you guys like it. Quick question - Do you think there are too many adverts now?


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## lizard (May 11, 2004)

Hi *coathanger!*

Great site. Great content! It's bookmarked. Thanks for putting it up. :up: 
Is there any way to move the pop-unders to a side-bar or to avoid them?...

Hi *Hewee:*

The program I'm using is PhotoFiltre and I'm new at editing pictures too  
Have you figured out the transparency? The transparency color is a color you choose. For example, if I had a picture of a lake with trees all around and sky, and I wanted to make the lake only transparent, I wouldn't choose blue as the transparency color because that would also make the sky transparent. So, I would fill the lake with the color red, and make red the transparency color, and end up with a picture with a hole where the lake was.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

I'm not allowed to alter the pop under code unfortunately. But I have removed one of them (so only one popunder now).


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Thanks lizard, I have not used the program but a couple of time so don't know how everything works yet.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Guys, I need an honest opinion here. I've place some massive adverts e.g. http://decentdownloads.x-istence.com/Office/Office.html
Do you think visitors would revisit after being subjected to these adverts?


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Well I hate big ads but your site really was not to bad. It did not have the real big one on all the pages I looked at.

At first I was thinking you had flash ads and that I hate more then anything. 
But after I turn my flash on I seen you had a flash menu. 
Note: for people that don't have flash or want to use they will not be able to get around your site. I can get around if I go to your home page without flash but there is now link with the flash on the other pages to get to the other pages you have or the back to the home page.


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## Guyzer (Jul 3, 2004)

coathanger you have gone to a lot of trouble gathering all the stuff / info you have and I applaud you for it. I agree with the others that have posted here. There is a lot of good stuff there. My one objection, please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't freeware intended to be free for as long as a user decides it to be. As your site is supposed to be made up of freeware why did I notice program(s) with 30 day trial periods? The first one I saw made me vamoose in short order. Dang it, I hate trial periods!


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Firstly, thanks for the comments. 
Now, which programs are you referring to. Some of the freeware authors may have changed from free to trialware. I do make an effort to host the last freeware version though.


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## Guyzer (Jul 3, 2004)

coathanger said:


> Firstly, thanks for the comments.
> Now, which programs are you referring to. Some of the freeware authors may have changed from free to trialware. I do make an effort to host the last freeware version though.


Sorry I don't remember which one it was.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

That's OK. It may have been True launch bar which I notice now has a nagscreen (but no limitation period). Previous versions had that 30 day limit.

BTW, I've now removed those big ugly adverts - they were an eyesore


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## Holly3278 (Jan 29, 2003)

Just thought I'd suggest an addition to your list of software. Ever heard of PDF995? It's an excellent and simple little utility that is totally free that is used to make PDF files. It really beats paying $500+ for Adobe. The only thing I don't like about it is that it opens up a sponsor page in your browser each time you run the program. Here's the link:

http://www.pdf995.com/


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Thanks for the suggestion Holly. I have been meaning to place pdf creation tools on my site but haven't gotten around to it yet. I use Promopdf:
http://www.primopdf.com/

If you don't mind a small textlink at the bottom, I recommend pdfFactory which has a whole swag of features
http://www.pdffactory.com/


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

I have just received an email from the author of True Launch bar. He has now released a lite freeware version http://www.freelaunchbar.com/download.php
Links updated


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

I noticed you have RealAlt but not QuicktimeAlt. If you need a copy of it, I have one(its a hard program to find).

And uh...since this is a thread about a site full of freeware, here's a site with hundreds of freeware games.
www.acid-play.com


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

I didn't place Quicktime alternative because the official Quictime isn't really that bad (isn't packed with unnecessary bells and whistles like Realplayer). 
Thanks for the freeware games site. Downloading a couple of them now


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## cicrubsl (Nov 2, 2004)

I like it! If you would like to add more title please feel free to list any in my Freeware Directory


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Hehe - love the way you used your google adverts


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

Yeah, and you have SmartBarXP but not this one: DesktopSidebar http://www.desktopsidebar.com/ And if you want to see what DesktopSidebar looks like, go to: http://forums.techguy.org/t289451.html and take a look. Liz


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## moebius (Oct 7, 2003)

i hear you people talking about an alternative to quicktime. does quicktime have adware/spyware? is it full of 'premium' filth like the realplayer? i have a few .mov files id like to view, but im paranoid about spyware.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Thanks liz  I've known about both for a while now. I may even replace smartbarxp with desktop sidebar because smartbarxp has always been in beta testing phase.

Quicktime doesn't have any spyware. I don't really know why people would want to create an alternative.


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Basically, the alt players make it so that you can play about any media file in the program that comes with them, Media Player Classic(pretty much WMP 6). The biggest use of it is to make it so that you dont need the player, all you get is a codec. Much smaller I think, but I havnt used either RealAlt or QuicktimeAlt for a while now.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

BTW, I now have a freeware forum:
http://decentdownloads.x-istence.com/Forum/
Feel free to jump in


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## Deke40 (Jun 27, 2002)

Big-K said:


> Basically, the alt players make it so that you can play about any media file in the program that comes with them, Media Player Classic(pretty much WMP 6). The biggest use of it is to make it so that you dont need the player, all you get is a codec. Much smaller I think, but I havnt used either RealAlt or QuicktimeAlt for a while now.


I haven't tried the RealAlt but did try the QTAlt and it was a fairly big download and just as hard to get rid of when I tried.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Should also try this:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

BTW, recently added truckloads of new content to both my freeware site and forum.


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## coathanger (Sep 3, 2003)

Wish I could delete the post above. Due to unforeseen circumstances which I can't disclose we have now moved to http://www.freedecentdownloads.com


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