Four For Free

I am always looking for free tools that make getting along with your computer a little easier, or at least a little more fun. Here are four tools I really like.

PC Interfaces 101
Tom's Hardware has a 20 page guide with pictures of the cables and connectors and slots and ports found on PCs. If you have ever stood (or, more likely, crouched) behind your computer with a cable in one hand and a bewildered look on your face as you wonder where to plug it in, you will find this guide invaluable. Be sure to bookmark this one.

What's under the hood?
I've mentioned a couple of system inventory utilities before, but SIW (System Information for Windows) is fast, comprehensive, and easy to use. According to the author, " SIW (System Information for Windows) performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics." You'll get a list of your installed software and hardware, information about your network connections, passwords, and more...in detail. SIW is free, and works on any version of Windows from Win98 to Vista. Get it here.

Share your Bookmarks and Favorites
Mozilla Firefox calls them Bookmarks. Microsoft Internet Explorer calls them Favorites (yes, without the "u.") If you use more than one browser on a computer, or if you use more than one computer, you can take your Bookmarks/Favorites with you using Bookmark Bridge. You just run Bookmark Bridge periodically to synchronize between your browsers. It reads bookmarks from each of your browsers, looks at the differences between the bookmarks on each browser, and saves the differences back to each browser. You can run it as often as you like. Each time you run BookmarkBridge, it saves any new bookmarks to all your browsers. It can even remove a bookmark from all your browsers if it is removed from one browser. It's free, and easy to use if you take two minutes to read the documentation. Get it here.

Find the right font
If you do any desktop publishing, website design, or even if you make your own greeting cards or print your own CD labels, you probably have quite a few fonts installed. If you have to sit at the computer and try font after font to decide which one looks best, you're going to drive yourself crazy. FontList will create an HTML file (so you can just look at it in your browser) letting you see what your text will look like in every font you have installed. It's quick and easy, and of course it's free. FontList is not a new utility, but it's a new find for me. Check it out here.

If you have a useful or fun free tool you'd like other people to know about, please email me with the link and tell me why you like it. I'll include the information in a future column. As always, thank you to those who send in suggestions and comments. I understand that it takes time, and I appreciate it. Please remember you can read the column archives at any time by browsing.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.