51
Brave Browser
One of the fastest rising browsers,
Brave uses Chromium to render pages,
but that’s where its similarities to Chrome
end. It’s focused on privacy, from blocking
ads and trackers to integrating a Tor-
routed stealth mode. And if you rightly feel
guilty about taking revenue away from
sites, you can anonymously chip a little
into the pot for them, too. http://brave.com52
Rambox
In the past, we’ve recommended
Franz for your multiple-chats-in-one-
place needs, but Rambox seems to have
superseded it. Not only is it a great way
to communicate with those who refuse to
move off legacy chat platforms, but it’s a
clever one-stop shop for a whole raft of
apps—including those you add yourself, if
you’re clever enough. http://rambox.pro53
LibreOffice
LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Calligra,
MaximumOffice2K—they are all, with
exception of that last one, solid free office
packages based on the same codebase.
But LibreOffice has settled down as the
package with the strongest developer
support, and we say it’s the one to use
if you want a Microsoft Office-esque
experience for free. http://libreoffice.org54
Google Docs
Don’t want to work on the
desktop? Google’s online office suite is
functional enough, and it’s excellent for
collaborative working. Each document
gets its own chat room, and you can see
what others are doing to a document in
real time, including the placement of their
cursor. Just don’t use it to annoy your
colleagues, eh? http://docs.google.com55
Todoist
The further we get in this feature,
the more it seems we’re giving Microsoft ahard time, but here’s the truth: Wunderlist
used to be great, then Microsoft bought
it, ignored it, started its own competing
To-do app, and made it not quite as good.
Thankfully, Todoist is around to provide
a viable alternative for listing all those
tasks you should have done yesterday.
http://todoist.com56
Notepad++
This is one of those must-installs.
It’s great for code, it’s great for making
notes, it’s great for viewing text documents
quickly, and it’s super-optimized to boot.
The developer claims that last point is
because he’s “trying to reduce the world
carbon dioxide emissions”—a noble, tiny
goal. http://notepad-plus-plus.org57
IrfanView
For viewing, converting, batch
processing, and making tweaks to
images, IrfanView is about as good as
it gets. It’s not really a paint package
or Photoshop alternative, but it’s damn
convenient, with a shell extension to put
its most common features in your right-
click menu and a host of plugins to extend
its abilities. http://irfanview.com58
FocusWriter
As Maximum PC’s beleaguered
editors will tell you, some people struggle
to focus on getting their work done.
FocusWriter is the perfect antidote to
procrastination, cutting out distractions,
hiding away the menus, and giving you a
blank page to fill with lovely words. That
and some optional typewriter sound
effects, which we recommend you leave
switched off. http://gottcode.org59
KeePass Password Safe
Security isn’t an afterthought,
and you should have a password manager.
You’re free to trust your precious logins
to an online service like LastPass, and
indeed that’s the most convenient way to
manage that data over multiple machines.
But if you’d rather your credentials stayed
out of the cloud, the open-source KeePass
is the best choice. http://keepass.info60
Malwarebytes
While we encourage staying clear
of free antivirus packages, Malwarebytes’
bad-stuff-sniffing abilities convince
us this adjacent package is a worthy
install. If you suspect there’s something
up, running it gives you an overview
of anything worrying on your system.
http://malwarebytes.comPRODUCTIVITY
Privacy-focused Brave Browser is the best
way to browse the web with confidence.free software 2020
38 MAXIMUM PC MAY 2020 maximumpc.com
46
AUTORUNS
Booting up a Windows PC
has always been a bit of a gamble.
If there’s some program that’s going
to take its sweet time getting going,
causing your machine to respond like
it’s drowned in syrup, Autoruns does
a good job of stopping it. It allows you
to get far more in-depth than Task
Manager, as you can kill individual
processes and Windows components
too. http://sysinternals.com47
PROCESS EXPLORER
Task Manager is not a bad
tool, but more detail is always good.
Process Explorer gives you that; it
allows you to break down exactly
which DLLs and sub-processes those
rogue programs are running, and
it lets you act on them. Results are
dependent on your knowledge and
foolhardiness; use at your own risk.
http://sysinternals.com48
LOCKHUNTER
Malware (or just badly coded
programs) can sometimes lock files
on your system to stop them from
being deleted. If you’re suffering
from such an issue, LockHunter does
just what its name implies: It works
out which process is stopping the
deletion, and either allows you to
kill the offending process or bypasses
the lock to throw that file in your
recycling bin. http://lockhunter.com49
SHELLEXVIEW
Shell extensions extend your
Windows PC’s right-click capabilities.
That’s great until it isn’t; if you’ve got
a right-click menu clogged up with
a bunch of useless links to software
you barely use, it could be time for a
tidy. ShellExView shows you exactly
which extensions you have installed,
and allows you to disable and enable
them at will. http://nirsoft.net50
EVERYTHING
Oh Windows search, how
poor you still are for some unknown
reason. Everything lists absolutely
everything on your system, every
single file and folder, and filters it
down as you type. So whether you’re
looking for a filename (quick) or the
contents of a text file (far slower), it’s
a much better choice than that box
on your taskbar. http://voidtools.comDO DEEP-DIVE
TWEAKING©^BRAV
E