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Peel yourself off the floor (like Flickr user B. Rosen above), Download Squad readers! It's time to usher in 2010! Over the past twelve months we've shown you plenty of great tools to improve your productivity. We like to keep things in balance, though, so there were also plenty of awesome Time Wasters posted to keep your stress levels in check. Although in hindsight there were several which probably stressed some of you out even more... so... sorry about that. Still, there's no better way to kick off the new year than with a big ol' helping of button-mashing, bad guy-blasting, puzzle-solving fun. Without further ado, it's time to take the jump and enjoy ten of our favorite Time Wasters from 2009! Continue reading 10 favorite Time Wasters from 2009 to kick off your 2010 gaming!

Continue reading Lee's 10 favorite free Windows programs of 2009

While I haven't made the switch to Linux full time, I find myself spending more and more time experimenting of late. In particular, I'm enjoying projects like Moblin and the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. If you're still using Windows for your primary OS there are tons of ways to get your feet wet like a true penguin without making any serious commitments. Here are ten ways to play with Linux painlessly -- if you have another to share, please post it in the comments! Virtualization Moba uses QEMU to boot LiveCD and LiveUSB images right from your Windows desktop. It works as a portable app and also offers context menu integration so you can right-click to launch fresh images. Moba LiveCD Portable Ubuntu Using Colinux, Pulseaudio for Windows, and the Xming X server, this package allows you to boot a fully-working Ubuntu environment inside Windows right from your usb flash drive. The bigger the better, obviously. I'd recommend an 8GB or 16GB if you plan on using it regularly. Continue reading 10 easy ways to play with Linux without leaving Windows Permalink | Email this | Comments

Just about everyone has a usb flash drive by now. Apart from all that data you're packing (which you no doubt have encrypted in case your drive gets lost -- but that's a post for another day), why not pack up your favorite web browser and take it along for the ride.

There are a lot more options than you think - here are 13 different options for users of Windows PCs. Don't see your choice on the list? Share it with us in the comments!

Mozilla

Portable Firefox (current) [download] and Portable Minefield [download]
John T. Haller's Portable Apps project is always right on top of the latest Firefox updates, so it's the place to go if you need the Fox in your pocket. The most recent unstable branch is provided as well, in case you want to test it without installing.

PocketFlock v2 [download]
The kicked-up Firefox remix for social networking types is also available in a portable version, thanks to enthusiast Dave Ferrite.

Continue reading 14 portable web browsers for Windows

  Microsoft released a nice, big chart the other day which details the many possible ways of moving from your existing Windows OS to Windows 7. It's got a slight case of information overload, however, so let's simplify things a bit. After all, not everyone reading Download Squad is an IT director with years of experience. First, let's spell out the important terms. In-Place Upgrade: means one you can run from your current Windows desktop. If f you currently own a laptop or desktop with Windows Vista Home Premium you will be able to boot up your computer as normal, pop in your Windows 7 Home Premium disk, and upgrade Windows. Your existing data (music, pictures, etc.) and programs are automatically moved. Custom Install: "Custom" here really means "new," "fresh," or "clean." When you finish installing Windows your new desktop will be pretty bare - none of your old programs of data will be there, so you'll need to back them up first. Custom installs can't be performed from your existing Windows desktop. You have to force your system to boot from the Windows 7 DVD instead. We'll take a thorough look at doing just that in an upcoming DLS 101 post. Continue reading Windows 7 upgraders guide: The simple version

Depending on your internet connection you might be able to download a lot more (or a lot less) than 1Mb in two seconds - but calling this a post about apps under a meg just isn't quite as much fun! No, you don't really need to pay too much attention to an application's hard drive footprint any more. After all, when you can buy a 1.5Tb drive for less than $150US, what difference does a few megs here or there make? On the other hand, it's amazing to see what some developers are able to accomplish with a very small amount of code. There are a ton of great, free applications that have been created in less than 1Mb - I didn't fully realize just how many until I started putting this list together. This is by no means a complete list, so if your favorite got overlooked make sure to share it in the comments! Continue reading 40+ awesome free Windows apps you can download in 2 seconds  Permalink | Email this | Comments

This weekend I finished setting up a fresh triple-boot install on my MSI laptop. With my operating systems ready to go, the time had come to start reinstalling applications. While it wasn't a conscious decision, I noticed that the majority of my apps were Open Source - so I decided to keep the ball rolling.

Even if you haven't just gone through a reformat, these are great applications and well worth installing. If you have, then hopefully this list will provide you with a solid base of programs to get you started with your fresh, new Windows install!

Web Browsers: Chromium, Firefox They excel at different things, so I install both browsers by default. Chromium is great for all-purpose surfing, while I use Firefox and my favorite extensions to tackle my daily web-based work.

Office: OpenOffice.Org, Sumatra, PDFCreator For lightweight PDF reading and creation from any Windows app, Sumatra and PDFCreator are solid options. OpenOffice.Org, well, it's the name to beat in open source suites. Continue reading 40+ great open source apps & games to trick out your new Windows install

40+ great open source apps & games to trick out your new Windows install originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 18 May 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Today's cat: starting torrent downloads on your computer from a remote location! The first two options require 1) your home machine's address and 2) a forwarded port on your router. If you're on a dynamic IP connection like me, a DDNS updating service like Dyndns.org makes finding your machine much easier - it gives you an easy-to-remember, permanent address likemycomputerathome.dyndns.org. Not too sure how to set up port forwarding on your router? Check out PortForward.com for help with just about any brand or model. If you'd rather not mess around with port forwarding and dynamic dns, you might want to try setting up Hamachi or Comodo Easy VPN on your machines. Either one will provide you LAN-like access to your main computer with minimal fuss (apart from installing and configuring a new program). Or you could skip the zero-config VPN software and check out the last two options after the break - neither of which require you to know your home system's address or change any router settings. Now let's get started!   Using Your Client's WebUI (pictured above) uTorrent, Transmission, and Deluge all offer a web-based control panel for their clients. Getting remote access is as simple as opening the appropriate port on your router and then opening the right address in your web browser. For uTorrent, you may need to download the webui.zip from their forums and save it to your %appdata%\utorrent folder. Continue reading Four ways to start torrent downloads remotely Permalink | Email this | Comments