Our resident software guru leads you on a romp through a world of freeware and shareware you don't already have.

We know you're a bunch of computer savvy troopers, so why insult you with a list of shareware and freeware you already have? I've tried to find titles that are fun or useful but not widely known. Let us know what you think and share some of your obscure but useful downloads with us.

  1. Agent-MP3
    Has your college or workplace banned Napster? The fiends. Stick it to them and get all the audio gold you want by using Agent-MP3. This software helps you find MP3 files in Usenet newsgroups, the source we relied on before Napster. Agent-MP3 used to cost $20, but now it's free. I want my $20 back.

  2. Video Capturix 2001
    It's high time you got your mug on TV by sending us some vmails. Your Web cam no doubt came with some vmail creation software, but we think you might prefer Video Capturix. This video capture application helps you record AVI movies and freeze images as BMP or JPEG files. The software also lets you watch your videos in full screen mode, automatically start recording when something moves in front of your camera, print directly from your video source, and more. Try it for free. Shell out $29 if you choose to keep it.

  3. Blender
    This 3D modeling and animation software isn't for tech sissies. It's for those of us who are very serious about making really cool 3D computer art and aren't afraid to dig into a manual, unless you already know everything about inverse kinematics and animated rotoscoping. To see what some Blender whizzes have accomplished, check out the gallery and get inspired. The software is free and works on Windows, several flavors of Unix, and BeOS. An HTML manual is available, and a printed copy can be had for $40.

  4. Ashampoo Uninstaller 2000
    Granted, I install and test more software than the average person. As a result, I've not only learned that there's a lot of crappy software out there, but also that the Windows Add/Remove Programs tool doesn't always do a good job of purging unwanted files from my computer. Ashampoo Uninstaller 2000 gets rid of stuff once and for all, letting me use a wizard to choose unwanted software files from my Start Menu, Program Files, and Registry. Ashampoo also cleans up unwanted temporary Internet files and duplicate files, and it helps me properly install an application. It's free to try, $10 to keep, or $5 per month to rent (which seems kind of silly).

  5. ESP 2.0
    A series of strange events convinced me I was psychic. To test my paranormal prowess I downloaded ESP 2.0. The simple software uses the standard Zener Card test (or a Renaissance art version), where you pick the correct cards more than 20% of the time to qualify as a kid with the shining. You need to test yourself more than a hundred times to get decent results, and an ESP meter tells you how psychic you are along the way. It's pretty fun, and the 30-day trial period will give you ample time to realize whether or not you're the next Madame Cleo.

  6. The Journal
    If I were to start keeping the journal I'm always talking about, I'd do it in a little notebook, not on my computer. But if you prefer a keyboard to a pen when you wax philosophic about daily existence, The Journal is your best option. Admittedly, The Journal trumps paper-based journals in several regards. Chief among these is the ability to store images and multimedia clips within the pages of your journal. It's free to try, $35 to keep.

  7. Pop Up Killer 1.9
    Of the many annoyances that were ushered in with the commercialization of the Web, pop-up ads rank near the top. Kill them. Pop Up Killer 1.9 is a mighty slayer of pop-up ads. It monitors all browsers open at a given time, and you choose which ads to kill. Better yet, you can download a master list of pop-up ads that fellow Web surfers have compiled and merge it with your own list. It's free.

  8. Capture
    Here's a handy little tool from our good friend AnalogX. Capture lets you take a screen shot of any window or of your desktop and then saves the captured image as a bitmap. The bitmap gets saved in the directory Capture is running from. It's free, and only consumes a couple hundred kilobytes. Just remember, the bitmaps you'll be capturing will be large -- typically more than a megabyte. While you're at AnalogX's site downloading Capture, be sure to peruse all of his other wondrous freeware.

  9. Boss!
    You probably do things at work other than work: surfing the Web looking for a new job, playing Tetris, writing your novel -- you get the idea. Boss helps you get all those unproductive tasks accomplished safely. You tell the software what programs need to be completely hidden -- not just minimized -- when your boss walks by your meager cubicle. You then strike an assigned hotkey, and all the offending programs vanish until you recall them with another hotkey. Boss consumes a mere 100KB of hard drive space and costs nothing. Not bad for something that might save your job.

  10. Katiesoft
    Who's Katie? I don't know, but she makes a mean little piece of freeware. This dandy little multitasking program lets you surf four webpages simultaneously. Think of television's picture-in-a-picture for your PC. Other apps are also supported, so you can look at the Web, Napster, your email, and that Word document you're working on all at the same time. The only problem is that looking at a quarter of any app kind of sucks, but it's easy to maximize or resize any of the open windows.