Licensed Software Giveaways

There is this site that has a list of giveaway licensed software, some seem old or redundant, one is malicious at the time I looked, but some have some odd tools.

Odd or predictable software that you wouldn’t normally purchase

A lot of the tools are for video converters, computer cleanups and password protection thingies like last pass and some for audio converter and a few for specific image conversion or stuff with PDF’s or other things that you wouldn’t use too frequently. Its best you look yourself to see if there is anything of interest.

Generally they are mainstream things rather than more obscure software, like say Bubble Mind maps or org charts which would have a more corporate rather than home hobby market (and they can make money from those)

A few pushing VPN stuff as well.

License Types

There can be a 3 to 6 month or even an annual license as well as, sometimes lifetime licenses. The shorter the license the more keen they are to get you hooked so that you then go onto a paid plan.

I’m always on the lookout for a lifetime license as I don’t want to play with something and get used to it and then find I need to purchase it later. Happy to try things out but generally not interested in purchasing as there are usually free options to use in freeware somewhere else.

Some sites allow you to copy/paste the license from the webpage. In these instances I save them to a text file so I can use later. If they are not doing online registration then you should be able to use the license continually, just reload the program (yet to be tested).

Items I’ve downloaded

I’ve downloaded a few items, mainly from the Winnipeg site, as they have a few offers at a time:

• A screen recorder with web cam as well- 1 yr license to test out on one of my spare PC’s as I didn’t want to setup OBS on it
• A background remover program, although there are online tools for this. I think a lifetime license.
• A PDF creator/reader program, with a 1 yr license, but I uninstalled it as it was a web based tool for useful features, so to do anything you had to go online and login, so not what I wanted. Slow too.
• A 3d design modelling program, big file and I haven’t used it yet, but it may come in handy.
• A folder symbol tool to change the icons on your File Explorer- I’ve been using a free colour one that I find handy,, so I thought I’d try this one out. One bonus feature is it converts from PNG & JPG to ICO, which will be handy for AutoHotKey icons for apps.
• A cad package in German, but I wasn’t impressed so never loaded
• A flipBook PDF maker, thinking about making my own book to sell
• A website builder, I think standalone and it looks pretty dated, but may be worth a play.

Overall not a lot of useful tools but they may come in handy.

End comment

As they are free, the only cost is your time to download, install and uninstall if rubbish as well as checking out what YouTube has to say about the product.

I’m not sure if there is malware embedded into some of them but my AntiVirus hasn’t gone ape on any of them yet.