Sometimes the best tools come without a package—or a price tag. Download these free software packages to ramp up productivity.

There’s a whole big tech world out there beyond the safety of Microsoft Office and your Web browser. From better message management to industrial-strength encryption of your critical files, we’ve picked some of the best software programs on the market, most of which you may not have heard of. Even better: It’s all available for free.


Xobni

Free, xobni.com

If any aspect of technology flummoxes executives, it’s getting a handle on email. Messages pile up, names are quickly forgotten, appointments get lost and follow-ups fall by the wayside. Xobni (that’s inbox backwards) is a free plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that makes working with email so much simpler, it’s almost enjoyable. Just install the free software (which just completed a lengthy beta testing period), then let Xobni do its thing. Graphs show how often you correspond with each person in your address book, while organizing what you discussed and which files you shared. Additional features let you dig up even more detailed statistics, like how many messages you send on Mondays versus how many you send on Fridays.


OpenOffice.org

Free, openoffice.org

At press time, the “Standard” version of Microsoft Office (which includes Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook) sells for a whopping $325. Considering you can buy an entire PC for $300 in some outlets, that’s significant—some might even say excessive. Those looking for a less capital-intensive solution to the challenge of typing memos, balancing a budget and putting together occasional presentations can find it at OpenOffice.org, a free tool suite that even die-hard Office users should find familiar and intuitive: It features about 95 percent of the same features as Office. No email application is included, but check out Thunderbird (mozilla.com/thunderbird) if you’re looking for a free alternative to Outlook.


Trillian

Free, ceruleanstudios.com

Instant messaging is a handy way to keep in touch with people throughout the day, and it has become almost essential for telecommuters and other professionals who deal with workers in remote offices worldwide. IM also offers an exceptional alternative for communicating with overseas clients and contacts without having to pay hefty international calling charges. The trick: There are at least five major IM clients: AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and standard ICQ. IM is convenient, but it’s not worth running five applications at once, cluttering up your PC with little windows. Trillian to the rescue!
This tool scoops all your IM traffic into a single, easy-to-use application. Just configure it once for each app, and it manages all your contacts and even keeps logs of all your conversations. As a bonus, Trillian also prevents aggravating pop-up ads every time you start it up. (Macintosh users, don’t despair: Adium offers the same consolidation tool for Macs, also free of charge, at adiumx.com.)


SpamBayes

Free, spambayes.sourceforge.net

The problem of spam simply isn’t going away. In fact, it’s worse than ever, as some estimates say that spam now makes up 95 percent of email traffic. Virtually all email providers offer a spam filter at the server level, but anyone who’s used such systems knows how generally ineffective they are. (A bigger problem: false positives, which mark your legitimate email messages as spam.) While myriad client-level spam-filter products are available, I’ve yet to find one as capable as SpamBayes, which uses Bayesian logic to make intelligent guesses about what’s spam and what isn’t as it arrives in your Outlook inbox. It’s fast, simple and free.


TrueCrypt

Free, truecrypt.org

Thieves run off with laptops and all the sensitive data inside. Customs seizes laptops at the border, claiming national security concerns as they scour everything on the hard drives. Now more than ever, it’s critical to protect not just your equipment, but also the data inside it. TrueCrypt is one of the best encryption systems on the market, and it works on PCs, Macs and even Linux computers. After installing the software, you can scramble specific files or your entire hard disk with military-class encryption, ensuring that no one without the proper passphrase (make it a long one) can gain access to your data. Even relative novices should find this tool easy to use.
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Operating system update: Vista and Leopard
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CHRISTOPHER NULL is a freelance technology writer in San Francisco.