Tech News Beats

Free software from Microsoft! Words are too good to be true, no mate. Microsoft is indeed giving free software to students in their website, Dreamspark. Dreamspark is a program setup by Microsoft to provide design software and tools to students at no charge. Bill Gates, the then chairman of Microsoft announced this program on February 19, 2008 during a speech at Stanford University.

How Dreamspark works?

To be able to download software from Dreamspark one has to be student and should be able to prove that. You would need a students identity card. If you educational institute is not listed with dreams park then you need ask your institution to send a request to add it. Also, Microsoft used Shibboleth (an open source authentication software).

Here you will mainly get design and development tool like Visual Studio, Expression Studio, Visual Basic etc. However, you will not receive Microsoft’s flagship products like Windows OS, Office etc. Microsoft says such products do not enhance students knowledge much. But l think it is just a business tactics. In the market there are many design and development software from competitors. Moreover, there are good and stable open source software which has kind of nailed Microsoft products. So what should be the marketing strategy for Microsoft? Slash price, ad blitz …. huh? Giving free was never an option, as they are in business to make profit. Well, they have done even better. They have decided to give it free to them who matters the most. You are right, if you have guessed, students. Please note that students will be more comfortable using those software, which have used earlier. So these students enter their professional phase then they will prefer Microsoft products, as they will have proficiency in such products.

Check the Microsoft Student page on Facebook.

Apart from Dreamspark, Microsoft runs various students partner program.

Many a times we look for only a particular portion of the image or webpage. Then downloading the whole image or webpage will not work. So how do we accomplish this? Screen capture software can help in this regard. The biggest advantage of screen capture is saving time and effort.

We can do the same work with Windows’s inbuilt OS feature called “Paint”. You need to open the picture in paint, select the portion you need, copy/cut that portion, paste that section in a new window and finally save it. You are done but is it not long? Yes, I Know. It is here screen capture software does the trick. And what if I show you some free screen capture software!

Usable in professional work

Not usable in professional work

Ya you are in hurry and I wont take much time. Lets go ahead and make a list of free screen capture software:

1. Quick Screen Capture: It is a free tool and lets you use even in professional projects. It also has other tools screen recording, screenshot maker etc. Download here.

Website: http://www.etrusoft.com/

2. Super screen capture: It also offers a free download but the biggest disadvantage is it inserts a logo to the captured screen with the free version.

Website: http://www.free-screen-capture.com/

3. Fastone Capture: This is a shareware and available for free download. They also have a paid version. It looks very promising with the numbers of features it has.

Website: http://www.faststone.org

4. Gadwin PrintScreen: Apart from the normal screen capture it also allows to anoint word on it and image editing in one tool.

Website: http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

5. Hypersnap: Hypersnap looks simple and good. Completely free and advanced image editing software. They also have a video capture software Hypercam which you may want to check.

Website: http://www.hyperionics.com/

I would love to know what you are using.