Stories by: Ron Barrett

Little-known technologies that pack a big punch

Windows Web sites worth a look

Blogger Ron Barrett has scoured the IT world to bring you this list of affordably priced business productivity tools that run on any desktop (many are even free). Also check out Barrett's full review of each tool in his A Better Windows World blog.

No one loves to pay crazy per-user licensing fees, not to mention 15- 22 per cent annual support residuals. (And no one loves the endless, mind-numbing meetings with non-technical financial folks trying to pry budget for these tools from their clenched fists.) So today we're going to discuss tools that are free. However, we are not naming them to this list of "great" tools simply because they cost nothing. These are some of the best lesser-known tools out there.