7-Zip

7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. The program supports 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, LZH, CHM, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB formats. Compression ratio in the new 7z format is 30-50% better than ratio in ZIP format. It also compresses to ZIP 2-10% better than PKZip and WinZip. It has an additional powerful command line version and FAR Manager support.

The main features of 7-Zip:

• High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
• 7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL
• Supported formats:
  • Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
  • Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS
• For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
• Self-extracting capability for 7z format
• Integration with Windows Shell
• Powerful File Manager
• Powerful command line version
• Plugin for FAR Manager
• Localizations for 63 languages

7-Zip works in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP. There is port of command line version for Linux/Unix.

7-Zip is a free software distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

http://www.7-zip.org/

Screencasting: Screen Capture Software

• Macromedia Captivate
• Wink. Cross-platform (Windows and Linux) screen capture software program that you can use to create screencasts. It is free to use for personal and businesses.
• BB Recorder. This is a sleek screen recording program from Blueberry Software. There are different versions available - including a free demo version.
• Camtastia Studio
• Cam Studio. This is a free, basic program for screencasting / screen recording.

The Print Screen key (Prt Scr) is a useful key supported on most PCs. Pressing the Print Screen key causes the computer to send whatever images and text are currently on the display screen to the Windows Clipboard. To copy/capture the current window, hold down ALT + Print Scrn at the same time. To capture the entire screen, just press Print Scrn.