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Sites to legally watch streaming movies

GeneralEdward Kiledjian
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Most of us have multiple streaming service subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc). As money becomes tighter, some want to lighten their monthly subscription spend and here are some legal ways to stream.

Kanopy

Kanopy offers an interesting portfolio of artistic and classic films. Before you close this page thinking the content is low-grade, know that they even have some films from the Criterion collection.

Kanopy also supports AppleTV, Roku, Chromecast, AndroidTV, FireTV and SamsungTV.

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The catch is that you have to be a member of an organization that is subscribed to their service (local library or University ) The one important note is that their film catalogue changes regularly so if you see a film you want to watch, stream it quickly.

Popcornflix

I know the name sounds like one of those Android side-loadable illegal BitTorrent streaming "services" but it isn't. Popcornflix offers comedies and mainstream movies (many recent releases) for free in exchange for inserting ads while you watch. You can watch Popcornflix through any modern web browser or via apps on Roku, AppleTV, Google Play, Amazon or Xbox.

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Internet Archive

Many technical geeks know Internet Archive for their service that is trying to archive the web for posterity.

In addition to that noble cause, they also store and stream a considerable amount of classic black and white films (from days gone by). The Internet Archive waits until the copyright expires and then stores and streams it. Everything they stream is in the original unedited format.

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Crackle

Crackle has been around for a while but never seems to have caught on. Owned by Sony, it offers relatively modern TV shows and movies for free. They monetize the service by inserting ads. Crackle offers some cult classic films that other platforms don't, so it is worth a look.

Hoopla

Similar to Kanopy, Hoopla requires you to be a member of a library that offers its services. Hoopla is owned by Midwest Tape, a company that supplies libraries with DVDs, CDs and audiobooks.

You sign up using your library card and you will instantly gain access to hundreds of movies and TV shows. Hoopla works via your web browser, on most tablets (Android, iPad), Smartphones (Android and iPhone) or on TV-connected devices like AppleTV, AndroidTV, Chromecasts, Roku and FireTV.

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Quickly uninstall apps from windows, even the sneaky ones

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

When you first started using your computer, it was silky smooth and fast. Now it is a sluggish mess.
Especially now that many of you are stuck at home, you may be trying new apps that turn out to be a disappointment.

  • How do you make sure you remove all the files when you uninstall that application?

  • Why doesn't the app you just installed have an uninstall option in add/remove applications?

The free app I am going to talk about will help with all of the above and more. It is called BCUninstaller.

What is BCUninstaller?

BCUninstaller stands for Bulk Crap Uninstaller and is a well designed tool to help remove any application, leftover files and more simply and quickly.

Many apps don’t have easy to find uninstaller options in the Windows Add/Remove Application applet but most leave behind a ton of garbage files. BCUninstaller uses its own appliction detection engine and has options to clean up “leftoer files”.

Here is a great video that shows how it works

Installing BCUninstaller is as simple as downloading the installer (from here) and then following the standard installation options.

Once the application installs, it will scan your computer and find all the installed applications. If you want to uninstall something, search for it using the search feature and then click on the uninstall button at the top.

It can detect these types of applications:

  • Normal registered applications (same as Programs and Features and many other uninstallers)

  • Hidden/protected registered applications

  • Applications with damaged or missing uninstallers

  • Portable applications (looks in common locations and on portable drives, configurable)

  • Chocolatey packages

  • Oculus games/apps

  • Steam games/apps

  • Windows Features

  • Windows Store apps (Universal Windows Platform apps)

  • Windows Updates Applications from all of these sources are treated the same - you can filter, export and automatically uninstall them in the same way.

To clean leftover files, click the Tools tab, then choose Clean up Program file folder and choose which discovered files you want to delete.