Antivirus and malware protection
Most PC users realize that they need protection on their computer or
may have an installed antivirus program from their computer
manufacturer. What most don't realize is that there are free programs
that are just as good and in some cases better than the commercial
products. Below are our recommendations
antivirus program: Avast! or AVG
Malware and Spyware protection: Malwarebytes
Backup solutions
There are dozens of free and commercially available backup programs
for computers. Unfortunately many of those backups are stored locally,
meaning if your house were to catch fire, get robbed, or if you lost
your backup discs all your data would be lost. This is why when dealing
with important data we suggest users use online backup services.
Online backup solution: Mozy or Dropbox
Browsers
Although Microsoft Internet Explorer comes pre-installed on Windows
computers. There are several excellent free alternatives that everyone
should try. These free alternatives can often be faster, have more
options, and in many cases be more secure than Internet Explorer.
Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome
Compression utility
When downloading files on the Internet you'll eventually encounter a
.zip, .rar, or other compressed file. Dealing with these files can be
easy with our below free file compression utility.
File compression utility: 7-Zip
Disc ripper and creation utility
Creating an audio or data CD/DVD, ripping the data from an audio CD,
or creating a CD from a .ISO file can also be done freely using our
below free recommendation.
CD burner utility: CDBurnerXP
Email
E-mail is yet another service that can be done freely. Most users
today use online e-mail solutions like the one listed below. However,
for those still using an e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook we
strongly suggest one or both of the below suggestions.
E-mail client: Mozilla Thunderbird
Online e-mail: Gmail
FTP, SFTP, and SSH Utility
Users who maintain their own web page or need to upload or download
files to or from a server will have to use an FTP utility or a SSH
client. There are many commercial programs capable of doing this but our
below free recommendations beats them all.
FTP client: Filezilla
SSH client: Putty
Image editor, paint program, and picture organizer
There are many great free solutions for editing, creating, and
organizing your images on your computer. Many of the programs capable of
doing these tasks can be several hundred dollars, but all of the below
programs are completely free.
Image editor: GIMP
Paint program: Paint.net
Picture organizer: Google Picasa
Multimedia
There are dozens of different multimedia programs with different
capabilities and limitations. Below are our top free multimedia programs
for watching video files and recording audio.
Audio editing and creating tool: Audacity
Video and DVD Player: VLC
Office Suite
An Office suite such as Microsoft Office is often one of the most
expensive programs that a user can install on their computer. Why
install these expensive programs when there are free solutions that are
just as good.
Office suite: OpenOffice
Notepad and Source code editor: Notepad+
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