Software'd

Thorlord · Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:30 pm

Software'd
By: Thorlord

Bored? Need a new toy for your desktop? Well, I got you covered. This month I'll be showing you some amazing software that everyone should be using. Thankfully all of the software on this list today is 100% free. Over the years I have found all of this software, and I use it for myself because I'm a cheap guy, and I demand quality products.

Firefox 2
This feature rich browser is quite fast and one of the most secure browsers available. The new release of Firefox 2.0 integrates many features that I can see forum users around the globe using, such as spelling corrections as you type. For example if you are sending an e-mail to your mother, and you misspell something, you get the red line under the word you misspelled and, like your word program, as soon as you right click you are given correct spelling options. Possibly the best reason to use Firefox 2 is because it’s expandable with add-ons. Many of these add-ons will be in this list. So give it a shot, if you don't like it, you can always un-install it.

Internet Explorer 7
On the other side of things, if you refuse to use Firefox 2, IE7 was just recently released. IE7 offers improved security over IE6, tabbed browsing (a more feature rich, tabbed browsing is in Firefox), Phishing Protection, and it offers a much, much better looking browser. It doesn't have as many features as Firefox, but if you refuse to use Firefox and seem to love IE, IE7 is a much needed improvement.

Open Office
What is Open Office, you say? It is a free office suite of software to give you everything you need to be productive without charging you $500 for Microsoft Office Professional. How much is it then? Free. It may not be appealing now, but in a few years when Microsoft wants you to pay another $500 for Microsoft Office 2007, I'm sure you will give Open Office another look. Unlike Microsoft Office, Open Office is getting new features all the time and is becoming a more widely used format.

Foxit PDF Reader
Ever try to open a .PDF file? You know adobe reader? How slow it opens, bugs you to update, and how it crashes more than Windows 95? Yeah, I remember that. Well good news: Foxit is a free PDF reader. Its small, doesn't require installation, and opens .PDF files in seconds.

AVG Antivirus
Yes, a free Anti-virus. AVG has just as good if not better detection rates than Norton and Mcafee. While it isn't perfect (any Anti-virus you purchase will still have better scan rates, like Nod32 and Kaspersky) it is light on resources so it wont suck up all of your CPU and RAM that your games need so badly.

Zone Alarm Firewall
A firewall is just as important as an Anti-virus. Zone-alarm is top quality without having to shell out $50 for the complete set of software that they sell.

Foxy Tunes
This is an extension to Firefox. What it does specifically is turn your status bar in Firefox into an easy way to navigate your music in whichever software you are using to play your music.

Win Amp
Many of you already use Win Amp, but more specifically I recommend Winamp Lite. I recommend it mostly because its light on resources, and the features offered in the larger versions are bloat.

VLC Video player
What makes this player so useful is that it plays most media formats that you will want right away without much hassle. It also includes features for video processing so you can get your video card working to improve the video quality.

CD Burner XP Pro
This is free CD/DVD burning software that is feature rich and powerful as well. While yes many DVD burners come with software, it is still handy if you lost those discs, like I have, or refuse to upgrade to the new version. This software is infinitely valuable.

Crap Cleaner
Crap Cleaner makes it onto this list for its ability to find and clean off large amounts of useless files and make your computer have that extra space to work properly. It also includes a registry cleaning feature that should be used maybe once a month. If used too often it could cause problems, but it has yet to cause me any.

Milkdrop for Win Amp
Milkdrop is a plug-in for those who hate having a background, and play lots of music. This makes your background a visual dynamic desktop that can only be experienced. Checkout the screen shots online and give it a try!

That's it for this month; hopefully I have helped you out finding a new gadget to play around with. Next month I will go in depth on full free games that you can play that don't look like they were made in the late 90's.

-Thor

[ Post or view comments regarding this article ]