So you keep hearing about free software for Windows and you want to know what to try? This is just my opinion but you can spend an evening clicking through these pages and may find a gem.
Linux / Mac / GNU Licences
Let's start at the top. I could also run an article about Linux, OSX or about the basic principles of the Open/Free Software movements but to be honest you may as well fire-up Google to read about those. I use Linux for some things but mostly I'm a Windows guy. I think Macs look cool. The people that write the software that we all use for free are hard-working individuals who decided to help you out. If you get a chance to throw them a couple of quid you should. OK. Lecture over, let's run through the stuff I think you'll want.
Microsoft Internet Explorer is a fantastic lump of software but I just find it slow, ponderous and a bit of a nightmare to use since version 7. So after two days with Vista I reinstalled Firefox. I strongly recommend giving Firefox a go to make your web-browsing experince faster and easier. One little caveat. You will also need some extensions for it. i'll list them here:
IE Tab – because some sites MUST use IE, Firefox can load those sites and render the page using the IE engine. It basically gives you the best of both worlds.
SiteAdvisor – Adds warnings to Google search responses to let you know if a site is a security risk. Written by McAfee with site rankings by real people and McAfee's site crawlers
Grisoft provide this anti-virus software free for home users. It works with Vista and XP. You can pay for the professional version or for other types of protection.
If you visit the occasional ropey site or think your PC is harbouring spyware, adware or that somebody is gathering information about your browsing habits, this little beauty will scan your machine and find the little buggers. It isn't anti-virus software. It compliments it. Windows Defender does a good defensive role whilst AdAware performs as a good hunt-and-kill scanner.
If your mailbox seems to be full of spam every day then this little tool is just what you need.
A software firewall to keep all those nasty hackers at bay. Essential if you have Windows 2000. A bit better than Windows firewall if you have XP. Probably not needed under Vista but it is here if you want it.
Log-me-in is a remote control tool similar to UltraVNC below but is web-based and does not require you to know the IP address of teh other end. USeful for logging onto your desktop when away from home. But use UltraVNC if the IP address is fixed.
A variant of the Win VNC remote-control software. If you've ever needed to remote-control a computerover the Internet and used Terminal Services or PC Anywhere, you'll be delighted by how much easier, quicker and more secure VNC is. Tight VNC is another good variant. Choose whichever you like the look of.
A great little set of tools to control how your home network hangs together and to see what is going across it. Designed for novice users. Ideal for the two-computer household.
Hopefully you'll never need these but Merjin has a handful of tools useful for somebody investigating a suspected spyware or virus infected machine.
If you have Vista, Defender is probably enough. For XP users and the more paranoid, PCTools Spyware Doctor clears out the little nasties. Covers similar ground to AdAware.
A great tool for recovering the browsing history from a PC when the user thought they had covered their tracks.
MSN Messanger, Yahoo Messenger and ICQ all through one client. If you use more than one of the above, download this today.
If you buy stuff from eBay and was wondering how people get bids in in the last 10 seconds. This is how.
Ever thought it would be cool to be able to stream your home MP3, video and photo colelction to any PC with a web-browser. Wanted it for free ? uhuh.
If you need a bit of software to play any type of video file, this is it. It will play DVDs, MPGs, etc etc
Got loads of photos have you ? Want them organised and maybe uploaded to a website for everyone to see?
Not as dodgy as it sounds. One of the best graphic packages around. So if you need to tweak a photo or draw something from scratch. Get the Gimp. The interface is a little bit odd at times but it is a very powerful tool.
If the Gimp has too many features or the interface is not "Windows-like" enough for you, this replacement for the mediocre Paint application is just what you need to draw pictures and tweak your digital photos.
Downloaded some software in a .zip file on your Windows XP machine and couldn't get it unpacked ? Use this tool.
Don't know what is eating up all your disk space ? This tool will help you.
If you want to send out documents. pictures etc in a read-only format with the benefit of a much much smaller file size, you will love this utility. It installs just like another printer and produces PDF files which can be read with the free Acrobat Reader.
Now part of Microsoft but full of some really useful tools for Administrators of company networks. Home users can give this link a miss.
A whole family of free and cheap tools for converting audio files from onw type to another. Also includes tools for syncing music collections between PC and MP3 players. So if your MP3 player has rubbish software, give these a try.
Fancy building your own web & email server? Xampp will get you started with Apache, PHP, MySQL and the excellent Mercury mail server. Even a tired old Windows XP machine can become a trusty little server…
If you've never trawled through SourceForge then you are not really a proper scrounger. Go find the obscure utility you are after!
