There are thousands (tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands?) of applications to use so I am always in the hunt for an exceptionaly useful one that is free. I often wonder why someone would create a good application and then give it away, but I’m not complaining or questioning that too much. Below are some great applications that I have found over the years that solve some specific challenges. Check them out, since maybe one of them will make your life just a little bit easier.
- Open Office – Completely compatible with MS Office and seamlessly handles the top 20% or more of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint very nicely. It has been around for years and works great.
- PDFCreator – Install this little utility and create PDF’s from virtually any application by just printing to the newly created PDF driver.
- PhotoFiltre – This is a great graphic editing program. Easy to use and does pretty much everything you will ever need.
- VLC Media Player – Windows, by default, does not play DVD’s but this great download will play them, allow you to stream the content to others, and do a lot more.
- X-Lite – If you are looking for an easy program to allow you to use your laptop as your telephone (assuming you have an VOIP system that is Internet accessible) give this a try.
- Auslogics Disk Defrag – Very quick defragging utility. If you have never run a defrag utility on your computer, you should to help speed things up. Much faster than the default Windows utility.
- 7-Zip – Windows has a built in compression (zip) function but it is basic and has a built in size limitation. Use this utility if you really want to compress files and folders.
- MultiMonitor Taskbar – Great utility if you use multiple monitors. Allows each monitor to have its own task bar so you can more intuitively navigate applications per monitor.
And last but certainly not least:
- Malwarebytes – A very good spyware program that has proven to be a valuable resource for removing the Anitvirus 2009 spyware infection.
- Spybot – Another affective spyware program. This one will also add a layer of preventative maintenance.
- AVG – A great antivirus program.
And don’t forget about backing up your home computer….
- Mozy – Get 2 free gigs of backup space. If you need more just pay $60 a year for unlimited backups.
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