Must have free PC softwares

By Aditya Mhatre at 1 July, 2008, 11:12 am

Virginity is a precious thing and once gone it never grows back but it�s a bit different when it comes to hard disks. All you have to do is hit the format button and the disk is virgin again. I formatted one of my windows machine and was thinking about softwares that I should install on my now �virgin� computer. The same day I got an SMS saying �Got new laptop.. which software�s should I install?� from a friend so I guessed that this might be a common question every time one gets a new computer or formats a computer drive.

As far as possible I have tried to list free or even open source software. I have also written this post without any jargons so that human beings can understand it and in some cases I might be over simplifying so please bear with me.

Internet Browsing

It�s a no brainer, use Firefox 3. I am not recommending Firefox out of spite for Internet Explorer (IE) but from a security stand point. It�s just easier for hackers to run scripts through IE. For the social networking freaks, I highly recommend using flock browser. Flock is based on Firefox but has inbuilt support for a lot of social networking.

Word Processing

Whatever said and done, Microsoft Office is the best when it comes to office related applications. The adventure types can try out Open Office , but it is very slow and resource hungry. A few people must have also heard about Online word processing but just take my word on this one. They are not as good yet. But I may be wrong if you are reading this in 2010.

Utility softwares

Now, the above softwares are the daily use software but there are a whole bunch of softwares which I would put in the utility bucket. These are the softwares required for maintaining the health of your beloved PC.

A PC user spends most of the time online; so don�t be surprised if your browser is hijacked by malware (malware = small softwares that do bad things like email people in your address book or pop up adult ads at the most inopportune moment.). This is especially true for Internet Explorer users. HijackThis is a must have utility. It scans your computer for malware and removes them. One can see noticeable difference in PC performance the first time you run HijackThis . It�s free.

Startup Manager is another good tool to have on your computer. This application simply allows you to choose the applications, which will start every time you start your computer. The other way of doing this is a bit technical.

DVD Ripping software is something that I use often to back up every new movie I buy and the best so far has been Handbrake. It’s an opensource software and free for download

One of the softwaers I swear by is VLC . This Audio Video player can single handedly play audio or video in whatever format it may be. All known codecs are built in and no additional downloads are required. Atleast I havent required any yet. Its a bit buggy when it comes to playing .FLV files but for that I have a seperate recommendation - Wimpy Desktop Player

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Categories : Technology