The best free programs to download

By Mitz

There are plenty of free programs out there on the internet to download for free. Now days you need computer software for just about anything, including driver software for your computer hardware. Here's information on how to find drivers for your motherboard

Sometimes you also get software supplied with a device you purchase. For example, if you buy a digital camera you will surely get a photo editing program with it. Also if you buy a new motherboard, you also get a drivers disk with that. However some software is not included, but is readily available for free download off the internet.

Here is a list of some popular free software downloads.

Internet Browser

Even though you get a free Internet Explorer with Windows, sometimes it just doesn't suit what you want to do. So here are the most popular free ones available.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/  This one seems a lot like Internet Explorer but it obviously has other features when you look a bit deeper.

http://www.opera.com/ Haven't tried this one.

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Office program

Open office is compatible with the expensive Microsoft Office program but it is free.. I am now using this program full time, without the need of Microsoft office. I just can't believe its free!!!

Open Office download

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Desktop Search

Google Desktop search can search your computer or the internet from your desktop. You can also write notes to yourself and have a real clock.

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Antivirus/Firewall Programs

Security and antivirus software are the most important and you should never run a computer without them. If you cannot afford to buy then at least there are free options out there.

Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition and Spybot Search and Destroy both run on my system because there's so much spyware out there, one of them will often catch stuff the other doesn't.

Zone Alarm is one of the best free firewalls out there. You'll have to spend some time training it, but once you do, it's pretty bomb-proof. (Slows your computer down when scanning)

AVG Anti-Virus Picks up most virus's but not all. But hey its free. I have been using this for about a year now.. Still think its great!!!

Avast Home Edition When it comes to free antivirus, there is no harm in installing a few and scanning with them all. Its better to be safe.

AntiVir Personal Edition Haven't tried this one but others have recommended it.

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Trojan Remover

http://www.ewido.net/en/download/   

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

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Computer Cleaner

http://www.ccleaner.com Run CCleaner to remove all Temporary Internet Files, temp files, history and cookies.

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Free Email

Sometimes it is best to have a free email address so if you end up getting spammed, just get a new one. Here are the two most popular.

Yahoo Totally free and a great service.

Hotmail Totally free and a great service.

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Email Backup

Adolix Outlook Express Backup 3.0 This program is amazing. It creates backups of your email folders, addresses, and your account details. It also backups your favourites in Internet Explorer. When you want to move to a new computer or if yours fail, you just run the program and restore everything. You only need to remember your email account password. This is a free trial.

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Instant chat programs

Its great to get on your computer and see if your friends online and choose to chat or not.

Yahoo messenger A great program with cool features.

Windows live messenger Most of my friends have this one so therefore I use it.

 download Skype You must have heard of this fantastic program.

• Make free Skype-to-Skype calls to anyone else, anywhere in the world.
• Call ordinary phones and mobiles at pretty cheap rates per minute.
• See who you are talking to with video calls.
• Send SMS messages to friends on the move.
• Set up call forwarding so you never miss another call.
• Group chat with up to 100 people or conference call with up to nine others.

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Best Free Popup Stopper

  I have downloaded google toolbar to see the page rank of websites and to have a search bar at the top of my browser. It actually blocks popups too.

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Best Free Digital Editor

Download a FREE Trial of ACDSee 9 Photo Manager Today ! Organize and enhance your photos. Share your world! This is the best program I have used, however the full version is not free.

The best online image editor, and its free http://fotoflexer.com/. You will be amazed at what you can so to your picture.

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Best DVD ripper

DVD Shrink  This extracts a movie and shrinks it to fit you dvd disc.. It will burn a copy too if you have Nero installed. Read How to use dvd Shrink.

Dvd decrypter. Sometimes when DVD shrink does not work yo can use this to rip the movie to your computer. Then use DVD Shrink to shrink it to fit a dvd disc.

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Watch this video to see some more great open source programs that are free!!

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