Free Computer Consultant Tip-Of-The-Week e-Zine for April 25, 2008
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One of the more discouraging aspects of computing is paying money
for a software program and then being disappointed with how well it
does or does not work.
This of course isn't a problem when you don't pay anything for it,
unless you are wise and value your time.
Since I do value mine, I'm hesitant to try every new utility that
someone mentions. Doing so is a great way to gunk up your PC and
waste some of your precious time.
What I thought I would do this week is pass along nine utilities that
others have invested their time checking out and have determined are
well worth the effort of installing and using. All are freeware.
1. You are all probably aware of Avast, AVG and maybe even Comodo
antivirus programs. Avast & AVG are highly recommended. I would skip
Comodo, but they will be mentioned again in a minute. Now one A/V
program you may not know but gets high marks is Avira AntiVir.
They definitely get no points for an easy to pronounce name. One
caveat is that they do not scan incoming email. A big shortcoming
in my book...
You can find them here:
http://www.free-av.com/en/products/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html
2. Comodo Firewall Pro (Comodo.com). I tried their A/V and did not
like it one bit. BOClean, who they bought out, has long been in my
arsenal but I have had to recently give them up (happens to the best
when they get bought out). Reviewers say Comodo Firewall Pro beats
the others, though a bit complicated for novices.
3. TrueCrypt is something I have used and is recommended by those
who really know. You can create encrypted containers on a hard
disk, usb flash or even create a hidden volume. Easy to use.
http://www.truecrypt.org/
4. To degunk your hard drive, look no further than CCleaner. This
program keeps getting improved. I just did a screencast video to
show how easy it is to install and use. (Bottom of page)
http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/pc-speed-up.html
5.Lightning for Thunderbird. I use Outlook for my business, but for
all of my websites email I use Thunderbird and pretty much love it.
The lack of tasks and calendar have been the shortcoming. No longer.
Get the Lightning plugin and you have those features too.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
6. Foxit Reader. Adobe is SO SLOW! I have written about Foxit before:
http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/TipOfTheWeek-20061208-Tip-Of-The-Week.html
7. Audacity I have used a little bit for audio clips to go in videos:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
8. Wavosaur apparently does a little more than Audacity. This sound
editor is a single file (how refreshing!) and can be run from a USB
flash drive. (Wavosaur.com)
9. Pidgin can meld together a number of instant interruption, I mean
instant messaging, programs like AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, and Windows
Live Messenger so you don't need several chat clients open at once.
http://www.pidgin.im/
As will all software like this, use at your own risk and BACKUP
YOUR PC first!
But at least with these nine mentioned above, the trail has been
blazed by many (in some cases, millions) before you, so you should be
reasonably safe.
Until next time...
Use Free Classified Ads to Buy or Sell Anything
http://www.usfreeads.com/26012_refer.html
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You can keep up with articles I write and videos I create,
for the most part, at:
http://www.AssociatedContent.com/FreeComputerConsultant
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Recent Blog entries:
Outages with MS Online Services - SaaS Anyone?
< http://freecomputerconsultant.com/blog/outages-with-ms-online-services-saas-anyone/ >
Beware the Free Software Add Ons
< http://freecomputerconsultant.com/blog/beware-the-free-software-add-ons/ >
Worst Computer Viruses Of All Time
< http://freecomputerconsultant.com/blog/2008/03/30/worst-computer-viruses-of-all-time/ >
BOClean - Time for a change?
< http://freecomputerconsultant.com/blog/2008/03/11/boclean-time-for-a-change/ >
Comodo BOClean: Another False Positive?
< http://freecomputerconsultant.com/blog/2008/03/05/comodo-boclean-another-false-positive/ >
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