Free PC Programs Everyone Should Have
https://www.computersprofessor.com/2017/06/free-pc-programs-everyone-should-have.html?m=0
Free PC Programs Everyone Should Have:
There
are millions of free and open source projects available, many of them better
than any commercially available product. Below is a short listing of what we
think are the best out there, broken down into ten categories.
Antivirus
and malware protection
Most PC
users realize that they need protection on their computer or may have an
installed antivirus program from their computer manufacturer. What most don't
realize is that there are free programs that are just as good and in some cases
better than the commercial products. Below are our recommendations.
Antivirus
program: Avast!
Malware
and Spyware protection: Malwarebytes
Backup solutions
There
are dozens of free and commercially available backup programs for computers.
Unfortunately, many of those backups are stored locally, meaning if your house
were to catch fire, get robbed, or if you lost your backup discs, all your data
would be lost. To avoid loss of important data, we suggest users use online
backup services.
Online
backup solution: Mozy or Dropbox
Browsers
Although
Microsoft Internet Explorer comes pre-installed on Windows computers. There are
several excellent free alternatives that everyone should try. These free
alternatives can often be faster, have more options, and in many cases be more
secure than Internet Explorer.
Internet
Browser: Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome
Compression
utility
When
downloading files on the Internet you'll eventually encounter a .zip, .rar, or
other compressed file. Dealing with these files can be easy with our below free
file compression utility.
File
compression utility: 7-Zip
Disc
ripper and creation utility
Creating
an audio or data CD/DVD, ripping the data from an audio CD, or creating a CD
from a .ISO file can also be done freely using our below free recommendation.
CD
burner utility: CDBurnerXP
E-mail
E-mail
is yet another service that can be done freely. Most users today use online
e-mail solutions like the one listed below. However, for those still using an
e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook we strongly suggest one or both of the
below suggestions.
E-mail
client: Mozilla Thunderbird
Online
e-mail: Gmail
FTP,
SFTP, and SSH Utility
Users
who maintain their own web page or need to upload or download files to or from
a server have to use an FTP utility or an SSH client. There are many commercial
programs capable of doing this but our below free recommendations beats them
all.
FTP
client: Filezilla
SSH
client: MobaXterm and Putty
Image
editor, paint program, and picture organizer
There
are many great free solutions for editing, creating, and organizing your images
on your computer. Many of the programs capable of doing these tasks can be
several hundred dollars, but all of the below programs are completely free.
Image
editor: GIMP
Paint
program: Paint.net
Picture
organizer: Google Photos
Multimedia
There
are dozens of different multimedia programs with different capabilities and
limitations. Below are our top free multimedia programs for watching video
files and recording audio.
Audio
editing and creating tool: Audacity
Video
and DVD Player: VLC and MPC-HC
Office
Suite
An
Office suite such as Microsoft Office is often one of the most expensive
programs that a user can install on their computer. Why install these expensive
programs when there are free solutions that are just as good.
Office
suite: OpenOffice
Notepad
and Source code editor: Notepad++