An Open Source- FREE Christmas Present...

[60dgrzbelow0]

Happy Holidays to us All...

Here are what might be the best completely FREE and/or Open Source Computer Applications helpful to anyone trying to set up a computing environment that is essentially trouble and cost FREE:

http://www.digitaldarknet.net/thelist/index.php

A sub-set that I favor for either breaking in new machines getting off on the right foot or to get a downed machine out of trouble always includes the following applications after all the Operating System Bells and Whistles are installed. Many will work in both across a wide array of Micro$oft OS, as well as all flavors of Linux:

Avast (Home Edition) Anti-Virus SW

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

CCleaner (Anti-Malware and General Daily Housekeeping)

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

SpyBot (Anti-Malware and more...)

http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html

AdAware (Like SpyBot ...but includes an anti-RootKit feature, too)

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Irfanview (The Best FREE Image-Thumbnal and Video Viewer...Hands Down... Get BOTH files related to the installation)

http://www.irfanview.com/

ZoneAlarm (The EARLY SW Firewall versions are better... if you can get them)

http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm

Videolan (VLC) (Plays all Digital Motion Picture formats, including AVI MPEG, MP3, Matroska, Ogg, etc..)

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

OpenOffice (The Open Source Clone of M$-Office)

http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

CdXPro (The BEST Open Source CD, DVD and ISO Burner)

http://cdburnerxp.se/

EXT2FS (Best FREE application to allow for the reading of LINUX formatted media (EXT2 and EXT3) WORKS IN WINDOZE!)

http://www.fs-driver.org/download.html

EASEUS (Best FREE Permanent Media Storage Partitioning Software...Period!)

http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=Easeus+Partition+Master+Home+Edition&tag=404&searchtype=downloads

Please Add or Detract any other favorites if found either worthy... or detract from this list if unworthy as needed.

Good Luck to Us...and... Merry Christmas to ALL ...

[Weatheralls Auto]

SuperC Video converter.
IMHO it is absolutely the best, miles ahead of anything you can buy.
Open Source.

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

[Azrael]

I also use Avast and Spybot S&D. Excellent programs.

[robertisaar]

i use, used, or plan on using most of those.

Defraggler(made by the same people as CCleaner) is nice, especially compared to the horrid defragmenter MS included with Vista...

AVIDemux is a nice video editor/convertor since it supports most formats.

[ForcedFirebird]

AVG free anti virus and ZoneAlarm firewall here.

[pocket-rocket]

Former AVG and ZoneAlarm user here. Now I use the Windows firewall (along with the hardware firewall in my router) and ESET NOD32 (I just uninstall and reinstall every month ). Spybot rocks, bottom line. I also use AdAware from time to time. As far as registry cleaners goes, I am NOT a fan of them at all. Instead I run a trial copy of Your Uninstaller from time to time to make sure programs are installed/uninstalled correctly. I have yet to have it make my pc act goofy after it does its thing, unlike registry cleaners. Either way, ALWAYS make a backup of your registry before running something like that, unless you enjoy the thought of installing your whole OS and programs list again from scratch if something goes amiss. But we all knew this