10 Great Free Computer Software Programs and Applications

If you're like me, you're curious about computer software and applications that weren't originally bundled with your computer and find an endless amount of relatively Cheap or Free Software offers online. These are my 10 personal favorites, which are indispensable to me. I've divided them into 2 Catagories: Free Software and Cheap Software.

Free Software and Applications I Love:

Auslogics Registry Defrag and Auslogics Disc Defrag - Actually these are two great free software applications - I've cheated and counted them as one! Auslogics Registry Defrag quickly compacts and optimizes your computers windows registry by removing extraneous gaps and wasted space which can greatly improve computer performance. Auslogics Disc Defrag quickly speeds up your computer and eliminates crashes by defragmenting the file system.

Belarc Advisor builds a privately detailed profile of your computers software and hardware along with missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, and Internet Security benchmarks. The results are displayed on your web browser. All of your profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

Mike's Marketing Tools Search Engine Rankings offers immediate, online web site rankings in 8 top search engines and web directories, including Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN, AOL, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Yahoo! Directory, and Open Directory (Dmoz). Great for anyone with a website.

Torrent Harvester searches for Torrents on multiple websites and compiles them on a single list. Torrent Harvester works similar to Google but is for Torrents only. If you right click a torrent on the list for certain torrent websites, the torrent will download without you having to leave the page.

VLC Media Player - I prefer VLC Media Player to Windows Media Player as it seems to play more multimedia formats (without adding more codecs)and for some reason seems to sound better on my computer as well (maybe this is my imagination!). VLC is a cross-platform media player supporting a large number of multimedia formats needing additional codecs. Features include video on demand and on the fly transcoding.

Cheap Software I Love (Under $40):

(ESET) NOD32 - Great anti-virus software that allows your computer to run faster then most computers running anti-virus software because it requires less memory and CPU power, making more room to surf the web, play games, email and more. It offers fast file scanning and product updates and runs quietly in the background while accurately identifying known and unknown threats. It is recognized for having zero false positives. Nod 32 ThreadSense Technology offers great internet protection from threats.

(Uniblue) Speed Up My PC easily ensures your PC is automatically optimized for maximum performance. It increased my broadband internet downloading speed greatly. Its 2008 software currently comes with free Uniblue System Tweaker software which speeds up start and shut down times and makes windows more stable and secure.

(TuneUp Utilities) 1-Click Maintenance quickly cleans up your registry and hard drive with one click. 1-Click Maintenance is part of this software and is the basic application I use from it.

(Webroot) Window Washer erases traces of websites you visited, cleans up your cache for browsers like IE, Firefox, Opera and more and removes extraneous files which slow down your computer speed.

(Rarlab) WinRar Is the perfect software for me to open up ZIP, RAR, CAB, ARJ, LZH, ACE, TAR, GZip, UUE, ISO, BZIP2, Z and 7-Zip files. It is fast and great for multimedia files and automatically recognizes and selects the best the best compression.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1062401

Bitdefender Total Security 2013 Review

Bitdefender Total Security 2013 is BitDefender's new top of the line security product that leaves little to be desired in terms of functionality that it provides. It combines all the offerings of the company's Antivirus Plus and Internet Security products with additional features that only it offers.

If you are already a Bitdefender customer you are probably wondering what the company is offering in terms of new features or improvements in their 2013 lineup. We are going to look at that in detail later on in the article. Before that, lets take a look at the installation of the program first.

Installation

You download a small setup program from the Bitdefender website that downloads the remaining data from the web during installation. The installation is straightforward and no problem even for inexperienced users. If you want, you can customize the location on the local drive, enter proxy settings, or disable program modules that you are not interested in. If you are only using webmail, you may for instance want to disable the anti-spam module.

The program runs on autopilot by default which makes life really easier as you are not bombarded with dozens of security prompts and alerts right away. If you want though, you can disable autopilot to manage every issue and prompt manually.

The main program interface displays the four important areas antivirus, antispam, privacy and firewall by default, with Tune-up, Safebox, Update, Safego and File Encryption available either with a click on the right arrow or the slider that is displayed below the listing.

You can rearrange the display with a click on the all modules button in the interface. Here you can modify it so that the four program modules that you are most interested in are displayed without scrolling.

Most modules display an on and off switch on the screen which you can use to either turn them on or off completely, or to turn of some of their automatic functionality. Here it is for instance possible to turn of the automatic scanning of files or the firewall.

Often used features, like scanning or updating, are available directly from that interface as well. Lastly, the settings are also only a click away from the main interface.

At the top, you see the general state of security of the system, events that require your attention, the autopilot switch, and a link to program settings overview

Latest Version for Kaspersky Internet Security

Before starting the installation process of the application files, Kaspersky Internet Security checks the presence of the more recent application on the updates server of Kaspersky Lab. If the servers of Kaspersky Lab do not host a more recent version, then installation wizard of the current version is launched.

If the update servers host a more recent version, you will be invited to download it and install it on your computer. It is advised to install a new version of the Kaspersky Internet Security application, because more improvements are made to the new version. These improvements make it possible to protect your computer in a more effective way. If you refuse to install the more recent version, then installation wizard of the current version will be launched. If you decide to install the new version, the files of the distribution will be copied to your computer and the installation wizard of the new version will be launched automatically.

Before installing the application, the program checks if the operating system and the packages of updates installed correspond to the configuration necessary for the installation of Kaspersky Internet Security. Additionally, the application checks the presence of the configuration necessary as well as the privileges for the installation of the software. If one of the enumerated conditions is not filled, a message of notification will appear.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5906521

How To Take Good Care Of Your Computer

You know you should take care of your computer, but you don't know what registry is and what's the difference between hard-drive and memory stick is. Don't worry, these tools will do it for you and you don't even have to set them up.

O&O Defrag Professional (O&O Software GmbH)

The new O&O Defrag Professional Edition for Windows-based workstations unlocks the hidden performance of your computer. This software will optimize your hard disk in Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows NT 4 Workstation, securely repacking fragmented files together for more efficiency.

O&O Defrag's O&O OneButtonDefrag Technology lets you sit back and relax while the optimal defragmentation configuration is tailored directly to your system. A job is created and then executed, making performance improvements on your system noticeably faster. Even in large networks, this sort of automation can lead to unbelievable savings in network administration resources.

Webroot Window Washer (Webroot Software)

Many people do not realize that Internet browsers, as well as many other software products, store information about what they have been doing on their computer systems. Anyone can simply turn on your system and see exactly what you have been doing on your computer. Also, the tracks that are left behind can take up large quantities of valuable hard drive space. Recovering this space can be very beneficial by improving the overall speed and performance of a computer.

Cleaning up the history of your activities can be a tedious chore of manually removing each history file or entry. If privacy and disk space are to be maintained, this process must be performed every time you use your computer. Window Washer can automatically clean up your browser's cache, cookies, history, recent document list, and much more! Window Washer can run in the background and clean up your tracks when you are done surfing the internet or any other time you choose.

Acronis Disk Director (Acronis)

Acronis Disk Director Suite is disk partitioning software that allows you to automatically or manually resize, copy, and move partitions without losing data. It also lets you reorganize the hard disk drive structure and optimize disk space usage. Acronis Disk Director Suite provides a powerful, reliable, and easy-to-use way to manage booting of multiple operating systems on a single PC.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/73287

Tips and Secrets for Faster Internet Speed

If you want to surf the web and download/upload faster, while this isn't going to be a revelation to anyone, you need to have Broadband Internet Service (such as a Cable, DSL or "T1 or T3" connection). If you have telephone modem service, forget it Jack- you lose, you'll never get fast internet speed ever, you can't squeeze blood out of a stone!

So to pass "Go", step 1 is to get Broadband Internet Service! Of these, usually a "T" line is the fastest and most expensive and "Cable" and "DSL" both have their pluses and minuses. I have Cable Internet Service which is quite fast and the pluses are your connection is by cable rather than a phone line. The negatives are the more people using the Cable line at the same time will slow down your internet speed. With DSL which is also fast, you are using a phone line but are not affected by the amount of people on DSL at the same time. Basically it's your call for which service is best for your situation. Before I go on, factors like the amount of memory your computer has, the processor speed and the hard drive space, could affect internet speed to a degree and I'd try especially in regards to memory and processor speed, to get the maximum you can afford.

Even though you have Broadband, you still might not be happy with your internet speed because: 1. Your cache is too large, 2. You have adware/spyware/viruses on your computer, 3. Your modem needs rebooting, and 4. You don't have an internet speed accelerator. I'll now go over what to do on each of these:

In the case of your cache being too large, it could slow down your speed and I recommend you get software that clears the cache on your internet browser whether it be Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc. The software I recommend is (Webroot ) Window Washer. I would use this software daily but do not have your browser window open when you do. This will clear your cache.

Adware/Spyware and viruses definitely can slow your internet speed down. I would get a decent anti-spyware/adware program to get this stuff off your computer and run it every few days. I would have a decent anti-virus program as well and scan for viruses at least weekly. Note, if you go to Porn sites and some MP3 download sites, your computer will in all likelihood pick up spyware/adware, so ask yourself if it's worth it because chances are your internet speed will be affected. I'd recommend you use (Webroot) Spyware Doctor and/or (PC Tools) Registry Mechanic to get rid of this stuff and also NOD 32 for your anti-virus software, as it doesn't slow down your internet speed and computer like some other anti-virus programs do. I would try to avoid most Internet Security Software as they tend to slow down internet speed as well.

Every so often, your internet carrier for some reason loses a connection on your modem and when they resume for some reason your internet speed runs slower. When that happens, you need to reboot your modem. Just unplug the power cord for about a minute and then reconnect it to the socket. Your modem will reboot and the speed should be back to the way its suppose to be.

Lastly, I would get internet accelerator software. This software maximizes your computer's settings for faster downloads and internet response. I actually use two programs for this: Ascentive ActiveSpeed and Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC. I run ActiveSpeed first and SpeedUpMyPC right after. I run both programs after I've rebooted my computer or when I've added or deleted software programs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1319818