So there I was....
at the Chocolate, Blues and Business Festival last week when Arnie Goldberg walked up to me and said "I know one of your competitors that puts out a list of 10 free programs that he recommends. If the customer is comfortable with the idea, they can install the ones they want themselves. If not he will come out and install them for a fee. People seem to like it"
Well if you know Arnie Goldberg, then you know you have to respect his marketing sense.
Now I have a boatload of free programs that I use all the time, but I am a power user, and I just never considered that some of these might be interesting to my customers. So I went to our staff and asked them to give me a list of what they use and recommend, and we came up with a rather long list. I've filtered the list down and I'd like to offer it to you now. I have included links to download the programs and I will put them on CD so you may stop by the shop and pick them up if you prefer. And of course, if you would like us to come out and put any or all of them on your computer we will be happy to do so.
I tried but I couldn't keep it down to ten, so here are the top twenty three. Take minute and look through the list, you may find something here that you need!
System Protection
Spyware Blaster should be installed on a clean machine. It blocks spyware from installing in the first place. Be sure to update it once a month. (Windows only)
Winpatrol will warn you when spyware tries to install itself and it also allows you to fine tune the boot sequence for faster boot times. (Windows only)
Backup
Cobain Backup As always we recommend that you back your data up on a regular basis. Cobain Backup allows you to schedule backups so you don't have to remember to do it manually. (Windows only)
Maintenance
CCleaner is a fast, safe way to empty the system of temporary files that slow it down. (Windows only)
Defraggler is a utility that will defrag your hard drive faster and easier then the one built into Windows. It also has provisions for scheduling defrags to run unattended. (Windows only)
A.F.5 Rename Files renames files according to your specification. For example, when your camera software names all your pictures something goofy, you can quickly and easily rename them any way you want. (Windows only)
No Clone checks through your music, video, pictures or any other file you specify and tells you if you have duplicates that could be deleted to save space. It searches for same content, same name, and truncated or zero content files. (Windows only)
Surfing
Site Advisor is a plug in for Internet Explorer that will warn you if you are visiting a web page that is known to be malicious. It will even block certain sites completely. (Windows only)
Video Download Capture allows you to capture flash based videos, so you can save and share video files from YouTube and other sites. (Mac version)
Microsoft Steady State will allow you to protect your system when someone else uses it. You can configure Steady State so any changes a visitor makes to your system will be erased when you reboot. (Windows only)
Just Cool
Virtual Task Tips displays a thumbnail snapshot of any Windows that was minimized to the Windows taskbar. For Windows XP, similar to Windows Vista Aero. (Windows XP only)
TrueCrypt allows you to encrypt specific data just by dragging the files into the encrypted folder. This is much faster and safer for your system then encrypting an entire hard drive. (Windows or Mac)
Productivity
Open Office is a full Microsoft Office compatible office suite. It is $400 cheaper then MS Office Pro! (Windows or Mac)
Web Browsers
Foxfire is the most popular non-MS web browser (Windows or Mac)
Safari is Apple's browser and it has been ported to Windows (Windows and Mac)
Web Pages
Tiny URL makes small addresses out of very long web addresses. It makes it much easier to email a web address to someone without getting broken links.
LogMeIn.com even the free version will let you access a multitude of computers remotely, so you don't have to drive over to Moms house every time she says she can't find her email icon.
Utilities
IZarc is a multi-archiving utility. If you come across a archive document you haven't seen before this will probably open it.
CD Burner XP very simple to use CD or DVD recording software
Rename Master another utility for renaming masses of files, this one will also rename folders and can use folder names to rename the files in those folders.
Adobe Acrobat 7.0 We all are familiar with Adobe Acrobat Reader, but version 8.x and up has become such a large pig of a program we prefer 7.0.
DVD Shrink This will let you backup DVD's to your hard drive, including copy protected DVDs.
Double Driver backs up all the drivers on your system so you can save them and reinstall them later if needed.
Recuva File recovery software to rescue those files that get accidentaly deleted.
