Better alternatives to the expensive bloatware bundled with your PC or recommended by your PC vendor. (No I am not referring to Window XP/Vista which remains my choice operating system- Sorry but Linux still has a long way to go before my folks or even me can use.) A clarification - my box err... PC will be referred to as the Box, so there. It has been a few years since I first expressed my views ‘Veeresh on Freeware ’ (Do read it for why you should use freeware and related ideas). Though I updated the page from time to time, I believe it’s high time for a complete new one highlighting the best absolute must have software which by the way also turned out to be free, so here we are and to start I shall mention two freeware which I adore.
Launchy! This little utility by Josh Karlin deserves to be at top of the must have freeware or any software for that matter, therefore even the security software will come later. What does it do? Well it launches programs and folders right from your keyboard. Do read the Read me text which comes with the program, for the program is invisible till the time you Press [Alt] followed by [Space] key; else like me you might not realise how it works initially
To use Launchy • Press [Alt] followed by [space] key and lo behold Launchy pops up. • Type in first few letters of the program or folder and you should be able to see it the right one in Launchy as you type. In most cases the first and default choice is the right one! If not, type in the next few letters or wait a second and a drop down menu gives the alternative choices. • Press [Enter] and voila the program or folder is ‘Launched.
Wordweb reaches version 5 which also includes pronunciation (vocalized). Folks this is such a beautiful dictionary- for guys like me who don’t own a car much less a SUV, Antony Lewis offers it for free. Yes there are similar programs or some integrated utilities with office suites, but Wordweb is definitely the most usable one.
Security of my Box
My Box came with McAfee security suite (with all the bells & whistles) preinstalled, I did like it- pretty slick, professional looking interface but it asked for money (a scarce commodity after I splurged on Dell 1720) and... after each update it asked for a reboot! Hey people we are in the 21st century. So I did what you should do in case you too are stuck with Norton or simillar stuff. I installed AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus Free Edition something I fully trust. However, now that AVG moves to version 8.x with built in antispyware and other features which are turned of after the trial period, I switched to Antivir Personal Edition 8.x, I have used it in the past and rest assured it is very competent antivirus in fact better than AVG as far detection is concerned (it detected infected web pages in my browser history after the 1st scan) .
Now I needed a anti-spyware, so I installed Spybot-Search & Destroy 1.5 which has been my favourite for couple of years now, I have in the past used Adaware 2007, Spyware Doctor and few others but finally ended up with this, It has a good scanner, Immunize function, Resident SD Helper & TeaTimer this one also provides various nifty inbuilt utilities like Secure Shredder. Though most recommend use at least two antispyware; at present I am satisfied using this one along with the built in Windows Defender.
Though TeaTimer in Spybot protects the system settings, I am more comfortable with Winpatrol, Its got nifty feature including delay start, access to services, active tasks, , scheduled tasks, hidden files and more. Give it a shot especially if you use WinXp.
WinXp Firewall was sad so I used Comodo Firewall Pro (do not be fooled by the name, it is a freeware), absolutely cracker of a firewall a must have on Xp systems. I gave the inbuilt Win Vista firewall a spin, this was far better but better still is Comodo Firewall Pro with Defense+. Now Defense+ can be irritating with its constant prompts but I feel it is UAC done right so I have switched of my Vista UAC and life has been the better for it. In case you are using just the Comodo firewall without Defense+ do keep Winpatrol.
Cleaning & Speeding Up the Box!
Iobit Advanced Window Care2 Personal; Preventing Security Threats, Privacy Protection, Fixing Registry Errors, Temporary Files Cleanup , Startup Cleanup , Repairing Windows , Speeding up System- AWC 2.7x takes care of all at the click of One button! I am a recent user but am extremely happy with results, you will definitely like it...comes with inbuilt skins to match my desktop.
CCleaner 2.x is a pretty good junk and registry cleaner, I started using it about two years ago and well am still using it; it is good and can peacefully coexist with the rest of the utilities. I would avoid adding Yahoo toolbar though- purely personal preference.
Once you have cleaned up your box, it‘s times to defrag - 1st the drive then the registry. Auslogics Disk Defrag & Registry Defrag are great utilities which do a job in a manner in which Windows could never do. Absolute must haves to keep your Box running in prime condition. You will never do without these. On the other hand you could give Iobit Defrag a shot (for those who can never remember to defrag this might be a better choice.
Web
Free Download Manager is exactly that and by far the best one, (my recommendation- use the light version, enable community support, do not enable torrent support). In options>download options>Monitoring enable monitoring for IE, Opera & Firefox, hide info while downloading. This should in fact be your first download, thereafter you shall have wonderful download experience; undisturbed by disconnection/interruption or shutdowns. (In fact you can program it to shutdown the computer or disconnect on completion). The only time you can only avoid it is if you have a true (Mbps) broadband connection.
Orbit downloader is probably even better, Why? Well It has all the features of FDM but is smaller, lighter and probably faster, supports metalinks, interface is less cluttered.
µtorrent: the best torrent client, well it’s fast, light on resources and true. It doesn’t have some of the features of some other bloated clients but it does have the go. In case you have an unlimited or inexpensive net connection this is an absolute essential. How to use it?
Firefox; My favourite Internet browser features tabbed browsing, faster rendering, better security, built in search engines, basic download manager, popup blocker and customisable toolbars looks and enhanced functionality using numerous addons. Just remember keep the number of add-ons low since they do hog resources, to enhance few essential addons are WOT- givers site ratings for a site you are about to or visiting, Adblock Plus- ads as the name suggests blocks, Undo Closed Tabs Button- many a times one accidently closes a tab so..., IE Tab-required to see some sites which do not render well in Firefox , GUtil! -Provides all Google utilities in a single button- though you should customize it to show only the desired buttons, All-In-One Sidebar, ColorfulTabs, CuteMenus2, and Scrapbook.
But is it the best.. No! the best undoubtedly is Opera 9.5x, lighter (by far), faster (quite), has a mail client (I am using it in preference over Thunderbird & Outlook), news reader, downloader,notes everything except Scrapbook...& yes the interface is not as flexible as Firefox, but try it and you’ll agree Opera rocks. A special mention: Scrapbook, this wonderful add-on for Firefox is a boon for students, researchers or anyone who doesn’t have an un-interruptible, free, always on internet connection. Use it to store tabs for offline reference, it is intuitive in fact Scrapbook can be classified as a webpage manager & eBook reader as well.
eBook Readers
ybook is absolutely must on anyone who likes to read classics (hope you are aware of Project Gutenberg) available as text files. Just look at the screenshot of me reading a P G Wodehouse Classic, this makes reading a pleasure.
MS Reader, so many classics and contemporary books & dictionaries are available for this proprietary format, so this one is a must have too. It has a Library feature and read out the books.
With so much reading material available in pdf one requires a reader , however Acrobat reader 8 is huge & keeps on trying to connect to the net. Foxit is nice, Sumatra is extremely light and I am enjoying the feel of PDF Xchange viewer as of now, but these are just readers. So Adobe Digital Edition is probably the only option for pdf management, but the download process in true Adobe fashion is irritating and often if you do a disk clean up you lose the program too.
This one is for Comic lovers; Gonvisor 1.73 is needed to read Comics (or graphic novels) in cbz or cbr formats.
Music
Music MediaMonkey 3.x is back in favour with its improved looks, extremely important -ability to sync with my iPod shuffle & other devices (I hate, detest.... iTunes! It is one of the worst bloatware in competition with Acrobat Reader 9 with extremely limited usability& functionality, looks...). What I really like is the ease with which one can select the music one wants to hear, and also the smart playlists & Auto DJ feature. Ripping utilities are built in, so is the tagger but that is besides the point -if you want an Extremely Efficient music manager this is what you use, however you have to update the library yourself(auto update is available only in the paid gold version)but that is a small price.
AIMP 2, For music lovers who just want to listen to music and have grown enjoying Winamp 2.9x, AIMP 2 is the perfect upgrade (What is my gripe with Winamp 5.x? Well, it’s bloated, not responsive enough, pretends to be video player...). AIMP Classic has been more or less my default player for over a year now and I really like it. It has clean default skins (though some of the alternative skin colours are not to my liking), Additional recording, ripping, converting, tagging, utilities are built in. For me another winning feature is auto shutdown - just the thing to get me off the computer. The help file is in Russian, but I never did need it.
Flookey, I installed the player and I think I like the concept- Leave the choice of music to the artificial intelligent of the player based on your listening habits and preferences. Something like a radio only better, for you can boost/inhibit/block selections which are pretty intelligent in the first place. Seems uncharacteristically minimalistic-so it would not be my first choice if I wanted to play specific song but as a player to run the whole day while I work, this could be a Good choice. So this was the 3rd audio player on my box, but since it did not take well to my repeated shifting, renaming and tagging of my music files, it’s off as of now.
Musikcube is another beautiful opensource music player extremely clean, unfortunately it has progressed beyond version 1 RC2 and that too is not available easily but the player works wonderfully with Win Vista32.
What would I do without The Godfather by far the best tagger even though it’s a 0.71b version? Does not behave once a blue moon but absolutely a must have on anyone who has music on his hard drive. I am definitely looking forward for the next version, even though this one works beautifully. Thanks Dimitris...
Where to get this stuff? My favourite download site remains filehippo.com for its clean minimilistic and functional interface, latest updates and fast downloads. Unfortunately not all freeware are listed so my second choice is download.com which to its credit has almost everything.Remember your first download should be... let me choose ...Orbit Downloader
