I recently had to rebuild my Windows XP machine. These are the top 5 free Windows applications I have to install.
- AVG antivirus – antivirus software is the first thing I put on after applying all the Microsoft patches. I believe the statistic is that it only takes 15 minutes for a PC to get hacked without antivirus and a firewall.
- Firefox – I love this web browser even though it uses more resources than Internet Explorer. Here are the add-ons that I install every time now.
- 7-Zip – I receive all kinds of compressed formats from people. This has no problems dealing with formats like RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, MSI, WIM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS
- AVS DVD Player – Nothing is worse than thinking Windows Media Player will play your dvd and coming up with that missing codec error.
- This little gem plays a dvd from a folder too.
- During the setup I choose Do not associate for the File Associations. I would suggest this unless you want AVS as your default player for all the formats listed.
- The only down side to this software is that it installs all the other non-free shareware products. Sometimes there is a price for free.
- GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) – First off you’ve gotta love the name! This is handy if you need a program similar to photoshop to resize and crop pictures from your digital camera.