Best free of the Web.

These are not the absolute must haves (although if you don’t already have antivirus software, that realy is a must).

Here is a collection of great programs that don’t cost a thing. There's alot of free software out there if you look, heres a good place to start.

I choose only programs that are really great quality, really useful, really easy to use and realy are free (without minimal time limit, features missing or annoying ads/pop ups etc).

It's simply the best free stuff on the web. For an explanation as to why they are free, read the section at the very end. Wherever possible I have given you the link directly to the download page (with instructions). All programs run on Windows XP. I have also put a link to the companies main page (home page) in case they change their download page, or you have a different operating system.

All information given is correct at time of writing. 08.05.2007

1- Antivirus and Internet security: Here’s a great antivirus program. It starts as a ‘trial’ version (30 days) after unless you buy it, it becomes a ‘free’ version which is less effective than the ‘pro’ version. Almost all Antivirus makes have a trial version which, after 30 is useless. AVG however is still usable, unless you’r storing hyper sensitive data on your computer, it may be all you ever need. It won’t slow your system and is easy to use.

Download page (Click the Orange download button to the right of “AVG Internet Security 7.5”):
http://www2.grisoft.com/doc/35/us/crp/0

AVG Main page (home page):
http://www2.grisoft.com/

2- Internet Browser: There is only one browser I use, I love it, its fast, secure, easy to use and has tabbed browsing (a full explanation here). I’ve also included it as one of my ‘Absolute must have free computer programs’ so if you want a full description read that. Basically its like Internet Explorer (the program most people use to ‘surf’ the web) except in my opinion its far far better.

Download page and Main Page (click the obvious download or get it now button):

3- Open Office: Again one of my must haves. You’ll never need to buy (or copy) Microsoft Office again. Open Office does ALL the same things, but it’s free, and its great (for more information, see my page here).

Download and Main page (home page) – click on the big green download button:
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

4- Email program: Get rid of most of your security problems in one sweep. Outlook is a disaster when it come to security (it’s the program everyone tries to attack). You will find thunderbird (made by the firefox people – Mozilla). Again it’s a must have, so there’s a better description here.

Download and Main page (home page) – click on the big green download button:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

5- Google Earth and Adobe Acrobat reader: two great programs you can get from the same place:

If you've never seen Google earth before your missing out. Its one of the coolest things you can get free on the web. It shows you a 3D planet earth. As you move you mouse the globe rotates. At any point you can zoom in and the program will update with the latest satellite images of any give point on planet earth. Quite simply if you dont have it already get it.

The other program I recommend you get is Adobe Acrobat Reader. Have you ever got an email with a file that had the extension .pdf, or seen on on the Internet? .pdf is a universal format that anyone can read with owning the program it was made in. For example, you probably know if someone send you a file .doc then you need Microsoft word to open it. Imagine if you were to receive a file made in Photoshop, the next day, one made in Coreldraw, the next day another program and so on. Its not possible to own all these programs, but that's ok, you don't have to. Just get Adobe Acrobat Reader because now when people save a file for everyone to be able to read (you can't edit/change them) it is saved in .pdf.

You can get both of these programs as part of the Google pack here (IMPORTANT!-! make sure to click on remove and take out all the other programs. In my professional opinion, they aren't the best).

Download:

6- Photo editing and organisation: Are all of your photos organised? Do you know how to re-size a photo to email it efficiently? Can you get rid of the red eye effect your photos? If you answered no to any of these, or if you need any help in general with your digital photos, look no further than Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. It has everything you need. Of course Adobe will want you to pay to upgrade to a version with more features, but the truth is, this is just the progam 99% of people out there need and don't have and you simply dont need the aditional features you have to pay for. End of story.

If you don't have photo an organising/editing program, then this is a must.

Download (click on 'download now'):
-- too long to display, just click here --

Main page (home page):
http//:www.adobe.com

7- Music player: Most people use Windows media player because it came with windows. So did I until Microsoft did a random update and all 4,000 of my songs lost their ratings. Now I use iTunes. It's clear, logical and nice to use. It's 'Apple' easy. All my songs have a rating and now playing music through my computer is a joy again.

Download here (NOTE!-! Don't put your email address in the box, you don't need to)
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Main page (home page):
http://www.apple.com/

8- Browser Plugin: Last of all, here is something that you Internet browser needs to view a lot of web sites. If you get Firefox (above) it will download it automatically the first time you need it. Its called 'flash' and it a format for animated interactive bits on the Internet. It's another must have:

Download here (click 'download now' button)
-- too long to display, just click here --

Main page (home page):
http://www.adobe.com/

9- Zip program: Heres a program which will open (unzip) all the popular compressed files. It's realy good and completely free without limitations.

There you have it, there are heaps more and I plan to do a follow up on this page with some other cool programs. I just wanted to show you the best of the best for free on the web. Have fun.

Why are these programs free?

The are a few reasons free software exists. Some company’s allow you to use a program for thirty days and after that if you want to continue to use it, you have to buy it. Sometimes a payment is required to unlock extra features or stop some annoying remind notice that it’s a free program.

Some programs are free because of a great thing called “open source”, put simply, these are programs developed by unpaid people. If you’re a programmer, you can add a feature that you like to a program that is “open source” and the only rule is that you make that addition available to everyone. This means there is a large number of people making programs and applications of great quality completely free. Wherever possible, I try to find these types of programs.