Software -  Freeware - Shareware - Commercial-The Essentials

 

Category

Commercial Programs

Free Alternative

Comments

Office Productivity Suite

Microsoft Office

OpenOffice.org

A full Office Suite - Very Good

 

 

Microsoft Office Web Apps

Requires Free Signup

 

 

Google Apps (Free Edition)

Requires Free Signup

Word Processor

Microsoft Word

Abiword

Great basic Word Processor

Remote Computing

LogMeIn Pro

LogmeIn Free
An EZGuide® Canada First Choice 

Easy to use - and fast!

 

Symantec PCAnywhere

Mikogo

Great for helping others

 

ShowMyPC

 

 

 

RealVnc

The grandaddy of free remote computing

Anti-Virus

 

Microsoft Security Essentials
An EZGuide® Canada First Choice

Excellent protection

 

AVG Antivirus Free Edition
Basic AntiVirus Program

 

 

 

Comodo Antivirus

Excellent protection but a little more difficult to use

 

 

AVAST 4 Antivirus Home Edition

 

 

Bitdefender Free Edition

 

 

 

AntiVir AntiVirus Program 

 

 

 

PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition

 

AntiSpyware

SUPERAntiSpyware

Very Good

 

Counterspy

Spyware Terminator

Very Good

 

 

SpyBot Search & Destroy

Very Good

 

 

Ad-Aware

Very Good

Software Firewall

ZoneAlarm Free Edition

 

Backup Software

Symantec BackupExec

Cobian Backup

A personal favorite

 

 

Comodo Backup

 

 

 

FBackup

Simple to use - good wizards!

 

 

GFI Backup

 

Hard Drive Imaging

Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect Free Edition

Now there's no reason not to image your drive

 

Symantec Norton Ghost

EASEUS Todo Backup

 

 

 

EASUS Disk Copy

 

 

 

DriveImageXML

 

Hard Drive Partitioning

Acronis Disk Director

Easus Partition Master (Free Edition)

Partitioning made easy

Internet and Hard Drive Cleanup

Window Washer

IE Privacy Keeper 2.0

Wipes your tracks

Graphics Program

Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro

Photoscape
An EZGuide® Canada First Choice

Easy to use and lots of features

 

 

The Gimp

Most powerful but has a learning curve

 

 

Photofiltre or Pixia

 

 

 

PhotoPlus 5 Graphics Software

 

Graphics Viewer

ACD Systems - The makers of ACDSee 9 Photo Manager

Irfanview

A terrific viewer

Zip Utility

Winzip

7-Zip

 

Zip Utility

 

ZipGenius

 

Acrobat .pdf file Creator

Adobe Acrobat

Cute PDF

 

 

Adobe Acrobat

Primo PDF

 

CD/DVD Burning Software

Ahead Nero

DeepBurner or CDBurnerXP Pro

Both are very good

 

 

ImgBurn

ISO creator & reader - Excellent!

DVD Software

CyberLink PowerDVD 8 - Supports HDMI

AVS DVD Player Free Edition

 

MP3 / Audio Player

 

Winamp

 

 

 

Songbird

 

Audio Editor

GoldWave

Audacity

Very good

Real Audio Player

 

RealPlayer or Realplayer Alternative

 

Quicktime (mov) Player

 

QuickTime or Quicktime Alternative

 

 Game Giveaway of the Day

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Giveaway of the Day

Alternative Operating Systems & Free Software Sites

  LINUX Software:  Linux is a leading contender / alternative to Microsoft Windows and a lot of fun.  Give it a try - it's free!!

 
The best linux distro we've found:
 
 
The next best:
 
 
 
The flashiest linux distro:
 

 Great for netbooks!!
 


  More Linux Distributions:
 

 
  The FreeDOS Project:
  FreeDOS.org

 MORE:
 A cool article on alternative Operating Systems

  INTERNET HELP:
 
How The Net Works (animated)
  Learn The Net
  Internet Scambusters

 MAC Software Sites:
  Pure Mac
  MacWare


  KID'S FREEWARE:
 
Freeware for Kids

  PC Software Sites:
   Snapfiles (FW & SW)
       (excellent security section)
   NoNags (freeware) 
   FreewareHome (freeware)
   Music Related Freeware & Shareware

  FREE GREETING CARDS: 
  FreeWebCards

 FREE ONLINE EMAIL:  
 
Hotmail
 
Yahoo
 GMX.COM - An EZGuide® Canada First Choice

  FREE ONLINE GAMES
  FreeArcade.com 
  Yahoo Games 
 
Free Puzzles
  CleverMedia Games