| Software |
On this page I will describe some of the software and
tools I find of the best quality. They will all be freeware and a very
important demand is that they are free of any spyware and bugs. I have
personally tested all the tools I recomend and I only bring the best of
the best. If you have any questions or wonder why a specific piece of
software is missing here, please send me a mail. I,m allways interested
in talking about new tools, if you convince me about the quality of a
new tool I will for sure bring it here too. My emailadress you find on
my profile page.
|
| Browsing
& Email |
Mozilla
Firefox
 Firefox
is absolutely one of my favourites. Approximate 10% of all
Internetusers browse the Internet with Firefox and various to Internet
Explorer, Firefox is developing day by day. In my opinion Firefox is
also a more secure browser because the major part of spyware and virus
is written in code that only IE understand, but I know there's
different oppinions on that issue. One thing is for sure, with Firefox
you also get a lot of tested plugins and extensions from the
official Add-on page ________________________________________________
Opera
 I
have only used Opera for a few month and I mostly use it browsing blogs
and with rss feeds. Opera also comes with a build in emailclient. I
think it is a very interesting browser with a lot of features. As
Firefox it keeps developing day by day. With Opera also comes the
opportunity to participate in the Opera
Community and to host a weblog with easy to use facilities.
My friend Allan, who also made my banner, owns a very popular weblog in
the Opera Community, you could visit his
blog to see a live example for ypurself.
Opera
homepage | Download Opera | Opera
Forum
________________________________________________
Siteadvisor
Siteadvisor is a small plugin for Internet
Explorer and Firefox. As the name indicates, the tool gives
advise about sites you visit on the Internet. It will
indicate the risk with green, yellow or red colour, where Green = OK, Grey
= Unknown, Yellow
= risky, Red
= NOT OK. The result is based on tests from their
own staff, userfeedback and the quality of the sites the analyzed site
links to. The advisor integrates with Google so you will see the
colours on the page with searchresults. Tjek out their webpage for
further information.
Siteadvisor
homepage | Tjek a site | Support Center
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Thunderbird
Another open source software that started from the Mozilla foundation.
I use Thunderbird both with my Linux distro and when I seldom boot up
my XP. Since it works on multible platforms I can share it's folders in
both systems, as long as the partition is formatted Fat 32. Thunderbird
read mails, newsgroups, rss and mailspool. Get the calendarplugin too,
and you can skip Outlook. Tjek out the Add-on page too.
Homepage/Download
| Thunderbird Intro | Thunderbird Forum
________________________________________________
JetMailMonitor
 This neat software is a traditional mailsniffer
and is especially handy if you recive mail from several accounts. It
supports up to 50 pop3 accounts and can notify you with different
sounds or a popupwindow when a new mail arrive. You can read
the mails in raw text format before downloading, delete mails on the
server and classify specific adresses or subjects as spam to
delete automatically.
 Homepage | Download | Forum |
|
| Security
software |
IMPORTANT!!: You can get a lot of security software
against allmost everything, but allways remember the most important
issue when it comes to security: Update Update Update. If your system
is not updated with the last patches to protect aginst known security
issues, your computer will be in danger. Tell your computer to update
automaticaly, or visit Microsoft Update at least once a week. Or even
better > Get
PCLinuxOS :-)
|
Avast
Antivirus
 Antivirus software is usually rather expencive,
but even good quality software does not have to cost you
a cent. Avast is one of the best freeware virus scanners, easy
to use and protects both your browser and email. It updates daily and
protects against the most known viruses. If you use the Internet with
just a little care, you could do with this free of use program. You
have to register Avast, which is done online. Read the page where you
download the installation file. The registration last a year, then you
have to re-register again, but no problem, it tells you when.
Homepage
| Download | Supportforum
| FAQ
________________________________________________
AVG Antivirus
 As Avast, AVG is free for personal use. As virus
protection I don't think there is major difference in quality between
them. Avast is more grafical minded and have more settings, AVG seems
to run lighter and use less of the computers power. You could give both
a try, but remember that running 2 virus programs at the same time is a
really bad idea. You have to uninstll one before installing the other
or your computer could mess up. AVG also comes in a comercial version,
on their homepage you can read about the difference and what you get
more if you want to pay for it.
Homepage
| Download | Supportforum
| FAQ
________________________________________________
SpywareBlaster
 In my opinion this small piece of software is a
must on any computer with Windows. It keeps Internet Explorer and/or
Firefox free of downloading a lot of traking cookies, ad cookies and
malicious active x components. It is not running in the background
using any processes, but tells the browser what is ok and not ok. You
only have to run SpywareBlaster when you optate the definition files,
and apply the new definitions to the browser(s) by a single click.
If you donate a few $ to the programmer, you will get the opportunity
to autoupdate SpywareBlaster...
Homepage | Download | Forum at Wilder's | FAQ
________________________________________________
SuperAntiSpyware
 SAS
(SuperAntiSpyware) is a new product in the anti malware marked. It has
suprised many securityexperts with an amasing efficiency against the
hard malware, which normally requieres manual removal by experts. SAS
comes in 2 versions, a free one for home users and a professional
version. The main difference is that only the professional version has
real time shields against malware, the home version is only a scanner.
List of differences
The cost of the professional version is around 30 $ and you
really get a great software, but the free version is a very fine
supplement to other shields. Do a scan once a week and you will be as
sure as possible, not to have any nasty malware on your
computer.
Homepage/Download | Support | Documentation
________________________________________________
Windows Defender
 Windows
Defender, former Microsoft Antispyware, is still named as a
betaversion, but is fully operative. The engine is this antispyware
product comes from the software Giant, which MS bought last year and
formed into this new scanner and shield against the most known malware.
The software can be used as stand-alone, but I will recomend that you
install SpywareBlaster aswell, and disable 3. part cookies in your
browser. The WD is not efficient against tracking cookies. WD will be a
integrated part of the coming Windows Vista. One thing you should
notice though; you have to verify the version of Windows you use,
before downloading the software.
________________________________________________
Spybot SD
 Spybot Search and Destroy is made by one of the
most enthusiastic anty spyware fighters, Patric M. Kolla. Spybot has
been fighting spyware since the first of the kind started annoing
computerusers, and their work is very important. Spybot is a very
usefull scanner as a supplement to your other safety software, but in
my opinion it can not stand alone. Scan with Spybot once or twice a
week to catch what is left over from other software. Enthusiastic
freeware wendors work depends on donations, therefore I will
suggest that you doneate a few $ to them if you use this awarded piece
of software.
Safety.Net Firewall / Zone
Alarm
Last a few words about firewalls. Until recently I allways recomended Kireo
Personal Firewall or Sygate, but since these vendors
seem to stop the development of their products or sell to other vendors
in non-free versions, I have only two left that I think is userfriendly
desktopfirewalls. One is Zone Alarm free, the other is Safty.Net from Netvada.
Zone Alarm
is the most known of the two, but I like Saftey.Net more. The reason I
suggest you install a desktop firewall is that the inbuild in
Windows XP is a one-way protection only. It protects inbound,
wich
is the most
important for sure, but I will like to control which programs gets
access
outbound too. You can read more about firewall protection here.
|
| Text
& Images |
Open
Office
 If
you need a complete and free substitude for Microcoft Office, Open
Office is what you want. You get the whole packet with document writer,
database, image impression, mathematic tools and whatever a complete
office software includes. Open Office can convert lots of filetypes and
works is avalible to Windows systems, Linux and Mac. It is Open Source
and developes constantly. The user interface is a bit different from
Microsoft Office, but you will get used to it after few hours of use.
There is absolutely no need for paying 100 of $ for this kind of
software.
Homepage
| Download | Forum
| FAQ
________________________________________________
PDF Reader/Writer
 The most known software used reading and writing
pdf-files comes from Adobe, the reader is free and I think most people
use this, because allmost every homepage with pdf files, have the
Acrobat reader icon and link. Adobes writer is quite expencive. Here
are
two alternatives, one for reading much faster than Acrobat, and a
pdf-writer that you can use for free. The reader is called Foxit
PDF Reader, the writer is called Cute
PDF Writer.
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a global format
for documents that everybody can read, without installing Microsoft
Word, Works, Lotus or whatever. This gives compagnies and manualwriters
the possibility to convert their documents into a format, that any user
can download and read, as long they have the reader installed.
Download Foxit PDF Reader | Download Cute PDF Writer
________________________________________________
Notekeeper
Notekeeper is a very small tool for writing notes and keeping track of
them. It only works for Windows. There's a lot of notetools you can
download and I have used quite a few before I found Notekeeper. What
makes this tool great is first of the way it organizes your notes. On
the left pane you have a "filebrowser" where you can make folders and
supfolders and this way make a hieraki of your notes. It includes
images, url.s and even files from several other textwriters. You can
passwordprotect your notefile and use it for collection of passwords.
Notekeeper is splended if you are writing a book, making a music or
video collection, link collection, creating a homepage or for your
homework.
Homepage | Download | Screenshots
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Irfan View
 If you are tired of using the imageviewer in
Windows you should try this small software from Irfan Skiljan. It opens
the most popular types of images and you can edit some basic settings
as light, ballance, size and sharpness. You can browse images inside a
folder, make slideshow and thumnails from all images in a folder, and
you can do batch conversations of multible images. If you download this
plugin you will have more functions.
Homepage
| Download | Forum
________________________________________________
 Xnview
If you recive images from friends you can not open, this viewer should
do the work for you. It opens more than 400 different formats. It
supports various systems like Windows, Solaris, Linux, OpenBSD and
MacOS. For normal use I prefere Irfan View, but since this small
software wil take no space anyway, it's handy to install in case you
recive any image file your editor can't open or edit. For the most
filetypes Xnview can also convert into a format you can edit.
Homepage
| Download | List of supported formats
________________________________________________
The Gimp
 The
Gimp was first made for Linux and very advanced to use, but later
versions have become more userfriendly, and made for other systems too.
It's still an advanced imageeditor and could be compared with software
like Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, a big difference though, is that The
Gimp is 100 % freeware. I use the editor myself on my PCLinuxOS and I
like it a lot. It takes some hours to get used to it's userinterface,
but then you will find it easy to use. The Gimp is avaliable for Linux,
Windows, Unix and MacOS. GIMP is short for GNU Image
Manipulation Program and therfore also distributed and used under the GNU
GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Homepage | Download
| Tutorials
| Usermanual
|
| System
& Backup |
Ultimative
Boot CD
This is a collection of usefull systemtools for analysis and
making changes of software systems and hardware. You download an
iso-file, burn a boot cd and operate from a dos emulation. On the
UBCD front page you can see a list of the included software
if you scroll a bit down the page. The boot cd can also be cloned with
your Windows XP. In that case you do a bootable Live CD of XP,
including the list of software frem UBCD. The project has it's own
homepage
Download | Order a physical copy | FAQ
| Forum
________________________________________________
IE Privacy Keeper
 IEPK
is a small utillity to clean up temporary files from installations and
web browsing, cookies, typed passwords, browsing history etc. You can
make a standart setting in the program, and when you want to clean up
you can do this by a single click. IEPK supports Internet Explorer and
Mozilla Firefox. You can also define specific folders to emty files on
clean up. The cleaning can be done manually or automatic when browser
close, at system shutdown or startup. Very nice tool!
Homepage | Download | FAQ | Usermanual
________________________________________________
Ccleaner
 Crap
Cleaner, is like IE Privacy Keeper, a utility designed to clean up the
mess Windows leaves on a PC. Some users like IEPK, others Ccleaner, the
diference is not that big so you might want to try out both. Ccleaner
have more settings but IEPK is more simple to use. There should not be
any problems using both for a while. Ccleaner is a regestry cleaner too.
Homepage
| Download | Support/forum
________________________________________________
Back2Zip
There are 100's of small programs out there for backup of files and
folders. I have used some of them, and until now Back2Zip is the most
userfriendly and effecient I have seen. It runs in the background and
does backup of selected folders with a specified interval - or you can
choose to back up manually. You simply choose the folders the program
will backup. In the settings you can decide which kind of
backup you want, either compressed or uncompressed. It is
recommended by the site Free-backup.info where you also find much more
information about backup.
Homepage
| Download | Forum
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