Windows Software Round-up Part 1

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Microsoft Office
Word is the standard for composing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Almost all businesses, organizations and individuals will assume that you can read and write Word documents.
Open Office
O.O. is a popular alternative to Microsoft when it comes to Word processing, mainly because it’s free, works well and can understand MS Office files.
Adobe Reader
This free utility from Adobe lets you view PDF files. PDF stands for Portable Document Format, and is a file format used to distribute documents among different types of computers and operating systems while ensuring they’re uniformly interpreted.
Mozilla Firefox
Firefox is a free alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that many consider to be the superior product. Firefox features tight security, tabbed browsing, popup blocking, an in-browser search box, a large repository of add-ons & plug-ins and much more.
Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a lightweight, free alternative to Microsoft’s Outlook Express.
Microsoft Outlook
The full version of Microsoft’s Outlook is a rich organizational tool that many business types are fond of. Outlook will let you read e-mail, but also features a calendar, address book, tasks and notes.
WinRAR
A compression utility for working with .zip and .rar files.

Picasa
A simple, powerful tool for organizing your collection of digital photos.
iTunes
Organize your music collection with this friendly utility from Apple.
Winamp
An alternative to iTunes, Winamp is quality audio software for the PC that’s been around for many years.

Ad-Aware SE Personal
Ad-Aware Personal provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components. This software is downloadable free of charge.
Spybot S&D
Spybot – Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer.