The top 15 downloads of the year- Network World

[Bader]

Here:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/1 ... lynewspmal

Much of this is not relevant to gaming, but three key ones are:
I heartily recommend all of them (most especially AVAST AntiVirus). They are all free for home users, but don't be put off by that.

Avast Anti-Virus Home Edition

These days, most antivirus programs come as part of an expensive, bloated, RAM-hungry suite that sucks up system resources, slows your system to a crawl, and requires you to pay for a new subscription every year. If you're tired of paying through the nose for antivirus protection, and want a slim, svelte anti-virus tool that does everything that high-price software does, get Avast Anti-Virus Home Edition. It has everything you need in an antivirus tool--notably live protection to ensure that you don't get infected in the first place. It also protects against instant messenger viruses, e-mail- and Web-mail-borne viruses, and viruses spread through peer-to-peer file sharing programs. It also scans your system for viruses, and eliminates any it finds.

Avast Anti-Virus Home Edition is free and extremely customizable: You can change the level of protection that any of its individual shields provides from normal to high, or create your own customized rules. So ask yourself, do you really need your current, high-priced suite?


IrfanView

IrfanView is the best graphics file viewer and all-around utility you can get. It's lightning fast, displaying graphics files faster than any other editor or viewer. It lets you view graphics files and play video and audio files in dozens of formats.

In addition, IrfanView lets you edit photos and images--flipping, rotating, and resizing them; increasing their color depth; converting them to grayscale, auto-adjusting the colors; and removing red eye. It does a fine job of converting graphics files from one format to another, and it can handle batch conversions of such files, too.


CCleaner

Your PC and its applications are filled with junk that slows down your PC, consumes precious disk space, and may be used to invade your privacy.

The author of the free CCleaner claims that the utility has been downloaded 100 million times. No wonder: It gets rid of such Windows junk as temporary files, log files, and Recent Documents. It cleans out files from multiple browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera. It even removes junk from third-party programs such as Google Toolbar, Microsoft Office, Nero, and Adobe Acrobat. And it has a Registry cleaner, for cleaning junk from the sensitive Windows Registry.



And maybe (for some of us)

FileZilla

Sometimes the best choice for transferring files is the old-fashioned FTP protocol--say, when you need to transfer files too large for your ISP to tolerate, or when you need to transfer multiple files. On such occasions, FileZilla is a wonderful tool to have.

Despite being easy to use, this free FTP client provides a multitude of features such as the ability to configure transfer speed limits, and to resume the transfer of files larger than 4 GB. It supports every FTP protocol you might need, including FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). And the site manager is superb and simple.

[McMick]

I'm an avast reseller as part of my business. I switched to it a few years ago after Norton started "going south". Now I install it on all new PCs that I build (and pre-register home users). Combined with Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, Zone Alarm firewall, and Mozilla Firefox, it makes for a highly competent yet secure PC experience. And it's all free for home use!

CCleaner is awesome, it has a registry cleaner built-in and its Uninstall menu is a much faster load than "Add/Remove programs", if slightly less informative. Gotta watch out not to accidently install the Yahoo! toolbar when installing CCleaner, though.

Filezilla is the best free FTP program around, it has everything, and if you actually utilize an FTP server then it will leave you wanting for nothing. And it's not overly complex, either. It's also completely free for home/business use (GNU public license if I recall)

[Buddye]

This Post is very good. Norton and Bit Defender prevent BOBII from loading files. They can be very hard to disable or turn off.

Customers interested in gaming should really consider and use these products.

[jwenting]

in fact it can be impossible to get rid of Norton products without a full format of the harddisk and reinstallation of Windows (depending on the version and product(s) of Norton you install).

[genehaynes]

Bader,

I'm installing Avast on my 2nd computer to see how it works. I'm not sure, but the Avast web site seems to indicate the Avast Home edition is a 60 day trial. Anyone know wheter this is the case or not?

[Tako_Kichi]

Just register the software with Avast and you are good for about 14 months or so and after that the software will prompt you to re-register for another 14 month period. As long as you re-register when prompted it remains free and active.

[Bader]

yes, 14 months as I recall it. And I suspect you just have to reregister again in a years time.
It's certainly free, I have it on three PCs in my house. Super product.

[J.D.]

Been using a thing called "Defraggler" - same people as do CCleaner - and I really like it. One of the best defraggers out there because you have a lot more control over what you're doing than with a lot of others. Want to just defrag the fragmented files rather than the whole drive? Easy.

Oh yeah, it's free.

[Bader]

Good tip, thanks J.D.

[BOBC]

Anyone any experiences of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 ?
Thats virus and firewall.
My PC makers will play ball with Kaspersky. BitDefender crashes 64bit OS xp pro.
I am always apprehensive of separate progs for virus and firewall, friends have had compatability issues. Bader, are your two a very happ marriage ? ever any squabbles ?

BOBC

[stickman]

I have been using Avast for 2 years now. Never had any virus problems, and it runs concurrent, without hassles, with my games.

[Bader]

Agreed.

AVAST is outstanding. That, and windows firewall, is all I have on all my home PCs. Got rid of Norton and all other nasties.

Super product, and free for home users (they make their money through enterprise licencing).

[Michal - A2A]

I think XnView is better graphics viewer than Irfan View.

[stalkervision]

i thought you ment BOB..

[greasemonkey]

XNview has more tools than irfanview and I replaced irfanview with it a couple of years ago. Have used avast for years and have put the home version on several friends computers.

Most of that list was fluff as far as I'm concerned. Bader pointed out the only ones I'd consider worthwhile. Except for video editing and games, my home system runs all freeware / open source software.

Here's a list of programs not yet mentioned. These are all spyware and adware free.

Graphics programs
Paint.net and The Gimp for Windows- use in place of photoshop. Can get free plugins for reading psp images and photoshop plugins
Inkscape (Vector drawing)
Picturenaut- HDR imaging of photos
RawTherapee- Raw image manipulation
Blender 3D- 3D modeling, animation (and video editing)

Security
Spybot Search & Destroy
Spywareblaster This is a blocker not a scanner

Office software
LibreOffice Office suite that flawlessly imports and exports word docs and excel spreadsheets
Dia- Visio replacement
Open Project- MS Project replacement
PDFTK builder- PDF splitter, builder
Bullzip pdf or PDFCreator- pdf printer
Task Coach- task manager

Desktop Publishing
Scribus. This is a true full blown desktop publishing program

CD/DVD burning
ImgBurn very powerful, takes getting used to
InfraRecorder very user friendly, will be enough for over 90% of most users

Internet
JBidwatcher- ebay sniping program
Wink- flash editor

Multimedia
Wavosaur- audio editor, supports VST plugins
Audacity- audio editor supports LADSPA, NyQuist, and VST plugins
Quick Media Converter- converts almost any kind of audio or video file. This converter rocks
Media Portal- Media Center
Media Player Classic- Home Cinema- video player
VLC- media Player
One note about the 2 media players listed, they do not require additional codecs to play most video formats. Media Player Classic will play flv videos.
Songbird- audio player/ organizer and iTunes replacement

Utilities
Converber- unit conversion, incredible list of conversions it will do
Agent Ransack- file search, even searches text within files
Nexus File- dual pane file manager. LOTS of power hiding under the hood on this one (I use the gray skin with white background)
Q-dir- up to four file panes viewable simultaneously. Basic features otherwise
ZipGenius- best freeware zip utility. Displays zip folder structure and allows removing or adding individual files to the folder structure of the archive

Other software
The Word- Bible software
D-fend reloaded- graphical front end for DOS box. Still like playing Panzer General? then this is for you.
Snadboys Revelation- password viewer
DrafSight- free CAD software that reads and writes dwg files by Dassault systems
Reloader's Reference- great ammo reloading database
xtrakcad- model railroading software

Hope this helps people looking for software they could use.