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New Computer - Necessary Programs?

JBone84

JBone84

Well-Known Member
Nov 30, 2006
2,825
1,378
113
Rochester, MN
So I just brought home a new computer; nothing fancy, my wife and I will just use it for email/Internet and storing the family pictures.

What programs should I think about purchasing/downloading? I feel I am a pretty technologically savvy person, if that matters. Particularly, is there any good free antivirus software (I am a cheapskate...)?

Thanks in advance!
 
I

IcSyU

Well-Known Member
Nov 27, 2007
28,305
6,977
113
JBone84 said:
So I just brought home a new computer; nothing fancy, my wife and I will just use it for email/Internet and storing the family pictures.

What programs should I think about purchasing/downloading? I feel I am a pretty technologically savvy person, if that matters. Particularly, is there any good free antivirus software (I am a cheapskate...)?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Someone will recommend AVG....
 
1100011CS

1100011CS

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2007
16,125
5,845
113
Marshalltown
IcSyU said:
Someone will recommend AVG....
Click to expand...

I put AVG on one computer and Avast! on another to compare. So far, I can't say I like/dislike one more than the other. I'd also add SpywareBlaster.

As for necessary programs, if you don't already have M$ Office get OpenOffice (OpenOffice.org). I like Picasa for managing my pictures. You'll need Adobe Reader sooner or later. Oh, don't forget Firefox (or Opera or Chrome), anything but IE. I remove all shortcuts to IE so nobody in my family can find it.
 
cycoticfan

cycoticfan

Active Member
Dec 14, 2008
500
42
28
Johnston IA
I like Avast too. Also consider adding threatfire, a very nice intruder prevention piece, very affective against rootkits. It is designed to augment AV protection package. I also use trend protect, browser plugin that evaluates web sites/links for potential problems. Firewalls, I like comodo.
 
jumbopackage

jumbopackage

Well-Known Member
Sep 18, 2007
5,479
249
63
Mediamonkey for music.

VLC for playing videos/movies.

Miranda IM if you IM a lot on a bunch of different clients.

Firefox of course.
 
I

Iastfan112

Well-Known Member
Apr 14, 2006
4,010
1,308
113
1100011CS said:
I put AVG on one computer and Avast! on another to compare. So far, I can't say I like/dislike one more than the other. I'd also add SpywareBlaster.

As for necessary programs, if you don't already have M$ Office get OpenOffice (OpenOffice.org). I like Picasa for managing my pictures. You'll need Adobe Reader sooner or later. Oh, don't forget Firefox (or Opera or Chrome), anything but IE. I remove all shortcuts to IE so nobody in my family can find it.
Click to expand...

Pretty much all good suggestions in this post. I favor Avast! over AVG. Avast seems to be a little easier on computer speed while actively scanning and I think keeps my computer slightly cleaner bug wise(noticed a couple of malicious processes Avg missed).
Another good program is Ad-Aware for anti spyware.
 
B

bstegs

Active Member
SuperFanatic
Apr 11, 2006
769
148
43
Champaign, IL
MalwareBytes - catches the stuff that Ad-Aware and Spybot miss
Spybot - catches stuff that Ad-Aware misses
Ad-Aware
CCleaner
Defraggler
Recuva
Foxit Reader - light-weight replacement for Adobe Reader, no loss in functionality that I have seen
FireFTP - add-on to firefox that allows you to connect to FTP servers
Winamp - reasonably lightweight music player
Open Office
 
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