Comodo Personal Firewall | Melvin's Inquisitive Mind

11 Must-Have software for your new laptop (Dubai Edition)

[tweetmeme] Quite a few of my friends ask me about “Antivirus” software, Proxies etc I always try to tell them about what you can use legitimately. Of course there are those who use pirated versions of software, lets admit it, everyone has used pirated software at some time or the other; including yours truly. Through the years the drive for open source software and “free” versions has been on the rise and I have switched, from Open Office to AVG here are 10 awesome software that you must have for your new laptops.

1. PC – Decrapifier

Your new laptop comes with numerous trial version softwares pre-installed, whose icons will be found littered on the fresh desktop that you boot into. This is the best time to get rid of all those pre-installed bloatwares and install something useful. So head to PC Decrapifier to download a version for our computer. Its free for personal use.

Simply download the file and run the EXE. There is no installer. If you have anti-virus software installed, it may complain about this program because it is written with a scripting language. These warnings can be safely ignored. The fact that you can download and run it means that it can be used as a portable software as well.

Website : http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

2. AVG Free Antivirus

An antivirus is a must for every computer, especially these days where a lot of us are online almost all the time. If not careful, we might accidentally open a virus without knowledge and need something to fix it. Like they say, precaution is better than cure. It is definitely better to get an Anti Virus that will protect you before something else happens.

Laptops usually come with a trial version of an anti virus and they expect you to buy the software after the trial version. The trial versions are not the ones we need cos they tend to be very bloated in a while. OK, AVG antivirus, download the copy from avg.com and then you can use a fully functional free antivirus.

There are other options available online for you, I mean think of avira, avast etc. AVG is something that I found good and use on my home laptops (yes I have 2)

Website: http://free.avg.com/

3. Comodo Personal Firewall

Comodo has merged its antivirus program with Firewall Pro, creating a free security program that aims to be more to more people. Although this may frustrate some users who want only one program or the other, the installer does let you opt out of either of the components. Users are also asked to install the Comodo SafeSearch and Ask.com toolbars, so be careful if you tend to install on autopilot. CIS requires a reboot.

It has a great user (newbie) friendly user interface, detects a large number of legitimate programs (like Firefox and Internet Explorer) automatically allowing them to access internet without bugging you with questions, detects malicious programs trying to impersonate as legitimate programs, kills them and provide great peace of mind.

Website: http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/

4. 7Z File Archiver

Sometime back I was completely used to WinRAR for all file compression requirements that I had. It can take care of most formats and is great when you create archives. Well then I came aross 7 Zip, Open Source and free software, this is unbelievable and fast in working especially zip and rar formats.

If you have been used to winrar or the compressed folder in windows, this is for you for sure. 7-Zip is fine for casual users with a bit of computer savvy, but it’s especially well-suited for developers and anyone else who moves between the Windows and Linux/Unix worlds.

Website : http://www.7-zip.org/

5. Web Browser

The web browser is arguably the most important piece of software on your computer. You spend much of your time online inside a browser: When you search, chat, email, shop, bank, read the news, and watch videos online, you often do all this using a browser. In this I would say, anything but Internet Explorer. But, as I am putting a list together of great Must Have software, I will mark down my present browser for Awesome. Yes, Its Google Chrome.

Chrome is designed to be fast in every possible way: It’s quick to start up from your desktop, loads web pages in a snap, and runs complex web applications fast. Chrome’s browser window is streamlined, clean and simple. Chrome also includes features that are designed for efficiency and ease of use. Chrome is designed to keep you safer and more secure on the web with built-in malware and phishing protection, autoupdates to make sure the browser is up-to-date with the latest security updates, and more.

Website : http://www.google.com/chrome

6. VLC Media Player

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac …) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols. See the full features list. It can also be used as a media converter or a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks.

At about 8.5 Downloads a second there is very little I need to talk about its popularity and its usability. Try it for yourself. Its my favorite.

Website : http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

7. Open Office.org

Open Office is an alternative for the “Omni Present” Microsoft Office. It might not have the awesome ribbon, or even the presence everywhere. But its more closer to the Microsoft Office 2003 version. Giving you not only the standard features of the Office package, but also saving in the Microsoft Excel versions.

It features alternative versions of Word called Writer, Excel called Calc, Powerpoint called Presenter. With all these awesome features like save to PDF etc, these features of the software make it interesting as well as a must-have.

Website : http://www.openoffice.org/

8. SongBird

It used to be Winamp with its simple interface and cool plugins. But now the definate awesome music player come organizer is now Songbird from the same guys that bought us Firefox.

Songbird is a great music manager and player. With ability to play a large number of audio formats,smart playlists, ability to edit audio meta data, one-click album art grabber and integration with last.fm, Insound.com and HypeMachine, Songbird is surely bound to become an iTunes killer. It’s based on the Mozilla XULRunner platform and hence like Firefox can be extended via addons and can be themed to your heart’s content.

Website : http://www.getsongbird.com/

9. Paint.net

Paint.net started out to be an alternative to Microsoft Paint, but has become so much more. Ofcourse the avid computer users will tell me that Gimp is an awesome Image editor which is better than paint.net. But definitely more than being just an alternative for MS Paint. You can do a lot of functions of standard Image editing tools.

Its on my list as a great small tool for the easy to use Image Editors. I think its better than a lot of Image Editors as an alternative solution that the crap that Microsoft Bundled and little lesser than the heavily bloated Photoshop / Gimp.

Website : http://www.getpaint.net/

10. Everything Google

Beginning with Google Search for the Desktop to Sketch Up and Google Earth. The Search giant has hoards of software that make your life entertaining and also interesting. Well, here is a list of all software that Google is providing for free.

The pack includes awesome software like, Google Chrome, Skype, Google Earth, Google Toolbar, Picassa, Google Talk, Google Desktop and others. Check it for yourself.

Website : http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html

11. OpenVPN

This software is the only one here that makes the list a “Dubai Version”. There is a lot of Internet censorship in Dubai, and everyone is looking for a software that can break the shackles of the censorship. UltraVPN is a free VPN that hides your connection from unwanted ears and allows you to use blocked application. Traffic is quota is unlimited. Bandwidth is up to 500Ko/s depending on network conditions.