I’ve tried so many different disk burning tools that it took me quite a long time to find the replacement for my (very very old version of) Nero, which surely wasn’t free. And just when I found this replacement, I bought Dell Studio 1737 laptop and problems started again… ;) During my search I was looking for this functionality:

1. Burning standard formats like CD, CD RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW (option to burn double layer disks, DVD-RAM, Blu-ray and HD DVD would be just a plus)
2. Possibility to create disk copies and disk images (ISO files)
3. Burned data verification and buffer underrun protection
4. Ability to create multisession disks, audio, video and DVD disks
5. Friendly and easy-to-use interface, preferably with some wizard and support for different languages
6. Has to be free software

At the end, I put together following software list.

Ashampoo Burning Studio [UPDATE 15.3.2010]

Thanks to commenters Peter and Idaho I decided to add another software to the list. It is Ashampoo Burning Studio I was using in the past but left it due to couple of reasons. First, the free-to-download was just old version 6 and also the way how program works wasn’t really for me (I prefer more 2 pane view – both with file manager and CD/DVD view). That’s why the app didn’t even make it into the list …and also because I forgot about it.

But after the guys pointed me to free current version Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010, I decided to give it another try. And what a good move it was! The software is perfect. It offers everything I need, even overcomes my expectations with integration of audio CD ripper, file backup system, it’s free and works on my Dell laptop! What more can I ask for? So my current best choice for burning program is Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 (you need to get free serial number directly from Ashampoo website).

CDBurnerXP

Multilingual application CDBurnerXP complies all my criteria and even surprises with possibility to burn Blu-ray and HD DVD besides other standard formats. It creates also bootable disks, which I’ve never tried, though.

When creating audio CD, you can import several the most used audio file types and playlists and CDBurnerXP will take care of them. If you happen to have two disk drives, and insert audio CD into one of them, you can even add tracks from that disk to one you are creating in CDBurnerXP without previous audio ripping. Just add those CDA files to new compilation. Very cool feature.

Surely, you can create also video disk, which is basically just data disk with video file(s) ;) If you are wondering how to create DVD, here is the little tip on creating Video-DVD: There is no option to create video DVD disk directly from wizard appearing when program is started, so you have to choose to create data disk first and then go to File → DVD Video layout.

CDBurnerXP is capable of creating ISO disk image file from your CD or DVD, burning the ISO image and also converting BIN and NRG images into ISO format (again can be found in File menu).

The biggest minus for this program is that I can’t make it work with Dell Studio’s slot load DVD drive. That being said, it is possible CDBurnerXP might not work for some other drives either. Otherwise, this is almost perfect burning software. Download current version from CDBurnerXP website.

InfraRecorder

In my burning software list the open source community is represented by InfraRecorder. I can guarantee, this free program will nothing but totally impress you. Again, I was able to check my whole requirements list, so just few more words about its functions.

The program supports recording on dual (or double) layer DVD disks, burning ISO, CUE, IMG, BIN and RAW image filetypes, creating multisession disks, saving audio CD in WAV, WMA, OGG or MP3 (process called ripping), and, InfraRecorder is also available in portable version! Great, isn’t it?

By the way, when you see a smoke coming from burning progress window, don’t rush for extinguisher! I must admit I felt a bit uneasy when I first saw this nice effect. But it’s really just an effect. ;)

InfraRecorder (download it) is such a great software, equally like CDBurnerXP, or maybe a bit further because I can use it on a Dell Studio. Although I have some problems with it, mainly when burning rewritable media. But again, it can be related to my optical drive.

So, all those problems directed me to Spartan, but very functional last burning software in my list and my last chance to be able to burn something on Dell Sudio laptop – ImgBurn.

ImgBurn

Well, how to begin? Very carefully, but it needs to be brought to light …the application interface is not really suitable for normal, ordinary casual computer user. I’m not considering myself as normal computer user, despite I had a harsh time to understand what and how to do.

ImgBurn also doesn’t offer all the functionality compared to the programs I’ve mentioned before, but looking at its name, who would expect that? Indeed, what it does excellently is burning wide variety of different CD/DVD disk image types (BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG just to mention a few).

Actually, looking at the list of my requirements, ImgBurn just doesn’t have that friendly interface, doesn’t support multisession and can’t burn audio disk. Everything else works perfectly fine, though. And if you become familiar with the application you will find that it contains more advanced settings that any other burning software.

I definitely recommend this program especially when you deal with different types of CD or DVD images. But definitely as complement to some other burning software (I’m using InfraRecorder besides it currently). It’s completely free and also portable so go and get one.

Optical disk image handling programs

Special software category creates programs focused on work with disk image files. Namely virtual drives, which allows you to create illusional optical drive where you can mount a disk image and use it as it would be normal CD or DVD, and image file converters, used in case the burning software doesn’t support specific image format.

The easiest way to browse and use CD or DVD disk images without burning them on physical media is mounting them to virtual optical drives. A software providing this functionality can be MagicDisc or popular DAEMON Tools Lite.

When you find yourself stuck with DAA or UIF image files, you can try single-purpose converters DAA2ISO and UIF2ISO that convert those filetypes to standard ISO images which you can then burn or mount to virtual drive. You have to use them through command line but they both are easy to use and works great.

Last word

At the end it’s up to you which program you will choose to burn your CD and DVD disks and surely you will try other similar software and find similar software lists on internet, but believe me, you will end up with one of aforementioned burners when recording the pictures from New Year’s Eve party ;)

Windows slows down in time mostly due to fragmentation of files on harddrive (one file is stored in multiple fragments all around the harddrive which creates delays accessing it), unneeded applications starting immediately after system boots up (for example Adobe’s Reader) and mess in Windows registry (for example when uninstalled applications don’t remove their registry records and/or registry files get fragmented). In this article we will have a look at solutions for all of these problems in defragmentation, registry cleaning and defragmentation and startup tweaking programs.

CCleaner

Starting with all-in-one cleaning solution, Piriform’s CCleaner is one of the best software you can install on your computer. It is completely free, multilingual, provides complete cleaning of your system including internet applications and registry. Also you can find handy tools to uninstalling programs, restore your system and turn off or on certain applications at the startup, which will make your system ready faster.
CCleaner is very easy to use, basically everything is just matter of 1 or 2 clicks. Although it is very versatile, it can’t do defragmentation of your harddrive, nor system registry. Nevertheless, you definitely need one – download it now!

AutoRuns

Moving to application speeding up the start up and tweaking the system, AutoRuns is provided directly by Microsoft. It offers waste amount of settings that can scare user-beginner but you can still easily tweak startup by switching to “Logon” tab and ticking off or on different applications to be run when Windows starts. That way you can re-enable application you turned off accidentally before.
Great function of AutoRuns is also “Search Online…” that you can use to find more information about the process. Download AutoRuns from Microsoft website.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner

Registry Cleaner is just single-purpose application to clean registry with easy-to-use interface and possibility of choosing from quick or advanced scan. As it is specialized just to repair registry, you can consider it better than CCleaner for this job.
After cleaning your registry Auslogics Registry Cleaner will display also percentage of performance gain. If you’re looking for easy to use and good registry repair utility, you can try downloading Auslogics Registry Cleaner.

Glary Registry Repair

Another simple but powerful registry repair application is Registry Repair from Glarysoft. I prefer Auslogics’ one but it doesn’t really matters which one you choose as both are really good. Download Glary Registry Repair.

Quicksys RegDefrag

I found out that not just cleaning registry will boost the performance of your system, but more importantly registry defragmentation. Like any other file on harddrive also file (or files) containing Windows registry can be fragmented. Therefor it is very important to get rid of this fragmentation and allow Windows to work with registry more effectively.
It’s very difficult to find free registry defragmenting software, but I’ve done search for you and found this incredible little application, RegDefrag. Plus for this app – you don’t even need to install it when using portable version. Download it from Quicksys website.

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Disk Defrag from Auslogics is one of the fastest defragmenting tools I’ve ever seen. Multilingual, but Slovak or Czech language are missing. Offers also disk optimization, defragging single file or folder and scheduling defragmentation task.
Unfortunately I am not sure whether it defragments also Windows’ virtual memory paging file, but doubt it, as I’ve seen this function only in pay-for software. Download Auslogics defragmentation tool from their website (portable version available too). Interestingly, Auslogics offer screen saver version of their defragmentation tool called Disk Defrag Screen Saver.

Quicksys Disk Defrag

Another very good and neat application from Quicksys with the same name as previous defragging tool Disk Defrag. Still in beta version but looks very promising and I didn’t have any problems with it yet. Paging file defragmentation remains a question to me also for this program.
I’m sure you will be amazed about how easy it is to use and how beautiful the user interface is. Otherwise it offers the same functionality as Auslogics defragmenter (except specific file and folder defragmentation) and is also available in portable version. Download Quicksys Disk Defrag.

At the end, it’s up to you which one of these applications will you use but definitely I recommend installing at least CCleaner and one of defragmentation tools as Windows’ defragmenter is just not capable enough. Also use these apps regularly, lets say every 2 weeks.

See you around next time!

Tip: You can boost the performance of your Windows and save some more space on harddrive by setting up the size of virtual memory – paging file. Tutorial on how to do this in next article.

But wait, this is still not free…! Ok, ok, so, let’s get started revealing the answer to question: Can you really get free alternatives to graphics editing dinosaurs? And I mean free also for commercial use!

Inkscape

Starting with vector graphics, Inkscape is the best possible solution when you’ve got no money to buy Illustrator or CorelDRAW. With its interface more resembling CorelDRAW (or Xara Xtreme which is also free but just for Linux platform) it is very easy to use and you will learn basic functionality of the program very fast. Support for multiple platforms and languages makes it convenient application for everyone, which can be installed also on portable device like USB drive.

Native file format Inkscape uses is open SVG standard although the program can’t handle SVG animations or fonts. But you can also import Adobe Illustrator, CoreCRAW, AutoCAD, Windows metafiles, PDF, EPS and other file types including bitmap formats of course. Surely saving capabilities are not that wide and export offers PNG file format, which is sufficient enough.

As Inkscape is a vector graphic editor, you can create and manipulate all the basic shapes like rectangles, ellipses, polygons (stars) and text. Converting these objects to paths and subsequent editing possibility is a must for vector editor. Inkscape is also capable of creating more advanced objects with 3D cube, spiral, freehand or path tool. Gradients, patterns, extensive color spectrum (also using color palettes) can be used to fill drawn objects or their borders.

Objects on canvas can be transformed (moved, scaled, rotated), masked, clipped to other object, cloned, made transparent or aligned with each other or entire page. On vector objects you can do boolean operations. Working with layers is a matter of fact and, to make it even better, Inkscape also includes large collection of filters and extensions.

The major drawback for this incredible application is its print capability which is way far from being perfect. I personally deal with it by printing program’s exports.

Inkscape is my favorite graphics application and I’m using it almost for everything, including webdesign. You can download it in fresh new 0.47 version from www.inkscape.org.

GIMP

Probably the best free raster graphics editor currently is GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program). Unlike with Inkscape, even untrained eye can immediately see that 3-windowed user interface of GIMP is completely different compared to its proprietary counterpart Photoshop, and therefor you will need some time to get used to the application. The same like Inkscape, this program is multi-platform and multi-lingual and exists in portable version too.

GIMP is suitable for every photographer or graphic designer looking for retouching photos, creating photo collages, drawing new pictures or putting together website layouts, for example. Wide variety of selection tools and also very basic (compared to Photoshop) path tools let you apply any filter effect or other changes to areas on multiple or single layer. You can widen possibilities of GIMP with plug-ins and extensions, or installing new brushes, even Photoshop ones. One of the greatest packs of GIMP extensions is GIMP Paint Studio.

The application supports loading and saving to large number of different file formats (including Corel Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop images, ICO Windows icon images, SVG files), although GIMP’s native format is XCF. You can also create animated GIF pictures. Imported can be Adobe PDF documents and even raw digital camera’s image formats. Just to mention an interesting feature, using specialized plug-in it is possible to export the picture in ASCII Art – image representation in text characters.

Surely also this application has its dark side, which in this case is impossibility of CMYK and color management essential for professional prepress work. Also learning curve of GIMP is not very steep, but because it is the most popular free graphics editor, you will have no problem to buy an instructional book about the program or, thanks to large community around the application, find the solutions on Internet.

All in all I recommend this program for every home photo enthusiast. Grab it from www.gimp.org.

Paint.NET

Although Paint.NET is very neat free application suitable for beginners, it lacks functionality standing next to GIMP. Despite of this it is really powerful and easy to use tool capable of working with layers, transparency, filters and plug-ins. As the name suggest you will definitely need Microsoft’s .NET framework to run the program.

I’m sorry, but can’t say much about this software as I haven’t used it for a long long time, but it was OK for me when I was starting. You can find useful instructions on different issues on program’s wiki site so better try and decide yourself whether it’s what your heart aches for. Download Paint.NET.

MyPaint

Just to finalize image creation software I need to mention also one for real artists out there. You will agree with me that Windows’ Painter is as simple as it gets, but when you love drawing, you have to look for something else for your computer. Here is open source application called MyPaint which greatly satisfies your needs. It simulates real painting tools and also different paper backgrounds so you won’t be limited in any way. There are more good replacements for Windows Painter (like for example ArtRage Starter Edition), but you can’t go wrong with MyPaint so try and download it first. :)

Can you really get free alternative to Photoshop or Illustrator?

“GIMP does not aim to replicate Photoshop”, that’s what GIMP maintainers say. And that’s the truth basically. If you really need professional tool, you won’t get it for free. But there is a question whether you REALLY need a professional tool for big money… Too many people say they have to buy (or get other way…) Photoshop or Illustrator but when questioned what for, they describe their needs for functionality that aforementioned applications are easily capable of. And in many cases even far behind. My definite advice is to try free software solutions first and if you find something the application can’t do, go on and crash pour piggy bank!

What is your experience with commercial graphics tools and their free or open source alternatives? Leave comments…

DirectX is a collection of Microsoft’s application programming interfaces (APIs) handling multimedia tasks in Windows (for example sound, video, 3D graphics). If you’ve ever played modern computer game, you probably know how important DirectX is. Since Windows Vista, DirectX is included directly in the operating system. For more information about DirectX visit Microsoft’s website.

Open-source world has its own “DirectX” called OpenGL, which is cross-platform (opposed to DirectX) API for 2D and 3D graphics.

.NET Framework

Microsoft’s .NET Framework (also known as Dot NET) is need to run programs written specifically for it and as most new applications are built on .NET Framework, it is essential for all Windows users. Again, since Windows Vista it should be included in operating system, so you don’t have to worry about it, however for the current version visit the website.

Flash Player and Silverlight

Obviously you will need Adobe Flash Player mainly for browsing Internet. Whether you visit YouTube with tons of Flash videos, a website built as Flash presentation, want to play on-line Flash games or just simply to watch those beautifully annoying multimedia adds, you definitely need industry standard Flash Player.

Similarly there is a new technology from Microsoft called Silverlight. Works as Flash but it’s not being as widely used yet. I haven’t came across Silverlight animations and presentations anywhere else except Microsoft’s websites, so I suggest to reconsider its installation. I personally don’t have it installed and anyway, if website needs Silverlight, it will ask for the plug-in.

Java Runtime Environment (JRE)

If you are using applications or visiting websites (could be also your company’s on-line web application) written with help of Sun Microsystems’ Java programming language, you will definitely need Java Runtime Environment (JRE). It is provided free of charge (as other libraries and plug-ins in this article) and I would recommend installing it – you would be surprised how many applications need JRE to run.

We came to the end of the article and next time I will show you a great free advanced graphics editors. Yes, I will talk about Photoshop and Illustrator alternatives!

This is my choice for picture viewer and organizer. FastStone Image Viewer is simple and powerful program available for Windows and, what is just a plus, also as portable application. It supports all major graphics formats and is able to create impressive slideshow from your photo collection.

FastStone offers basic editing functionality as red eye removing, resizing, cropping, correcting colors, drawing into picture, applying picture frames, rotating, even screen capturing and you can do most (like for example resizing) changes in batch mode on several pictures at a time which allows you also to rename the pictures and change their format.

Simple interface, possibility to edit default settings, image smoothing, multilingual support and very intuitive control makes FastStone Image Viewer a must. You can download recent version from www.faststone.org.

Photoscape

Simple image viewer and editor for people who love to play with pictures could easily be just Photoscape. At first it impress you with its unconventional main screen and tabbed interface, but what is under the facade is even more impressive.

Besides all the functionality similar to FastStone including multilingual support, it offers cool features like round cropping, facial recognition, picture combining, applying several different filters, and creating animated GIF pictures!

For more information and download page visit www.photoscape.org.

Google Picasa

Unfortunately, I haven’t had much experience with Google’s cross-platform image viewing and editing application Picasa but as it is quite popular, it is worth of giving it a try and decide yourself. First of all it looks absolutely beautifully, elegantly and cool (although it’s maybe “too much” for me already…). Besides similar functionality as two previously mentioned applications, surely, Picasa allows you to upload pictures to Picasa Web Albums if you have Google account and share them on the Internet with others. Obvious quality feature is image search – don’t forget it’s Google’s software ;)

Picasa is completely free and if you are interested or curious, download the program from picasa.google.com.

XnView

XnView is multilingual, cross-platform, popular, free image (and video) viewer, organizer and editor that supports huge amount of different image formats (reads more that 400 formats and saves in more than 50 formats). In fact this makes him stand up among competition. If you don’t like how XnView looks out of the box (like me), you might customize it and apply different skin. From basic editing functions to advanced filters and effects application there is almost nothing you can’t do with your pictures in this program.

If you prefer functionality against the look, download XnView from www.xnview.com.

That’s all from image viewers I consider worth of trying. If you have found or are using other free programs, don’t hesitate to write about them in comments!

Start with – for many people mysterious – codecs. These coder-decoder programs take care about decoding (or encoding) all those different media file types out there. Codecs are fundamental to playback of your multimedia files. They are usually included with good multimedia player software (and more codecs a player has, the more different multimedia files it can handle) or it is possible to download them in a codec pack or separately.

So, if you’ve ever wondered why you can’t watch certain videos on your computer but your friend’s machine plays them perfectly, all the magic can be just in codecs your friend has installed. I recommend using codec packs as they will install all codecs you will ever need (but also the ones you will never use) and prevent you from searching the new specific codec each time you are unable to play back some multimedia file. I was using All In 1 and K-Lite Codec Pack which were very good but every now and then I needed to play some strange file format that these codecs couldn’t handle.

Rescue came with CCCP codec pack which is great piece of software. Since I got it, I haven’t had a problem with playback or creation of any multimedia file. I definitely recommend visiting CCCP (website) and download the codec pack! Also download QuickTime Alternative to play back QuickTime files (.mov, .3gp, …) without having to install the official Apple’s QuickTime Player.

But now, lets talk about players finally…

Audio player

AIMP player

Searching for the best audio player and not wanting to use resource hungry Winamp? AIMP player is for you. This little application is pure genius you can use for playback of audio files and CDs, ripping audio CDs (making .mp3 files (and other) from your CD collection), conversion between different audio formats, editing ID tags of MP3 files or recording from microphone.

AIMP audio player

Intuitive interface and keyboard control, 18-band equalizer, sound effects, support for different playlist formats, recording online radio, multilingual support, customizable skins, simple minimized version of the player… all that and for free!

You can’t go wrong with AIMP installed on you computer!

Video and DVD players

The KMPlayer

Video, DVD and audio player – that’s a short description of The KMPlayer (don’t confuse it with KMPlayer for Linux). Simply a complete multimedia player. If you don’t need advanced audio playback, this can be the only multimedia player you will use. I actually used it that way for some time, but as I need to play back my recorded material which is in better audio quality format than usual audio files, I left audio playback for AIMP and set up The KMPlayer to take care just about video files.

But for video playback I am using exclusively The KMPlayer as it handles everything I throw at it. There is no problem for the player with displaying subtitles, playing back damaged AVI videos, making screenshots from video, applying audio and video effects, changing playback speed, looping sections of videos, using remote or keyboard control, changing skin of the application and many others due to extensive possibility of configuration. And, of course, it supports a lot of different video and audio formats.

KMPlayer

Visit The KMPlayer’s homepage and download this amazing program.

Just to mention an alternative to The KMPlayer, you can use fantastic open-source cross-platform application called VLC media player which doesn’t look that nice out of the box, but you can always change it by applying different skins.

Miro

The last amazing multimedia player I’d like to tell you about is Miro. The difference here is that Miro is Internet television application and I doubt anybody uses it for standard multimedia playback as it is really huge (for multimedia player) and resource eater.

Miro offers large amount of video and audio RSS channels divided to different categories. You just simply find the channel you are interested in and subscribe to it. Miro will download new videos from the channel as soon as they are available. Don’t have to remember you need Internet connection, do I? The videos will be deleted from your computer after some time if you don’t choose otherwise.

Miro Internet television

Miro is completely free and can be installed also on Mac or Linux. Just grab it and try it out.

That’s all for today, next time we will have a look at free picture viewers and organizers.

Avira AntiVir Personal

Avira AntiVir is a must for every home user! It is completely free for personal use and is the best anti-virus software that you can get without breaking your piggy bank. What’s more, this will be probably your one-stop solution for everything, as the application also scans and removes adware, spyware, fraudulent software and other harmful stuff.

The combination of anti-virus and anti-spyware in a free application is very rare alone, but Avira doesn’t stop there. The program also includes scheduler, where you can set up automatic scans or updates, and realtime protection. So when you are trying to access a harmful file, Avira will alarm you immediately. What I use the most is scanning the files after downloading to make sure they are OK. Just right click on the file or folder and choose  ”Scan selected files with AntiVir” from the context menu.

Although during the installation process Avira runs setup wizard, it is always a good idea to have a look at its configuration and make some more changes (also set the heuristic to high level). For example, you can set up how Avira should scan archive files like ZIP or RAR. Software will generate a report after every operation so you can check how the operation went and if it failed, what the reason was.

Avira AntiVir Personal

The hold-back for Avira, as they say, could be the fact that it has a lot of false positive searches (it thinks some files contain a virus even if they are completely harmless). I had a problem with false positive alert just twice as far as I am aware and other than that I’ve had no issues with Avira and the most important I’ve had no virus since I’ve been using the software. Another thing you have to accept in the free version of Avira is advertisement that’s displayed every time the update runs, but just press OK button or close the window and the ad is gone.

Download Avira AntiVir

Spybot – Search & Destroy

This is pretty old software and probably there are already better solutions for removing spyware, but Spybot has never disappointed me. I’ve been using this program since 2005 and have tried many other spyware removal software since but still came back to Spybot. Although my main anti-spyware app these days is Avira AntiVir, I still have Spybot installed and run its scan from time to time.

Windows already contains Windows Defender to remove spyware but I still find Spybot a better tool for this job. It is freeware but again just for personal use as corporate users need to purchase a yearly license.

Spybot - Search & Destroy

Spybot-S&D can remove spyware, repair registry, cookies, rootkits, keyloggers, trojans, spybots and other malware. It includes an Immunize feature to block the installation of spyware before it occurs. TeaTimer module inside Spybot provides realtime protection to Windows registry (although it may become quite annoying with its pop-up alerts when you are installing new software).

Detection database updates are released weekly along with other improvements such as added language support and better heuristics algorithms. This application is not meant to replace anti-virus software, rather supplement it. Note that when you install several anti-spyware applications on your computer there might be a compatibility issue with Spybot. I have had a fight between Spybot and Ad-Aware already and needed to uninstall one of them – I kept Spybot…

Download Spybot – Search & Destroy

Ad-Aware Free

Ad-Aware from Lavasoft is yet another very good anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, anti-malware software with realtime protection that you can download (also) for free for non-commercial use. Ad-Aware Free is quite popular with over 400 million downloads. Its current version doesn’t contain anti-virus, as opposed paid Ad-Aware Pro, Plus and Business versions (by the way, the anti-virus is built up on Avira engine) but Lavasoft plans to include one in early 2010 release.

Ad-Aware Free

Updates of detection database are automated, so you don’t have to worry about them. Minimal system resources hunger doesn’t slow your computer down either. The free version is supported again by advertisements displaying on the screen.

Download Ad-Aware Free

These three programs I wrote about are essentials I think. Surely, if you have different opinion or know better software than mentioned, write about it in a comment! See you around again!

Opera

Opera is the best webbrowser you can find I think. With every new major release it arrives with some innovations that other browsers “copy” than. Despite this, Opera is used just by 1.62% of people browsing Internet (Wikipedia statistics for August 2009). Asking why? I think a huge part plays the fact that Opera was proprietary software in the past and changed its way completely to free application just in 2005 with version 8.5. At that time Firefox was already gaining more and more popularity. I use Opera as my main browser since version 9 or so and never had a thought of switching to something else (even after trying other browsers).

But let’s talk about features Opera offers. Tabbed browsing and pop-up blocker are must in modern times, but Opera includes also its own RSS reader (you can read RSS feeds directly in the browser), e-mail and IRC chat client (yes, Opera has integrated Opera Mail and also chat client), BitTorrent client (I keep it disabled as I want to use external one) and download manager (will continue downloading when interrupted).

Visiting your favorite websites is easy with Speed Dial function and navigating couldn’t be easier with use of one-key shortcuts (like for example “z” for previous and “x” for next website) and mouse gestures (no need for touching a keyboard when browsing sites). I wasn’t using mouse gestures for very long time, thought it is just a fancy useless feature, but found out last couple of months that it is sooo cool and sooo easy everybody can get used to it quickly.

Of course Opera supports all current standards and doesn’t have a problem even with Acit3 test. Beside all of this it looks great and you can even install skins and widen features with widgets. Handy panels on the left side of the screen can contain everything you need. There is also portable version of Opera to take it anywhere on your USB flash drive, or Opera is available for mobile devices too.

Download English or international current version 10 of Opera from its homepage (available for different platforms too).

Firefox

The most popular alternative browser (meaning alternative to Windows’ native Internet Explorer) is free and open source multi-platform Mozilla Firefox. It has 25.69% share as of August 2009 according to Wikipedia.

I was using Firefox before I found Opera. It is great and fast webbrowser but missing a lot of functions “right out of the box” I found very handy (like Speed Dial or mouse gestures). Definite plus for this browser is ability to install add-ons like skins (themes) or plug-ins. And there is myriad of add-ons for Firefox.

Firefox contains features like tabbed browsing, download manager, improved phrase searching, private browsing, RSS reader. Other features can be implemented, as I’ve already mentioned, by add-ons.

Although Firefox loves web standards and supports even the newest ones that are just in development, it passes the Acid2 test from Firefox version 3.0 but does not pass the Acid3 test (link earlier in the article).

Download current version 3.5.3 from Firefox homepage. You can find also portable Firefox and take it anywhere on your USB flash drive.

Chrome

Google’s great webbrowser is the youngest member of this family. Although Chrome was first released in December 2008, these days you can download already its 3rd version. Google itself offers huge advertising space and this definitely helped Chrome to become 4th most popular webbrowser with 2.84% share. Unfortunately original Chrome is not multi-platform application yet but developers are working on versions for Linux and Mac OS X. (UPDATE 17. Dec 2009: You can download also Mac and Linux versions already.)

This is small, fast, standards loving and neat browser with minimalistic user interface that focuses on browsing experience. Chrome’s address bar is also search bar. So no need to open Google in another tab or type your request to special field, just input the phrase directly into address bar and Chrome will search Google for it immediately. Tabbed browsing (tabs are located at the top of the window, in titlebar), pop-up blocker, most visited sites view (similar to Speed Dial) and secure browsing, all can be found in Chrome.

UPDATE 17. Dec 2009: Nowadays there is even possibility to extend Chrome with different add-ons.

Since current version 3, Chrome offers skinable interface and passes Acid3 test. Download Chrome from its website or I’m sure you can easily Google it ;)

Safari

Want an Apple bite thrown to your Window(s)? Try Safari – beautiful, great, function-rich browser from Apple. Originally developed just for Mac OS X but since the mid 2007 available also for Windows users. With its 3.74% of usage share (August 2009) is the third most used webbrowser.

Safari offers tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, spell checker, RSS reader, top sites view (this is really beautiful, as is browsing the history of visited sites), download manager, font-smoothing and private browsing. Also this browser loves web standards and supports many of new features, passes Acid3 browsers test.

Download Safari from Apple’s website.

Internet Explorer

Oh my God, what to say about this? Actually, if I speak about current Internet Explorer 8, it is pretty OK. Just don’t use previous versions and I would suggest really to use IE (in general) just when you don’t have other choice or you need to – like for example at work because company’s applications are adapted best to work with IE…

Internet Explorer would be probably dead by now if it wasn’t integrated into the most used operating system – Windows. And we need to blame Microsoft and its Windows for fact that IE is the most used webbrowser with 65.29% (all versions that are in use) share in August 2009. Incredible number considering that this browser lives its own life outside web standards.

But to say something positive, Internet Explorer 8 supports web standards a way better than previous versions. Finally it supports whole CSS 2.1 and passes Acid2 test. Lemmonaid.info uses some features of CSS 3 which Internet Explorer users can’t see.

Among features of IE8 you can find tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, phishing filter, private browsing, Accelerators (speed up actions with web content, like passing selected phrase to search engine, translate it (have look at screenshots of right-click menu for other browsers)), Web Slices (snippets of pages in Favorites bar).

If despite of all the other superb browsers you would like to use Internet Explorer, install it through Windows Update or download from Microsoft’s website.

Conclusion

So what browser to choose? It’s simple:

• If you want functions and peace of mind, go for Opera. (Although, in rare cases, you can have problems with websites specifically designed for Internet Explorer and Firefox, like for example internet banking sites.)
• If you want simplicity with possibility of extending in the future, go for Chrome or Firefox.
• If you want functions with a touch of Apple, go for Safari.
• Don’t go for Internet Explorer ;) Really, use IE just when you need to. It’s slow development tempo pushes it far behind other browsers.