Right at the beginning I need to say that OpenOffice.org, the free office application pack similar to MS Office, is far from perfection. So if you need to edit and create complicated, feature rich MS Office documents, you need to buy one of its versions. But for everybody creating simple tables, charts, writing CVs, office and other letters, simply said for ordinary casual users and small companies, the OpenOffice.org is a perfect choice. The biggest advantage of this software is its (partial) compatibility with MS Office file formats.

The package of OpenOffice.org applications contains Writer – the word processor, Calc – spreadsheet similar to MS Excel, Impress for creating presentations, Base for database management, a vector graphics editor Draw and a tool to create mathematical formulas called Math.  Natively OOo works with open document formats (.odt – text file, .ods – spreadsheet file, .odp – presentations, .odb – databases, .svg – vector graphics) but as I said, it can read and edit most of the MS Office file formats – both pre-Office 2007 (like .doc or .xls) and current ones (.docx, .xlsx). So be careful when saving your document and sending it to your colleague or friend. Default saving format is surely open document format, which I would suggest to use all the time, but when resending the document, save it also in .doc, .xls or any other MS Office file type.

Very good feature of OpenOffice.org is the possibility to extend its functionality with add-ons and plug-ins and possibility to export to PDF file format. In terms of looks it stays behind the current versions of MS Office and its ribbon interface and keeps the standard toolbar one which, on the other hand, can be just advantageous for many users.

Because OOo is open-source software, it is completely free to download (from OpenOffice.org website) and use and is available in several languages for several different operating systems.

Don’t overlook! – If you want to get the newest version of MS Office (the 2010 release) for free, you can still download a beta test version from Microsoft website. Unfortunately I don’t know for how long this version is available, neither for how long you can use it, but for now I wouldn’t wait a second to download it.

Foxit Reader

As I’ve mentioned PDF file format already, every office and every computer user needs some application to open such files. Probably there is Adobe Reader preinstalled on your computer but in case you are not satisfied with its speed (not sure what is the situation with Adobe Reader’s speed these days, but previous versions were disasters…) or for any other reason, there is a great little replacement called Foxit Reader. Its current version can be downloaded for free from www.foxitsoftware.com.

PDF Creator

If you’ve ever wondered how to create a PDF files without buying Adobe Acrobat, I have a good news for you. There are many free applications that work like virtual printers outputting any file sent to print in PDF format. Yes, you will be able to “print” any document into PDF. I’ve tried many of such PDF printers, but definitely the best one in terms of document quality to output file size ratio is PDF Creator. A definite must, so download the current version from PDFForge website.

Calendar application

Every office needs some kind of organizer application. In Microsoft Office suite this position occupies MS Outlook with integrated calendar. If you want to have similar integration, use a calendar extension for Thunderbird email client called Lightning which I’ve described in previous article. In case of need of separate calendar program, I suggest to use Mozilla Sunbird which is available for different platforms and in different languages and is completely free of charge.

Scribus

Finally we’ve managed to get to DeskTop Publishing (DTP) software represented in this list by open-source application called Scribus. This tool lets you create brochures, posters, newsletters, newspapers, leaflets and books, so has similar usage as its paid counterparts like Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Publisher or QuarkXPress. Scribus supports CMYK and ICC color management, several image formats, TrueType and OpenType fonts, PDF file format and prints using internal PostScript driver. Unfortunately, it can’t open files created in mentioned commercial competitors and saves documents in SLA format. Advantage of this program is multiplatformity and multilingual support.

Download Scribus to try it out!

Starting with e-mails, for long time I was using web-based e-mail services including great Gmail. But it became kind of difficult to maintain several different e-mail boxes so I started looking for solution more similar to Microsoft’s Outlook. After trying several e-mail client applications I found the best to be Thunderbird from Mozilla, creators of Firefox web-browser.

Browsing e-mails in Thunderbird

Thunderbird offers everything I need. Setting up multiple e-mail accounts was a breeze, working with and managing emails is flawless, searching feature was pushed to another level since version 3 release. The application really looks and feels good and if you find some functionality missing, there is most likely an add-on for it. Like, for example, a calendar add-on I can’t be without – Lightning (which is Mozilla Sunbird ported into Thunderbird) and Google Calendar integration.

Calendar add-on for Thunderbird

So everything related to e-mails and calendar under one roof – perfect. You can get Thunderbird free of charge from Mozilla’s website.

Gmail Notifier

If you, for example, still prefer accessing your e-mail account using web-browser and happen to use (the best) Gmail, a little application called Gmail Notifier can alert you about new e-mail messages without being logged into the service right at the time.

Skype

Moving from e-mails to Internet telephony, or often referred as VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) applications. Probably the best one, most popular (over 21 million people were using Skype at time the screenshot was taken…) and known is Skype. Offers free Internet phone calls, video calls and chatting for registered users, even with possibility of conference and cheaper (not completely free) calls to land-line or mobile numbers. An advantage for Skype is its multilingual interface with wide range of languages to choose from. The newest version supporting HD video calls can be downloaded from www.skype.com.

Skype communicator

Google Talk

Like its name suggests, this app is suitable for owners of Google account (although I have never used it…). Google Talk is instant messaging, VOIP and video communication program that is easy to manipulate and looks pretty indeed. Download Google Talk

Pidgin

Complete instant messaging client in this article is represented with open-source program mostly known from Linux platform called Pidgin. The program supports majority of main instant messaging protocols including AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, Bonjour, MSN, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu and others. Except standard chatting feature it can transfer files, communicate with a number of different users at a time, and current version integrates even voice and video conversation possibilities. If you want to give Pidgin a try, download it from www.pidgin.im.

Starting with file management tools, I will introduce 2 programs to you using two-pane user interface (split horizontally or vertically), which I consider the best choice. Too many common computer users are prejudiced against two-pane file managers. They are used to Windows Explorer way too much. Maybe it will take a while to get used to double interface, but I assure you, the workflow is much faster using such system. You don’t need to open 2 windows to copy file from one location to another, like it is the case with Windows Explorer. In these 2 applications you have everything on hand.

FreeCommander

The best free file manager in my opinion is multilingual FreeCommander, which is capable of replacing both Windows Explorer and Total Commander (I was using TC before). Besides standard features like displaying the content in several ways (tree view, details, list, thumbnails), copying, moving, renaming, deleting, creating, searching, editing and viewing files and folders, it contains archives management (compression and decompression of archive files), can split large files, create MD5 file size checksum, compare and synchronize folders, batch rename files, create desktop snapshots, run command line, or connect to FTP accounts.

FreeCommander file manager

The only big disadvantage of FreeCommander (shakes the hand with Total Commander) in current 64bit operating systems world is its insufficient integration with such systems. Surely the cause is application’s 32bit architecture which can’t display complete context menus under 64bit Windows. That is really big minus for me, but I’m waiting patiently for 64bit release. Meanwhile I’m using different program…

Compressing a file in FreeCommander

Windows Double Explorer

The application with full 64bit operating system integration is Windows Double Explorer (WDE). Unfortunately, I could just wish it was as good as FreeCommander, but it performs the tasks much better then Windows Explorer. Windows Double Explorer is also two-pane file manager with one great feature: you can open several tabs of content in each pane. It basically combines two (or more) Windows Explorers in one window and add some features. This being said, it can manipulate with Libraries in Windows 7, which is great and definitely something FreeCommander can’t do.

Windows Double Explorer file manager

The Windows Double Explorer should work just with Windows 7 (haven’t tried with Vista, on XP it doesn’t work), is still in beta version these days (but I haven’t had a problem using it) and can be downloaded from its website.

Archiving tools (compression and decompression)

If you download something from internet, most probably it will be packed, compressed and compacted in one archive file. Windows can handle a basic archive file types like ZIP with no problem. But what to do when it comes to RAR, TAR, GZIP, 7Z, CAB and others? Solution is simple – install one of the applications bellow, which can be used also on USB flash drives as portable programs.

7-Zip

One of the best compression tools I’ve ever tried, but certainly not very attractive, is open-source 7-Zip. On the other hand, you won’t see him that often and not for long, so if it does the job, why not? And really, 7-Zip does its job perfectly. It even compress to its native special format 7Z which is 30-50% more efficient than ZIP that can be compressed with this tool better than with any other archiving tools. Compression/decompression times are pretty low and the program creates encrypted, password protected archives too. Creation of self-extracting files, splitting the archive into several pieces and integration in Windows Explorer context menu are standard functions I demand.

7-Zip windows and context menu integration

7-Zip handles packing and unpacking of 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR file types and decompression of RAR, ISO, ARJ, CAB, DEB, DMG files, just to mention a few.

Download 7-Zip

IZArc

IZArc is another great multilingual archiver which copes with the same functions as 7-Zip and adds archives repairing and disk image conversion. The visage is not much better though (can be improved with skins), nor the speed, but it supports a huge amount of several archive file formats, including 7Z and disk images like ISO, NRG, BIN, CDI, IMG. IZArc can really be your only archiving program, so don’t waste the time and download it.

IZArc and its integration in context menu

PeaZip

The last application I mention in this article is PeaZip (download link), the open-source archiver and file manager. It is the prettiest one from all the archivers I’ve ever seen (except maybe its icon). Natively uses its own PEA file format, but supports huge number of different archives with 7Z and RAR among them. Features includes archive conversion, splitting, comparison, encryption, creation of checksums, password file protection and integration with Explorer’s context menu. The only disadvantage is a bit longer procesing time of archive files.

PeaZip and context menu integration

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!