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Useful Windows Stuff Everyone Should Have

Reposting this useful list of programs for a friend, and others. These programs are listed in order of importance.

Note: I always install Zone Alarm (the free version) FIRST, before I install ANYTHING else. Do this BEFORE you start patching WinXP or Win2k or else you might as well hang a “TROJAN ME!” sign on your PC when you connect to the net. If possible, install ZoneAlarm BEFORE you connect to the net. I personally keep a CD-R with ZoneAlarm on it for just such occaisions. Yes, I know WinXP has it’s own Firewall now, but it doesn’t get turned on by default in the base installation(which means you could get trojaned before you ever manage to get SP2 installed) and in my opinion it is not nearly as good as ZoneAlarm anyway, so ditch it and use ZA instead.

One other note. Be VERY wary of installing free programs that are not GPL’d or similarly Open Source licensed. The below programs are mostly Open Source and Open Source products almost never contain spyware (note, some below are NOT OS). Free products that are NOT OS need to be looked at pretty carefully to make sure they aren’t loading spyware on your PC. Microsoft’s Beta Spyware checker will help with this, but it is not perfect, so be wary. To the best of my knowledge, none of the programs listed below installs any spyware.

Zone Alarm: The best free firewall for Windoze. Stops both incoming attacks as well as making sure you know what programs are trying to talk to the Internet without your permission.

AVG – This is the consensus best free Anti-virus tool on the web. It is probably not quite as good as Norton and McAfee, but it is darn close, PLUS it is free (as in beer, not as in speech).

Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta: This is a beta anti-spyware tool that runs on XP and Win2k from Microsoft. Install it and run it. It will autocheck for spyware everynight if you keep it’s defaults settings. It is not perfect, but it is better than nothing to help hold off the spyware hordes.

Firefox: The best web browser in the known universe. Fast, smooth and cool, it has tabbed browsing (like those tabs at the bottom of the page in Excel, no more multiple windows open). It is also free and open source. If you are still using Internet Explorer, you are crazy. It is a virus and spyware magnet. A suggestion for IE on your desktop. Hide it. Delete the shortcut. When Firefox asks if it can be your default browser, say YES! Then forget you ever heard the words Internet Explorer.

Thunderbird: A great free (and open source) email program from Mozilla. It includes Junk email controls and has a great number of extensions including build in GPG encryption with Enigmail.

7-zip: This is an Open Source replacement for Winzip. Not quite as clean and cool as Winzip, but hey it IS free.

Password Safe: A free and open source program to keep all your web passwords in. Originally written by encryption guru Bruce Schneier, it encrypts the password file with Bruce’s 128bit Twofish (or Blowfish, can’t remember) algorithm, rendering it unreadable to everyone else. I keep a copy of this with my password file on my flash drive and take it whereever I go.

OpenOffice: A free (and open source) Microsoft Office suite replacement. Another good thing, it can save files to PDF format by itself! Includes pseudo-Word, Excel and Powerpoint applications.

WinSCP: If you can use SCP (which is short for Secure Copy), and uses SSH, to transfer files to your website, do it. It is much more secure than FTP, from which your password could be sniffed since it is sent in the clear during FTP and not during SCP.

Filezilla: If you are stuck with FTP only, Filezilla is a great free and open source graphical FTP (and SFTP) program for Windoze.

Irfanview: A free (but not open source) graphics viewer. It is fast and easy to use and perfect for those times when all you want to do is look at some jpg file and don’t want to bother opening the Gimp.

Gimp 2.0 For Windows: An image manipulation program very much like Adobe Photoshop, but unlike Photoshop, it is free (and open source).

iTunes – iTunes is a free program for PCs and Macs that can manage your music files as well as allow you to buy and download music online. Even if you don’t have an iPod, this software is worth having. Way cool and way easy to use.

Notepad++: An exceptional tabbed text editor for Windoze. Open source and free of course!

MakePDF: A free PDF making program. Basically a front end for Ghostscript. Hence you need to install Ghostscript first, and THEN install MakePDF. But it is easy and WAY cheaper than paying Adobe for Acrobat stuff. It also allows you to turn any document or file you can print into PDF. Way cool.

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