I am sitting up late tonight... I should have been asleep hours ago, but for a Mountain Dew drank at a boy scout event earlier which filled me up with sugar and caffeine. And, of course, all the squirrels racing through my mind.
I am typing this, using not Microsoft Word, but rather, OpenOffice.org Writer, which is a component of a free Office Suite that might not be better than Microsoft Office (but yet, might be), but sure seems to kick the behind of WordPerfect Office, and is definitely going to give MS Office a run for it's money. Since Office software typically costs over a hundred dollars per copy, this free Office Suite which can read all Office files and even export it's own files to Office format, as well as PDF, flash, etc... Hey, I think it rocks!
It's a lot better than 'borrowing' someone's copy of Office and loading it illegally! It can be downloaded from their website, but is a rather large download, unless you have DSL or a cable modem. This brings me to a subject of interest to me, and maybe to anyone who wants to find a way to reduce costs without sacrificing quality.
There's a lot of free software (i.e. freeware) out on the Internet. You have to be very careful about downloading software from anywhere, these days, because of the potential for viruses, adware, spyware, etc. All of the products that I am going to write about here are from legitimate sources. I have used each of these products, and so far, haven't had any major complaints. For the most part, they are all great products, and should be safe to run. I will add one disclaimer. Make sure your system meets the minimum requirements for each product that you might choose to check out. Also, use these at your own risk. They should be safe enough, and I have used them with no ill effects, but .. be careful anytime you install anything! Also, if you choose to install a certain type of software, like an antivirus package or firewall, make sure you download the files to a folder, make sure it's good, then before installing it, uninstall the product it will be replacing. Having two firewalls or two antivirus packages running at the same time is not a good thing. Choose one or the other, but do not run two simultaneously.
I will start this with the most important links first. I believe the security of your computer is very important in this day and age. Whether you are using it for running a business, or your kids like to surf the net, you do not want a virus or malware to either disable the computer or create annoying or offensive displays when you are trying to do something.
Before I suggest any software, let's take a look at Windows itself. If you do not have 'automatic updates' turned on, and even if you do – it's probably a good idea to visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com once every month or so to ensure that you have all the latest security updates as well as driver updates, etc. You can also isit this site by opening Internet Explorer, clicking “Tools... Windows Update”. If you haven't ever done this or do not do so very often, you may be overwhelmed by the number of updates available. Even if you only do one or so a week, do try to get the updates that are available for your PC loaded. Especially any 'Service Pack' updates.
Antivirus software. All computer users should have some form of up-to-date antivirus software loaded on their personal computers. (The key word is “UP TO DATE”. Make sure you run your virus “update” software at least on a bi-weekly basis). There are a couple of good ‘commercial’ options – you can purchase Symantec/Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee Virus Scan… but there are also a couple of good, free packages available for your use, as well. I used both of these on my computer for a while (not at the same time), finally settling with AVG because of it's simpler interface. Avast does have a couple of nice features that AVG does not have, but for my purposes, AVG works fine.
AVG Antivirus Free Edition
AVAST! Antivirus Home Edition
http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html
Personal Firewall. Users of Windows XP have some built-in firewall protection. What does a ‘firewall’ do? A couple of nifty things, actually. Primarily, it helps keep your computer ‘anonymous’ while you are browsing the web. If other computers attempt to scan yours, looking for wide open holes in the security, it will stop those scans. Also, for a little while at least, annoying little pop-ups will appear asking you if you want to allow program XYZ to access the Internet. Most of the time, the answer will be, Yes… and you’ll want to tell the software to remember. But, what if you don’t recognize a program that is trying to access the net? You have the option to say “No”…
If you are running something other than XP, or wish to use an alternative firewall product, there are at least two available freeware firewalls:
Sygate Personal Firewall Standard
http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm
ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall
http://www.zonelabs.com (follow the links to the free version of ZoneAlarm).
Spyware Removal Utilities. One of the biggest problems we have today is finding what is ‘Spyware’ or ‘Adware’… and getting rid of it. Spyware actually runs as a program in the background on your computer, monitoring certain activities and feeding data back to a central server. Adware is ‘nuisance’ software, generally causing pop-ups to appear with advertising. Again, there are a couple of ‘free’ packages available to help in your fight against Spyware and Adware.
Lavasoft AdAware SE
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
SpyBot Search & Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Office Software. I started this column with references to OpenOffice, so I will go ahead and provide the link to this software. The version I am currently running is a 'beta' version of OpenOffice.org 2.0 and I am very satisfied so far. There are multiple versions available for download. If you are not comfortable with the idea of 'beta' or 'test' software, there is a released, stable version available as well – although it may lack some of the features that the beta versions have. You will be provided with the option to register, although it IS optional. If you do register your software, you will also be given an option to participate in the user forums which allow you to report bugs or ask questions about how things work.
OpenOffice.org
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