Free reliable software – fact or fiction?

Guest writer Neil Bloom offers his opinion:

First let me state that I’m not an IT consultant nor a computer nerd. I’ve never read instructions or user manuals, I have no idea what makes my computer or the software work but I’m appreciative that it does (most of the time). I started using a computer in nineteen hundred and froze to death using MSDOS and Windows 3.1. I leave it to you to guess how old I am!

Could this be you?

As a new entrepreneur you will have possibly (probably?) spent your last penny and stuffed your credit card on your unique product and now have to run your business and create presentations for prospective investors and customers. Slight problem, your computer is older than you are and the software is so slow that it’s quicker to write with a hammer and chisel on granite. Don’t panic, all is not lost, you may not need a new computer you just need to give it a new lease of life and it will cost you nothing except time.

Mirage or reality?

Having trawled around the internet you’ve probably seen and possibly downloaded so called ‘free’ software only to find that they are not as good as you expected, full of bugs and possibly viruses and in some cases not as free as you thought as they were trial versions that expired in 30 days. I’ve make the same mistakes. However over the years I’ve downloaded, used, and still use a wide range of really useful totally free software. I would also add that I have used all of these programs on a computer that is seven years old running an early version of Windows XP.

First things first!

Don’t forget to backup your data before using any of these programs!

Next and most important, is your anti-virus software up to date? Before you download anything make sure that it is. If you are using Norton or similar and it’s expired there are several very good free anti-virus programs available. All of them have different methods of guarding your computer against viruses and there are many different opinions as to which is the best. I use Avast and it does the job for me.
 
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

Then you need to get your computer running more efficiently. There are lots of tools around but these are the only two that I use.

Glary Utilities

Strange name for a program but a really good all-round tool for cleaning up your computer. As with many programs there is the free version and ‘premium’ paid for version but the free version is good enough for what you will need to do.
 
http://www.glaryutilities.com/

Defraggler

It’s a good idea to defragment your drive and whilst Windows provides a program to do this I use a free program called Defraggler which is not only better but quicker.

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

OK, your computer is now (I hope) running a little faster and more efficiently now it’s time to look at some productivity software.

Open Office

The Kkng of free software, I have no idea why this software suite is totally free. It’s published and supported by Sun Microsystems and 99% compatible with Microsoft Office. It may not have some of the bells and whistles of Office but it’s free and updated on a regular basis. It’s also available for all versions of Windows, Mac and Linux.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Web browsers and email

Many people use Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook for browsing the internet and sending emails. For the last three years I have been using Firefox for browsing and Thunderbird for email. In my opinion they are much more secure, are smaller and run much quicker especially on older machines. Both are open source and published by Mozilla.

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/

Image viewers and editors

Most of the time you will only want to look at images and carry out simple editing. I use two viewers/editors. Irfanview and Gimp both of which are very simple to use.

http://www.irfanview.com/
http://www.gimp.org/

Communications

I can’t do without Skype. Not only do I speak to my contacts (who have Skype) free of charge, but I can also call landlines throughout the world at a ridiculously low price. It’s very easy to set up and run.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/home

Odds and ends

Here are three utilities that I use on a daily basis.

Primo PDF: This program converts almost any file into a standard PDF file. When you look at the website you will see that there is a free and premium version, for 99% of your work the free version is all you need.

http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx

Nico Photocopier: If you have a scanner this is a very simple program that allows you to use it as a photocopier. Once again there is a premium version but the free version is all you will probably need.

http://www.nicocuppen.com/pit/editor/page_detail.php?id=10103

7-Zip: When you need to compress files to send a large email or archive your work this is a great alternative to WinZip which is now time limited shareware.

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

The above programs should cater for most of your needs but if you are looking for something else check this website for a range of safe open source software

http://sourceforge.net/

And finally . . .

As a last resort you can back up all your data, find all your computer disks and then either reformat, or get someone else to reformat, your computer and reload your programs, including the operating system. This may seem an extreme solution but if your computer is old and has a lot of 'stuff' on it, it can also seem like you suddenly have a new computer! And for much less than buying one would cost.

DISCLAIMER

I could write a two page disclaimer but I have downloaded and used all of these programs with no problems, so the bottom line is that if they don’t work or your computer has a heart attack - don’t blame me!