| Browsers |
| Internet Explorer 6.0 (SP1) | Microsoft's latest browser and service pack update focuses on a variety of customer-reported issues and includes many enhancements to usability, security, and reliability.
Free Check User Opinions. |
| Netscape 7.1 | Netscape's new browser includes Navigator, Mail Client, Instant Messenger, and Netscape Radio. (7.01 just released, adds a popup blocker)
Free Check User Opinions. |
| Opera 7 Final | This browser is Very Fast, has a Small Footprint, runs on BeOS, Linux/Solaris, Mac, OS/2, QNZ, Symbian OS, or Windows. Beta days are over, 7.0 final has just been released.
Adware, $39 for ad free version Check User Opinions. |
| File Viewers |
| Adobe Reader (Acrobat) 6.0 | Reads Adobe© Portable Document Format (PDF) files, the de facto standard document exchange formats. Available in 26 languages to run under any one of 23 different operating systems.
Free Check User Opinions. |
| MS Word Viewer | With this viewer Microsoft Word 97/2000 users can share documents with those who do not have Word.
Free Check User Opinions. |
| MS PowerPoint Viewer | View PowerPoint 97/2000/2002/2003 presentations even if you don't have PowerPoint with this viewer or send PowerPoint presentations to anyone along with this free viewer.
Free Check User Opinions. |
| MS Excel Viewer | This program lets you view and print Excel for Windows 2.0 or later, or Excel for Macintosh 2.2a or later spreadsheets.
Free Check User Opinions. |
| MS Visio Viewer | The Microsoft Visio© Viewer 2002 allows you to view Visio 5/2000/2002 drawings and diagrams inside Internet Explorer v5.0 or later.
Free MS General Information |
| File Compression |
| WinZip 9.0 | One of the most common file compression utilities. WinZip is an easy to use, general purpose file compression utility.
Free for first 21 days, $29 to buy Check User Opinions. |
| Aladdin Stuffit Expander 7.5 | Award-winning Expander gives you access to virtually any file you download from the Internet, receive in your email or get from Mac, PC, or Unix machines. The total cross-platform expansion solution.
Free to try $29.99 to buy Check User Opinions |
| WinRAR 3.3 | Good multimedia & text compression.
Expiring demo, $29 to buy Check User Opinions |
| Win ACE 2.5 | WinAce is an archiving utility with an easy-to-use interface for creating, extracting, and viewing archives. It includes built-in compression for ACE, ZIP, LHA, and MS-CAB formats, and built-in decompression for ACE, ZIP, LHA, MS-CAB, RAR, ARJ, ARC, GZIP, TAR, and ZOO formats. You can create multi-volume (disk-spanning) archives for ACE and MS-CAB formats and self-extracting archives (SFX) for ACE and ZIP formats.
Free to try, $29 to buy Check User Opinions |
| ARJ 2.82 | ARJ has a 10 plus year track record of good speed, compression and the most flexibility of any archiver. In addition, it will run on most PCs from the IBM PC XT to Pentium IIIs and is compatible from version 1.0 to present.
Free to try, $45 to buy Check User Opinions |
| Multimedia Players |
| Flash Player 7.0 (MX) | Macromedia's Flash Player enables viewing live animation, background sound and music, and with the new version, full motion video clips now incorporated into many of the higher end web sites. Now included with most browsers you most likely have it but may not have the latest version.
Free Check User Opinions |
| Shockwave Player 10.0 | Macromedia Shockwave Player is a browser plug-in that allows you to experience animation and entertainment created with Macromedia Director Shockwave Studio.
Free Check User Opinions |
| QuickTime 6.4 | QuickTime is Apple's multimedia browser add-on for video, sound, animation, graphics, music, and 360-degree Virtual Reality (VR) scenes.
Free Check User Opinions |
| Windows Media 9 Series | Windows Media Player/Encoder, Microsoft Producer, and Windows Media DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Free Check User Opinions |
| RealOne Media Player | Plays every major media type on the planet, including your own DVDs and CDs.
Free version, $19.95 to buy Check User Opinions |
| WinAmp 5.03 | Great MP3 player incorporates play lists, alternate skinning and many other nice features.
Free Check User Opinions |
| MusicMatch Jukebox 8.2 | Winner of PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award three years in a row.
Free to try $19.99 to buy Check User Opinions |
| FTP Programs |
| WS_FTP LE 6.0 | WS_FTP LE is an FTP (File Transfer Program) for Windows.
Free for non-commercial use Check User Comments |
| FTP Explorer 1.00.10 | Windows Explorer look & feel. Simple but multitasks great.
Free Check User Opinions |
| Instant Messaging |
| ICQ 4.0 | Find friends and colleagues on the Internet and communicate with them live.
Free Check User Comments |
| Trillian 2.02 | Great universal live chat program connects to all major chat networks (Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, mIRC, and AOL AIM).
Free version, $25.00 to buy Check User Comments |
| Windows Messenger for XP | Microsoft's Instant Messaging Client with emoticons, allows chatting on the web, paging a contact's mobile phone, instant eMail notices, and sending pictures and music to friends.
Free Check User Comments |
| Yahoo Messenger 5.6 | Instantly communicate with all of your friends online. (No Windows XP support).
Free Check User Comments |
| AOL Instant Messenger 4.7 | You don't have to be an AOL member to use AOL Instant Messenger.
Free Check User Comments |
| Video Conferencing |
| MS NetMeeting 3.01 (SP2) | An easy-to-use Web phone, and a great tool for corporate productivity.
Free Check User Comments |
| Security |
Microsoft
Baseline Security Analyzer v1.2 | MBSA runs on Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems and will scan for missing hotfixes and vulnerabilities in the following products: Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 and 5.0, SQL Server 7.0 and 2000, Internet Explorer (IE) 5.01 and later, and Office 2000 and 2002.
Free Check User Comments |
| ZoneAlarm Pro 5 | Advanced PC Firewall.
15 day free trial, $39.95 to buy Check User Comments |
| Ad-aware 6.0 | Adware is known by many names: spy ware, trackware, or even Big Brotherware. Ad-aware identifies and removes these surreptitiously installed applications.
Free Check User Comments |
| PC-cillin HouseCall | Trend Micro's free online virus scanner always uses the latest patterns. Use this one often.
Free |
| Software Updates |
| Microsoft Windows Update | Get the latest updates available for your Microsoft operating system, software, and hardware. Windows Update scans your computer and provides you with a selection of updates tailored just for you.
Free |
| Microsoft Office Update | Use automatic detection to find the latest Microsoft Office product updates for your computer.
Free |
Microsoft
Automatic Updates | Windows automatic updating is a Windows feature that notifies you when critical updates are available for your computer. Download and install to receive notifications of critical Windows updates.
Free |
| |
