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Beware
You should be very careful
installing applications such as Freeware (software that is free),
Shareware (software that requires a small donation) or applications
from small unknown vendors who are frequently independent
programmers who try to sell their software over the Internet.
Before purchasing or installing
any software you should do some research and look for reviews and
consumer feedback. This can easily be done by searching for
reviews in Google.
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| Useful Free Software
The major software vendors (Microsoft, Adobe
etc.) do offer free add-in programs and utilities that are very
useful. You can generally find them on the vendor website and
they are safe to install. You should, however, ask yourself it
is something you really need. Below are some links to some
vendor applications I have running that are real cool.
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Microsoft PhotoStory 3
- allows you to take your digital photos and turn them into
video files with special effects.
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Microsoft Power Toys
- is a very good add-in applications for Windows, particularly
TweakUI.
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Microsoft Producer
- allows you to combine video, audio, graphics, web pages, and
PowerPoint slides into great presentations (You need to have
PowerPoint 2003 installed). Note:
The application will not work properly once you install Internet
Explorer 7. You will get error messages when synchronizing the
video and slides.
There are a few applications that are free
and very good. I have compiled links to the sites below:
-
IrfanView
- a free graphics viewer that over the years has added a lot of
functions to edit graphics. If you do not have the money
to purchase a graphics application, IrfanView is a good
application to start with.
-
SysInternals
- provides a multitude of free utilities for the advanced
computer user (Highly Recommended).
PC World did an article on the
Best Free Software
a while back. Beware, however, that in some cases the software
is limited and you are asked to upgrade to "Pro" versions. Do
your research.
Always Ask: Do I Need It? |
Antivirus
