This page contains bookmarks to some of the best free software for users with broadband and a PC running  Microsoft Windows XP or Vista.

Perhaps you have just bought a new PC or are rebuilding the software after a disk crash.

Software supplied with PCs, printers, cameras etc should be installed with care. Avoid Free Trials and any software you don't REALLY want. 

If you know what you are looking for there are many sites on the internet from which you can download software. The better sites also include impartial user reviews which help to avoid software which contains spyware or trojans.  The purpose of this page however is to provide a one stop shop for essential software. My definition of essential does not include fun but frivolous things such as desktop gadgets. Be aware that many software products are supplied free in the hope that you will be nagged into upgrading to a more fully featured version. But that also happens when you pay for software.

BTW I advise creating a system restore point before installing new software.

Essential Software 

  • Office Suite. For word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, Open Office does everything that MS Office does. However if you stick with Outlook Express it will not spellcheck your emails. Highly Recommended
  • Anti-Virus. AVG Free is one of the best of a bad bunch. You can see that the daily background scan is happening and postpone it to do something more important. It also wants you to say Thank You when it updates every day.
  • Anti-Spyware.  Why can't there be one good product to protect against both spyware and viruses? I stopped using Ad-Aware when AVG flagged the upgrade contained a Trojan. Anyway I now find AVG Anti Spyware slightly more user friendly. Also use Spybot search and Destroy to give you belt and braces.
  • Firewall. I can no longer recommend Zonealarm as the last software upgrade completely screwed my computer. As I am using WinXP I would be happier if I had an outgoing firewall but I am relying on my router at the moment.
  • Google Earth. This is the most amazing program and the most effective demonstration of how far personal computing and the internet has come. Download.
  • Photo Processing. Picasa is a great tool for organising your photos, doing simple editing and optionally sharing them on the web. My only complaint is that it is difficult to know where the images are when you want to back them up.  Photofiltre contains all the average user would need to enhance digital images. The Gimp Has more capabilities but is consequently more difficult to learn.
  • PDF Reader. Many user manuals etc are distributed in (Portable Document Format). The standard reader used to be Adobe Reader but the latest version weighs in at a bizarre 22.3 MB!. Download Foxit Reader which is smaller and faster loading.