With
Microsoft just releasing Microsoft Office 2007 Professional for a cost of about
$450.00, many companies and government agencies are switching to the OpenOffice
Suite of programs. OpenOffice v2.1 is “open-source” software which is
compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download,
use, and distribute. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database,
presentation, drawing, and equation applications. You can open and save most
applications in Microsoft compatible formats. Microsoft has even announced that
will be supplying an add-in to their Word application so that users can save
their documents in the OpenOffice ODT (Open Document Text) format.
http://www.openoffice.org/
AVG
Free Edition v7.5 Anti-Virus
You must
have anti-virus software and it must have an up-to-date database. The latest
versions from Symantec (Norton) and McAfee deplete your system resources,
increase the time it takes for your computer to start, and slow down the
operation of applications on your system. AVG Free is for non-commercial use and
offers the same level of protection as the major brands including email
scanning. The latest v7.5 will even support the new Windows Vista Operating
System.
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/
Like
anti-virus software, every computer should have a good anti-spyware program,
especially if you have younger computer users. Windows Defender has finally been
released, but will only work on the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Operating
System. Both Quick and Full scans can and should be scheduled to keep your
system free of spyware.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
For those of
you without (or even with) Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you might want to
try SpyBot for your anti-spyware protection and removal. It can be set to run in
“advanced” mode which offers many more features than the basic mode,
including scheduled scans and automatic updates. I use it in addition to Windows
Defender and Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware (mentioned below).
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Lavasoft’s
Ad-Aware SE Personal (Anti-Spyware)
Although
this “free” version doesn’t include a scan schedule, it seems to be able
to detect and remove instances of spyware, cookies, and temporary Internet files
that Microsoft Defender and SpyBot miss. I use all three programs to keep my
system completely free of spyware.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php
FastStone
Capture 4.8
Of course,
you can use the “PrtSc” key, paste the full captured screen in an
application, and then crop down to the section you want to keep, or you can use
this nice “free” utility to just capture the area you are interested in and
then save it in a variety of graphic formats.
http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm
FastStone
Photo Resizer 2.3
Don’t be fooled by this
program’s name. It’s much more than a way to change the size of photos
(graphics). It will allow you to convert, rename, resize, crop,
rotate, change color depth, add text and watermark to images in a quick and easy
BATCH mode. Some of the features can save a lot of time when you’re converting
large graphics files to share or upload to the Internet.
http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm
Paint.NET
v2.7.2
This is
“free”, Windows-based image editing and photo manipulation software. It
supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful
and powerful tools. The tutorial forum is very helpful and full of techniques
and information.
http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html
TweakNow
RegCleaner Standard
This utility
is a nice, safe way to clean out those left behind registry entries that can
slow down your computer and increase the boot time of your operating system. It
makes a backup copy of nay changes made to the registry, so you can do an easy
restore if you notice problems with any application.
http://www.tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.html
WinASO
RegDefrag v1.2
Now that
you’ve “cleaned” the registry, it would be a good idea to remove any blank
spaces or fragmented entries. The smaller the size of your registry, the less
time it will take to load your operating system and interface with your computer
applications.
http://www.winaso.com/
AusLogic
Disk Defragmenter
This utility
performs a similar function to the one included with Windows, but it takes a lot
less time to do it.
http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/
If you’ve received this Newsletter for any length
of time or spoken with me, you know of my distaste for AOL and the way they do
business. Well, they seem to be making it as difficult as possible to cancel
your account once you come to the same realization about their level of service.
If you’re interested, click on the link to watch a video and listen to a
typical AOL representative. Go to: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xmpDSBAh6RY