Mr.OSH
28-04-2007, 12:23 AM
Best Free Web Browser
Windows provides a large range of Free web browsers. Internet Explorer is largely a good web browser but with numerous security concerns and very common browser display and compatibility issues Internet Explorer can't quite cut along side what is though of more widely as the best browser available on the market today, Mozzilla Firefox. Firefox V2 provides all the features IE provides and adds to them by correcting most of the main risks IE proses, Firefox is all round the best browser in totally. Despite Firefox and Internet Explorer there are other candidates in the ongoing race to become the best free based browser available on the web. Browsers such as Opera and Maxthon have caught the eye, yet they don't provide the overall aspects that makes Firefox the most used browser around.
Number 1 - Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)
Number 2 - Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx)
Number 3 - Opera (http://www.opera.com/)
Number 4 - Maxthon (http://www.maxthon.com/index.htm)
Best Free Anti-Virus Software
Since 1991, AVG Antivirus has kept its title as the best anti-virus that is available on the free and shareware market. AVG is an effective scanner that provides frequent updates and all the critical features required to refine such a good piece of anti-virus software. Equally as good is the Avast! Scanner which is though however to be slightly worse, feature and protection wise, seems to refrain from causing regular update problems that AVG users frequently encounter. Malaware however is an issue with both these main free systems as separate malaware detection and removal software would have to be used along side both of these systems as neither support removal and detection of malaware system issues.
Number 1 - AVG Anti-Virus (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1)
Number 2 - Avast! Scanner
(http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html%20%20%20)
Best Free Firewall Software
Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall is one of the most noticeable firewall products after being in production for many years. This firewall combines very good protection but lacks in internet sharing options and preferences which lets it down. Also the product continually asks you to upgrade to a paid version, which for some can become fairly annoying. Zone Alarm is another good piece of firewall software but is again lacking in network option. The only free firewall that is widely available with the internet sharing options and some basic network firewall option with a robust system is place is Comodo Firewall which is very good compared to the other main free firewall software.
Number 1 - Comodo Firewall (http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/)
Number 2 - Zone Alarm
(http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp%20%20)Number 3 - Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm)
Best Free e-mail Client
Mozzila, the creators of Firefox strike again with another exceptional piece of free software, Thunderbird e-mail client provides POP3, IMAP and various e-mail services. Again Mozzila provides a completely free piece of software that out does Microsoft's product Outlook Express. Outlook is a paid product and feature wise is little different to Mozzila's Thunderbird. Basically the only real e-mail client contender out there that is free is Thunderbird.
Number 1 - Mozzila Thunderbrid (http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird%20)
Best Free Desktop Visualisation Software
There is only one main contender for the best free windows desktop based visualisation software. VMWare Server provides a robust application that allows multiple operating systems to be installed or run from boot on the same machine whilst Windows is in action in another application window. Simply no other company could previously provide this kind of software free of charge.
Number 1 - VMWare Server (http://www.vmware.com/products/server/)
Best Free Visual Packs
No clear full visualisation packs are freely available for Vista but as for XP one main program appears to have been used and discussed by hundreds of people. The Vista Transformation pack created by "Windows X" provides a new look for your entire computer transforming it into a vista look alike environment. Yet this can sometimes cause system issues due to registering matching problems as The package overwrites and changes bits of the registry. Normally this is done with little ill effective, but should be done with caution.
Number 1 - Vista Transformation Pack (http://www.windowsxlive.net/?p=361)
Best Free Pop-Up Blocker
Many browsers these days have this feature built in to them but products are still been developed for free use to stop annoying pop-ups. Many tool bars include them but the best is though of as the Google tool bar which provides a great utility for all browsers and helps prevent pop-ups. However the proxomitron provides a brilliant pop-up blocker and is still in partial development.
Number 1 - Google Toolbar (http://www.habboxforum.com/%20http://toolbar.google.com/)
Number 2 - The Proxomitron (http://www.proxomitron.info/files/index.html)
Best Free Desktop Search
Formally £50 in price the X1 Enterprise client provides a brilliant search utility for any user's needs no matter what they need it for. A very hand piece a software that was never available only a few years ago. Along side it Google and Yahoo tag along with their own impressive desktop search application and exeled also joins them in a tight competitions but overall X1 tends to come out on top with its more developed search ability.
Number 1 - X1 Enterprise Client (http://www.x1.com/)
Number 2 - Google Search Utility (http://www.desktop.google.com/)
Number 3 - Exeled Search Utility (http://corporate.exalead.com/enterprise/l=en?p=produits_exalead-desktop_screenshots%20)
Number 4 - Yahoo Search Utility (http://www.desktop.yahoo.com/)
Best Free Digital Image Editor
The Gimp and PhotoPlus are the two main candidates for Image editors with their editing abilities that cannot match the power of applications such as Photoshop but as for free products do the job absolutely fine. Both pieces of software are both full of features and both have various pros and cons, overall due to the additional features and ease of use the Gimp is the most widely used.
Number 1 - The Gimp (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html)
Number 2 - PhotoPlus (http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/default.asp)
Best Free Photo Organiser
Picasa 2 is all you could wish for in a photo organiser product with so many various features. The product allows you to split pictures into separate folders, match them into categories, select favourite sets and even password protect he files. No other photo organising software rivals Google's Picasa 2.
Number 1 - Picasa 2 (http://picasa.google.com/%20)
Best Free ZIP extractor Utility
Izarc is a very successful piece of software. It allows the extraction of ZIP files at quick speeds and with various additional options, unfortunately for Izarc, 7zip is the best ZIP extractor utility available today on the free market. It is mainly chosen because of its speed. At least 2 - 5 times faster than Windows regular extractor it works like a dream when extracting larger files for ZIP format.
Number 1 - 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org/)
(http://www.7-zip.org/)Number 2 - Izarc (http://www.izarc.org/download.html%20)
Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service
JAP and Tor are two similar used pieces of software to enable anonymous surfing by users. Both of these applications work very well in protecting the user only and work like a web based proxy but using an application that send your connection on a detoured and make it allot harder for you to be traced back only, a very useful piece of software by both companies.
Number 1 - JAP (http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html%20%20)
(http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html%20%20)Number 2 - Tor (http://www.habboxforum.com/%20http://www.torrify.com/software_torpark.html)
Best HTML Editor
nvu and evrsoft both provide HTML editor of a high standard that allow users to edit HTML format documents in a WYSIWYG environment. However these products cannot compare or replace paid for products mainly like Adobe Dreamweaver they go a fair way to allowing a cost effective, well free way of editing HTML files in a WYSIWYG environment within an application.
Number 1 - NVU (http://www.nvu.com/)
(http://www.nvu.com/)Number 2 - evrsoft (http://www.evrsoft.com%20/)
I hope this may have helped some people, it isn't allot but it took me quite a while. It amazing what I end up doing when I'm bored. :)
Windows provides a large range of Free web browsers. Internet Explorer is largely a good web browser but with numerous security concerns and very common browser display and compatibility issues Internet Explorer can't quite cut along side what is though of more widely as the best browser available on the market today, Mozzilla Firefox. Firefox V2 provides all the features IE provides and adds to them by correcting most of the main risks IE proses, Firefox is all round the best browser in totally. Despite Firefox and Internet Explorer there are other candidates in the ongoing race to become the best free based browser available on the web. Browsers such as Opera and Maxthon have caught the eye, yet they don't provide the overall aspects that makes Firefox the most used browser around.
Number 1 - Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)
Number 2 - Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx)
Number 3 - Opera (http://www.opera.com/)
Number 4 - Maxthon (http://www.maxthon.com/index.htm)
Best Free Anti-Virus Software
Since 1991, AVG Antivirus has kept its title as the best anti-virus that is available on the free and shareware market. AVG is an effective scanner that provides frequent updates and all the critical features required to refine such a good piece of anti-virus software. Equally as good is the Avast! Scanner which is though however to be slightly worse, feature and protection wise, seems to refrain from causing regular update problems that AVG users frequently encounter. Malaware however is an issue with both these main free systems as separate malaware detection and removal software would have to be used along side both of these systems as neither support removal and detection of malaware system issues.
Number 1 - AVG Anti-Virus (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1)
Number 2 - Avast! Scanner
(http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html%20%20%20)
Best Free Firewall Software
Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall is one of the most noticeable firewall products after being in production for many years. This firewall combines very good protection but lacks in internet sharing options and preferences which lets it down. Also the product continually asks you to upgrade to a paid version, which for some can become fairly annoying. Zone Alarm is another good piece of firewall software but is again lacking in network option. The only free firewall that is widely available with the internet sharing options and some basic network firewall option with a robust system is place is Comodo Firewall which is very good compared to the other main free firewall software.
Number 1 - Comodo Firewall (http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/)
Number 2 - Zone Alarm
(http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp%20%20)Number 3 - Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm)
Best Free e-mail Client
Mozzila, the creators of Firefox strike again with another exceptional piece of free software, Thunderbird e-mail client provides POP3, IMAP and various e-mail services. Again Mozzila provides a completely free piece of software that out does Microsoft's product Outlook Express. Outlook is a paid product and feature wise is little different to Mozzila's Thunderbird. Basically the only real e-mail client contender out there that is free is Thunderbird.
Number 1 - Mozzila Thunderbrid (http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird%20)
Best Free Desktop Visualisation Software
There is only one main contender for the best free windows desktop based visualisation software. VMWare Server provides a robust application that allows multiple operating systems to be installed or run from boot on the same machine whilst Windows is in action in another application window. Simply no other company could previously provide this kind of software free of charge.
Number 1 - VMWare Server (http://www.vmware.com/products/server/)
Best Free Visual Packs
No clear full visualisation packs are freely available for Vista but as for XP one main program appears to have been used and discussed by hundreds of people. The Vista Transformation pack created by "Windows X" provides a new look for your entire computer transforming it into a vista look alike environment. Yet this can sometimes cause system issues due to registering matching problems as The package overwrites and changes bits of the registry. Normally this is done with little ill effective, but should be done with caution.
Number 1 - Vista Transformation Pack (http://www.windowsxlive.net/?p=361)
Best Free Pop-Up Blocker
Many browsers these days have this feature built in to them but products are still been developed for free use to stop annoying pop-ups. Many tool bars include them but the best is though of as the Google tool bar which provides a great utility for all browsers and helps prevent pop-ups. However the proxomitron provides a brilliant pop-up blocker and is still in partial development.
Number 1 - Google Toolbar (http://www.habboxforum.com/%20http://toolbar.google.com/)
Number 2 - The Proxomitron (http://www.proxomitron.info/files/index.html)
Best Free Desktop Search
Formally £50 in price the X1 Enterprise client provides a brilliant search utility for any user's needs no matter what they need it for. A very hand piece a software that was never available only a few years ago. Along side it Google and Yahoo tag along with their own impressive desktop search application and exeled also joins them in a tight competitions but overall X1 tends to come out on top with its more developed search ability.
Number 1 - X1 Enterprise Client (http://www.x1.com/)
Number 2 - Google Search Utility (http://www.desktop.google.com/)
Number 3 - Exeled Search Utility (http://corporate.exalead.com/enterprise/l=en?p=produits_exalead-desktop_screenshots%20)
Number 4 - Yahoo Search Utility (http://www.desktop.yahoo.com/)
Best Free Digital Image Editor
The Gimp and PhotoPlus are the two main candidates for Image editors with their editing abilities that cannot match the power of applications such as Photoshop but as for free products do the job absolutely fine. Both pieces of software are both full of features and both have various pros and cons, overall due to the additional features and ease of use the Gimp is the most widely used.
Number 1 - The Gimp (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html)
Number 2 - PhotoPlus (http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/default.asp)
Best Free Photo Organiser
Picasa 2 is all you could wish for in a photo organiser product with so many various features. The product allows you to split pictures into separate folders, match them into categories, select favourite sets and even password protect he files. No other photo organising software rivals Google's Picasa 2.
Number 1 - Picasa 2 (http://picasa.google.com/%20)
Best Free ZIP extractor Utility
Izarc is a very successful piece of software. It allows the extraction of ZIP files at quick speeds and with various additional options, unfortunately for Izarc, 7zip is the best ZIP extractor utility available today on the free market. It is mainly chosen because of its speed. At least 2 - 5 times faster than Windows regular extractor it works like a dream when extracting larger files for ZIP format.
Number 1 - 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org/)
(http://www.7-zip.org/)Number 2 - Izarc (http://www.izarc.org/download.html%20)
Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service
JAP and Tor are two similar used pieces of software to enable anonymous surfing by users. Both of these applications work very well in protecting the user only and work like a web based proxy but using an application that send your connection on a detoured and make it allot harder for you to be traced back only, a very useful piece of software by both companies.
Number 1 - JAP (http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html%20%20)
(http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html%20%20)Number 2 - Tor (http://www.habboxforum.com/%20http://www.torrify.com/software_torpark.html)
Best HTML Editor
nvu and evrsoft both provide HTML editor of a high standard that allow users to edit HTML format documents in a WYSIWYG environment. However these products cannot compare or replace paid for products mainly like Adobe Dreamweaver they go a fair way to allowing a cost effective, well free way of editing HTML files in a WYSIWYG environment within an application.
Number 1 - NVU (http://www.nvu.com/)
(http://www.nvu.com/)Number 2 - evrsoft (http://www.evrsoft.com%20/)
I hope this may have helped some people, it isn't allot but it took me quite a while. It amazing what I end up doing when I'm bored. :)