Free Windows Programs worth checking out

So I’ve been using Windows 7 for a while now, and completely love it. It does everything well. Multitasking, running for days on end without needing a reboot, recovering from video driver crashes without bringing down the system, I could go on and on. Anyway, I have found a few free programs that are worth checking out.  Most of these will work with most older versions of Windows too:

Chrome

This is my new favorite web browser.  Google released this browser a while back and it has really taken off in terms of the number of people now using it for their primary browser.  It goes off of the philosophy of ‘less is more.’  When you start it up, you don’t get a myriad of buttons to confuse you.  You just get the tab that you’re on currently (plus more tabs as you open them) forward, back, refresh, and a tools button.  That’s it.  More space is devoted to actually ’showing’ the webpage, and less to features that 90% of people will never use.

And then there’s the speed.  Oh the glorious speed.  This browser loads so fast, if you blink, you’ll miss it.  It renders webpages fast, it loads Java-based sites super fast, it does everything fast.  That said, it is RAM happy, so if you don’t have plenty, it may not run that well, but in most machines built nowadays (and especially anything you get from UNI), plenty of RAM is installed right out of the box.  It will run on Windows XP, Vista, and 7.  (y0u have to have at least SP2 for Windows XP)  Get it here.

Notepad++

This is a nifty alternative to the standard “notepad” program that comes with all versions of windows.  It handles multiple tabs, a lot of web editing features, and plugins for even more capability.  Here is the direct download site.

Dropbox

This impressed me enough that I immediately emailed all of my friends, clients and co-workers so that they could check it out.  It is a tiny little program that installs on your machine, and then syncs back with Dropbox.com.  You get 2GB of storage, free.  The best thing, however, is that it operates just like a folder on your machine.  In fact, by default, it’s just a folder on your desktop.  Drag some files in, they sync automatically with Dropbox, done.  So, if you have Dropbox at work, and Dropbox at home, just drag some work that you need to take home into your Dropbox, and then when you get home, it will be synced there for you to continue working on.  When it’s time to take it back to work, just put it back in Dropbox, and when you get back, it’s there!  Super Easy.  Super Awesome.

It also allows you to access www.dropbox.com and download or upload any files, in case you are on a friends machine that doesn’t have Dropbox.  Also, at the time of this article, if you invite friends to Dropbox, you will get free space added to your account, up to 3.25GB total.

I’ve know one client who took a job in Dubai.  In order to be able to easily transfer pictures and stuff back and forth with his wife here in the States, they both installed Dropbox using the same account, now they can easily transfer files much more fluidly then trying to cram them into emails.

For those of you that need more space, Dropbox has a pay option where you can buy more space for a monthly or yearly rate.  Go check it out, it’s like having a little flash drive that’s ‘always on.’

USB 3.0 Super Speed for You!

So you’ve probably heard something about the new USB that came out. What? You didn’t? Well, it’s a good thing you’re here then! USB 3.0 picks up where USB 2.0 left off, mainly with insanely faster speeds.

Yeah Lance, but what does this mean for me?!?

Well, this means when you are backing up your computer (you do that right? ) to that big external hard drive you bought, it’ll take 1 hour, not 4 hours, to complete. It means that once USB 3.0 flash drives become readily available, that transferring files will be near instantaneous. Which basically means instant gratification. Which we all know and love!

OK Lance, give me the numbers!

We did a little comparison here at the store with some older USB 2.0 gear and some new USB 3.0 gear, and here’s what we found:

When reading from an older USB 2.0 hard drive, we get somewhere around 10MB/s (megabytes per second) transfer speed.  This equates to about 2-3 MP3 songs per second.  When writing to the same drive, it is down around 6-8MB/s, so 1.5-2 MP3 songs per second.

With USB 3.0, this speed jumped through the roof!  When reading from a USB 3.0 drive we got anywhere from 20MB/s to 35MB/s!! (5-7 MP3 songs per second) and writing to the drive was around 15MB/s (3 MP3 songs per second).

Now remember that this is only the first release of USB 3.0 gear, and it is bound to get a bit more efficient, but already we are looking at at least a doubling of speed across the board! In the cases of reading from a USB 3.0 hard drive, it is even faster! (writing is slower because the hard drive itself is faster at reading than writing, as all hard drives are.)

Another great thing about USB 3.0 is that it is backwards compatible with older USB 2.0/1.1.  Obviously, you won’t get the same transfer speeds, but you won’t have to throwout all your older USB 2.0 products either!

OK, I’m convinced, can I get it yet?

USB 3.0 is currently available mostly as add-in cards to existing systems.  Brand spanking new systems are *just* starting to come with USB 3.0 onboard, but most systems still do not.  More and more products are becoming available every month, so it is worth checking out!

Just in case you ‘need’ to go back…

My wife just started a grad school program, and is currently cramming her head full of all kinds of stuff that I barely understand.  Among these things there is a Windows based program that the students have to run in order do some of the studying.  This is all fine and good for my wife who has a PC laptop, but several of her classmates have Macs.

At first I was thinking, ‘well, too bad for them’, but I did a bit of research and found a program called Wine Bottler, which allows you to ‘package’ Windows applications in a format that a Mac can run them.  And it’s free.  Well how about that!

One of my buddies always tells me “Once you go Mac, you never go back.”  Well, sometimes you ‘need’ to go back, and here’s a great way to do it!

Which AntiVirus is the Best?

To build suspense, we’ll start with what we don’t recommend.

First up? Free anti-virus software.  We’re always hoping for a free solution to come along and dominate the market.  But, unfortunately, it still hasn’t happened.  We’ve tried a host of options including the big “free three” AVG, Avast and Avira.  Unfortunately, they all fall short on comprehensiveness.  They simply don’t cover all the areas (vectors) that can be exploited on a PC.  Neither AVG, Avast, or Avira’s free option offer a firewall as of this writing, but we’re still holding out hope.

McAfee covers all the vectors but for some reason, we’ve seen more McAfee protected PCs come in with more viruses than any other anti-virus.  To be fair, it does out perform expired anti-virus solutions.  Yeah, sorry McAfee.  We can’t confidently recommend your product even though we’d make more money if we did.  That’s what you get more folks who are more Computer Technician than Retail Merchandisers.

Norton does a great job covering the vectors.  However, it’s a resource hog – meaning it is guaranteed to slow down your PC.   Additionally, Norton is the #1 selling AntiVirus!  Yeah, Norton…until you read the statistics that show Norton is also the #1 exploited AntiVirus.  The bad guys don’t like the really good guys.  So Norton will take more resources and come back bigger, better and stronger…until it’s exploited again.  And the vicious cycle never ends.

So, our current recommendation and winner of this article’s Best AntiVirus goes to…Trend Micro.  It covers all the vectors, doesn’t eat alot of resources, doesn’t come back to our shop with viruses or malware and the bad guys are too busy with Norton to target Trend Micro.