FREEBIES

This is a MUST! Picasa 2 is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognise - I use it!

Google Maps  & NOW - even better -Get Google Earth

www.saynoto0870.com  This is a MUST!  Don't phone 0870 or 0845 etc numbers until you try this. This site lists many well known companies, and their equivalent geographical numbers. Search to find an alternative number

SoftPerfect File Recovery is a FREE and very useful tool to restore accidentally deleted files from hard and floppy disks, USB flash drives, CF and SD cards and other storage media. It supports the popular file systems such as FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and NTFS5 with compression and encryption. If your important files disappeared and you can?t find them in the recycle bin, try this software product and get the files back to life. Easy to use, no installation is required.

You will need to use a "Card Reader" - just slip the SD card in the reader - run the File Recovery program and point it to the SD card - the rest is easy.  http://www.softperfect.com/download/file_recovery.exe   

FREE Newsletter on Computers  Tips on things you can do with your PC plus "reader's questions" section where you can obtain support

Download  The Real Alternative is an alternative to REAL PLAYER - no adverts - will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer/RealOne Player or to suffer the adverts. A player that is capable of playing RealMedia. The included Media Player Classic supports it and works very well. Supported: RealAudio (.ra .rpm).

OpenOffice  (read more about it)  A comprehensive, free office suite - almost like a basic MS Office, (not as powerful - but its FREE) for Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows XP -  FREEWARE
Size 50.6MB - will take quite a time!!

PDFCreator is a free tool to create PDFs easily from nearly any application. With the PDFCreator Printer driver you turn any program into a PDF-machine
Download PDFCreator-0_8_0_AFPLGhostscript.exe

Antivirus software
 http://www.avguk.com/doc/289/lng/uk/tpl/tpl01  

AVG has a free anti virus program you can download to protect your computer from damaging viruses.  No computer should be without anti-virus software and this one does the job nicely with regular updates available.  Remember its important to check and make sure that you have regularly updated anti-virus patterns.

PRO's a tried and tested program which catches all the baddies
CON's prints an advert for AVG anti-virus software at the foot of your emails, but a price well worth paying for an excellent program.

Ad Aware
This is a spyware removal utility that scans your memory, registry and hard drives for known spyware components and lets you remove them. Options such as scanning depth and automatic modes can be set in the preferences menu. It features a wizard-style interface that will guide you through the scanning and removal process.

Log on to http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/  and choose the mirror site to download  This is their freeware and shareware Downloads page! Choose a site to download your copy of Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition, skins, help manuals, RegHance and the latest definition file from. The freeware* version of Ad-Aware is compatible with Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003

File Size 2.50 Megabyte
Download time at 56 Kbs 10 mins. 

 Firewall

 A Firewall is a program which prevents hackers from gaining access to your computer.  As ASDL becomes more popular and people are spending longer on line, its important that they are protected.  Zone Alarm 3 is available free of charge from www.zonelabs.com

File Size 3.4 Megabyte
Download time at 56 Kbs 12 mins. 

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) 

Want to meet others online for a good blether? Then AIM is the tool for you.  One if the best Instant message packages on the go.  Get a few friends together and start your own chatroom by sending out invites, or join an already established chatroom. 

Website: www.aol.co.uk/aim
File size: 2.7Mb
Download Time at 56 Kbs: 9 mins. 

Apple QuickTime 7.1.3

A handy Image Viewer which allows you to view Video files as well as audio files.  This format is used by a number of websites and is handy to have if you want to view these types of files.

Website: www.computeractive.co.uk/download/103631
File size: 10Mb
Download Time at 56 Kbs 35 mins. 

Google Toolbar
Ever searched the net for something and can?t find it then you have to go to a separate site to find a search engine?  This tool lets you add your own search engine to your Internet Browser, just below the address bar for when ever you need it.  Makes life easier when using the internet.

Website: http://toolbar.google.com
File size: 150 Kb
Download Time at 56 Kbs 1 min 

Adobe Acrobat Reader 

The industry standard for sending documents using graphics and retaining original fonts is PDF Portable Document File and it is essential that you have this to open these files.  A definite must have program.

Website: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
File size: 8.6 Mb
Download Time at 56 Kbs 30 mins 

PopUp Stopper Free Edition 

Although a popular form of advertising, pop up ads are a real pain, but this clever little program blocks most pop up ads before they get a chance to expose themselves.  Very useful little program.

Website: www.panicware.com/product_downloads.html
File Size: 442 Kbs
Download Time at 56 Kbs 2mins

Mailwasher V1.32 

SPAM the scourge of the email world, this free program allows you to block all unwanted email and reduce the SPAM you receive by up to 90+%  (I use it!!)

Website: Get it from CNET Download.com!
File Size: 1.6 Mb
Download Time at 56 Kbs 6 mins

Lots of Freeware and Shareware products at
http://www.tucows.com
http://www.download.com

If you like the Shareware product you should buy it!!