Artillery for your PC (con't)

Sofware We will now talk about software. One thing I want to comment about software is, the latest version is NOT always the best version for your PC, even though it may have the latest features, use what is required of your work and not download a newer version "just because it is a newer version". Why? New versions of software usually require more computing power, and more hard disk space. Take a look at MS Office 97 vs MS Office 2000. Office 2000 crawls compared to Office 97 when installed on a standard Windows PC, say a Pentium 100. (Old, I know but this is an example) Do you REALLY need those extra "features" when you've been using Office 97 and it works perfectly fine for your day to day tasks? That's my point exactly.

Anyway, here's my list of essential affordable software, (you won't find a product costing an arm and a leg in this list) along with a description of each, and a link to the software. This list is indispensable for every Internet junkie surfing the WWW!

ACDSee 2.4 (NOT version 3) This small software program is the fastest ever image browser on the planet. It is capable of displaying almost any kind of image of any format. .jpg,.bmp,.pcx,.tif,.psd, you name it, ACDSee can almost definately open it. Homepage

AX-Icons 4.5 An icon manager/viewer/browser package for creating icons, icon libraries, and for anything icon related. Homepage

TweakUI for Windows Tweak hidden settings of Windows. Search

QuickTime 4.0* Apple's complete multimedia technology. Homepage

Windows Media Player 6.4* Microsoft's media player. It is capable of playing almost every basic multimedia format. .wav, .mpg, .mid, etc. Homepage

WinAmp 2.64* The defacto player for every MP3 listener on the planet! Homepage

RealPlayer G2 Play RealAudio and other Real Media files with this "old", but still definately usable player. Homepage

WinZip 8.0* For all your archiving needs. Homepage

CuteFTP 4.032* For FTP purposes. Homepage

ICQ99b 3.19 Build 2569 Everyone's favourite instant messaging software. Can't use ICQ at uni or work? An alternative would be Yahoo! Messenger. Yahoo! Messenger allows chat requests to be conducted by any proxies HTTP port, unlike ICQ. Basically, if you can see this page, you can use Yahoo! Messenger. (Thank God for Yahoo! Messenger, cos if I didn't have it how on Earth would I be able to keep in touch with Erin? Opps, Sorry for the rambling.)
Yahoo! homepage ICQ homepage

Getright 4.2c* Allows you to resume your downloads. This version includes segmented downloading, maximising full use of your bandwidth. Homepage

MusicMatch Jukebox 5.11.44* The all in one MP3 package for encoding/decoding, ripping CDs and playing. It has the highest quality of MP3 encoding, using the Fraunhofer encoder. Homepage

Star Office Application Suite 5.2* A cross-platform full featured software suite available for free by Sun Microsystems. (How many of you are aware of that, not many I'm sure!) The compatibility of the StarOffice 5.2 suite with MS Office is among the best in the industry, and I recommend this suite if you do not already have an Office suite. Homepage

Last but not least, Quick File Rename* and Data Stash* :-)