Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative offer the same playback functionality as the original products of Apple and Real Networks but use fewer resources and have no running background tasks at all. Both install a version of media player classic on your system, a lightweight version of Microsofts media player that loads and runs faster than Microsofts newest player with support of all file formats that the media player is able to play.

Watching DVDs might be a problem if you are only using Microsofts Media Player 8 or 9 on your computer. Both players are not able to play DVDs without third party plug ins. You could update to Media Player 10 but that is something that we would like to avoid. A freeware alternative is the great VLC Media Player which is able to playback DVDs and most other formats out there at the moment. If you are looking for an universal video playback utility VLC media player might be just what you are looking for.

The Adobe Reader loads many plug ins at start which might slow down or even hang the system for a while. One alternative would be to remove the unwanted plug ins or to use the Foxit PDF Reader which offers the same functionality but is lightning fast.

Adobe Photoshop is great, no doubt about that. It is very expensive as well. You could try the GIMP instead which is able to read psd files. GIMP is the freeware alternative to Photoshop.

I´am using Nero to burn my Cd’s and DVDs which is a great program but it is not free and it has many functions that I will never ever use in my whole life. A freeware alternative is CD Burner XP Pro which is fast and offers everything a CD burning program should be capable off.