That’s usually not a very pleasant thing to do as it takes lots of time to download and install all these programs. The Smart Installer Pack tries to reduce the time it takes to install popular software by providing an interface to download and install dozens of popular software programs.

The program will display a full screen interface after installation that can be used to select some or all of the included software programs which will then be automatically downloaded and installed (one after the other). Included are programs like Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Filezilla FTP Server, Digsby, Skype, RocketDock, Picasa and iTunes among dozens of additional programs.

The latest version of the selected software programs will be downloaded according to the developer’s of Smart Installer Pack. One limitation that is currently in place is that the software programs are listed in groups of eight on individual pages and that it is only possible to download software from one page at a time meaning it is not possible to go through all pages to select all software that should be downloaded and installed.

It is also a good idea to check the version of the programs downloaded with the latest version on the developer’s website (or through an existing update function in the software) to make sure the latest version has indeed been installed.

Smart Installer Pack would be more user friendly if all software programs would be listed on one page to streamline the process and make it more comfortable to the user.

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Probably one of the most important pieces of software you think about when looking to keep your PC healthy is anti-virus software. You have the option of purchasing top of the line software that will provide excellent protection, however unless you’re running a business where damage caused by a virus could be potentially expensive, there are many free anti-virus programs that provide great protection too. Avast! and Avira are two very well regarded anti-virus programs which, if you so desire, you can pay to receive even better protection with their premium versions. If you want even better protection it is recommended you download a spyware and adware removal program, the best ones quite unanimously being Spybot and Ad-Adawre, both free programs as well.

If your PC’s hard disk has Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (or S.M.A.R.T) you can enable it through your PC’s BIOS in order to monitor your hard disk by having it report on factors that affect your hard disk’s reliability. In order to see the results of this you need to download a free program called Active Disk Monitor, which can easily be found through Google or any other major search engine. Installing this will allow you to see the health of your hard disk so you will be able to anticipate failures so that you can purchase a new one and make appropriate backups before you lose all of you data.

Browsing the internet, running programs, deleting files and other typical activities on your PC causes many temporary files to be created on your PC. This can cause your computer to run slow and valuable hard disk space to be taken up. To remedy this there are two easy to use pieces of PC software that you can download and run for free. The first program is known as Clean-Up. Clean-Up will go through your computer and delete many of these unnecessary files and the best part is it works very fast and only requires the press of a button to run. The other program is called CCleaner. This program will also delete those unnecessary temporary files. It is best to run both of them so you can maximize the amount of files that are deleted. CCleaner also has another function though: it will clean up your registry. While having a registry with broken and useless keys doesn’t normally cause a big problem, it doesn’t hurt and sometimes if there are a large amount of problems it can cause problems. Also, to make sure you get rid of as many unnecessary files as possible you can also open up your internet browser, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, and chose to clear the cache, delete cookies and other such things.

Obtaining PC software for maintenance can be a chore at first, but it is very important and in the long run can help yo

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There are whole communities for open source software. These are legally created programs that have been designed by programmers who are tired of the strangle hold certain industry giants have on the market. They are called “open source” because the source code is transparent and can be redesigned by anyone who wants to improve or alter the program. However, if you aren’t a programmer, this isn’t necessary. The programs are constantly being improved. Linux is one such site and program. Linux is a computing platform that replaces Windows. Many consider it to be easier to use than Windows, less cumbersome and of course, it is free.

There are also websites that provide feedback and links to various types of free software. One such site is PC-WORLD. If you navigate to their site and click on “downloads” they have categories like; utilities, anti-virus and security, office, etc. If you click on one of these links you will get a whole list of screened software. Some of the software is for sale, some is “shareware” and some is free. Most of the free programs are just as good as the programs for sale. You should stay away from “shareware” as most of it requires you to sign up for a website or allow tracking cookies to be placed on your computer. Compromising your security isn’t necessary. The free software is usually well written, user friendly and often takes far less of your computers thinking power to operate. For example, there is a search utility called “Agent Ransack”. It is completely free, is tiny compared to Microsoft’s search feature yet does a MUCH better job at quickly searching your computer.

Of course there are the free software programs that are becoming quite famous and are readily available. Internet browsers are the most common because they can easily pay for their development by selling advertising. Mozilla’s Firefox is a very popular free browser. Google Chrome is another. There is a full office suite called Open Office that is becoming more common that replaces Microsoft Office while still being compatible. Open Office provides word processing, a spreadsheet program compatible with Excel, basically everything offered by Microsoft office but it is completely free.

What you get from commercial software is a look. Commercially sold software is almost always bloated and saps computing power because it has a very sharp color scheme and looks really slick. If you aren’t hung up on looks, free software performs as well or often better. And with the more popular free software like Firefox, their graphics are becoming higher and higher quality. One word of caution: When searching for free software, go directly to the download site. Don’t download from the many “free software” sites that offer pages of links. You often have to compromise your privacy or security to use these sites. Find the name of the software then go directly to their site to download directly from the developers. And no matter what, always scan you new software with an anti-virus program before opening and installing it.

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We have already covered two of the applications and would like to recommend a few more that might be interesting to try out. Comparer is a file comparison tool that can compare (among other things) all file properties. File Replicator is another interesting program. It can search for a certain file in a selected folder and replace that file with another one. Think of updating files that reside in multiple locations on the computer’s hard drive.

I do not want to spoil the fun of exploring all those new programs. What you find there is a wide variety of software programs from Notepad++ plugins to cryptographic applications and a dog breeding records keeper. It is definitely worth a visit; And who knows, maybe you find the program there that you have been searching for all of your life.

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It would not be Ghacks if we would not ask you to contribute to that list. The only requirements are that the software has to be free. It does not matter if they are Open Source, freeware or donation ware. If they are free they have a chance to make it on the list.

Asking for names for any kind of software program would make it very hard for us to turn the information into a list. We have therefor decided to divide the process into different articles which will only accept programs of one specific category.

We start with security applications. This can be anything from antivirus programs to antispyware, firewall or process monitors. Yes, some applications fit in more than one category. Name them whenever they fit in so that they can be included in the list.

Please include at least the name of the application. A link to the program’s website would be great and helpful as well. The results will be published at the Computer Software Recommendations article.

So come on. Let us create the best recommended software article ever.

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The manufacturer receives good money from the companies so that they can put their trial versions on the computer.

And so the PC Decrapifier was born. The software program automatically scans a computer and gives the user the option to remove many of the applications that come preinstalled with the computer. The software program is easy to use. The user just to make a few selections, like creating a System Restore Point, before it will present the detected software and tools in a list.

The user may select some or all of the applications in the list to be removed from his computer system. The software program has been designed with ease of use in mind. Even inexperienced users will be able to remove the trial software installed on their system almost effortlessly.

The new version of The PC Decrapifier is a complete rebuild and although it does not feature many additions yet it means that the author will be able to release updates more frequently in the future.

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Zoundry Raven is a portable blog editor that I discovered yesterday at the Download Squad (Welcome Back, btw). It’s compatible to multiple blog plattforms including Wordpress, Typepad but also Blogger and LiveJournal. A total of 24 different blog plattforms are supported currently and chance is that yours is included.

Zoundry Raven asks during installation if it should be installed as a portable blog editor. This would mean that you could install it on a removable drive, for example an USB stick, and use it from there no matter where you go.

Before you can start using it you need to add at least one account to the application. All that needs to be done is to enter a url which will automatically be analyzed by the software. It will detect the blogging plattform that is being used and request login credentials.

After that all (!) posts, images, links and tags get downloaded and it is possible to look through them and open them online. Each post can be edited using the available WYSIWYG editor. One thing that I think is missing is the ability to check all links for broken links, that would be a very valuable feature.

The editor creates a tag cloud that displays all the tags used. A click on a tag loads the articles related to it which can be edited. It is for instance possible to add or remove tags that way as well. (removing tags is not really recommended because the search engines will have a broken link in their index)

The most important part of a blog editor is obviously writing and publishing new blog entries. That’s pretty comfortable as well. You click on the Write button, pick a website, categories, type in title, tags and start writing the article.

Writing an article that way is pretty comfortable and has the advantage that it can be done offline. Publishing the article on the other hand lacks the feature of scheduling that article which is a pretty important feature in my opinion.

Several media storage providers can be added to use additional space for files and images that are embedded in the article. They range from custom ftp accounts to Picasa and Flickr.

Zoundry Raven is a nice and clean blog editor. If you just publish and edit articles you will probably like it. I already mentioned the features that are really missing (link checker and scheduler) which keep me from using it. The link checker would be a huge selling point in my opinion and I believe that many bloggers would install the software program just for that feature alone.

There is no information about compatibility. It runs fine on Windows XP Service Pack 3.

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