Essential Freeware: Best Free Software Of 2013 PART TWO

Before moving on down this list of Best Freeware as we begin 2013, we ought to also say that what we mean by "freeware" is just that, FREE software. No shareware, nothing with a nagging register message, nothing which requires the addition of a toolbar of any kind, or a resetting of your default anything. In case you haven't found out yet, it is best to always read every page of your install programs because even the best purveyors of impermanence (i.e. software makers) like to sneak in little default check boxes and "offers." To qualify for this list the software must be really free.

In fact, the softwares listed here that offer a paid version are the ones you should bother to buy if you want to support good, honest, and useful software. Compare any of these to their competitors and you'll find out that the difference in quality is not worth the difference in price. Nobody is paying us to make these determinations either. Be wary of many sites claiming to offer "the best" lists when really they are promoting a product, dishonestly. But far most of you will find this list useful because you don't want to spend a dime on any software of any kind. You want the stuff that came with your computer and whatever is necessary to do what you want to do. In the future, be advised, some of the products even listed here will become pay-to-use, at which time they will be removed from the list. We will also review suggestions for the list, and so together we can keep this list up to date with the best completely free software of the year.

II. Internet And Web Freeware

There are many choices, many of which we have yet to look at, when it comes to free internet apps. Our recommendations are therefore tentative and right now going through changes. For example:

1. Maxthon Web Browser is something we are using right now and giving it the beating we usually bestow upon the other more popular browsers. Everyone seems to like it, and once you get the hang of where everything is it is just as easy to us as those other browsers. To tell you best why we are thinking of staying with Maxthon, let's offer some comparisons.

-Firefox: Firefox, to be blunt, has gotten bloated and is too often unreliable. Glitches and hangs Firefox used to be known for avoiding have now found their way into it somehow. This is not to say Maxthon has none, all browsers have strengths and weaknesses, but considering the work history you would think Firefox would have no problem staying on top of the game. As is, Firefox is in danger of dropping to third or even fourth choice. Why?

• Firefox's popup blocker is not very effective and even when it is it is intrusive. Maxthon's is much more effective, controllable, and non-intrusive.
• Firefox requires plugins and updates for just about everything, like java and flash. Java, flash, and several other useful tools come preloaded into Maxthon.
• Firefox often redirects to update messages. Maxthon has never done that, yet.
• Firefox has many available third party plugins and extensions to enhance browsing experience and tailor it to your preferences. Maxthon does not have as many, but what it does have is all better tested. We haven't needed much of anything.

Firefox requires you download 3rd party plugins for screen grabbing and movie downloading. Maxthon allows the user to view and save nearly all media on every page we've ever been to, and this ability is built-in. We don't want to rag on Firefox, it has been my personal browser of choice for years. I loved being able to restore all my windows after a shutdown, having a pop-up blocker that somewhat worked, and all the cool gadgets you could add to it. But the fact is that from what we've seen from Maxthon so far, it does everything Firefox does, with less weight and less need for complementary add-ons. As far as speed goes, Maxthon claims to be up to 200% faster than even Google Chrome, and while we wouldn't say we've seen that kind of speed, it holds its own and indeed might be faster, all in all, than any of them.

Google Chrome should probably be #1 at this time, it is a good solid browser, but it is a natural born tracker and puts a lot of stuff on your computer. It is also too big with many unnecessary elements. It also feeds the beast, if you know what I mean.

Finally, don't believe most of the 'browser comparison" pages you read on the internet. At least a dozen I know that actually mention Maxthon's cite "lack of features" about features which it has. You CAN save and manage your passwords, in fact do just about everything you can do with Firefox or Google. This chart is the most accurate I've seen if you want to look at comparisons, while one like this or this should be avoided because of misinformation. NOTE that there are several versions, download the "Cloud" version only if you use such things. Maxthon 3 is the one you want, here. Give it a try, it's a small download and quick, easy install.

2. Filezilla is a lightweight, effective, grandfathered-in free staple for transferring files. There are many competitors, several also free, but none of them we've tested matches the reliability and ease of use for our purposes.

3. Mozilla Thunderbird is what I'm using for my email right now, it is stable, very configurable for multiple mailboxes, and fast to use. Offline mail readers are becoming a thing of the past, I find one indispensable for running any website venture. We'd like some opinions here, if you think you can beat the 'bird.

4. uTorrent is our choice for downloading torrents and magnet links. BE CAREFUL where you get this file, as any bad reports about uTorrent have come from users who have downloaded corrupt or adulterated files. My version is an older one, which you ought to try and get, since some users are saying the newest version no longer allows selective downloading of files within the torrent. Mine has no problem and runs like a champ. Download it here to be safe.


5. Metrotwit is a good app if you like the Twitter, it is just as good as any I've tried, feature-loaded, and completely free.

III. Security

1. Comodo Internet Security
These days by far the most virus and malware infections come to users through the internet. Remember the days of free Cyberhawk, that software that would patrol your computer and notify you if anything tried to change it? Well it went pay-to-use, and what became of it then I have no clue. In the interim we've tried AVG and other free anti-virus programs but found them all to be either drawing serious CPU power constantly, or being not too preventative at stopping viruses. As if the anti-virus situation is not bad enough for the free software, even the ones people pay for like Norton have been beaten by malware time and again.

One wonders whether conspiracy theorists who say it is the anti-virus makers producing the viruses might be onto something. This is because 90+% of people who get something malicious on their PC got it while running anti-virus protection, whether free or paid. Clearly, anti-virus programs are not as effective as they claim to be. For over two years, because of this, I went with no anti-virus at all, and I experienced no more malware than when I was running one. I kept my internet cache clean after every use.

Then I came across Comodo, which does everything Cyberhawk once did, even better. They offer everything from a free killer firewall that has yet to be beat and is really all you need, to a full-fledged anti-virus and anti-malware system. You can update the databases automatically if that is important to you, or you can do it manually as you wish. The program announces through a pop-up when something is attempting to access or change anything on your computer without your permission. Even if a virus or malware entered your system, say via a shared disk, drive, or other media, with this system it would never be allowed to do any damage.

Now it is possible that Comodo has been effective because it has not been the direct target of malware producers. But the way it works, it is extremely difficult to conceive a virus passing through and affecting your system, at least via the internet. Comodo looks good, doesn't get in anything's way or slow anything down, and once it's running you won't even know it. Give it a shot.

2. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is what you get to periodically scan your computer just in case Comodo missed something. There are many free malware scanners, I have found personally that Malwarebytes picks up things and remnants that many of the others miss. It's another small download and worth its weight in virtual gold.

Next part, some useful free programs for productivity and fun.

Essential Freeware: Best Free Software Of 2013 PART ONE

We're not really cheap by nature around here, but we are against stupidity, and paying for something you can get for free qualifies as being stupid. Don't be a stupid sheep! Our first post is a list of the best freeware and free software we can find for the computer. Used correctly these programs can also help you speed up your PC, and so this list is more involved than most will be as it is in essence also a PC tune-up kit. Save lots of money, speed up your PC, and still get the best, or nearly the best, software for free legally.

This is Part One of a series. Our evaluations come from running these softwares on Windows 7 systems (both 32 and 64 bit) with between 2 and 16 megs of RAM. Most of these programs have options for other operating systems and devices but we have not tested those. We invite contrary opinion as long as it concerns, for this article, Windows systems only. We're willing to put any truth to the test but those tests must always compare oranges to oranges.

Please also note that unlike some future lists this one is UNRANKED in that these programs aren't being compared to each other, but to other comparable freeware and commercial software.

I. SYSTEM UTILITIES
It really makes no sense when your computer is loaded with RAM, and has triple the processor power needed to go to the moon, but still runs slow as dirt. A lot of the reason for this is junk that stays on your computer and unnecessary startup entries.

Before getting to the programs, we should state that as a general rule we have found it is best to TURN OFF ALL AUTOMATIC UPDATES. Despite the silly warnings and reasons often given for using them, in order for them to run they must be listed in task manager and so at all times use CPU resources whether running or not. When these auto-updaters run, often to check for new versions on every startup, they can often hang, causing problems for the rest of the system. These automatic updates also provide the vendor of the software with marketing and usage information, often without the user's permission. WE DO recommend you do MANUAL UPDATES on all your software periodically, however, especially those that deal with system protection and prevention of malware. So, WHENEVER you install software MAKE SURE you check that it is not set to update itself automatically. Thinking you have to do so is one of the biggest scams in computerdom.

We also recommend you delete any unnecessary programs from your computer using Windows-Programs and Features-Uninstall. We've spent hours just taking garbage and unnecessary bloatware off of brand new PCs.

Also, as for those programs which start up when your computer starts, namely those under the user-run registry keys, these SHOULD BE LEFT TO A MINIMUM. Which brings us to our first recommendation in this category.

1. CODESTUFF STARTER is always one of the first things we install on every computer. Starter is a nice small free front end to access system settings, it is clean and easy to navigate. Download this program and you will see all those things presently running on your computer, and those things which start up when you start your computer. The first thing you should do is look at those "Run On Startup" programs REALLY HARD and disable or, preferably, DELETE from your startup just about everything. Keep your antivirus if you so choose, and your necessary system applications like cameras and peripherals, but remove everything else. This of course does not delete the programs, and you can run them manually anytime you want by simply clicking their icons. Using your programs this way both decreases boot time and frees up system resources, at the cost of a mere double-click.

On a side note, even after installing Codestuff and deleting unnecessary items, you still ought to do a CTRL-ALT-DEL just to see what is still running automatically on your PC after reboot is completed. I think using this program you'll begin to see why your monster machine runs more like a 486.

2. PIRIFORM CCLEANER is another must-install on any new PC. CCleaner is small in size and effective, and though it provides an option to save any registry changes, I have yet had to use that option, and so it is also safe to run. CCleaner, when run, scans your computer for unneeded temporary files and deletes them. It also does a good job finding and repairing registries. If you want to empty your caches for your browsers it does this as well. Just a good program to have and run now and then, especially if your browser is acting strange, it could be something loaded into your cache that will return until it is deleted. CCleaner can do that for you.

3. FAST DUPLICATE FILE FINDER is a great tool that very quickly scans selected folders and/or drives for duplicate files. This is especially useful if you collect a lot of media. The user can choose percentage of similarity as well. Allows easy viewing of duplicate files so you can make sure the files are really the same.

Download these programs and let them do their thing. Remember to turn off the automatic updates. If you have followed the advice in this post you should already see a noticeable difference in your PC speed. We'll move on to Part Two in the next post.