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Expensive Christmas? Free New Year!
Many of us will have found that the Christmas period has left our pockets a little light of cash, so I thought this would be a good time to inform you of loads of free software available. What's the catch? There is none.
Free Antivirus: AVG Free
AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements).
Verdict:
A really good basic level of protection against viruses. Really simple to install and updates by itself. No excuse not to have antivirus on your PC when this is available for free. Can be tricky to remove a virus once you've got one, and the level of security isn't as tight as the market leaders (eg. Norton), hence 4 stars.
Free Antispyware: Windows Defender or Spybot Search & Destroy
Windows Defender is a free program from Microsoft that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected. It has little impact on your system's performance and causes minimum interruption.
Free Antispam: SPAMfighter
Fed up with spam? This really is the answer. I've tried out a number of antispam programs (mostly paid-for) and beats them all hands down. It is exceedingly good at correctly identifying spam and pops them into a separate folder for inspection before you delete them. You get the Pro version for 30 days after which the program reverts automatically to the Standard version. There are only a few minor differences, the main one being the license (Pro version includes company/organization license).
Free Firewall: ZoneAlarm
Easy-to-use firewall blocks hackers and other unknown threats. Remember that Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista include their own firewalls (one-way firewall in XP SP2).
Free Backup Software: EZBack-it-up
EZBack-it-up is designed to be very easy to learn and use. It is not an archival tool that compresses all your files and folders into one file, but instead, it copies your data to a destination of your choice where you can readily access your backed up files any time you need. All directory structure is preserved and you can optionally choose to delete files from the target that are not in the source. EZBack-it-up also includes a built-in scheduler for automatic backups!
Free Photo Album & Photo Editor: Picasa
Picasa 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 organised by date with folder names you will recognise. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organised.
Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures – you can import, email, and print photos direct from Picasa, make gift CDs, and even post pictures to your own blog.
Free Office Suite: Open Office
All the above free software can be found here.
Password Hell! Security is Key.
How many passwords do you have? I have about a million, and they're all different. It's a good idea to keep different passwords for different websites for better security - you never know who might have access to them at the other end! You wouldn't want to use the same password for your online banking, your email account and some other random website, just in case of a security breach - it would be like giving out your skeleton key!
So instead you have lots of different passwords, but how do you remember them all? Write them down? But this is also dangerous especially if you carry your password list with you! So here's a tip: Split your password into 2 parts. The first part (the 'Key') is common to all your passwords and is never written down - this part you remember. The second part is unique to each website and is the part you write down in your list. If someone gets hold of your password list they won't have access to anything because they won't have the Key.
Eg. First Part or 'Key' (remembered) = elmbridge
| Description |
Actual Password |
What your Password List says |
| Login for Email |
elmbridge1754 |
Email = 1754 |
| Login for Online Banking |
elmbridge7408 |
Online Banking = 7408 |
| Login for Random Website |
elmbridge3796 |
Random Website = 3796 |
Any decent website will allow you to change your website online with ease. Remember, Security is Key.
Every little drop helps!
When your printer gets low on ink you might get a warning message on your PC warning you of that fact and advising you to change the cartridge. Well, don't change it straight away! Keep printing until it runs out. You'll find that most printers will go on printing for some time before the cartridges are actually empty!
Remember - you can send your used cartridges to us for recycling. Just post to us here.
“Your antivirus subscription has expired” - Renew or Upgrade?
If you're using a paid-for antivirus program such as Norton Antivirus (as opposed to the free security programs such as AVG Free and Windows Defender) then once a year you'll be faced with the prospect of renewing for another year. If you don't renew, your antivirus will not download protection updates for new viruses that emerge. Usually you are offered a "Renew" button which directs you to the antivirus company's renewal page, but this is where it can get confusing. You are often offered 2 or 3 options:
- RENEW for 12 months (keeps your current security program up-to-date for another 12 months)
- UPGRADE to the new version of your software (eg. Norton Antivirus 2007 becomes Norton Antivirus 2008)
- UPGRADE to a different version of your software boasting more features and utilities (eg. Norton Antivirus 2006 becomes Norton 360)
Although options 2 and 3, to upgrade, may seem attractive (they are usually recommended on the renewal page), my advice is to simply renew so long as your current antivirus is only a year or two old. A couple of reasons for this: First, it's quick! To renew takes a couple of minutes whereas to upgrade involves uninstalling the old product and installing the new one and hence is much more time consuming and has a greater chance of going wrong. Second, within the last few months we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of customers who have experienced considerable problems with their PCs after installing the upgraded security. So for those reasons, so long as your current antivirus is only a year or two old, consider simply renewing rather than upgrading.
BT's Digital Vault - 1GB Free Online Storage
BT's Digital Vault is well worth considering for backing up your most important documents. It's probably not enough storage space for all your photos or music but it should be enough space for your Office documents (eg. Word, Excel & PowerPoint files). It's quite easy to use and you can even allow shared access to files/folders of your choice. The downside it that it is not an automatic backup - you'll have to remember to upload files - but you can upgrade to the paid-for version (currently £4.99 per month) which offers a very simple automatic backup and 20GB of storage - not a bad deal at all. Alternatively you can purchase a backup drive from our eShop.
Best value laptop from our eShop:
Toshiba Satellite Pro 40-15A, 15.4" Screen - £309.99
Key Features:
- Celeron M 530 1.73GHz Processor
- 512MB Memory
- 80GB Hard Disk Drive
- DVD Super-Multi Drive
- Wireless Built-In
- Windows Vista Basic
- Eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery
Find this laptop under "Laptops - Toshiba" in our eShop.
Ideas for Christmas!
Shrek The Third (Shrek 3) - £19.99 £8.98 Buy
Released 26-11-2007.
"Don't Stop Me Now"
By Jeremy Clarkson - £20.00 £10.00 Buy
AVG Internet Security 7.5 - £49.99 £35.99 Buy
Antivirus, Antispyware, Firewall, Antispam. Fast & Reliable.
New Apple iPod shuffle 1GB Silver - £44.99 Buy
Pentax Pentax Optio E20 Digital Camera - £66.43 Buy
6.0 Mega pixels, 3x Optical Zoom, 2.4" LCD Display.
Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 - £89.98 £72.99 Buy
Installs on 3 PCs, includes Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Mac OS X Leopard - £85.00 £79.98 Buy
New Apple iPod nano 4GB silver - £90.47 Buy
Nintendo DS Lite Handheld Console (Pink) - £99.99 £94.98 Buy
Acer 20" CrystalBrite Widescreen Monitor - £119.99 Buy
TomTom ONE V3 Great Britain Christmas Cracker Edition - £127.00 Buy
Apple iMac MA710B/A - £634.92 Buy
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz, 512MB, 160GB, 17"TFT, Combo/GMA950 |
