Recently, we've posted a few sites of good freeware. Rather than being a download site, this cool 3-part post recommends freeware broken down by category. We hope it's helpful. After recommending some basic security applications (like spyware and antivirus programs), applications are broken down into Multimedia, The Web, Everything Else, System Tools, Internet, Security, and Other. Read the authors recommendations and tell us what you think and use.
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Using Windows XP without those nifty little freeware programs is not a good idea. When you run it out of the box it is slow, offers many features no one needs, lacks many that everyone needs and raises privacy concerns that can only be fixed using third party tools. This is basically a listing of programs that I install everytime I setup Windows XP on a computer, the must have freeware utilities in my opinion.
I decided to keep the list small and divide it into two parts. The first part deals with all the tools, mostly security related that everyone should have on his computer that is running Windows XP, the second part, which will be an article of its own, deals with tools that are nice to have and a great asset to every XP installation.
I always start with security related tools which is IMHO the best approach. Fix the security concerns and concentrate on everything else afterwards. I start with AntiVir which is a great free anti virus tool that can be scheduled to update itself on a regular basis. Once Antivir is up and running I install XP Antispy which disables the phone home options that are built into windows xp...
