If you’ve just bought a new PC and just can’t wait to load it with useful apps, this handpicked list is a must have.

You might prefer these free-to-use alternatives instead of the popular applications to save a lot of your hard-earned money !

OpenOffice (Alternative of Microsoft Office)

OpenOffice is an open source office suite, available as a free download by SUN Microsystems. It used both commercially and for personal use without worrying about the number of instances installed. The application supports a large number of commonly used office extensions. With a large number of templates, samples and clip arts to download from the site, it is very easy to switch to thisapplication if you are used to the Microsoft Office 97-2003 or XP versions. Link : Download Open Office

AVG (Alternative of Any Premium Antivirus)

Any PC requires a good antivirus program. AVG Antivirus enables you to protect your system from viruses and spyware applications. You require a constant Internet connection to keep theantivirus program updated. AVG provides a Free Version which is the best among the Free Antivirus. Link : Download AVG.

Firefox (Its a Must Have)

Most widely used web browser after Internet Explorer. Fastest According to me. You can enhance the utility of this web browser by adding functional add-ons created by Mozilla and third-party developers. Firefox has many useful features which include tabbed browsing, a built-in spell checker utility, live bookmarking, a download manager, and an integrated search system that allows the users to search from specifically selected search engines. Link : Download Firefox

Peazip (Alternative to Any Archiving Software)

Peazip is a free-to-use file archiving application. PeaZip offers full support to 14 various formats and an additional 23 formats to open, browse, extract and test archived files.Link : Download Peazip. (Also Free Alternatives to WinRAR )

Acrobat Reader (A Must Have)

After the Portable Document Format (PDF) for transferring files in a standard format, Adobe Systems provides Adobe Reader (formerly known as Acrobat Reader) as a free downloadableapplication to view and print PDF files. The application is available for most of the popular operating system, and also for portable devices. Link : Download Adobe

VLC Media Player (Alternative to Windows Media Player)

VLC is a free open source media player. VLC player can play any audio or video files with the user requiring to download and install any codecs or add-on packages. Theapplication is compatible with most of the available popular operating system. It is also the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux. Link : Download VLC

Picasa (A Must have)

If you enjoy digital photography, then this freeware is a must have. Picasa3 enables you to carry out a range of various image related activities, including viewing images, basic image enhancements, importing images from external devices, creating gift CDs, movie clips, making photo collages, taking screenshots and carrying out batch editing of images. Link : Download Picasa

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10 things you should do when your Pc/Laptop/Computer Freezes or Hangs Up .


You are in the middle of doing your work, suddenly you realized your computer hanged up. But the problem is, you have not saved your work! Don’t panic! There is a solution for that! And you can surely save your file! Here’s how:


1. Click on “ctrl-alt-delete” keys. The windows task manager will then open, click on all programs that you don’t need and end the task. You will see that all programs on your taskbar will close one by one. If this will resolve the issue! – then save! (tip# 1: if you’re working on an MS Office application, it will automatically save your file in case the programs suddenly shut down — tip# 2: always save your file at least every 2 minutes by just simply clicking on the “diskette icon”— its just one click!)

2. If it did not resolve the issue, are there some users logged on that computer? If so, go to switch user (for XP) and log off that user, go back to your log on screen and log on again.

The reason the computer hang up is because if there are many open programs and applications, these retains in the memory, if it is too much for the memory to handle, it freezes! Another reason too the computer hang up is because if you are connected to the internet via dial up, and you are running too many applications and opening many websites. So I suggest, if you are multimedia user or a heavy internet user, then you are better off with a higher memory, at least 512Mb of memory.

There are simple ways to avoid computer to freeze or hang up:

3. Clean your history at least once a week >tools>internet options>clear history. I normally set my history to “0”, meaning, when I restart my computer, it doesn’t save history pages that I have visited

4. Delete all internet temporary files >tools>internet options>delete files (do the “offline” content too!)

5. Delete cookies (some do not do this, but I do delete cookies at least once a week!) >tools>internet options>delete cookies

6. Remove unnecessary programs that you no longer use, they are just occupying space and memory! >control panel>add/remove programs

7. Do defragmentation at least once a week >point the mouse to “start” button, then right click “explore”>right click the mouse pointing to drive C (which is usually the main system logical drive) >properties>tools>defragment now

8. You can also check the logical drive’s volume for errors >point the mouse to “start” button, then right click “explore”>right click the mouse pointing to drive C (I repeat, is usually the main system logical drive) >properties>tools>check now

9. It is better to have only one user being logged on. Even if there are many users, make sure the user logs off after using the computer, rather than keeping it logged on and you do the switching of users. Switching users is good as long as you don’t keep all users logged on—I think that is more logical

10. Always shut down properly the computer (do NOT use the power button when turning it off!