Essential Software (FREE)

"Nothing in life is free" except for some of these essential pieces of software which can transform the way you work on your PC.

Picasa

Picasa is a free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great. Sharing your best photos with friends and family is as easy as pressing a button!

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is the power-packed free, libre and open source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base. Support and documentation is free from the large, dedicated community of users, contributors and developers.

Google Mail

I can't recommend this application enough. Even the free version is more than enough storage for your emails. Superb SPAM filters keep the worst of email away from your inbox and labels group your emails rather than the conventional folders.

CCleaner

CCleaner is a system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Web Developer Extensions

The Web Developer extension adds various web developer tools to a browser. The extension is available for Firefox and Chrome, and will run on any platform that these browsers support including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

OpenDNS

Use OpenDNS to make your Internet faster, safer, and smarter. OpenDNS is the leading provider of free security and infrastructure services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content filtering, anti-phishing and DNS. OpenDNS services enable consumers and network administrators to secure their networks from online threats, reduce costs and enforce Internet-use policies. OpenDNS is used today by millions of users and organizations around the world.

mp3DirectCut

mp3DirectCut is a fast and extensive audio editor and recorder for compressed mp3. You can directly cut, copy, paste or change the volume with no need to decompress your files for audio editing. This saves encoding time and preserves the original quality, because nothing will be re-encoded. The built in recorder creates mp3 on the fly from your audio input. Using Cue sheets, pause detection or Auto cue you can easily divide long files.

Sandboxie

Allows you to run or install software or even simply browse the internet in a virtual space on you computer so that when you close the program nothing will have been saved. Great for if you want to try out software, browse "off piste" or even protect your PC from the children.

PDF-Xchange

Those wishing to View/Modify or perform simple editing of PDF files on their Windows PC's now have a FREE alternative to the Adobe Reader! The PDF-XChange Viewer is smaller, faster and more feature rich than any other FREE PDF Reader/Viewer/Editor available. This version also allows users to try the extended functionality offered by the PDF-XChange Viewer 'PRO' in evaluation mode - for free. No PDF reader or Viewer offers more features than PDF-XChange - or does so without compromising performance and quality, checkout the feature list below and save £100's in unnecessary expenditure.

Spotify

Think of Spotify as your new music collection. Your library. Only this time your collection is vast: over 15 million tracks and counting. Spotify comes in all shapes and size, available for your PC, Mac, home audio system and mobile phone. Wherever you go, your music follows you. The free version is interrupted by ads but you can pay £4.99 to have them removed.

TeraCopy

TeraCopy is designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed. It skips bad files during the copying process, and then displays them at the end of the transfer so that you can see which ones need attention. TeraCopy can automatically check the copied files for errors by calculating their CRC checksum values. It also provides a lot more information about the files being copied than its Windows counterpart. TeraCopy integrates with Windows Explorer's right-click menu and can be set as the default copy handler.