Free (and Legal) Software For You to Use By Tom Krauser Here are a few of the free programs that you can download for your personal use. They are legal and free for you to install. Note that some may have restrictions for non-personal use. NOTE: When installing software be careful to read the screens that have software offers on them. Many of the free software offers want to install other products as part of the installation process. It is not that these additional software products are bad but you just may not want them on your computer. During the installation process, look for windows with check boxes or Accept/Decline buttons to ensure you are not installing software products you may not want. Sometimes you have to read the screens very carefully to see how to “decline” the offer to install the additional software. Some examples of this are free software that wants to install the “Ask” search engine and make it your default search engine or it may want you to install a weather program or Google Chrome. If you do accidentally install these products you can always uninstall them later using the Settings/Control Panel to remove them. Also, look for check boxes that want you to install the “trial” version of the software because after the “trial” period is over it will start asking you to upgrade and pay for the real version. Some of the free software will install the “trial” version then allow you to switch to the free version after the trial period is over. CAUTION: Also, due to the way some viruses are installed you may want to go directly to a trusted site to install updates instead of installing through the pop-up that says an update is available. For example, one virus is a “fake” Adobe Flash software update. It tells you that Adobe Flash (used for videos) needs to be updated and to click on the window to update it. It could actually be a virus that will download and install when you click on the Install button. You should go directly to the Adobe site ( www.adobe.com ) to install the latest Flash version. The same thing applies for updating Java ( www.java.com ). See discussion on Adobe Flash and Java later. NOTE: The Ninite.com site can be used to download most of the following programs and many others automatically for you. See description of Ninite.com site later. Browsers A “browser” is the software interface that you use to connect your PC to the internet. It provides the Graphical User Interface (GUI) that connects to a website and lays out the web page for your viewing. Windows operating systems automatically come with Internet Explorer (IE) (before Windows 10) and Windows 10 comes with Microsoft Edge (which replaced Internet Explorer but which is still available on a Windows 10 PC under Windows Accessories). Many people confuse the “browser” with the website it opens on the internet. For example, if the browser opens the Google Search website, many people think their browser is Google even though the actual browser opening the search window was Microsoft IE, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or any number of available browsers. You should have more than one internet browser installed. If Internet Explorer (IE)/Edge is your only installed browser and IE/Edge gets a virus or corrupted you may have no way to get to the internet to find a repair for IE/Edge or update virus scan info. You also may find you like one of the following browsers better than IE/Edge and you can make it your “default” browser. There are many more browsers you can install besides those listed below and most of them are free. Mozilla Firefox: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ Google Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/ Apple Safari: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1531 The following link does a review of some popular browsers by PC Magazine: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1815833,00.asp Anti-Virus Programs NOTE: You should only be using one anti-virus program at a time. Using more than one antivirus program at a time can cause conflicts with each other. You should uninstall any anti-virus programs you are not using. The following article from PC Magazine has a review of some free anti-virus programs: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp The Editors choice’s in this review were AVAST and AVG. Another article reviewing free anti-virus software is the following: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-antivirus,review-2588-5.html There are many more reviews of free anti-virus software. To find some of them type “free anti-virus software 2017” in the search window. Try to pick reviews from known sources such as PC Magazine, CNET, etc. AVAST Free http://www.avast.com/en-us/index AVAST works with all versions of Windows including Windows XP SP3. AVG Free http://www.avg.com/us-en/homepage AVG works with all versions of Windows including Windows XP SP3. Comodo Anti-Virus http://www.komando.com/downloads/2169/a-full-featured-free-security-suite/2 Windows Defender Windows Defender is free from Microsoft comes built into the Windows 8 and Windows 10 operating systems. Probably due to anti-trust reasons it usually may not be active if a trial version of another anti-virus is installed on the new computer. You can uninstall the trial anti-virus software and Windows Defender will automatically become active. This is the same program as Microsoft Security Essentials used on earlier versions of Windows. A little confusion exists because Windows Defender was also in Windows Vista and Windows 7 but descriptions say that it was only for malware and not an anti-virus program. It seems strange that Microsoft used the same name for that program if it has different functionality in different versions of Windows. So for Vista and 7, to be safe, you should use another anti-virus program. Microsoft Security Essentials Microsoft Security Essentials can be downloaded free from Microsoft at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5201 This is a free anti-virus program from Microsoft. It is used on Windows 7 and Vista. It no longer works with XP but you can use AVG or AVAST on Windows XP. Malware Software Malware are programs that are not considered viruses but can have very detrimental effects on your computer. They can hijack your browser or start downloading programs you do not want. They can redirect your browser to unwanted websites or give pop-up ads you do not want to see. Many anti-virus programs do stop/catch malware but the following programs seem to find malware that the anti-virus programs miss. Malwarebytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/ The free version of this program has to be run manually and is not real time (after the 14 day trial ends) unless you purchase the paid version. This program finds malware that others don’t seem to find. After installation, under Settings/Detection and Protection check the box for Scan for rootkits. Under Settings/Update Settings change the “Notify if database is out of date” setting to 1 day. After the trial ends you can select to continue using the Free Version. You may also want to download Spybot below for additional protection. SuperAntiSpyware http://www.superantispyware.com/ Select free edition of SuperAntiSpyware or you can go to www.Ninite.com and check box for SuperAntiSpyware and let Ninite download and install for you. This program is supposed to remove a lot more tracking cookies and other malware/spyware than many other programs. Spybot https://www.safer-networking.org/private/ Spybot is very useful to get rid of malware that other programs may not detect. It has found malware using Spybot that even Malwarebytes did not detect. You can download both Malwarebytes and Spybot since both are manually run and do not interfere with each other. They can even be run at the same time as each other and while your anti-virus program is performing a scan. Make sure you click the free version and not the paid or trial version. Utility downloads and useful information websites Ninite Website https://ninite.com/ This website has been recommended as a website where you can download many of the programs listed in this article plus many more that are supposed to be malware free. You can select several programs by checking their box and the site will automatically download/install them for you. They are suppose to be the latest versions and the site says it selects the options for you including de-selecting unwanted add-ons such are toolbars or extra junk. It downloads the programs from the official publisher’s site. Kim Komando website http://www.komando.com/ This website gives a lot of useful info and safe downloads. You can search the site for downloads you desire. Some downloads may only be able to be downloaded if you belong to her club but many downloads can be accessed by everyone. CNET website www.cnet.com This site gives a lot of information and safe downloads for all kinds of programs. It also gives a lot of reviews of different software that you may find useful. Belarc Advisor http://www.belarc.com/en/products_belarc_advisor This program tells you all about your PC and programs on it. It will give you the license numbers for software and types of hardware you have including models and versions.