Foxit Reader

First out is a little program to open pdf files.You find those files everywhere, thay are common on internet. Those files can be opend with Adobe Acrobat which is free, but that is a big program that takes a while to download and it takes time for it to start when you need it. Foxit Reader is small and fast. This program has been a favorite for many years now. And I still have it installed on most computers I use.

Firefox

Instead of using Internet Explorer you can surf with Firefox. It's easy to install and easy to use. Firefox is known to have less security problems than Internet Explorer and it has some really useful functions. I specially like the way passwords are handled. And I lke the way it handles downloads, I use that a lot :)

Update: There are more and more browsers to choose from, but I still prefer Firefox for most cases. Maybe just because I'm more used to it, and easier find what I'm looking for in the menus, but this is what I use.

Zonealarm

Zonealarm is a firewall. Firewalls are needed to keep your computer safe from attacks. Everyone who is surfing should have some kind of firewall. If you have Windows XP with Servicepack 2 you have Windows built in firewall, but it only gives one way protection. Zonealarm is freeware, protects both ways, and is considerd to be one of the easiest to run.

Zonealarm is still a good, but with Windows 7 you get a firewall that has "leak" protection too. So installing an extra firewall is not all that necessary now. I do still use it in some cases, for more advanced control.

Outpost - No longer in use by me

Another firewall is Outpost. It has a few more options than Zonealarm, and can be a bit more complicated to run, but I have very good experiances from running it. To download the program you have to give a mailadress to recieve a link. I did that, and I have not been spammed.

AVG antivirus

An antivirus program is a must have. Most of them cost money, but there are free alternatives. AVG is free for all home users and has had good results in big tests. It's easy to use. No, you don't get all the functions from a freeware program that you can get when you buy a license, but this is much better than not having any antivirus program at all.

Avast antivirus is another free antivirus program. I use it a lot, I have a number of virtual machines still running Windows XP, and it works very well for those. And also my nostalgic laptop with XP has Avast installed. You have to get a licence for the program after trying it out for one month, but it is quick and easy. They ask you for an email adress, but so far I have never seen any mails from Avast except from the mail with my license. And I have never had any virus on my machines, just a couple of warnings when Avast does it's job and stops suspicious files.

SmartFTP

I no longer have this program installed, I only use Filezilla now. But it can still be downloaded.

SmartFTP is an ftp program that you use to upload or download files from a webserver (like a webpage). The program has been translated to many languages and is free for all private use. If you know how to make a homepage you can handle SmartFTP.

Filezilla

Filezilla is another free ftp program. It's open source and free for all kind of use. Filezilla is the program I used to upload this file.

MWsnap

MWsnap is a program to make screenshots. You can very easily take a screenshot of the whole screen or just a part of it. MWsnap saves the picture automatically for you. I no longer hesitate to take a picture of things on my screen just because it's too much trouble using PrtScr and starting up my graphic program to paste and save. MWsnap makes it easy. The program is translated to many languages.

With better screenshot functions buist into Windows, I no longer use this. I have a Dropbox account, and my screenshots are automatically uploaded there. Very useful.

7-zip

7-zip is a small and quick program that will open zip files and rar files ( and lots of other compressed files) I find it useful for taking care of downloads.