Geek Stuff: Better Free Programs for your computer!

There are many programs out there that cost a lot of money and are really unnecessary. These programs might serve some purpose, but sometimes you buy them and then you realize how crappy they are.  Free programs are also another group that suck because they are full of ads everywhere just because they are free, but the worst part of it all is that they take a lot of memory to run. We have put together a list of useful PC applications that will make your computer run smoother and even faster.  These programs have been tested  so don’t worry they work and have no viruses on them.

We are going to start with utilities, games and miscellaneous software that we all use.

CD Burning software that costs money is unnecessary

There are a ton of CD/DVD burning software, but most of it runs in the background and it’s not that you can’t disable some of it, but because the software comes with a ton of unnecessary features the users tend to get their computers a bit slower an within time is slower by the day. Instead of using something like a Roxio or Nero which are good programs if you have the memory for them try the following alternatives.

Solution: ImgBurn, CDBurnerXP, InfraRecorder

PDF Readers online and Offline

Acrobat Reader by Adobe yeah it may seem like they are ok, but Acrobat reader takes too much time to load and not everyone has the fanciest computer with this bad economy. When adobe acrobat reader came out a few years back they were not as slow as they have gotten and because it is an utility it should be a lot faster.

Solution: Sumatra PDF Reader or Fox It Reader

Internet web Browsers

Browsing the internet doesn’t have to be such a hard thing, but it is.  Firefox is our favorite browser and we still use it, but we have noticed that the original versions were much better and stable. An earlier version such as 3.0 which you can get here courtesy of oldversion.com works just fine, but just don’t upgrade it unless you the new version is a big one. Internet explorer is pretty much a joke even with the new versions that they update it’s just awful and should only be used if you have no other one.

Solution: Google Chrome, Seamonkey, Mozilla Firefox 3.0, Safari for Windows

Instant Messenger services online and offline

AIM, Yahoo. Windows Live and others are good services because they help you keep in touch with loved ones, but sometimes depending on the computer there being used they take a ton of memory and resources from your PC. They slow up the start up process on the computer and if you have the settings that start the program automatically then that slows things up even more. The nice thing about these alternative programs is that some of them also work with facebook, myspace messenger in addition to many more so check them out below.

Solution: Digsby, Miranda, Pidgin, Meebo [web], Trillian

Antivirus, Spyware programs that work better and faster!

Virus protection is a big problem these days the whole yearly subscription can be a hassle because you have to update it every year if you are to have a functioning computer. Norton Anti-Virus is probably the most annoying one with their new data service coming up every second to remind you that there is an error and that it is important for you to fix it by basically buying more stuff. McAfee is a bit better and less annoying unless it feels that you have to press the fix button 50 freaking times.

Solution: AVG Security or Avast

iTunes and Sync software for iPods & mp3 players

When it comes to sync and playing your favorite tunes you need programs that work fast and don’t slow up or suddenly stop. Surprising programs that are already on your computer might work faster than any sync program out there. Windows Media Player 11 is a fast one these days although it should be faster its fast enough for me,

Solution: foobar2000,  Songbird, Winamp, Windows Media Player

And here are the rest…

These other programs are cool programs that we sometimes use as better solutions to many things and they are also the most affordable.

Daemon Tools an ISO emulation program that was free, but now you have to pay for it. The replacement of Daemon Tools is: Gizmo

Adobe Photoshop used to be a nice program, but it’s too expensive and if you don’t have the latest version forget it. The replacements for Photoshop are Paint.net and Gimp

Apple Quicktime and RealPlayer are really primitive and there are codecs that help you play their files on you Windows Media Player. The Replacements for Quicktime are: Codec Guide and K-Lite Codecs

Winzip. Winrar, Winace were nice when they came out, but that was a long time ago we now can extract zip, rar and other files can be easily done. The  Replacement for them are: 7Zip and AllZip

Anything that you would like to add send us a quick tip at  tips@twistedjunk.com