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85 Free Apps that will Save you Thousands of Dollars

cm@vitamincm.com (Christopher Masiello) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:15:19 +0000

Save Tons of Cash with the Best Free Software

OVERVIEW: You can replace the most expensive applications on a typical computer with excellent, free software and internet services and never miss a beat.

Why Pay More?

Equipping your computer with the software that you need to get everything done can be insanely expensive. However, you don’t need to put off your retirement to have a very effective computer that is loaded with everything you need. You don’t need to by the most expensive apps to take care of occasional things. I compiled a list of ways to replace the most expensive software that typically sits on most people’s home or work computers.

The software will be organized into the following categories:

Productivity
Communication
Multimedia
System Utilities
Development / Programming / Blogging

The bulk of the software costs addressed here are created by two main suites: Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 ($679) and Adobe Creative Suite 4 ($1,800 – $2,500). The reason they cost the most is simple; they are each packed with several of the most highly used applications. Professionals from accountants to artists, project managers to photographers all rely on them every day to add value to what they are paid to do.

There are also several “standalone” applications that I have targeted ranging from a few dollars to several hundred. Again, many professionals swear by these tools.

Important Disclaimer: I am not suggesting replacing all of your most “mission critical” software in favor of the free options listed here. If you are a professional Graphic Designer, or Certified Public Accountant, ponying up the money for Photoshop or Excel is the cost of doing business. I am saying that a CPA does not need to spend $600 to tweak the pictures of their kids soccer game and a Graphic Designer does not need to pay for Microsoft Excel to track their fantasy baseball league.

Productivity

This is the most important and most expensive category of software for most people are productivity applications. You can’t have a computer without Microsoft Office (or Apple’s iWork), right? Think again. There are so many viable alternatives available that I have stopped counting.
re is what we are talking about replacing:

Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, InfoPath, Groove, OneNote, Publisher (Outlook handles email, contacts, calendar, and tasks. It will be covered in the Communication section.)

Microsoft Visio – Flowchart and diagraming tool.

Microsoft Project – The industry standard project management tool.

Microsoft OneNote – Very useful note taking application.

Adobe Acrobat Professional – The ability to create, open, edit, and combine files into PDFs. (This is part of $2,100 +/- Adobe Creative Suite which is covered in the Media section.)

Intuit Quicken – The king of the hill in personal finance software.

Integrated Office Suites

Open Office – An open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also open and create Microsoft Office files. It’s not quite as good as the “real thing”, but it works fine on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. It also has a host of plugins that extend its functionality.

Web Based Office Suites – Who says you even have to load any software to your computer? Several web-based office suites allow you to open, create, download, and share documents, presentations and spreadsheets right from your browser.

The most impressive feature of these web-based suites is the real-time collaboration abilities. I have been on a conference call where 5 people were all updating cells in a spreadsheet at the same time. Everybody gets a different color and you see it happen instantly. Plus, they have great mobile version of their tools that can be used on your phone. While there are a lot of choices, the two that have impressed me the most are Google Documents and Zoho Applications.

Google Documents is very tightly integrated with other Google services. You can create documents online and download them to your desktop or vice-versa. You can also store and share just about any other type of files there too. If you”re a Gmail user, you get the option of opening email attachments right in your browser.

Zoho Applications has an impressive collection of well integrated applications. Aside from the core docs, spreadsheet, and slide shows, you get the following: email, calendar, planner, chat, online meetings like Webex, database, project management, billing and invoicing, CRM, and a bunch of other applications. (Some of the business apps have a cost associated, but nothing compared to what their competition charges.) If all of that is not enough, they even integrate seamlessly with third party applications. This is about as close to Microsoft Office as you will find anywhere.

If you are not sure whether you should use a desktop or web-based office suite, you should just do both. Open office has plugins that allow you to open and save your online Google and Zoho documents directly from the File> Save menu. And if you do spring for Microsoft Office, there are similar plugins for that too.

What Office applications are missing? Visio, Project, Note Taking, and Publisher

Flow Chart Creation

Some times a picture is worth a thousand words. Just not a thousand bucks.

Gliffy allows you to create and share beautiful diagrams and flow charts just like Visio.

Dia can create very sophisticated drawings and diagrams.

Cade is a compact but powerful 2D vector editor for Windows. It includes basic Visio functionality and could be used to create diagrams, network diagrams, flowcharts, schemas, maps and so much more.

Project Management

Who needs Microsoft Project? This article breaks down The 10 Best Free Online Project Management Applications. If you can’t find a winner here, you probably shouldn’t be managing projects any way.

Note Taking – With all of this productivity going on, you have to keep track of it. Microsoft OneNote is nice, but there is a waaaaay better free option out there.

Evernote – Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Visit my Evernote tutorial to see how useful it can be.

Zoho also has a nice note taking application that is completely online.

Desktop Publishing

You may need to replace the features that Microsoft Publisher or Adobe InDesign have.

Scribus – A free desktop publishing application with native versions available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Scribus has broad feature set of page layout features that comparable to leading commercial applications such as Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign, and able to prepare files for professional quality image setting equipment. It can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms.

Working with Adobe PDFs

Let’s face it Adobe Acrobat SUCKS. Every new version makes it suck even more. It’s slow, bloated, buggy, and the good stuff (creating and converting) costs extra. Well these three gems will help you shed the fat when you read PDFs and save some money when you need to create them.

Foxit PDF Reader – Love PDFs, but hate the bloat of Adobe Acrobat? I thought so. Foxit will open your PDF files so fast, you’ll wonder why anyone would ever use Acrobat. Get hours of your life back.

CutePDF Writer – If you need to create PDF files from your documents and don’t want to shell out for Acrobat Pro, then get CutePDF Writer. This installs on your system as a Printer. Then, you can turn any printable information from any application on your computer into a perfect PDF.

Free PDF to Word Converter – Now that you can convert any documents into PDFs, you’re probably wondering how to convert PDF files into an editable format to work with them.

Put it all together to be a PDF guru.

If you use a Mac, you can use the Preview app to do most of the PDF steps listed above. See this tutorial by MacLife.com for instructions.

Finances

Raise your hand if you or someone you know uses Quicken or MS Money to track their finances and expenses. This is another area that we would never have considered doing online a few years ago. The fact is, you can get your bank on from anywhere these days. My grandmother does it, so what’s stopping you?

Mint – Who needs quicken when you can securely store it all in the cloud and get to it from anywhere?

Communication

Communication is a critical function that your computer facilitates. Microsoft Outlook and its supporting services are the centerpiece of the typical enterprise communication infrastructure. (Lotus Notes if your company just hates you.) Outlook handles Email, Contacts, Calendaring, Task/To Do Management, RSS Feeds, and basic Instant Messaging. You will also need some type of phone system and tools to manage it. When you’re done with all that, you might just want to ask your Facebook and Twitter friends where they are going for drinks.

Let’s see how you can replace all of that functionality for free.

Desktop Outlook Replacement

You will need a tool that sits at the heart of your communication hub. The closest free desktop tool to Microsoft Outlook is Mozilla’s Thunderbird.

Thunderbird – If you use Microsoft Outlook at work and would like to manage your personal email, contacts, and schedule then Thunderbird is for you. You’ll need to install the Lightning Calendar application to have scheduling too. It’s not quite Outlook, but it’s pretty darn good for free.

One of the things that makes Thunderbird so great is its open Extension platform. It works the same way that FireFox does. There are tons of extensions that add great new functionality to meet your needs.

Web Based Outlook Replacement

There are several web based options that will give you basic Email, Contacts, and Calendaring.

GMail – I love Gmail. The interface is simple and fast. You get tons of file storage and the threaded email conversations help you stay organized. Gmail allows you to tag your emails so that you can group, sort, and search them using any system that makes sense to you. You can keep your Contacts organized and synced with your phone and desktop too. Google’s Calendar and Instant Messenger (Gtalk) are integrated with the whole system too. There are some other add-ins listed further down that bring more features to the system.

Zoho, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live also have similar apps for managing the basics. I’m sure one of them will meet with your approval.

Plaxo Sync – If you have Contacts, Appointments, Notes, and To Do’s on your desktop and some other places on the web, Plaxo will automagically sync them all. What other places you say? Here’s a few that you may have heard of: Gmail, Google Calendar, Yahoo, Hotmail, Windows Live, and AOL. Do you have scattered out-of-sync data across any of those services? Well I don’t.

RememberTheMilk – This is an online task manager. It is quick and simple to use. Best of all, it integrates with Gmail and Google Calendar very well. It helps me keep on top of the things that I have to get done.

Google Reader – Read all of the latest updates from your favorite blogs, news, and websites in one spot via RSS. Google Reader has some great features for managing and reading your feeds. If you see an article that you like, you can Star it and Tag it for future retrieval. You can share articles with your friends too. I currently subscribe to over 200 feeds and Google Reader helps me handle them easily.

Mulit Protocol Instant Messenger

All of the tools listed above integrate with some type of instant messenger. However, if you have friends on AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and Google’s instant messenger networks you’re kind of stuck. Having four different windows open to see all of your friends gets old real quick. Use one of these applications (depending on your OS) to chat with all of your friends on every network known to man.

Digsby – Simply the best Instant Messenger tool available. This WIndows only app can connect to all of your IM networks (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Google, ICQ, Jabber, and Facebook ) to let you chat with any of your contacts. That alone makes it valuable, but wait, there’s more: Get real-time updates on your social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn). You can also get updates on your inbox for just about any email account (Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, plus any IMAP and POP3 accounts).

Trillian – A buggier generic equivalent of Digsby will run on Macs and PCs.

Pidgin IM – This is an open source tool that does most of the same stuff that the rest of these apps will do. (Windows)

Adium – Awesome multi-network Instant Messenger tool. You can connect to all of your IM networks (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Google, ICQ, Jabber, and Facebook ) to let you chat with any of your contacts. Clean, light, and simple; everything you need. (Mac)

Meebo – Well, if you want to chat with your friends on all of your IM networks from inside your browser, then Meebo does a great job. Register, set up your screen names, and voilla, you can chat with anyone. Now, when you’re at work, or your friend’s house, you can instantly get to your buddies. This just in… Meebo has an iPhone application that works great. Look for other smartphones to follow.

Voice Calling

You may be wondering why I’m including phone calling in an article about saving money on software. There are two reasons: 1. You can use one of several free applications and services to save money on phone calls. 2. You can integrate voice calling into your other communication software to make it even more powerful.

Skype – Make free Computer to Computer phone call with video using skype. You can also pay (very little) to make and receive calls to regular land line phones. You can even set up multi-person video conferences. Nice.

Google Voice – is a cool new phone service that gives you the power of a sophisticated corporate phone service for free. Here are some of the great things that you can do with a Google Voice account:

Google voicemail: voicemail like email
Voicemail transcription: read what your voicemail says
Custom greetings: vary voicemail greetings by caller
International calling: low cost calls to the world
Notifications: read voicemail messages via email or SMS
Share voicemails: forward, embed, or download voicemails

Dial2Do – Dial2Do lets you do common tasks by just calling a number and speaking. Use it to send EMAIL or TEXT messages, record REMINDERS to help you remember things, post updates to your TWITTER or JAIKU stream and LISTEN to your favourite internet content.

Social Networking Management

You can update your Facebook and Twitter status from your Instant Messaging client, but if you want the full experience, you should take a look at these two desktop social networking command centers. They both run on the Adobe AIR platform which is covered in the Utilities section below.

TweetDeck – This is a desktop application, built on Adobe AIR, that allows you to view and interact with your Twitter and Facebook streams. TweetDeck splits your stream into multiple columns, so that you can see what’s happening from multiple vantage points. If you follow a lot of people, this will help you keep it all straight.

Seesmic – Build your community in one central place with Seesmic Desktop, which integrates both Twitter and Facebook. This all-in-one tool makes it easy to reply to your friends and share text, links, photos and videos all in one screen.

Mulitmedia – Imaging, Video, and Music

You can run into some big bucks when you enter the world of Media Creation and Management software. Not to mention how much money you can spend getting the music and videos that you want to enjoy.

Media Creation

Adobe Creative Suite 4 (Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat 9, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Premiere, Soundbooth, Encore, InDesign ) has most of the tools that pros use for these media tasks. If you’re willing to have a few less features and integration, you can get all of the most important functions for free.

Photo Editing – Photoshop is still the only choice for professionals, but amateurs can still do everything they need with the free tools listed below.

Gimp – This is constantly labeled as the “best free photoshop alternative” available. Gimp will handle anything from basic touch-ups to advanced image creation. The best thing is that it works equally well on PC, Mac, and Linux machines.

Paint.net – If you need to do minor edits to your photos and images that don’t warrant the King’s ransom that Photoshop commands, you should give Paint.net a try. You can do edits that range from simple to complex without spending a dime. Yes, I know there’s a huge Gimp following, but I just like this better.

Web-Based Graphics Tools

Aviary- This is an online suite of tools that does photo-editing, logos, web templates, filters, color palettes, screen capture & more. Think of them as the right side of Zoho’s brain. If Zoho is MIcrosoft Office, then Aviary is Adobe Creative Suite.

Picnik is another great online graphics tool, because it integrates right into Flickr, even if there are some other applications that are a little more feature-rich or powerful.

Find other great online photo editing services here and here.

Capturing Your Computer’s Screen – If you need to take screen captures of applications on your computer, then TechSmith Snagit is the Cadillac. It does everything that you need perfectly. The best combination of simplicity and power of any application on my computer. Woth every penny!

Skitch – I have to take screen shots of things all the time. On my PC, I use Snagit, the best screen shot tool in the world. Skitch does a great job of capturing, editing, and annotating anything on your screen. If you document anything, this will become a trusted friend.

Aviary- they also have a nice little browser plugin that will take screenshots and let you edit them using their online tools. Then, you can save the screenshots online or back on your computer.

Video Editing – You can spend a few mortgage payments on professional video editing software. Do you really need all that to edit down pictures of your Fraternity’s Kegger and post them to Youtube? Probably not.

Windows Movie Maker – There are a ton of expensive, complicated video editing programs out there. Fortunately for Windows users, there is Windows Media Player. Until you are actually getting paid to make videos, this is all you’ll need.

iMovie – This is a very good video editing option. I use it all the time to create videos for the VItaminCM.com podcast.

Online Video Editing – Cuts, Eyespot, JumpCut, Motionbox and, One True Media allow you to edit and share your videos online. Here are several other good online video editing services.

Video Screen Recording – If you want to do video captures of your applications, then TechSmith CamTasia is for you. This simple, beautiful product. It will make you look and feel like a pro. Problem is, it’s $300.

CamStudio – is an open source alternative to Camstasia, and the project just released version 2.5, which solved many bugs that were present on the older versions.

Web Based Screen Recorders

Screenr- Capture everything that is happening on your computer’s screen without installing any software.

Screentoaster – You can record screencasts, tutorials, demos, training, lectures and more for free.

Audio Recording Software – Want to record your next great album yourself? You can do it for free.

Audacity – Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can have a pretty good multi-track recording studio entirely free.

Aviary- They also have an audio editing app.

Media Acquisition

Apple iTunes downloads for music, TV, and movies can pile up a small fortune. Luckily, there are a number of great ways to get a hold of your favorite stuff for free.

Music Streaming - You can hear all of your favorite music for free from a number of great streaming music sources. Here are a few of my favorites.
Pandora – Get a constant stream of music that you like. Put in artists that you like and hear songs from them and similar artists. I constantly find new, great music on Pandora. My Pandora Profile.
Other great options: Last.FM, Grooveshark, and Lala.

Boxee – Boxee’s free software lets you navigate all your personal movies, TV shows, music and photos, as well as streaming content from websites like MLB, Netflix, Pandora, Last.fm, and Flickr from one screen with a remote. This HD content can be played on your TV by hooking your computer to the inputs on the back. If you have an iPhone, there is a remote control application that allows you to control it all from your couch.

Miro Player – Open-source, non-profit video player and podcast client. Torrents made easy, RSS made beautiful, with tons of gorgeous HD video.

Hulu Desktop – Hulu Desktop is a great viewing experience for your computer. It’s optimized for use with an Apple remote control, allowing you to navigate Hulu’s entire library with just six buttons. You know you want some.

uTorrent – The best way to download huge files is with BitTorrent technology. My (current) favorite BitTorrent client is uTorrent. Nothing spectacular, just a solid tool that fills an important role. Alternatives: Azureus is a java based bit torrent client with similar features.

Media Management

Once you create and/or acquire all of that great content, you’ll need something to organize it and play it back. You’re in luck, there are some amazing free media organizers.

Picasa – Do you take a ton of pictures? Me too. Do you have a hard time keeping them all organized? Well, then you need Picasa. Picasa finds, organizes, and does simple effective edits to your photos. You can view them by dates, folders, keywords, etc. It’s quick, easy and very fun. It also seamlessly integrates with Picasa Web Albums (think poor man’s Flickr) to put your photos online. You can also email your pictures using Gmail, MS Outlook, or Picasa Mail quick and easy. I could not live without this app. Mac uses have iPhoto which is built into the OS.

VLC Media Player – If you don’t like dealing with the Missing Codec errors (damn Codecs) of Windows Media Player and some of the other annoyances of Quicktime or Real Player, then just use VLC Media Player. This small light tool plays every video format know to man. It does one thing and does it perfectly. It doesn’t look as pretty as the other players out of the box, but this article on Download Squad tells how to use skins to make VLC look better.

System Utilities

Keeping your system secure and healthy can be an exhausting and costly chore. Truth be told, most of my favorite system utilities on my PC and Mac are actually free.

Security

AVG Antivirus – Just say NO to Norton. It sucks and will destroy your computer. AVG is lighter, faster, better, and free-er. Windows and Linux only, but Mac users claim to be immune to viruses.

AdAware Spyware Remover – Take back your computer! Spyware and malware can infest your computer, stealing your private data and slowing down your machine. Run AdAware and see how much gunk gets removed.

Backup Tools – Why are backups part of security? If you do end up getting a virus, you will feel a lot more secure knowing that your “good” data is safely backed up.

SyncBack SE –You do regular backups, right? Yeah, me too. There are no excuses with SyncBack SE. This software will allow you to do thorough “incremental” backups of your system without having to be an IT guru.

Mozy Backup – A really nice and simple backup tool for your Mac. That is if you’re not a fan of Time Machine which is built in.

DropBox – Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!) If you work on more than one computer, this is a life saver. See how incredibly Dropbox syncs files on multiple computers in this tutorial.

Maintenance

Here are some great free tools to clean and optimize your system.

System Cleaners

CCleaner – Get the crud out of your system. Remove junk from the Recycle Bin, Cookies, Temp files, Registry garbage. Keeps your system running smoothly.

Monolingual – I only operate my computer in one language; English. So why do I need a bunch of localization files for the Mac OS wasting space on my hard drive? Monolingual is a handy utility that reclaims this wasted space in a few simple clicks. It also gets rid of files for non Intel processors, assuming you’re on a relatively new machine. I usually run it after I install any system upgrades or new software.

AppCleaner – One of the weirdest things about a Mac is the way that you uninstall applications. I don’t see any obvious way to completely and cleanly uninstall software from my machine. That is where AppCleaner comes in. Just go to your Applications folder and drag the unwanted application onto the AppCleaner window and it’s gone. It also cleans up all of those hard to find preference files too.

Remote Access

VNC – If you need to control another computer on your network, you can set up VNC on both computers. This will allow you to control another machine remotely. The link is for a Windows version, but just search for one for your operating system.

TightVNC – Remotely view and control other computers from your desktop. Install the server software on one (remote) computer and then control it with the viewer software from your main computer. Great for helping diagnose computer problems on your family and friend’s computers. Alternatives: UltraVNC andRealVNC have comparable feature sets and decent followings. See this tutorial for Using VNC to remotely control another computer.

Chicken of the VNC – Chicken of the VNC is a VNC client for Mac OS X. A VNC client allows one to display and interact with a remote computer screen. In other words, you can use Chicken of the VNC to interact with a remote computer as though it’s right next to you. The VNC server is built right into the Mac OS. Just go to System Preferences> Internet & Network> Sharing and turn on the Remote Management service. Check out this tutorial on some of the cool things that you can do with VNC software.

File Management

7Zip – This WinZip alternative will open just about any archive file format known to man. It’s faster and lighter on resources than any archive tool I’ve used. Alternatives: There are a bunch, here is a list of free winzip alternatives.

Zipeg – Zipeg is the easiest way to open Zip, Rar, and any other type of archive files. Plus, it has a cool little sheep for a logo. Yeah, I’m sure there are tons of other good ones, but I really like the little sheep.

Roxio and Nero have been the go-to CD and DVD burning tools for a while now. They are relatively expensive and can easily be replaced with better tools for free.

InfraRecorde – is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

ImgBurn – is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!

DVD Shrink – If you want to make “backup copies” of any of your “legally purchased” DVDs, this is the simplest application out there. Pop in the disk, click “Backup” and go. Then, use DVD Decrypter to burn it to a blank disk. Once you do the simple setup, you can do a two click back up of any DVD. (I hope Netflix doesn’t read this blog.)

Hand Brake – If you want to make “backup copies” of any of your “legally purchased” DVDs, this is the simplest application out there. You can make copies that will play on your iPod, iPhone, PSP, or any other portable device from Hand Brake.

Customization

Here are a couple of nice additions to your Mac or PC:

Quicksilver – Just start typing the first few letters of a program, file name, or folder and Quicksilver will pull it up in front of your eyes. Then, just hit enter and open up whatever you were looking for. There’s a reason the word quick is in the name. This will shave hours of hunting and clicking through menus and folder off your life.

Rocket Dock – Do you have Mac Envy? This launching doc is nearly a dead clone of Apple’s dock. You can launch Applications, Folders, Files, and other processes so quickly and easily, you’ll never click the Start button again.

Adobe Air – Adobe Air uses Flash and some other magic sauce to take web based applications and turn them into desktop applications. There is a growing list of small, simple applications that give you control of many of your favorite web services. (See Tweet Deck above.) Best of all they will work on a PC, Mac, or Linux system.

Here are a few places where you can find tons of cool, useful Adobe AIR apps: 60+ Useful Adobe AIR Applications You Should Know, 45+ Most Useful Adobe AIR Applications, and 30+ Enormously Useful Adobe Air Applications.

Web Development / Programming / Blogging

Web developers, programmers, and bloggers actually have a wealth of free tools available. I have them grouped by Server, Coding, and Blogging tools.

Server

XAMPP – Everything you need to run a full-fledged testing server on your computer. All bundled into one install file. All configured to work immediately. This thing will save you hours. See this article for setup instructions: How to Set up A Testing Server on Your PC.

Filezilla - FTP Client – Free, simple FTP tool. I use this to upload files to this site’s server.

Coding

Notepad++ – NotePad is OK, but if you want some really nice features for working with any kind of text based file, then step up to NotePad++. It’s got to be better, didn’t you see the 2 plusses? Seriously though, I use it daily when I am working on web development.

Smultron – I miss NotePad++ from Windows so much. It is a simple, clean text editor that allows me to edit HTML, PHP, CSS, and any other format files. Smultron is the best free text editor that I have found on the Mac platform yet. I’m desperately hoping that someone will give me a better suggestion in the Comments below.

Snippely – Snippely is a basic text and code organizational tool. Instead of storing bits of code, quick notes, and memos in text files all over your hard drive, this application will let you save and organize “snippets” in one convenient location. A snippet is a collection of one or more pieces of code and notes. Snippets are stored in groups for organization and quick retrieval. If you write or maintain a lot of code, this is a must.

Blogging

Windows Live Writer – This is the tool that I use to write my articles. It’s not perfect, but it has a lot of pretty nice features. It integrates with several blog platforms very well too.

Qumana – I still have not found a desktop blogging tool that I love on the Mac, but I just recently discovered Qumana and like it a lot. I has most of the features that I need. The biggest one that it doesn’t have, (code snippet clipboard) I have been able to get with Snippely.

OK, Where Do I Start?

You can actually download and install dozens of the applications listed here in one shot using a bulk software installer. See how to Install Dozens of Free Applications at Once in this tutorial.

What are Your Favorite Free Applications?

I know I covered a lot of tools, but there are plenty of other great ones that I left out. If you have a free application or web service that you love, please enter it in the comments below.

4 Reasons why BlackBerry is this Decade’s Palm

cm@vitamincm.com (Christopher Masiello) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:10:19 +0000

BlackBerry Has Nowhere to Go but Down

Blackberry May be in Trouble

I was talking to a friend the other day and we were both discussing how we thought BlackBerry was in trouble. They owned a niche with their killer push email service and just stopped there. I can’t think of a single impressive innovation from them in the last several years.

There are several reasons why I think that they are in for a long slow slide into irrelevance.

Can’t cross over as consumer devices
Too many superior alternatives
They will lose the enterprise (and that’s really all they have)
Software is stale and boring

Can’t cross over as consumer devices

You have to admit that their hardware is fugly. Their best hardware feature is their amazing keyboards and they keep turning their backs on them. The Storm touchscreen that made you ask, “Should I touch it, tap it, or press it?” How about that stupid “two letters on one button” idea on the Pearl and Perl Flip? What a train wreck. There are both bad ways that they deserted the traditional keyboard. The problem is that if they include that big, wonderful keyboard, you’ll probably get a big, ugly phone. That’s fine for corporate drones, but not 16 year old girls.

Too many superior alternatives

iPhone – Except for the keyboard, it kills BlackBerry in every conceivable areaGoogle’s Android Platform – any good handset maker has free access to great softwareWindows Mobile – Available to any handset maker. Enterprise support, Better UI, Better Media, Better appsPalm’s Web OS – It’s just sexierNokia’s Symbian Platform – Take a look at the worldwide stats.

They’re Losing the Enterprise

The only thing that keeps BlackBerry afloat is their absolute stranglehold on Enterprise mobile email. They currently have 21 million enterprise users or a 60% +/- share of enterprise mobile email. Nowhere to go but down.Here are a few reasons why that will erode fairly soon:High cost of their email services for enterprise – In order to supply “push email” to those Crackberry addicts, you need to have a very expensive addition to your IT infrastructure. Most companies either use Microsoft’s Exchange or Lotus’ Domino mail servers. BlackBerry devices can’t connect directly to those servers. You need to have the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, a second “shadow” mail server that is the intermediary between the corporate mail server and the phone. Extra server, extra software, extra support staff; you do the math.All of their competitors can connect directly to Exchange serversAll of the other major smartphone Operating systems can connect directly to the Exchange server. BlackBerries do work better for email, but not enough to justify all that expense. Plus, key decision makers would love to ditch that bulky extra phone.

The Software is Stale and Boring

Does anybody actually “like” using their BlackBerry for anything other than email? Let’s face it, the software is kind of boring.The fact that the vast majority of customers are corporate workers who don’t own the phones means that their apps store faces problems too. Think about it; are you going to buy a bunch of software to install on the phone that your work owns? That’s if your IT department doesn’t have it locked down before they give it to you. No Up-sell

Other Nails in their Coffin

Gmail – It works amazing on mobile phones and supports “push email”. The mobile web interface is great too.

Google Docs / Zoho Office – You can view, edit, and create office documents for free. They also support real-time collaboration.

Tablets and Netbooks – Did anyone see the iPad? True, I knocked it for a few issues, but version 2.0 and beyond will start taking big slurps off BlackBerry’s milk shake. What happens when another 30+ iPad competitors hit the streets? Those slurps start turning into chugs.

Conclusion

Now I know, Palm is still around. Heck, I even cited them as one of BlackBerry’s threats. But they used to be a household word, not the fifth bullet in an argument. People labeled an entire electronic gadget category (Personal Digital Assistants) as Palm Pilots. Kind of like all mp3 players are called iPods today. Now they’re an afterthought.I’m not saying that they will shut down operations next week, but I do anticipate a several year slide into obscurity. Don’t be surprised if in 2016 you hear yourself say, “Remember CrackBerries?” Kind of like when we make fun of those huge cellphones that rappers carried in their videos.

What Do You Think?

Do you think that BlackBerry’s best days are behind them? Or, are they about to seize control of the handset market?

5min.com Video of the Day

Create a Portable Document Scanner for your iPhone

cm@vitamincm.com (Christopher Masiello) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:31:02 +0000

Getting All of those Scraps into your Computer

Overview: You will learn how to turn your iphone into a portable document scanner for free in under 15 minutes. This will all be done using one piece of cardboard, a ruler, a utility knife and a pencil.

Getting Things Done With Creativity and Elbow Grease

Occasionally I need to get digital copies of papers into my home and/or work computers. I don’t feel like having two full-blown scanners wasting space on my desks, nor do I feel like buying them.

What’s my quick, free, space saving solution? Build a stand that allows me to use my iPhone to make quick images of documents.

I have a few simple requirements for this document scanner:

Must be able to be assembled quickly and easily
Muse capture 8.5″ x 11″ documents perfectly (no cropping)
Must be able to be disassembled, and stored quickly and easily
Must be cheap (better yet, FREE!)

I searched for a few alternatives and found this really cool option by Kyle Koch.

He sells them for $15 here. This is an awesome idea and $15 is very fair price. But what fun would that be? I decided to try to build my own for free.

This is my finished prototype:

I place the document on the tray and the phone on the top supports with the camera application running. Then, I just press the “shoot” button and have a decent scan of the document. The key is to have the USB cable plugged in so that you can just grab them using the computer’s file manager. Also, the better the lighting, the happier you’ll be.

With a little bit of practice, I was able to get acceptable results on each documents first try.

Here are some of the document scans that I produced: (scaled down for this article)

Not bad for $0 and 20 minutes time.

Instructions for Building your iPhone Document Scanner

I know, you want to build yourself one of these handy gadgets, right? Well believe me, it’s very simple.

What you Will Need

Supplies: Utility Knife , Pencil, Ruler or Yardstick, piece of cardboard (15″ X 30″), scissor.

Instructions:

Print out and assemble the Templates diagram

Trace two Stand pieces on the cardboard

Cut out the Stand pieces using the Yardstick and Utility Knife (be very careful)

Trace and cut out the two Bottom Brackets

Trace and cut out the two Top Brackets

Cut the notches into the Stands and Braces as shown on the diagram

Insert the notches on top and bottom to assemble the Stand

Place the rectangular base into the stand

Place a document on the rectangular base

Turn the phone’s camera application on and place it on the top braces so that the document is in the picture

Take the picture.

Portable Document Scanner Video Tutorial

The following video tutorial shows you how to perform all of the steps necessary to make your scanner.

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Customize your Browsers with the Quix Super Bookmarklet

cm@vitamincm.com (Christopher Masiello) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:55:59 +0000

Create the Ultimate Command Line for your Browser

Overview: You will learn how to use Quix browser bookmarklet to Make a Super Bookmarklet for your browser.

What is Quix?

Quix is an exensible bookmarklet tool that performs the functions of several bookmarklets, extensions, and GreaseMonkey scripts.

What’s in it for You?

You can remove several extensions, GreaseMonkey scripts, and existing bookmarklets. This will get rid of some browser bloat (caused by extensions) and speed things up. It will also clean up your browser’s interface a little. Plus, you can add a lot of power and flexibility to your browser using Quix.

Removing Unnecessary Extensions

Before I added the Quix Bookmarklet to FireFox, I was running the following extensions: Ubiquity, Evernote Clipper, Delicious (among others).

I was able to uninstall them completely. This took two buttons off my toolbar and cut back on some ram. Not all of the big five browsers use extensions, but most support them in some form, so this will have a similar effect there too.

Removing Unnecessary Greasemonkey Scripts

One of the most handy FireFox extensions is Greasemonkey. Greasemonkey allows you to customize the way a webpage works using small bits of JavaScript. There are thousands of Greasemonkey scripts available that help you get more from just about any popular website or service. While these may be incredibly useful, they do come at a small cost.

I was able to remove a few Greasemonkey scripts that I no longer needed.

Combining Several Bookmarklets into One Button

Bookmarklets don’t place any processing load on your browser when they are not being used, but they do take up space on your toolbar. I was able to remove the following highlighted bookmarklets from my toolbar and replace them with functions in Quix.

How to use Quix

Just go to Quixapp.com and drag the Quix bookmarklet to your Bookmarks toolbar

Click the Quix bookmarklet and type a short command (1 – 10 letters).

The command above (bd) will bookmark the current page to your Delicious account.

Your browser performs a helpful task for you.

Here is a full list of Quix commands and what they do.

If you have some coding skills and like getting your hands dirty, you can even create you own custom commands.

Quix Bookmarklet Video Tutorial

The following video shows how to install, configure and use Quix to make your browser more powerful.

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Tech Geek’s Guide to a Super Romantic Valentine’s Day Gift

cm@vitamincm.com (Christopher Masiello) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:01:58 +0000

How to Take Gadget Gifts and Make them Romantic

There is a common stereotype that techie types are not romantic, especially in the gift department. While this is rooted in a lot of truth, it doesn’t have to be so. Follow these simple recommendations and you are Guaranteed to Get You Some High-Tech Lovin’.

Ratings System

Good vs. Bad Partner Scale = You are a thoughtless cad who will be roundly criticized at your partner’s work tomorrow. = Typical lame thoughtless partner. Nobody will remember your “effort”. = You’re a hero. You will be talked about at your partner’s work tomorrow. = You’ll be calling in ~~sore~~ sick tomorrow.

NOTE: For the sake of simplicity, I will use the term “partner” for Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Husband, Wife, Life Partner, etc. Please substitute your title where appropriate.

Separating the Romeos from the Rejects

The little touches are what sets you apart. For starters, if their present has batteries, open it and charge them. If it uses memory, buy it and put it in the device. If the device stores personal information, load in some of their data/files. If there is a complicated set up process, do it for them. This is why their with you. You’re their personal I.T. department.
Think back to being a child and getting an awesome toy. Then, you had to wait for your parents to get around to setting it up for you. That just ruined it. Well imagine if you opened your gift, took it out and started playing with it on the spot. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Without Further Ado, Let’s Bring on the Gifts

iPhone – Ah the Cadillac of gadget gifts. ($200) This is a slam dunk, right? Not so fast Romeo. Here’s how it breaks down:
Get your own iPhone and show it to your partner over pizza dinner. Don’t forget to taunt their ugly old phone.
Get a gift certificate for an iPhone and don’t include a sincere and touching personal note in the card.
Buy them an iPhone, then, get it engraved with something sweet, funny, romantic, or sexy. Last I checked, engraving is still free.
Buy them an iPhone and do the following:

Unwrap it and Charge it (Nobody wants to take out their new toy and wait four hours for it to charge.)
Load in all of their phone numbers and addresses (You’ll have to go into stealth mode for this, but that’s what makes it so romantic.)
Make the home screen a romantic picture of the two of you
Have it set to play their favorite song when they turn it on

Let the geek lovin’ begin!

iPod Touch

Get them an off-brand “iPod killer” that they’ve never heard of, forcing them return it in a week when they realize that it sucks.
Give them an iPod still in the box and make them struggle through the setup process alone. Oooooh, sexy.
Unwrap it and Charge it – Load in a bunch of their favorite songs and make a playlist – Another nice idea is to make a few “themed” playlists like Work Out, Party, Sexy, you get the idea. Combine the previous step with this:

Take and load pictures of you holding up hand written signs with romantic notes on them
Load in a bunch of pictures of the two of you and anything else sentimental
Now, here’s the clincher: Have it set to play their playlist and slide show when they turn it on

You’re not getting any sleep tonight.

Nintendo Wii ($400 +/-)
Tell them that you can’t go out for Valentine’s Day because you’re going to a Lan Party at your friends house.
Buy them a Nintendo Wii. It’s good, but on its own, still just a video game.
Set up the Wii by building your partner’s Mii to look just like them. Buy them a game that matches something unique about their personality. Write the connection in your card.
Make them play the game with you and let them win, especially if they’re the world’s worst gamer. Then tell them that they won the rights to their “itinerary” for the rest of the night.

Easy to Use Digital Camera ($150 – $300)
Take a picture of them on Valetine’s Day morning (preshower) and put it on their MySpace page.
Buy them a new camera, unwrap and Charge it, Put in the Memory, Learn how to use some of the key features.
Then, keep it in your pocket so that you can take a picture of them unwrapping the empty box. Now, that magical moment is captured forever. (Use it against them the next time they say that you’re not romantic.)
Combine with the previous step: Take and load pictures of you holding up hand written signs with romantic notes on them.

*Nice extra touch*
Get them a Flickr or even a Flickr Pro account and set up everything on their computer so that they can instantly start loading up their pictures. ($25)

Digital Picture Frame to show off their favorite pictures ($50 – $150)
Give them a plain old picture frame with the picture from the store.
Buy them a digital picture frame that neither of you can figure out how to use.
Buy them a cool picture frame, put in the Memory, Learn how to use some of the key features.
Then, keep it in your pocket so that you can take a picture of them unwrapping the empty box. Now, that magical moment is captured forever. (Use it against them the next time they say that you’re not romantic.)
Combine with the previous step: Take and load pictures of you holding up hand written signs with romantic notes on them

Make a Romantic Memories Calendar ($25)
Tell them that the time that you have spent together feels like it has aged you in dog years.
Buy them one of those calendars from the middle of the mall with something that they like (Dogs, Cats, mountains, etc.) Boring!
Make them a calendar with pictures of yourselves, your friends, and families.
Make them a calendar at XXXXX using photos of things that you did together. Put the pictures on the month that they occurred. Then, write a hand written memo on days in each month with things that you did together on those days. Don’t forget to add the years in. Now, your partner will have a year’s worth of memories to revisit. Yes, this is a ton of work, but that’s the whole point. I did this for my wife for our first anniversary (paper) and she loved it.
Cost – $25.00
Time – 18 hours
Value – Priceless

Exernal USB Hard Drive $100 – $200

Install Linux on their machine and format their whole drive, because Linux is way better than Windows.
Buy them a backup drive and tell them that they should backup once a week. Then, don’t help them do it.
Set up the drive on their computer. You’re not done yet. Now, set up a dead-simple backup program to protect their valuable data.
Pretend that you didn’t find all of their porn while you were poking around.

Tickets to an Event that THEY Would Like (The sky is the limit)
Tell your partner that you’re going to see your college basketball team play on Valentine’s Day. (And they like the ballet.)
Take them to dinner and a movie.
Buy tickets to an event that they like and you typically don’t. Then, go with them. Do your homework before the event. If it’s a play, then find out what the play is about and read some reviews of the play. Then, on the way to the play talk about why you’re excited to go. It’s a great feeling when your partner gets excited about your stuff. Tell them how much you enjoyed sharing it with them.
Get some screen savers, ring tones, or what ever for their phone. Score some limited access perks for the event. You know, backstage passes, a meet and greet with key people, get their name put on the scoreboard – anything that gives them an “it’s all about me” moment.

What, You don’t think I have any low priced ideas on this list? Cheap Bastards need lovin’ too!

Get them their favorite books ($10 and up)
Tell them that, “Reading books is stupid, because they’ll just make it into a movie any way.”
Buy them a subscription to the Book of the Month club.
Buy them a book on a topic of interest (Sports, Poetry, Theater, History, whatever). If you can find some way to get it signed, that’s a huge bonus. If not, write a personal note in the inside cover. Give them a gift certificate for one undisturbed hour a night for the next two weeks to let them read it.
Tell them that you are going to read the book when they’re finished and discuss it with them. Then, actually do it. Pays off now, Pays off later. That’s two for the price of one.

E-Book reader and load it with a few books. $400

Have a Romantic Movie Night

Make them watch your Pulp Fiction DVD after dinner on Valentine’s Day.
Get them a Netflix account.
Buy them a few of their favorite movies, or movies that they have been dying to see.
Get movies that you would never go to with them and make a special date to watch them together. Don’t complain, and try to actually enjoy the show. Then, you can discuss it with them afterwards. Believe me.

Geeky T-Shirts ($15 – $25) ThinkGeek and Jinx.com both have a huge selection of great T-shirts for geeks and their lovers Use their favorite T-shirt to clean up a sloppy mess that you made. Buy them a T-shirt for their favorite band, team, school, etc. Get them an I heart My Geek shirt and tell them that you love them for putting up with all of your techno-obsessive flights of fancy. Give them the shirt wrapped around you. No other clothing is required. (Probably not as sexy if you’re a dude.)

Other Gift Ideas

If you don’t like any of theses gadgets, try my Electronics Gadgets Christmas Gift Buying Guide article. There are a bunch of other cool suggestions.

For the Road Warriors

Who couldn’t use a new computer? How about an additional inexpensive one for the household? What if your gift recipient already has a computer? Then you can grab them the perfect accessory or upgrade to help them get the most out of it.

Pink Tranquility Laptop Bag Just because they’re carrying computers doesn’t mean that women want their laptop bag to look ugly. Pick up a stylish, feminine laptop bag for the lady geek.

Price: $25

Targus Netbook Case Wrap up that new netbook in style. Let a fancy new bag add some sheik to that geek.

Price: $25

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Improve your Internet Reading Experience Using Instaper

cm@vitamincm.com (Christopher Masiello) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:31:44 +0000

From Clutter to Clean in One Click

Overview: You will learn how to use Instapaper.com’s service to quickly clean, reformat, and save articles on the web to a convenient location for you to read later.

What is Instapaper?

When you are on the internet, you probably find important, interesting, or useful information. The problem is that just don’t have time to read it at that moment. With just one click, Instapaper reads, cleans, and stores the information for you to read at your convenience.

Allows you to easily save information from the web into a central location to be read later on in a clean, simple format.

Advantages of Using Instapaper

Here are some of the main advantages to using Instapaper:

Clean formatting for efficient reading experience (plain text and simple images)
Stores the URLs to the source material
Easily share your saved material
Great third party integration

When you have a busy page (like the one below) that may have Headers, Footer, Sidebars, Ads, lot’s of media, and other distractions. It is not the optimum reading experience. This can be exacerbated by being on a mobile device or in a hurry.

Just click the Read Later bookmarklet and save a copy for later reading. Check this article to see how bookmarklets improve your browsing experience.

This is what the Instapaper version looks like. A little easier to read, don’t you think?

If you want to see the original page, just click the View Original button at the top of the page.

See How it Works

Here is the whole process:

Create an account at Instapaper.com
Add the Instapaper bookmarklet to our browser’s toolbar
Enter your Instapaper credentials
Click the bookmarklet when you find a page that you want to read later
Go to Instapaper and read your stuff

See Instapaper in Action in the Video Tutorial Below

Where you can Use Instapaper?

You can use the Read Later bookmarklet in any desktop or mobile browser that supports bookmarks.

Many Twitter clients for iPhone have it built right in.

RSS Readers like Google Reader and some desktop readers.

See the full list of places where you can use Instapaper on their website.

Instapaper Alternatives

There are a few other services that offer similar features out there.

ReaditLater uses a Firefox plugin to save pages to a location where they can be read at your leisure. They have an iPhone app too.

Readability is another tool that works through a bookmarklet to strip out distractions and give you a cleanly formatted page to read.

For the old school types out there, you can try the PrintWhatYouLIke bookmarklet and send a stripped down, clean page to your printer that you can read later.

PrintLiminator does a similar trick and works really nicely.

What’s Your Favorite Tip?

If you have any other tips for cleaning and saving content from the web for reading later, I would love to hear them. Shout it out in the Comments below.

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Get your own awesome Moleskine Notebook.

Stuff I Like

cm@vitamincm.com (Christopher Masiello) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:58:00 +0000

Things That Don’t Suck

Making Life a Little Nicer

Sometimes I find myself complaining about things that frustrate me. Well, it’s actually pretty easy to find things that suck, but I decided to take some time to talk about a few things that have been making me particularly happy lately.

Instaper – This is a simple tool to save web pages for reading later. If you see a page, article, story, or whatever that you don’t have time to read now, you can tuck it away to be read later. You can go back and read your saved stuff later on either your computer, iPhone, Kindle, or even good old fashioned paper. Plus, you can send pages to Instapaper from your browser, RSS reader, Twitter apps, and a bunch of other places.

Netflix Streaming for PS3 – You can instantly stream movies from Netflix to your TV via your PlayStation 3. The best part about it is that the movie starts instantly. That’s right, no stupid credits. I spent two straight days home sick from work recently. I don’t’ think I would have made it without the dozen movies that I watched.

PixelPipe – When I create videos for my tutorials/podcast, I need to upload them to multiple places on the web. PixelPipe allows me to load my videos, images, and updates to accounts on dozens of sites. (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Vimeo, and many, many more.) If you have a lot of videos, images, or updates to make, this service will save you more time than you can imagine.

My New Moleskine Notebook – I got this notebook from the team at Automattic for volunteering at the WordCampNYC conference. It’s just the right size for me to carry it everywhere. It has a nice little pocket in the back to hold business cards, scraps of paper, and other stuff. I use it to plan projects, articles, and other tasks.

Windows 7 – I decided that I needed to upgrade to WIndows 7 so that my tutorials were more up-to-date. I started off by installing a new Parallels Virtual Machine on my Mac. First of all, this is easily the best OS that Microsoft has put out. It’s prettier than Vista and as light as XP. My wife needs a new laptop and I can’t wait to set up a full-fledged machine running Windows 7. Nice job Microsoft!

Applications that run on Windows, Mac, and Linux – Being that I’m constantly switching between Operating Systems and it is really helpful to have a few applications that are supported on each. This really eases the transitions. Some of my favorite are: Firefox, Filezilla, Picasa, VLC, and any Adobe AIR apps.

Google Voice – I love the new Voicemail text transcription feature. Isn’t that enough?

Movies in 2D – Because 3D is just retarded! I’m looking at you Avatar. (and Coraline, and the upcoming Alice in Wonderland travesty.)

5min.com Video of the Day

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Essential Steps to Secure New Computers

cm@vitamincm.com (Christopher Masiello) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:54:07 +0000

Secure, Protect, and Maintain a New Computer

OVERVIEW: You will learn how to perform some essential steps on a new computer that will provide a more secure, problem free computing environment.

Protect and Care for Your New Baby

When you take a new computer out of the box, it’s like a new-born baby that needs to be protected and handled with care. There are some essential things that you should do before you bring your new baby out into the world. This article will show you how to dramatically increase the health and safety of your new computer.

The tutorial focuses on three main areas:

Updating your WIndows Software
Security Software
Routine Maintenance

Updating your Windows Software

Run Windows Automatic Updates before you do anything else on your new computer. This will go out to Microsoft and install any Windows updates that affect system security and stability.

Click the Windows (Start) button, then select Control Panel from the menu.

This will open the Control Panel. There will be several options accessible from the Control Panel that will allow you to view and modify settings on your computer.

Select Turn automatic updating on and off and make sure that Automatic Updates are ON.

Then, click Check for updates to download and install all of the appropriate updates. This may take a while, depending on how many are available. After this is done, your computer will restart and updates will happen automatically. (That’s one less thing to worry about.)

Security Software

There are many things that you can do to secure your computer, but I’m going to stick with some of the most basic and effective ones. You will need to set up the following:

Firewall – Prevent people from getting into your computer.
AntiVirus – Detect, Prevent, and Remove Viruses that can harm your computer.
Spyware Detection and Removal – Detect and Remove Spyware that can harm your computer.
Malware Detection and Removal – Detect and Remove Malware that can harm your computer.

Turning on the Windows Firewall

Windows XP, Vista, and 7 all come with a pretty good firewall already built in. The only thing you need to do is make sure that it is turned on. Go to the Control Panel again.

Click System and Security.

You will see a list of options. Select Check Firewall status under the Windows Firewall heading.

Make sure the the firewall is turned on.

Installing Antivirus Software

The most important security software on your computer is Antivirus protection. My favorite Antivirus software is AVG Antivirus, which happens to be free, light, and very good.

The first thing you should do after you install and launch your antivirus software is update the virus definitions. This is the latest list of bad stuff that it will look for. Click the Update Now tab and then the Update button.

Once you get the first batch of updates, it will get them automatically from now on. Click the Computer Scan tab to check your computer.

Installing Spyware Detection Software

Spyware is another threat to both your security and performance. Spybot Search & Destroy is an excellent, free spyware removal tool.

This is just like the antivirus setup. Search for the Updates and then Scan your computer.

Installing Malware Detection Software

Malware is yet another lovely type of crap that screws up your computer. MalwareBytes is a great free tool that will help you find and remove this scurge.

Yup, you guessed it! Install, Update, Scan, just like the last two tools.

Routine Maintenance

Just because your computer is protected from the evil doers out there, doesn’t mean that it’s protected from itself. The longer your computer runs, the more junk, gunk, and funk will creep into the works. I use two excellent tools to perform routine maintenance on my computer: CCleaner and Defraggler.

Keeping your computer Clean and Lean

CCleaner is one of my favorite system utilities of all time. Small, simple, effictive, and free. Is that enough for you? CCleaner is a freeware 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.

Use the three panels on the left side to:

Clean junk files from your computer and browser
Diagnose and Repair Registry problems (This is a HUGE help.)
Uninstall Software (The right way.)
Control which programs run when Windows starts (You’ll be amazed at what junk is chewing up your power.)

You should probably perform these steps every week or two.

Defragment Your Hard Drive to Speed Things Up

After you start using your computer for a while your hard drive starts to get fragmented. This slows down your computer’s performance. Windows has defragmentation software build right in, but the free Defraggler works better and faster.

Just select your hard drive and click the Defrag button. (This will run for a while, so kick it off when you’re not busy.)

You should run disk defragmentation about once per month.

See the Video Tutorial

If you’re not quite sure about any of the steps that are covered here, watch the following video tutorial to see and here how they work.

Getting All of That Software in One Shot

I just covered several applications that you will need to download and install on your computer. See How to Create a Bulk Software Installer in this tutorial. You will see just how easy it is to install tons of great free software on your new computer in just a few clicks.

What are Your New Computer Security and Maintenance Tips?

If you have any other good tips on what to do to a new computer, I’m all ears. Enter your best tips in the comments below.

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