IrfanView - free picture viewer. Loads very quickly. Can view virtually any format of picture, lets you make slideshows, web pages from multiple pictures, can make your own icons, resize and crop pictures, do some minor color corrections. Can also play movies and sounds. Can add your copyright information to the IPTC in your jpg images. My favorite program of all - I can do without the others, but don't take away my IrfanView!
Firefox - free open source web browser replacement for Microsoft Internet Explorer from Mozilla. Firefox is much more secure, and much more standards compliant than Internet Explorer. When coding web pages, you have to do many work-arounds to get Internet Explorer to work properly. Firefox can be customized by adding plug-ins or add-ons. There is a way to add an icon that gives one-click access to Thunderbird email.
2024 update. Stopped using Firefox because it got so bloated, then started using a fork of Firefox named PaleMoon, but some sites would not load properly. Now I'm using the Opera browser mostly.
Thunderbird - free open source replacement for Email applications from Mozilla. Contains all features needed for email, and can be customized by adding plug-ins or add-ons. Able to pull email from various pop accounts, including GMail, into one place.
Avast! - free anti-virus to block viruses and spyware. Runs every time you turn on your computer, and when opening or downloading files.
Autoruns - free program to show what automatically starts running when you turn on your computer. Lets you stop them from loading. If your computer takes forever to boot up, you might want to check what it has always running in the background. Written by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell when I first started using it, but bought out by Microsoft in 2006.
Gimp - free open source program for image manipulation, extensive documentation and tips on the web. Provides basically the same features as Adobe Photoshop. Gimp features: crop photos, resize, add borders, clean up scratches or flaws, correct perspective distortion, works with layers, it's a complete graphics manipulation package. The basic program is pretty comprehensive and you can add additional features with plug-ins and extensions. For when something more robust than IrfanView is required, for example layers.
LibreOffice - a free open source program that replaces Microsoft Office Suite. When friends want Word or Excel or Powerpoint but don't want to pay the exorbitant price, LibreOffice gives the same features for free (actually, more features). LibreOffice is a word processor/ desktop publisher, an all-purpose spreadsheet, graphics/drawing package, creates multimedia presentations, and a database manipulator (works with Microsoft Access, MySQL and others). Just as good as Microsoft Office, maybe even better, and it's free. I began using LibreOffice when my Microsoft Office Suite quit working and they were pushing everyone to Microsoft 365, which, if you don't know, gives you Office features "in the cloud", their cloud, and has a monthly fee. Stop paying the fee, and all your documents are "held hostage" until you pay up. Yeah, a big fat NO from me. I want MY files on MY computer.
