Essential Software 1

A great deal of my time is spent in front of one or more computers for many purposes. These include, but are not limited to, uni work, creativity, internet browsing, time wasting and video games (which I stress does not fall into the category of time wasting for the reason that should an invasion of aliens with ice-based weapons befall the Earth, I will be prepared - given that I am equipped with a Nanosuit). Anyway, in keeping with a nickname given to me by a fellow university student ('The Computer Man') I thought I would write a short summary of a few programs running on my computer that have either made my computing much easier or provide an irreplaceable service to it. I hope this list helps whomever may read it looking for help.

First of all, the program that I use most often and would never be able to live without: Launchy. With a click of Alt+Tab a small box pops up, allowing for a text search of selectively indexed files and services. It is the single most used and (in my opinion) best piece of software on my computer(s) and allows me to open up everything else that I would ever need.

I will include my operating system of choice in this brief summary: Windows XP. I have used Vista on a few computers and have found it to be a slow-running, resource-hogging, stupidly-set-out piece of garbage of an OS and would only just rather use it than no computer at all. Windows 7, I hear, will do a good job at ridding us of (and making us forget) the mistake that is Windows Vista.

Internet browsers obviously are a must have (at least for those with an internet connection). I use Firefox primarily because of its customisability and relative speed, Chrome for quick things I need to do, Opera for solving the p4x riddle and IE7 because Windows Update requires it.

My firewall (Comodo Firewall) not only is light on resources and is free but it is very effective and a top-notch security application. With its Defense+ setting off (alerts you to inter-system offline changes, etc) it provides the perfect balance between reliability, flexibility and speed.

I will wrap-up this 5 point list with the last piece of software I will mention this time around: Auslogics Disk Defrag. Auslogics is a brilliant company that produces outstanding software, a lot of it being free too! They also make a free system information tool and a free registry defrag, however my focus is on the disk defrag. Fast, efficient and effective, this program is a perfect replacement for the default Windows Disk Defragmenter.