More Essential Windows Freeware

In the earlier article, I described a few Windows applications that I consider essential for any Windows PC.

In my view, those programs are 'must have apps' and I make sure to install those on any new PC I set up.

In this article, I will list a few other 'nice to have' applications. I install these after I have set up the applications listed in the earlier article. These programs are not absolutely necessary but they make using the PC less of a chore.

Once again, all these applications are free for personal use.

1. Irfanview - This is a small, fast and highly capable image viewer that allows you to quickly view images, browse thumbnails, print, sort and manage image, audio, and video files. More importantly it allows you to rotate, flip, resize and sharpen your images. I have used its batch processing feature to rename and resize a large number of photos in a single step.

It is available for Windows 95/NT/98/2000/ME/XP in multiple languages and is free for noncommercial use.

Get it at http://www.irfanview.com

2. Trillian - If you ever need to run more than one IM application because you have friends on more than one IM network, you need Trillian. Trillian supports multiple IM systems including AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC.

Get it at http://www.trillian.cc/

3. PDFcreator - This simple add-on for Windows allows you to create PDF file from any application. It appears as a printer icon on your PC and printing your document to this printer converts it to a PDF. It's that simple!

Get it at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

4. Real Alternative - This is a replacement for Real Player, without the bloat. Real Alternative is a slim and simple advertising-free application designed to easily play most media content, including RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), and ReadPix (.rp) formats, as well as non-Real media content such as MP3s, MPEGs, AVIs, QuickTime movies, and CD/DVD content.

Get it at http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm