10 Essential FREE Apps

1.)  GOOGLE CHROME

Google Chrome is a minimalist Web browser with a very simple user-friendly interface with no full-scale menu bar, no title bar, and no unnecessary bells and whistles. It’s stable, fast, and secure with several interesting features like being able to type directly into the address bar for a search, thumbnail images of your most frequently visited sites, an incognito mode for when you don’t want your Web site visits to be recorded in your browser history, and intriguing bookmarking options just to name a few.

Here’s a little of what PC World has to say about bookmarking with Google Chrome:

Chrome’s design bridges the gap between desktop and so-called “cloud computing.” At the touch of a button, Chrome lets you make a desktop, Start menu, or QuickLaunch shortcut to any Web page or Web application, blurring the line between what’s online and what’s inside your PC… When you create a shortcut for a Web application, Chrome strips away all of the toolbars and tabs from the window, leaving you with something that feels much more like a desktop application than like a Web application or page.

What is best about Google Chrome is that it was the only Web browser to withstand the bevy of hackers and their attempts to compromise Chrome’s security at the 2010 CanSecWest Security Conference’s Pwn2Own contest in Vancouver where security researchers compete to exploit and compromise fully-patched systems.

Visit http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/more/index.html to learn all about Google Chrome.

2.) Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection against spyware, viruses, worms, Trojans, and other malicious software for your home PC and is free to anyone with a genuine Windows operating system.

When tested by AV-Test.org, MSE gained certification by earning a 4.0 for protection, 4.5 for repair, and a 5.5 for usability on their 6-point scale.  Compare that to McAfee Internet Security 2010 (retails for $69.99), which wasn’t even able to earn a certification due to only receiving a 5.0 for protection, 2.0 for repair, and 3.5 for usability, and you can see that MSE is not only a viable free anti-virus solution, but in some cases its a superior one.

Here’s a little of what PC World has to say about the MSE AV-Test.org results:

AV-Test.org detected no false positives, indicated that MSE didn’t seem to hurt the performance of the systems tested, noted that MSE scored well within the industry averages across the board, and reported that MSE supposedly detected 98.4 percent of the half-million viruses, worms, and Trojans in the AV-Test.org database, along with all its known rootkits.

You can view all of the 2nd quarter 2010 AV-Test.org certification results here and you can learn more about MSE as well as download it for free at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/.

3.) Ad- Aware Free

Ad-Aware Free provides good basic protection from malware, hijackers, keyloggers, and other new and emerging threats.  Ad-Aware Free is one of the most popular programs in malware protection with over 400 million downloads.  Ad-Aware Free also protects against rootkits, which are stealth attacks designed to escape detection and hide deep within the operating system and several types of heuristic detection, which protects you by examining complex system behavior, rather than just looking for known malware signatures.

You can learn more about Ad-Aware Free and download it at http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php.

4.) CCleaner

CCleaner (which actually stands for Crap Cleaner) searches through selected programs, folders, and even the registry to remove useless files and entries. It’s extremely configurable, allowing you to select what problems to look for and what items to ignore.

Laura Blackwell of PC World had this to say about CCleaner:

Many cleaners scrub out just your browser cache or your temporary files folder, but CCleaner goes further. It cleans temporary files from common third-party applications as well. CCleaner goes beyond the basic wash and polish with extra mini-tools. A registry scanner removes old and unused entries, including ActiveX Controls, fonts, installers, shared DLLs, fonts, help files, application paths, icons, unused file extensions, and invalid shortcuts. CCleaner also includes an uninstaller and a list of deletable startup entry keys.

CCleaner is a free program for Windows by Piriform.  You can learn more about CCleaner and download it for free at http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner.

5.) Google Voice & Video Chat

Google Voice & Video Chat allows you to chat from Gmail or iGoogle with high quality audio and video.  It’s free, easy to setup, and all you need is a Google account and a webcam.  Not only can you chat from one computer to another, you can make phone calls too.  Calls to all of North America are free and international rates are very low. (Click here to view rates.)  You even get an actual telephone number with the ability to unify multiple numbers much like Vonage’s SimulRing® does, but Google does it for free.

Visit http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=152128&hl=en to learn all about Google Voice & Video Chat.

6.) Paint.NET

Paint.NET is a free image and photo editing software for Windows-based computers that is comparable to Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP.  It’s powerful, yet simple and has a user-friendly interface that supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.  In 2007 Paint.NET earned a spot on the PC World 101 Fantastic Freebies and has consistently received rave reviews.

Here’s just some of what PC World has to say about Paint.NET:

Don’t let the Web-oriented name fool you: this is a powerful image-editing program, one stuffed with Photoshop-quality features like layers, special effects, and plug-ins. The just-released 3.5 version of Paint.NET adds an updated user interface, new effects, improved startup performance, and a long list of tweaks and fixes. Best of all, it’s absolutely free.

I’m perpetually amazed that you can get software this powerful that doesn’t cost a dime. Consequently, I think using Paint.NET is a no-brainer for any user looking to edit, enhance, and otherwise modify images without spending crazy bucks on Photoshop. Bottom line: If you want to edit images, get Paint.NET.

You can learn more about Paint.NET and download it for free at http://www.getpaint.net/download.html.

7.) VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is a powerful and extremely popular media player that plays nearly every media codec and video format available.  The latest version, VLC 1.0, has been downloaded over 177 million times since its release last year.  In addition to video files, VLC plays DVDs, (S)VCDs, Audio CDs, web streams, TV cards, and more; however, the most impressive thing about VLC Media Player is it’s ability to easily record all media on the fly.

Here’s a little of what PC World has to say about the VLC Media Player:

The nicest thing is that VLC is small, at about 17MB, and is entirely self contained after installation. No additional installs or codecs are required. VLC is a good choice if you format your machine and still want DVD playback (as DVD codecs are normally proprietary and difficult to come by). It’s also a great choice for streaming media of any kind.

You can learn more about the VLC Media PLayer and download it for free at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

8.) RocketDock

According to their own Web site, RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. So what does that mean?  Well, it’s basically a Windows compatible version of the Mac OS X’s dock which is the icon bar at the bottom of the screen that lets you run frequently used programs.  Here’s a little of what PC World’s Preston Gralla has to say about it:

RocketDock is a simple Dock program that you can place at the top, bottom, or sides of your screen, and that gives you quick access to your favorite programs and features. By default, there are icons for a variety of features, including My Computer, Recycle Bin, Control Panel, and others. But you can easily add new icons by dragging and dropping them. The program is extremely customizable, and lets you change the graphic quality of the icons and their opacity, lets you use a number of different styles, and so on. It’s simple to use, it’s free, and it’ll make it easier to run your favorite programs and features. Given that, it’s hard to pass up.

I couldn’t agree with him more.  To learn more about RocketDock and to download it, visit http://rocketdock.com/.

9.) ShopSavvy for the iPhone

ShopSavvy for the iPhone is the only iPhone app on my list because it has literally saved me hundreds of dollars over the past year.  If you’re about to make a purchase at a store that has a price match guarantee, this nifty app will make sure you get the best deal possible.  I personally use this app every time I shop at Best Buy and other stores and it works great.  The app uses your phone’s camera to view the bar code to find prices for the item locally and online. If you see the item listed cheaper at a different store, just tap the listing and the app will give you the telephone number with the option to call directly from the app.  It will also list the address with the option to pull up the directions with the iPhone’s map app.

To learn more about ShopSavvy visit http://www.biggu.com/apps/.  To download it, visit the App Store on your iPhone and search for ShopSavvy.

10.) MusicBrainz Picard

MusicBrainz Picard is a cross-platform (Linux/Mac OS X/Windows) application that supports the majority of audio file formats, is capable of using audio fingerprints (PUIDs), performs CD lookups and disc ID submissions, and has Unicode support to help tag and organize all of your music files.  Picard uses an album oriented approach when tagging music files by examining every subdirectory in a specified folder and using its built-in data lookup to sort and rename all the files in an album-based format so all of your music files will be placed in a folder with the correct album name with the correct track number and name.

If you have a large music collection that you’ve accumulated over time from various sources with missing tags, then this program is for you.

Oh, and if you were wondering, Picard is named after Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

To learn more about MusicBrainz Picard and to download it for free, visit http://musicbrainz.org/doc/PicardTagger.

Tags: Ad-Aware Free, CCleaner, Chrome, Google, Google Chrome, Google Voice, Google Voice and Video Chat, Microsoft Security Essentials, MusicBrainz Picard, Paint.NET, RocketDock, ShopSavvy, Video Chat, VLC Media Player