Mozilla Firefox You've probably heard something about the firefox browser, as the long-awaited release of version 1.0 has generated quite a buzz. And with good reason. Firefox is almost a necessity if you want to prevent spyware infestations and drive-by downloads. It has a pop-up blocker built in, fast page loads, and almost endless features available with extensions. Make sure to go to http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/ for the full selection of available extensions. The default extensions site for the new version of firefox is missing some of the most useful extensions, like session saver. Download

Firefox is free open source software developed under the direction of the Mozilla Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Dave's Quick Search Deskbar This is a must! When idle, it replaces the clock on your taskbar. When you click on it (or press Windows-Key + S) it becomes the most compact, powerful search tool available. Just entering keywords opens your browser to Google results; add an exclamation point to skip directly to Google's top result; add a , to search Google Groups. There are searches for everyone, from $ dqsd [searches Bloomberg Financial for dqsd] to % dqsd [ebay] to # dave blau (Anytown, CA) (find phone and address info on Switchboard.) From powerful research tools to top-notch time wasters (type phsp 456-683-3773 to find out all the possible things the phone number can spell) there are too many options to list here - so I'll do it here. I can't say enough about this one.. Download

Open source. Many of the searches are contributed by users with programming skills.

H-Menu Unclutter your desktop and find things in a flash. H-menu bars hide at the edges of your screen until you need them. Put your shortcuts on them (and take them off your desktop.) When you want to open a program, document or folder you move your mouse to the very edge of the screen and your menubar appears. You can set the 'hot spot' and configure it to only appear if you click in the hot spot, or if you hold shift. You choose the size of the icons, how many you can have in each bar, what image to use for a separator, and nearly everything else. I'm usually not big on programs that run all the time - in fact, I hunt down and eradicate most of them - but this program is so useful that I feel lost without it. Download

Freeware

AVG Antivirus AVG is a rock-solid antivirus which we have been using for years now. It's at least as good at detection as any antivirus we've seen and it requires minimal system resources. Download

Free for personal use. For businesses, the corporate antivirus product is excellent and reasonably priced.

CompFold Find out what files and folders are taking up space on your hard drive. Installing this adds an item to the context menu. Download

Freeware.

Treesize Find out what files and folders are taking up space on your hard drive. Installing this adds an item to the context menu. Download

Freeware.

Kerio Personal Firewall This free (for home use) firewall is really great, although configuration is fairly technical and so the program may not be suitable for less experienced users. If you know what port 25 is used for (sending email) then you will probably appreciate the fine control available in Kerio. If you wondered 'Port? What do boats have to do with it?' then I suggest something like ZoneAlarm. Some 'firewalls' like Windows XP's Built-in firewall and BlackIce Defender are better than nothing, but they do not stop or even monitor outgoing traffic—if you get a trojan horse on your system which is sending information out, you'll know. Download

Kerio Personal Firewall is free for private non-commercial use. They also offer enterprise-class commercial products for businesses.

Tight VNC Remote control program which has versions for most operating systems, and so allows someone on a Windows machine to control a MAC from anywhere. If you're bedind a NAT router, you'll need to pass through port 5900 (or whatever port you configure it to use.) Download

Tight VNC is an open source project.

Spybot Search & Destroy If you have a problem with annoying pop-up ads-or in many cases even if you don't-you probably have some spyware or adware or other type of foistware on your system. This program will remove it safely and easily, but be aware that some software that installs spyware will not run when you remove it. Of course, if you just can't live without Kazaa Virus Desktop, you can tell Spybot to ignore the foistware that comes with it. You may be surprised how much faster your computer is without all the parasites. Download

Spybot is donation-ware. There is no payment required, but please remember that he puts a lot of time into fighting (on your behalf) a highly profitable and well-funded industry with no compensation but the donations of grateful users. When you see how much faster your system is and how much more efficient you are without all those pop-ups, please donate to the cause.

Opera Internet Browser If you've never tried Opera, you're missing out on something that will revolutionize the way you use the internet. Not only does it offer the best support for web standards of any browser, as well as a number of unique features, it's clean design means pages load faster. The fact that every page you go to loads faster than it would in Internet Explorer or Netscape is only one way this software will help you get more done faster. Picture this scenario: You're looking for something online and, just when you're finding what you need, you get interupted and have to stop. Closing all those windows you just spent half an hour finding means starting all over later (or wading through the history looking for the good windows.) In Opera, you just save your windows. Next time you start Opera, you can pick up right where you left off. Amazing!

Opera is free with an ad banner ad, but this is one of those programs I happily pay for - it increases my productivity more than enough to cover the $35 price.