Gallery: Free and essential Windows apps

Talkback

• Stupid question

  How is Paint.NET superior to Windows Paint? The blurb doesn't really say.

  

  John L. Ries

  6 February, 2008 07:29

  Reply Vote

  • No Question is Stupid

    No question is stupid except the ones you don't ask. Just do a google search or sign up here at ZD and download and install it. It's small yet has many more features than MS Paint. Be sure you have MS .NET installed, if don't you'll have to install it first. If you don't want .NET forget paint.NET. There are a lot of good small free graphics programs out there so best of luck.

    

    ehdrerup@...

    6 February, 2008 07:58

    Reply Vote

    • Yup, agreed. nt

      nt

      

      georgeou

      6 February, 2008 12:29

      Reply Vote

  • I can tell just by the picture

    I can tell just by the picture that paint.net is better than windows paint. I also installed it. (Only 1.5MB) and can verify that its better than windows paint by leaps and bounds. Thanks George.

    

    MIS Master

    6 February, 2008 08:45

    Reply Vote

    • Paint.NET is Open Source

      Paint.NET is open source and written in C#. Its a very good educational tool.

      

      Heatlesssun1

      6 February, 2008 09:46

      Reply Vote

  • The drawing tools for example are better.

    The drawing tools for example are better. That's enough of a reason for me to use it.

    

    georgeou

    6 February, 2008 12:28

    Reply Vote

• RE: AVG Antivirus Free Edition (Gallery: Free and essential Windows apps)

  its been good to me

  

  CATLOVERSX34@...

  6 February, 2008 08:06

  Reply Vote

• RE: AVG Antivirus Free Edition (Gallery: Free and essential Windows apps)

  The best there is - I killed Norton on my computer and all of my clients too and no one has been unhappy. Been using it for about 4 years. Highly recommend.

  

  dhuber@...

  6 February, 2008 08:17

  Reply Vote

  • And you gotta love the price too

    :)

    

    georgeou

    6 February, 2008 12:29

    Reply Vote

• RE: AVG Antivirus Free Edition (Gallery: Free and essential Windows apps)

  Unfortunately the latest AVG 7.5 has become a member of the bloat software club. The program size of 7.5.516 has increased to 32,209KB from 7.0.300 at 10,793KB. The running memory of all its processes has doubled. AVG update insist on installing the latest version. I am going to be forced to find another free antivirus with a smaller footprint to install on older slower computers. After using AVG from day one.

  

  hdonnell@...

  6 February, 2008 08:19

  Reply Vote

  • Try Avast

    I use avast 4 home. It's free, you just have to sign up. I've found it to have a smaller running footprint than AVG and it does a lot more.

    

    HunterShoptaw

    6 February, 2008 11:10

    Reply Vote

    • Avast! upgrades are easy

      Avast! upgrades are easy, fast, small and incremental!
      
      That's right, upgrades are only the new files you need, so they're even faster and they happen in the background and you can schedule their frequency.

      

      bart001fr

      11 February, 2008 11:42

      Reply Vote

• You forgot a GOOD one: WINDIRSTAT

  Dunno how you missed WINDIRSTAT, ZDNet is where i saw it first.
  
  Incredible graphic interface for viewing used storage space on your hard drive - one of the coolest utilities i've ever used.
  VERY handy if you have a BUNCH of files and are wondering what's happening to all your harddrive space.
  
  http://windirstat.info/

  

  c.wright@...

  6 February, 2008 09:48

  Reply Vote

  • Thanks, good tip.

    nt

    

    georgeou

    6 February, 2008 13:18

    Reply Vote

• RE: AVG Antivirus Free Edition (Gallery: Free and essential Windows apps)

  I had AVG and too many virusus got through and it told me that my os was pirated and they were going to report me? I paid for my windows, they really need to fix this problem! So I have gotten AVAST and it work well, I have no complaints and my Windows is ok, not pirated!

  

  greywolf1785

  6 February, 2008 11:37

  Reply Vote

  • AVG AV FREE

    i fail to understand the enthusiasm over AVG Free. Yeds it uses resources well and doesn't have the Norton bloat, but it is niot a good detector. Avira is a much better detector and there is a feree version that uses few resources, does silent updates and except for a nag screen after an update you don't even know it's there, until it detects something.

    

    howiem

    9 February, 2008 12:47

    Reply Vote

    • Avira AntiVir beats AVG always

      I couldn't agree more strongly. Look at any comparative review or the history of AV Bulletin certs for AVG and Avira for effective detection or scanning speed and Avira always comes out on top.
      
      This article must be rather old. AVG 7.5 and 8 are extremely bloated. Both versions turn a dual core cpu back into a single core system, just running a lot slower than a single core would have been for the same price.

      

      ITSecurityGuy

      27 June, 2008 01:10

      Reply Vote

• VLC media player

  Why do people insist on suggesting the bloated and usually virus filled (again, depending on where you download it) K-lite codec pack when programs like VLC exist? It can play almost literally every file type I've come across (the exception here is real media) and it only takes up a couple MB on your HDD.
  http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

  

  Fromster@...

  6 February, 2008 12:56

  Reply Vote

  • K-Lite isn't filled with viruses

    K-Lite isn't filled with viruses, and it has a great uninstaller.

    

    georgeou

    6 February, 2008 13:17

    Reply Vote

    • Well, maybe some...

      I downloaded the K-lite mega pak from the reference you gave and Blink Personal found a fake codec (rasphone.pbk) that was really the DNSChanger F malware app.
      
      Might have been a false positive, but it certainly makes me wonder.

      

      BearBrad

      12 February, 2008 14:21

      Reply Vote