6 Free Computer Programs Nobody Knows About, But Should

1. AVG Anti-Virus

   Absolutely the best Anti-Virus pro­gram on the planet. It is absolutely set it and for­get it. I have been installing AVG on client com­put­ers for about three years, and I also run AVG on my two Win­dows com­put­ers. Only two peo­ple out of nearly 1500 has ever called me back about being rein­fected with spy­ware, and in both of those cases AVG was actu­ally giv­ing warn­ings to pre­vent them from view­ing spy­ware infected websites.

2. Microsoft Office 2010

   Microsoft plans to release a new ver­sion of Office in the near fea­ture, but I have a feel­ing it will be called 2011 or some­thing com­pletely dif­fer­ent. Microsoft is allow the pub­lic to use their rock solid Beta ver­sion for free. It has Microsoft Word, Excel, Pow­er­Point, Access, Out­look, Share­Point, and Pub­lisher, so if you were using Works, OpenOf­fice, or Google Docs here is a chance to get a really slick office suite for free.

3. Picasa Photo Manager

   I have not found a more sim­pler photo edi­tor and man­ager for the casual shut­ter­bug. I know that Adobe reigns supreme with Pho­to­shop and Pho­to­shop Ele­ments, but both pro­grams are expen­sive and most peo­ple I know have to enroll in a Pho­to­shop col­lege course to even begin learn­ing how to use it.Picasa is for those of use who just want to make a pic­ture look good. You can remove red eye, bal­ance the color, crop it, or con­vert it to grayscale, and more with a cou­ple of clicks. You can print col­lages, reg­u­lar prints and even export to the free online stor­age they offer.

4. gMail

   Its the best, PERIOD. I like that if I switch from Char­ter to AT&T or vice versa, my e-mail will still be intact. I like that it is extremely easy to archive and search my e-mails. I like that I can store up to 7GB or emails and attach­ments, and that I can send attach­ments way larger than the 10MB every­one else offers. Also, if you have a smart­phone (iPhone, Android) you can view your email on them in real time. I could go on with the dif­fer­ent things you can use gMail for but I save it for another post.

5. Game­House

   I have scoured the Inter­net look­ing for another gam­ing web­site that would let you try all of their pre­mium games for (30) day at no cost, and who would let you have (2) games even if you decide not to con­tinue the service.GameHouse has been around for­ever, and they have a cat­a­log full of fun games to prove it. They cre­ate Text Twist, Col­lapse, Bounce-Out, and Peg­gle all of which cost me $5 each for my iPhone, and are $10 and higher on the shelf at Wal-Mart.

I find neat free soft­ware all of the time, so hook up with me on Twit­ter or Face­book and get an alert next time I find some neat free stuff.