Outdoor Cooking & EatingAin't Nothin' So Tasty!

Burner Kit

Windows Ultimate Starter Kit

Windows Ultimate Starter Kit

The Windows Ultimate Starter Kit is a set of powerful, yet freeware applications that will let you exploit the potential of your computer.

Antivirus

Avast Antivirus 5



 

Avast offers a really solid protection against threats. It has protection against anti-spyware & anti root-kit. Using its set of shields, the computer will be protected against browser hijacks, infected email messages, Instant Messaging and P2P threats. It also features a Gaming Silent Mode that will let you play without getting any notification windows.

Avira AntiVir

 

AntiVir is capable of handling its own with its AHeAD (Advanced Heuristic Analysis and Detection) technology; protecting the computer against, infected email, spywares and email threats. AntiVir is also compatible with Netbook computers.

Other free alternatives like AVG and Comodo Internet Security

 

Antispyware

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Anti-Malware can be one of those tools too good to be true. Aside from having a simple and easy to use interface; it features an extensive database allowing it to detect and remove almost every threat in the web.

Ad-Aware

Ad-Aware is one of the best Anti-Malware tools out there. Some of its features are: real time protection, behavior based protection, rootkit removal system, a download guard for Internet Explorer, an email scanner and more.

 

Firewall

Comodo Firewall Internet Security

Comodo Internet Security offers a Firewall, Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, Anti-RootKit and Bot protection in one package. The Antivirus is good but the Firewall is even better. During the installation process you can select to install the Firewall only. What's so good about it? Comodo is able to stop threats way before they reach your computer. It's constantly guarding the memory, the network and all the computer activity.

Another free and good firewall is Outpost Firewall

Web Browsers

Chrome

Chrome is one of Google's creations. Its fast, packed with extensions and it's pretty compatible with most of the websites. The main drawback is the lack of an ad/pop up blocker.

 

Firefox

Firefox offer features pretty similar to Chrome. It is fast and compatible with most of the websites and it also has a very extensive library. It also features multi-tab browsing and has similar options to deal with history and temporary files.  By default it won't be able to deal with all the Ads and Pop Ups; but this issue can be deal using extensions.

So why use Chrome or Firefox instead of Internet Explorer? Both browsers are faster than Internet Explorer and they offer a tighter security. If you want to have better performance and a better experience, Chrome and Firefox are the way to go.

Another notable browser is Flock which runs with the Chromium engine. Flock is a social network oriented browser.

 

Email Client

Thunderbird

If you were looking for an MS Outlook alternative, Thunderbird is up to the task. Thunderbird is an easy to use, light and full featured email client. As a stand-alone email client Thunderbird will cover the everyday needs. The calendar features can be added through an extension called Lighting.

 

Multimedia Players

Kantaris

If you want to enjoy music and videos Kantaris will cover your needs. With its set of built-in codecs this media player will be able to play almost every file that you throw at it. Playing MP3, WMV, Real Audio, AVI, DivX, MKV, and many other formats makes this player a real solid contender.

Gom Player

Gom Player is another media player that has a lot of compatibility with audio and video files. What makes it a unique tool is the ability to search and find for codecs needed to play a specific file. Every time that you want a file that the player can't handle; you will receive a message telling you that it can't play the file but that it can search for the needed codec.

 

Burning Software

CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is a free burning application that will let you burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray Disc. You can also create and burn ISOs and bootable disks.

 

File Archiver

7-Zip

7-zip is an open source file archiver that offers a high compression ratio. It is capable of opening all the popular compress format (zip, rar, ace, gzip, arj) and many others. The compressed files can be password protected and encrypted.

 

System Maintenance

CCleaner

When it comes to keep your system clean, CCleaner is the right application for the job. CCleaner is able to clean about every aspect of your system; Windows, Internet Explorer, the Registry and many of your installed programs. For the Registry Cleaner, it will create a restore point before cleaning/fixing the registry. This is very useful if something goes wrong after cleaning the system.

 

Defraggler

If you are not happy with windows defragmenter application then consider Defraggler as the solution. Defraggler will not only defrag the hard drive, but it will also optimize it, making the computer run faster.

 

Image Editing

Paint.net

Paint.net makes it easy editing and creating images. It has a basic set of tools and effects to get you started, but all its power can be extended using extensions. There is a lot of support from the community, and a lot of plugins and extensions for it. This makes it a powerful image editing software. You will be able to add effects, tools and extend its editing and creation utilities through add-on extensions.

 

Office Suite

OpenOffice.org

If you can't afford MS Office then give a try to OpenOffice.org This freeware office suite is compatible with MS Office Suite. The suite includes a word processing, a spreadsheet, a presentation, a flow chart, and a database program. All of them are compatible with MS Office suite. The advantage of it, is that is available for many operating systems; Windows, Mac, Linux and others. It also has an extension system that lets you add more power to the suite.

Social Networking

Seesmic

If you visit various social networking sites Seesmic might be right for you. With Seesmic you can manage Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, LinkedIn, and Foursquare and many other social sites using the ping.fm plugin. You can comment, share pictures, watch status changes and more.

If you don't want to install software to do this task, there are web based alternatives that will let you do the task. HootSuite and Netvibes will do more than well handling your social network needs.

 

Instant Messaging

Meebo

With Meebo Messenger you can talk to friends using diverse chat clients. You can talk to friends that use Windows Live Messenger, MySpace Messenger, Facebook, Google Talk and other popular clients, all with the use of Meebo.

Another popular alternative is Pidgin. Pidgin brings together even more clients together; AIM, Google Talk, IRC, MySpace, MSN, Yahoo!, Bonjour and many more. More features can be added through plugins.

There are other programs available for free dedicated for the same purpose; but the ones listed here are among the best and most popular. With them you will be able to extend the power of a new computer; and will let you do most of common tasks for free.

 

 

About the Author

Joel Escobar

Computer Tech

http://www.technewson.com

Why does my computer keep turning off after I start installing windows?

hi, My new computer that I built keeps turning off while trying to install windows. i have no idea why, as its loading the files at the begining of the setup it just turns off. ive tried it like 3 or 4 times with same results. its really weird!! any suggestions?

Additional Details

8 minutes ago
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
Power Supply: APEVIA (ASPIRE) ICEBERG ATX-IB680W-BL ATX12V/ EPS12V 680W Power Supply
HD1: Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache
HD2: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
Video card: XFX PVT71JYHE9 GeForce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP ExTreme Edition Video Card
RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Motherboard: ECS KA3 MVP (V1.0A) Socket AM2 ATI CrossFire Radeon Xpress 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard
DVD Burner: SONY Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW

double check if all your hardwares are properly installed.
if you install the heatsink and remove it, you might need to put additional thermal paste on the cpu.
check if your dual channel memory is installed properly.

if that doesn't help then i don't know what the problem is, try install another window, use different disc.