Top 10 Essential [and Free] Apps for your PC

By | July 3, 2010

If you’ve used your PC for any extended period of time, you’ve probably run into frustrating errors, pesky viruses, and unexplainable slow performances. These often result from the fact that programmers and developers (like all humans) make mistakes, misjudge what people will need, or simply fail to add features that would make your PC work so much better. Thankfully, the world is full of coders devoted to filling these gaps with their own applications that cover various tasks, from fixing the inherent errors that lie within the operating system to completely reorganizing how you surf and access the web.
Even better, many of these are free.

The point of this article is to use your PC to its full potential. While these apps may not save a dying and decrepit computer, they will certainly improve anyone’s PC and give you a second wind.

#1 – CCleaner (Available from Piriform.com)
Description: The mother of all optimization apps, this one is a must and features on dozens of Top Applications lists year after year. With a single click, CCleaner can run through your PC and start cleaning out unneeded data and unclog memory hogging programs. These can even be customized, ensuring that things you would like to keep (like saved passwords) will not be deleted but everything else (like Temporary Files, Recycle Bin, old Cache Data, etc) will be cleaned out completely. CCleaner also hosts several other functions, like checking your registry for errors, uninstalling and modifying programs, and handling your startup programs.

#2 – Defraggler (Available from Defraggler.com)
Description: From the same company as CCleaner, Defraggler helps you when you need to defragment your hard drives (something you should do on a regular basis). Unlike the built in Windows defragmenter, however, Defraggler does a much cleaner job in a much smaller time frame. Instead of leaving your computer on all night to complete defragmenting, Defraggler often gets the job done in less than an hour (even less if you use Quick Defrag; times will vary with hard drive size).

#3 – Browser (Multiple Choices Available from Mozilla.com, Opera.com, and Chrome.Google.com)
Description: Although this may seem like an obvious choice, a shocking number of people still use Internet Explorer for their browsing needs. Not only does Internet Explorer(IE) have a large number of security exploits that are unfixed, a meager amount of features, and a tendency to crash you when you need it the most, IE users are missing out on whole new ways to surf the web. The three main alternatives to IE are Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome, each with their own benefits. Firefox is known for its reliability and incredible customizability (with millions of add-ons freely available). Opera comes bundled with tons of built-in features. Chrome has a speedy and simple interface that many people enjoy. While the choice is ultimately up to you, researching each browser will be of great benefit to you.

#4 – AVG (Available from Free.AVG.com)
Description: The Internet has become a dangerous place, with viruses, malware, and spyware lurking everywhere. Thankfully, AVG has provided a free way to handle these problems. Not much more really needs to be said on the subject. Just install, scan, and let it do its own thing.

#5 – Secunia PSI (Available from Secunia.com)
Description: Sooner or later, your programs will be out of date. Instead of worrying about when new patches are released and how important they are, download this application instead. The personal version of Secunia will scan your computer and let you know which apps need to be updated in order to keep your system safe and secure.

#6 – Dropbox (Available from Dropbox.com)
Description: When you need to store files online or want access to certain documents, photos, or music from anywhere in the world, there are plenty of backup services to help you. Dropbox, however, stands out from the competition by giving you 1 GB completely free and integrating its services into the Windows operating system.

#7 – VLC (Available from VideoLan.org)
Description: Ever try opening a media file only to have a codec error? With VLC, all of these problems should go away without any hassle. In a nutshell, if VLC can’t play the file, it’s probably corrupted or not real.

#8 – Notepad++ (Available from Notepad-plus.SourceForge.net)
Description: While most people don’t see the need to replace the standard text editor Notepad, Notepad++ brings to the table a plethora of features without sacrificing disk space or system memory. If you code HTML, C++, Java or any other programming language, Notepad++ will also natively conform to the syntax of your chosen language. Notepad++ also supports plugins.

#9 – 7-Zip (Available from 7-Zip.org)
Description: With files getting bigger and more numerous by the minute, archives such as .zip, .rar, and .ace have become increasingly popular. Instead of having to download a program for extracting each of those formats and needing another to create archives, simply download 7-Zip, which covers all of these tasks.

#10 – WinDirStat (Available from WinDirStat.info)
Description: Finally, while you can buy copious amounts of hard disk space for fairly cheap prices nowadays, there’s no reason not to take care of your files and to clean up every once in a while. Download WinDirStat to see a graphical representation of what folders are taking up space on your machine, and what folders are hiding unnecessary files that you no longer need on your PC.

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