Let’s face it, you invest a lot of money on a PC, and then Anti-virus software.

Now what else would you need? Perhaps a bunches of other software to just get many things done such as writing a document, making a greeting card for Christmas or for Valentines for that loved one or may be you would simply like to resize or play with a photo you took on your vacation to email to your Mum.

Should you just go out and buy everything you desire or demand.

It’s upto you. But if you are limited by budget, there are bunches free software created by wonderful community of people who share the same idea as you do, “Software should be FREE”

First thing to keep in mind. NEVER SAY FREE. SAY IT AGAIN Please! Never say free.

Fee in the sense as Free to use as long as you want to keep it, and when you get it it doesn’t have these things:

• No Adware - Some free stuff are free but you will be given Ads on top or buttom or even redirect your browser to Ads.
• No Malware - a secret program that is made to corrupt your system files or even damage other program files
• No Viruses - you know about it, don’t you ?
• No Spyware - now these are little or tiny programs that come to your system and spy on your activity and some are smart to send to the owner. They can even know the last credit card you used to buy a product from a shopping site such as AMAZON.com

So, be sure to understand that you are using. If FREE, look for a logo that says all of the above. Since your goal is to get good free programs without paying anything, you will be spending time doing un-nstalling for them trial software, demo or free to use for limited time often called as shareware.

Now, on this part 1, I am going to list a few programs with links for download. I encourage you to keep your anti-virus updated before you download use. And hey, Perhaps you already have some of them with you on your computer, then share what the problems or recommend other good free programs if you like.

Some Great FREE PROGRAMS YOU CAN USE WITH CONFIDENCE,
and they work with Windows VISTA too!

• HTML Kit - This is a free nice program. Use you can use this to create html page or even write a complete documents such as .txt or .php files. There are support, plug ins and much more. View your writings by line number so you can find-out where the error occurred, also has Spell Check Plug in. What else more would you want, download : here…

• Gspot - Even VISTA can’t tell you much about a video if it usage APPLE’s technology. Gspot is a tiny utility, works with VISTA also, you can drag a file or just open it and find a wealth of information about a video. It pretty much tells you everything about a video from video size, date taken, to number of frames, codecs for audio and video and more importantly - the size of the video. Download and have fun finding info about your video files. Supports all video files, visit site to get latest info and to download. here
• Paint.net - When will MICROSOFT give you a nice painting program for free? Well, let them not give it for free so other’s can do better. Here is one that tops all charts for me. Has wealth of tools you can use to enhance your photos, images and also do drawings. Download and just enjoy it. Supports .jpg, .bmp, .gif and all regular files for import and export. Download here… here from download.com
• Open Office -  a bit slower than MS Office suite, but it’s worth having it. Why? It’s free and has everything you can do from writing documents, spreadsheet, presentation and more. Thanks to Sun Microsoft for this wonderful program for those who can’t afford Microsoft. I have loved it since the version 1.0 See which version you can download now. Visit site, find download link and off you go. Save the file onto your computer then run it. Follow this link to download this what could be described as one of the best FREE Software on the Internet.. http://www.openoffice.org/
• FileZilla - Every webmaster knows this fast yet superb FTP client that makes it easy to upload files to your web server. Among the features include setting up local and remote folders on connection, resume failed connection and much more. A free FTP program doesn’t get better than this. If you aren’t into FTP, one day or the other, you will have a domain, then a website and you will want to make changes to your files, such as uploading templates to your content management software, or it might just be uploading recently charged HTML files. This is it! Download, use and enjoy. Download here
• VLC Player - Small in Size and Big in Doing. This simple player beats many players and works with Windows VISTA. Many users have even reported that problems that they had with other players unable to play certain videos are just solved by using this program. Try it. It loads faster than QuickTime Pro and Windows Media Player and plays all sorts of Media Files. All Thanks to wonderful community of VLC. Download here… [at videolane.org]
• Blender.org If you like to do learn or you are a die-hard fan on 3d Modeling, you don’t really need that $1K or $2K software similar to Auto Cad or Maya. Try this wonderful open source program; that’s a bit hard to learn but once you get the hang of it, you will love it. Blender does what you want to bland. Download here…
• Camstudio a simple nimble program to record your screen activity. Lauch and it will record. If you have any problems you can visit the site’s forum and get some help. Many use it to even make videos of stick figures, or games that they play. You can record in .avi or flash format and there are bunches of tools such as mouse pointer that can be used to create a tutorial video. Download here…
• Spy Search and Destroy - Who would have that a year ago that this small program would become so huge to help so many users to remove Spyware, Adware and Malware ? Now with bunches of options including a tiny program that stays in the TSR which watches what happens in your browser, for example if it tries to change your homepage, or tries to add a program in startup or even a spayware is detected when running or downloading, it will alert you. Download and enjoy it. Be sure to update the latest detection and scan your system. The program is now offered in many languages making regional usability at the top. Download here…

More in part 2, have you tried any of these? Know more, share!

Ruben