Who says you need to spend a lot on essential software for your PC? There are a lot of free solutions available.
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Open Office:
One of the best alternatives to MS Office, this offers a lot of similar features for free. It is available for download for almost all platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. It has a word editor, spreadsheet maker and even a presentation creator. It supports a large number of equations and languages. Files are stored in international open office formats, which can be edited using other programs.
LibreOffice:
Created by the developer of Open Office, the LiberOffice suite runs on the same code with similar six applications as on the Open Office. These include - Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math. The LibreOffice standard package offers PDF import, a presentation minimizer and a Wiki publisher. Users can expand functionality with extensions and templates as well.
Wavepad Sound Editor:
This is another popular easy-to-use sound editor. It is a feature-rich software that supports most commonly used audio formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, OGG, Real Audio, etc. This utility can be used to edit sound (cut, copy, paste) and add audio effects (reverb, echo, reverse)
IrfanView:
This power image editing software can take care of the needs of both amateurs and professionals. Easily available as a free download, it has multiple format support and has features like support for Adobe Photoshop filters, batch conversion, multiple TIF editing, lossless JPG rotation and more.
Hightail:
Popularly known as Yousendit in the past, Hightail addresses the issues concering limited attachment file support. This online data sharing website has both free and paid versions. The free version is basic and allows you to share files of up to 250MB. One can also send files up to 2GB from a computer or mobile device with Hightail.
Pandora Recovery:
Deleted some important files by mistake? Use Pandora Recovery, an excellent free file recovery software. The software is easy to use. A more advanced "Surface Scan" is available that should recover more files than the standard search as long as they are of a popular format. This can be used to undelete files from hard drives, memory cards, etc.
CCleaner:
Just as our health demands regular monitoring, so do our PCs. More so, if we are connected to the Web. And CCleaner is what the PC doctors ordered. This has been specially designed for Windows PCs. It speeds up the performance of the system by freeing up the hard disk space. It also protects the privacy of its user online by removing temp files, history and cookies, etc., from the browser's history. Above all, it doesn't consume much time. It works smoothly within a minute.
CDBurner XP:
While some CD writers come with their PC for later use. It even has Lightscribe integration that can be used for LS disc writers to etch titles on discs. A neat feature of the software is that it can add audio tracks directly to your compilation without ripping them down as MP3.