Useful Windows Programs

Below are some standard programs that are useful for general computer use.

LibreOffice – www.libreoffice.org
A free substitute for Microsoft Office including word Word, Excel and Powerpoint equivalents. LibreOffice integrates into Windows 10 better than OpenOffice. See below instructions on saving documents in MS Office format.

FoxIt Reader – www.foxitsoftware.com
Best free PDF reader.

Irfan View – www.irfanview.com
Image viewer with advanced features for all image formats.

GIMP – www.gimp.org
This is a great free photo editing program comparable to PhotoShop.

VLC – www.videolan.org
This is an excellent audio and video player as well as a format converter.

System Cleaners:
CCleaner – www.ccleaner.com – Excellent free cleaner for removing unnecessary files and cleaning registry: saves space and speeds up operation. I recommend running about once a month or so, or after installing or uninstalling software. The paid version gives additional features like performance optimizer, update drivers and a variety of other tools.
CleanUp! – cleanup.stevengould.org – thorough cleaner that finds a few more files than CCleaner.

Advanced System Care – www.iobit.com
Similar to CCleaner and CleanUp! (above) but with additional features: spyware and malware scanning, system optimization and much more.

O&O AppBuster – O&O Software
O&O AppBuster displays and allows you to remove programs and Microsoft apps in Windows 10 & 11. Get rid of installed programs like Xbox and sales apps like Amazon, Dropbox, etc. Run after each Windows update because many are often re-installed.

ANTI-VIRUS

Windows 10 (&11) come with a high quality anti-virus so that will be enough for most people. I wanted the extra protection of secure browser and website blocking that I get from a paid anti-virus. See anti-virus ratings at the AV-Test.org website and comparison on PC Magazine website. No anti-virus system is best at all things. The top three listed below: McAfee, Kaspersky and Sophos are best in certain aspects and next best in others. Numbers in parenthesis are AV-Test.org ratings of protection, performance & usability, respectively. Of the top three only McAfee got a 100% rating for blocking URLs of potential phishing attacks.

Best paid anti-virus:
McAfee – https://www.mcafee.com – highly rated by PC Magazine (6, 6, 6)
Malwarebytes – www.malwarebytes.com – highly rated by PC Magazine (5.5, 6, 6)
Kaspersky – www.kaspersky.ca – highly rated by PC Magazine (6, 6, 6)
Sophos – home.sophos.com cyber-security suite with AI. Comparable to McAfee & does some things better, but worse at phishing URL blocking.

Best free anti-virus:
Microsoft Defender – comes free with Windows 10 & 11
360 Total Security – store.360totalsecurity.com
BitDefender – www.majorgeeks.com/bitdefender
ZoneAlarm – www.zonealarm.com – classic anti-virus

Best free firewalls:
Tiny Firewall – tinywall.pados.hu – tiny but powerful firewall
ZoneAlarm – www.zonealarm.com – classic firewall
SpyShelter – www.spyshelter.com – includes a powerful anti-keylogger

Best free malware & spyware blocker and scanner:
Spybot – www.safer-networking.org – best to use alongside Windows Defender for full protection

Ransomware Protection:
ZoneAlarm - www.zonealarm.com – has a specialized anti-ransomware program with phishing protection

Anti-Keylogger
SpyShelter – www.spyshelter.com – Silent Anti-Keylogger automatically encrypts your text protecting it from being captured by keylogging malware.

Spyware
SUPERAntiSpyware – www.superantispyware.com scans for spyware that may be attaching your computer. I've used it and it works. They have both a free and pay version.
Spyware Blaster – www.brightfort.com
Monitors browsers to protect against spyware. Free version has manual database update; paid version only adds automatic updating.

Thunderbird – www.thunderbird.net
Best email client program.

Browser
Brave – brave.com is the most secure and private of all browser. The best!
Firefox – www.mozilla.com is the most popular of those seeking less bloated and bothersome browsers compared to IE & Edge, and especially the privacy issues associated with Chrome.

Bluefish – https://bluefish.openoffice.nl
Best web page editor, and it's free.

Sandboxie Plus – Sandboxie.com
For really safe browsing try this easy to use sandbox which isolates your browsing from the rest of your computer. When you close Sandboxie, any files downloaded to your computer are deleted, so online viruses don't infect your computer.

Setting up LibreOffice to save documents in MS format (as in MS Office)
Open up LibreOffice and click Tools > Options. In the Options window, click to expand the Load/Save entry in the left navigation.

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Click General and, at the bottom of the window, select the document type you want to configure. Then, from the Always save as drop-down, select the MS Document format you need to use. Do this for each document type you need to work with and, once you are finished, click OK.
Typically these are set to either .doc or .docx for documents, and .xls or .xlsx for spreadsheets.

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