Dec 18
2007Post-Install Stuff To Add
Filed Under (Windows Xp) by Admin on 18-12-2007
Tagged Under : Anti-virus Software, Browsers, Compression Utilities, Email clients, Image Viewing Software, PDF Readers, Post-Install Stuff, RSS readers, update virus definitions, windows, windows updtate, Windows Xp
1. Anti-virus Software
Before you start surfing the Internet or sharing your files on a network, you must install anti-virus software, otherwise your computer could get infected in a matter of seconds. There are quite a few anti-virus software available, such as Norton AntiVirus 2006, McAfee ViruScan, PCCillin from Trend Micro, Panda antivirus, Kaspersky anti-virus, AVG Anti-Virus, and more. Most of these anti-virus software are paid, but some such as Avast! and BitDefender are free. Note that paid anti-virus does not necessarily mean better protection against viruses.
Remember to always keep your anti-virus software updated with the latest virus definitions from the software publisher’s Web site, or by using the update facility in the software.
2. PDF Readers
Many e-books, help files and documents are currently available only in PDF (portable document format). The advantage of this format is that PDF files look the same no matter what platform or OS you view it on. This is possible because besides the pictures and formatting, fonts, too, are embedded in the file. In order to view files of this type, you need to install an appropriate viewer. The most popular amongst these is Adobe Reader 7. There are also a few other PDF viewers such as Foxit Reader and eXPert PDF Reader, the installers of which are smaller than that of Adobe Reader, and which also consume less system resources. All these are freeware.
3. Compression Utilities
Windows XP has its own compression utility that can compress files using the ZIP compression technique. All you need to do is right-click on a file or folder, mouse-over ‘Send to’, and click ‘Compressed (Zipped) folder’—and a Zip file is created. But this does not let you control the compression settings, and you cannot create self-extracting archives. In order to achieve this, you need to install compression utilities such as WinZip, WinRAR, WinACE, and PowerArchiver. These software not only let you compress files and folders with a great degree of control over the compression ratio, some also let you choose the compression format, and let you create encrypted archives.
4. Image Viewing Software
Windows has image viewing and management software—namely, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer and MS Paint. But these only provide basic functionality, and you can choose from several other such software—most notably IrfanView, ACDSee and XnView. Many of these also have image management and editing capabilities.
5. Browsers
Internet Explorer 6 comes preinstalled with Windows XP, but there are other browsers such as Opera, Mozilla, and Firefox, which have features absent in IE—such as an RSS reader, tabbed browsing, and the ability to customize the browser by installing various plugins.
6. E-mail Clients
Windows XP comes with Outlook Express 6 inbuilt. Though OE is pretty OK, you might want to try out other e-mail clients such as Eudora, IncrediMail and Thunderbird, which provide some additional features.