Here’s a list of (mostly free) utility software I use very regularly. I’ve used most of it for many years and have found that most of it takes the tedium out of using a computer effectively. Enjoy!

• SCWebCam3 – What I use to take snapshots of my desktop and upload them.
• Mozilla FireFox – A free, secure, open-source browser that has tabs and a built in pop-up blocker. Once you try it, you’ll never go back to IE!
• ZoneAlarm – A free firewall. With so many holes in Windows and always-on, high-speed connections to the Internet, it’s crazy not to use a good firewall like this.
• Style XP – Change more than just the colors of Windows with this theme manager. Once you get this program, thousands of free themes and visual styles are available at ThemeXP.org.
• PDF995 – The cheapest way to make decent PDFs. As its name implies, it costs $9.95, but it’s well worth it if you need to make PDFs on the cheap.
• SpyBox Search and Destroy – Great spyware removal tool. I use it now instead of Ad-Aware because it gets rid of more system hijackers.

This list could go on, but these are the titles I couldn’t live without.