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Firefox

For a different type of browser to the default Internet Explorer offering from Microsoft, try Mozilla Firefox, a freeware browser that has been developed & honed by many individuals.

Available as a free download, it is developed & supported by a ever increasing group of programmers who add their bit to what is rapidly becoming a popular web surfing tool.

It can need the odd bit of twiddling as it isn't quite like Internet Explorer which wants you do everything as Microsoft intended

A major asset is that it tends not to suffer so many problems with Viruses and other web nastiest as its rivals, hackers seem to be more intent on hitting Microsoft rather than the new kid on the block!

EDIT Flattery seems to be the line in Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer. IE7 has changed it look & copy's the tabbed browser feel of Firefox amongst other things. The downside is that bill & his mates still want to ram Yahoo & other things down your throat by default and there are one or two issues with it being compatible with some stuff, expect they will get most of it sorted before they roll out Vista.........!

With FireFox there are many "add-ons" that will allow you to modify your version to suit your particular taste, so here are a few I use as a taster!

FireTune is one extension that I use, it is easy to set up to optimise your installation of firefox to suit your system & method of connection, all with a couple of mouse clicks

ReminderFox is a nice little "events reminder" pop-up diary. Every time you start FireFox a small reminder pop-up from the bottom toolbar with whatever date/appointment/occasion you have set, it can be a one off, or continuous event-no excuse to forget the wedding anniversary now!!

IE View Lite finally, there are some sites who haven't catered for the upsurge of non microsoft browsers, if you get onto one of these which may not display correctly in firefox, just click your IE View lite command & firefox loads the site into a bare bones Internet Explorer page, you can also mark the page so that it automatically does it on your next visit!

Google toolbar is handy as you can have a direct google search box there in the toolbar but best of all is the option for a built in spell checker which works on any text that you have entered in the browsers window.

Universal www browsing accessories

Google, The most popular search engine is also a good thing to have as your default browser window, it is quick to load unlike some default pages your Internet Service Provider may prefer you to use! I usually set it to Google UK by default.

Wise registry cleaner, is a valuable tool to safely remove loads of spent files from your system which improves the performance of the PC's memory. It will make a back up of the registry where most of the files are and when you remove files it makes a restore file, just in case there is a problem but as yet it has worked well.

Once you have downloaded Wise registry cleaner at the end of the installation you will be offered to download their disc cleaner, uncheck the box, on your desktop will be a "clear with 1 click" icon, delete this and use the Wise Registry cleaner button, then when the program first loads you will get a "How can I help" pop-up, tick the "don't show this window again" and click the "later" button to stop it for next time.

The cleaner should load and prompt you to start scanning, when it has scanned is should offer you to back up the registry if you haven't already, do this. Once done it will show loads of files with green or brown icons, the green ones are automatically selected and are safe to fix, the brown ones are best left unless you feel competent to restore on or two files that may be needed.

Once you have run this the first time, check that the computer is running ok (always so far!) make another backup then click the "components subsystem" box and scan the system again, this will find a lot more defunct files, use the safe to delete option again as before. Use this setting from now on. you should notice a marked improvement and the system will benefit from occasional cleaning with it.

CrapCleaner A freeware program, CrapCleaner (CC) is good in tidying up after you have been on the web, it can be set to clean & tidy up after you, removing all sorts of debris that builds up & clogs the works. It has several options that you can tinker with, basic ones are to empty the Temporary Internet Files, delete cookies and empty the recycle bin. (Tip-uncheck the recycle bin option as its better to empty the bin manually-otherwise it oops-too late!!) It also has a utility to scan for registry file issues and correct them where possible. When first run both tools may require two or three runs to fully locate every item. TIP- when you download or update it always click the alternative download option below the FileHippo link as this will take you to CCleaners own site & less tricky adverts!, also just leave the options boxes like this to start with

Foxit Reader is a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat but it is a lot smaller to download and is much faster to open than Acrobat! I usually remove Acrobat, or if you don't want to do that you can set Foxit Reader to be the default reader. It is really much faster to load and beats Adobe in my eyes.

Screenhunter A screen capture tool that I use. Available as freeware or with more features for a small fee. I use the plus version on my main pc and this works very well with some nice helpful features. Basically they take a snapshot of what you have selected on screen & saves it ready for you to use/work with. I find it much easier than the old PrtScrn button!!

Thunderbird An alternative to Outlook Express, Thunderbird is a freeware Email program from Mozilla of Firefox fame. Latest version 2.0 is now available and like Firefox can be configured to how you want it to look & work as opposed to OE.

Copernic Desktop Search a handy search engine for your PC, it uses time when the the PC is idle to catalogue its files so that you can search to find that document or whatever with only a fragment of information about it!