When it comes to what software is on your computer, it is more a question of preference than anything else. Oh there are types of programs that I feel you absolutely must have, but I have met people that don't even agree with me on that. I have been using computers since the 1970s. Yes that's not a typo. I remember when I purchased my first home computer. It was a Sinclair ZX81 and I paid $149 for it. I couldn't wait for it to arrive and I was so disappointed when it did. It was very small and this upset me. It only had a 1K memory and it was very limited. You could create one hand of a clock on your tv screen in black and white. Things progressed until today I build my own computers and they are more powerful than the super computers of yesteryear.

Software has gotten very powerful and there are certain programs that I feel everyone should have on their home computers along with other programs that are nice to have, or what most would call as handy. I think it might be helpful to some of you out there if we delve into some of these programs to see exactly what I am talking about. Before we start let me tell you that there are four categories of software available. The first is commercial, you buy it, the second is known as shareware. It is usually created by hobbyists or small companies and sells for much less than the commercial type. The third category is freeware. It costs nothing but may contain some advertisements. Some of it is very good while some is not. The last category is a type of lease. Every year you pay for your software but in return it is always cutting edge.

The first thing that I believe every computer needs is antivirus software. The amount of viruses sent my way every day is about 6 on average. Of course I get a lot more email than most, but even the average person could get a couple of viruses sent to him in a month. I use a program called AVG. It is a great antivirus program and the company has a free version. It is created by a commercial company and can be put on automatic updates if you leave your computer on. I use the commercial version of this program but even that was really cheap for such quality software. I think it was about $35.00. AVG also ties in with Microsoft Outlook, the email program and it has completely protected me for years by catching every single virus that has been sent to me. I can't say enough about this program.

Before I go any further I want to let everyone know that my computer is behind a firewall and this is also great protection. A firewall can be either a hardware device or a software program that stops hackers from getting on your computer while your internet connection is open. I have a hardware device but Windows XP contains a software firewall. A product called Zone Alarm is said to have the best software firewall available. I strongly suggest that you either plug into a hardware firewall, turn on the firewall in Windows XP, if you are using it, or get Zone Alarm.

The next thing you have to worry about is spyware. These are little software programs that get on your computer and make a record of what you are doing and send it back to somewhere. These are not too good for you if you do banking on your computer or have other accounts. Even buying something with your credit card online will give your credit card data away, letting others know your credit card number, expiration date and all other valuable information. One of the best programs to protect your computer with, from spyware, is Spy Sweeper by Webroot. It constantly comes out at, or near the top, of all tests. I have used it for a few years and it seems to have caught everything. The price is about $30.00 and worth every penny. While I prefer this program above the others, there are free programs available that are pretty good such as Search And Destroy by Spybot and Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. A good anti spyware program is a must.

I took my computer a step further and added a supplemental antivirus program that ties into an existing one for extra protection. This is not necessary for most people but because of my heavy volume I added an excellent free program called Surfinguard by Finjan. I use the commercial version, but the free one is fine for most people. The last bit of protection I use is from Microsoft. It is their webroot kit. It is good to run it before you do any financial transactions. It only takes a minute to check your computer and is a final check against spies. It is freely downloadable from the Microsoft web site.

Well so much for protection. Let's move on to essentials for productivity. Most people need a word processor and some could use a database. I have two different word processors that I use and the Lotus database. They are all commercial and cost money, but there are free ones out there that are perfectly fine for most people. One of these is Open Office Suite from Sun Micro Systems. It is even compatible with Microsoft Office and contains everything that you would ever need. Hey, it even comes with a drawing package.

Which browser should you use to connect to the internet with? Wow, this is really a matter of opinion. You could pay for a browser like Opera, use the free Microsoft Internet Explorer or use a different free one like Firefox. I use Firefox for almost everything. I love the browser, it is also expandable by adding extensions that are readily available and has tabbed viewing. I also feel that it is not attacked as much by hackers since it still accounts for far less of the market than MS Internet Explorer, but this is strictly my choice. Actually any modern browser is good.

Now comes the question, what program should I use to view my photographs and touch them up? Probably the best program out there for the average guy is Photoshop Elements by Adobe. The list price is a little over $100.00 dollars but it is a fine program and I feel it is way ahead of the competition. I have seen it advertised lately for as low as $49.95. There is also another program out there that is free and will work fine in most cases, but is not as versatile as the newest Photoshop Elements, it is InfanView, a program that I have used for many years. The main difference between the two programs is that InfanView is not an art program while Photoshop Elements is more complete and allows you to draw. Both programs can adjust photo elements and get rid of red eye. You can also create panoramas with both by combining several photos.

As I said before, I use Microsoft Outlook for my mail, but that costs money. There are other programs out there for free that are said to be very good, such as Thunderbird. I like Outlook because my virus checker ties into it. I really think that it is important that antivirus checking of email be assured before you choose an email program.

Everyone talks about multimedia today. Many people feel that the most important thing that their computer can do is view movies, listen to cds and view photographs When a dvd player is added to a computer, it usually comes with software that plays movies and cds. As hard as this is to believe, I don't ever play music cds, I don't even own one. I do own plenty of dvds however and love to look at movies. I find that InterActual Player,InterVideo Win DVD 4 or even Windows Media Player is fine for movies. If you want to back up a movies, you just can't beat ANYDvd with lifetime updates. It sells for $39.00 and runs in the background, allowing you to use any dvd copy program to copy protected dvds as if they weren't protected. I also use another one of their products called CloneDVD. This is the actual copy program, but as I said earlier, you can use any copy program. A good choice for a free one is Shrink Dvd. Playing cds can be done easily with Windows Media Player. The two programs I talked about for editing your photos, Photoshop Elements or InfanView are fine for viewing photos or you can use any program that came with your camera or any free program, they all seem to work pretty well. I would make sure that they have a slide show mode.

Some people would say that a backup is always necessary and I guess they are right. You should back up your computer and one of the best programs for this is Acronis True Image Backup. The only other program that I would even consider in this area is Ghost. Both take images of your drives which are about 1/3 the size of the original data. True Image is about $50.00 but well worth it if your computer crashes and you lose all your data.

I find that a good directory program is worth it's weight in gold. Xplorer2 is a free program that is wonderful. You can do almost anything between the two panes of the program instead of having to hop all over the computer. It is especially good when your computer is full of data, like mine. To make things even better for me I use another free program called Totalcopy. It is amazingly fast. It is faster than the copy command in windows and if you copy the same directory again, it can copy directories in almost no time. Let me give you an example. To copy my web site directory, which is about 5.5 Gigs, it takes the copy command about 25-30 minutes. Total copy only copies the changes between two directories so it can do the job in about 20 seconds. The first time you do this it will be much slower but still faster than the copy command. I copy my web site directory everyday as it changes. Total copy is added to the list of commands on the right mouse button. One word about it. It can crash, but don't worry, it doesn't hurt anything and when you run it again, it picks up where it left off, so you don't really lose any time.

One utility that I find very handy is Gadwin Print Screen. It's free and lets you create a copy of any screen you see and adjust the view. Once it is installed you just have to press the "print screen" button on your keyboard to copy a screen. While not everyone has a use for this, some of us do and boy is it handy.

Do your icons keep getting out of order. A free program called Save My Desktop is just the ticket. After it is installed, you just click on it's icon and it records where all your icons are. When they get out of order, you click on it and restore their positions. This can be real handy, especially if you have a lot of icons like I do.

One freeware program that I wouldn't ever want to be without is Startup Cop. It allows you to chose which programs you want to stop from running in the background. Many programs run on your computer and their only purpose is to allow you to start up their main programs faster. I turn off any of these to reduce the overhead on my computer and allow everything to run faster.

Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free program that is absolutely necessary if you browse the internet. It allows you to read what are known as PDF files. Many places use this type of file to store info, especially government agencies. I would say that this is an absolute must to have.

I think that I have covered most of the must have stuff, I hope that I didn't forget anything, but if I did, then I also hope you will forgive my failing memory. There are plenty of other programs you could put on your computer like news readers, games and such, so have a ball and enjoy.