Article: Essential free software for students

Original post by pauly9090

100% agree with using Paint.NET, it's always done the job for me. I mainly use Microsoft Security Essentials (surprisingly good) and MalwareBytes for security, plus a NoScript plugin to block any hidden scripts online.

Also, get Audacity for sound editing, it's really precise and effective.

I would certainly recommend Audacity for editing purposes - once you know what you're doing, it's very good. :smile:

Reply 27

Iqbal007

Malware bytes is the one....also a few decent anti-virus software like AVG, Avast, etc

Another recommended extension on browsers is ADBlock

Reply 28

jammy4041

LibreOffice is by far the best free alternative to Microsoft Office. After about, eight years of using OpenOffice/LibreOffice, I can't really use Microsoft Office any more. It does everything you need to.

In terms of anti-virus software, I recommend Avira Free Antivirus. It beefs up the firefwall, and is much sharper than AVG and Avast. I wouldn't want to go back to Avast after discovering Avira. Having said that, I always install Malware Bytes Anti Malware for when things go wrong, and because Avast is so crummy it always misses something...

I've used Paint.NET and it is a very good photo-editing. Although, having said that, GIMP is much more powerful, as a image-editor -- it just takes a long time to get the hang of. If you need to edit vectors, Inkscape is a very good tool.

Audacity is simply a must on any PC.

If you're looking for a media player, VLC is a great program.

Reply 29

AdamskiUK

13

That link for MS Office is the US link, don't know if that makes any difference. Neither the UK or the US links for that page give Uni of Manchester or Cambridge free 365.

Funnily enough, Man Met and Salford *do* hand it out. Bit annoying.

Reply 30

maximo17000

1

Original post by A5ko

I'd personally never suggest GIMP. It's a poor substitute for Photoshop and I dislike it immensely. I'd take Paint.NET over it. There is a web alternative to Photoshop (http://pixlr.com/editor/) not too shabby.

That said, I'd suggest sneaking in Malwarebytes along side Avast!. That way you take care of both the AV and Malware/Adware side of things.

Completely agree with the gimp thing, feels like a 1998 version of photoshop

Reply 31

maximo17000

1

always use a russian antivirus.

Reply 32

Original post by spotify95

What about AVG Free, would that be any good? Has a couple of recommendations to use AVG from other people.

Also need an AV that is very lightweight for my old XP machine - currently have Avira Antivirus on it, want something better but only have 1GB RAM total.

Will also try out MSE as I have had it with McAffee, hogging my processor!

Dude... XP went EOL several years ago and is an extremely vulnerable platform - AV will not save you here. Seriously, if you're holding off because you can't afford new hardware, I STRONGLY recommend you get a lightweight Linux distro and get XP out of there now.

If you need access to XP, you should emulate it using VirtualBox with no internet connection. You cannot safely use XP on the internet any more.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 33

Original post by maximo17000

always use a russian antivirus.

Kaspersky ain't all that.

Reply 34

Original post by Mad Vlad

Dude... XP went EOL several years ago and is an extremely vulnerable platform - AV will not save you here. Seriously, if you're holding off because you can't afford new hardware, I STRONGLY recommend you get a lightweight Linux distro and get XP out of there now.

If you need access to XP, you should emulate it using VirtualBox with no internet connection. You cannot safely use XP on the internet any more.

Absolutely not the issue here. XP was ditched in April of 2014. I have two laptops, the windows 7 laptop works fine without any issues. The problem is that I have several programs, that not only don't like windows 7, but they won't even install on windows 7. They will, however, run on Windows XP, so I need something that will run XP.

The only time I use the internet on XP is to update any programs that require an update, for example Chrome or Avira Antivirus

Reply 35

Original post by spotify95

Absolutely not the issue here. XP was ditched in April of 2014. I have two laptops, the windows 7 laptop works fine without any issues. The problem is that I have several programs, that not only don't like windows 7, but they won't even install on windows 7. They will, however, run on Windows XP, so I need something that will run XP.

The only time I use the internet on XP is to update any programs that require an update, for example Chrome or Avira Antivirus

In which case, you don't need AV. What applications are you using?

Reply 36

Tootles

21

Original post by spotify95

I would certainly recommend Audacity for editing purposes - once you know what you're doing, it's very good. :smile:

Seconded. I've been producing (on and off for a year or so) something of a rock opera, for which I play all the instruments - Audacity is awesome for overdubbing, effects, and editing in general. Gets a little laggy when you've got fifteen ten-minute tracks loaded in - but that might just be my crappy hardware.

Reply 37

Original post by Mad Vlad

In which case, you don't need AV. What applications are you using?

Mostly, that laptop gets used for all the old applications, such as games that were designed for the windows 95 era and won't install on windows 7, not even on Compatibility Mode. However, they do run on XP.

Original post by Tootles

Seconded. I've been producing (on and off for a year or so) something of a rock opera, for which I play all the instruments - Audacity is awesome for overdubbing, effects, and editing in general. Gets a little laggy when you've got fifteen ten-minute tracks loaded in - but that might just be my crappy hardware.

I don't produce my own music, or anything like that - however, for the editing that I have needed to do, Audacity was perfect for what I needed. Chances are there are many things that Audacity can do, that I won't ever need, but it does for what I need! And yeah, chances are your lag would probably be down to hardware capabilities, though what's to be expected if you're working on 15 tracks at once? :wink:

Oh, and btw, to those who do use Audacity - make sure to also download and install the LAME MP3 encoder - the info on that can be found here: http://lame.buanzo.org/

Reply 38

Original post by spotify95

Mostly, that laptop gets used for all the old applications, such as games that were designed for the windows 95 era and won't install on windows 7, not even on Compatibility Mode. However, they do run on XP.

Such as?

Reply 39