Six Free Software Downloads to Improve Your Computer Performance

There is a huge movement in the Web claiming that Software shouldn't be paid, and inspired by that philosophy, some software developers give their programs for free. There are hundreds of free software in the Internet, and this article intends to share the knowledge about six of them.

Those programs helped me when I couldn't afford a paid one; I hope they can help you too.Skype

It's an amazing Internet telephone resource. Although you have to pay credits to use it as a telephone, the fees are much cheaper than regular telephone, especially if the person you want to talk to have Skype. For me... I have to make long distance calls all the time, and become very handy to pay so much less for them. The Skype software also allows you to have a contact list and send instant messages. In addition, Skype has public moderated chats.AVG Free edition

Do you want to surf the web not fearing to get infected in every click? Anti-virus is the solution. Do you want to pay for it? Certainly no. For those of your who are cheap bastards like me, there is AVG Free Edition. I have it in my computer for three years now, and I never got infected. There is also a paid version of AVG, that Grisoft (the software developer) guarantees to be better than the free one. Honestly, I don't know how it can get any better. It protects my computer and me, make scheduled scans, update automatically almost everyday, and above all, it's free.Winrar

It compacts and decompresses files in many formats. It is much better than WinZip. Many downloadable files in the Internet, nowadays, are in rar. format. In theory, WINRAR is a trial version, but it never stops working. It keeps asking you to buy it every time you use it, but will keep compacting and decompressing your files for free.DVD Shrink

If you want to backup your DVDs but your computer doesn't copy original DVDs, DVD Shrink is the solution. It cracks the original DVD and copies the file to your computer. It also has a few other benefits, as shrinking the DVD to a regular DVD size. I mean... commercial original DVDs may have 6 or 7 Gb size, while a regular virgin DVD only has 4,7. DVD Shrink will reduce its size, remove undesirable features (which also enlarge the DVD) as Javanese subtitles, and make it fit in 4,7 Gb. DVD Shrink also burns the DVD backup. It's a complete software.Free RIP

Free Rip is a friendly interfaced program that allows you to rip music from CDs to the computer in many formats and in the quality you want. It makes the same thing as Winamp and Windows Media Player, but is easier to use.Google Picasa

I don't know about you, but me... After the invention of the Digital Camera, I take so many pictures that sometimes I don't even know where I took them from. Google Picasa is a software designed to help disorganized people like me. It searches for pictures in the computer and places them in hierarchic files organized by date and topic. Picasa also supervises the incoming of new pictures and organize them either. Through Picasa, you can make basic edition to the pictures and send them to a blog.

Well... I hope these software helps you like they helped me. Good luck.