Security

You can't be too careful online but, at the same time, you don't need to ripped off by the likes of Norton with their expensive and system resource heavy products.  I use a number of free products which keep me virus and adware free.

AVG provide my main defences with their combined anti-virus and  anti-spyware packages.  To keep the defences up I also use Microsoft's Windows Defender.  Finally, Cyberhawk checks that nothing has got through the defences.

The Net

Using Internet Explorer makes you vulnerable to attack.  Mozilla's Firefox is much safer and does a better job.  You can customise it's look and add extensions to improve your internet experience - for example, I use

• Adblock - removes adverts from websites
• Fasterfox - speeds up browsing
• Foxy Tunes - allows me to control Media Player without exiting Firefox
• Colourful Tabs - to colour different tabs
• Cooliris - to preview sites without opening them
• Download statusbar - to manage downloads
• Fast video downloader - download from You Tube etc
• and the fantastic Stumbleupon which takes you to random websites based on your interests.

Productivity

Don't want to pay £300+ for Microsoft Office?  Of course not, try Open Office which does exactly the same things for free and is totally compatible with Word, Excel etc.

Maintenance

The standard maintenance tools in Windows are slow and difficult to find.  Try CCleaner to clear up temporary files, clear your history and empty the recycle bin with one click.

Diskeeper Lite, rearranges your hard disk to make things work faster in a fraction of the time that Microsoft's defragmenter takes.