Essential Free Softwares For Your Home Business (part 2)

This is the part 2 series continuation from my previous article of the same title.

Security

Many people hesitate to use free software when it comes to security matters because they just don't trust anything free. The fact is most security programs come from trusty commercial providers which usually have both free and paid versions.

Because the free version seeks to entice you to buying the paid one, it offers an adequate level of protection, with some non-essential features such as 24-tech support being removed. In fact, the free version can prove so adequate that users have no incentive to buy the paid one.

To make up your own security suite, you need an anti-virus program, an anti-spyware scanner and a firewall. You can obtain the first two at the AVG website.

Another anti-virus alternative is Avast, which offers about the same level of protection.

For your anti-spyware scanner, choose to have more than one installed in your system to reduce the chances of any malicious spyware evading detection.

Spyware doctor is another effective anti-spyware program, as well as Windows Defender.

While PCs already come with basic in-built Windows Firewall, you can also choose to install Comodo Firewall which lets you monitor everything that goes in or out of your PC via the Web.

Utilities

There are several free programs in the market designed at improving your computing experience.

There is Stickies, a small and simple program that allows you to place "sticky" notes on your desktop or attached them to a website, document or folder.

There's also TrueCrypt, a data encryption software that allows you to create and maintain an encrypted drive so that any data that is saved requires a user password before it can be read.

Ccleaner cleans the digital gunk that accumulated in your PC over time such as unused registry entries, temporary files and unneeded log files. Junking the unwanted stuff regularly speeds up your PC's performance. Also, clearing out your usage history regularly protects your privacy.

To insure yourself against the loss of valuable data, you can back them up online at the Mozy website. By signing up a free account, you can download the MozyHome Free program which gives 2GB of online storage. You can then select which folders you want to backup, set a backup schedule, and leave the program to run on its own.

Web browsers

The free alternatives come with more features than the commercial ones.

If you are looking for more features than the Internet Explorer that comes with your PC, you can try Mozilla Firefox. It has feature such as a download manager or the ability to extract videos directly from YouTube.

The Web browser also comes with basic functions such as tabbed browsing and live book marking, which means that you can open links more conveniently and easily keep up-to-date with your favorites sites. There are more than 2,000 extensions to choose from to add to the browser like No Script or Adblock Plus. It is more secured than IE, reducing the chances of spyware invading your PC.

For speed over functionality, go for the Opera Web browser.

So you might want to give these tools a try if you are just starting an online business. These free alternatives softwares can even be better than the proprietary ones.

... working at home Internet Business Person (http://www.ProfitHomeBusiness.com)