File Name: Essential Freeware Christmas Downloads 2009
File Submitter: marko
File Submitted: 12 Dec 2009
File Category: Antivirus, Spyware, Firewalls & Security
Will Run On: XP/Vista

Essential Freeware Christmas Downloads 2009 is a collection of the most essential freeware applications bundled in a neat, all in one install package that allows all new PC owners to simply run the CD and have their new machine fully protected in less than a couple of minutes with no intervention required from the user.

How to use
Simply download, extract the zip file and burn the ISO file to a CD, and insert into your new machine. The CD will automatically start and give you a 1 minute countdown till the installations start. Clicking anywhere, once loaded, will stop the countdown and give you time to de-select those items you may not want to install, though we would highly recommend you install the "must haves" apps as a bare minimum. If, for some reason, the CD does not start automatically, navigate to it's contents through your CD drive and double-click "WPI.exe".

Note for Vista & Windows 7 Users: You may be prompted to "run" each application, this is Vista and Windows 7 by design and is a built in security feature of these operating systems - sorry, can't do anything about that!.

All software on the CD is from trusted big names, such as Avast, PC Tools, etc.

Here's what's on the CD

ANTIVIRUS
avast! 4 Home Edition 4.8.1368
(Please note a free registration key was used to install this application, although you are advised to obtain a unique key HERE.

ANTI-SPYWARE
PC Tools ThreatFire 4.7.0

INTERNET BROWSER
Mozilla Firefox 3.5.5

OFFICE APPS
SSuite Office - Personal Edition 3.2

UNINSTALLER
Revo Uninstaller 1.83

CD/DVD BURNER
CDBurnerXP Pro 4.2.7.1801

IMAGE EDITING/SLIDESHOW CREATOR
XnView 1.97

VIDEO CODEC INSTALLS
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 5.4.4

We have purposely omitted any firewall in this bundle as we intend this download to be utilised mostly by those with little computing experience but taking full advantage of the bundle on offer. Third party firewalls often require a degree of knowledge on the various PC processes to allow or deny them to run through the firewall and we felt this could overwhelm the new PC owner. Windows comes with it's own built-in firewall which will run automatically and should provide at least a basic level of firewall protection until the user is ready to progress to a third party firewall.

If you do download and install a third party firewall, please be aware if it runs HIPS (host-intrusion prevention system) it should be disabled if you have installed another HIPS application (such as Threatfire).

My thanks to Jim for his invaluable input on this creation.

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