Worldlink has reviewed dozens of different software packages — from web browsers to anti-virus agents, pop-up blockers to ftp clients — just to make your internet experience as smooth as possible. We recommend free software whenever we can, and just about every peice of software on this page is free for personal use. (to whit: gotomypc is subscription based, and WinRAR is shareware)
Web Browsers
Worldlink recommends the Firefox internet browser! Firefox offers tabbed browsing, increased security, RSS news feeds and more. Download it now below:
Anti-virus and Anti-spyware
Windows Defender is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected, and a new streamlined interface that minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive.
"It has all the essentials, including a resident memory scanner, an e-mail scanner, and scheduled hard disc scans. But what really amazes us is the frequency of the virus definitions and application updates available from Grisoft." - Maximum PC
AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic Windows from Avira GmbH protects your computer from viruses, malware, unwanted programs and other dangers.
Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies.
Ad-Aware Personal provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components. This software is downloadable free of charge.
Common free utilities
Thunderbird delivers. Enjoy safe, fast, and easy email, with intelligent spam filters, quick message search, and customizable views. Brought to you by Mozilla, Thunderbird makes email better.
This software lets you view and print Adobe PDF files on a variety of hardware and operating system platforms.
Created by Vince Valenti, who lives here in Bend. 3Dclipboard puts a small paperclip icon in your system tray. Every time you copy text information into the clipboard, the paperclip remembers it for you. Just click on the paperclip to get a menu of the last 25 or so things you've copied. Select one to put that item back in the clipboard again. If you are a hard core text worker like myself; you will also enjoy the keyboard shortcuts, autopaste, and item-numbering features.
WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format. It is shareware (nagware). If you do not buy it, you will see a nag screen every time you start up.
Light and simple, WS FTP has set the standard for FTP applications for over a decade.
Very similar to Microsoft Frontpage but with a more attractive price tag and fewer distracting features.
Remote Control software
"VNC" stands for Virtual Network Control. This free application comes with a server and a client that allow you to control other VNC-enabled computers on the internet, and set up your own. VNC sends your keyboard and mouse activity to the server and sends screen updates back, so it is very much like you are sitting in front of a gui computer which may in fact be on the other side of the world. Or in the next room.
SUBSCRIPTION BASED SERVICE: GotoMyPC is very similar to Tight VNC above, but with more features. Unlike Tight VNC, you do not have to have inbound server access to control a computer. This makes it easier to use to access your machine from outside of the Worldlink network. (Contact us if you need inbound server access on your Webformix account for this or other reasons) It does however require a monthly subscription after the free trial.
PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. It allows you to access text based terminals on the internet, be it via the ancient unencrypted "Telnet" protocol or the more advanced, military grade encryption "SSH" protocol.
Google Software
Google, the company that made leading search engine, also makes some sweet free software.
Google Pack packages all of Google's great software together! From desktop searching to seeing your house from space with google earth, Google Pack has it all. Download below: