Here is a list of some of the best – and FREE! – programs you can find.

If you are a customer of ICS, then you know that our favourite anti-virus program is AVG, and for many home users, the FREE version is plenty good enough.  You can download it at free.avg.com

If you are attempting to switch from Norton to AVG (or any other antivirus program for that matter) we suggest that you download and run the Norton Removal Tool first.  This little utility published by Symantec removes all the remnants of any of Norton’s products.  You can find it at symantec.com

Another great little program for doing a bit of housekeeping, is a little gem called CCleaner (it used to be called Crap Cleaner).  We still cannot beleive that it is free… since it does so much that would normally take hours to do.  You can use this link to get your very own copy.

If you use Microsoft Office at work, and would like to use it at home… but cannot justify the $199 for the Home & Student version, then consider OpenOffice.  This great office suite is created by the same community that gave us Linux… and its FREE!  Download your copy at OpenOffice.org

Ever need to create a bz2 archive? What about any of the compression formats that WinZip does not support?  Download and install 7-zip, and you will never have a problem with a compressed archive again.  Get it at 7-zip.org

Minimize greedy RAM gobblers and find memory holes in programs using a great little tool from Kerkia called Minimem.  Originally designed for Firefox, the author has re-coded it work with any program.  Get it at kerkia.net

Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor is a sidebar gadget for Windows Vista that displays informaiton about your current Wi-Fi connection, as well as nearby hotspots.  You’ll be able to see how strong the signal is, and get your IP and MAC addresses.  You can get that from Microsoft’s Vista Gadget link or directly from Xirrus.

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