Its easy to find free software, too easy. Most of it will have you reaching for IT support or your knowledgeable mates phone number due to the amount or Viruses and Spyware that will likely trash your PC or at least render it slow and unsafe to use.
So I am making a stand.
I have done professional IT support since 1990 and been an IT manager at three companies responsible for what people do with big companies computers.
Let me be clear
Professional paid for software will always be better featured and supported when you need to call someone at 3 am to meet that deadline for your company. How ever, for the rest of us who just use stuff now and then, we need affordable or free solution without a 28 day limit.
SO - I found some useful FREE Windows software that I can personally verify does
NOT install spyware or anything nasty on your PC or tablet thingy, well
it didn't on mine anyway and I have so much anti virus, security and anti spyware
software it's like the early warning for WW3 when it finds it.
Most of the Software was tested on Windows Vista - Home Premium, Service Pack 1 and 2 installed and properly updated. It was installed in Jan 2015 so its not some creaky thing. But you may need to search for alternative downloads for Windows 8.
The Linux alternative
I am also a big advocate of Mint Linux 17 Mate. If you have an old tired PC you may want to consider building a Linux Box as nearly all the software is free and is very well supported. If you are technical enough to install Linux you will have no difficulty finding the software to use on it.
THESE ARE ALL WINDOWS PACKAGES but many have linux/mac versions too
Great graphics/photo packages
https://inkscape.org/en/ vector based, I haven't used it yet but its clean install.
I found the other one I was looking for http://www.photoscape.org used to be a favourite Photo Editor of mine. It tries to install Google toolbar (harmless), but untick the box when the install starts, It is easy to remove the toolbar later if you need to. I prefer it to Nikon's own software. It's great for fixing photos and browsing them, You just use the program to browse into a folder then right click to edit - simple.
http://www.gimp.org/ the Gimp, bit of a pig to use but very well featured if you can get through the weird interface
http://www.artweaver.de/en I like this because its work similar to Photoshop and Paintshop Pro (which is so my favourite that I bought it, but I installed it more than 3 times and it's locked me out). OK its basic, but there is a pro version and its nice to use, just watch for the "apply changes" appearing unseen at the top of the screen and locking everything till you lick it or cancel it.
Office Suites/Software
MS publisher alternative http://www.scribus.net bit weird at first but seems to be ok.
LibreOffice http://www.libreoffice.org/ its great I use it all the time.Totally Free Web Hosting
Ok I have not yet figured out what the catch is but I am hosting an Test Page on http://www.myasp.net/ and it seems fine.I'll post if anything changes.
Almost Free Web Hosting
Decent web-hosting is never going to be free I recommend these guys, they are UK based in Bristol http://www.winserve.co.uk/. Their customer service seems prompt and efficient even on a weekend which suit my weird way of working. They'll host from £32.29 a year or £2.99 a month and you get a free UK domain. They support ASP.net and MS Sql and My Sql, that makes me very happy and they do not seem to use some weird web.config that ties you up.
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