Shareware: go for the bare essentials

MICHAEL FOREMAN looks at 10 shareware programs no serious user should be without.

Whoever said you should never look a gift horse in the mouth had obviously never heard of shareware.

I've lost count of the times I've spent the best part of an evening waiting for a 20-megabyte demonstration version of a game to download, only to play it once before dispatching it to the recycle bin.

At other times I have installed utilities I firmly believed were indispensable to the smooth running of my PC - until the 30-day, free-trial period ran out.

Faced with the choice of stumping up $US25 ($61.50) or being nagged to eternity with pop-up payment reminder windows, it's remarkable how quickly your priorities change.

There are, of course, some shareware programs no self-respecting net user should be without, but in our top 10 you won't find any novelty cursors or scenic screensavers.

GetRight


No matter how hard you will it along, on a dial-up connection a large file can take several hours to download. What's worse is that any interruption means you'll have to start again from the beginning, and Murphy's Law dictates that disconnections will always occur near the end of a long download. The basic free version of GetRight solves this problem by allowing you to resume downloads at a later date, but a paid-for program offers more advanced features such as scheduling.

Zone Alarm


The Zone Alarm firewall will ward off most of the known methods hackers use to break into your computer, and also lets you decide which programs have access to the internet. This feature is very useful for stopping those packages that try to go on to the net without asking first, for example, to look for updates.

Winzip


These days almost all downloadable files are offered in a "compressed" file format known as zip files. This saves on bandwidth and cuts download times, but it means you'll need one of the several unzipper programs available to unpack them as workable programs on your PC. WinZip is one of the most popular packages of its type.

Irfanview32


Irfanview is a gem of an image viewer that displays digital photos in just about any format there is, either singly or as a slide show. This freeware program also provides simple editing functions.

Winamp


Winamp has been much imitated but this freeware player for MP3 music files continues to set the standard. Unlike some players, it does not try to monopolise your multimedia files or nag you to register. A wide range of plug-ins are available, including the G-Force "visualisation" software, which serves up stunning real-time graphics to accompany your favourite music.

Acrobat Reader


The Adobe Acrobat portable document format or PDF file type is a popular medium to publish larger documents such as brochures or forms. To produce PDF files you'll need to buy the full version but the Acrobat reader is free.

Real Player


Real files are a format of choice for "streaming" content - that is, audio or video clips you can begin playing as you download them - at many multimedia websites. Real Players have been included in Windows distribution disks for a couple of years but internet radio listeners will find it's worth keeping up the latest Basic (free) version.

Quicktime Player


Apple's Quicktime streaming player runs on PCs as well as Macs and supports a large number of multimedia formats, including 360-degree view virtual reality files. Quicktime is sometimes offered as an alternative to the Real format.

Microsoft Windows


Media Player Microsoft's media player is a jack-of-all-trades - it plays most popular audio and video files and is required for certain Microsoft proprietary formats including WMF and WMA files.

Macromedia Flash and Shockwave Players


Macromedia's Flash and Shockwave formats allow websites to deliver animated graphics and interactive content in very small files. Flash is most often used for glitzy introduction pages and Shockwave for online games and interactive educational applications.

Links:


GetRight

Zone Alarm

Winzip

Irfanview32

Winamp

Acrobat Reader

Real Player

Quicktime Player

Microsoft Windows Media Player

Macromedia Flash and Shockwave Players