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Useful
Links
There's
plenty
of
in-depth
and
practical
technology
information
online
covering
just
about
any
topic
you
can
think
of.
There
are
also
a
host
of
free
programs
available
that
can
make
using
your
computer
more
efficient,
fun
and
enjoyable.
Here's
just
a
few
links
we
can
recommend
to
get
you
started.
While
we've
selected
these
links
and
programs
because
they
aren't
overly
techy;
technical
websites,
programs
and
tutorials
certainly
aren't
for
everyone!
If
you
need
more
personal
assistance,
please
feel
free
to
call
MattaSoft
on
0422
637
637.
Click a category that interests you
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If you're curious to see
whether your existing computer can be upgraded to Windows
Vista, follow this link and download the Windows Vista
upgrade advisor. It will let you know how your machine will
fare running Windows Vista.
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If you haven’t played with
this yet then you haven’t seen what the Internet has to
offer. Google Earth pieces together millions of satellite
images to create a realistic online globe. You can literally
go wherever takes your fancy and zoom all the way in to the
point where you can see your house. Very impressive! |
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Picasa 2 is a great little
application which makes it simple to organize, edit and view
your digital photos. Much simpler than the versions that
usually ship with digital cameras we’d recommend it to
anyone who finds the standard programs difficult to manage.
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Skype is probably the world’s largest provider
of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) services. Installing and configuring
Skype is very easy. Once it's up and running you are able to make calls
worldwide for really low rates. Give it a go. |
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Covering a wide range of
gadget related areas, Cnet.com is full of useful DIY
projects, reviews and information. Tutorials are
step-by-step which is great.
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PC mechanic is a great site
for people who want to know more about the bits and pieces
inside their computer. This site is definitely for more
advanced users rather than people who are still learning.
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Not just for IT advice,
wikipedia has something to say about almost everything.
Wikipedia aims to challenge conventional knowledge
repositories (books and libraries) by becoming the world's
largest knowledge source.
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About.com features reviews
and information for those looking to buy/upgrade their
computers. It's a little bit techy, but definitely a good
site to visit for those in the market for a new computer.
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Google Talk allows you to
chat for free via text and voice to other Google Talk users.
It also has a really nifty little voicemail feature which
lets you leave voicemail messages which get emailed to the
recipients gmail account. |
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Live Messenger
The latest and greatest
incarnation of the Windows Messenger series, Live Messenger
has many cool new features.Especially popular with school
kids, messenger is probably the most popular IM (Instant
Messenging) client in the world.
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The major competitor to the
stock-standard Internet Explorer, Firefox is a progressive
browser which is useful for people who find themselves
regularly infected with Spyware or who simply want a
different browser look and feel. There's no harm in having
two browsers so we'd recommend giving it a go.
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Internet Explorer 7
The newest incarnation
of Internet Explorer is called IE7. Unless you’ve
downloaded it, chances are that you will have the older
IE6. IE7 offers tabbed browsing and has many
improvements over IE6. If you haven’t tried tabbed
browsing before we’d definitely recommend giving it a
go.
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Much less common that
Firefox, Opera is a good solid browser which offers a host
of useful features. One very cool feature of Opera is that
it allows you to use mouse gestures to do tasks such as "go
back" and "go forward".
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Browser tools are essentially
add-ons which give your browser the ability to do something
extra. These can include things like playing animations and
opening adobe acrobat files and much more.
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Shockwave player allows you
to open animations, games and web-based applications either
on the web or on your computer. Most browsers will prompt
you to install it automatically but if they don’t you can
get it here.
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Real Alternative
Lots of multimedia
content, especially videos and audio, is stored in Real
Media format. RMA (Real Media Audio) and RMV (Real Media
Video) are the most common. Real Alternative is a
program which is designed to access and play these types
of files. By offering the same playing functionality as
Real Player (the commercial version). It does not have
all the same advanced features but uses less resources
and gets the job done.
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Real Player
Plays files saved in Real
Media format.
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QuickTime Player
QuickTime allows you to
play .mov files. QuickTime Video is one of the most
common types of video format that used on the Internet. |
All Windows XP computers come with
Outlook Express built-in. While this is good enough for most
purposes, there are a number of other browsers available which
offer either unique features or simply a different experience
than Microsoft Offers.
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Thunderbird is made by
Mozilla, the same people who make the Firefox browser.
Similar to Outlook Express, Thunderbird is a handy
alternative. |
Opera Email
Like the browser, Opera
Email isn’t mainstream but is a solid product if you know
what you’re doing.
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A tool which lets you create
PDF files. PDF files are great as they look professional,
can’t be modified (easily) and most people can open them.
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Adobe Reader
Adobe Reader lets you
download and read PDF files. The sheer number of people
who upload documents to the web in PDF format makes this
reader one of the most important pieces of software to
have on your computer.
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FOXIT Pdf Reader
FOX IT PDF reader is a
much smaller and faster program than Adobe Acrobat. We’d
recommend having both the FOXIT Reader and Adobe Acrobat
just in case.
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Open Office
If you can’t afford to buy
Microsoft Office then Open Office is a valid replacement. It
offers much of the same functionality but as it is not a
paid product it is not as polished as the Microsoft Office
Package. If you’re not sharing your work or running a
business then it's a great free tool.
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The world’s most popular
Search Engine. Its simple and it works. Google also
offers free email, websites, spreadsheets, blogs and
more.
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Yahoo.com
Another popular search
engine which offers a host of added extras
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MattaSoft does not
recommend relying on free software for antivirus and spyware
support for the simple reason that (in our experience) software
supplied for free does not usually do as good a job as a retail
product.
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To protect Windows from
Internet nasties such as viruses and spyware, Microsoft
has released Windows Defender. Defender scans your
computer and removes malware when it finds it. This is a
useful program which we'd recommend installing.
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Ad aware SE
Ad aware is a utility which
scans for and removes Spyware from your computer. |
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AVG
A free antivirus program.
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AntiVir
A free antivirus program
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Web
Directory
Australia
Australian Web Directory
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