Do you still pay for an anti-virus program?

Technorati Tags: windows,microsoft,anitivirus,free

If you’re a Windows user and you’re still paying for an anti-virus program, then you need enlightenment. Because Microsoft have made their excellent antivirus program (called Microsoft Security Essentials) free.

It’s fast, light-weight, non-intrusive and effective. It offers the same features as several commercial antivirus programs (like Norton and McAfee) do, including:

• Real-time protection
• System scanning
• System cleaning
• Rootkit protection
• and so on…

And if you think that a single antivirus is not good enough, then you can additionally install the excellent Avast Antivirus for home users for free.

Now stop paying for antivirus

Watch that Battery

Technorati Tags: battey,battery level indicator,free,battery status,battery info

Some laptops (like the ones manufactured by Lenovo) come with a handy gadget that let’s you monitor the battery level in the Windows taskbar. Others (like the ones manufactured by Dell) do not.

Enter the free tool aptly called BatteryBar:

BatteryBar does everything that you need from a barebones battery monitor software, like:

• Showing the battery level
• Showing whether the battery is charging or discharging
• Showing the battery wear and tear
• Showing the approximately battery time remaining

The manufacturers of BatteryBar claim that they are able to accurately predict the battery time remaining because they save historical battery usage data. If you like the product and would like to support the developers, they even offer a paid version with support for fancy themes. Get BatteryBar free from here.