The Programs That Come With A New Computer
A new computer comes with a raft of programs, yet quite which programs you get depends where you buy your computer but it can also depend on which country you live in. For instance, in the UK, all new computers come with Windows pre-loaded, but in Thailand some come with Linux although this is a recent development.
How useful are these programs that come ‘free’ with your new computer? Well, it varies, to be honest, and in the rest of this article we will take a look at some of the most common pre-loaded programs.
Sometimes you receive ‘Notepad’, sometimes you get ‘Wordpad’ and sometimes you get both. Wordpad is a more sophisticated version of Notepad and it can open old ‘Write’ documents. It can also open all rich text files (.rtf) as well as plain text (.txt) files.
Most computer users see Wordpad as an upgrade to Notepad and in numerous ways that is what it is, yet it does not have enough features to make me want to use it. I use Notepad each and every day, yet I very hardly ever use Wordpad. Wordpad can be regarded as a halfway house to MS Word the documents of which it can also read.
Wordpad is a practical program if you do not have Word, because you can create attractive-looking documents and embed sound and picture files and text can be coloured. Unfortunately, there is no spell-checker, but it can open Excel files too, which can be convenient.
If you have the MS Office suite, then Wordpad is redundant. If you do not have MS Office, download OpenOffice, which is a free Open Source contender to Office.
Outlook Express is a capable email client that can even perform some tasks that Outlook can not. It also has an address book. Outlook Express is good enough for most people, but if it is not, download Opera and incorporate the email client and address book that comes with it.
The calculator that ships free with Windows is very impressive. The version that comes with Windows 7 can be turned into a mathematical, a scientific, a statisticians”, a programmers’ calculator and several others besides. You will absolutely never require another calculator if you have this tool. In one word it is superb.
Paint is a passable image editor. It is not particularly sophisticated, but it can perform several practical functions. If you require more and there are a great deal who will, you will be able to find much better free image editors on the Internet.
Windows Media Player is a very strong media player of sound, pictures and movies, but sometimes you have to go hunting for a new codex, if you want to play something in an unusual format. This is not a big drawback. WMP is a very useful and fully-equipped tool. You can play radio from around the world through it too.
The system tools supplied with Windows are satisfactory. They will monitor system resources and help you take care of your hard disks, but numerous people move on to more dedicated tools in the long run.
Internet Explorer is a decent browser, but again, lots of people drift away from it to use other browsers (|and there are quite a few). In short, the tools and programs supplied with Windows are all right to get you going (although there are a few gems), normally, you will want to upgrade, and this can often be done by downloading other programs free of charge.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now involved with the wireless broadband router. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Best Router For Gaming Online