8 FREE PROGRAMS That Should NEVER Be On ANY PC! 2024
In a recent video we showed you the free programs that we think are the best. Sadly, there is software that for a variety of reasons could do more harm than good. In this yearly round up, I’ll show you the free programs we believe should never be installed on any computer. I’ll explain why they shouldn’t be installed and if available show you free alternatives to those programs.
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10 FREE PROGRAMS That Should Be On EVERY PC!
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“FREE SOFTWARE” Playlist
• Free Software Playlist
0:00 Intro
0:26 Password Manager (Numerous Issues)
1:44 VPN (User Logging/Botnet)
2:40 Ad Blocker (Accepts Payola to Show Ads)
3:38 PDF Reader (Slow/Shady Install Process)
4:33 Operating Systems (No Longer Supported)
5:08 Browser (Security Issues/Not Supported)
5:29 Media Player (Slow/Limited File Support)
6:07 Antivirus Extensions (Not Needed/Slows Browser)
LINKS TO FREE ALTERNATIVES:
Bitwarden
bitwarden.com/
KeePass
keepass.info/
Proton VPN Free
protonvpn.com/free-vpn
Foxit PDF Reader
www.foxit.com/pdf-reader/
Linux Distributions
www.linux.org/pages/download/
VLC Media Player
www.videolan.org/vlc/
SMPlayer
www.smplayer.info/
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Brett In Tech is a leading source for the technology that we use each day. Whether it’s discussing computer operating system tricks, the latest tips for your mobile phone, finding out about the newest gadgets, or letting you know about the free software programs that should never be on any PC, Brett In Tech has boundless topics on technology for the astute KZhead viewer.
it's unbelivable how immensely slow Acrobat Reader was especially considering how little feature it offers. Even using browsers to open PDFs is far better.
i believe most browsers nowadays come with a built-in PDF viewer/editor. i know the opera one lets you edit as does the chinese Maxthon
@@griffihn afaik stock Chrome and Firefox only has viewer, but yeah. If you already have a browser window open it's a no-brainer.
One would have to wonder why that was. Couldn't be they were loading all sorts of malware on your computer beyond the McAfee nightmare.
I absolutely hate using web browser as a pdf viewer but I have to agree its still better than acroBAD reader
Acrobat was absolutely horrible. I am so glad that browsers and other software can handle pdf's with ease now.
I'm a PC pro with over 30 years experience and I approve of this list and run most of the recommended alternatives myself. Regarding Acrobat Reader: last time I checked it took more diskspace to install than the entire MS Office suite. All Adobe software is bloated beyond reason.
yep
Also, because of its widespread use, it is subject to hackers gaining entrance in to the users PC.
@@salvadormonella8953 What are you on about? I'm not complaining. I did my first programming job as a teenager in 1985 and started working in IT in 1992.. if it's a competition about age, but I don't see what we are competing about. Was it my criticism of Adobe that got your panties in a twist?
It is for the normal average user and for most companies. However there are some automation items in the pdf specs that if used in a pdf file will only work in Adobe products. After all it is their format and other only make a attempt to build a compatible viewer which none of them 100% succeeded in.
@@chinesepopsongs00 Since 2008 PDF is an open ISO format at which time control of the specification passed to an ISO Committee of volunteer industry experts. If by "normal average user and for most companies" you mean people who don't know better, then I agree.
I haven't seen it myself, but I have read several anecdotes of people helping friends or clients to clean up their computers because they were running so slow, and finding dozens and dozens of "windows optimizers", "registry cleaners" and so on and so forth, all actively running in the background. In many of these cases the user had tried to make their PC run faster by installing more and more of these "optimization" and "cleaning" programs that supposedly would do so... only for these programs themselves making the computer run much slower because of how heavy they are and how much they interfere with each other, consuming resources.
Or people with multiple free anti-virus as well as Microsoft defender. Used to work at geek squad and I frequently saw people with 4~5 of them
The number of people that have no idea about computers, yet think they're experts, is absolutely phenomenal. I've been called to help clean up computers for people who have then accused me of installing the various software that stuffed their computer in the first place. One is my brother that blamed me because he had installed Web3000, which took his connection to Vanuatu, at a cost of $5.65 per minute. That $2,307 bill he got was because he won't take advice to stop going to porn sites. He's an absolute moron, I no longer waste my time with.
Yeah RAM cleaners are mostly placebo but have a very rare use when something really doesn't launch or finish (like an installer), but it mattered only when RAM sizes were less than a gigabyte. What WAS cool are tweakers, programs that let you customize hidden settings, essentially being convenient front-ends for registry tweaks. Was invaluable in XP or earlier where a lot of features we take for granted now needed shaman magic to enable. Anything that runs in background without need is bad, that includes Adobe, MSI, NVidia/ATI and even windows updaters. Disable whatever possible.
@@KasumiRINA I've found CCleaner to be junk as of recently too. In order for it to actually be "useful" you have to pay for the premium. It really hasn't shown to be all that anymore. If I decide to clean my temp files, I just go to the directories.
lol Registry "cleaners"
In my internet security class we had one assignment to install and use last pass. I emailed my prof and told him I wouldn't use it and he let me use a different one of my choosing. Even newer textbooks use last pass as a go to for training people and it just taught me that even if things are accepted as good that they might not be.
I use Firefox as my PDF reader. Most browsers can open them natively.
Same. For reading, FF is perfectly fine.
I use opera. Free vpn is awesome
Can you sign documents, in Firefox?
@@Zett76 Not to my knowledge, that's a weak point still. Maby in the future? Who knows. My use-case (at home, that is - for work-stuff it's a horse of a different color) is simply displaying a pdf.
@@39XenonD Thanks for the info. I just removed Adobe Acrobat, and installed Foxit, as recommended in the clip. It's able to insert signatures...
Thanks for the video. Very informative An alternative to MS Office is Libre Office, which is free and open-source. Libre Office can read MS Office documents and vice versa
For pdf readers i would recommend Sumatra, it's free open source and lightweight . As for web browsers use thorium or ungoogled chromium (they're both chromium based), or mercury (Firefox based). For media players, other than VLC, i usually install K-Lite codec pack with MPC (media player classic), and using the integrated windows media player after installing the codec pack is not a bad experience either.
wow, just installed Sumatra. You're right - really fast. I never realized how slow adobe was... Thanks!
Okular is another good alternative for a pdf reader, especially if you need to tile 2 or more pdf files... and yes, it's another free open source and lightweight software ;P
Why not just normal firefox tho?
It's true that pdf files can be opened by any program today, but I still prefer a dedicated reader. Also browsers' perfomancies vary a lot throughout time and adding another parameter for choosing my main browser when I need to switch doesn't help
Or use no pdf reader,
Not surprised Lastpass is on here. The idea of a password manager that is backed up to some companies database always rung as a bad idea to me. Putting all your passwords in one place along side a neat list of everything you have an account for and what password goes with it is just asking for a databreach to ruin you.
I use password safe. Granted, it's not integrated into a browser, nor stored online, it doesn't take me but a few seconds to enter my password on my own system, and copy it into my paste buffer (I don't even have to see it, in case there are others around me). The data file is encrypted, so you can email it to yourself (or just do a draft mode and sync your other systems to pick up your draft) then copy it to other systems. Yes, you have to manually sync it with other devices, and it doesn't do 2-way syncs. I update only on my home system, and occasionally the the password file onto my phone.
@@jum5238 Yep. A few of my passwords were infiltrated by rootkits and password crackers creating DDos or dictionary attacks on me. In one case, my infiltrated FB password beckoned me to click on a FB link that I thought was not dangerous - but sadly, turned out quickly to be very dangerous. A combination of rogueware and ransomware viruses hit my browser, and I had to shut down the computer to get rid of the malware! My computer was saved fortunately. No MBR damage, no BIOS damage, no 0 sector damage. I don't want to face all of that computer horror ever again.
oh yeah, they are a major target for criminals.
Bitwarden
Thanks so much for this very important computer information Brett! Yet another video to send to friends & family for viewing! 👍👍
Just found this channel and love the quality of your information. One new subscriber here.
Thanks Brett! You are so very helpful!
4:29 Sumatra PDF is also a very good reader if you just want to read PDFs.
Very informative. Thanks. On your recommendation, I added two of the programs you suggested.
I will say you are spot on about the programs. Thank youi for no click bait.
great tips - I personally already do some of them and I just learned some new ones from this video which I'm going to implement !
What about SumatraPDF? It's the fastest, lightest PDF reader I've ever come across.
I use that too. Doesn't need constant updates like Acrobat, either :)
Thank you. I bought a new Dell and have no idea about what to use or not to use. Your video is very helpful.
Thanks for sharing, helps to know what to watch for.
VLC has been thw best for so long. Credit to the programmers
I prefer MPC-HC.
I don't know about VLC anymore. I have been faithfully using it for years but with the latest version it has become so unusable to the point that I have had to source out an alternative. The issue I am having with VLC is when I'm playing a video (eg: movie) and use the right/left arrow keys to FFW REV the video seems to lag and it takes a few seconds to catch up. Very annoying and this happens on Windows as well as Linux so I can't blame the computer. The alternative I found is called PotPlayer and it is my main media player at the moment. It even has the preview window like KZhead has when you scrub the timeline to which VLC does not have. Weird name for a media player but it works great. Until VLC catches up and fixes their issues I will be using PotPlayer.
@@donjindra VLC isn't good, granted. It's slow, clunky and outdated, but MPC Hasn't been updated in nearly seven years.
@@ObakuZenCenter Nevertheless, it plays everything I try. And I suppose if I find something it doesn't play, I'll convert the file via ffmpeg so that it will play.
@@ObakuZenCenter I'm not keen on the VLC interface, but it has never been slow on my Linux machine. Is VLC on Windows slower?
If you haven't already, can you do the best PAID programs that all computers should have and PAID programs that should never be on a PC?
And then we pirate it hehe.
Worst paid program that should never be installed on any PC: Windows.
@@dank9561 hahaha
@@dank9561Windows is Great !
I would put paid russian software as highest risk (remember Petya fake ransomware), the irony was only LEGIT users who got auto update lost their PCs, pirated versions did not. Second are paid antiviruses. Redundant in general, paying for one to slow down your OS and quarantine random files is just ridiculous... SO the worst ever thing to possibly pay for on your computer is the Kaspersky virus.
Great job and i respect you for sharing those kinds of info some ppl really need to know that i already know all those infos and they are real and true from my knowledge
Good info. I like your channel.
Excellent information and just in time as I will be building 2 new systems along with reformating a third.
What a fabulous and useful video !
Good information 🎉
I don't say it often enough, but another great presentation. We Linux users in the UK always appreciate your even-handed no-nonsense approach and this is no different. Another great video my friend and best wishes to you and yours🙏🏽
Thanx very much! SUBSCRIBED! 😎
Great video Thank you
I love these videos. They are great. I often find free and open source software to be better than proprietary applications
In many cases that is true. Even when they are NOT better, as in Libre Office and Microsoft Office, the tradeoffs you're forced to make with the "superior" product mean you are much better off with Libre Office.
@@RockinRobbins13office365 is so bad i always have to manually correct mistakes on local copy when editing file with multiple users. I think even onlyoffice desktop editors have better multiuser support. And if you work with for e.g. printing, you should value your time and use LaTeX + some vcs. It doesn't change your templates, doesn't break page margins, and when it comes to documents with over 400 pages. It just generate postscript pdf that does not break bcs its not relative xmls in .docx with different implementation in each device
So it's not even superior it's just most widely used
@@RockinRobbins13What tradeoffs am I making with a pirated MS office for example?
@@siddiki9778 He pitches out a softball, slow and high-arched..... Okay, if you want to use pirated MSOffice you have a couple of choices. You can let it call home and maybe update or you can shut off access to Microsoft servers and lose security updates. You can also use something like MS Office 2003 that didn't call home all the time. If you do elect to use the 20 year old edition, then there are compatibility issues with modern computers and Libre Office is MUCH better quality. MS Office is moving decisively toward a cloud based model that gives you all the disadvantages of DRM software with none of the benefits. You think it's a coincidence that Adobe has done the same thing to kill the piracy market? I'm not saying that cloud based software is inherently evil. I'm saying that it has to benefit the user to agree to such a situation. Steam kind of pioneered the model and gamers tend to feel very well served.
Sumatra PDF is a great lightweight freeware reader that has no unnecessary bells and whistles
I was going to say the same thing. I used FoxIt for years, but you couldn't open two instances of it at the same time, but you can with Sumatra, and besides Sumatra is less of a resource hog.
Great info as usual 👌🏻
I would use VLC as my backup video player during live events (would use Playback Pro Plus on macbook as primary). Very good video playback program with lots of good options.
IT Pro here. Awesome video. I think you missed an opportunity to show off Brave for web browsers, but other than that, super!
I liked Brave and used it for a while but today my choice is Vivaldi. Great to work with multiple tabs.
Thank you for this video.
The commentary on this video is DOWN RIGHT HILARIOUS!!! It sounds like my internal voice while walking through life. Thanks for the help and laughter!
So Wise , Thank You
Thanks for also providing good alternatives.
Good recommendation 👍
Excellent presentation
Again, superb.
The latest version of Acrobat Reader changed the interface somewhat and not in a better way. Icons at the top of the window were moved to the side, and the lower side at that, making it harder to get to. And there's a floating toolbox over the pdf file that you can't move or remove. Or if you can, I haven't figured out how to do it yet.
It's possible to switch to the Old UI.
@@srikrishna2561 Thanks! I'll have to check that out. I dd figure out how to move the floating toolbar (call me an idiot, I deserve it), but it's limited within the window and difficult to move out of the way.
Thank you 👍
Love the well-deserved snark in this video!
It feels this yt channel is specially made for me 👍
been a tech for 15yrs...all good advice! cheers
Great Public Service Anouncement !!! I knew some of this but not all !!! Not everyone can keep up with this or do the research !!!
I swear you must have aged the same way as me. I remember when real player was the goto player until it wasn't! I switched to VLC then and never had a problem. Same thing with adobe reader. Keep up the good work.
I always used VLC on my Windows 11 PC
I like this list thank you.
Hi Brett, This was a very good idea for a video. Sometimes people install certan programs out of habbit and things with the developers of that program change but people may not know about it. On a seperate note, I had no idea Real player was still alive. I disliked it back in the late nineties, so if it sucked then then what hope can there be for it now? One final thing, I was expecting C Cleaner to be in this list but perhaps people don't install that any more. I certainly hope they don't. Keep up the good work.
I think it was in the other list back then...?
@@salvadormonella8953 Let's not call non-technically inclined people stupid, please; there are quite a few groups of people who predominantly face challenges with tech every day, they might've been taught by some other person years, even decades ago and just stuck with it ever since; for example, there was a time when you NEEDED Adobe Reader or something similar to open PDF files, it wasn't always in the browser, so some are now used to needing it.
I had CCleaner installed on my previous PC before I bought this one. I can't tell you how many times I ran into the same problem: I would have a program installed, delete it after a while, then some time later suddenly have use of it and install a newer version only for it to abort the installation or not accept my license key because it thought the older version of the program was still installed on the PC! Turns out most programs just don't clean up the registry entries after themselves when uninstalling. CCleaner is very good at cleaning the registry, deleting entries that are linked to files no longer present on your computer. Obviously, I never used it for anything else and never allowed it autostart. "PC optimization" might as well be a scam, but registry cleanup isn't.
@@Lernos1 Registry cleanup might not be a scam, but CCleaner is.
@@Lernos1there were tons of utility programs that let you fix issues like orphaned entries and dead shortcuts, in addition to let you tweak some UI settings like RMB menu speed or shortcut icons, unfortunately at some point those got replaced with placebo "optimizers" and CCleaner took the cleanup duties, and people kept installing it even after it went real bad and its main feature (batch clear of temporary files and old update backups) is now a part of Windows itself... Another program that ppl installed on habit is uTorrent. Any other client is better.
I love VLC's out of the box support for automatically adding subtitles. Very useful for watching Anime on the high seas
Though, I guess this is a standard feature nowadays. I remember there used to be a dedicated video player for automatically getting subtitles a decade ago. It was trash lol
FoxIt has a solid pdf editor. For a reader, I use Sumatra. I have not seen a lighter reader.
Thanks! I'm relieved to know that with one or 2 exceptions, I'm not doing to badly.
I don't use a password manager at all. If I have trouble remembering a password I either reset it or write it down. Ad blockers can no longer be used for KZhead. Me and my friends called Windows Explorer, Windows Exploder. I would add never have more then one antivirus on your computer since both antivirus programs end up thinking there is a virous on the computer that isn't there and ends up causing all sorts of problems.
It's ironic: all these restrictions they put on passwords (characters that must be used, regularly requiring a change with no reuse of a previous password, etc) to make them secure means people are less likely to remember them and so either write them down (a hard copy password manager) or use a password manager app. The result: all the passwords are only as secure as the password manager...
Passwords are kinda redundant too, easy to socially engineer. Messaging apps like Viber and Telegram don't even have ones. 2 factor authentication through phone is main login method for stuff like Steam or bank.
Nowadays you need a bajillion passwords to be safe, a different one for each account you use on any site, so memorizing them all is not feasible anyway.
A proper password manager should store all passwords encrypted with the user's master password plus some kind of a complex generated key that user has to store safely. Thus even if a hacker steals the password database from the server or even the user's computer, they cannot decrypt it.
@@camelCased Which means the passwords are only as safe as the storage of the master key and user password. And if the computer used to store the master key goes pfft? The user will ensure they have a backup of it somewhere, or two... I'm heading towards not bothering to remember passwords but rely on the "forgot password" option to create a new password each time I need to login, which means my accounts are only as secure as the servers the "postcard" email with the reset password link passes through...
I use a simple code to mentally encrypt my passwords & I write those down. If anyone finds my list, well... those aren't my passwords.
MANY THANKS FROM THE PHILIPPINES.
PDF readers -- all the normally used web browsers will display PDF files. Just set it to whatever your preferred non-IE browser is. If you do want Acrobat Reader, Adobe does have offline installers for them, that don't include the extra garbage. You do have to dig for them, though.
No Adobe products should be used. Adobe have been massively ripping off their users and customers in recent years.
Thank you
👍....good stuff
Great video! And while I don't want to downplay the importance of privacy, I am happy that this wasn't just about that. I have seen plenty videos with the same premise as this that were just like "UHH, THERE ARE RUMORS THAT THE CREATORS OF THIS SOFTWARE MAY OR MAY NOT COLLECT SOME UNSPECIFIC DATA OF YOU, SO IT'S BAD USE THIS $100/MONTH ALTERNATIVE INSTEAD"
for ios users I think the Apple Keychain in the settings is more than enough for most users and has some cool features like sharing a password with ur family , notification of leaks , 2fa ..
As a computer tech since the original Apple Mac from the 80s I wouldn't touch any Apple products if they were given to me. In fact I've thrown away 2 Macs that were functional but the customers no longer wanted them. Dealing with entitled Apple people, is the primary reason I quite the industry. It's like a F--king religion to those indoctrinated tools.
And is shared across all your Apple devices. My boss uses Mac and IPhone but he still installed Lastpass.
Very useful information. If you want complete privacy, security and many features use free and open source apps
Many thanks. I'll stay interested. According to this I'm pretty much on safe ground.
excellent Audio, Brett!! sub/liked. ohhh...and the pretty-pictures were spot-on, too :-) Nice choices. It might have been an Add to it all IF some excellent Freeware Sites (yes, back from the olde-days :-) were Linked, too. MG., Softp. (abbreviated) are 2 a mine. There IS a zillion super-good Freeware available, thankfully. And...I often wonder about that, as to WHY anyone would offer such excellent Computer Tools. For NUTHIN"!!!!???? I'm an old CAD-Designer (since '82), and my PC has "worked" with classic and effective freeware since my leaving C64/Timex Sinclair-days, behind :-) Brett, YOU know all of them, certainly. The Freeware Sites, but...how about a Rating Video about WHICH ONE(!!) is the "Best"!? Or on a Scale. It would be as Valuable on "just" 8-or so Comparison Softwares, no? For Viewer-interest, that is! :-) I'd like seeing. Subbed/liked. buona fortuna! oooohhhhh....do a Comparison Review for CAD-softwares, please! I just "discovered" THE MOST AFFORDABLE CAD for my architectural planwork EVER!! From one this pro who's used several. Hint to my choice...instead of the 1000s of $$$ the "cad monster" (aka: AutoCad) charges for its freakin' "subscription fee" now, its lifetime-cost is 199$-399$ (the latter for what I reckon as nonsense, or BIM-features :-) Another hint...its 99.98%-similar to the cad-monster's features. No lie! ActCAD. Who knew India would offer such a super-affordable excellent CAD? Tells ya ALOT about India's bright future. I'm in SW FL, USA.
MPC-HC is still my favorite video player I don't like MPC-BE as it has some tiny changes I'm not a fan of, and I'm just used to MPC I despise VLC actually x.x A lot of people love it, I've always just had weird experiences with it. The conversion thing never works properly, it's incredibly slow to load stuff for some reason, the UI scares me (because of how zoomed in it is, I know, it's stupid ,_,) and I've just never really liked it.. MPC's the comfiest for me 🥰
VLC is a media player It is a transcoder second. Use handbrake for transcoding
Same, the VLC interface is appalling and the app takes forever to load.
@@UKGeezer Exactly! It feels like I'm the only person who has issues with it being slow, despite having a pretty decent PC, so it's nice to know I'm not alone in that regard haha As for the interface, I agree, it looks like it was ripped straight out of the 90s lol
3:08 the first I did when getting that extension was to go to settings and block all
3:46 some machines come like that, but i format mine completely and install a variety of software that suit me (i am quit experienced at this). I like to keep up to date with possible damaging apps from time to time. i miss the old win vid player with it's skins, heck i miss heaps before win 7 died.
Naah. I still miss NT. Damn thing was stable as an aircraft carrier at a time when all of Redmond's "consumer grade" OS options couldn't make it until lunch without featuring a Blue Screen of Death.
I still use win7 mostly.
Ccleaner should be a worthy mention as well.
Thank you. I was looking for a good pdf reader.
Another great video Tech Gumbo. I've been looking for a good PDF Reader for a while, ever since you showed me how to use GIMP.
thank you
Good advice Brett I use ESET Smart Security as my security program and it has a password feature that will save my passwords and also it suggests passwords that they will give you an option to use a generated password from them.
I used to be lazy and used the same password for everything. I was getting hacked all the time. Once I wised up I started making different passwords and changing them every few months. Never been hacked again. Don't be lazy.
Brett, Now we even have Proton Pass as a great alternative... 🙂
Openoffice instead of windows office package. Free is a hard bargain to beat. Also GIMP instead of photoshop. Sure PS might have a few snazzy features, but again, free is hard to beat.
Depending on what you use it for, Krita instead of photoshop or gimp. It's more polished and user-friendly than either of those for a lot of uses.
was openoffice really free? wasnt it bought by russian gov? Libre one is independant as far i know.
@@glimoreganajai2206might not be free anymore, but when i got it, it was free. Nah, still seems to be free. Even if it is russian. Looked the same tho.
Libre Office is a better alternative.
Internet explorer needed to die in the Netscape era.
Thanks
Another “free” program that should **not** be on any pc is the copy of McAfee antivirus that still come pre-installed on pretty much all major brands’ PCs - it doesn’t work (it lets basically everything in), it’s useless (unless you go on shady sites Windows 10 and 11’s default Security Suite/Defender is more than enough) and weighs down your machine (it consumes tons of resources). It’s pure bloatware that should be removed as soon as you set up your new computer.
John McAfee was such a shady criminal. It's amazing McAfee antivirus still exists. Personally I believe all antivirus programs contribute to the problem, so as to keep themselves relevant. I've had zero virus issues since I stopped using them 7 years ago. Before that there was always something.
I prefer MPC-HC, which is light weight. Even if it isn't supported anymore officially, there are 3rd parties that still support it. Also, Dashlane literally gives Hotspot Shield for their premium services, so I don't have to pay for another VPN. Also, I'd suggest people to use Windows 10 LTSC, specifically IoT LTSC 2021 or LTSC 2019 or (because of support till 2029). It's light, no bloatware out of the box, and it runs well on outdated hardware.
MPC-HC is great.
LTSC is for enterprise users only...not something you should be recommending.
For those that don't know, MPC-HC is what used to be called Media Player Classic. It was Windows Media Player without any bloat (and not made by Microsoft). Was always a great app!
@@HailAnts Yes, I know this. The fact that it's open source appealed to me.
@@anthonyp9591 If you know a lot about computers, then you would recommend LTSC as much as doctors to sponsored medicine. Windows Pro (10, 11 etc.) is full of bloatware, and restrictions that makes it extremely hard to disable telemetry (spyware-like actions that sends data to Microsoft servers), and that you would need to play around with things that you could cause problems with your OS that you would have to pull a backup recover or even reinstall if you make a mistake. I don't exactly trust those bat files that says you can disable telemetry, since they could be malicious. Also, it's a nightmare adding firewall rules and editing the hosts file, and actually finding programs that can block all Microsoft access, while which is possible, it is painful. Microsoft possibly limits telemetry on LTSC, since it's an enterprise OS, which you can configure in group policy. Also, Microsoft ships Windows 10 Single Language, Home, and Pro with bloatware that even if you uninstall, they could reinstall themselves (according to someone in a computer group chat), and bloatware is something that could slow down your computer, take space, or cause nuisance. Why would I want a full spyware? I would want an OS that is stable and also lets me have full control compared to Pro. Also, It's more stable than a stripped OS, which could be unstable because those are manually removing features. LTSC is basically a Windows that only has the minimum features to work, and you can install things you want, making it more comfortable. While it would only install drivers that are basic, from windows updates, you can find the drivers for your hardware manually. Actually, most people, even pro users would have to find them anyway. Most computer drivers support LTSC, as much as Pro so there shouldn't be any problems. Also, Windows 10 Single Language, Home, and Pro gets unnecessary updates that you don't need, or could break your computer. LTSC, only gets feature or security updates that are minimal, while not updating beyond the version you got (21H2 stays on 21H2, 1809 stays on 1809 etc). You can stop updates indefinitely on Enterprise and LTSC, while you can't on Pro, which is a sad thing. Some people just don't want to update, and Pro and below can't. Using anything that isn't LTSC or Pro, We don't even have full control or even proper rights to use our computer, thanks to Microsoft and them using Windows as nothing more than adware. While Linux would be a good alternative, majority of people is used to windows, thus I suggest LTSC. I would rather have full control of my Windows computer than be shoved advertisements in my face. It's like buying a furnished house, but your house has literally every logo from Best Buy, Statefarm, Pepsi, Coca Cola, McDonald's, and literally spy cameras that are obviously visible in a yellow and pink wall, which you wouldn't want. It's better buying an empty minimalist house, which you can buy your own furniture. Enterprise users doesn't exactly mean Enterprise only. It is only meaning for adware-free, at this point. If I was recommending enterprise, I would be recommending Windows Server at this point, which you would have a nightmare trying to install computer functions or even drivers in the first place (You need to use server manager to install any or all features like wifi drivers), and I can say I have personal experience using Windows Server, which I would not advise for the regular user if they don't want to rely on server manager for every single thing.
Good stuff. Most browsers can now read pdfs!
I've used adblock for years free because my previous computer was attacked thank you for letting me know that now there's an alternative adblock has sold itself out! I will be making this change over as soon as I can get to my laptop
going back to windows 98 days my favorite program was Cookie Pal 1.7 (2008). it was fantastic at blocking cookies but someone or something killed it.
100% agree on everything here 🙂
The safest thing is still to write down your passwords. I have a college pad at home with all my passwords. That's the best protection on my side. If I get hacked, nobody has my passwords. On the other hand, I have no control over how secure the server of my email provider or my chat site is. My data is never on the PC, instead I use three external hard disks. I always have the same data on these three external hard disks because I store my data such as documents, photos, legal MP3s and video clips from my cell phone on all three external hard disks. If one external hard disk crashes, I still have two external hard disks that work as backups.
I feel like the standard antivirus that comes with windows slows down the computer a lot. Do you have a recommendation for how to improve it if you don’t like AVG?
We've been using MalwareBytes for several years now and have no issues. I DON'T use the browser add-ons for it, as that only slows down your browser and is unnecessary.
I really like the paid version of Malwarebytes, although the free version is good. Has saved me on several occasions. Think I originally installed it about 1998.
Try adding exception in Defender on the Defender's folder in Program Files itself if it does help, should reduce RAM usage. Sometimes it goes into a scanning loop when it tries to scan itself but it can't because its already running. Other than that Eset NOD32 (paid) should not be very taxing on the machine resources.
It's better to directly use Brave with ad blocker and even tracker protection integrated in the browser
For Mac users: As media player, IINA is the best option.
The best password manager I have found is a piece of paper and a pen. WOW!! What a concept
How about PDF Editor like Adobe Acrobat Pro? I do have some files that I want to edit on PDF sometimes rather than convert to Words and mess up the document.
Try PDF XChange editor instead... Tons of other options too.
I cringe to admit that I had Hola on my browser a few years ago... Seemed like an easy way to switch countries, to get around KZhead's license enforcement.
seeing RealPlayer on this list reminded me of my dad downloading every Crazy Frog music video and we'd watch it on that player weekly. That was a funny time.
It's easy to forget back when specific video formats needed specific players. Remember needing Apple's QuickTime to play MOVs??
Realplayer's plugin to the browser to download just about any video (outside the streaming services) with one click is kind of nice.
@@mchenrynick I still installed QuickTime semi-recently to unlock MOV with lossless audio encoding in Adobe Premiere. Found a better plugin since but yeah.
You can open PDFs through just about any browser these days. I don't even have a reader installed.
also edge is available for linux too. this allows Steam Deck users to use it even.
TY
Until I ⌚ watched this video 📹. I did not even know about most of these programs existed. It is interesting to learn about. I love Microsoft Edge. It exceeds all of my needs.
It's routinely rated as the worst web browser. Try a real one, such as Brave at least.
Yay for Ublock Origin!! :)
I'm surprised, you didn't mention Brave browser of which features an inherent ad-block, without any need to summon it firsthand
same with Vivaldi.
@@marksemple297Vivaldi is a fork of Opera (which gotten worse since migrating to Chromium). Both have a lot of features in common.
Libre office is also good pdf reader.
I had a major issue with Avast. It locked out my video camera and I could not participate in video calls. Their tech support couldn’t help me either. I had to uninstall it.
Best thing to do anyway. Pure bloatware.
@@GaryB007 Agree, Avast is all over the place with pop-ups end advertisements for upgrade. Do you use an alternative to avast?
Avast and AVG are two skins of the same phlegm...
@@erikkonstas - Sadly I remember when they were both good and I recommended them to friends and family, and then years later had to go back and help them uninstall both products when they started pushing bloat and spyware "features" to their users.
Unless you're paying for the premium version of avast, the free version is basically malware
My dad just installed Adobe Acrobat Reader without even knowing he's gonna install McAfee Security Scan Plus.
I’m currently on Windows 7. I don’t mind upgrading (and really need to do so, but my computer is currently not being used), but I am a gamer, and apparently it’s incredibly difficult to get games to run in non-Windows OS’s, so I’m apparently stuck with Windows in some form or another.
I thought I was the only one left on windows 7, I am gonna have to upgrade soon though as steam is phasing windows 7 out sadly.
I ran XP for a long time, reluctantly moved to 7 and then to 10. It's ugly (Vista and 7 had the best UI), but works... Shame they cut DX11/12 support from systems before 10. Don't even think about 11, Windows always have a crap one (ME, Vista, 8) before a decent (XP, 7, 10) system. If your OS works, keep using it. Don't fix what's not broken! Steam will cut support for 7/8 soon but I assume it just won't be updated.