Launch the Freebies on Your Computer

The general opinion among users is that free software might not be as good as a paid version just because we associate payment with better quality. This rule doesn’t always apply. You can find on the market free software of superior quality, like WinPatrol, Firefox, Maxthon, Revo Uninstaller, EasyCleaner, 7-Zip, FileZilla, Gimp, Paint.NET, HWiNFO, PC Wizard and many others. So, if it costs a fortune, it doesn’t exactly mean there isn’t another piece of software that can offer you the exact same quality for free.

For those who want to have on their computer mostly free programs, A-Z Freeware Launcher is an interesting piece of software. Basically, this application enables you to launch a compilation of some of the best freeware software out there.

A-Z Freeware Launcher will launch a specific number of freebies that are neatly organized in categories for a better view. The downside is that it doesn’t let you add your own application but sticks to its list. This list has been created by taking into consideration the high rating that these programs have received from users and not only.

Those that have used the previous version of A-Z Freeware Launcher will first observe the difference in color. The pink that was not so appealing to users has become a nice and quite professional combination of blue and black.

The main window of this application or console will display the principal categories. You are bound to notice that the tool covers pretty much all of the mostly installed applications by the average Windows user in what concerns the protection of your computer from malware and all sorts of maintenance tools. These are designed to help you keep your computer healthy and running smoothly. Of course, all the software that A-Z Freeware Launcher is designed to launch has to be installed on your computer. If you want to check the complete list in an alphabetical order rather than searching through the application’s categories, you can check out the "Info" panel.

Once you have opened the program, you will observe that the three most important categories are referring to applications that should be run once a day, week or month. We are talking about definition updates for some security software, system cleaning tools and programs necessary for defragmenting the data on hard disks.

The “Common Task” tab shelters the System Cleanup, Scan for Malware, Registry Maintenance and Virus Scan sub-categories. You will get a short explanation of what each means and the frequency with which these applications should be used.

The Security section will offer you links to: ZoneAlarm, WinPatrol, ThreatFire, Secunia PSI, Ad-Aware, a-squared Anti-Malware, Malwarebytes . Under the Anti-virus tab, you will find Avast! Home edition, Avira and AVG. This section offers you some heavy names in the anti-virus software industry. However, it is obvious that you can’t install more than one antivirus because they will most likely conflict with each other, thus leaving your computer unprotected. But the important thing is that it satisfies a wide range of users by offering them the possibility of choosing the antivirus and anti-malware solution they like best. We would also recommend links to Panda Cloud Antivirus or Microsoft Security Essentials.

Three of the best software uninstallers can be found in the designated area of A-Z Freeware Launcher: Revo Uninstaller, ZSoft Uninstaller and My Uninstaller. The Defrag section will offer you: MyDefrag, Defraggler and PageDefrag, ideal for defragmenting paging files and registry hives. Under this category, I would have also added the disk defragmenter from Auslogics and the alternatives from QuickSys. The good thing for beginners is that it gives definition of defragmentation and optimization as well.

For the process management part, this piece of software offers you the possibility of launching AutoRuns, What’s Running and Process Explorer. Because it is always better to be safe than sorry, the developer of A-Z Freeware Launcher has thought about backup too. The two tools offered in this section are Macrium Reflect and Ashampoo. Basically, these two are disk burning tools so you create a backup on a DVD or CD, not on your computer in a separate folder. The Ashampoo link that the developer of A-Z Freeware Launcher provides is for the sixth version delivered freely by the developer. But there is a newer version that you can also download for free, via Softpedia, Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009. This could be considered a downside by some users.

The “More PC and Personal Tools” category stands for miscellaneous and provides links to the most diverse software. From system information tools, to recovering lost data, remote desktop management, file archiving utility or password management, these are all here and ready to be launched.

One of the best things that this application offers is the Info panel. You will not only get a list of the software that A-Z Freeware Launcher supports but also receive a brief description of the software and a direct link to the product website, thus enabling you to always have the latest version.

This application offers a very useful collection of free software of the same feather, giving you the possibility of choosing the alternative that best fits your needs; one example would be the antivirus section (it is obvious that you can't have three antivirus programs installed on your computer but the possibility of choosing is just what a user needs from a launcher of this sort).

An improvement we have to notice is that the developer of A-Z Freeware Launcher has changed the error message that appears when you try to launch a program that is not installed on your computer. This message will now notify the user that the program is not installed and will instruct them to the Info panel to download the application. The difference is in the More PC and Personal Tools section where you can choose from launching the application if it’s installed, or going to the product’s homepage to get more information about it and maybe install it.

Overall, this program will offer you quick access to the freeware programs that you have installed on your computer. The application list is very interesting and will surely satisfy the needs and desires of the average user.

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