Quick and Easy Kaizen #13 - Free software for home

I like free. Especially when it is good and free. On the other hand, bad and free...that's called trash. Never accept trash even if they pay you to take it. That's called stupid.

On my way to an out of town meeting a few days ago, I picked up a copy of Consumer Reports and the issue I reviewed was evaluating software such as anti-virus, spam, pop-up blockers and so on. Interestingly enough, three free products were recommended by CR for anti-virus, spam, and pop-up blocking:

Avira anti-virus
Microsoft Windows Defender
Spam fighter Standard

The computer that the family uses was in dire need of protection since the Mcafee products expired and reminded us tirelessly that we need to buy an upgrade. All these products listed above were free so I downloaded them today and installed them on the family PC. These seem to run well, were a breeze to setup, and I saved $40-$100 over retail packaged software with similar features. Don't pay for overblown app suites when you get 80-90% of the value for free. Don't take my word for it, check out Consumer Reports!

Benefits:

• Free software
• Improved protection from virus, malware, intrusions, and pop-ups

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer