Google Desktop is Google’s free search system for your own hard drive. Google Desktop is designed to run all the time, but to do its real work — indexing your hard drive to get the information for its search results — while your computer is idle.

Tech Tip
Since Google Desktop only does its indexing while your computer is idle, you have to leave it running to get the best results. The initial indexing will probably require that you leave the computer running over night.

Your first step is to download and install the free Google Pack software package (the same one that includes Picasa). During this process, you select which optional programs you also want to download, if any. The program you’ll download is the Google Updater, which handles the rest of the process.

The Google Updater is also the program you use to control the Google Pack later, including adding additional programs or uninstalling some of them.

Continue reading Google Desktop – Free Software to Search Your Computer

I’ve written about NOD32 Anti-virus in my Security Software Recommendations article in each issue of my newsletter. It’s the anti-virus program that I use on all my Windows computers. I began using it in 2003 after becoming dissatisfied with one of the big-name anti-virus programs which, in my opinion, had gotten too bloated, required too much computing power and was slow to provide virus signature updates.

Our IT people at the office had moved us to NOD32 the previous year, so I had a year of (involuntary) experience using it — and knew that it was quick, efficient and interfered little with other things I was doing on the computer.

First, I bought copies for my notebook computer and my desktop computer, so I could try it (well, it really has a 30-day full-function free trial, but I already knew that I wanted it). A couple weeks later, I bought copies for my my wife’s computer and my son’s. I asked my son install the trial version and let me know if he wanted it — after the first scan, he said “Yes!”

A Look at NOD32 Anti-Virus

Get 25% off NOD32 Anti-virus with 2-year licenses. Save big with multiple-computer licenses, too.