One of the greatest benefits of personal computers is the amount of software available to use. For almost any task you could imagine, there is software that can accomplish it, or at least assist in it. With so much available, though, it can be sometimes difficult to decide what’s truly essential. Which programs are most important to have will vary depending on the jobs and expectations of individuals. There are a few basics that are recommended, however, for any computer user.

Few computers today are not connected to the Internet, and they’re being used to connect to people in many ways. In some cases, in order to effectively communicate, you may need separate instant messenger programs, email programs, and perhaps even a social media management software. In other cases, all of these things may be usable within a web browser window.

Until recently, programs such as a word processor would have been considered essential. Old word processing programs have now been replaced with programs like Open Office which is more advanced and user friendly. It also wasn’t long ago that a computer without a printer was considered a toy. Today, though, with the advent of online solutions such as Google Docs, many of those essential office tasks can be performed online. Online office suites provide features such as spreadsheet, database, drawing, and word processing. Many of these online tools even have storage that can be accessed from any computer. We can also find peer to peer file sharing networks like Ares which we could not even think of a few years ago. Such programs have made it easier for people to share files and digital media with each other.

Also today we have advanced media players like VLC and video codecs like Xvid which have made it easier for us to play and watch DVDs, VCDs, CDs, web streaming videos and live TV over internet.  We can also see people managing web files over remote servers using tools like filezilla for file transfers over internet.

Now that almost all computers are connected to the Internet, it’s extra important to protect your computer against malicious attacks. While some people will tell you that Macs don’t need security software such as spyware protection or anti-virus, this is not true. Although it is true that Macs experience far fewer attacks than Windows machines, they still exist. A false sense of security is a great way to get infected, so take precaution. A firewall is also an important thing to have, no matter what operating system you run. It will prevent unwanted people from accessing your computer.