Lighten Your Computer's Load

One of my favorite activities is finding waysto "lighten" my computer—that is, make itless resource-hungry. One way I do this isby replacing applications that I use regularlywith "lite" programs that perform the sametasks or at least the most commonly usedtasks. It's even better when these programsare free and have more capabilities than theoriginal applications. Here are some free liteprograms that I've found useful:

• Foxit Software's Foxit Reader 2.0 (http://www.foxitsoftware.com): This PDF reader is 1.67MB, needs about 5MB of RAM, and starts up almost instantly. An .msi file is available for download, so you can deploy this program through Group Policy.

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• PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator): PDFCreator providesan easy way to create PDF files from anyapplication. It creates a virtual printer named PDF creator. Whenever you want to create a PDF file from a document, you just sendthe document to this virtual printer. You candeploy this program through Group Policy.

• 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org): This program opens all popular compressed files (e.g., .zip, .iso, .rar, .arj). Plus, it provides a new compression format (7z) that, according to the Web site, provides a compression ratio that's up to 10 percent better than the ratio provided by PKWARE's PKZip andWinZip Computing's WinZip. One of myfavorite features is that you can compressand decompress files in the background.You can deploy this multilingual programthrough Group Policy.

• Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358): AlthoughMedia Player Classic looks like Microsoft'sWindows Media Player (WMP), Media PlayClassic is faster and requires less memorythan WMP. Media Player Classic is highlyextensible.

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• Real Alternative (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm):Real Alternative plays RealMedia files (e.g., .rm, .ram, .rpx, .smi). It provides the samecapabilities as Real Player but without allthe annoying registration forms and advertisements. Plus, Real Alternative consumesfewer resources than Real Player.

• Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel (http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/b/6/7b6abd84-7841-497896f5-bd58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe): This unsupported Microsoftprogram lets you mount ISO images toyour computer. It loads a Virtual CD-ROMdevice driver, which you can start and stopas desired.

One free lite program I don't recommendis QuickTime Alternative player (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm), which plays QuickTimefiles (e.g., .mov, .qt, .3gp). My experience withQuickTime Alternative has been less thanoptimal.