Best Software for M1530

Hi all

I am ordering a m1530 which comes with McAfee Security Center.
i will most likely peform a clean istall and use the vista tips and tweaks
guide so i get the best system possible.

Q1.
Should i stick with my McAfee or use a combination of free programs?
please sujest which ones i should get.
Q2.
I have office 2003 should i stick with it or use Openoffice 2.4 and 3.0 when it comes out.? or are their any better free programs.
Q3.
Is their any other awsome free software that will make my XPS experiance the best it can be.

I dont have the money to upgrade to office 2007 and McAfee is the only option with my dell. And i really want it to run fast and not be slowed down by any heavy programs.

thanks for posting.

 

Do not get McAfee if you do not want your system to slow down, it uses too a lot of system resource.

 

Ok got any other sujestions what do you think of kaspersky?
What about free software?

 

If you own a copy of Office 2003 that you can install on your new machine then I say go for it. I personally believe that Office is a better suite of programs then OpenOffice and Office 2003 still works perfectly.

I would NOT use a big name virus prog like McAffee or Norton. Those progs are so invasive and memory intensive that they can have the same effect as the malicious software they supposedly combat.

My personal anti virus of choice is AVG. The footprint has gotten bigger in recent updates, which is frustrating, but it's still a fantastic free program that does its job well and won't detract from your computer use. Many on this forum prefer Avira so that is worth checking into as well.

Beyond AVG, my standard installs include Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. If you're not already using it, Firefox is a great browser that is more secure then Internet Explorer, easier to use, and customizable with addons (including great security addons like noscript that will help you keep out a lot of nasty stuff).

Thunderbird may be something you'll want to skip on. I like it because all I want is an email client but some people like calenders and addons and so forth, stuff that comes in Microsoft Outlook. Coincidently, if you go ahead and install Office 2003, you should have Outlook and could pass on Thunderbird.

My anti spyware of choice is Lavasoft Ad-Aware though Ad-Aware is no longer one of the greats as it once was and you may prefer Spybot, Search & Destroy which is also a very good program.