Giving away your old computer 5 - Additional Software

by Adam West | More from this Blogger

This series of preparing your computer for giveaway continues by looking at additional software you can pre-install on your old computer. We have already looked at deleting files, erasing files, transferring ownership of software, and installing security software.

Office software

It is a nice gesture to give someone a computer that is usable for many different purposes. If the computer came with office software such as Microsoft Office or Corel Word Perfect Office, you can legally transfer ownership of the software to the new owner if you are not going to use the software on another computer. If you don't have any software to pass on, you can download Open Office. Open office is a free office suite that includes programs such as a word processor (similar to Word) and spreadsheet programs (similar to Excel).

Install the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. The PDF format has become quite popular over the years and is used in a variety of settings that require forms (e.g., Federal Income Taxes, college applications). I wrote about PDFs a few weeks back, if you are interested.

Audio Software

Windows come with an audio/video player (Windows Media Player). If you want to download and install any additional audio programs for your intended computer recipient, you can try out Winamp from Nullsoft which is now owned by AOL, iTunes from Apple, Musicmatch Jukebox from Yahoo, or Real Player from Real Networks. Each of these programs offers a jukebox style interface where users can set up play list of music files. Some of the players will also rip music from CDs into MP3 or similar compressed audio format.

Photo Software

Digital pictures can easily overrun your hard drive. An excellent free photo organizer is Picasa from Google. You can also download Photoshop Album Starter Edition or Photoshop Elements (this is only a trial for a limited time period) for simple photo editing. Both programs are free from Adobe. Most digital cameras come with photo editing software, so be sure to uninstall any software that came with your digital camera (for legal reasons and in case the recipient doesn't have the same type of camera).

Learn more about Adam West

Adam is avid computer and electronics hobbyist. He and his young family call central Texas home. His love of the application of multimedia and electronics has lead him to Families.

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