Tools: Free stuff online

Software 602 is compatible with Microsoft Office, Word 2000, Excel documents and other Microsoft applications

In this story: Free Stuff @ Work Free Stuff @ Home Free stuff @ play RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Kristyn Martin
CNNdotCOM

(CNN) -- There's no getting around it -- everybody loves free stuff. And the Web remains a vast resource for freebies, for the home, office and for play. CNN's James Hattori sat down with Kim Zetter, senior associate editor for PC World Magazine, to talk about some of her favorite free stuff.

Free Stuff @ Work

Software 602 is a program that is compatible with Microsoft Office, Word 2000, Excel documents and other Microsoft applications.

"It's definitely a little dig at Microsoft," Zetter says. "But there are issues -- it's a big download -- and oftentimes if you don't have a direct connection it'll take a while."

ON THE WEB For more information on Free Stuff on the Web, check out PC World's full article.   HIDDEN HITCHES Click here to read more of James Hattori's conversation with Zetter on this topic.   ALSO We asked Rob Leathern, Analyst from Jupiter Media Metrix Just One Question: Is charging consumers to use a Web site a viable idea? The answer

Why are they providing free software? Because they have other software they'd like to sell you. For example, while using Software 602, there maybe a feature that isn't offered that will require you to upgrade -- for a fee.

"That's the deal with a lot of free things. They will give you something for free, but they will try to sell you something in addition to it," Zetter says.

Free Stuff @ Home

For another useful item, log on to copernic.com. There, you can download a shopping-bot utility to your hard drive that works within your browser, rather than using a search engine at a Web site.

The bonus is that you can save all of your searches to your hard drive, complete with store names, prices and shipping and handling fees. Then, in six months, if you'd like to buy the product, with the click of a button Copernic will upgrade the prices and listings for that product.

Users can choose from among 13 categories such as toys, clothing and electronics, then streamline their choices within each category, going by product name or price range.

Another great site for the home is symantec.com.

Symantec, along with a few other sites such as trendmicro.com will offer free virus and Trojan horse checking on your system.

"A Trojan horse is a program that a hacker can load onto your system and allows them to download files, change things in data -- pretty much take control of your entire system."

Symantec will also check the vulnerability level of your computer and see how secured it is against hackers and open ports.

The downside: Symantec's free check won't actually clear up your virus if one is found. For that you'll have to buy software from the company.

Or, go to trendmicro.com, which offers free anti-virus software.

Free stuff @ play

MSN has a number of free games for the PC. The list of titles goes on and on, and the best part is that you don't have to download them. Simply click on the game that interests you, and start playing.

The downside: the free games are the simple ones, like solitaire, checkers, and blackjack.

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Software 602
Copernicus Shopper
Symantec
Trend Micro anti-virus
MSN Games
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