A utility program is something which makes your computer more useful.  Quite often they are free, or very cheap, but they can make life a lot easier.  Although available for download, it is often quicker and cheaper to buy a computer magazine which has a free disk with the most popular utilities on it.  This page containes links to the most popular and useful utilities.

 Free

 Winzip - Not Free

 Firefox - Free

Microsoft Word Viewer (if you don't have Word on your computer) - free

Link to the default passwords for most hardware in the world (very useful if you have to reset routers, modems etc.)

If you are nervous about installing a utility program, contact Virtual Riders who will find someone to do it for you.  However, the pages in this section will tell you how to do it yourself.

As a general rule, set a system restore point (XP users), backup your registry and check if the utility is useful as soon as you have installed it (otherwise you will forget about it) and if you don't like it uninstall it immediately.