If you recently picked up a new computer, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. The rest of us are still waiting for our chance to justify the expenditure.

To mitigate the cost of ownership, there are some free goodies out there you may want to consider installing while your computer is still fresh out-of-the-box. And though ‘free’ in the computing world doesn’t necessarily equate to ‘good’, all of the software listed below has been thoroughly geek-tested and is wholly SuperGeeks-approved:

Install Firefox. Assuming you bought a Windows machine, it will come with Internet Explorer pre-loaded. There are better browsers than Internet Explorer. Firefox, for example, is both faster and safer than IE. Use it instead. You can download it for free here: www.getfirefox.com.

Install PCDecrapifier. As you probably know well, new PCs come with a bunch of trial software pre-installed. This includes trial subscriptions of Norton and McAfee antivirus software. We geeks call this stuff crap-ware. Basically, it’s useless and hogs your computer’s precious resources. Remove it all asap. Here’s a free tool to help you get the job done: www.pcdecrapifier.com

Install Avast. There are several good, free antivirus programs. There is also a lot of bogus software masquerading as legitimate solutions when – in reality – they are fake and sometimes malicious apps. For a list of rogue software, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software It’s big business! For real protection from viruses, install Avast. It’s free. You can get it here: www.avast.com. Run it weekly. Delete or quarantine everything it finds.

Install SpyBot Search & Destroy. Everyone has their favorite anti-spyware solution. I like SpyBot Search & Destroy. There are other good ones out there, but if you’re unfamiliar with those, just stick with this: www.safer-networking.org. Run it daily. Delete everything it finds.

Install CCleaner. Remember the crap-ware I talked about earlier? New computers come laden with crap. But old computers will accumulate crap over time through standard use. That crap will bog down your system and may even make it unstable. To keep your computer healthy, run ‘Crap Cleaner’ daily. It’s free. You can get it here: www.ccleaner.com. Delete everything it finds.

Enjoy your new computer. Take good care of it. Let me know if I can help with anything.

James Kerr is Chief Geek at SuperGeeks. You can reach him at (808) 531-GEEK and www.SuperGeeks.net. Twitter: SuperGeeks