WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Google have released today the Google Pack which is a collection of programs made by Google and other companies which is available free of charge. The only program that is not a full product is Norton Antivirus which is a 6-month trial version.
The pack, which requires Windows XP, contains the following:
- Google Earth - 3D Earth browser
- Google Desktop - Desktop companion
- Picasa - Photo organizer
- Google Pack Screensaver - Photo screensaver
- Google Toolbar for Firefox/Internet Explorer - Search toolbar
- Google Pack Screensaver - Photo screensaver
- Ad-Aware SE Personal - Antispyware utility
- Norton Antivirus 2005 Special Edition - Antivirus utility
- Adobe Reader 7 - PDF reader
It’s a good, quick, free solution for most educators who haven’t already looked into getting some of the solutions the pack offers. Using the Google updater you can make sure you’ve always got the latest version of each program to avoid security issues.
Personally, I use the free version of AVG Anti-virus which is held in high regard by those in the world of technology. It automatically updates regularly and doesn’t interfere in the day-to-day running of your system as Norton can. For anti-spyware scanning, I used to use Ad-Aware but now I use Microsoft Antispyware, which although still in beta provides real-time protection and can be configured to do an in-depth scan when you’re not using your computer. It might be worth running Ad-Aware or Spybot: Search & Destroy at regular intervals (e.g. monthly) alongside Microsoft Antispyware just to make sure you’re computer is spyware-free.
I’d like to point out that with Linux, the free and open-source operating system, occurrences of spyware and viruses are virtually unheard of. If you want to try it out, you might want to look at downloading a LiveCD, where the whole operating system boots from CD/DVD without touching the files on your hard disk. You can then install it if you enjoy using it. Distrowatch.org has a roundup of Linux ‘Distributions’ - I recommend Kanotix or Kubuntu for ‘newbies’. (I use OpenSUSE) Kubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu with the KDE graphical user environment, also used by Kanotix, which resembles Microsoft Windows. Edubuntu, another derivative of Ubuntu (which uses the slightly different but easy-to-use GNOME graphical user environment) mentioned in another post is focused on educational use. I use the latter on the computers in my classroom and pupils find Linux both intuitive and easy-to-use. 
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The Google screensaver included as part of the Google Pack is really good! It creates a pile of polaroid-looking photo’s from your collection. Trouble is, you can only get it as part of the Google Pack - unless, of course, you go to this website and download it separately…