NOW! That‘s What I Call Software. 1.

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dave.m

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NOW! That‘s What I Call Software. 1.

All these software programs are FREE to use, not time limited.
Most require manual updates of virus databases etc before running scans.

FIREWALLS

REMEMBER that you can have a software Firewall on the computer and a hardware firewall on a router but NOT two firewalls on a computer.

After installing one of the following Firewalls, check with the Security Centre (Start -> Control
Panel -> Security Centre -> Windows Firewall) that the Windows Firewall is OFF. Some installations will turn it off automatically but some do not, SO CHECK!

Ashampoo Firewall
Review


Comodo Firewall
Review
Note! Comodo Firewall is now part of Comodo Internet Security Suite = Comodo AntiVirus + Comodo Firewall, but you can install just the firewall if you use a different AntiVirus.


Outpost Firewall
Review


PC Tools Firewall
Review


Webroot Desktop Firewall
Review


Zone Alarm
Review




ANTI-SPYWARE, ANTI-MALWARE

NOTE! Most Free versions of AntiSpyware software do not provide ‘real-time’ cover. They are ideal for weekly scans and removal of infections, but do not prevent your computer getting infected.

WinPatrol, Windows Defender, Spyware Terminator and Spyware Blaster are real-time system protectors. Also Spybot Search & destroy has the ‘Tea-timer’ as real-time protection.

A Squared Free
Review


Ad-Aware Free - Anniversary Edition
Review


Malwarebytes AntiMalware
Review


Spybot Search & Destroy
Review


Spyware Blaster
Review


Spyware Doctor AntiSpyware
Review


Spyware Terminator
Review
Note! If installing, watch for the option, already pre-ticked, to make Crawler your default search engine.


SuperAntiSpyware
Review


Windows Defender
Review


WinPatrol
Review




ANTI-VIRUS

REMEMBER to only have ONE Antivirus programme running at any time.
You can have more than one installed but only one running.

Avira AntiVir PE
Review


AVG AntiVirus 8
Review


Avast
Review


BitDefender Free
Review.
Note! BitDefender does not provide real-time protection.


Comodo AntiVirus
Review
Note! Comodo AntiVirus is now part of Comodo Internet Security Suite = Comodo AntiVirus + Comodo Firewall. The AntiVirus can be installed on it's own if you already have a Firewall program that you want to continue using.


PC Tools AntiVirus
Review


Spyware Doctor With Antivirus 5.5 SE
Review


OTHER INTERNET PROTECTION

McAfee Site Advisor
Note! McAfee SiteAdvisor™, a plug-in for Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, tests, analyzes and rates websites in detail for unsafe or annoying practices such as dangerous downloads, spamming, misuse of personal information and browser hijacking.


CLEANERS & REG BACKUP

ATF Cleaner

Ccleaner

Eusing

Malwarebytes AntiMalware

ERUNT Registry Backup
Review and Instructions


TOOLS

CWShreader

Host Files
Block unwanted Parasites, instructions are on the site.

Microsoft Power Toys

PC Inspector Smart recovery will recover data from Flash cards etc and any form of digital camera data carrier.

Recuva

Smitfraud Fix

Vundo Fix


Remember the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool that updates and runs a scan on ‘Update Tuesdays’ can also be run manually.
Start -> Run -> type MRT -> OK. Then run a quick or full scan.


DEFRAGMENTERS

Defraggler

Diskeeper Lite

O & O Defrag 2000


REGISTRY EDITING

WARNING! Before editing the registry it should be backed up.

Back Up & Restore Windows Registry


SHIFTERS & MOVERS

Revo Uninstaller
In the final clean up only delete entries in bold type

Unlocker

MoveOnBoot


These are only some of the FREE software to help protect you computer.
There is a lot more at the following download sites.
http://filehippo.com/
http://www.majorgeeks.com/

The links to Reviews of some Programs may not be for the latest review available. They are intended to give you some ideas of what the programs are about, and give readers the incentive to search further.

I accept no responsibility for errors and omissions.

dave
 
Great thread :D These are a few other freebies that are useful:

Browsers

Firefox
Opera
Google Chrome

Documents

OpenOffice - a good free alternative to Microsoft Office (Word, Excel etc).
Notepad++ - A feature-packed equivelent to Notepad, includes syntax highlighting, auto-complete etc

Burning

CDburnerXP - CD and DVD burning (DVD-data only, not videos)
 
You should be aware of a new FREE application that is a replacement for MS Office and is an OpenSource project.

OpenOffice.org comes with six applications: the Writer word processor, Calc spreadsheet, Impress presentations program, Base database program, Maths equation editor, and Draw graphics program.

available to download from:

http://www.openoffice.org/index.html

I use it instead of excel and access. It is fully supported and as I said FREE. :D :D
 
My favourite type of software is obviously free, but is also portable. This means that I can carry my computer with me in my wallet.

I have a 16GB memory still with 3 partitions one for Puppy Linux which is an OS literally on the stick, one for all my files, and one for portable apps for running in windows so I have all my programs.

The first two are complete app suites ready to go:

PortableApps

LiberKey (my personal favourite)

These two are a collection of portable apps:

PortableFreeware

PendriveApps (this ones sister site is called Portable Linux which is very good)
 
Can someone (dave.m? :wink: ) confirm that the links in the last 4 posts are legit? dave.m is a trusted regular and his links can obviously be trusted, the last 4 posts have been posted by newbies!
 
Freddy,
Good point you have raised there.

The links are fine.
Ryanmalin refers to several free programs that lots of people use instead of some of the Microsoft programs. All links are fine.

jeff2 referred to Open Office which was also in the previous post
His reference to Chalmit software is to a trade program about lighting, and is fine also.

The four links by daozen are to 'portable programs' which you can download onto a USB stick or other transportable storage and use on any computer that you are at. They then save your work on the stick and when you plug it into another computer, all your previous work is there and you continue where you left off.

The only thing I feel is that I had started the thread with mainly security and 'Servicing & Maintenance' software and not additional programs.
Not really a problem unless someone posts a link to malicious programs but I had checked the links when I saw them, and they are safe.

One way to check that a link will take you to where it is supposed to is to have the Status bar showing, that is the one in your browser at the bottom, just above the Taskbar with the clock. If it is not showing, in Firefox click View and tick Status Bar. In IE click View and point at Toolbars and in the menu tick Status Bar.
Once you have it showing, point you pointer at the blue link and it will display the URL in the status bar so that you can see what site you will go to if you click the link.
Also, most mouses now have clickable scroll wheels so if, when pointing at the link you use the scroll wheel to click the link, it will open in a different tab or page, thus leaving this page open.
To demonstrate, if you scroll over this it will show http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=23 in the status bar, and clicking it with the mouse wheel will open up another tab or window at the Software Forums home page.

dave
 
My apologies I thought this was just for useful free software. If its security its missing an important component. Software Update Monitors. These help keep installed software up-to-date. Two of my favs are:

The Update Notifier is a small utility that scans your computer for installed software and displays a list of updates. Also you can see the latest updates for applications from your Watch List.

and,

Personal Software Inspector is a free security tool designed with the sole purpose of helping you secure your computer against vulnerabilities in programs.

There are other such as SUMo which covers more programs but make sure you get the lite version because the full version comes with sypware.

Theres also filehippos update checker.
 
A program that can make AV and other security programs secondary layers of defence is Sandboxie. Here is a list of features:

* Sandboxie keeps browsing sessions in an isolated area called a sandbox.
* If any drive-by malware is encountered, it cannot get out to infect the system.
* Any newly downloaded software can be installed and run inside the sandbox either for trial purposes, or to make sure it doesn't contain malware before installing it to the system proper.
* E-mail attachments can be opened sandboxed so that an infected attachment won't harm the system.
* Sandboxie doesn't detect malware. It quite simply trusts nothing.
* If malware is encountered it will be allowed to run ..BUT it will be contained within the sandbox.
* How to get rid of malware? Just delete the contents of the sandbox. The malware will be gone. No worries about infection left-overs remaining on the system.
* Sandboxie can be used freely but after 30 days, a nag screen will encourage registration. Some might consider this makes the software not truly 'free'. However, the nag doesn't stop Sandboxie from doing its job.

I've been using Sandboxie for a few years and would feel slightly uncomfortable without it now.

http://www.sandboxie.com/
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?FrequentlyAskedQuestions
 
I think security suites are starting to offer a sandboxed browsing feature too. Kaspersky 2010 does and I read that the upcoming Avast 5 security suite will. As far as I know though, Sandboxie is the only one where programs can be run (or installed and run) in a sandbox. Also, there's the ability to open e-mail attachments in the sandbox. Having saved the attachment to disk, there's a 'Run Sandboxed' option in the right-click menu. This is the option used for either running, or installing and running, programs sandboxed. I'm not sure if any other programs offering a sandbox go as far as Sandboxie does.
 
One collection of security programs that I use a lot can be found here

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx

My two fav are process explorer (a grown up version of task manager that allows you to drill down) and autoruns.exe which allows to prevent pesky programs from loading at start up.

A useful AV program not mentioned is Prevx

http://www.prevx.com/freescan.asp

The free version will find nasties but not delete them- you just do it yourself.

I like prevx because they are less concerned about being sued than the big boys, by this i mean that some aggressive programs such as micro billing systems were only deleted by prevx because the big AV firms were worried about being sued by MBS
 
Just wanted to thank Daozen for the link to the portable apps where I found siw.exe at

http://www.gtopala.com/

This puts programs such as Belarc to shame. It even found password/usernames for forums that I had forgotten that I was a member of.

It tells you things you never knew that you wanted to know such as the temperature of your cpu and hardrive.

Hell, it even tells you the manufacture date of your ram!!!!
 
Chromium is a better browser than Chrome. Chrome is based on the Chromium code but has all of Google's spyware bundled.

Iron is also based on Chromium and again, comes without the spyware.

I'd recommend avoiding Chrome like the plague.
 
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