PCTech Forums

In this post you'll find links to FREE software that I very highly recommended. I do not have anything to do with the development of these programs, but have used all of them personally, and feel they are very useful.




- Searches hard drives, running programs, and the registry for traces of spyware, then asks which spyware programs you want to remove (I usually pick everything). There is a free version... it has less options than the fee version, but still works very well.

- Similar to AdAware, same basic function. I find they compliment each other, each finding different types of spyware. I run both programs weekly.

-"HiJackThis is a program that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, and startup items. It allows YOU TO INSPECT, and optionally remove selected items. Intended for advanced users." HiJackThis is more of an infomation tool. It gives you a report of all installed browser add-ons, buttons, and startup items and lets you choose what to remove. Many of the things that HiJackThis finds are good programs that you want to run. If you do not understand the information HiJackThis gives you, please hit the SAVE LOG button, then copy and paste that information into a new topic here at

or - A removal program for one of the worst spyware programs CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names). CoolWebSearch is smart enough to prevent you from downloading or running AdAware and Spybot. If those programs won't run for you, or your browser closes every time you try to go to their website, download and use CWShredder first.




- "Avast! 4 Home Edition is a full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for home users. Our company offers Home Edition free of charge, since in our opinion, it is possible to avoid global virus spreading by efficient prevention; however, many user are not able or do not want to pay for antivirus software." This program looks great, but is a little slow.

- Another free antivirus program. Included with the Free edition

This program is not as pretty as Avast, but is faster, and takes up less CPU time/RAM.

Free web based scanner. Will run from inside of Internet Explorer. Use this if you do not want to install any software on your computer. You can also "check up" on your installed virus scanner to make sure it's doing a good job.

- A few viruses were written to disable virus scanning from all of the major anti-virus programs. McAfee Stinger will search out and remove only those viruses. They are the most common, and some of the worst viruses out there. If you can't get an anti-virus program to run or install, try McAfee STINGER.

Please feel free to mention other programs you feel should be added to this list. I prefer to keep this about freeware programs only. Also, let me know if I messed up grammar or spelling, or a link is dead.

MAIL WASHER
MailWasher is a powerful email checker with effective spam elimination.
Bounce back unwanted e-mails so it looks as if your email address is not valid.
Delete unwanted e-mails before you download them.
Analyse
MailWasher analyses each email as it arrives and warns you if it is suspected junk mail or a virus by heuristic checking and filtering.
Blacklist
Any e-mails you bounce back get their senders details put on the blacklist for easy removal if they come back.

Many more features and its FREE

Agent Ransack - the most incredible computer scanner program. Scans your system a thousand times quicker than the irritating XP built-in one, and offers far more in the way of search options. Utterly reliable and instant startup.

http://download.com.com/Agent%20Ransack ... ag=lst-0-1

Thanks to 'CNET Downloads' (www.downloads.com) for providing that link

Good Luck All!

I just read the post for Agent Ransack, which is actually a program I used to use. I then found Ava Find, which I like even better.

Thanks for these links. I have been looking for a free anti-viruse program.

You all might be interested in this about the Google Desktop......interesting.
brad

I have checked out, and actually am using the google desktop search tool. I am also still running adaware. The google destop search tool is excellent for searching inside of files, and email. If i wanted to find info on a order I made 2 years ago, and stored away somewhere in e-mail, it's exellent. Also, if i need to find a report I wrote, but can't seem to find on my disk, a few key words will find it based on the written text, not just the filename.

the google tool, however currently does not find specific file names. IE if I search for MsVideo.dll, even though the file exists in the /windows/system directory the google tool reports nothing. It will find .jpg files, and seemingly random .exe files. I've had the program installed for many weeks, and i've re-cached my drives a couple of times.

If I am going to search for filenames, i go with avafind, for those harder searches, google is wonderful, especially for searching e-mails.

Here are some free firewall programs:

I have been using spywareblaster for ages... and spyware has become a thing of the past..

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Wow.. Great List you got there dude.. Keep on posting on your recommended software. I have used some of those software listed above.

CCleaner

http://www.ccleaner.com

Used to clean out temp files, clean up registry, etc. I use it religiously.

Since this thread doesn't specify we have to post security focused software, I'll throw up a few free software I'm using.


Like Adobe Photoshop but completely free.


Not completely free but you can access all features for up to 500 actions per session.
Useful for converting music files to other formats or other tiding and editing.


Superior to the defrag that comes with windoze.
Doesn't even require install, just an exe you run when you want.


Free media player. Can do almost anything.
Not sure about Blu-ray ...


There's a free version of their disk burning software. It can burn to disks, erase disks, make bootable disks, and make images of disks... what more could you want :P

The good thing about VLC player is that it has all the codecs built in. So it will play almsot anything (including .iso format dvds via drag and drop).

I use diskrescue and ccleaner.