Well all, this is my first blog post on the Nichevo blog. As you all know I am quite the CPU geek over here and I have decided to write a little blog post about what I use on my PC and highly recommend you do as well. Without further ado the post...
PC security is no joke and I don't take it lightly. I will be recommending the IMBO best security programs that I use on my PC.
Antivirus Program
AVAST 4.8 home Free Edition
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
This is a great free antivirus program that I have used for years. When you go to install it though, make sure that you have uninstalled all other antivirus programs, otherwise avast will get hissy and its providers wont start up till you do uninstall the program, so save yourself some trouble will ya?
Personal Firewall Program
Comodo Pro Firewall 3.0
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html
My personal firewall that I use.
If defense plus has got you down turn it off and deactivate it. I personally don't use it. It would also seem that since I have been to Comodo's site they now have an antivirus program with the firewall for download. I haven't used it so I can't recommend it.
Antispyware Programs
1. Spyware terminator
www.spywareterminator.com
This is a great antispyware application just turn off the real time protection it isn't needed. Oh and make sure to check the immunize at least 1 time a month.
2. Spybot S and D
Oldy but a goody was recently named best antispyware app
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html
3. SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/
Very awesome detection rate for spyware, malware, and adware. It's pro version is ranked the best and its free version doesn't fail either.
When it comes to all those passwords on your pc for your sites you need something that can manage them all right? Well that is where this come in handy.
Password Manager Program
Last Pass
http://www.lastpass.com
This is way better than your browsers default Internet password manager and way more user friendly. I have recently found this as of today and I love it. It also allows you to generate your own super strong passwords by hitting alt+g. I had recently used Keypass but I couldn't get the darn thing to work with its plug ins so I axed it with Revo.
Speaking of Revo...
Revo Uninstaller
http://www.revouninstaller.com/
This is BEST uninstaller that I have found to date. It creates a system restore prior to uninstalling, will run the built in uninstaller to the program, will search for left over registry keys from the program and let you delete them and finally it will search and delete all program files from the program you uninstalled. It also has a feature called Hunter Mode which allows you to drag and drop a part of a program or select it with the cross hair and uninstall it through Revo. It is great for those programs that don't seem to show up in Revo's box. As I said a great little tool.
Now when it comes to keeping up the health of my PC. I use the following programs. Please note that the order in which they are listed is also the order in which they need to be ran when doing monthly maintenance.
Disk Cleaner Program
1. CCCleaner
www.cccleaner.com
Great disk cleaner top ranked too.
Registry Cleaner Program
2. Eusing free registry cleaner
http://www.eusing.com/Download.htm
Best one I found works great too.
Registry Defragmenter Program
3. Auslogics Registry Defragmenter
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/registry-defrag/download
Great Registry Defragger requires restart when finished.
Disk Defragmenter Program
4. Smart Defrag
http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html
Great program has a great defrag rate as well. Way better than Auslogics which I was using prior to this one. PS the windows utilities suck don't use them.
I also use various tools to make my life easier here in PC world and I will list them below along with a link and description.
Unlocker
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
It allows you to unlock troublesome files that are stubborn and wont delete or wont move etc.
Terracopy
http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php
This little program allows you to copy your files faster to places on your machine. I copied a 1.38gb folder to my desktop from my documents in around 2 min. It also integrates into the normal copy paste for windows.
7-zip
http://www.7zip.org
This is the BEST compression, unzipping tool out their. Its a unzipper program and very easy to use. Handles .7z, .zip, .rar and many others. Integrates into windows.
M8 Free Multi Clipboard
http://m8software.com/clipboards/freeclip/freeclip.htm
When it comes to multiple copies and pasets this bad boy is your savior. It even does pictures. Its small and easy to use.
WhoCrashed
http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed
This program will allow you to discern which evil little driver has caused the bsod on your cpu.
AntiFreeze
http://www.resplendence.com/antifreeze
This is a last ditch effort when the PC has locked up. With this program running in the sys tray you know that you have one last effort before a hard reboot. It sits in the sys tray waiting for the hotkeys that will launch it. It acts as a task manager but it freezes all currently going process in an effort to stop the machine from locking up. You find the process that locked up and you end it than resume that simple. Please note that sometimes a hard reboot is just inescapable.
Recuva
http://www.recuva.com/
When you have accidentally deleted a precious file this program might just be able to get it back for you.
Feed Demon
http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/FeedDemon/Default.aspx
Ah yes how I keep up to date with all the pages I watch. My RSS reader. It was voted as the best RSS feed reader for windows.
Drivermax
http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/
This program allows you to back up your drivers to a designation of your choice into a zip file. It can also download updates for you though I don't recommend it as they come directly from the PC users themselves and there is a potential security issue there. It is however completely safe to back up your drivers with. Great for getting up and running after a reformat.
Format Factory
http://www.formatoz.com/index.html
This is a great, great, great program when it comes to needing to convert just about any audio/video file into just about any format.
Bywifi Video Accelerator
http://www.bywifi.com/
Its a video accelerator that actually works. Way better than Speedbit's. Though it does save the videos that you download also so you have to clear out the folder from time to time when it gets too big. Works with just about any flash video. I love it.
Shutdown Guard
http://code.google.com/p/shutdownguard/
When you don't want windows shutting down without your permission. Note windows update can still force the machine to reboot if needed and you ignore the warning at least it did on me. To prevent that I edited the GPE for windows update. If you don't' have access to the GPE you can go to start-run-services.msc and stop Windows update service.
SIW
http://www.gtopala.com/
This program will tell you just about ANYTHING you wanted to know about your machine hardware/program/spec wise. Handy for finding specs of your machine.
FireFox
www.mozilla.com
Last but not least my web browser of choice. There is nothing better IMO and with the addons its even better but that might be a whole other post.
Well that's about the end of my long post on programs that I use for my PC. I do highly recommend these programs as they will make your life much easier.
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*Note from Uncle Gerry:
No post at Nichevo would be complete without some eye candy so here are some Monday's Undies to inspire and admire. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
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