Some great free software for keeping your pc in good shape

Guest · May 1, 2009

To all Vista users: finally a great tweaking tool that allows you to safely and easily make Vista behave the way you want to (tried this on my new vista laptop, works great)

http://www.winvistaclub.com/Ultimate_Windows_Tweaker.html

Highly recommended. Finally I got vista under control.

Guest · May 1, 2009

A great free firwall for vista & xp (no more comodo or zonealarm, thank you very much)

http://www.pctools.com/firewall/

Tested on 3 different PC's. Works like a charm. Very easy to use and quite light too.

Konjad · May 7, 2009

What free antivirus is best in your opinion? Best if it works on Windows 7 RC (it probably will if it works on Vista).

Guest · May 11, 2009

Avira. It shows an ad window when you update but that's the only real downside. just click it away. but some people are sensitive to that shit and can't stand no ads at all. But still, the best free av imo.

lanux128 · May 11, 2009

i also use Avira after previously using AVG 7.x and the ad window is only a minor bother. i use a macro program to close automatically. but i'm not sure of its performance under Win7 RC.

Sir Markus · May 11, 2009

Avira is really an outstanding freeware anti-virus. Also, version 9.0 was just released recently just a 'heads up'; I don't think the software updater tells you about the new version.

Kostas · May 21, 2009

A great program I found recently is Everything it's a search engine which is blazing fast.
It doesn't index files but it accesses the NTFS raw Master File Table and the speed may blow you away.
It's not as pretty as Launchy but the speed difference makes up for it.
You should definitely try it.

hishadow · May 22, 2009

Konjad said:
What free antivirus is best in your opinion? Best if it works on Windows 7 RC (it probably will if it works on Vista).

Viruses really isn't the main problem anymore. I'd be more worried about losing my creditcard/personal details because of a insecure webbrowser or remote hacking of windows.

Kostas · May 25, 2009

Dark Savant said:
Is it better than SUMo? I have been using sumo for a very long time but am always looking for better solutions.

It can run from the .exe so no need for install and it looks better but apart from that Sumo is better.
Sumo found 53 programs while UN found 35 and it has almost unknown software like Everything in it's database.

Sir Markus · June 7, 2009

Recently I was pretty far into Drakensang and Plants vs. Zombies, and had a nasty situation occur where I had no other choice but to re-install my OS and consequently had to start from scratch in both of those games. I've had worse things happen to me, but still, it wasn't much fun. I found a pretty outstanding program that I'm using now called I-Drive. It gives you 2 GB of storage space for free, and if you tell it to, it will do 'on the fly' backups of whatever files you select. Right now I'm playing the aforementioned games and have the program set to automatically backup the save files, and if a similar situation arises again, I just download the save files, put them in the newly installed program, and continue as usual.

I don't feel like buying an external hard drive to do system backups, and this free program has been a pleasure to use. Just a suggestion as a free remote data backup option.

http://www.idrive.com/pricing.htm

rpgdude · June 8, 2009

I have XP pro x64 and 8 gig of RAM. Seems work fine. I don't like vista much, it sounds like another ME which some reviewers considered as a "mistaken edition". Windows 7 shows a lot of expectations but I would wait a couple of years for it to settle down.

Guest · June 8, 2009

Riiiight....

xSamhainx · June 9, 2009

Sir Markus said:
Avira is really an outstanding freeware anti-virus. Also, version 9.0 was just released recently just a 'heads up'; I don't think the software updater tells you about the new version.

I second that emotion.

Have been running Avira on my test pc, and it seems to be a pretty good program. Like a gift from above, I was sent a virus in my email in a zip file today, so Ive been using it to test with. Avira detected it on a flash drive that I had just hooked up, within an archive, like instantly. Memory footprint is small, tho the processes are unkillable thru task manager. That's kinda a no-no, I dont like programs that cant be sent away when I want to start up a system intensive game. It also has rootkit detection, which isnt a given on most software that Ive seen. It's quick, doesnt bog down, not bloatware w/ a bunch of unnecessary link scanners and bullshit

Seems like a good program so far

Sir Markus · June 10, 2009

A Good Video Review of Avira 9.0

xSamhainx said:
I second that emotion.

Have been running Avira on my test pc, and it seems to be a pretty good program. Like a gift from above, I was sent a virus in my email in a zip file today, so Ive been using it to test with. Avira detected it on a flash drive that I had just hooked up, within an archive, like instantly. Memory footprint is small, tho the processes are unkillable thru task manager. That's kinda a no-no, I dont like programs that cant be sent away when I want to start up a system intensive game. It also has rootkit detection, which isnt a given on most software that Ive seen. It's quick, doesnt bog down, not bloatware w/ a bunch of unnecessary link scanners and bullshit

Seems like a good program so far

This is a pretty good summation of Avira 9.0 that is pretty much 'spot on' IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bum1_i2P574

Kostas · June 15, 2009

xSamhainx said:
Memory footprint is small, tho the processes are unkillable thru task manager. That's kinda a no-no, I don't like programs that cant be sent away when I want to start up a system intensive game.

When I was using Kaspersky I couldn't kill it via the task manager but I could disable that from the options,maybe there is such an option in Avira too.

rpgdude said:
I have XP pro x64 and 8 gig of RAM. Seems work fine. I don't like vista much, it sounds like another ME which some reviewers considered as a "mistaken edition". Windows 7 shows a lot of expectations but I would wait a couple of years for it to settle down.

You mean like waiting for a Service Pack?
No need to,the RC has been almost too stable to believe.

Nobody tried Everything?

Shouldn't this thread be a sticky?

lanux128 · June 17, 2009

i use Everything all the time. it's super fast when looking for files & folders. i use it via a plugin for FindAndRunRobot (Farr), a very handy launcher.

leth · October 9, 2009

Microsoft application compatiblity toolkit:
MS ACT
Great for getting your older games to work properly on Vista. For example, instruction for getting Pool of Radiance 2 working properly on Vista here at the Watch.

Sir Markus · October 12, 2009

Malware Bytes

Sorry if this program has already been mentioned in this lengthy thread. Malwarebytes is a freeware program than performs scans in a matter of minutes, and manages to find some pretty nasty stuff. I recommend running this program in 'safe mode.'

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Gorath · October 14, 2009

ZoneAlarm Pro for free today on the official ZoneLabs homepage! Only a few hours left.

License for 3 PCs for 12 months. New customers only, limited to 1 per customer.

txa1265 · October 15, 2009

Gorath said:
ZoneAlarm Pro for free today on the official ZoneLabs homepage! Only a few hours left.

License for 3 PCs for 12 months. New customers only, limited to 1 per customer.

Crap ... missed it.

Some great free software for keeping your pc in good shape

Guest

Guest

Guest

Guest

Keeper of the Watch

Guest

Guest

Sentinel

Keeper of the Watch

Dormant Watcher

Level N+1

Dormant Watcher

Keeper of the Watch

Watchdog

Guest

Guest

Paws of Doom

Keeper of the Watch

Dormant Watcher

Sentinel

Sentinel

Keeper of the Watch

Prime Evil

SasqWatch