Softwares for maintaining a healthy computer.

[Phil]

Pardon me if this has been previously discussed.

I was wondering what freeware(or paid ones) you guys use to keep your computers all clean, free, fast and dandy.

For starters, I use the following for security.
-Ad-aware
-AVG free virus scan
-Spybot
-Spyware Blaster (simply awesome)
-Zonealarm Firewall
-Norton Anti-virus (Paid)

For clearing the crap out and keeping it relatively error-free, I use
-CrapCleaner
-Fast DeFrag
-Free Ram XP Pro.

They are all F.O.C from www.downloads.com, except the Norton AV.
I am hoping that through this, we can all discover some free yet useful security/maintenance softwares, etc. Or even some wonderful related-softwares that might cost some cash.

:wink:

 

[thor666]

I use AVG Free for antivirus, Sygate Personal Firewall (free) for firewall.

Seriously, Norton really sucks nowadays. ZoneAlarm too. They consume too much computer resources.

Am quite meticulous about storing crap (though this habit is changing) so I don't use file system cleaners.

 

[Phil]

Ok yes, the Norton does take up loads of resources. But I'm not sure about the ZoneAlarm.
So you think the Sygate is better?

 

[Indigo_blues]

i currently am using:

AVG anti-virus(free) - about 3-4years now
Zone alarm(free) - about 3-4 years now
CrapCleaner(free) - about 2 years
Spybot(free) - about 2 years.

I do regular defrags of the harddisks.

Also remember to update windows regularly.

I have been virus free for as long as i can remember.

yeah, Norton is a real pain. Junk it.

 

[Indigo_blues]

another nice protection software is winpatrol - very small footprint and last ditch defence against malicious viruses.

 

[DarknessFury]

I only use Norton Antivirus...having too many anti virus programs will slow your computer down...

 

[trianglebiscuit]

NOD32 anti-virus
spybot: seach and destroy
sysgate personal firewall

thats good enough i presume

 

[thor666]

Ok yes, the Norton does take up loads of resources. But I'm not sure about the ZoneAlarm.
So you think the Sygate is better?

Yes. ZA too crash-prone.

Sygate is a bit techy though.

 

[psionic]

the best anti virus is the user himself...

 

[Cheez]

the best anti virus is the user himself...

Definitely agree with that!

On my main machine, all my software are purchased. Used to use freeware like Zonealarm, Ad-aware, AVG etc. Anyway, now I use Steganos Internet Security Suite. It does it's job, so I'm not complaining. The antivirus uses Kaspersky database - which is supposed to be one of the best (there's new update almost every hour - really up-to-date).

For registry cleaning, nothing gets better than RegSupreme. The highest end version is JV Powertools; I use the medium-end one - RegSupreme Pro.
Amazing the amount of nonsense that lies dormant in your registry. After a clean format, then clean installation of Windows XP, and with nothing else installed, Regsupreme Pro recognises more than 1000 registry errors in my PC! It never removes anything that's not supposed to be removed.

Of course, on my OS that runs my audio and softsampler software, there's no antivirus/firewall etc - because there's no internet explorer and I don't install anything else on it. I removed internet explorer totally with XPLite (there's a free version - but I got the paid version so I can make my Windows really small and fast).