Good Free Computer Freeware for optimization

[dex]

PC Repair with Advanced SystemCare Free | System Care, Windows Care, Free Download

This is a great free program for cleaning up and speeding up your computer.
Also download the disk defrager.
The Vista defrager now shows 0 fraged files and programs.

I had a program for deleting all those programs that load in when you start up the computer but I deleted it and forgot the name.

Anyone have any other good freeware programs?

 

[OAG]

Good stuff. The De fragmentation programs seems to be complete (no advanced program needed to get complete work done) however; the Advanced System Care program must be upgrade to get the full (all the functions) program - although $20 is is not a bad price for it. I was not able to see if you did buy the "upgrade" that you could install it in multiple computers; would be worth the price if there was no limit or at least 2 computers.

 

[harley]

My favorites are the basics - AVG for antivirus, Spybot Search and Destroy for spyware, and Adaware for adware. I have a few others I use. Trillian for secure IM (overlay for AIM), Stickies (virtual post-it notes) for lists and reminders, Frog for free RAR extractions, Whisper32 for password management, Winamp for a music player, Media Player Classic for movies. I like download.com, cnet.com, and sourceforge.net for sources of programs.

There may be some better programs than these, but I tend to stick with what I've got until I find a good reason to switch. I think this is a good thread idea though. I'll be interested to see what others come up with.

 

[dt123]

I like PC Pitstop, Startup Inspector, DriverAgent and Software Inspector. These are all optimization and update tools.

 

[kumquat]

What do you all use to index porn sites?

 

[mahoneycutt]

Favorite Utilities

CCleaner - great for dumping all the temp files on your hard drive.
Autoruns - for managing start up programs.
HijackThis - manages start up programs - experts only
DriveMan - backup drivers
ProcExp - Process Explorer - manage running processes
FreeUndelete - undeleting files

Mike Honeycutt

 

[ERD50]

Seriously, I have not even given any of this a thought on a Mac with OSX. It's not needed (OK, maybe the undelete files if you are careless *and* don't keep backups).

One of these days, I'll try out one of those cheap netbooks with Linux.

What do you all use to index porn sites?

-ERD50

 

[harley]

Putting in another vote for HijackThis. Absolutely required for figuring out which evil program has taken over your computer and hopefully cleaning it back up.

 

[RonBoyd]

In addition to those mentioned earlier, I am a big fan of the following:

Secunia.com
(Click on "Software Inspectors" and then "Scan Online" to try it out but the installed PSI version is better)

The home of Spybot-S&D!
(The best Spyware detector -- Free or otherwise)

Ah, heck all their products are great:
The home of Spybot-S&D!

Anything by:
NirSoft - freeware utilities: password recovery, system utilities, desktop utilities
(I especially like and can't do without - IPNetInfo: Retrieve IP Address Information from WHOIS servers

YourWare Solutions: Quality freeware and home of FreeRAM XP Pro
(FreeRAM XP works in Vista)

And I just would not survive without:
Favorites Home Page Software Informer: Latest version download, news and info about this Robert Rimes Perry program.

Oh, Boy! I just noticed that I have many (50+) of these "boutique" programs that I use throughout the year... too many to list.

 

[TromboneAl]

I had a program for deleting all those programs that load in when you start up the computer but I deleted it and forgot the name.

I use Startup Control Panel from Mike Lin's Home Page.

 

[RonBoyd]

I had a program for deleting all those programs that load in when you start up the computer but I deleted it and forgot the name.

I got so carried away with my earlier post that I forgot your real question.

I, too, can vouch for "Startup Control Panel." I, also, rely heavily on "Mz Vista Force" which has several other useful tools included. You should, also, check out their other programs (in the right hand column of same page).

BTW, I have a lot of programs that load during bootup (25?). So many, in fact, that sometimes there would be conflicts in start times. I find that "Startup Delayer" is very useful in controlling when each program loads as well as how long a delay between each program.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I've always used MSCONFIG to manage startup programs. I do like Spybot S&D and use it.

 

[RonBoyd]

I've always used MSCONFIG to manage startup programs. I do like Spybot S&D and use it.

The problem with MSCONFIG is that irritating "warning" window that opens every time you bootup if you use it for any permanent change. Of course, if by "manage" you mean turn on or off, then MSCONFIG is great -- the best troubleshooting program around.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Just check the box in the warning window after the first reboot and you won't be nagged again. Well, until your next change...

Yeah, turn it off. You will be amazed at the amount of services and other updater type programs that get installed.

 

[Nords]

What do you all use to index porn sites?

Whoa, wait-- you mean there's more than one?

 

[Koolau]

Seriously, I have not even given any of this a thought on a Mac with OSX. It's not needed (OK, maybe the undelete files if you are careless *and* don't keep backups).

One of these days, I'll try out one of those cheap netbooks with Linux.






-ERD50

ERD50 (or other OSX users)

I'm pretty much a dinosaur when it comes to 'puters, but I had heard that Mac OSX is relatively immune to many of the problems now associated with PCs. I bought a Mac and do love it. Is there recommended virus/spyware/etc. software available? Do you really NOT need it or just not need it yet?

I have heard that as Mac takes an ever larger market share of the home computer business, it will be worth the hackers effort to find ways to launch attacks against Macs.

Again, I don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Just repeating stuff I've read/been told. I'd like to be as bullet proof as possible, but I don't even know if there are currently any Mac OSX problems to deal with.

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[RonBoyd]

is there recommended virus/spyware/etc. Software available?

 

[ERD50]

ERD50 (or other OSX users)

I'm pretty much a dinosaur when it comes to 'puters, but I had heard that Mac OSX is relatively immune to many of the problems now associated with PCs. I bought a Mac and do love it. Is there recommended virus/spyware/etc. software available? Do you really NOT need it or just not need it yet?

Well, there have not been any wide spread attacks *yet*. So, IMO, you do not *need* it *today*, tomorrow could be a different story. I have decided to be pragmatic, and based on past history, wait until it is a problem. I keep backups (clones) off-line, so I could recover pretty painlessly if it was just a matter of needing to reload everything.

There is only one thing that I've seen recommended very much, I should load it myself, but have not yet. Hmmm, can't think of the name right now, but it monitors what your computer sends out, and should detect and stop any key-tracking sort of program, if one somehow got on your system.


- ok here is it:
"Little Snitch"


Little Snitch 2.0.4 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

I have heard that as Mac takes an ever larger market share of the home computer business, it will be worth the hackers effort to find ways to launch attacks against Macs.

Well, I've been hearing that for as long as I've owned Macs. It may be true, it may happen one day, but until then I prefer to not have my computer bogged down with programs looking for something that is not known to exist at this time.

Again, I don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Just repeating stuff I've read/been told. I'd like to be as bullet proof as possible, but I don't even know if there are currently any Mac OSX problems to deal with.

Thanks for any assistance.

*currently* none that I am aware of .

Let me add to that - there is nothing that will protect against *social engineering* attacks. Those are OS independent. Even technology independent (mail, phone, door-to-door con artist). If someone asks you to do this or that, and you do it, you could be a victim. Like give them your password because they asked for it. Don't do that

Keep the "preview" feature OFF for email. Do not click links in emails unless you are 110% certain that the sender is known. Go directly to websites from your bookmarks or a google search - do not go from an email link. Those can be "phishing" attempts.


-ERD50

 

[Koolau]

Keep the "preview" feature OFF for email.


-ERD50

ERD50

Thanks for the detailed reply. That helps a lot! You reconfirm what I've heard from others, but not all of them were unbiased (e.g., sales types) Besides several of Murphy's corollaries, I live by the adage, "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

Now, to demonstrate my status as a dinosaur, I looked for half an hour for the Preview Feature you mentioned (even used the "help feature", whooo hoooo!) but couldn't figure out how to turn it off. I actually wondered about that when I had my mail account set up. Seemed a little foolhardy to have every message displayed whether I got a chance to review the sender's status. Even then, I tried to figure out how to turn that off without success. I've usually been successful in figuring out stuff by browsing help features, but this one has eluded me so far.

Thanks again for your help. Hope I can return the favor some day, but I'm pretty sure it won't involve my knowledge of computers, heh heh.

 

[ERD50]

No problem. And I'll take cash

I had to look a while myself, since it has been so long since I changed it. Yep, there is nothing to actually turn on or off, it is just that preview pane on the bottom of the main Mail window ( I'm running a few gens of OSX back, 10.3.9, on this computer, yours might be slightly different).

But, I just grab the little dividing line between the list of new emails, and the preview at the bottom. Grab it and drag it all the way down until there is no preview showing.

Also, in "Preferences" , VIEWING" tab, uncheck the "Display Images and embedded objects in HTML messages".

From what I've been told (and this makes sense from what I've observed), some of those images you see are not actually images *in* the email itself, but are a link to an image on some server somewhere. Just like a web page, the email calls on the server to display the image.

The trick is, spammers will use a unique number in that link, and tie it to your address in their database. They can tell that their server was accessed, and that it looked for a page with that number. They now know that you are a real person opening their emails. This makes you very popular with them. You probably do not want that.

So, when I see a questionable, but not obviously spam, email, I can open it and those links are not activated. It is usually obvious that it is spam at that point, then I just delete it and they never get confirmation.

If it does appear to be from a known sender (someone you subscribe to, it has your real name and ID info somewhere, like "Mr ERD50, your account ending in 1234", rather than "Good Freind (sic), I have BIG news for you!!!!!"), then you can just hit the "Load Images" button, and it will load them for you.

I guess with the "Display Images" thing turned off, the Preview panel is not really an issue. Belt and suspenders I guess.

-ERD50

 

[Rustic23]

FastStone Image Viewer, Screen Capture, Photo Resizer ...

Great image browser, fixer and resizer.

 

[RonBoyd]

Oh! I just filled up a 500GB HD and remembered the absolutely best utility ever:

Windows Freeware by Steffen Gerlach

"Scanner" at the top. This scans all of your hard drives and gives a pie chart of all the directories.

 

[Koolau]

No problem. And I'll take cash

Also, in "Preferences" , VIEWING" tab, uncheck the "Display Images and embedded objects in HTML messages".



-ERD50

Fair enough. I'll send you twice what I did last time!

Believe it or don't, I actually thought about pulling the preview down until it disappeared. But I rejected that idea, thinking the preview would still take place, even if I couldn't see it. Can it be that simple (that I actually thought of it)?

Also, I must have seen that viewing tab 'cause I went through every menu item. I'm sure I even started with Preferences - but I still missed it. Doooooh!

Thanks again, ERD50. You're a Lifesaver (without the hole in the middle, heh, heh.)