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Computer Maintenance Tools

Submitted by cypress on Thu, 2009-05-28 08:25

Well since I haven't finished my Drupal calendar project yet I figured I would update my blog with some useful computer tools I have run across the past couple days.  It started when I needed to do some research on an issue my friend Aaron was having with his browsers crashing each time they would open.  Both firefox and IE both were crashing, so I figured he must have gotten some sort of malware or virus.  Of course the first line of defense I recommend for real time antivirus and spyware scanning is AVG Free.

I like AVG because they update their definitions every day, and its a relatively quick real time scanning virus scanner.  However its not fullproof, it doesn't catch everything and I definitely recommend a second line of defense for an antivirus solution.  For backup I like to use ClamWin because it doesn't schedule any scans by default thus I only use it when I need an alternate scan.

Past the viruses I often need a backup spyware solution.  I ran across this one researching my friends issue.  After reading quite a few reviews it looks like a pretty good tool to have on hand.  I will test it out on my home system to see what additional spyware it finds, as my wifes computer is often infected with something.

During the same reasearch I came across a malware tool that many people recommend which also looks worth trying out.

A PC Magazine article I read today listed a couple of these tools which led to this blog post.  I figure I will eventually need it for my reference at some point.  There are some additional tools which the PC Mag article listed which I found useful as well.  Some of which have some really creative names, one being PC Decrapifier, which removes common garbage applications which are installed when you order a brand new bargain deal PC.

Often times I have dealt with a computer which had some spyware application which could not be removed.  The program Revo Uninstaller claims to be able to remove any installed application completely.  This tool could be great for those pesky applications which never want to uninstall.

The last one in this list is a small application for keeping your files on the internet which you can access from any PC with internet access and this small app.  It's called dropbox, and I wish I would have created it first.  I can see it becomming a common tool installed on most people's PC's.  It's especially great for working remotely, or sharing files with trusted users in your network.  It's definitely worth checking out and is a much better alternative than emailing yourself files to transfer from PC to PC over the internet.