Free stuff for GC Members

I agree John, it is true we can get what we want by googling-it's the recommendations that someone like myself needs, and I am just glad that there are people here who can help, I appreciate everyone's assistance whether they be an " Administrator" or a "keen gardener or whatever".

They all have my respect.

 

There are literally thousands of free or nearly free programs that claim to help keep your machine clean of "baddies". Apart from a good router setup right..and a decent firewall/antivirus...I use the following five programs..and have done for a number of years. I would recommend these 5 to everyone as would IT professionals/fixers. A couple of these programs actually give you reports that can be posted in specialist forums, where pro's can analyse your machine then start to tell you what to do..to sanitise your machine if you become infected with some sort of "new baddie" thats just hit the net.

These are all FREE to use, but some will need to be updated manually rather than on automatic. You have to do a little work in return for getting it for free.

Spyware Blaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
SUPERAntiSpyware - http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html
Malwarebytes antimalware - http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
Hijack this - http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/
Spybot search and destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

I dont have email on my machine, and have not for about 5-6 years...too great a risk of infection to risk it. All my mail is done online, attachments only opened if I know that person well.

There has been a spate in the last couple of years of "Antivirus warnings" on the net, what happens is things just suddenly appear telling you your antivirus is out of date and click here to fix it..it might show a picture of your hard drive looking busy and constant nags to update now...Do everything you can to get away from that page if you see it. It wants you to click on it and if you do..you'll be infected. Click the "X's" to close those windows asap or "Ctrl, Alt + Delete" to close your browser, failing that...remove your phone line or power down your PC by pressing and holding your PC's power button.

A great forum for expert help is http://www.windowsbbs.com/. If you do get infected, you can get help here...and the programs I listed above will help with the cleaning and analysing of your computer, so they can best help you.

If all that fails...hit it with a hammer...it wont help fix it, but its satisfying none the less!

Steve...

 

your correct in saying pc tools is not very good. Please stay clear of it as there has been issues where customers have had their boot sector deleted or corrupted.

I definatley did misunderstood you :D i thought you said you where using the antivirus :D

John

PC medic

 

Hijack This...is a definate No No for members who don't know what they are doing with it. it uses the same principal as MSConfig. If a user closes the wrong prgram, then they will have a problem on there hands.

Back on topic........... As i said in my first post. I will add links, and give a explanation on what the product does. I also have some usefull programs for members to use.

This will be added to a new thread as i am now going to close this thread.

John

 

Sorry John, I should have been more descriptive in my post.

Hijack this is an analytical program that produces a useful report when trying to diagnose issue with an infected machine. This report or log when viewed by IT pros gives them a base point to work from in helping sanitise your machine.

Ordinarily, its best to wait until asked for a "Hijack This log" whereupon you will be given instructions on how to configure Hijack this and then how to run it and use the log.

My advice to have it already installed on your machine is sound but should have said to have it installed, but dont use it until instructed..this post is about correcting that error on my part. But do still have it ready to roll if needed in the future as it can be a devils own job to install if you are infected, much easier to use and produce the needed report if its already in situ.

Steve...

 

It's nice to be away from all these MS problems, but then to do that you have to "exercise the little grey cells"

 

Hallo

 

I agree with Steve about Hijack This. Its great to post logs to forums where people can read what nasties you have on your machine if your having problems. Then experts on the forum can advise on how to remove such nasties.

 

whats your opinion of comodo, i use it and have no probs, i find it better than zonealarm. also avast 5, which i think is brilliant. tried norton, never again, used panda but seemed to be a bit resource hungry. tried kaspersky didnt like it. tried avg but a pile of horse manure.so stuck with avast

 

Where in Essex are you based, PCMedic?

 

A few of the freeware programs I use:

Openoffice (www.openoffice.org) - Basically a free version of office, gets the job done
Mozilla Firefox (www.getfirefox.com) - Web Browser
VLC (www.vlc.org) - Video Player which will pretty much play anything
7-Zip (www.7-zip.org) - free achive program (rar, zip, 7zp, tar.gz, etc.)
Avast (www.avast.com) - Antivirus
Free Download Manager (www.freedownloadmanagaer.org) - Download Manager
CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/) - registry cleaner and stuff
Defraggler (http://www.piriform.com/) - Defrag Program


That about sums up all the freeware on my PC =]

Not forgetting of course that I dualboot Windows 7 with Linux Mint (www.linuxmint.com)

 

When I need freeware I always use,

MajorGeeks.com - Download Freeware and Shareware Computer Utilities.