Few home users are aware of just how much junk accumulates on the average PC while performing daily tasks. These free programs will give you the best optimization and protection for a minimal time investment.
Few home users are aware of just how much junk accumulates on the average PC while performing daily tasks: surfing the internet, watching videos, downloading games, etc. Even fewer users are aware of the simple, ready out of the box programs that exist to clear out this junk. In the world of computers, an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure, and these (all free!) programs will give you the best optimization and protection for a minimal time investment!
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Mozilla Firefox 3
When it comes to prevention, no program can spare the user more virus/spyware/identity theft headaches than Firefox. This popular open source web browser comes loaded with built-in anti-phishing, anti-hijacking, anti-spyware, and anti-anything else that sounds scary features. In addition, Firefox can be tweaked enough to satisfy the fussiest power user, but it also comes with a clear, easy to follow interface that even a newbie can follow.
FileHippo.com Update Checker
The free UpdateChecker is small, lightweight, and fast. Weighing in at about 100kb, this nifty program will keep you up to date with all your software in just one click. Activating the utility will direct you to a filehippo.com webpage listing all the updates available for your programs. Just click and download the updates you want. Run this baby once a month and you will never have to worry about being left out of the newest features or security updates.
CCleaner
For clearing out the junk, nothing beats CCleaner. Fast and thorough this program will search out temporary files, useless folders, cookies, and the like and nuke them with just one click. It will do the same for your registry, but users are advised to use the built-in backup function before sweeping the registry….just to be safe!
Spybot – Search & Destroy
The industry standard for spyware detection, this power utility can take a long time to scan, especially on an older system, but you will rest secure knowing that your computer is clean of malware. It also sports options for erasing user tracks, real time protection, and a comprehensive startup program cleaner that lets you know exactly what’s going on when you start your system.
Auslogics Disk Defrag & Registry Defrag
These two programs meet and expand upon the functionality of Window’s built-in defrag utility. Fragmentation is inevitable in Windows, and defragmenting every few weeks is essential to keeping your system running smoothly. These two programs are faster than their Window’s counterpart, inform you exactly how much you’ve improved performance, and take care of the registry to boot. I would also like to recommend Auslogics BoostSpeed 4, which although it costs $30USD, offers the defrag tools, as well as a disk cleaner and scores of Window’s tweaks.
avast! Antivirus
The best free antivirus out there, in my opinion, avast! is thorough and unobtrusive. It updates itself and consumes minimum system resources, all the while offering your PC excellent protection. You will probably forget it’s even installed until one day it pops up a warning that you just downloaded a virus and asks you what to do.
Revo Uninstaller
A vast improvement over the Windows uninstaller, Revo loads quicker and does a more thorough job. In addition to running the program’s uninstaller, Revo searches for post-uninstall remaining files and registry entries and lets you delete them, reducing system clutter. Revo also offers a user track wiper and a junk files cleaner.
PeerGuardian
A massive database of harmful IP addresses, PeerGuardian was originally designed to protect file sharers. However, this program is also a wonderful tool for blocking spyware and ad-related IPs.
So there you have it! Run these 8 simple tools monthly and your computer should last forever. Well, maybe not forever, but it will definitely last at peak performance until your next upgrade – be it months or years from now.
21 Responses
Linux should have been on that list. In fact, it should have been number one.
Great piece of useful writing.
Agree to lvleph forget about windows Linux should be on top of all!
while i do love linux and agree that it does save you a load of headaches from spyware/adware/viruses as well as other issues. i don’t really think a different operating system fits into the list. if you guys want to put linux on the top of a list you should make your own.
or maybe a big list of reasons to try linux.
but putting linux at the top of the list would make everything else in the list, with the exception of Firefox, useless.
i’ll quickly agree with anyone who says linux is better than windows but linux isn’t for everyone. PC gamers for instance probably wouldn’t like linux very much due to most games being made for Windows. Wine is a great program but it doesn’t work for everything and it doesn’t work as well as just playing the game in windows.
using firefox, auslogics, avast!, and spybot: search and destroy can really help windows users a lot though. especially seeing as how the people who will likely find this really helpful probably won’t know all that much about computers and they’re all great, easy to use programs.
My first thought: Ubuntu Linux.
1. Already installed
2-6. Not needed
7. Synaptic
8. Maybe good, maybe.
Yes, Linux is not for everyone, but Wine and windows emulators is improving constantly. And there are a few games for Linux, too, although not so good.
Which OS is best?
Only the time will tell.
But let me say that if the article was written for Linux it would be much shorter…
“Spywareblaster” would be a good addition to anyone’s arsenal of computrer defence. It’s as good as “spybot S&D” and works well with it.
The first time that I used Spywareblaster, it removed just over three-quarters of a GB of JUNK files, cookies and crap and solved some start-up times issues that I was having at this time.
Nice Article.
-Fellow Triond Writer/Pubsliher
These all sound great, but as my grandmother used to say, you never get something for nothing. Why would any(one, group, org., inc.,gov. ) develop and place any type of beneficial program for the commons, unless they are getting 1) information from the user
2) some other type of “ware” that performs an undisclosed function
?
Thoughts?
Nicely written article. I think that I will give number seven a try a bit later.
God Bless,
Nelson Doyle
I’ve recently posted an article much like this one, but without the downloads to the sites. It’s things you can do in your computer that will clean up things to improve the speed of your computer. Check it out on my profile.
Very good article. I use Spybot and it works really well. Thank you.
Dale you are on crack.
Have you ever heard of philanthropy?
This is the greatest article I’ve ever read, thank you very nuch for sharing it.
really wonderful piece of writing. i have learnt so much . thanx
very thorough and informative article. everyone needs to know these things to keep their personal info safe.
thank you.
Another good add would have probably been FreeRAM XP Pro… A very good memory manager… Very good list tho, I use most of them already…
Very good, Thanks
Good article, I myself love firefox.
I would put up the possible exchange of the Auslogics defrag tool with JKDefrag. The Auslogic tool is amazing, and very fast, but from what I’ve experienced and tested, JKDefrag gets the job done much, much better than Auslogics (and many retail defrag tools!) does.
But hey, all depends on what you’re looking for.
The rest of the list is amazing, and I actually use pretty much all of it.
For those of us than play no games, Linux should go at the top of the list.
Great piece of work. Very informative.
i use most of these programs with much success, other than peerguardian. It slowed my web surfing down to a crawl and was not system friendly at all. Its a good idea in principal but needs some perfecting. Thanks for the article