Below we have provided links to some of the software that we use and recommend. We are providing these links as a resource to our customers, in order to help them in trying to fix their own issues, if they feel comfortable doing so.
First of all, your greatest resource for all kinds of utilities to help you diagnose and correct your own problems is http://www.downloadcrew.com They even rate and review each piece of software, and keep things updated consistently. The best part is, you can skip going directly to that company’s website and giving them your email in order to test their software so that they can spam you with every bit of info that you absolutely don’t need.
What antivirus solution do you have installed protecting your precious computer? I’m going to guess AVG right?! So… first of all here is a link to the AVG removal tool http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/2858-avg_remover_32-bit so that you can fully and completely get rid of any trace of it.
Free Anti-Virus:
Free antivirus software is just that, it’s free, and well, you get what you pay for. There are several good free antivirus utilities but they are usually slimmed down packages of the paid versions and therefore not generally as effective. That being said, here are the free solutions that we recommend:
Microsoft Security Essentials: Security Essentials from Microsoft is quite possibly the best free antivirus available. Who knows Windows better than the company who designed Windows? Microsoft’s own antivirus solution has been shown to be quite effective and is very slim and light on your system so it doesn’t slow down your computer. This software also only pops up for your attention if it actually detects something, but generally just quietly runs in the background shielding you against the wicked world of the free Internet.
Avast 6 – Free Edition: Also a very lightweight utility. It is annoying that you have to register the free edition within 30 days. Avast 6 does have some nice new features, such as Autosandbox. (what is this?)
Avira Free: Avira is a great antivirus for protecting you against clicking links that may infect your system and it’s detection engine catches almost any malware maliciously running around your system wreaking havoc and headaches. The catch is the annoying popups that it insists you need, which can include advertising.
Paid Anti-Virus:
Paid antivirus software is usually better than the free versions as far as interfaces and ease-of-use goes. There are several good antivirus utilities out there but these are the ones we really like::
Eset NOD32 Antivirus 5: It doesn’t get any better than this people! In our own tests, Eset has proved itself over and over catching every mischievous demon we have thrown at it. It honestly makes you feel as if every other antivirus is a poor excuse… But on the rare chance that you won’t take our word for it then try it yourself free for 30 days!
Norton Antivirus 2012: Norton has finally gotten their act together and slimmed down their much bloated software. Placing a distant second to Eset, they still have fairly decent detection rates, but their main forte is stopping you from believing the lying popups and proceeding to naively click.
Kaspersky 2012: Kaspersky why do you have such bloated software?! Kaspersky is hard to recommend… especially for older systems because of its heavy memory usage and processor intensive tasks that make you feel like you are crawling in quicksand. However, it has many features that some would call nifty, and it slaps down almost any malware that tries to interrupt your otherwise leisurely day. My favorite of the several bonus tools included is cloud protection. If you have a newer super speedy computer, maybe you should give it a trial run!
Computer Repair and Maintenance Utilities:
These are the utilities we tend to use the most and recommend to our customers. These are meant to be used on Windows XP through Windows 7. Windows 8 will probably be released in late 2012 and you will be hearing much more about it in the days ahead. Windows 8 will change everything, so we might not necessarily recommend these same utilities in the near future.
If you don’t feel comfortable doing any of these things yourself, then please give us a call and we will be happy to help you get back to before your computer turned against you!
CCleaner: One of our most frequently used utilities for cleaning the registry of unnecessary leftover stuff. It has other functions as well that are all geared toward cleaning up the useless items on your computer and getting it slimmed down which will give your system a boost.
Microsoft Office Starter 2010 – Free Version: Yeah, you read that right, free. This is an ad supported, stripped down Microsoft Office that only contains Excel and Word and some basic tools to get what you need to do, done. Sadly, Word and Excel don’t have near the number of options and features that the paid version does, but maybe you weren’t sure how to use those features anyway!
Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware – Free – When it comes to scanning your system for malware… Malwarebytes is hands down the best solution. Just run a scan to eradicate any traces of malware on your computer and make it happy again. This isn’t a constantly on and running virus protection software, it is just designed to rescue you when some poor choices may have been made or a script with evil intent slipped through the cracks because you didn’t have Eset installed!
IOBit Advanced System Care: If you are more comfortable with an All In One solution for maintaining a sleek and speedy OS, then this is a top pick. This software provides many features and it’s all bundled into one easy to use and, dare I say, clean and pretty interface. Most importantly though, it’s free!
IOBit Smart Defrag: Even though this is kind of an outdated concept it can be of some minimal help to an older Windows XP system. Or, perhaps, you don’t care if there are any benefits at all but your admittedly obsessive nature makes you want a completely neat drive. Either way, this is completely free and runs quietly in the background keeping your drive in tip top shape. If you happen to have an SSD drive though, don’t even think about it!
SlimDrivers: This is a very handy utility for keeping every driver on your windows system up to date. Just download and install it and run it and click scan and then it automatically finds the drivers and lets you choose to install them. Once all that is over though, my preferred method is to uninstall it right away because otherwise it always runs leaving a steering wheel in your taskbar. Steering wheel?! Why? Oooh … oooook…
Glary Utilies: A very handy cleanup and speedup your computer utility. It certainly isn’t too pretty but it’s lightweight, it’s free, and it really works! What more do you want?
PC Decrapifier: If you have a new computer and the manufacturer has installed all kinds of absolutely useless software and advertising on the system then you need PC Decrapifier, as it makes it easier to get rid of all the crap!
SlimComputer: Another even more useful utility for handling the mountains of absolutely useless software and advertising on your system.