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December 18, 2005
Windows software on the cheap.
Semi-annual round up of free software to prop up the Windows immune system, office software and assorted utilities. I'm restricting these lists to products I have used in the last month. Firewalls, AntiVirus, Anti-Spyware and office software.
Firewalls
Kerio personal firewall and Zone Alarm
Both are firewalls that will ask every time an application tries to get to the internet, but will remember what you tell it. You do need to be aware of what programs you run that need access to the internet. Sure, they're a pain for the first hour (or when you first run an application), but once configured are excellent.
Anti Virus
Grisoft Anti Virus Guardian
Avast Home edition
Either of these are an excellent choice to protect your computer. Virusbulletin has both products detecting 100% of wild viruses as of December 2005.
Anti-Spyware/Trojan
Prevention
Prevention
JavaCool SpywareBlaster
Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software. This will not remove anything already installed
JavaCool SpywareGuard
An anti-virus program scans files before you open them and prevents execution if a virus is detected - SpywareGuard does the same thing, but for spyware! This will not remove anything already installed.
Removal
All removal tools work better when run in Safe Mode (reboot the computer, tap F8 before the Windows boot up screen and select Safe Mode from the list). Safe mode is low-res.
SpyBot Search & Destroy Consistantly excellent removal tool.
LavaSoft AdAware The other excellent removal tool.
Merjin CWS Shredder
Cool Web Search is one of the most tenacious and hard to remove annoyances I've ever come across. This removal tool is constantly updatad, and will take it out. New versions of CWS (the thing you want to be rid of) will actually shut down removal tools as they are being loaded. If this occurs, you can run Merjin's SmartKiller to zap it, then run the CWS Shredder.
Office Software
Microsoft has cornered the market here. Everyone who uses a spreadsheet or word processor and shares data will, at some point, need to save it as excel or word formats. These office suites are more than happy to open and save in Mircorsoft formats.AbiWord
If you just need a word processor and don't have MS Word, this is an excellent solution.
OpenOffice
Writer, Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation) and Base (database). This is the complete MS Office replacement, with MS Office file compatibility.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at December 18, 2005 12:00 PM
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