Useful Software

Alright, first off, NEVER DISABLE User Access Control in Vista or 7.  I know the pop-ups can be annoying at times, but it’ll save you from a lot of nasty viruses.  Below is a list of software I personally use, to include putting in the baseline of the machines I maintain for my guys at work, who take them to some not so nice places.  If there is another type of software that I didn’t list below, let me know, I’ve probably already got a good one somewhere.

Virus Software – Avast Home Free (www.avast.com)
Firewall – Comodo Internet Security Suite, free one (www.comodo.com)

Install just the firewall, not the virus or defense+

File Erasing Software – Eraser 5.8.8, don’t use version 6 (eraser.heidi.ie)

I still delete stuff to the recycle bin, if I don’t need it, I eraser the recycle bin, 1 pass pseudo-random is good enough
If you’re using Vista or 7, change C:WindowsSystem32eraserl.exe to run as administrator, if you don’t it has issues erasing shortcuts and such.

General cleaning – CCleaner, stands for Crap Cleaner (www.ccleaner.com)
Recover Deleted files – Recuva (www.recuva.com)
Spyware removal – SpyBot Search and Destroy (www.safer-networking.org)
Registry Cleaner – Auslogics Registry Cleaner (www.auslogics.com/en/software/registry-cleaner/download/)
Registry Defrag – Auslogics Registry Defrag, not free anymore, but I have one that is
Disk Defrag – Auslogics Disk Defrag (www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download/)
FTP Software – Filezilla (filezilla-project.org)
Image Editing Software – GIMP, kinda like Photoshop, but free (www.gimp.org)
Office Software – Open Office (www.openoffice.org)
Codec Pack – K-Lite Codec pack, even has a decent player bundled in  (fileforum.betanews.com/browse/Video-Software/Codecs)
Audio Editing Software – Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net)
DVD Authoring software – DeVeDe (www.rastersoft.com/programas/devede.html)
DVD Ripping software – Handbrake (www.handbrake.fr)
Encryption Software – Truecrypt (www.truecrypt.org)
Compression Software – 7-Zip (www.7-zip.org)

Virtual CD Rom Drive – MagicIso Virtual CD/DVD-ROM (www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm)

Allows you to mount an iso, instead of burning it to disk

Update checker for most of this software – File Hippo Update Checker (www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/)

Z