Utilities
This page contains links to some of my favorite utilities. I have absolutely no reservation about recommending these applications/utilities to people because they are all things that I use in my own daily life. Please use the links to these utilities so you don’t inadvertently end up gettting an imitation version of one of these applications.
Browsers
- Firefox
If you’re still using Internet Explorer, chances are it’s because you haven’t heard of Mozilla’s Firefox. Firefox is a free alternative to IE and offers things like tabbed browsing, browser skinning, and various other addons. Using Firefox will greatly reduce your need to use the spyware/adware removal utilities below.
- Internet Explorer 7
Let’s face it, you can’t use Firefox for everything. Although more web developers are creating web pages with Firefox in mind, all pages don’t work the same in Firefox as they do in Internet Explorer. For those cases, I highly recommend IE 7. It isn’t as good as Firefox, but it does offer some of the same features that Firefox does without as many of the annoyances that are found in IE 6. For those times you absolutely have to use IE, I highly recommend this.
Spyware/Adware Removal
- SpyBot Search and Destroy
This is a free tool to locate and destroy spyware/malware. I guarantee you have some of this trash on your computer if you surf the internet. This is the defacto standard that computer people go to when there are strange problems with computers…pop ups, slow response, or other general stuff like that. As I said, it’s free, but it is well worth a donation if you feel so inclined. Install this software, check for updates and just run it. SpyBot will find most of the spyware/malware on your computer and allow you to get rid of it. This needs to be used with Ad-Aware (also linked on this page).
- The Google Toolbar
While not really an antivirus link/tool, the Google Toolbar is something I have on my computer that I realy recommend. It provides a quick link to do your Google search and it blocks most popups. To get the popup blocker to work, you MUST agree to send anonymous information to Google…just say yes and install it. This doesn’t work with the AOL browser…I know it works with IE. I’m not sure about other browers like Netscape, but I don’t reall recommend those anyway.
- Ad-Aware SE Personal edition
Ad-Aware is another tool we use to remove spyware/malware from computers. It needs to be used either before or after you run SpyBot. Both need to be used because neither one of them will find all of the crap on your computer by itself.
Antivirus
- AVG Antivirus Free Edition
AVG Anti-Virus FREE Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Anti-Virus FREE is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! If you don’t have antivirus running on your computer, you NEED one. It’s a small hassle to get the antivirus downloaded, but I (This is Jimmy by the way) use it on my laptop and wouldn’t recommend it if I thought it wasn’t worth it or safe.
- Zone Alarm by Zone Labs
This isn’t so important if you only have dial up, but it is still not a bad idea to install this even if this is the case. This is a FREE software firewall from Zone Labs. What this will do is prevent hackers from attacking your system from the internet. It will also help contain any viruses that your computer may become infected with and help prevent spreading them. Make SURE you have installed an antivirus client and run a FULL system scan BEFORE you install this. Also, you only need the free version…they will try to get you to buy their retail version but there is no need to.
- Symantec Antivirus Research Center
This is where I go when anyone asks me about a virus they may have. Click Search, type in the name of the virus, and check the ‘Viruses, Trojan horses, Worms and Macros’ and ‘Vulnerabilities and Exploits’ boxes and then Search. If the virus is a known virus, you will be given information on the virus and instructions/tools on how to remove it.