Things that YOU need on Windows, part Deux

[Perfxion 0]

All stuff that is a Copy and Paste job is credited to Mr. Rant. Some links are updated credit MX. Most items are free, all paid items are saying the price right next to the link.

Internet Security

 

eTrust EZ Armor Security Suite - Includes the eTrust AV program and eTrust Firewall (rebranded ZoneAlarm) which is one that a lot of corporations use and you get 1 year of free updates to the AV and the firewall. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SOLUTION.

 

Noroton Internet Security Suite 2007 70 bucks, but well worth it. Great program but on the bulky side in terms of CPU and storage for older PCs.

 

MacAfee Internet Security Suite 2007 50 bucks, but extremely well worth it. Great program but on the bulky side in terms of CPU and storage useage for older PCs.

 

Windows Live OneCare 50 bucks. The current program I am using. Works extremely well, doesn't hog resoures at all. Updates through Windows update automatically.

 

Anti-Virus

 

AVG Free Edition - Very good program for free. Not as good as Norton or Kaspersky but you should run SOMETHING.

 

Avast! - Same as above.

 

Trend Micro PC-Cillian Online House Call - Online Virus Scan.

 

Panda Internet Security 2006 - Evaluation copy that is good for one month. paid program. Another good anti virus program that has 1 year of free updates.

 

eTrust EZ Armor Security Suite - Includes the eTrust AV program and eTrust Firewall (rebranded ZoneAlarm) which is one that a lot of corporations use and you get 1 year of free updates to the AV and the firewall. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SOLUTION.

 

Windows XP users with Service Pact 2, for the fucking love of god, turn on the fucking FREE virus scan program built in the control panel.

 

Trojan Removal

 

PC Flank Trojan Scan - Online scan of your system to see if you may have a Trojan.

 

TrojanScan.com - Online scan to see if you may be infected with a Trojan.

 

Trojan Hunter - Very good program with a 30-day free trial which is just fine if you think you have been infected with one.

 

TDS-3 - Same as above. 30-day free trial with some missing features.

 

Emisoft On Demand Trojan Scanner Another free on demand Trojan Scanner.

 

 

Firewalls

 

Zone Alarm - Very good firewall that is easy to use and will keep most stuff from getting in or getting out.

 

Sygate Personal Firewall Free - Good free and easy firewall like ZoneAlarm.

 

eTrust EZ Armor Security Suite - Includes the eTrust AV program and eTrust Firewall (rebranded ZoneAlarm) which is one that a lot of corporations use and you get 1 year of free updates to the AV and the firewall. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SOLUTION if you don't already have a firewall and antivirus you are currently using.

 

Kerio Personal Firewall - Rules based firewall like Zone Alarm. More powerful as far as rule sets but not for the beginner.

 

All Windows XP users with Service Pact 2, there is a FREE firewall built in. Click it in the control panel. If nothing else use the damn thing.

 

System Scans - See what is open on your computer and where you may be open to attack.

 

BroadbandReports Port Scan - See what ports are open on your computer.

 

PC Flank Stealth Test - Make sure your computer is unseen to the outside world.

 

PC Flank Browser Test - See if your browser reveals any of your personal information.

 

PC Flank Exploits Test - This test will detect how vulnerable your computer is to exploits attacks.

 

PC Flank Advanced Port Scanner - This test will scan your system for open ports that can be used in attacks on your computer.

 

GRC LeakTest Program - Good test to make sure your firewall is behaving as it should.

 

GRC ShieldsUP! - Another firewall scan to see what ports are opened or not.

Spyware/Adware Removing Tools

 

Spybot S&D - One of the most up-to-date removal tools you can get. You'll find a lot of crap on your computer

 

Ad-Aware SE: Updated link as of 9-16-2006. Same result as before.

 

Spyware Blaster Another spyware removal tool. Free but I haven't tried it yet.

 

HijackTHIS - Removes browser hijacking (redirecting to other sites like Casino site when you are trying to go to Google.com etc).

 

 

Browsers

 

Mozilla 1.X - Includes pop-up blocking in the browser itself. Think Thuderbird and Firefox in one clean package. Discontinued for Seamonkey, see below.

 

Mozilla Firefox - Really cool. Has pop-up blocking AND tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing owns.

 

Avant Browser - Addon to Internet Explorer and adds pop-up blocking and you can have multiple browser windows. Updated constantly.

 

Opera - Good browser and very fast. Free and ad-less. Faster than Firefox and safer to use than IE.

 

Internet Explorer 7.0 Finally an IE that works. Most Firefox shortcuts work as well. This program seems to be a split of Sarfari and Firefox. Most stable build of program yet. All people using IE atleast upgrade to this product. Closes SO many holes that are in IE.

UPDATE 11-11-07: Full version released a while ago and I should try to keep this somewhat up to date.

 

Seamonkey - The next generation of Mozilla, same as the others, worth the try.

E-mail Clients

 

Incredimail - Has cool features like backgrounds, handwritten sigs, etc.

 

Eudora - Alternate to Outlook and Outlook Express which most viruses are targeted at. Free version has small 3/4" add in the lower right but not really noticable. Paid version also includes SPAM filter.

 

Mozilla 1.x - Includes pop-up blocking in the browser itself plus includes Communicator E-mail client that is very good. Discontinued for Seamonkey, see below.

 

Seamonkey - The next generation of Mozilla, same as the others, worth a try.

 

Anti-Virus

 

AVG Free Edition - Very good program for free. Not as good as Norton or Kaspersky but you should run SOMETHING.

 

Avast! - Same as above.

 

Panda's 38-in-1 Virus Removal Tool - This gets rid of quite a few of the more common viruses but only those 38. This is something good to run if you can't get online and is small enough to fit on a floppy.

 

Trend Micro PC-Cillian Online House Call - Online Virus Scan.

 

Panda Platinum 7 Anti-virus - Another good anti virus program that has 1 year of free updates.

 

eTrust EZ Armor Security Suite - Includes the eTrust AV program and eTrust Firewall (rebranded ZoneAlarm) which is one that a lot of corporations use and you get 1 year of free updates to the AV and the firewall. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SOLUTION.

 

Trojan Removal

 

PC Flank Trojan Scan - Online scan of your system to see if you may have a Trojan.

 

TrojanScan.com - Online scan to see if you may be infected with a Trojan.

 

Trojan Hunter - Very good program with a 30-day free trial which is just fine if you think you have been infected with one.

 

TDS-3 - Same as above. 30-day free trial with some missing features.

 

Emisoft On Demand Trojan Scanner Another free on demand Trojan Scanner.

 

 

Firewalls

 

Zone Alarm - Very good firewall that is easy to use and will keep most stuff from getting in or getting out.

 

Sygate Personal Firewall Free - Good free and easy firewall like ZoneAlarm.

 

eTrust EZ Armor Security Suite - Includes the eTrust AV program and eTrust Firewall (rebranded ZoneAlarm) which is one that a lot of corporations use and you get 1 year of free updates to the AV and the firewall. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SOLUTION if you don't already have a firewall and antivirus you are currently using.

 

Kerio Personal Firewall - Rules based firewall like Zone Alarm. More powerful as far as rule sets but not for the beginner.

 

Note: XP users please for the love of God at least turn on the included firewall. Please? It's better than nothing.

 

System Scans - See what is open on your computer and where you may be open to attack.

 

BroadbandReports Port Scan - See what ports are open on your computer.

 

PC Flank Stealth Test - Make sure your computer is unseen to the outside world.

 

PC Flank Browser Test - See if your browser reveals any of your personal information.

 

PC Flank Exploits Test - This test will detect how vulnerable your computer is to exploits attacks.

 

PC Flank Advanced Port Scanner - This test will scan your system for open ports that can be used in attacks on your computer.

 

GRC LeakTest Program - Good test to make sure your firewall is behaving as it should.

 

GRC ShieldsUP! - Another firewall scan to see what ports are opened or not.

 

 

Spyware/Adware Removing Tools

 

Spybot S&D - One of the most up-to-date removal tools you can get. You'll find a lot of crap on your computer

 

Ad-Aware - Good program. Not as good as Spybot but will pick up some stuff Spybot might miss. Same with Spybot picking up stuff Ad-Aware misses.

 

Spyware Blaster Another spyware removal tool. Free but I haven't tried it yet.

 

HijackTHIS - Removes browser hijacking (redirecting to other sites like Casino site when you are trying to go to Google.com etc).

 

[/color] E-mail Clients

 

Incredimail - Has cool features like backgrounds, handwritten sigs, etc.

 

Eudora - Alternate to Outlook and Outlook Express which most viruses are targeted at. Free version has small 3/4" add in the lower right but not really noticable. Paid version also includes SPAM filter.

 

Mozilla 1.4 - Includes pop-up blocking in the browser itself plus includes Communicator E-mail client that is very good.

 

 

 

SPAM Blockers

 

Mailwasher - Good program. I use this at home. You run it before you check e-mail with your e-mail client and it will automatically tag e-mail as SPAM (you can also add stuff to blacklist) and can bounce the e-mail back and also delete it before it hits your Inbox. The bouncing is good because it gives the appearance that your e-mail addy doesn't exist. Free version only checks one account. Note: This is for POP3 e-mail (ie. Hotmail, Yahoo mail is not available but the Paid version can check Hotmail.)

 

Shoot The Messenger - A small (only 22Kb, takes five seconds to download on a slow connection) and simple to use program that will stop Windows Messenger Service spam (gray boxes that appear in the middle of the screen.)

 

Pop Up Blocking

 

Google Toolbar - Add-on for Internet Explorer. Google Labs has some cool shit and the newest thing included in their Toolbar is pop up add blocking. Easy to use and install/uninstall.

 

Pop-Up Stopper Free Edition - I've heard this works fairly well but I have never used it personally.

 

Windows Live Toolbar - More goodies from Microsoft. Gives pop up blocking, phish filtering, and tab browsing to current IE.

 

 

Now, get atleast a virus scan or a firewall. If you can get one of the paid ones, they come with some service and support to help guide you through your fuck ups. Browsing the web is like having sex. You better use some protection or you might catch some form of eTD.

Edited November 12, 2006 by MX

[Richard 0]

Firefox 2.0

[Perfxion 0]

Full verison of IE 7.0

 

Added to main post as well.

[Richard 0]

The AVG free version no longer updates.

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

AVG is still free.

 

Goto their website, and download the 7.1 to 7.5 update.

[AndrewTS 0]

http://www.abisource.com/

 

AbiWord, a free word processor that lets you view, edit, and create .doc documents. So, if you don't want to shell out for Microsoft Office and/or you just want Word, this is a good alternative.

 

Plus, there is no Mac Microsoft Word Viewer, so if you only have a Mac and don't want to buy Office you could use it too.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

http://www.openoffice.org/

 

A free open sourced alternative to MS Office.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

FYI - today I was looking for keygens and downloaded a torrent for a well known program's key generator. Immediatly after the download finished - Avast! popped up warning me it was a trojan - I got rid of the file - crisis averted. Just cause it's free, don't mean it sucks. Avast! works dammit!

[AndrewTS 0]

I guess I'll give that a shot when my Live OneCare trial expires. I went with that after my Norton Internet Security expired, and it's holding up extremely well. I don't want to go back to that resource-hogging beast Norton, though. Ugh.

 

EDIT: Avast! is just Antivirus I see. Do you use it in combination with the standard win firewall or something else?

[bobobrazil1984 0]

yes, it's just anti-virus, i use it with the win (vista, ehh) firewall. I'm also behind a router which i think functions as a firewall too.

 

what i like about avast though, is that it has specialized "providers" which you can adjust sensitivity or turn on or off independently of each other, one is devoted just to Instant messaging, another to P2Ps (it automatically scans P2p files the moment they finish downloading, which is how it caught my trojan), Web, Outlook, etc. its just easy to adjust (i always got a headache sifting through McAfee menus/settings on my old computer - and I got rid of Norton trial the moment i got my laptop, what a piece of bloatware)

[Oldschool 0]

Here's a really good program for POP accounts that seriously need filtering. View the text without downloading the images or any potential visus... I've used it a lot.

 

http://www.ch-software.de/popman/index.htm

[theintensifier 0]

I downloaded AVG 7.5 from their site. I attempted to get a keygen for it online, and it killed my computer.

 

I can't even load up the start screen. I tried re-installing Windows XP (non-destructive) and it didn't work. I then did the destructive way, and it still didn't work.

 

It'll try to start installing XP, but freezes about half way through.

 

Any suggestions?

 

By the way, I have an older Gateway laptop.

[muzz 0]

PC Decrapifier

 

"The PC Decrapifier will uninstall many of the common trialware and annoyances found on many of the PCs from big name OEMs. You get to see the list of items it detects and then choose what will be removed automatically."

 

Driver Agent

 

Gives you a report of what driver updates are available for different things such as motherboard, GPU, sound card etc.