shawn dubya dot org » 4 free programs that will keep your PC in great shape

4 free programs that will keep your PC in great shape

Whether your PC is five days old or five years old, one thing’s for certain. Your computer needs to stay protected from viruses, spyware and itself.

Itself? Yes, itself. Computers are like messy little kids. Once they’re done using the files they need, they drop everything and move on. No putting things back where they go. Just like that annoying nephew of yours.

This article will give you the lowdown on four free programs that will help keep your old or new PC running the way it should: fast and clean.

AVG Free | http://free.grisoft.com

Grisoft offers a free antivirus client called AVG Free. Sure, they offer paid versions of their antivirus software but if you’re a home user looking for basic protection, AVG Free should be more than enough to keep you safe (as long as you don’t visit questionable websites but that’s for another article).

Spyware Terminator | http://www.spywareterminator.com

While this software has only been around a short time, it’s quickly become one of my favorite utilities, mainly because it offers real time protection from spyware. It will also scan your PC frequently and does a pretty good job of detecting and removing most spyware.

Crap Cleaner | http://www.ccleaner.com

Also known as CCleaner, Crap Cleaner will clean up your hard drive of all kinds of unwanted files, such as uninstalled program files and temporary internet files. It can also clean up your registry but I’d recommend leaving that to the experts. Just be sure to tell CCleaner not to clear your cookies from Internet Explorer and/or Firefox (it’s a simple checkbox; I’m sure you’ll find it).

Disk Defragmenter

The built-in disk defrag utility that comes with Windows should do you just fine. Just be sure to run it frequently enough to make a difference (I’d recommend once a week if you use your computer for more than an hour a day).

Thanks to Dou!! for the image.

Comments

Jeff Trune on December 28th, 2007

I also like “spybot search and destroy” for spyware removal, “advanced windows care personal” for spyware, as well as for registry fixes and system optimization, as far as antivirus is concerned I like Avast, but you can also get McAfee for free from AOL with an AOL account-(search “AOL active virus shield on google).

Shawn on December 28th, 2007

Jeff,

Thanks for commenting. I often use Spybot for one-time cleanups but I’ve had many users say its active HIPS detection is too strong and often blocks legitimate programs.

Avast is a good alternative to AVG for sure.

The main issue I’ve had with AOL’s AVS is that it doesn’t always detect when a PC comes out of idle and continues to background scan using 100% CPU. Try using Photoshop or a video editing program while *that’s* going on. :)

Jeff Trune on December 28th, 2007

Hmm… I didn’t know that about Spybot S & D or AOL AVS. Good to know-thanks. I recently switched to Avast and I like it pretty well (AVG has never ran well for me), and I also like to run Windirstat once in a while to show me what’s taking up my hard drive’s space. It’s not useful very often, but once in while is nice (especially since I’m terrible at keeping my files organized).

STEWART on January 8th, 2008

STEWART…

Please, you have to elaborate on this one. I remember this software that was supposed to remove spyware was actually quite good….

Corbett on January 18th, 2008

Shawn, in your opinion, is McAfee Security Center just as good/worse/better than AVG (if you don’t mind paying for it)?

ryanbush on January 18th, 2008

Thanks for the resources! I’ll be downloading shortly.

Shawn on January 19th, 2008

@Corbett - Let’s put it this way; if we’re talking paid antivirus, McAfee is definitely the lesser of two evils compared to Norton’s products.

If you’re looking for the best paid protection out there, NOD32 is hands down the best paid AV product I’ve used. It’s very competitively priced ($40/yr. for one user) and does a great job protecting in real time and doing its job when scanning your PC.

My tools and toolbox on January 20th, 2008

[...] course, none of this does you much good without a PC that’s running in tip top shape. Click here to find out what I use to keep my PC running [...]

Paul on January 21st, 2008

Great list and it does not include the usual hyped up (i.e. crappy) programs that other similar lists like to feature.

Like someone else already noted - Spybot’s S&D is a great program when trying to find spyware/ad-aware/malware. It works great with Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware which offer a free home user program.