Recommended Programs

[Phoxtane]

I\'m putting this up here to see what sort of programs people use on their computers! Post your favorite programs and why you use them.

There are three categories:

System Maintenance: What do you use to keep your system running at optimal performance? Why do you use it?

Utilities: What sort of handy little doodads do you have to make things easier?

System Protection: What 'Anti-Whatever' programs do you use, and why? Some people like certain programs over others. Please refrain from flaming others based on their choice of software.

I\'ll start:

SYSTEM MAINTENANCE: CCleaner, Defraggler, and Speccy. All are made by Piriform, and they\'re free as well!

UTILITIES: N/A

SYSTEM PROTECTION: Avast! Free Antivirus and Malwarebytes. I\'ll be switching over to Kapersky very soon, as the free version of Avast! doesn\'t have a firewall. Recent close calls have made my mind up for me

[semininja]

Comodo firewall is free, and does an excellent job of keeping things clean. I use it with Avast on my computer.

Utilities: 7zip, PortableApps (various)

[bandit4910]

System Protection:AVG and Avast! running side by side.

Utilities:Notepad++,VS(Visual Studio.) 2010,WinRAR,ETC.

System Maintenance: Uniblue Smart Defrag 2,Uniblue Game Booster,Uniblue registry booster.

[witeken]

System Maintenance: IObit Advanced System Care 5, IObit Smart Defrag 2, IObit Game Booster 3 (IObit ftw 8) ), TuneUp Utilities 2012

Utilities: KSP, TeamViewer 7, µtorrent, Google Earth, Liberty Basic

System Protection: avast!, maybe Advanced systemcare because it also scans for malware.

[socket7]

System Protection:AVG and Avast! running side by side.

:-\

Never use more then one antivirus at a time. It\'s a waste of system resources, and they can cause problems with each other.

I use Avast, Adblockplus, noscript, ghostery, flash block and peer blocker.

I have to try really hard to encounter a virus these days. Noscript, flashblock and peer blocker shoots down 99%, and ghostery nails the other 1% of viruses as well as all the creepy herbert the pervert run ad metric trackers that are watching my every step on the internet. (Looking at you GOOGLE! You don\'t need my porn habits and you wont get them. > )

The whole setup can get a bit daunting at times to be honest, sometimes websites won\'t work. I take this as a sign the website was garbage anyways, and the content within worthless, or I have to tweak whitelists.

EDIT:

If you\'ve already got a virus. I recommend a bottle of hard liquor and a shot glass. Fill shot glass, drink. Repeat until forehead hits floor. Call someone else to clean up the vomit and the computer the next day. (IE:I no longer clean malware. If someone insists I do I will wipe all their data without backing it up.)

[iamwearingpants]

Utilities - Audacity, Paint.NET

I can\'t go a day without these.

[jgjiscool]

Maintenence - All the standard stuff. Although I should do a Windows reinstall one day soon.

Utilities - CoreTemp (which needs an update), HeidiSQL, OpenOffice.Org (yes forums it is a website, no forums I don\'t want it linked)

System Protection - Microsoft Security Essentials (because I can\'t be bothered changing it), AdBlock Plus (FireFox Addon), NoScript(FireFox Addon), Not being stupid on the internet (works most of the time)

[Key of door]

Nothing, my computer is at a minimum , I\'m just that lazy.

[jgjiscool]

And now BitMeter.