Ultimate Computer Maintenance Software

Ultimate Computer Maintenance Software by syndreamer

Credits goes to my good friend Bob @ WarriorNation, and WhiteWolf.

Here’s a handy-dandy guide to make your computer well protected, run smoothly, and still play your games without any problems. Warning does not solve problems dealing with ACCOUNTS, KEYS, OR YOUR GRANDMA so don’t ask!!

SYN’S RECOMMENDED PROGRAMS

Anti-virus/Active Protection
Paid:
Kaspersky Antivirus – One of the best antivirus programs on the market.
NOD32 – Very light weight, comprehensive, and effective antivirus.

Free:
aVast! Anti-virus – anti-virus active protection and scanner.
AVG Anti-Virus – anti-virus active protection and scanner.
Windows Defender – mal-ware and malicious infection protection and scanner (comes installed on windows vista)
Spyware Blaster – passive spyware protection and malicious site blocking for IE and Firefox.
Comodo Firewall Defense+ – comes optional with comodo firewall and I highly recommend taking advantage of it as it gives the user power to monitor and stop almost any process which is running, or trying to run on your system.

Firewall/Combos
Paid:
Kaspersky Internet Suite – The best, and most light weight comprehensive all in one protection available on the market.

Free:
Comodo Firewall Pro Free – a great alternative to windows firewall with more features and comprehensive protection.

Spyware/Malware Removers
Paid:
Kaspersky Internet Suite – The best, and most light weight comprehensive all in one protection available on the market.

Free:
Ad-Aware
Spybot – Search and Destroy – when installing, make sure to disable the check box for tea timer.
Malware-bytes

Registry Cleaner
Free:
CCleaner – A clean registry can help to minimize slowdowns and errors in windows.

Startup Manager
Free:
AutoRuns – simple effective list of almost every startup process in windows which can have entries enabled or disabled with a simple check mark.

Disk Defragmentation
Free:
JKDefrag – simple, non-risky 3rd party defrag with options and capabilities extending beyond the default windows defrag. Remember to run in windows safe mode for optimal results.

SYN’S RECOMMENDED PROTECTION/MAINTENANCE SETS

Most Expensive – Most Protection
Kaspersky’s Internet Suite – Install and forget about spyware, viruses, malicious programs, spam, firewalls, and all other internet threats you can (or can’t) imagine.
CCleaner
AutoRuns
JKDefrag

Middle Expense – Great Protection
Kaspersky Antivirus or NOD32
Comodo Firewall Pro Free with Comodo Firewall Defense+
Ad-Aware
Spybot – Search and Destroy
Malware-bytes
AutoRuns
JKDefrag
Spyware Blaster
Windows Defender
CCleaner

Free – Good Protection
aVast! Anti-virus or AVG Anti-Virus
Comodo Firewall Pro Free with Comodo Firewall Defense+
Ad-Aware
Spybot – Search and Destroy
Malware-bytes
AutoRuns
JKDefrag
Spyware Blaster
Windows Defender
CCleaner

SYN’S COURSE OF ACTION (Look at your set to see which programs are applicable)

Should be running all the time
Kaspersky Antivirus or NOD32 or AVG Anti-Virus or Kaspersky’s Internet Suite
Comodo Firewall Pro Free with Comodo Firewall Defense+
Windows Defender

Once a week
Ad-Aware
Spybot – Search and Destroy
Malware-bytes
AutoRuns
CCleaner

Once a month
JKDefrag

SYN’S ULTIMATE COMPUTER SOFTWARE LIST!

Video
VLC Media Player – When isntalling set this to play all video formats by default and never worry about any video codec problems ever again.

Images
Irfanview – When installing set this to open all image formats by default and never worry about googling an image format to find something capable of viewing it again.
GIMP – Open source photoshop (very powerful image editing program free of charge)

Archiving/Compression
Tugzip – Deals with almost any file compression known to man.
Total Commander – [/COLOR]a file manager that will eliminate some of others separate applications (no more need ftp, compression tool and others cuz this are already in). a must have (and use)
[COLOR=Black]
Virtual Drivers
Daemon Tools – mount and run dvd and cd virtual backups.

Messaging
Pidgin IM – contains basically every chat program. Install GFire for limited XFire support as well.
Trillian – A great alternative to pidgin

Office
Open Office – free microsoft office suite

Internet
Firefox

E-Mail Clients
Thunderbird – From the makers of Firefox

FTP Clients
FireFTP (Addon for Firefox) – simple but effective for those who just need limited functionality
FileZilla – stand alone ftp client

Desktop Management
RocketDock – a lightweight mac type dock bar for managing all of your desktop icons

Remote Desktop
UltraVNC – easily control another computer

Voice Communications
Ventrilo
Teamspeak
GSC

Torrent
uTorrent – light weight bit torrent client often used as an alternative download source for patches (and similar game releases) for games like WoW.