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PC Tools for the Average Home UserThe personal computer: a crucial part of everyone's life nowadays. It takes on many different forms and sizes, as well as capabilities, but to be able to maximize these potentials, two issues have to be dealt with first: security and productivity. Without these, they're practically useless!
But with the growing cost of softwares and other utilities, you'd probably be spending an easy $1000 just on being able to satisfy the basic needs of productivity and security. Right? Well that's what I thought a couple of years back before I found out about programmers sent from above, who believe in the mission and vision of the Open source community, as well as those who actually spend their time writing freeware programs and the like. Thanks to these guys, we won't have to put up with all the malevolent entities that hampers our ability to surf the net, and actually try to become more productive (like watching YouTube?).
So below are a list of some essential system tools and utilities (aside from your copy of the micro$oft operating $y$tem of course), which should enable you to become safe and productive, and my own non-expert opinion and review of each. These are actually the one's I have installed on my system, and are, as far as my needs are concerned (something which would inevitably vary from person to person) able to keep my system up and running at least satisfactorily. While some categories of tools here may not seem to have any immediate relevance to your needs, the potential use and benefits from these applications very much outweigh the amount of disk space they would occupy (most occupy less space than the temporary Internet files you never clean up), so having them would not hurt your disc space at all.
Security Essentials:
Anti-Virus Software
Known to almost every computer user, viruses pose as one of the most serious threats any computer user might encounter. Although with vigilance, one can possible spot and identify a potential virus, it would be considered responsible computing to always have an UP-TO-DATE anti-virus software.
Below are two of the free AV applications I have used which has proven to be quite indispensable to me, and should prove to do so for everyone else for that matter.
I am probably not in the position to make a technical comparison of both applications, but I would think that the usual concern of users about their being able to detect the most crucial forms of viruses would be at par with each other. They would not really gain their popularity and rating had they failed in the very essence of their existence, would they?
This the first free AV I have used and may I say that it kept my system safe from threats for a good number of years. It managed to detect a couple of viruses that were able to attach themselves to my USB and floppy (yeah I still use those) discs, and was able to fix and/or remove the virus without any problems whatsoever.
It's really simple to use and offers options for full and simple scans. Automatic updating is available, which should take the task off people who don't really care much about virus threats (until it messes up their system and they lose data) and choose to ignore and ever annoying reminder that their virus definitions are out-of-date.
While I certainly have my hands raised up for the protection AVG has provided over the past few years, I decided to try out some other popular AV software being favorably rated by CNET.
Although it's reliability has yet to prove itself to my experience, there are obvious difference and advantages that Avast offers which AVG does not.
First off is it's offering of a real-time protection. This one feature that should attract users primarily because I know of little, if not none, free AV software that offers free real-time protection. Although this definitely takes on some of the system resources, those few kilobytes of memory and a little degrading of processing speed is probably worth the added protection you would get. After all, any application or added feature would imply it using additional resources.
Another especially noteworthy aspect about this free utility is it's aesthetics. Thanks to KDE, this anti-virus utility is not only functional, but is also something you would enjoy playing around with. While it does not provide as much flexibility in terms of use as AVG, it compensates with other features such as VRDB, which actually stores information about the actual state of file before they get infected, allowing you restore them in the event that they do get infected.
Which among these two should you use? Personally, for the average user, I don't think that it would really matter, as far as the average users needs are concerned. It would most probably all boil down to which ever you would prefer, as they would both serve to function well enough for the home user's daily needs. The thing to keep in mind here is that every single file you bring into your system, regardless of its source should be scanned, which should serve to eliminate your need to measure out whether you would needs real time protection or scanning flexibility.
Anti-spyware and Adware Software
Not to say that viruses are not that common, but the average user should probably be more concerned with having to deal with spy and adware threats above anything else, as probably every 2 to 3 click you make while surfing the net would give you a 75% chance of attracting spyware/adware on your system... and yes, they affect overall system performance!
Although there are articles stating that no single anti-spyware or adware can detect every conceivable threat there is, Ad-Aware has been able to detect all that the others were able to pinpoint and more. I actually did a test on this and that was the result.
For this matter I would not really do a comparison of each utility, I would however, suggest that you have at least Ad-Aware and Spyware Terminator installed.
This has proven to be the most effective anti-spyware utility I have ever had. It managed to detect and remove all that the others failed to do so. Their reputation goes way back and have been regarded by many as one of the pioneers in spyware detection and removal.
Among the topnotch spyware utilities, this offers real-time protection against threats and functions better than windows defender (yes... Microsoft's own version of anti-spyware sucks! Just to point out one of it's flaws, it does not allow you to set known applications. The result is that it will prompt you every time that known application does something, even though you are aware of it and trust the application. This happens every time I plug my webcam into my USB port).
While I think that your pc would be quite safe having just the first and second application to protect you, sparing a couple more MB's for security won't be so bad. Adding Spy-bot and Spyware Blaster would of course provide you with peace of mind.
Spy-bot is also among the pioneers in busting spyware and adware, so in case you would want to have more than enough security applications, this should probably be included in your list. Spyware Blaster does not detect and remove adware and spyware. It claims to prevent them from being installed in the first place. Although I have doubts about this claim, as some still manage to get into my system, I would think that it should at least stop the more common and serious types from getting in. So if you do not want to be paranoid about catching malicious content on the web, add these to your arsenal.
For those who have the Yahoo! Toolbar installed on their system, it's added feature, Yahoo! Anti-spy is also able to detect most threats that manage to get into your system. I actually consider this to be number two, next to Ad-Aware.
I guess what's important about the issue of spyware and adware slowing down the system and stealing information, is for users to develop the discipline of spending time to clean out the system of those threats that do manage to get in. I myself have the habit of cleaning out the system every night before I shutdown for the day.
Firewall
Firewalls are an essential tool if you wish to have a safe everyday computing experience ahead of you. The protecting it provides is just what it is called (Google it if you still don't get)
While windows XP SP2 may have a built-in firewall embedded in the system, it does not allow you enough control over the applications and processes that pass through your system. Before installing a third-party personal firewall, I had not known of the background processes occurring while I was connected to the Internet. All of a sudden, I am informed that my windows XP, media player, and all others are trying to do this and that, without my knowledge. Although we probably gave them the consent to do so when we agreed to the license without really reading it, it's still comforting to know which applications are trying to send out information and what kind of data are trying to get into your system.
For this purpose, I have found Filseclab Personal Firewall to be very effective and would definitely exceed what a home user would expect from a free application.
Encryption ToolAlthough most people would never really have the need to use US government technology to encrypt their data (AES), having a tool that would give you peace of mind regarding your sensitive (however the term applies to any individual) files being seen and copied by others would nevertheless make way for its use, even though you might not think of any use for it at the moment. Again, this is a matter of weighing out the potential benefits against the amount of disk space that you could get. TrueCrypt is another open source application that is both easy to learn and use, free, and fully functional. It creates an encrypted virtual drive (a TrueCrypt volume) which functions very much like a normal hard drive or storage device, where you can save your sensitive information once mounted. Backup Software
After spending hours and hours searching for free software, I have only managed to try out two backup software applications: Simply Safe Backup 2004 and SyncBack.
I found Simply Safe to be quite complicated for my needs. While it does offer more flexibility than SyncBack, most of the added features would not really be applicable to the average home user – that is if the only files you would ever need to back up are documents, multimedia files, and a couple of work related stuff, SyncBack would do quite well.
Registry Cleaner
One of major reasons why a home pc would slowdown is a a cluttered registry. For this reason, every pc should have a nice and reliable registry cleaner. Ccleaner has done it's job well enough, that I don't see any reason for having the need to install more than one registry cleaner.
File Compression SoftwareFor years and years I've always thought that WinZip was the only file compression application out there (I sure hope I am not alone in that), but after engaging myself in an effort to find the best applications around, I came across ZipGenius. All the functions of WinZip are available with this free application and probably much more, without the annoying reminder that your program is not free and that you would have to upgrade it.
Password MangerUnless you have a perfectly good memory, you would inevitably find yourself overwhelmed with the amount passwords you would have to remember. For this you would want to have a good, functional, but more importantly, a secure password manager. KeePass is an open source password manager that is both lightweight and secure. It uses AES and Twofish encryption to protect your sensitive information from being acquired by other individuals. KeePass can be stored and run via a USB thumb drive which allows you to bring your data with you anywhere you go for instant access to your login and private information. Download Manager
Yes, you might want to consider having a download manager at hand, even if you would only really be needing it when you download something that would take up more time than you could stand waiting in front of the pc. Freedownload Manager does what it's supposed to do quite well. It speeds up download speeds and offers an option for automatic scanning by your anti-virus after a download completes.
Torrent Client
For really huge downloads, you might want to use utorrent as an alternative. While this utility might also end up in your “never used application” category, having it just in case is worth it for it takes on less than 1MB in your drive.
Productivity Essentials:Office SuiteMuch to my disdain, I only recently found out about the existence of OpenOffice. I discovered it after reformatting my system and realizing that I do not have an installer for Microsoft Office (sometimes the situation forces you to discover better things don't they). I have however considered myself redeemed from my ignorance as it only took me minutes to decide that I was going to completely dump the idea of ever using Microsoft Office as a productivity software.
OpenOffice 2.2 has just recently been released and as far as I am concerned, it is definitely better. One of the problems being pointed out is that people who have never known any other word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software ever, are not open to the shift to open source applications. It's really not that different, so why spend a couple hundred dollars or support piracy (and indirectly, terrorism) by being stubborn and not shifting to OpenOffice. PDF ViewerSeriously, do you need to waste 100+ MB on something that you just need to view a manual or article every once in a while? Well, I used to with Adobe before I decided to take an active step in finding great applications for my personal needs. Now that I have PDF-XChange installed, viewing pdf documents don't have to take that long to load and more importantly, the application won't have to take up all that space. You're actually better off dedicating that space to security applications or multimedia files. Another PDF application I have tried is Foxit, but there's a downside to though. That is, when you add comments and/or annotate a file, you would have to allow Foxit to add watermarks to the document for you changes to be saved. Something you probably wouldn't like when working with you personal and office PDF files. So by my opinion, PDF-XChange is far superior and powerful an application compared to all the top PDF applications available. It has the widest range of commenting and markup tools, stamps, Pan & Zoom capabilities, and a lot all available and ready to use with your document. Image EditingUnless you want to be a photo editing pro, you won't really need to have Adobe's Photoshop or Paint.Net (although I do have the latter installed and is also worth recommending as an alternative to Adobe). If all you want is to be able to make black and white photos every now and then, and maybe add a couple of effects to innately nice photographs (as against those you just make nice by editing), Irfan View would do you well. I found this to satisfy my photo editing needs, as I don't really re-make digital photos. Plus, it batch converts, resizes and supports all popular formats.
The Bottom line...These utilities, particularly those for productivity only aim to satisfy what I think the average home user might need for their system to be capable of the most basic functions. There would of course be tons of other tools and applications that come free, but would still be able to provide you with commercial grade functionality, in case you do need special tools for you to get your work done. It only takes a little bit of effort try to find the right one. That means having to to scour a couple of forums and a good number of pages. This way you always end up getting the right tools to suite your needs.
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