Xanth
Fast-Fish.net
Ok I have been asked by few a people to post useful tools and information on how to keep your PC running smoothly. Below is a list compiled by Me and my boss to help people keep there PCs running to there best potential.
Before i get started on what the programs below are and what they do let me go over some things.
First; If you have Norton AntiVirus (or any of the Symantic Software), or Mcaffe on your PC you should stop paying for it. Below is a program called AVG antivirus. It is the best on the market. And its free.
Before you run any of these programs you need to do a few things. 1 you need to go to contol Panel and uninstall any Tool Bar thats installed also this would be the be the time to uninstall Norton/Mcafee.
(If you have problems Uninstalling Norton you need to go to this site and fallow the directions, www.symantic.com/smnyrt . That is Symantics uninstall program.)
Now on to the below programs, All are safe to use on your PCs except Hijackthis. Hijackthis is a powerful tool, if used incorrectly you can dammage your operating system.
I highly recomend downloading all windows updates that are available except for the Hardware ones. Microsoft updats can be found at
windowsupdate.microsoft.com If you have a Bootleg/Pirated copy of Windows XP Dont even attempt it.
The First program you need to run is Cleanup. Just use the Defualt settings and run.
The Rest of the programs just run thiem in any order.
After you get done with all of these programs you need to run cleanup again. this time you need to run it 5 times in a row. This way it gets all files used in the setup and running of the other programs.
After you run clean up i recomend running DeFrag. and run it 5 times also it will say that you donot need to run it but trust me you will. The first time will take the longest to run. after the 3rd run of Defrag it will take less than 2 min.
AdawareSE is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. Personal edition for home PCs only
http://www.lavasoft.com/support/download/
AVG Anti-virus - One of the best and most effective anti-virus products free for home users - $38.00 per 2 year license for all others.
CCleaner - OKA (Otherwise Known As) Crap Cleaner: "CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! "
http://free.grisoft.com/
CleanUp!
is a useful little utility for those people who like the freedom of information on the web but also like a little privacy and don't want anyone to know where they've been surfing. It has been written to clean up any evidence - in particular, the cache, history and any cookies - that Internet Explorer (versions 1.x-6.x), Netscape Navigator (3.x-7.x), Mozilla (1.x), Firefox (1.x) and Opera (2.x-7.x) leave behind. (C) Steven R. Gould, 1998-2005
http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/
Spybot Search & Destroy - Free anti-spyware protection blocks, and clean-up tool.
http://www.safer-networking.org/
Spywareblaster - Free ActiveX spyware protection.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Spyware Guardian (WinME & below) or Microsoft Windows Defender (Beta2 for XP) - Microsoft's Beta Spyware Removal Tool!
Spyware Gaurdian- http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html
Windows Defender- http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...yware/software
CWShredder: A small utility for removing CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names). Spybot S&D and Ad-aware tend to forget essential parts of the hijack, so until they update, you can use this to completely remove the hijack. This program is updated to remove the new variants once they come out.
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract..._download.html
HijackThis : A general homepage hijackers detector and remover. Initially based on the article Hijacked!, but expanded with almost a dozen other checks against hijacker tricks. It is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It does not target specific programs/URLs, just the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites. As a result, false positives are imminent and unless you are sure what you're doing, you should always consult with knowledgable folks (e.g. the forums) before deleting anything.
http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip
Before i get started on what the programs below are and what they do let me go over some things.
First; If you have Norton AntiVirus (or any of the Symantic Software), or Mcaffe on your PC you should stop paying for it. Below is a program called AVG antivirus. It is the best on the market. And its free.
Before you run any of these programs you need to do a few things. 1 you need to go to contol Panel and uninstall any Tool Bar thats installed also this would be the be the time to uninstall Norton/Mcafee.
(If you have problems Uninstalling Norton you need to go to this site and fallow the directions, www.symantic.com/smnyrt . That is Symantics uninstall program.)
Now on to the below programs, All are safe to use on your PCs except Hijackthis. Hijackthis is a powerful tool, if used incorrectly you can dammage your operating system.
I highly recomend downloading all windows updates that are available except for the Hardware ones. Microsoft updats can be found at
windowsupdate.microsoft.com If you have a Bootleg/Pirated copy of Windows XP Dont even attempt it.
The First program you need to run is Cleanup. Just use the Defualt settings and run.
The Rest of the programs just run thiem in any order.
After you get done with all of these programs you need to run cleanup again. this time you need to run it 5 times in a row. This way it gets all files used in the setup and running of the other programs.
After you run clean up i recomend running DeFrag. and run it 5 times also it will say that you donot need to run it but trust me you will. The first time will take the longest to run. after the 3rd run of Defrag it will take less than 2 min.
AdawareSE is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. Personal edition for home PCs only
http://www.lavasoft.com/support/download/
AVG Anti-virus - One of the best and most effective anti-virus products free for home users - $38.00 per 2 year license for all others.
CCleaner - OKA (Otherwise Known As) Crap Cleaner: "CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! "
http://free.grisoft.com/
CleanUp!
is a useful little utility for those people who like the freedom of information on the web but also like a little privacy and don't want anyone to know where they've been surfing. It has been written to clean up any evidence - in particular, the cache, history and any cookies - that Internet Explorer (versions 1.x-6.x), Netscape Navigator (3.x-7.x), Mozilla (1.x), Firefox (1.x) and Opera (2.x-7.x) leave behind. (C) Steven R. Gould, 1998-2005
http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/
Spybot Search & Destroy - Free anti-spyware protection blocks, and clean-up tool.
http://www.safer-networking.org/
Spywareblaster - Free ActiveX spyware protection.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Spyware Guardian (WinME & below) or Microsoft Windows Defender (Beta2 for XP) - Microsoft's Beta Spyware Removal Tool!
Spyware Gaurdian- http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html
Windows Defender- http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...yware/software
CWShredder: A small utility for removing CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names). Spybot S&D and Ad-aware tend to forget essential parts of the hijack, so until they update, you can use this to completely remove the hijack. This program is updated to remove the new variants once they come out.
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract..._download.html
HijackThis : A general homepage hijackers detector and remover. Initially based on the article Hijacked!, but expanded with almost a dozen other checks against hijacker tricks. It is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It does not target specific programs/URLs, just the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites. As a result, false positives are imminent and unless you are sure what you're doing, you should always consult with knowledgable folks (e.g. the forums) before deleting anything.
http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip
