In a recent post I asked what you readers chose as your preferred security and maintenance tools. These are the applications you consider indispensable when trying to keep your systems in top running shape and secure from the variety of potential attacks and intrusions from nefarious entities found on the intarwebs!
Here’s my list of applications that I used even today as I was cleaning up my family’s desktop PC.
CCleaner which is short for “CRAP” Cleaner. It does a great job of finding all the hidden pieces of installed applications that sometimes don’t get removed with the program’s default uninstall function.
Revo Uninstaller is very similar to CCleaner, but I choose to take advantage of both as an option in case one just won’t get rid of something. I usually run one, followed by the other to just insure that there are non remnants of anything I’m wanting to make sure I get rid of in the end.
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free is a great tool for finding any malware, trojans, hijack apps and other annoying little critters that love getting into our systems and mucking everything up.
Windows Live OneCare has been my preferred option for real-time antivirus and malware protection on my systems and others. Recent news that Microsoft will be nixing their OneCare product may lead me to be looking for a replacement and free alternative in the future. Microsoft will be releasing a free option of their own, but I’ll wait and see how it looks before making a choice. I’m interested in what free antivirus applications you all recommend.
Belarc Advisor isn’t a tool to remove much of anything, but it provides a great resource for quickly cataloging and finding out what’s on your system and how you stand on a variety of security fronts.