Shared Knowledge

 

“Some Recommended Windows-based Software Tools”

 

20 September 2005

 

 

 

Currently having 6 computers in my home, networked and all attached to the Internet, I know something about keeping computers running.

 

Listed below are some of my favorite software tools, which you probably know about but then again, perhaps not all.

 

 

-         Diskcopy. As hard disks have grown in capacity, so too have application needs for space and thus from time to time you might have to replace your existing hard drive with a larger one. One way of doing this is to install the new hard drive, then install the operating system and all applications and finally copy any data from the old drive to the new drive but this is painful and slow. A much better way is to buy yourself a copy of Diskcopy. This software package allows you to copy a smaller drive, bit per bit, to a larger drive. So need to move to a larger drive, get Diskcopy, attach the 2 drives to your computer, run Diskcopy and the new drive will be an exact copy of the old drive but have additional space on it. I have used my copy of Diskcopy many, many times. Laptop? You can go to any computer store and buy adapters which allow you to attach a laptop drive to an ordinary IDE interface and again, using Diskcopy, copy the entire contents of a smaller laptop drive to a larger drive.

 

-         ToniArts EasyCleaner. This free software is a registry cleaner. The registry is the database Windows keeps of various system elements and applications and can get tangled up via incorrectly installed or removed programs or other and can cause all sorts of problems. One way to “clean” the registry of junk is to use EasyCleaner. It will look at the registry and identify all entries, which can be deleted from the registry and over the years I have used it, deleting the entries it has identified as junk, and has never caused me a problem, no matter the Windows operating system I used it on. There are products sold which claim to clean the registry and they might be better in some way than EasyCleaner but EasyCleaner seems to work just fine for me.

 

-         LavaSoft’s Adware. This free spy ware removal tool is one of several shareware spy removal tools available. I have read that it is advisable to actually have 2 different spy ware removal tools on your system and run both occasionally. I do not do this but run Adware about every other day and it always finds various files or registry entries to remove.

 

-         Grisoft AVG. This free antivirus software may not be as robust as Norton or some other antivirus software you have to buy but you can’t beat the price of AVG with it being free and it’s virus definition file is updated almost daily to keep it current with new viruses which appear all the time. Never connect to the Internet and thus have no need for antivirus software? Wrong. A virus can get into your computer via a floppy disk or other shared media, so it not AVG, at least some sort of antivirus software needs to be on your computer and its virus definition files updated regularly. Finally, AVG interfaces with the security system of Windows XP such that XP recognizes there is installed antivirus protection and alerts you when the current virus definition file is too old and probably out of date.

 

-         Zone Labs ZoneAlarm. If your computer is not connected to the Internet or uses only a dialup line, then you probably do not need this software or something like it but if your computer sits on a cable or DSL modem or off a router which connects directly to the Internet, you need firewall software which limits traffic to and from your computer. ZoneAlarm is a free firewall, which is easy to install and use. It, probably like most firewalls, can take some time to set up if you are on a local area network but it is worth it. Like AVG antivirus, ZoneAlarm is recognized by Windows XP as a firewall and you can use ZoneAlarm instead of the Windows XP firewall. Also, like AVG antivirus, ZoneAlarm releases periodic updates to their software. 

 

-    Microsoft's TweakUI.  This Microsoft free tool download allows you to change various aspects of Windows you cannot change via Windows alone. For example, using TweakUI, you can delete some icons from the Control Panel. There are versions of TweakUI for various versions of Windows.

 

Of course nothing beats keeping your Windows operating system up to date.