PC Utilities

Opera Web Browser is the easiest browser I have come across. And let's face it, anything is better than Internet Explorer. It has a VERY customisable tool bar and features, tabs like the newer IE and AOL Explorer, and a "speed dial" home page with quick access to nine pages in a single click, also completely customisable, with Yahoo search engine conveniant place on top. It has many other features like easier Cache deletion, drag right click browsing, a hideable quick link menu, a automatic popup blocker and a free right click menu text translator. Only 5 MB and can easily be (completely) unistalled, it's also free. Give it a try.

The next items are programs that, if used together, can almost be the equivilent of Norton Internet Security. AVG Anti-Virus is my preferred anti-virus program, as updates are available weekly which are every bit as effective as Norton with MUCH less disk space needed. Again this is free and is easily unistallable so please try it.

Spybot is a great program that completely clears and then permanently blocks (once scanned) all spyware from a PC. The person/persons who created and updates this program does so for free. The software is free and will remain so (according to the site) but they are taking donations, so if one can spare a few bucks, show them your appreciation, and try the product.

Ad-Aware 2007 is the only adware blocker I use, with it being so effective. It is updated weekly and can scan and remove even non-threating items stored in cache that only one using the actually physical computer can have access to. It, unfortunately, has no automatically scanning features and must be scanned manually. However, it is the only anti-adware program that I know of that is completly compatible with Spybot and is every bit as effective. Once again this program is free to use on home PCs.

Defragmenting a Hard Drive is important to the resourses and speed of any PC. If one is willing to spend money on a paticular defragmentation program, try Diskeeper, as it has a faster defrag time, graphs to show progress as well as the effectiveness of the currently running defrag process and a automatic defrag "set it and forget it" option. However, if free is more your thing, their luckily, is a free defrag program in every Windows running PC. On Windows XP, Go to Start, programs, accessories, system tools, disk defragmenter and make a shortcut on the desktop or on the quick launch button on the toolbar for easy access. It is recommended to scan for viruses and adware and spyware first, then defragment the Hard Drive to avoid missing any viruses or adware/spyware.