PC Security and General Software

Having used PCs regularly now for more than 13 years, I have tried and tested countless security measures and tools to optimise system performance. I have also spent a small fortune.

On this page, I hope to help new and experienced users to avoid a lot of the time-wasting and money-wasting that it can take to eventually find quality and reliability in the never-ending quest to make our PCs safe and run smoothly.

The internet and email are increasingly hazardous, and it is unfortunately down to us - the users - to make sure that we keep on top of security issues, prevent the spread of malicious viruses, trojans and hijackers. Keeping our PCs free of these malicious little beggars benefits not only us, but also the wider global online community.

Many users may be surprised to learn that many of the most popular security software packages are not the best. Tests by computer technicians and independent researchers regularly show that many of the most widely advertised and popular software packages sold in most high-street PC stores are failing to give comprehensive anti-virus, anti-trojan and antispyware cover. Besides inadequate and unreliable cover for the latest viruses, different software packages vary in their user-friendliness. Some are easy to install, to use and keep up to date, with very little user input - making them ideal for novices, whilst others require a reasonable level of user experience and regular user input to keep running efficiently. And some are just darned nuisances that are more bother than they are worth; constantly requiring manual configuration, scanning, you telling it whether or not the file it has detected is valid or not (whilst most people haven't got a clue whether or not the processes are to be trusted, killed or deleted).

The following is by no means a comprehensive list of good and trustworthy software, nor necessarily the very finest available - after all, I haven't tried everything. But I have tried a lot, and I have researched a fair bit, and heartily recommend these pieces of software based upon my 13 years experience.

(NOTE: I take no responsibility for the operation or function of any software you may decide to use on your PC - so please do not email me for advice or support)

The very first thing you should do on installing your operating system, before ever connecting to the internet, is to install a good firewall and antivirus programme. Zonelabs' Zonealarm has been a world-leading firewall for so long that it needs no introduction.

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Zonealarm Pro

NOD32 is a lesser-known antivirus programme that simply out-performs all the rest. Consistently winning awards year after year for having a 100% detection record. It is automatically updated several times a day. Why use anything else?

It is worthwhile running more than one anti-spyware/adware programme. There are numerous free programmes available that are very good, but I would advise that you run a few, including one of the top-rated paid-for products. The benefits of the paid-for products are convenience, ease of use (though some are far less convenient, requiring a lot of user input) and scope of protection, with quality support and high regularity of updates.

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SpywareDoctor

Zonealarm Pro has a good in-built pop-up blocker and ad blocker, but there is more to do to ensure that you are browsing safely. NOD32 provides excellent scanning, not only of your pc and emails, but also scans your incoming net signal whilst surfing for dubious coding. Spybot and SpywareDoctor both incorporate real-time scanning for dubious coding and blacklisted websites and cookies. However, I think there is still more that can be done.

Spywareblaster is another level of protection. For a small fee you can automate your daily updated immunisation.

Firetrust Benign is probably the only software you will ever need for water-tight incoming email security. It runs silently in the background and scans all incoming mail. You can choose how paranoid you wish to be; convert HTML to text, rename any and/or all attachments, block embedded code, images that pass variables to the server etc. etc. It needs no updating because it catches anything and everything that can possibly be a virus, trojan, spyware etc.

Mailwasher Pro is useful in 2 ways. It connects directly to your server and deletes spam there before it is downloaded into your email programme. It can therefore be a good mini-email browser in itself. It can be preset according to many specific rules and learns well what is and isn't spam. You can choose how it handles your mail, decide for it what is and isn't spam, block specific email addresses, even bounce the spammers mail back to them, making them think your email address is inactive.

Ella for Spam is a great anti-spam programme that integrates into either Outlook or Outlook Express. It learns fast automatically what is and isn't spam and deposits the spam into a folder. It also can be configured to create a separate folder for consideration, such as Newsletter folder. Having tried numerous filters, this one comes out top.

Encrypt is a simple programme that allows you to password-encrypt anything for storage on your PC or for sending to another via email.

Ghostsurf ensures totally anonymous internet surfing, hides your IP and encrypts your connection.

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Ghostsurf Proxy

NEO is the reason I have been using Outlook instead of Outlook Express now for years. It has so many functions and is so easy to use that you'll wonder how you ever lived without it if you are a heavy email user.

Diskeeper is a great defragmentation tool. Long gone are the days of setting aside half a day per week to defragment your hard drives. This 'set it and forget it' defragmenter works in the background and barely makes an impression.

Undelete is another of those utilities I like to load asap. It replaces the Recycle Bin and allows you to un-delete files that you have mistakenly deleted, and to recover older versions of files you may need to regain. It does not merely recover files you sent to the recycle bin, but any and all files on your PC - and is configurable to ignore certain file types at your discretion.

Paragon software provides numerous useful tools to optimise your computer. The Hard Disc Manager enables you to quickly partition your drives - that is, create several drives out of one - to make your pc more efficient and use your space more efficiently. For example, create one partition purely for your operating system files, another for temporary files (prevents fragmentation), another for your data and another for backups. Properly partitioning your hard drives benefits efficiency, speed, and enhances security. You can also backup your data easily, or even create full images for security, or debugging, swap boot drives, and more etc.

Norton GoBack is something I install as soon as possible after an installation of the operating system. It replaces the Restore function of Windows or can be run concurrently. Personally, I find the Restore function in Windows more of a hindrance than a boon; it does not restore all files, only system files, and often fails to restore properly, leaving the pc at risk of unforeseen errors. GoBack, however, has saved my bacon more times than I care to recall. It runs before boot, so you can roll back the OS before booting into it, and it restores your PC to exactly the way it was at any time in the recent past - giving hundreds of restore points. You can install new software and take chances with your PC, safe in the knowledge that you can restore the entire system to exactly the way it was, reclaim lost data, restore corrupted files and settings etc.

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Norton GoBack

Norton Utilities is a great tool for keeping your drives in shape with manual or automated scans and fixes, and for providing system information. However, Norton decided to only offer it in their Systemworks package. I do not rate Norton's antivirus - also included in the package - but it does contain GoBack, which is one of my favourite utilities, should you wish to spend a little extra and get both.

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Norton Systemworks

Cacheman is a wonderful little tool that allows you to optimise the cache and resources on your system. It is free, but if you pay for it, it has an auto-optimise facility that will keep your pc running fast and with plenty of memory at hand.

Windows CleanUp is a great free cleaning programme that finds and deletes more clutter on the hard drive than any other free utility that I have seen.

Maxthon is my favourite browser. There's nothing this little beauty cannot do. It has so many in-built features that it's pointless listing them here. And it's FREE.

RegVac.com offers numerous utilities of a very high standard. RegVac is a superb registry cleaner; more extensive and safer than the most popular registry cleaners. WinRescue is a superb backup tool that is easy to use and highly configurable; you can rest assured that any and all the data you wish to back up is safe and easily restorable.

X-Setup Pro is the mother of all tweak utilities. You can tweak and customise any and every setting in Windows with this programme. There are hundreds of ways you can tweak basic and hidden settings in Windows to optimise your PC to make it work the way you want to, rather than how Microsoft believe it should. This saves hours of manual registry tweaks and has many more settings than the more expensive and better known tweak utilities. More suited to experienced users.