Before acquiring knowledge (atleast some :-) knowledge) about various free tools that were available, I always used System Mechanic 6. But not being very impressed led me to the decision to makeup my own "tool kit".

My comments on davey's list (see davey's list under topic "Is there a better package than System Mechanic 8") are:

- I also use CCleaner and cannot recommend it enough...a great tool for all the things listed by davey.
- again, I also use ERUNT and NTREGOPT. Both Excellent in my opinion.
- I also use Windows Disk Defragmenter and Defraggler (for those who don't know...made by Piriform, the CCleaner people). Both seem to get the job done although it does take a fair length of time to defragmet your drive, but I guess thats what you can expect from this task.
- I have also used "Recuva" and it works very well.

My personal recommendations for additions to the list are (also all free):

- avast! for antivirus protection.
- ThreatFire (from PC Tools) for a great compliment to any antivirus software. ThreatFire is based on innovative real-time behavioral technology that provides protection against viruses and spyware.
- ZoneAlarm for great firewall protection.
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware for scanning for spyware/malware.
- SUPERAntiSpyware for scanning for spyware/malware.
- SpywareBlaster for spyware prevention.

Hope this list will be helpful to some people looking for great freeware tools/programs.

Any comments or additions to the list will be truly welcome!

Razz

ThreatFire would perhaps be alright if PC Tools would clear up the naming of it and stop calling it ThreatFire AntiVirus well at least that's what it's being called on Download.com here. I can only imagine it will give far too many people that are green ("newbies") the illusion that it's an all-in-one antivirus/antispyware tool.

ThreatFire will also need to actually uninstall, when the uninstaller is used. I tried out a host of PC Tools freeware just last month and ThreatFire's uninstaller didn't do a thing even though it wasn't resident - it was instead Total Uninstall that got rid of it and uninstalled it off my PC.

My comments added underlined:

- avast! for antivirus protection. Avira for systems that are light on system resources
- ThreatFire (from PC Tools) for a great compliment to any antivirus software. ThreatFire is based on innovative real-time behavioral technology that provides protection against viruses and spyware. I much prefer Avast! and they don't have forum to discus its usage
- ZoneAlarm for great firewall protection. Software based firewalls are a waste of system resources if you have a hardware based router with a built in firewall. See: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=17348
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware for scanning for spyware/malware. Ad-aware was the first at removing adware but now malware is more prevalent so it has become a bit passé
- SUPERAntiSpyware for scanning for spyware/malware. Too bloated for my liking
- SpywareBlaster for spyware prevention. A definite must have and it works with IE and Firefox

Don't forget Windows Defender and WinPatrol. Woof Woof.

Wow you respond quickly to posts...impressive!

I assume that you uninstalled ThreatFire because you didn't like it. May I ask why you didn't like it?

If you're asking me?
I just didn't care for it since my system doesn't get infected with anything and never has.

Mind you this was on the day I was testing all of PC Tools freeware to see how it stacked up, and when Spyware Doctor caused severe system slowdown issues and a bunch of false positives I removed all of it. I've read about ThreatFire also having false positives too, and previously when I had tested it the problems it caused weren't worth the trouble.

Andavari, thank you for your comments regarding ThreatFire. So far it has given me no trouble but I will keep an eye out.

Andavari, this subject has come up again. Please check out my post here from earlier today.

Best defrag program around (IMO): JKDefrag