Starting with a clean machine:
FREE TOOLS
Avast! 4 Home Edition ~ is a FREE full-featured antivirus package,
outstanding detection abilities ensures that no virus
will be started on your computer - 7 On-Access Scanners
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition ~ offers Resident Shield,
E-mail and On-Demand Scanners. Free Virus Database
Updates for the lifetime of the product
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
Spybot - Search & Destroy ~ free - spyware killer/remover
- catches what Ad-aware misses
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download
Ad-aware ~ free - spyware killer/remover
- catches what spybot misses
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
SpywareBlaster ~ doesn't scan for and clean spyware
- it prevents it from being installed in the first place
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
TrendMicro House Call ~ free online virus scan
- catches what other virus cleaners may miss
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
Panda Active Scan ~ free online virus scan
- catching the things TrendMicro House call misses
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm
Kaspersky Webscan ~ free online virus scan,
make sure to check the option to use the EXTENDED DATABASE
http://www.kaspersky.com/beta
Kaspersky's Virus Watch ~ check how many new virus defintions are added hourly...
http://www.kaspersky.com/viruswatch?hour_offset=-2
Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5 ~ uses next to no resources
and ensures complete protection of the system it is installed on
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page7.html#Kerio%20Personal%20Firewall
RegSeeker ~ freeware registry cleaner
- allows you to remove obsolete entries and more
http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm
HijackThis ~ scans for pesky malware, spyware and adware
that manage to avoid being detected by other scanners
it is very detailed about what is installed and running
with loads of tools and log analyzer
http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022-10379544.html?tag=list
Registrar Lite ~ Registry Editor
It allows cutting, pasting, copying, and moving of keys and values
as if it were Windows Explorer, w\extensive search and replace capabilities
Runs on: WinXP/Win2000/NT/ME/9x ...and it's free!
http://www.resplendence.com
Resource Hacker ~ is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems http://www.download.com/3000-2352-10178588.html
Notepad++ ~ Notepad replacement (source code editor)
which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
OC Tools
EVEREST Home Edition
is a system information, diagnostics and benchmarking utility, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. It offers the world's most accurate system information and diagnostics capabilities, including online features, memory benchmarks, hardware monitoring, and low-level hardware information.
Lavalys has discontinued the free edition,
but you can still Download it from MajorGeeks.com
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
AIDA32 - Personal System Information 3.93
is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program running on Win32 platforms. It extracts details of all components of the PC.
you can still Download AIDA32 from MajorGeeks.com
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=181
Sandra 2005 Lite
Sandra ~ System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant is an information & diagnostic utility w/benchmarking, diagnostic, testing, and tune-up tools to gather and report information about your system's hardware and resources. SANDRA can check components ranging from your CPU, BIOS, and PCI bus, to your printer, CD-ROM drive, and modem. Built-in wizards help you gather the information to optimize your system.
Download Sites for Sandra Lite
http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_3264&langx=en&a=
Fresh Diagnose
Wondering if your PC's performance lives up to the manufacturer's claims? Fresh Diagnose scans your system and gives you a complete report about your computer's hardware and software, including mainboard information, video system information, PCI/AGP buses information, peripheral (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) information, and network information. The program tests your system performance, such as CPU, hard disk, CD/DVD ROM, and compares it with other systems.
Download Fresh Diagnose
http://www.freshdevices.com/download.html
System Information for Windows
provides detailed information about your PC's properties and settings, as well as specs for your CPU, motherboard, chip set, BIOS, PCI/AGB, USB and ISA/PnP devices, memory, monitor, video card, disk drives, CD/DVD devices, SCSI devices, ports, network cards, printers, operating system, installed programs and security patches, processes, services, serial numbers (CD keys). It also provides information about your system's users, open files, system uptime, network, network shares, and offers real-time monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic. It displays currently active network connections, passwords hidden behind asterisks, installed codecs, and more.
[requires no installation, what you do with the information it provides is up to you]
System Information for Windows ~ Download Sites
http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/siw_download.html
or Download S.I.W. from MajorGeeks.com
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4387.html
Motherboard Monitor
An overheated computer is an unhappy computer. Motherboard Monitor reads temperature and fan RPM data collected by your systems sensor chips, displays it in the Windows system tray, and alerts you when there's trouble. It can sense temps from Cpu, HDD, GFx and Mobo.
[Its recomended for all home built systems]
Download MBM from MajorGeeks.com
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311
CCleaner
searches through programs and remove useless files. Many cleaners scrub out just your browser cache or your temporary files folder, but CCleaner was developed to go several steps further. It cleans temporary files from a number of applications, including Adobe Acrobat, eMule, eTrust EZ Antivirus, Firefox, Google Toolbar, Kazaa, Nero, Netscape, Office XP, OpenOffice, Opera WinAce, Windows Media Player, WinRAR, and WinZip. An advanced Registry scanner removes old and unused entries, including file extensions, ActiveX Controls, uninstallers, shared DLLs, fonts, help files, application paths, icons, and invalid shortcuts.
Download CCleaner from filehippo.com
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
Driver Cleaner Professional Edition
is a program which helps you to remove parts of drivers that are left after uninstalling the old drivers. The program is for ATI, nVidia, Creative, Realtek, SIS, 3Dfx, S3 and more drivers.
[read the readme file included in the zip file, as it contains a detailed step by step description]
Driver Cleaner Professional Editon Download
http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.html
3DMark06
3DMark06 is the latest version in the (worldwide standard) 3DMark series and is the fundamental benchmarking tool for 3D graphics and performance. It can fully utilize 100% of the features of DirectX 9. In fact, DirectX 9 hardware with support for ShaderModel 3.0 is required to run all the tests of 3DMark06, resulting in the ultimate tool for DirectX 9 hardware performance comparison. DirextX 9 graphics cards limited to ShaderModel 2.X are still capable of running most of the tests, and getting a perfectly valid and comparable 3DMark result. It also includes single, multiple core and multiple processor CPU tests as part of the 3DMark score!
3DMark06 Basic (Free Limited Version) Download
http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark06.shtml
or Download 3DMark06 from MajorGeeks.com
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4935
or 3DMark05 Download
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4376
PC Performance Analysis
PCMark®05 is everything you need to reliably and easily measure the performance of your PC and determine its strengths and weaknesses. With PCMark05, you will be able to select the optimal upgrades for your existing PC, or choose the right new PC that fits your specific needs. This easy-to-use product gives you the same tools and knowledge that virtually every professional tester in the industry uses.
PCMark05 Basic (Limited Free Version) Download
http://www.futuremark.com/download/?pcmark05.shtml
Other Futuremark Series
http://www.futuremark.com/products/
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