Glary Utilities

Glary Utilities is a free toolbox for your computer. It comes with some very useful features to help you in cleaning and maintaining your computer to run at it�s most optimal performance. Here are some of the useful features.

1-Click Maintenance
Scans your registry for invalid and incorrect entries, cleans up invalid shortcuts, dangerous startup items, temporary files, activity history and spyware.

Disk Cleaner, Registry Cleaner, Shortcuts Fixer
There are all executed in the 1-Click Maintenance. You can also run them manually if you wish.

Uninstall Manager
Allows you to quickly see what programs you have installed and uninstall them one by one or in a batch. The only extra feature this uninstaller has that the Windows uninstaller does not is to remove uninstallers. This can be handy if a certain uninstaller no longer works and is �stuck� in the list. I would recommend to use Revo Uninstaller instead though.

Startup Manager
Lists all the startup entries from your startup folder and registry. You can easily disable entries by unchecking the box or delay entries so that they start a bit later to speed up your boot.

Memory Optimizer
Automatic optimize your memory and runs in the background. Not the best memory optimizer in my opinion and not very useful if you have over 2Gb of ram. If you believe you need a good memory optimizer, then I would recommend Cleanmem. It�s faster, and a lot more efficient.

Context Menu Manager
The more programs you install, the longer your context menu becomes (right-click menu on desktop / a file or folder). Many times there are entries in this menu that you would never use and you have to look though all the useless options to find the one that you do want to use. With the context menu manager you can disable those entries that you do not need.

Registry Defrag
Check for registry errors and defragment your registry. This can improve performance as the system does not have to look though a fragmented registry and thus it can find what it is looking for a lot faster.

Tracks Eraser
Optionally comes with the 1-Click Maintenance (disabled by default). Cleans up your personal activity history on your computer.

File Shredder
Allows you to delete files and folders without being able to recover them by any means.

File Undelete
Allows you to undelete files that you have accidentally deleted using the �delete� function from Windows and cannot find the file in the recycle bin. The File Undelete will not work if you deleted files with the File Shredder.

File Encrypter and Decrypter
Can encrypt and decrypt files and folders and create self-extracting encrypted executable files. The encryption uses the Blowfish algorithm.

Disk Analysis
Shows you the disk space usage of your files and folders and allows you to explore and delete. Personally I would recommend using Space Monger as it is highly intuitive and you can clearly see what uses most of the space on your disk by using a �bird�s eye� view of your disk, rather than an explorer like structure.

Duplicate Files Finder
Could be useful if you know that you probably have duplicate files somewhere. However I would not recommend using it on your entire system as sometimes certain programs come with self-repairing backups of their own files and these are seen as duplicate files (which they are). These files are needed for self-preservation though.

Empty Folders Finder
This is a very handy tool that searches for folders that are empty and allows you to remove them. Why keep empty boxes if you no longer need them?

Files Splitter and Joiner
This allows you to split large files and join them again. This can be very handy if you have limited space on your portable media disks (like floppy or zip disks).

Process Manager
Like the Windows Task Manager but more intuitive. Shows you a �threat� level progress bar that indicates if the process is harmful or not and allows you to quickly lookup the process on Google, kill it or block it. I prefer to use Anvir Task Manager though as it has a lot more features and can monitor and prompt for new found startup entries.

Internet Explorer Assistant
Very useful tool if you are a frequent Internet Explorer user. This tool allows you to clean up toolbars, addons, context menu entries, etc� Use this tool if your Internet Explorer is �hijacked� by malware (startup page is changed, search provider, popups, etc�) Personally I prefer using FireFox with Adblock Plus and other addons to greatly enhance my browsing experience.

System Information
Gives you information on your hardware. What type of Graphics card do you have, Windows information, etc�

Windows Standard Tools
Quick access to built in Windows tools like �CheckDisk, Disk Defragmenter", System Restore, System File Checker and Backup�.

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Comodo Internet Security

Comodo Internet Security is probably the best free Internet Security Suite out there. It comes with tons of features that make Comodo Internet Security very effective. They have also challenged one of the market-leaders in antivirus; Norton and have yet to respond.

What amazes me about CIS is the effectiveness of the software is 100% (if you use it correctly) compared to other suites out there that cost over 80 euro (cough�.Norton�.cough�), while CIS is 100% free! What about support you ask? CIS comes with full customer support on the forums and for the paid version of CIS, they even fix your computer problems for you by remote if you want to. From infections to printer installations.

The video above shows that one fake AV software did get through because it had a digital signature. However, since then Comodo has removed the �Safeapp� company from it�s trusted list, so it will not get through again. The fake AV was not stopped by the AV or Defense+, because technically it is not classified as a virus, trojan or worm but rather a piece of software that looks like a real Antivirus and urges you to �buy� their product.

In short, it checks if the file you wish to run is safe or not (by antivirus signature, cloud scanning, digital signatures and other tecniques). If the file is not safe, it will either block it (if it is a known piece of malware) or it will run it in the sandbox (if it is unknown or unsigned). The sandbox prevents the program that you run to make any modifications to your system. You can however run the program outside the sandbox if you trust it. Comodo Internet Security also monitors your memory for attacks and exploits.

I recommend CIS for advanced users that know what to answer when you receive a notification from CIS. For example, you have to understand what a sandbox is and what it does, or you won�t be able properly install programs that are not digitally signed or trusted. You also have to know what to answer if CIS asks you what you want to do (block, trust, sandbox) when you run an unknown file. You can however disable all popups and set a password to CIS so that it will block all unknown and unsafe applications by default without popups. This can be handy if you want to install it for someone who is a computer novice and frequently has trouble with malware. However, if that someone does not have frequent problems with malware but wishes to have a simple and yet effective antivirus without popups, I would highly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials.

Antivirus
The antivirus consists of a traditional signature-based antivirus combined with a cloud scanning feature, rootkit-scanning and uploading of unknown files to the Comodo server for analysis. The scanner is very fast and can be set to exclude packed archives and specific folders.

Firewall
The firewall has several defense levels including auto-learn mode. Auto-learn is handy if you want the firewall to automatically allow and create rules for all programs that want to have internet access. Once you are done teaching the firewall you can switch back to normal mode by right-clicking on the Comodo icon and accessing the menu.

Defense+
This module gives you extra protection. Here you can see active processes that you can lookup online, terminate (and block), upload to Comodo and add to trusted files. You can view all the trusted files and make modifications, run a program in the sandbox, view a list of unrecognized files and send them to trusted or untrusted files. And tons of other features that you can customize.

READ MORE - Comodo Internet Security

Microsoft Security Essentials 2

Microsoft Security Essentials 2 is in my opinion the best free antivirus for people who want a simple, free and yet effective antivirus. The detection rates are high and it doesn�t bother you with complicated questions and recommendations, it simply does it�s job on keeping your computer clean.

However, like most free and paid AV products, there is always a chance that it might miss one or two intrusions. This usually happens with malware (viruses, trojans, etc..) that are so new that the AV�s have not yet added them to their database. I tested MSE myself with an unknown piece of malware and within 24 hours the malware was suddenly detected (when it did not recognize it less than 24 hour ago).

If you are an �aware� internet user (meaning that you understand security risks of opening email attachments from suspicious emails, messages and links and are not fooled by fake banners that pretend to be something they are not, or even better use an Ad Block plugin in your browser), then this AV might be the best choice for you.

However, if you are a more experienced user and understand concepts like �sandbox, host-intrusion-prevention, behaviour-blocking, spoofing, etc�, or you or someone you know frequently has problems with infected computers, then I would recommend Comodo Internet Security. I will talk about this in my next post.

READ MORE - Microsoft Security Essentials 2

VirusTotal (Firefox Plugin and Uploader)

The VT Firefox Plugin and VT Uploader can help you scan any file (online) for possible infections. The scan is performed by dozens of antimalware scanners simultaneously.

The VT Uploader adds a right-click functionality into your Windows shell. By right-clicking on any file and selecting �send-to VirusTotal Uploader�, you can send the file to the VT server for analysis. It will first create a �hash� code of the file to check with it�s online database of scanned files to see if someone else has already scanned the exact same file, so that it does not need to re-upload the same file again. Thus you can get the result faster rather than wait for the upload and analysis to complete. If the file was not seen before, then it will be uploaded and analyzed.

The VT Firefox plugin allows you to scan any web page for malicious code and scan any downloadable file before you download it. By clicking a file to download you select �Scan with VirusTotal� instead of �save� or �run�.

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Malwarebytes Antimalware

Malwarebytes Antimalware is a free / shareware malware cleanup tool used by many professionals to clean up malware from computers. The free version allows you to scan your system for malware and remove it.

MalwareBytes AntiMalware

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AnVir Task Manager

Anvir Task Manager is a combination of an advances task manager, antivirus and anti-rootkit tool, process monitor, Windows tweaker, and a lot more. I recommend this tool to anyone who wishes to have full control over his or her own computer.

Some of the most useful features to me:

• Send file to Virustotal website for analysys from the process overview.
• Kill process.
• Quarantine process (AnVir Pro)
• Quick and total overview of all processes that use most CPU and Disk usage.
• Add programs to early or delayed startup.
• Auto or manual change priority of CPU usage per application (Anvir Pro to remember settings for CPU per application).
• Excellent free replacement for Windows Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+ESC)

Click here to download Anvir Task Manager

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Hitman Pro 3.5

Because not all antimalware programs can detect all viruses, trojans, worms, etc�.one will have to run multiple antivirus tools to scan and clean your system. Hitman Pro provides a solution to scan your system using multiple AV engines at once and even has a cloud based system that can detect unknown threats. The scanner is free and super fast! However, to remove the threats you will have to register (free for 30 days per computer). Make sure you uninstall it if you intend to run it once to clean your system, otherwise it will startup with Windows.

This application is not designed for prevention but rather for detection and cleaning of your computer from malware.

Download 'Hitman Pro'

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Hiren's Boot CD

Hiren's BootCD is the most fundamental tool for any ICT person. You can use this CD directly from within Windows, but it's true power is seen when you boot from the CD, so you can operate on the computer without the operating system's (and viruses, trojans and rootkit's) interference. You can clean viruses, partition or clone your disks, test your system and a lot more.

Download 'Hiren's Boot CD'

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