More Useful Web links

This page contains links to various web sites including where one can download useful software like Anti-Virus for protection against infection that can and may do harmful things to your system if left unchecked; Firewalls to help stop outsiders getting in and attacking your system and other things like technical information & utilities listed below.

Useful Utilities for your PC

For both software & hardware which can be useful for fault finding and other areas. It also lists any Microsoft updates including the security ones so that you can see what you have or haven't installed at a glance so to speak.

This is a free download for personal use but NOT for business use and the company is called Belarc and their Advisor download is available by clicking here.

Other useful sites include answersthatwork.com for those of you that wish to try to find out what the errors etc are behind some of the problems you get from time to time with PCs. Another one is helpwithpcs.com

There are some useful things on the sites and some areas are free and others shareware, and various libraries full of useful information, so take a visit and see what you think of them.

If you know of, or use, other sites, then pass them on so that others may also enjoy them!

Long & ridiculously long url's (web addresses)

Want to cut down exceedingly long url's to a manageable one in order to send it to others via email, or include it in say a Word document?

Some addresses exceed a single line and are painful to either use or bookmark so why not make it more simple for everyone? It's so easy to do you'll end up pasting in the site as a favourite, so visit the site of TinyURL.com.

Anti-Virus software

Free versions

- from Grisoft. There are different versions available, free (personal use only) and pay for! You pays your monies and takes your choice! The free version is adequate for most of us. Updates are automatic, which is good, providing you are online.

- from Avast! Does all that Grisoft does but will also scan files downloaded with a download manager provided you set it up to do that. (Avast was recommended by a current user). You have to register onsite which gives a years free Anti Virus protection, after which you need to re-register to get another free year's subscription. The program will update itself when you connect to the internet. It even tells you, in an American accent, (is that good - ed?!?) that it has updated itself!

Paid for versions

Various suppliers, so look around. Grisoft do a paid for version, similar to the free version but with more bells and whistles as do the likes of Symantec (Norton's AV), Sophos, McAfee and others. Again a web search can help you decide.

Firewall Software

A very good Free Firewall is - ZoneAlarm.

There are a number of paid for versions, and you only have to look on the web, searching for Firewalls, but personally I find ZoneAlarm adequate for home use.

PC Security Software inc Spyware

Another category is PC Security Software, which supposedly protects the PC from anything the Internet can throw at it! In this category, McAfee Internet Security Suite comes out well.

Personally I use Spyware in the form of Spybot and Ad-Aware along with a firewall, Zone Alarm and Grisoft AV and have found this more than adequate. Links to the various sites are on the Home page, in the right hand column.

Problems with Microsoft Products

If & when you find a problem with a Microsoft product it's useful to search the Knowledge Base as it has categories for all of their products and you can type in a variety of words to search for, etc.

An alternative pdf document reader - quicker, more compact and free.

Foxit Software have a pdf reader that to me is way better than Adobe Acrobat Reader due it being much quicker to open up and the bonus is it's much smaller. I'd suggest, even recommend, you give it a try if you're disappointed with the usual Acrobat reader and you can get it now from Foxit Software site.

Acrobat Reader - needed to view files with the extension .pdf

A number of items one downloads from the Internet tends to be in .pdf format (Portable Document Format) and you can get the free reader from Adobe. Beware the size of the latest Acrobat reader - if you don't have Broadband connection then I would suggest you talk to someone who has! Click on Get Adobe Reader now to download the software (approx 8Mb for Dialup and 20 - 27+Mb for Broadband users).

Winzip - compression software

Another very useful utility is WinZip, and this will allow you to read and compile .zip (compressed) files. This is Shareware but the nice thing about this is that once you've purchased it, any further updates are free! Click here to download this useful piece of Shareware software. A new version is now available and for those who already have a licensed version, the upgrade is free (but not v10, which is chargeable I believe) - just follow the instructions for installation with existing versions, which basically means just run the upgrade over the existing version for continuity of license.

WinRAR - Compression Software

This utility appears to be taking over from WinZip in many areas and seems to be favoured by both the music and video fraternity.

You'll need this file for uncompressing any .rar files and it can be downloaded from the WinRAR website. Please Note that, like Winzip this too is shareware, and that means you can use it for so long (40days here) before registering it.

Google Toolbar

The free Google Toolbar add in is useful, and you can set it to be the default search engine during installation - much more useful than the default Microsoft version. It also stops Popups and I'm currently running it for this reason and it works. Click on Google Toolbar - to download and Install and make default search engine on the web.

Ad-Aware

Ad-Aware - from Lavasoft - removes Cookies that companies put on your PC to track your movements etc whilst on their sites. An infringement? Well this will delete them. If you buy the extras, it will also stop those annoying pop ups that occur or just use the free Google version to keep the pop-ups at bay.

For a more detailed explanation then visit the UK Spyware site.

And for reviews on the top 20 products, visit the Anti-Spyware Software Review site.

Remember there are both free and subscription versions so you have no excuse for not installing one onto your system!

Spam email

Spam email is another problem that's becoming a lot more common and may need addressing. PopFile - Anti-Spam for email. PCW recommended it. I haven't tried it myself but I know people are fed up with Spam mail and hence the link here. If anyone does try it and would like to share their experiences with others then feel free to email me back with your input.

PC&Techy