I am full time PC technician, here's some of the things I use all the time on customer's computers:
Securityantivirus - avira is the best (free) but avast is the coolest. i still haven't (and won't) reverted from "Talk Like a Pirate Day".
i used AVG for many years, but (sorry to say) it's crap anymore. although the AVG2011 "social networking" feature looks nice, I've just seen too much malware/virus' slip past AVG in the past 6 months to try it again.
surprised as heck i haven't seen malwarebytes antimalware mentioned.i understand the free version doesn't have a resident shield, but it's still the best at detection and removal (albeit after the fact)
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-A ... contentAuxi clean dozens of malware infections a month, and i've had mbam catch stuff that every other program has missed.
also, mbam has a tool (fileassasin) that will remove locked files)
another tool that should have been mentioned by now is ComboFix. again, it's useful only after infection has occured, but it does a remarkable job.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/downloa ... s/combofixSpyware Blaster is another great tool, but it's for PREVENTION. blocks access in IE & Firefox to nearly 14k known malicious websites. (many of which are common graphic ad hosts)
http://download.cnet.com/spywareblaster ... 96637.htmlEDIT BY MOD - Captain Ned - Please read
Forum Rule #12.
Remote connectivity:TeamViewer! WAY better than VNC. Teamviewer is IP and firewall independent.
http://download.cnet.com/TeamViewer/300 ... 98150.htmlMultimediaK-Lite codec pack! plus, they have windows 7 pack and an x64 pack!
http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htmBurnAware Free does most anything I need for cd/dvd burning, except MAKE an .iso image:
http://download.cnet.com/burnaware-free ... 78661.htmlSystem UtilitiesCcleaner and Advanced system care have already been mentioned, as has sysinternal suite.
another good one is toolbox.
http://www.iobit.com/toolbox.htmlHas anyone notice Firefox becoming a bit bloated in the past few update releases? (I have)
I found a FF based browser called PaleMoon. I've been using Pale Moon for a few weeks now and it seems to be quite a bit faster than regular FF but with all the main features. (imported my FF profile without any problems, including extensions, addons, saved form data, etc)
http://www.palemoon.org/
Here's something I've been searching for for a while now:
a free exchange client. (not pop3, imap, etc but EXCHANGE)
anyone have any thoughts on that?